Investigators said Mike Menard was found shot dead in his car in the 1300 block of Northwest 13th Court in the early morning hours of July 8.

On Friday, Fort Lauderdale police announced the arrest of Candacia Walker, 33, on a first-degree murder charge.

Records show she was booked into the Broward Main Jail on Thursday, where she was being held without bond.

Police did not provide any additional details on Friday, including information about a motive or what led them to arrest Walker.

Local 10 News has requested a copy of her arrest report.

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The Main Development Region of the Atlantic often roars to life by middle to late August during most hurricane seasons, but this year could sound more like a murmur given the Atlantic’s unusually hostile posture.

Models appear to be keying in on two distinct disturbances for next week – the leading one exiting the African coast today and another disturbance rolling off Africa around next Tuesday.

At this stage, neither disturbance shows great promise, but low development odds are now reflected in most of our major model camps, including the traditional physics-based European and American GFS ensembles, as well as the newer AI-based modeling systems.

Interestingly on Friday, the modeling camps have flipped, with the AI-based models less enthusiastic and the traditional physics-based models a little more bullish. Google’s bellwether DeepMind machine learning-based ensemble system, which was first to pick up on the possibility of development over a week ago, has become more bearish in recent runs.

The good news is that in addition to low development odds overall, models generally keep the system weak (tropical depression or tropical storm) in the scenarios where development occurs.

Given the curtain of wind shear laid across the western Atlantic, this one should hit a major roadblock as it enters the central Atlantic next weekend (weekend of Aug. 16) into the following week (in about 10 days).

It’s unclear yet which of the two disturbances (if either) might try to develop, but models generally favor the second (trailing) disturbance set to move off Africa early next week.

Given the marginal environment for development, with lots of dry, dusty air infiltrating the tropical Atlantic next week followed by increasingly hostile wind shear, don’t expect too much out of this one other than perhaps a low-key kickoff to what’s typically the busiest -week stretch of the season.

La Región Principal de Desarrollo del Atlántico suele cobrar fuerza entre mediados y finales de agosto durante la mayoría de las temporadas de huracanes, pero este año podría mostrar una actividad más moderada debido a las condiciones inusualmente hostiles del Atlántico.

Los modelos parecen centrarse en dos perturbaciones distintas para la próxima semana: la primera está saliendo hoy de la costa africana y otra perturbación saldrá de África alrededor del próximo martes.

En esta etapa, ninguna de las dos perturbaciones muestra un gran potencial, pero las bajas probabilidades de desarrollo ahora se reflejan en la mayoría de nuestros principales modelos, incluidos los conjuntos tradicionales basados en la física, como el europeo y el GFS estadounidense, así como los nuevos sistemas de modelado basados en inteligencia artificial.

Curiosamente, el viernes los modelos cambiaron de tendencia, con los modelos basados en inteligencia artificial menos entusiastas y los modelos tradicionales basados en la física un poco más optimistas. El sistema de conjuntos basado en aprendizaje automático DeepMind de Google, considerado un referente y que fue el primero en detectar la posibilidad de desarrollo hace más de una semana, se ha vuelto más pesimista en ejecuciones recientes.

La buena noticia es que, además de las bajas probabilidades de desarrollo en general, los modelos generalmente mantienen el sistema débil, como depresión tropical o tormenta tropical, en los escenarios en los que ocurre desarrollo.

Dada la barrera de cizalladura del viento que se extiende sobre el Atlántico occidental, este sistema debería encontrar un obstáculo importante a medida que ingrese al Atlántico central el próximo fin de semana, el fin de semana del 16 de agosto, y durante la semana siguiente, en unos 10 días.

Aún no está claro cuál de las dos perturbaciones, si alguna, podría intentar desarrollarse, pero los modelos generalmente favorecen la segunda perturbación, la que viene detrás, que se espera salga de África a principios de la próxima semana.

Dado el ambiente marginal para el desarrollo, con una gran cantidad de aire seco y polvoriento que penetrará en el Atlántico tropical la próxima semana, seguido de una cizalladura del viento cada vez más hostil, no se espera demasiado de este sistema, aparte de quizás un inicio discreto de lo que suele ser el período de semanas de mayor actividad de la temporada.

1 pound of gnocchi (can be purchased or use your favorite recipe)

1 tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 cup heavy cream

½ cup chicken stock or broth

zest of 1 lemon

Juice of ¼ lemon, freshly squeezed

8 basil leaves, torn in half

¾ cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Melt the butter in a large, wide, heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened but not browned, about 3 minutes. Stir in the cream and stock, bring to a boil, and cook until reduced by half, about 8 minutes. Stir in the lemon zest and juice.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add a few gnocchi at a time, and cook until they float, about 5 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer them to the sauce and warm through.

Add the basil and cheese to the pan, season with salt and pepper, and toss well to combine all the ingredients. Serve immediately.

Abdul El-Sayed, a former public health official who narrowly beat establishment-backed Rep. Haley Stevens in a contentious primary for an open Senate seat, will be the most closely watched candidate at the event.

With less than three months before the general election where El-Sayed will face Republican Mike Rogers, the Democratic Party is under pressure to close ranks in a race that will help determine control of the Senate.

“The things that unite us are so much bigger than the things that divide us,” El-Sayed said in a Wednesday speech.

Former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, a potential presidential candidate who lives in Michigan, is also slated to attend on Friday.

Current Democratic Sen. Gary Peters’ decision to not seek reelection left the seat open. Michigan is a perennial battleground state, having voted for President Donald Trump in 2016, Joe Biden in 2020 and Trump again in 2024.

Stevens, who lost the primary by just under 1 percentage point, told CBS News on Thursday she was willing to campaign with El-Sayed.

“Whatever he wants me to do," she said.

Gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson, who easily won her primary, is scheduled to attend the event as well. She will face Trump-backed Rep. John James in the general election.

Also slated to attend will be Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, who is running for secretary of state; Eli Savit, who is running for attorney general; and Curtis Hertel, chair of the Michigan Democratic Party.

___

GaNun is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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Jail records show Tavaris Dewand Greene, who is listed as homeless in his arrest report, was arrested on felony battery charge following the attack.

According to a Miami police arrest report, the assault happened shortly after noon Thursday near Southwest Eighth Street and 11th Avenue.

The victim told officers she was walking east on Southwest Eighth Street when a man, who police identified as Green, was walking in the opposite direction when he suddenly approached her and punched her in the face, authorities said.

They said she fell to the ground as Greene ran westbound.

Miami police said bystanders helped the woman and called 911.

The victim was taken to HCA Florida Mercy Hospital, where doctors said she suffered a fractured nose and a laceration to her left cheek that required stitches, according to the report.

Investigators said they canvassed the area and reviewed surveillance video from nearby businesses, which police said showed a man wearing a black hoodie and camouflage pants approaching the victim, punching her and fleeing.

Miami police said they spotted a man matching Greene’s description near Southwest 17th Avenue and Eighth Street and detained him.

Police said they were able to identify Greene as the suspect after an officer who works out of Little Havana recognized him from the surveillance images and “previous incidents,” the report states.

While at the Miami Police Department’s Violent Crimes Unit office, Greene “spontaneously stated that he was fine but having a bad day because he punched someone,” according to the report.

Police said Greene later told detectives he punched someone earlier in the day, returned home, took a nap, smoked marijuana and was later detained by officers.

As of Friday morning, he was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, where his bond was listed as “to be set.”

A motive for the attack is unclear at this time.

Los registros de la cárcel muestran que Tavaris Dewand Greene, quien figura como indigente en su reporte de arresto, fue arrestado por un cargo de agresión grave tras el ataque.

Según un reporte de arresto de la policía de Miami, la agresión ocurrió poco después del mediodía del jueves cerca de Southwest Eighth Street y 11th Avenue.

La víctima dijo a los agentes que caminaba hacia el este por Southwest Eighth Street cuando un hombre, a quien la policía identificó como Greene, caminaba en dirección opuesta y repentinamente se acercó a ella y la golpeó en el rostro, informaron las autoridades.

Indicaron que la mujer cayó al suelo mientras Greene huyó hacia el oeste.

La policía de Miami dijo que personas que se encontraban en el lugar ayudaron a la mujer y llamaron al 911.

La víctima fue trasladada al HCA Florida Mercy Hospital, donde los médicos dijeron que sufrió una fractura de nariz y una laceración en la mejilla izquierda que requirió puntos de sutura, según el reporte.

Los investigadores dijeron que recorrieron la zona y revisaron videos de vigilancia de negocios cercanos, que, según la policía, mostraban a un hombre con una sudadera negra con capucha y pantalones de camuflaje acercándose a la víctima, golpeándola y huyendo.

La policía de Miami dijo que vio a un hombre que coincidía con la descripción de Greene cerca de Southwest 17th Avenue y Eighth Street y lo detuvo.

La policía dijo que pudo identificar a Greene como el sospechoso después de que un agente que trabaja en La Pequeña Habana lo reconociera por las imágenes de vigilancia y por “incidentes anteriores”, indica el reporte.

Mientras se encontraba en la oficina de la Unidad de Crímenes Violentos del Departamento de Policía de Miami, Greene “declaró espontáneamente que estaba bien, pero que estaba teniendo un mal día porque había golpeado a alguien”, según el reporte.

La policía dijo que Greene posteriormente declaró a los detectives que había golpeado a alguien más temprano ese día, regresó a casa, tomó una siesta, fumó marihuana y posteriormente fue detenido por agentes.

Hasta la mañana del viernes, permanecía detenido en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight, donde su fianza figuraba como “por determinar”.

El motivo del ataque no está claro en este momento.

The agreement represents the Bills’ latest major investment in keeping much of their offensive line intact for the long term.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the contract has not been announced by the team.

Torrence was selected in the second round of the 2023 draft out of the University of Florida, and was entering the final season of his rookie contract. The 26-year-old has been a starter since his rookie season and part of a line that’s played a key role in protecting Josh Allen, and a unit that assisted in James Cook to lead the NFL in yards rushing last season.

Torrence has 57 career starts, including playoffs, and was part of a line that allowed the NFL’s fewest sacks in both 2023 and 2024.

The group has been mostly together since 2024. The only change entering this season is at left guard, with Alec Anderson and Austin Corbett competing for the starting job left open following David Edwards’ free-agent departure to New Orleans in March.

Otherwise, the four returning starters, including left tackle Dion Dawkins, are now under contract through at least the 2027 season.

In March, the Bills signed center Connor McGovern to a four-year, $52 million contract to prevent him from entering free agency.

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

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The TSA checkpoints for concourses E, F and G, along with surrounding areas, are reopening after being temporarily closed.

Travelers heading to MIA should continue to allow extra time as operations return to normal.

Los puntos de control de la TSA para las salas E, F y G, junto con las áreas circundantes, están reabriendo después de haber sido cerrados temporalmente.

Los viajeros que se dirijan al Aeropuerto Internacional de Miami (MIA) deben continuar tomando tiempo adicional mientras las operaciones vuelven a la normalidad.

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Authorities said two men attempted to rob a food delivery driver near Northwest 35th Avenue and Northwest 203rd Street around 2 p.m.

A barrage of gunfire was captured on a nearby doorbell camera.

“I just hear a shower of bullets. Boom -- like seven times,” witness Hector Joch said.

“Just bah, bah, bah,” another witness, Luis Ordonez, said.

Cellphone video from the scene appeared to show a man lying on the ground after the shooting. Witnesses said he was wearing a black ski mask.

“He was wearing a black ski mask, but it wasn’t fully on his face,” witness Isabell Ordonez said. “He was having trouble breathing.”

Another man was captured on camera pacing while talking on the phone.

A 911 caller reported that the food delivery driver had shot one of the people who allegedly tried to rob him.

A source told Local 10 News the two men attempted to rob the delivery driver.

“I think he has a right to defend himself. Everyone has a right to defend themselves,” resident Anaaya Khan said.

Video from Sky 10 appeared to show a sum of cash, sandals and a handgun near a Toyota.

“Very shocking. We’ve been living here for five years, and this is the first time something like this happened,” Joch said.

As evidence markers covered the scene, the alleged suspect who was shot was airlifted to an area hospital, where he died.

Miami Gardens police are searching for the second suspect.

“It’s not good for the people living here,” Khan said.

The delivery driver remained at the scene and was detained.

The identity of the dead suspect has not been released, and there was no word on whether the second suspect had been arrested.

Las autoridades dijeron que dos hombres intentaron robar a un conductor de entrega de comida cerca de Northwest 35th Avenue y Northwest 203rd Street alrededor de las 2 p.m.

Una ráfaga de disparos fue captada por una cámara de timbre cercana.

“Solo escuché una lluvia de balas. Boom, como siete veces”, dijo el testigo Hector Joch.

“Solo bah, bah, bah”, dijo otro testigo, Luis Ordonez.

Un video de celular de la escena parecía mostrar a un hombre tendido en el suelo después de la balacera. Testigos dijeron que llevaba un pasamontañas negro.

“Llevaba un pasamontañas negro, pero no cubría completamente su rostro”, dijo la testigo Isabell Ordonez. “Tenía dificultades para respirar”.

Otro hombre fue captado por una cámara caminando de un lado a otro mientras hablaba por teléfono.

Una persona que llamó al 911 reportó que el conductor de entrega de comida había disparado contra una de las personas que presuntamente intentaron robarlo.

Una fuente dijo a Local 10 News que los dos hombres intentaron robar al conductor de entrega.

“Creo que tiene derecho a defenderse. Todos tienen derecho a defenderse”, dijo la residente Anaaya Khan.

Un video de Sky 10 parecía mostrar una cantidad de dinero en efectivo, sandalias y una pistola cerca de un Toyota.

“Muy impactante. Hemos estado viviendo aquí durante cinco años y esta es la primera vez que ocurre algo así”, dijo Joch.

Mientras marcadores de evidencia cubrían la escena, el presunto sospechoso que recibió un disparo fue trasladado en helicóptero a un hospital de la zona, donde murió.

La policía de Miami Gardens busca al segundo sospechoso.

“No es bueno para las personas que viven aquí”, dijo Khan.

El conductor de entrega permaneció en la escena y fue detenido.

La identidad del sospechoso muerto no ha sido divulgada y no se informó si el segundo sospechoso había sido arrestado.

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Authorities said the shooting occurred at the bank in the 12000 block of Northwest Eighth Street, near the corner of Southwest 122nd Avenue and Northwest Eighth Street.

According to the preliminary investigation, MDSO Midwest District deputies responded to the scene around 3:20 a.m. and found a man sitting inside a vehicle suffering from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to his lower extremities.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue said medics transported the man, who has not been identified, as a trauma alert to HCA Florida Kendall Hospital shortly before 3:30 a.m. He was listed in stable condition.

Hours later, the parking lot remained taped off, with multiple deputies still on scene. A brown Honda Civic was parked with its doors open, and clothing could be seen on the ground nearby. A black Honda SUV was also parked in the lot.

Three men and one woman were at the scene speaking with deputies. No one appeared to be detained.

MDSO has not released additional details on the shooting. The investigation remains ongoing.

Las autoridades dijeron que la balacera ocurrió en el banco ubicado en la cuadra 12000 de Northwest Eighth Street, cerca de la esquina de Southwest 122nd Avenue y Northwest Eighth Street.

Según la investigación preliminar, agentes del Distrito Midwest de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade (MDSO) respondieron a la escena alrededor de las 3:20 a.m. y encontraron a un hombre sentado dentro de un vehículo que sufría una aparente herida de bala autoinfligida en las extremidades inferiores.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue informó que paramédicos transportaron al hombre, quien no ha sido identificado, como alerta de trauma al HCA Florida Kendall Hospital poco antes de las 3:30 a.m. Su condición fue reportada como estable.

Horas después, el estacionamiento permanecía acordonado, con varios agentes todavía en la escena. Un Honda Civic marrón estaba estacionado con las puertas abiertas y se podía ver ropa en el suelo cerca del vehículo. Una SUV Honda negra también estaba estacionada en el lugar.

Tres hombres y una mujer se encontraban en la escena hablando con los agentes. Ninguno parecía estar detenido.

La MDSO no ha divulgado detalles adicionales sobre la balacera. La investigación continúa en curso.

A sus 48 años, De la Espriella sucederá al progresista Gustavo Petro tras imponerse en una reñida segunda vuelta el 21 de junio al oficialista Iván Cepeda en su primera incursión en la política. De la Espriella compitió como un "outsider" que se financió con la fortuna que amasó como abogado y empresario.

“El Tigre”, como le gusta denominarse, prestará juramento a las 20:00 GMT ante el Congreso reunido en un auditorio universitario en Cali, rompiendo con la tradición de realizar el acto protocolar en Bogotá.

Se espera que a la jura presidencial asistan el rey Felipe VI de España y presidentes de la región como el argentino Javier Milei, el ecuatoriano Daniel Noboa, el panameño José Raúl Mulino, el paraguayo Santiago Peña y el chileno José Antonio Kast.

Después del acto de toma de posesión del cargo, De la Espriella se desplazaría a un batallón militar de Cali para presentarse ante las tropas. El dirigente busca elevar la moral de los uniformados y al mismo tiempo advertir a los ilegales que operan en la zona que deben entregarse o, de lo contrario, serán declarados “objetivo militar”.

De la Espriella se ha propuesto lidiar con la violencia que persiste en Colombia con una política opuesta a la de Petro, por lo que cerrará las mesas de negociación con los grupos armados ilegales alegando que la política de paz fracasó.

Las economías ilegales, como el narcotráfico y la minería ilegal, son disputadas por estructuras como las disidencias de las extintas Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) que no se acogieron al acuerdo de paz firmado hace una década, el cártel Clan del Golfo y la guerrilla Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN).

Impacto en la región

De la Espriella, con nacionalidad colombo-estadounidense, llega al poder luego de recibir el respaldo de Donald Trump y en medio de una creciente preocupación regional por la delincuencia, la inmigración y la economía.

“Su llegada al poder va a reforzar este giro hacia la derecha que atraviesa buena parte de América Latina y consolidaría un bloque regional de gobiernos conservadores frente a un número cada vez menor de administraciones de izquierda”, indicó a The Associated Press Glaeldys González, analista del International Crisis Group para los Andes.

De la Espriella ha dicho que en su gobierno unirá a Colombia al “Escudo de las Américas” que surgió de la cumbre realizada por Trump en marzo con países de América Latina para unir fuerzas en el combate a los cárteles de las drogas.

A su vez anticipó que reanudará las relaciones diplomáticas con Israel y las romperá con Cuba y Nicaragua por considerarlas “tiranías”.

Férrea oposición

De la Espriella enfrentará una robusta oposición de Petro, quien desconoció su victoria en las urnas e insistió en un supuesto fraude, del que no mostró pruebas. El presidente saliente ha dicho que continuará insistiendo en la “ilegitimidad” del gobierno conservador.

El analista político Sergio Guzmán dijo a AP que Petro va a ser “incesante” y “ácido” como opositor, buscando robustecer su liderazgo.

Antes de dejar el poder Petro instó a los movimientos sociales del suroeste del país a organizar “milicias populares” para defenderse de eventuales ataques de lo que llamó el “fascio” y pidió a sus simpatizantes prepararse para una “huelga general” en caso de que traten de encarcelarlo cuando deje el cargo.

Para Andrés Macías, investigador de temáticas sobre el conflicto y la paz de la Universidad Externado, este tipo de llamados, unidos a la mano dura que pretende De la Espriella, aumentan la probabilidad de "confrontaciones durante movilizaciones o respuestas más contundentes de las autoridades”.

En Cali, donde hay un amplio sector que apoya a Petro, organizaciones sociales y estudiantiles han convocado a movilizaciones en el marco de la ceremonia de posesión. También se esperan protestas en Bogotá y Barranquilla.

La Policía de Lighthouse Point informó que los agentes respondieron alrededor de las 10:13 a.m. a una vivienda cerca de la cuadra 2600 de Northeast 52nd Street tras recibir reportes de una “mordedura de animal”.

La Policía indicó que el ataque ocurrió después de que dos perros escaparan de un patio cercado y comenzaran a deambular por el vecindario. Señalaron que los perros se encontraron con un perro más pequeño en el porche delantero de una vivienda cercana, donde uno de los perros sueltos lo atacó.

Indicaron que el dueño del perro pequeño y varios vecinos intentaron separar a los animales, pero no lo lograron. Entonces, el dueño sacó un arma y mató al perro que atacaba en un esfuerzo por detener el ataque.

La Policía informó que el segundo perro suelto huyó y posteriormente se encontró con otro residente cerca del lugar, al que mordió en una pierna y le causó una herida por punción antes de abandonar el área. Más tarde, el perro regresó a su residencia, donde quedó asegurado por la persona encargada de su cuidado.

Paramédicos de Lighthouse Point Fire Rescue evaluaron al residente herido en el lugar. Posteriormente, el residente decidió buscar tratamiento médico adicional por su cuenta, informó la Policía.

Indicaron que el perro pequeño sufrió heridas graves y fue llevado por su dueño a un hospital veterinario local para recibir tratamiento.

Vecinos dijeron a Local 10 News que escucharon gritos y salieron rápidamente de sus casas, donde encontraron al perro de mayor tamaño atacando el cuello del perro pequeño. Los residentes también describieron el vecindario como una zona popular para familias y personas que pasean a sus perros.

La Policía informó que personal del condado Broward también respondió al lugar e investigó el incidente.

Las autoridades ahora trabajan para determinar de dónde provenían los dos perros que atacaron y las circunstancias que llevaron al ataque.

Indicaron que hasta el jueves no se habían presentado cargos. La investigación continúa.

Cualquier persona con información adicional sobre este incidente debe comunicarse con el Departamento de Policía de Lighthouse Point al 954-942-8080.

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Five Democrats and four Republicans are seeking their parties’ nominations to succeed embattled Democratic Hawaii Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke, who pleaded not guilty in July to bribery charges stemming from her 2022 campaign when she was a state lawmaker.

Hawaii’s lieutenant governorship has long been a steppingstone to higher office in the state. Democratic Gov. Josh Green and Democratic U.S. Sens. Mazie Hirono and Brian Schatz all served as lieutenant governor. The governor and lieutenant governor are elected individually and do not run on the same ticket.

The Democratic field includes Kauai County Mayor Derek Kawakami, state Rep. Della Au Belatti and former state Deputy Attorney General John Choi. Kawakami has led in fundraising. He also has the backing of a political action committee tied to the carpenters union that has spent roughly $2 million on his behalf, according to state campaign finance records.

Republican Daniel Anthony was the top spender among his primary opponents for the first few weeks of July, but at about $6,900, it was a fraction of spending by the leading Democratic candidates.

Luke has been on an unpaid leave of absence since April. Green named state official Keith Regan as acting lieutenant governor. Regan isn’t running for a full term.

Green is seeking reelection as governor. He faces three Democratic primary challengers. Republicans have a two-way primary.

In the 1st Congressional District, Democratic U.S. Rep. Ed Case seeks a seventh full term but first must overcome four primary challengers, including state Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole.

Keohokalole has criticized Case for crossing party lines in April 2025 to support Trump’s signature election legislation, known as the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or the SAVE Act. The Republican president's legislation would, among other things, require voters to prove their U.S. citizenship when registering for federal elections.

Case has said, including in a recent Hawaii Public Radio interview, that the version of the SAVE Act he voted for provided accommodations for voters who don’t present the required documentation, including signing a written attestation of their citizenship. He has voted against subsequent versions of the bill that didn’t provide those accommodations.

Case and Keohokalole were evenly matched in terms of campaign fundraising and spending, although Case had a sizable advantage in terms of cash in the bank heading into the campaign’s final stretch.

The winner will face Republican Adriel Lam, who is unopposed in the primary.

Hawaii’s 1st Congressional District is heavily Democratic. Case won reelection in 2024 with about 72% of the vote. Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris received about 62% of the district vote in the presidential election against Trump.

About half of Hawaii's 25 state Senate seats and all 51 state House seats are up in 2026. Democrats hold overwhelming majorities in both chambers.

Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:

When do polls close?

Polls close at 7 p.m. local time, which is 1 a.m. ET Sunday.

What’s on the ballot?

The Associated Press will provide vote results and declare winners in contested primaries for governor, lieutenant governor, U.S. House, state Senate and state House.

Who gets to vote?

Any registered voter in Hawaii may participate in any party’s primary.

How many voters are there?

As of the November 2024 general election, there were about 861,000 registered voters in Hawaii.

How many people actually vote?

About 195,000 voters cast ballots in the 2024 Democratic U.S. Senate primary and about 54,000 in the Republican primary. Turnout was higher in the 2022 primaries for governor. About 251,000 Democratic primary voters and about 76,000 Republican primary voters cast ballots that year.

About 91,000 voters cast ballots in the 1st Congressional District Democratic primary in 2024.

How much of the vote is cast early or by absentee ballot?

Hawaii conducts its elections primarily by mail. Ballots are mailed to all registered voters. Less than 2% of 2024 state primary voters cast their ballots in person.

As of Tuesday, about 179,000 ballots had already been cast in Saturday’s election.

When are early and absentee votes released?

All four counties in Hawaii tend to release most of their results from early in-person and mail voting in their first vote updates of the night, before any in-person Election Day votes are released. Almost all results are released by the final election night vote update.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

Hawaii typically has three vote updates after polls close: the first at roughly 1:30 a.m. ET, the second at roughly 4:30 a.m. ET, and the third and final in the early hours of the Monday following the election.

In the 2024 state primary, the AP first reported results at 1:22 a.m. ET, or 22 minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 4:48 a.m. ET, with about 92% of total votes counted.

In the 2022 state primary, the first results were available at 1:58 a.m. ET, and the last election night update was at 4:45 a.m. ET, with about 86% of total votes counted.

When will the AP declare a winner?

The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

How do recounts work?

Recounts in Hawaii are automatic if the vote margin is 100 votes or less, or 0.25% of the total votes cast for a contest, whichever is smaller. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

Are we there yet?

As of Saturday, there will be 87 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

About 1 in 5 Americans who have sought financial advice in the past year turned to AI, the survey found. But among U.S. adults overall, only about 3 in 10 have “a great deal” or “some” confidence in its expertise for managing money, according to the survey, including just 3% who trust AI “a great deal.”

The poll, which was conducted in the spring and looked at the views of adults who are at least 21, found a disconnect between the resources Americans trust for financial advice and the ones they actually rely on. About 8 in 10 U.S. adults have at least “some” confidence in financial advisers. But only about one-third of U.S. adults who sought financial advice turned to a professional financial adviser, with far more, 73%, saying they relied on their own internet research.

As the use of AI increases, financial experts say consumers should be cautious about fully trusting these tools. Using AI as a tool at the start of a learning journey and then combining this knowledge with other trusted sources can be the best way to engage with new and traditional financial guidance tools, said Taha Choukhmane, associate professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management.

“I would encourage people to use AI to explain and define,” Choukhmane said. “If you’re interested in knowing what the stock market is, what the difference between a mutual fund and an index fund is. Using AI to explain these concepts can be very useful because it can empower people to get the most out of these methods.”

Most Americans have sought financial guidance from at least one source in the past year, the survey found. In addition to those who said they used internet research, financial advisers, or AI, 35% went to a parent, sibling, or relative, while 26% got information from news, media or social media. About 2 in 10 said they turned to a friend or an author, speaker, or influencer, and fewer relied on an employer or retirement plan provider, a robo-advisor or a teacher or professor.

Younger generations are more likely to say they’ve used AI for financial advice, while older adults are more likely to have turned to a professional financial adviser.

Affordability can often deter younger adults from hiring a financial adviser. While doing research online, asking family and friends and using AI can have minimal costs, hiring a professional can require a bigger financial commitment. About a quarter of Gen Z and millennial adults who looked for financial advice in the past year went to AI, compared to 16% of Gen Xers and just 7% of baby boomers. But while only 14% of Gen Z adults and 21% of millennials who sought guidance turned to a professional financial adviser, that rose to 34% of Gen X adults and about half, 55%, of baby boomers.

Since AI interacts with specific user prompts, the advice can vary depending on how questions are asked. But asking general questions about personal finance can help people understand complex financial terms. Choukhmane also recommends asking AI to provide references to trusted sources to verify the information provided.

While AI can be utilized for research, some financial experts are skeptical about the legal responsibilities of the technology. Certified financial planners have a legal responsibility to give the most fitting advice while AI tools don't. Ultimately, the decisions a person makes based on AI advice are their responsibility.

“Fiduciary responsibility is very real," said Bobbi Rebell, certified financial planner and founder of Financial Wellness Strategies. “There’s no AI that is a fiduciary. It doesn’t really know your life; it’s not asking you all the questions."

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Amelia Thomson-Deveaux, AP’s editor for polling and surveys, contributed to this report from Washington.

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The Associated Press receives support from Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.

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The poll of 5,075 U.S. adults ages 21 and older was conducted March 20-April 6, 2026, using a sample drawn from Gallup's probability-based panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for U.S. adults overall is plus or minus 1.8 percentage points.

The Alaska senator said she’s concerned the Trump administration could proceed with its proposed $1.8 billion fund to compensate Jan. 6 rioters even though Blanche has issued a formal order terminating it.

Meanwhile, Trump said Thursday he was signing two executive actions on immigration: one limiting the number of people eligible for U.S. citizenship after being born in the United States and the other focused on stopping people from coming to the U.S. to give birth. It’s a sign that even after Trump’s first attempt at limiting birthright citizenship was rejected by the Supreme Court, he’s ready to try again.

Here's the latest:

ICE will release body camera video only when seen in the agency’s ‘best interests,’ policy says

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is moving to equip officers with body cameras in the next two months but the agency’s policy gives it broad control over what footage will be made public by specifying any releases must be in its “best interests.”

After years of delays, ICE said its field officers nationwide will have body-worn cameras by the end of September. The rollout comes after recent fatal shootings by officers enforcing President Trump’s immigration crackdown have intensified pressure for accountability the cameras could provide.

But the agency’s body-worn camera policy could mean taxpayers who are pitching in tens of millions of dollars to pay for the cameras may be kept in the dark about some high-profile confrontations, at least in their immediate aftermath.

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‘I’m very good at grass.’ Why Trump goes into the weeds on one of his favorite topics

President Trump will tell you: The grass is always greener on his side of the fence.

And tell you. And tell you.

Trump has spoken repeatedly of his prowess with green lawns since returning to the White House — at some events even spending more time talking about it than the war in Iran, the economy or November’s midterm elections.

It was on the president’s mind just five weeks after his second inauguration, when he pointed out the Oval Office window during an interview with The Spectator. “You see the grass outside, right?” he asked before detailing his plans to pave over much of it. “Some people would like to leave it. But the problem is, you can’t.”

Trump has kept on the topic constantly ever since. All told, he’s mentioned grass in at least 45 public events or interviews over the past 18 months — or at least once every 12 days. That doesn’t include the numerous social media posts he’s also made on the topic.

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Trump bounces between confidence and pragmatism on midterms

The president maintained that Republicans can hold onto control of Capitol Hill and he told Punchbowl News he’s “working hard” to make it happen.

“I’m going to fight,” he said, noting this week’s trip to western states and the upcoming GOP midterm convention that was his idea.

Still, Trump noted the historical trends that go against Republicans. “Even good presidents, they tend to lose in the midterms,” he said.

He even called House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries a “nice guy” and recalled a “good meeting” with him, even though he and the would-be speaker have been “harsh” with one another publicly.

Trump also pushed back against the idea that his presidency would effectively end if Democrats win a majority in the House, Senate or both.

“To some degree,” he said. But he nodded to the presidential veto. “I have great blocking power,” he said. “I’m a great blocker.”

A deal with Iran over the Strait of Hormuz may require a compromise from Trump

Any concession would be tough for the Republican president, who’s insisted there’s no truth to his sagging poll numbers, the sluggish economy and the U.S. military’s dwindling stockpiles of key weapons following the Iran war he launched with Israel more than five months ago.

“He divides the world into winners and losers, and this would make him a loser,” said Eliot Cohen, who served as counselor of the State Department in the George W. Bush administration. “And the image of being a loser, I think, would be intolerable for him.”

The sticking point has been over control of the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world’s oil normally flows. While both sides say a deal is close, the Trump administration has ruled out any arrangement that would cement Iran’s grip over the waterway, including Tehran charging fees.

But Iran has insisted on some measure of control, saying the strait will not go back to being an open international waterway as it was before the war.

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Trump backs Johnson as House leader but is less enthusiastic about Sen. Thune

The president praised House Speaker Mike Johnson, a stalwart Trump loyalist, and said he should be the Republican leader even if the GOP loses its narrow majority.

“He’s great. We work together great,” Trump told Punchbowl News. Sometimes, the president mused, “we’re one heart attack away from losing the House in Congress,” yet Johnson has still delivered major pieces of Trump’s agenda.

“I don’t think there’s even a thought of anybody challenging him,” Trump insisted.

Trump wasn’t so effusive about Senate Majority Leader John Thune.

“I don’t want to get into that. It’s early,” Trump said when asked whether he’d support Thune’s reelection as leader.

Trump said he gets along with the South Dakota senator but lamented the leader’s opposition to scrapping the filibuster and the Senate’s inability to pass the president’s proposals to expand federal power over elections.

“It’s a shame he doesn’t have the votes,” Trump said.

Trump says Republican voters are frustrated with Congress — but not him

The president’s job approval rating of 33%, according to the latest AP-NORC polling, is as low as it has been in his second presidency — the kind of numbers that hurt a president’s party in midterm elections. But Trump insisted to Punchbowl News that he isn’t the real target of voter frustration, especially among Republicans.

“They’re not angry at me, but they are angry at Republicans” on Capitol Hill, he said.

He cited voter turnout in presidential elections, alluding to analyses that show he’s attracted sporadic voters and flipped some historically Democratic-leaning voters.

“The question is, will they vote? Because a lot of them are very angry at Republicans to be honest with you,” Trump said.

The president maintained that Republicans can hold their House and Senate majorities this November. But his overall argument was clear: If they don’t, it’s not his fault.

US employers unexpectedly cut 23,000 jobs last month amid strain from the Iran war

And Labor Department revisions shaved 103,000 jobs off payrolls in May and June. But the unemployment rate dipped to 4.1% as Americans left the job market.

The June jobs numbers from the Labor Department on Friday marked a sharp reversal for the American labor market.

Hiring had rebounded this year from a lackluster 2025 in the face of the conflict in the Persian Gulf that has sent energy prices surging and put a strain on family budgets. Job growth had been solid, if unspectacular. Some businesses are having trouble filling vacancies. Others are using technology to do the work humans used to do.

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Trump promises he’ll tap his campaign chest to help Republicans

The Republican president is sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign money but told Punchbowl News in an interview released Friday that he’ll unleash the funds to help GOP candidates ahead of the November midterms.

Trump says he has as much as $800 million to spend.

“I control it,” he emphasized.

Notably, he did not offer any details about when or where he’ll distribute the campaign cash.

Many Republicans have been counting on Trump’s super PAC being a key part of the GOP’s defense of their House and Senate majorities. The president’s political funds are a key part of Republicans’ overall financial advantage in the midterm campaign, despite individual Democratic Senate and House candidates outraising their Republican opponents in many key races across the country.

Trump says he’d leave Blanche as acting AG whatever the Senate decides

The president told Punchbowl News he’ll leave his acting attorney general at the Justice Department even if his nomination fails.

“It’ll be very sad,” Trump said, but, “we’ll all survive. Todd will survive.”

Trump called Blanche “fair” and said he’s “not a radical flamethrower.” But he acknowledged the political realities.

He singled out Sen. Murkowski as one of his Republican critics but said he has no regrets about his relationship with the Alaska Republican or other GOP senators, including Louisiana’s Bill Cassidy, who could now determine whether Blanche is confirmed.

“You do what you have to do,” Trump said. “Just so you understand, they voted to impeach me. ... In all fairness, you think that I’m going to support somebody that voted to impeach me?”

Cassidy and Murkowski were among the Republicans who voted to convict Trump on impeachment charges in 2021 after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski says she’ll oppose Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination

The Alaska Republican announced on social media that she’ll vote against confirming the acting attorney general for the permanent job.

Murkowski complimented Blanche personally after private meetings with him but said she’s concerned he cannot lead an independent Justice Department under President Donald Trump.

“The country needs an Attorney General who will check the worst impulses of this administration,” she said. “I hope Mr. Blanche is able to achieve that, if confirmed, but I simply do not have confidence that will be the case.”

Murkowski’s decision puts Blanche’s nomination on the brink of failing in a chamber where Republicans hold a 53-47 majority. She joins Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine in opposition, and Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has missed Senate votes since early June because of health problems.

That leaves Sen. Bill Cassidy as the potentially deciding vote given that all Democrats are expected to vote against Blanche.

Perú rompió relaciones con México el 3 de noviembre luego que Betssy Chávez, que fungió como primera ministra en el mandato del expresidente Pedro Castillo (2021-2022), obtuvo asilo diplomático tras refugiarse en la embajada mexicana en Lima.

El canciller peruano, Carlos Espá, dijo el viernes a la radio local RPP que el jueves por la noche se otorgó el salvoconducto a Chávez, quien viajó a México en un avión mexicano que llegó a Lima para trasladarla.

“Los gobiernos de la República del Perú y de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos reafirman su respeto al derecho internacional y a los principios de la Carta de Naciones Unidas”, apuntaron ambos países en el comunicado.

La cancillería peruana dijo más tarde, en otro comunicado, que la entrega del salvoconducto “se realiza con reserva del derecho que asiste al Estado peruano de solicitar la eventual extradición de la señora Chávez”, según los tratados aplicables a ambos países, en caso de que la justicia peruana lo solicite.

A principios de julio, la entonces presidenta electa de Perú, Keiko Fujimori, indicó que tenía “toda la intención” de retomar las relaciones rotas con México.

Los dos países comenzaron a distanciarse después de que, el 7 de diciembre de 2022, el Congreso peruano destituyó a Castillo. El mandatario fue encarcelado tras intentar suspender sin éxito la cámara, controlada por el partido de Fujimori, que lo investigaba por presuntos actos de corrupción.

A finales de 2022, la esposa de Castillo y sus dos hijos menores recibieron asilo en la embajada mexicana en Lima antes de viajar a México, donde viven. El entonces presidente mexicano Andrés Manuel López Obrador y su sucesora, Claudia Sheinbaum, han pedido varias veces la liberación de Castillo.

La detención de Castillo derivó en protestas que dejaron 50 manifestantes muertos en medio de una represión de las fuerzas de seguridad bajo el mando de la presidenta Dina Boluarte (2022-2025), quien gobernó con el apoyo del partido de Fujimori y otros grupos que la salvaron de varios intentos de destitución.

Poco después de que Perú rompió relaciones con México, Betssy Chávez obtuvo asilo diplomático tras refugiarse en la embajada. Luego, Castillo y Chávez fueron condenados a 11 años de cárcel por conspiración para la rebelión. Castillo ha apelado la sentencia, pero sigue investigado por otros casos de corrupción.

That background sounds ideal for a U.S. Senate hopeful in a Deep South state run for generations by white conservatives.

Except Colom is a Democrat. And a Black man.

So, he's an underdog in his bid to unseat Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, a white Donald Trump acolyte seeking her second full term. Yet several variables — Colom’s biography, Mississippi’s demographics, lingering inflation and Hyde-Smith's understated profile — make for a wildcard matchup as Republicans defend their 53-47 Senate majority at the midpoint of Trump's second presidency.

“Mississippi matters,” Colom insisted throughout a recent day of campaigning.

He told The Associated Press he has a rare opportunity to flip the state's usual script by casting Hyde-Smith as a rubber stamp while deflecting broadsides that he's a liberal misfit.

“I’m going to fight the corruption that we’re seeing in D.C. that’s making everything less affordable,” he said, zeroing in on Trump’s tariffs, the Iran war and the Republican-controlled Congress’ capitulation on both. “Our junior senator has totally given away our voice. She’s not worried about us at all.”

Through aides, Hyde-Smith declined an interview. But her campaign manager projected confidence.

“No one believes in Scott Colom except for Scott Colom,” said Jake Monssen, tagging the challenger as a stooge of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and billionaire donor George Soros, whose family backed Colom's district attorney races.

Schumer recently held a fundraiser for Colom, and Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, Maryland's first Black senator, traveled to Mississippi to support him as Democrats look for every path to Senate control. She predicted more senators will follow.

“I can guarantee you one thing,” Alsobrooks said, "I’m not the last.”

As they campaigned together, Colom cited a famous biblical long shot while alluding to his state's history at the vanguard of the Civil Rights Movement.

“We know a little something about David and Goliath in Mississippi," he said.

The outcome hinges on ‘simple math’

Mississippi’s fraught history with racism is never far below the surface.

Colom’s weekend featured a voting rights discussion at Jackson’s Farish Street Baptist Church, where Medgar Evers, the NAACP leader killed by white supremacists in 1963, held organizing meetings. One of Evers’ successors embraced Colom's candidacy as the next step in a long struggle.

“Mississippi is not just a moral argument,” said state NAACP Executive Director Charles Taylor. “It is simple math.”

Black voters make up a larger share of Mississippi's 2.95 million residents (about 37%) and typical November electorate (about a third) than in any other state. More than 9 out of 10 of them typically vote Democratic but turn out at a lower rate than white voters, especially young generations, according to strategists in both major political parties. White voters opt by a 4-1 ratio or more for Republicans. Younger white voters trend slightly less Republican, but they're also less likely to vote.

That makes most Mississippi elections closer than in neighboring Alabama and Louisiana. In 2018, Hyde-Smith won a special election runoff over Mike Espy, Mississippi's first Black congressman since Reconstruction and a former U.S. agriculture secretary, by 7 percentage points. She notched a 10-percentage-point rematch win in 2020 but trailed Trump’s 16-percentage-point margin over Democrat Joe Biden.

Three years later, Republican Gov. Tate Reeves managed just a 3-percentage-point reelection margin and finished less than 1 percentage point over the majority threshold that Mississippi law requires to avoid a runoff in statewide general elections.

Taylor said registration and turnout efforts by the NAACP and other groups could draw 75,000 more Black voters, enough to close recent gaps.

Wilbur Colom, who once lost a state treasurer’s race as a Republican, enjoys gaming out turnout scenarios for his son.

Scott Colom can hit a winning sweet spot, his father said, by increasing Black share of the electorate to 35% and get closer to one out of four white votes rather than the typical 20% or less.

“That’s hard,” Wilbur Colom said. “But demographics are our friend here.”

Scott Colom leans on contrasting records

Colom mostly sidesteps Mississippi history or electoral math unless asked.

“We’ve made a lot more progress than we get credit for,” he said.

“A lot of Mississippians,” he added, “want somebody that’s going to look out for them,” regardless of race.

On Republican gerrymandering after the U.S. Supreme Court gutted a last key Voting Rights Act provision protecting minority voting strength, Colom steers the conversation to economics. Republicans, Colom said, “don't want to be held accountable” for how things are going.

Asked about Biden tapping him for a federal judgeship only for Hyde-Smith to block the nomination, Colom says the campaign isn't about that. He avoids personal shots at Trump, instead emphasizing Mississippi farmers harmed by the Republican president’s tariffs and “400,000 Mississippians that don’t have health insurance” because the state hasn’t expanded Medicaid and Republicans, Hyde-Smith included, let expanded insurance premium subsidies expire.

Colom mentions crime victims and their families in his jurisdiction, promising voters will see them vouch for him. And he criticizes Hyde-Smith for using campaign funds at Las Vegas hotels.

“Voters in Mississippi were promised America first. They were promised lower grocery prices, no more endless wars, concepts of a healthcare plan,” he said. “We’ve been betrayed on all three fronts, and Cindy Hyde-Smith won’t even do a town hall to justify any of it.”

Hyde-Smith's team targets Colom as too liberal

The senator's aides note that she travels regularly to community events around Mississippi — and only annually to Las Vegas for a national campaign fundraiser the onetime state agriculture commissioner plans around a professional rodeo event.

Hyde-Smith, in turn, frames Colom as beholden to extremes beyond Mississippi. Monssen said voters will see a challenger trying “to transition kids’ genders,” raise taxes and give “healthcare to illegal immigrants” to please his “socialist supporters” from the coasts.

It’s a play-it-safe strategy that presumes Republicans like Steve Rogers, a 73-year-old from Brandon, still make up Mississippi's majority.

“I like how she votes, and I think any Democrat’s wasting their time,” Rogers said. He still gives Trump high marks and hasn't even heard of Colom. Trump’s slide “may give her some trouble,” he allows, “but I think she coasts.”

Colom acknowledged financial support from the Soros family but said no candidate controls outside political action committees. He pointed to his prosecution of a Democratic sheriff for sexual abuse of a prisoner as proof that partisanship doesn’t guide him. Voters, including many who've backed Trump and Hyde-Smith, “are smart enough,” he said, to “see through the lies.”

Democrat Judy Weiner, a 72-year-old poll worker in Hinds County, added that Hyde-Smith distinguishes herself only by her fealty to Trump, while not establishing a reputation for securing appropriations and helping rank-and-file Mississippians, as did her predecessor Cochran.

“He made his decisions based on what was good for all the people in Mississippi, not because the president whispered in his ear,” she said, noting Cochran attracted votes from Black and white Democrats.

A little cash could go a long way

The candidates' campaign accounts and Mississippi's inexpensive media markets intensify the unknowns.

Through June, Hyde-Smith had raised $3.8 million this cycle, with $2.5 million left. Colom pulled in $2.8 million and had $850,000 remaining. But Colom outpaced Hyde-Smith among individual contributors, $1.9 million to $1.8 million, from the start of 2025. More of his money ($536,000) came from Mississippi than any other state, despite Monssen's broadsides.

There is no statewide TV advertising yet, but Senate Majority PAC spokeswoman Lauren French said the group is “watching closely.” And it doesn't take seven figures per ad buy to penetrate the electorate, unlike in more populous states like Texas, Georgia and North Carolina. That means that either national party or super PACs could make late investments that matter.

“We need to be working for every single seat,” said Alsobrooks, the Maryland visitor, “and you know what, it always seems impossible until it’s done.”

Here’s a look at the latest developments across the Middle East on Friday. Full coverage can be found here.

Pakistan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia sign a mutual defense agreement

Oil-rich Saudi Arabia, nuclear power Pakistan and Turkey, which has NATO’s second-largest army and a rapidly growing defense industry, signed a mutual defense agreement on Friday.

The deal stipulates that an armed attack on either of the three countries will be regarded as an attack against them all. It was signed during a meeting in Saudi Arabia between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan's foreign ministry said.

“The Agreement is intended to strengthen collective deterrence against any act of aggression,” the ministry said in a statement.

The deal comes at a time when Saudi Arabia, whose critical infrastructure and oil facilities have come under attack as part of the war in Iran, has been looking to diversify its defense partnerships.

Houthi rebels blamed for attack on eastern Yemen

Iran-backed Houthis launched attacks on Marib province in eastern Yemen Friday morning, in the latest escalation with Saudi-backed forces, a military official with the forces in Marib said.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media, said the missiles were fired from west of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa.

Qassem Bahaibah, health minister in Yemen’s internationally recognized government, said in a statement on social media that the attacks targeted a refugee camp and residential areas, killing at least two people and injuring 14 others.

The Houthis did not immediately claim the attack.

Separately, the rebel group struck the Najran region in southwestern Saudi Arabia near the Yemeni border on Thursday, the official spokesperson of the Saudi-led Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen, Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki, confirmed in a statement on X overnight.

He said the attack wounded 11 civilians, including a woman and a child who suffered second-degree burns, and accused the rebels of carrying out “indiscriminate shelling against civilian objects.”

The rebel group did not claim responsibility for the attacks in Marib or Najran. A spokesperson for the Houthis, Nasruddin Amer, said on X on Friday that the group will continue to target gatherings of Saudi-backed forces.

The attacks mark a major escalation since a truce in 2022 largely halted fighting. The civil war pits the Iran-backed Houthis against a Saudi-led coalition allied with Yemen’s internationally recognized government.

—By Ahmed Al-Haj in Aden, Yemen and Fatma Khaled in Cairo

Israeli strike wounds Lebanese soldier

The Lebanese army said the soldier was lightly wounded on Friday while he was in a bulldozer opening roads in the southern village of Mansouri.

Mansouri was subjected to Israeli shelling earlier this week, according to Lebanon’s state news agency.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

The Israeli army launched strikes Wednesday in southern Lebanon in response to what it described as Hezbollah’s violation of the ceasefire and called on residents of Mansouri to flee — the first such warning Israel has issued in Lebanon for weeks.

The practice was first highlighted by Local 10 last year, leading to a congressional investigation into one of the offices advertising maternity services in North Miami Beach.

Dr. Wladimir Lorentz, the clinic’s head pediatrician, has promoted maternity services online in Spanish and Portuguese, offering assistance to expectant mothers seeking care in the United States.

The Trump administration argues the practice is an abuse of the immigration system, saying some people enter the country on tourist visas with the primary goal of giving birth so their children can receive U.S. citizenship.

In his executive order, Trump wrote that “citizenship is not a commodity to be acquired through calculated exploitation and evasion of the immigration law.”

“The big crackdowns, and this will give us the right to do it in a much more forceful manner,” Trump said.

The White House cited a recent report claiming about 77,000 people came to the United States in 2023 on tourist visas for what the administration describes as fraudulent purposes — including giving birth on American soil.

Children born in the United States are granted citizenship under current law, while their parents do not automatically receive citizenship.

Trump also signed a second executive order seeking to restrict birthright citizenship, despite the U.S. Supreme Court rejecting his previous attempt to limit the practice.

The new orders expand the administration’s definition of individuals who could be denied entry or removed from the country if they have participated in — or plan to participate in — what the government calls birth tourism.

Politicians from Prime Minister Andy Burnham to London Mayor Sadiq Khan have piled in to decry the idea from Westminster City Council, which is responsible for licensing pubs and restaurants in the West End, a nightlife hub popular with tourists and locals.

A feature of many of those pubs is the crowd of drinkers who mill around sharing drinks with friends, often spilling out into the street on warm spring and summer evenings. Lesley Lewis, who has run the French House pub in Soho for 37 years, said discouraging that tradition would only drive customers to other parts of the city.

“We rely on those people standing up with the rents and the rates (taxes) put upon us,” she said. “People want to enjoy themselves in Soho, they want to have a drink outside, they want to dance. They don’t want to sit down and just be where they are, they want to meet people and chat.”

With British newspapers filled with headlines such as “Sitting room only at pubs?” and “Soho’s pubs won’t take clamp down on ‘vertical drinking’ lying down,” the Westminster council hit back at “confusing” news stories that misrepresented its plans.

Council leader Paul Swaddle issued a press release stressing that the proposal was part of a draft policy that is still open for public comment. The council’s goal is to reduce noise and disorderly behavior by encouraging bars and restaurants to serve more people at their tables, not bar anyone from having a drink while standing, he said.

“Let me be clear about what we’re trying to achieve,’’ he said. “This is about safety, not stopping anyone standing at a bar with a pint in their hand.’’

The council’s draft licensing policy includes a proposal to discourage “excessive drunkenness” by encouraging business owners to provide more opportunities “for people to sit and enjoy a drink and order food by table service in place of open bar space that caters for high volume vertical drinking.”

Westminster has more pubs, bars and restaurants licensed to sell alcohol than any other local authority in the U.K.

While the council’s policy statement stresses the important role the hospitality industry plays in the local economy, it also says local leaders must ensure Westminster is “a great place for residents to live.”

That didn’t stop the criticism from more senior government officials, who have been focused on bolstering a hospitality industry that still hasn’t recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic.

A spokesman for Burnham said pubs full of people standing around sharing a pint isn’t a nuisance, it’s a part of “British life.” The prime minister is encouraging local leaders to work with the hospitality industry so that pubs can thrive, he said.

“The pubs that we’ve got are at the heart of high streets, and I think it’s really important to signal at the start of my time in office that I will be a defender for them,” Burnham told reporters last month while visiting a pub called the Hare in Harlow, Essex. “I will speak up for them and act.”

Khan suggested he would use new powers that will be granted to his office later this year to review the Westminster policy.

“You can’t run a world-famous nightlife district with a village-hall mindset,” Khan said on X. “London’s hospitality and nightlife support jobs, culture and growth.”

The Alaska senator, who joins GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine in opposing Blanche, cited the Justice Department's handling of files related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, a sweeping tax audit immunity deal for Trump and a proposed $1.8 billion fund meant to compensate the Republican president's allies.

“The country needs an Attorney General who will check the worst impulses of this administration," Murkowski said in a statement. “I hope Mr. Blanche is able to achieve that, if confirmed, but I simply do not have confidence that will be the case.”

Murkowski's opposition injects fresh uncertainty into Blanche's nomination, which has faced obstacles over a settlement of Trump's lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service regarding his leaked tax returns.

With Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky not attending Senate sessions, Blanche can only afford to lose two Republican votes if all Democrats oppose him. Another key Republican — Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who lost his primary after Trump backed his rival — is expected to announce Friday morning whether he supports Blanche's nomination.

Blanche, who previously served as Trump’s criminal defense lawyer, entered the department last year as deputy attorney general and was elevated to the top post in an acting role after Pam Bondi's ouster in April. While he could still run the department either as acting attorney general or deputy attorney general, his nomination failing would be a major political blow for the Trump administration.

Democrats and Republicans alike have expressed serious concerns about the settlement, which called for the creation of a $1.8 billion fund to compensate people who feel mistreated by the criminal justice system and provided Trump and family members with immunity from tax audits.

Murkowski said she is worried the Trump administration could proceed with the proposed “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” despite the Trump administration's promises that it is dead, noting that the Senate has leverage over the fund only because Blanche’s nomination is pending.

“Once we vote, that will end, and there is no telling what the future holds,” she said.

The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced Blanche's nomination only after a deal reached last weekend with two other Republican senators — John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina — who had been threatening to block his confirmation over aspects of the settlement.

Under the deal, Blanche formally rescinded the “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” writing in an order that “there is no Fund.”

The Justice Department also clarified in writing that the tax audit immunity agreement applies only to claims open at the time of the settlement and does not protect Trump from examination of future tax filings. It also makes clear that only the parties that brought the lawsuit — Trump, two of his sons and the Trump Organization — are covered by the tax agreement.

But Democrats say Blanche's order doesn't stop the Trump administration from reviving the fund after his confirmation and have called for legislation to permanently bar it. Trump has repeatedly defended the fund and has threatened to push forward with it if Republicans don't support Blanche's nomination.

Lawmakers and legal experts have also questioned the lawfulness of the tax protections for Trump. A federal judge who oversaw the IRS case has described Trump's lawsuit as an improper exercise in self-dealing, and on Thursday the union representing IRS workers asked another judge to block the immunity agreement.

Jay’s, a steakhouse located inside a former church, has become a destination for diners looking for more than just a meal.

Owner Jay Shirodkar said the building’s history and character made it the perfect location for his restaurant concept.

“This building is one of a kind and when we walked into this church, there’s nothing like it in Fort Lauderdale. I knew we had to have it,” Shirodkar said.

Instead of changing the features that made the building unique, Shirodkar said the restaurant embraced them. Original stained glass, towering ceilings and separate dining spaces help create a different atmosphere throughout the restaurant.

Shirodkar said entertainment is also a key part of the experience.

“I really like having really good DJs,” he said. “Sometimes we’ll have singers accompany them or we do some, you know, live, there was electronic saxophonists and violinists and stuff like that.”

For Shirodkar, the right atmosphere is just as important as the food.

“I just need music, an espresso martini in my hand, and then I’m setting the vibe,” he added.

Although Jay’s is known as a steakhouse, Shirodkar said the menu also incorporates Asian-inspired dishes.

“We have a lot of Asian influence, of course the best steaks that money can buy,” Shirodkar said.

The menu includes dishes such as spicy tuna crispy rice, rock shrimp tempura and specialty steaks.

Shirodkar said the goal is to make every part of the visit memorable.

“It’s just as important to have excellent food, but to also make sure every time you sit at that table, you’re enjoying everything around you,” he said.

Jay’s also offers a happy hour where everything is half off, with reservations available through the restaurant’s website.

On Thursday, Miami-Dade County reached a high of 88 degrees, snapping a streak of 56 consecutive days with highs of at least 90 degrees.

On Friday, temperatures are expected to climb back into the low 90s, but rain chances won’t be as widespread. As the disturbance moves away this weekend, rain chances will decrease while temperatures trend back up.

It’s the last weekend of summer before many kids head back to school, so expect plenty of heat if you have outdoor plans.

Keep it tuned to Local 10 for the latest forecast.

Infantino is facing a revolt after his failed plan to sell stakes in the World Cup.

The Norwegian federation held a meeting on Thursday and president Lise Klaveness said the decision had been made to ask Infantino to resign.

“We decided that there is no trust in Infantino now,” Klaveness told the Guardian. “We have been worried consistently and there has been one more step in worrying direction every year, every part of the year. The trust is now gone for us, there is no way back for Infantino.”

The announcement is the latest blow for Infantino as the fallout continues over his controversial plan to sell profits in the World Cup through a commercial subsidiary called the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE).

European soccer's governing body UEFA said Thursday its threat to boycott the World Cup and other FIFA competitions remained in place despite FIFA abandoning and apologizing for its failed plan.

It reiterated its stance that it had lost confidence in Infantino.

Earlier this week Infantino appeared to have held off the potential of an internal revolt during a summit meeting with top staff in Rabat, Morocco.

FIFA said the president had been given the full support of those in attendance.

But UEFA's response, followed by Norway's direct call for him to resign shows the sense of anger from Europe, in particular, remains strong.

The English Football Association has also withdrawn its support for Infantino’s re-election next March.

He did, however, receive backing from Mexico’s federation.

Norwegian broadcaster NRK said the national federation would also file a new complaint with FIFA's ethics committee, which will include FFE, the peace prize awarded to Donald Trump and the suspension of Folarin Balogun's one-match ban at the World Cup.

“We have reached a situation where extraordinary measures are needed to create lasting change,” Klaveness said.

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James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Zendaya’s angelic strapless gown with feathered white wings was the work of Matières Fécales — yes, in English, Fecal Matter — the Paris-based, high-end fashion house founded in Montreal over a decade ago that’s, seemingly suddenly, everywhere.

Why Matières Fécales is called ... that

The design duo behind Matières Fécales, Steven Raj Bhaskaran and Hannah Rose Dalton, have aimed to subvert beauty with their own alien-like personal style, including dramatic white makeup, shaved heads and eyebrows, and skin boots made to look like realistic feet.

Bhaskaran and Dalton started the brand as students at Collège LaSalle Montréal, going from selling designs on the secondhand shopping platform Depop to showcasing collections at Paris Fashion Week. The designers have said the name reflects their view of the fashion industry, a perspective they initially summed up with a more vulgar word.

“There’s no other word for it, but how can we say it in a glamorous way? So we’re like, ‘fecal matter’ is the scientific word for it,” Dalton recalled to Vogue last year, adding they translated it into French, which “sounds way more glamorous.” Bhaskaran told the “Fashion Neurosis” podcast in March that the name was also intended to “challenge the wasteful side of fashion.”

A representative for Matières Fécales said the designers were not available for comment.

Despite the visceral name, tastemakers from Lady Gaga to Kylie Jenner are embracing their designs.

“There is this beautiful tension in their work between the finesse and the decaying, and the strong and the soft,” celebrity stylist Brad Goreski told The Associated Press.

And after years of building a cult following, they were taken under the wings of Dover Street Market in 2024, after first meeting its president, Adrian Joffe, backstage at a Madonna show. The global retail and concept stores offer emerging brands development support, from production and distribution to sales.

Kristen Bateman, a longtime fashion and culture writer who has attended all three of the designers’ Paris Fashion Week shows, said their rise is driven by the industry’s desire to see something new.

“If you’re looking at the high-fashion brands like Chanel and Dior, it all sort of starts to blend together,” she said. “And this feels like it’s in its own category. ... You can’t replicate it.”

From cult status to Paris Fashion Week

Milan Tanedjikov, a Collège LaSalle Montréal design teacher, had a front-row seat to Dalton and Bhaskaran's rise and says they have finally found the balance between their art and fashion.

“They have created this, like, very interesting organism together,” he said.

The designers were invited onto the official calendar for Paris Fashion Week last year, debuting “The Other,” a collection they described as an ode to being fearless with identity. It featured a collaboration pairing their striking curved-heel design with Christian Louboutin’s signature red sole.

“At their very core, what drives them is absolute freedom of expression, and they want to push the boundaries of what is human,” Tanedjikov said.

In March, during Paris Fashion Week, the duo unveiled “The One Percent,” with models theatrically strutting with red paint on white opera gloves and wearing eye masks made of dollar bills. The collection showcased how “power affects us all,” they wrote on Instagram.

“What they were able to build in such a small amount of time is really insane in terms of world building and creating their world,” Augustin Maunier, Dover Street Market's director of brand development, said. “There’s real storytelling behind it.”

The show's theme was a stark contrast to the billionaires who had been sitting front row at other fashion week shows. At this year’s Met Gala, where Jeff Bezos was an honorary chair, actor Sarah Paulson wore a voluminous, gray, distressed ball gown from the collection, paired with the eye-covering money mask.

Goreski pulled from “The One Percent” for Demi Moore's wardrobe as a Cannes Film Festival jury member, telling the AP he wanted something new for Moore. Moore's frayed, full-volume, Barbie-pink ball gown with a distressed bow was a break from her usual structured looks. In 20 years of dressing Moore, Goreski said she hardly ever chooses a full-skirt “cupcake” shape, but that she fell for the designers’ artistic vision and storytelling.

“They’re designing clothes for themselves,” he said. “That’s authentically them, but they’re bringing it to like a whole other audience.”

Find their clothes on Lady Gaga and a Dunkin’ ad

Early supporters of the brand fittingly included boundary-breaking performers Madonna and Lady Gaga. Madonna even invited them to DJ on her tour in 2023 and they've designed custom looks for Gaga’s live performances, including Coachella. At this year's Grammys, Gaga wore a high-neck, feathered, black gown from the designers, a dark angel to Zendaya’s heavenly “Odyssey” look.

Now, though, their bold designs are going beyond red carpets. In a television ad for Dunkin’, Kylie Jenner wore a blush-pink, satin, structured blazer with over-the-top shoulder pads, a designer choice that generated some amusement online from those previously unfamiliar with the brand's name.

The designers created a distressed Victorian-style dress for model Gabbriette Bechtel's wedding to musician Matty Healy, a first for the brand. With their next Paris Fashion Week show set for September, fashion connoisseurs are eagerly waiting to see what’s next.

“We’re rooting for them because they’re younger designers who have something to say,” fashion commentator Hanan Besovic, who posts online as @Ideservecouture, said.

That's when 72-year-old Leidis Rodríguez frantically cooked beans after the lights switched on this week following hours of uninterrupted blackouts.

“The power has come back on, everyone go!” Rodríguez shouted.

In the wake of sometimes dayslong blackouts in Cuba — fueled by the oil blockade imposed by the Trump administration in January — Cubans are planning their lives around the lights turning back on.

Those small bursts of relief last a few minutes or a few hours. They come at any time, day or night. Increasingly, electricity flicks on when Rodríguez and her 41-year-old daughter, Yaimara Matos, would normally be asleep.

When the power comes on, the family stops everything they're doing.

“You want to do everything at the same time — wash clothes, iron, cook, tidy the rooms, because it’s impossible in the dark, and even get a little relief from the heat," Matos said. “What we used to do in 10 hours, we now have to do in two.”

Life transformed by crisis

That’s the case for Cubans across the island, whose lives have been transformed by one of the worst crises the island has seen since the Cuban revolution. Daily life has turned into a tangle of compounding crises families have to unravel.

Public transportation and cultural events have come to a standstill. So has tourism, the country's economic engine, especially as tourism companies have withdrawn, leaving 25,000 hospitality jobs vacant. Flights to the island are regularly canceled and workdays have been shortened to adjust to the new reality of a Cuba without power. Medicine shortages have worsened and food rots in fridges without power.

"If there’s no electricity, there’s no water because it doesn’t get pumped to the tank. When there’s water, there’s no electricity,” Rodríguez lamented.

Power outages are nothing new to the Caribbean nation. Endemic blackouts began to worsen five years ago as a result of a crumbling energy grid, decades-long U.S. sanctions and failed economic reforms by the communist-run government.

But the quality of life began to rapidly deteriorate when U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose a tariff on any goods from countries that sell or provide it with oil, Cuba's main source of power. The move, combined with even more rigid sanctions, was aimed at pressuring Cuba's government into political change. The worst effects have been felt by average Cubans.

Previously, most blackouts were scheduled by the government to save power, so each family knew how long they would be without electricity — usually two or three hours. Now there is no longer any predictability: an outage can last 12 hours, 30 hours or longer. Increasingly, the entire island goes dark. Last weekend's grid collapse marked the sixth time this year.

‘I try to carry on with life’

Cubans like Rodríguez and Matos, long accustomed to adapting to crisis, have found ways to cope. The family bought a small power generator, which they're only able to run a few hours a day.

Others install solar panels — often sent by relatives abroad. Some purchase rechargeable fans or solar-powered vehicles since gasoline is also unavailable.

Lianet Barroso once cooked with a gas stove. Now she cooks over a wood fire. Unsure of when she will next get water when the power does go on, she fills up as many plastic bottles as she can.

“Life for Cubans has become difficult, harsh and sad,” Barroso said.

In several municipalities, particularly in Havana, residents staged neighborhood protests after blackouts lasting more than 48 hours, banging pots and pans and burning garbage piled up on street corners.

Meanwhile, with inflation surging as Cuba's currency is increasingly devalued against the dollar, many people are struggling to even pay for food that could later go bad in a blackout.

At 10 p.m. on Tuesday, 64-year-old Caridad Delgado was preparing food for her cat during a blackout under the light of a rechargeable lamp, something the family bought with remittances from her three children, who had emigrated from the island.

Months ago at this hour, she said, “ I’d probably be watching a soap opera. Now I can’t even dream of it.”

“There’s just too much anguish, too much desperation,” she said. “I try to carry on with life.”

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Associated Press writers Megan Janetsky in Mexico City and Milexsy Durán and Ariel Fernández in Havana contributed to this report.

The agreement was signed in the Saudi holy city of Mecca by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, according to statements from all three countries.

The agreement between the three Sunni Muslim-majority states brings together oil-rich Saudi Arabia and nuclear power Pakistan as well as Turkey, which has NATO’s second-largest army and a rapidly growing defense industry. It would increase cooperation and deterrence at a time of increased regional uncertainty and threats from the war in Iran.

Commitment to joint deterrence

"The agreement is intended to strengthen collective deterrence against any act of aggression, and stipulates that any armed attack against any one of the three states shall be regarded as an attack against them all," the statements read.

“It further provides for the enhancement of all aspects of defense cooperation among the three States,” the statements said, adding that the agreement was called the “Mecca Joint Defense Agreement.”

Saudi Arabia, whose critical infrastructure and oil facilities have come under attack as part of the war in Iran, has been looking to diversify its defense partnerships.

In September, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed a mutual defense pact that also defines any attack on either nation as an attack on both.

The agreement also comes amid rising tensions between Turkey and Israel over Gaza and other regional conflicts, including the war in Iran and Lebanon.

The deal highlights how far relations between Saudi Arabia and Turkey have shifted toward alignment and partnership, after being highly strained just a few years ago, including over the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul by Saudi operatives.

Iran criticizes deal

In Iran, Ebrahim Rezaei, a member of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, criticized the deal on X, saying it would not bring security to Saudi Arabia.

“The Saudis should know that a paper agreement with Turkey and Pakistan will not bring them security, just as years of one-sided ‘milking’ by the Americans did not bring them security. Change your policies so that you do not have to #BegForSecurity from others,” he wrote.

Saudi Arabia says deal is not a military axis or religious bloc

A statement from Saudi Arabia insisted that the agreement does not amount to a military pact and would not affect the kingdom's existing partnerships.

“The agreement does not represent any orientation toward building a military axis or sectarian/religious bloc, and it is not linked to nuclear endeavors or an arms race, but rather to building sustainable self-reliant capabilities,” the statement read. "The agreement does not come at the expense of the Kingdom’s strategic and strong relations at the Gulf, Arab, and international levels."

A Turkish government official described the agreement as “purely defensive in nature,” saying the sides have pledged mutual support only for defense.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly, insisted that the deal is “not against any specific actor” and was open for other regional countries to join.

The agreement does not abrogate or replace any bilateral or multilateral agreements between these states or with other states and organizations, the official added.

In addition to the three countries’ commitment to supporting one another’s security, the agreement seeks to enhance defense industry cooperation and military coordination, another Turkish official said.

Long‑Standing security ties

In Islamabad, defense analyst Abdullah Khan described the agreement as a natural evolution and formalization of decades of strategic ties among Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, saying a changing regional security environment and the evolving nature of warfare had increased the need for closer cooperation.

Khan said the pact was “purely defensive” and not directed against any country, with collective deterrence intended to raise the cost of aggression and prevent conflict.

The analyst said the three countries bring complementary strengths to the arrangement: Pakistan’s military experience and expertise in managing escalation, Saudi Arabia’s economic strength and regional influence, and Turkey’s advanced defense technology and industrial capabilities.

Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, director of the Ankara office for The German Marshall Fund think tank, said the agreement was the culmination of the countries' shared concerns over regional fragmentation, civil conflict, and armed non-state groups.

“This is a reflection of their growing desire for greater regional stability,” Unluhisarcikli said. “They see state fragmentation, civil conflict, an environment of non-state actors as sources of instability.”

Unluhisarcikli said Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey have varying degrees of concerns over Iran and Israel: Pakistan is geographically removed, and while Turkey and Saudi Arabia both see Iran and Israel as destabilizing, Ankara is more concerned about Israel and Riyadh more concerned about Iran.

“At the end of the day, all three countries are concerned about instability,” he said.

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Ahmed reported from Islamabad.

After years of delays, ICE said its field officers nationwide will have body-worn cameras by the end of September. The rollout comes after recent fatal shootings by officers enforcing President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown have intensified pressure for accountability that the cameras could provide.

But the agency's body-worn camera policy could mean taxpayers who are pitching in tens of millions of dollars to pay for the cameras may be kept in the dark about some high-profile confrontations, at least in their immediate aftermath.

The policy says ICE will promptly release video of shootings and other encounters in which its agents cause death or serious injury only after determining “it is in the best interests of the agency” to do so. That gives its director discretion to release recordings that reflect well on the agency’s image while working to keep others secret, experts on body camera policies said.

Such selective releases are routine in some law enforcement agencies but usually not so clearly contemplated in policy, according to professor Christopher Schneider of Brandon University in Canada, a co-author of the new book “Police Body-Worn Cameras: Media and the New Discourse of Police Reform.”

“In some ways, ICE is saying the quiet part out loud,” he said. “Body-worn cameras are being used as contemporary image-work tools to present the police to the public in the most favorable way possible.”

Body camera policy allows withholding some video

The policy requires officers to activate cameras during routine enforcement activities, including while making arrests, executing search warrants and responding to emergencies.

After shootings or other serious confrontations, a committee that includes top ICE officials and lawyers will review footage and recommend whether to release it promptly, according to the body camera policy issued in February 2025.

If the answer is yes, the recording could be released within 72 hours. But if the ICE director finds that “specific and compelling circumstances” justify withholding the video, they have the authority to block or indefinitely delay the release, the policy says.

The policy does not elaborate on such circumstances, and ICE did not respond to a question from The Associated Press about how it would make such decisions.

Practices vary widely in the U.S. In Chicago, a police watchdog agency routinely releases body camera video of shootings and other serious use-of-force incidents within 60 days. In Philadelphia, the police department very rarely uses its discretion to release video of specific incidents and has no policy for when to do so.

Even when footage is released, ICE’s policy will require the redaction of all officers’ identifying features such as their faces, names and badge numbers to preserve their privacy.

Schneider, who has studied body cameras since their use began spreading a decade ago, said he does not expect ICE to release footage of fatal shootings like those last month in Houston and Maine.

He noted ICE’s sister agency, Customs and Border Protection, has not released footage of the January shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis even though it was captured on agents’ cameras. CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott told lawmakers in February that the video and other materials were under investigation and would be made public “when it’s appropriate.”

ICE says all officers will have cameras by end of September

ICE spent $30.9 million in July to purchase body camera equipment from Axon, the Arizona-based company that also manufactures Tasers, federal spending records show.

The spending began one day after the fatal shooting of a 25-year-old motorist in Maine by an ICE officer with a history of violent behavior. Days earlier, another ICE officer shot and killed a homebuilder in Houston who was driving to work.

Neither shooting was recorded with body cameras. That news angered members of Congress, who had given ICE $20 million to purchase body cameras in a bill passed to end a partial government shutdown on April 30.

ICE said body cameras have been sent to more than half its field officers and the rest will receive them by the end of September. That timeline pushes back estimates from earlier public statements. Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who backed funding for cameras, said last month that the agency informed her they would be deployed by the end of August. ICE had said earlier that they would be issued by mid-September.

ICE officers working in the Houston area, where the agency sent more than 800 cameras, are among those who have started training, according to U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat and member of the House Appropriations Committee.

At least one member of every arrest team will be required to have a camera, the agency said.

“I think the American people need to see what that officer sees and hears,” White House border czar Tom Homan said July 19 on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.” “And if you look at the data, body cameras actually exonerate agents more than they, you know, provide evidence of wrongdoing.”

Schneider said he expects ICE to release recordings that promote the agency’s mass deportation program by portraying officers as brave and immigrants as dangerous criminals.

“Much of what law enforcement does is convince the public that we need them and feel safe and they do all this good stuff for us,” he said. “The more bad stuff the public sees, the more angry the public gets. And this causes problems for the police brand.”

ICE has taken years to adopt body cameras

ICE began testing body cameras in 2021 during President Joe Biden's administration and distributed 1,400 devices three years later, saying use would expand as funding became available.

After returning to office in 2025, President Donald Trump rescinded a Biden order that required federal law enforcement agencies to use body cameras.

ICE did not buy body cameras even after it received a historic $75 billion infusion in Trump’s signature policy bill in 2025 and began hiring thousands of new officers. The two July purchases from Axon were made through an existing government contract that began in 2023, records show.

“This is not hard to deploy, but they’ve slow-rolled it,” said Jason Houser, who was ICE chief of staff under Biden and helped implement the agency’s pilot program.

Houser said the Trump administration should have equipped officers with body cameras when it expanded mass arrests and traffic stops. Doing so only after several shootings and pressure from Congress “is clearly a political response” that will not make officers or the public safer, he said.

“This doesn’t fix the problem of putting officers in a place where they’re not trained or equipped to carry out the style of operations that the administration is asking them to do,” he said.

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AP reporter Valerie Gonzalez contributed to this report.

Ukraine has regularly hit targets in the distant Urals this year and has even struck a Russian oil refinery in western Siberia, nearly 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) from the border. The attacks are examples of how Kyiv has used drone innovation as a key part of its response to the invasion by its much bigger enemy more than four years ago.

Its successes have drawn international interest and drone cooperation agreements with nine countries, with further deals being negotiated with 15 other countries, according to Kyiv officials.

Wildberries said its warehouse in Yekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth-largest city, was set ablaze by the attack. Most merchandise wasn’t damaged, the company said, unlike at some of the more than a dozen other Wildberries depots struck by Ukraine in recent weeks that have burned down.

The regional governor, Denis Pasler, said three drones hit the warehouse’s roof. Artyom Zhoga, the Kremlin’s representative in the region, said that 800 people were evacuated from the warehouse and nobody was hurt.

Kyiv is trying to rattle the Russian public and the Kremlin with the attacks.

Russian President Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting Friday of the country’s Security Council. He said in televised opening remarks that the meeting would focus on additional measures to “strengthen … protection of infrastructure facilities” but gave no further details.

Ukraine presses on with plans for new weapons

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is pushing for his country to keep up the pace of technological development, especially in air defense systems to help stop Russian ballistic missiles that are exploiting Ukraine’s shortage of American-made Patriot interceptor missiles and battering civilian areas.

A joint European anti-ballistic development program is already underway, Zelenskyy said late Thursday, with 10 countries engaged in developing an anti-ballistic shield. Europe is concerned about Moscow’s ambitions on the continent beyond Ukraine.

“Ukraine is capable of producing its (anti-ballistic) missile and launcher, while our partners will provide the necessary components and critical elements — radars, sensors, and everything else required,” Zelenskyy said on social media. “An anti-ballistic program of our own — one that is truly large-scale — will greatly benefit everyone in Europe.”

At the same time, Ukraine is working on manufacturing its own ballistic missiles to use against Russia. “The tests have shown strong potential. We need to turn this into a real weapon,” Zelenskyy said.

Defenders are under pressure in eastern Ukraine

Ukrainian front-line defenses in eastern regions, meanwhile, remain under strain as Russia’s bigger army looks for a breakthrough after months of minimal advances that Western analysts and officials say have had a high cost for Moscow in troop casualties.

Ukraine has been evacuating children from Kramatorsk, one of the four eastern Donetsk region cities that make up the Ukrainian so-called Fortress Belt. The line of four large and heavily defended cities, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) long, has been key to denying Moscow its goal of seizing Ukraine's industrial heartland.

The head of the Donetsk region’s regional military administration, Vadym Filashkin, said Friday that more than 800 people, including 91 children, were evacuated over the previous 24 hours.

Ukraine has been deploying midrange strike drones to disrupt Russia’s supply lines and slow its advance.

Zelenskyy said that the recently appointed commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, Maj. Gen. Mykhailo Drapatyi, reported to him Friday about the military situation in Donetsk.

He said in a social media post that they reached “an understanding of how to strengthen” Ukraine’s defenses there but gave no details.

Russia and Ukraine sustain nightly drone attacks

Russia’s air defenses downed 203 Ukrainian drones from late Thursday through early Friday, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said.

Over the past week, the Russian military struck 31 bulk cargo vessels and three tugboats that operated “in the interests of the Ukrainian armed forces,” it said.

It added that late Thursday two ships were hit by Geran-4 drones in the Black Sea east and southeast of Odesa and one was struck in the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk.

In other attacks, the ministry said that the military hit a facility assembling long-range drones in Okhtyrka in the Sumy region on Thursday. It also released a video of a train purportedly carrying military equipment struck by a Geran drone and then an Iskander ballistic missile near Vyshneve in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

Meanwhile, Russia attacked Ukraine with 147 long-range strike drones overnight, according to the Ukrainian air force.

In Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, a Russian drone struck a busy market Friday morning, wounding 10 people, authorities said.

Russia also launched glide bombs and drones of various types at the regional capital, according to the head of regional administration, Oleh Hryhorov.

The attack targeted residential buildings, transport and infrastructure, wounding two people, he said.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

The S&P 500 rose 0.4% and is hovering around the record it set on Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 114 points, or 0.2%, as of 9:55 a.m. Eastern time. The Nasdaq composite rose 1%. Every major index is on track for weekly gains.

Technology stocks, with their big market values, did much of the heavy lifting for the broader market. They are often the heaviest weights determining the market’s direction. Nvidia jumped 1.3% and Broadcom rose 1.1%.

The bond market reacted more strongly to the weaker signal on the job market, which can be seen as allowing the Federal Reserve more time before raising interest rates to fight inflation.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.63% from 4.67% just prior to the jobs update. The yield on the two-year Treasury, which more closely tracks expectations for Fed action on interest rates, fell to 4.19% from 4.22% prior to the report's release.

Overall, the report paints a dimmer picture of the jobs market, which has been one of the brighter areas of the economy amid rising inflation and worries about household spending. It included a revision to the figures for June and May that involved slashing a combined 103,000 jobs from payrolls for those months.

The Fed has been holding interest rates steady amid worries about hotter inflation, especially fueled by a rise in oil prices because of the U.S. war with Iran. Wall Street expects at least one rate increase by the end of the year. A weakening jobs market could make matters more complicated for the Fed, which has to balance supporting job growth with fighting inflation.

Raising interest rates can help tame inflation by slowing economic growth. A weaker jobs market, though, could become even more battered under higher interest rates as businesses find it more difficult to expand under increased borrowing rates.

Businesses, and Wall Street, prefer lower interest rates because it can help boost investments. That might bolster a weakened jobs market, but it could worsen already stubborn inflation.

Oil prices edged lower. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, fell 0.6%, to $82.07 a barrel.

Markets in Europe gained ground and markets in Asia were mixed.

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Associated Press business writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.

It was Shavuot, the Jewish holiday commemorating God giving the Torah to Moses. Hallegua reached the 458-year-old Paradesi Synagogue where he knew he would pray alone — without a minyan, the quorum of 10 males required for a communal service.

Hallegua is the synagogue's last local congregant — the only Jew left in Jew Town.

Across the city at the centuries-old Kadavumbagam Synagogue, Elias “Babu” Josephai remembered the “chukkunda" — fried dough balls his grandmother used to make for Shavuot.

“It wasn’t much,” he said, wiping away tears. “But at that time, it was everything."

They ache for what’s already gone and work to preserve what's left.

In the 1950s, much of the Jewish community in Kochi (historically known as Cochin), a seaport on India’s southwestern coast, immigrated to Israel, leaving behind their homes, synagogues and cemeteries.

The burden of being the last Jews

Hallegua and Josephai stayed. Now they represent the final chapter for the Cochin Jews who have lived peacefully — and without fear of antisemitism — for centuries alongside Hindu, Muslim and Christian neighbors. There are now fewer than 5,000 Jews in all of India, the world's most populous country.

But the Cochin Jewish community's complex history includes both religious freedom and internal divisions over class and colorism. Hallegua is a Paradesi Jew, the once-dominant group whose fair-skinned, Sephardic ancestors from Spain and Portugal fled the Spanish Inquisition in the 16th century. They brought enslaved people with them, and their freed descendants, known as the Meshuchrarim Jews, were relegated to a lower social status and had to fight for religious equality.

Josephai is a Malabari Jew. The group's darker-skinned ancestors trace their roots back more than 2,000 years, to King Solomon’s time. They also faced past discrimination from the Paradesi community. While these divisions didn't survive after the Cochin Jews migrated to Israel and elsewhere, the bitter remnants still haunt the community's legacy.

Though Hallegua and Josephai rarely meet, both are intensely proud of their ancient heritage.

Josephai spent years resurrecting Kadavumbagam Synagogue, the last functioning Malabari house of worship. Services are rare; it's up to Josephai to light the lamps and keep the prayers going, often alone. He weeps for the past, when the synagogue was filled with people, prayers and songs.

“That will never come back,” he said.

Hallegua is the last local member of Paradesi Synagogue, which now relies on tourists and visitors to have a quorum for services.

“Quite often, I walk to the synagogue and I ask HaShem (God), why have you done this?” Hallegua said. “I never hear a response.”

Locals and global community strive to preserve history

On a recent morning, tourists crowded the Paradesi Synagogue and Synagogue Lane, the street it anchors. Former homes are now occupied by spice warehouses and stores selling antiques and handicrafts. Historically, the Jewish community played a major role in the spice trade in Kochi, a hub for black pepper, cardamom and nutmeg.

The synagogue’s entryway leads to a main hall with blue and white Chinese porcelain tile floors. Nineteenth century Belgian crystal chandeliers and colorful glass lanterns adorn the sanctuary. A carved teakwood Torah ark stands at the western wall facing Jerusalem. As in other Kochi synagogues, the women’s section is upstairs. Visitors slip off their shoes, in keeping with regional etiquette.

Synagogue trustee M.C. Praveen says his life's mission is protecting Cochin Jewish history. Praveen, a Hindu, spent his childhood in Jew Town, attending school with Hallegua's family members, eating Shabbat dinners, playing cricket near the synagogue.

“I want to make sure future generations know the history of this town and the people who lived here,” said Praveen, who seeks guidance from the community's former residents and their far-flung children.

The connections transcend geography. Trustee Shulamit Kotzer, 55, was born in Jew Town and spent vacations there after moving to Israel at age 2. She dreams of opening a hotel in the neighborhood.

“I consider Cochin not a second home, but my home,” she said.

Earlier this year, synagogue leaders opened a museum showcasing Kochi's Jewish history. It features the settlement's original deed: two copper plates bearing a Hindu king's charter from 1000 CE granting the community religious freedom.

Preservation efforts transcend religious ties

Praveen is not the only non-Jew trying to ensure the community's culture survives.

Thaha Ibrahim, a Muslim, forged a profound connection with the late Sarah Cohen, one of the neighborhood's Jewish matriarchs. He now runs her embroidery shop on Synagogue Lane. Cohen, or “Sarah aunty” as he calls her, taught him how to do Cochin Jewish embroidery.

“I'm teaching my son to do this embroidery so he can continue Sarah aunty's legacy,” he said.

Ibrahim lights Shabbat candles on Fridays and closes his shop on Saturdays. Muslim-Jewish tensions elsewhere in the world are not a deterrent, he says.

“This is not about religion, it's about human connection."

Across the city in Ernakulam, Josephai shoulders the preservation of Malabari Jewish heritage. The 12th century Kadavumbagam Synagogue, which he saved after vandals destroyed it, is tucked behind the store where he sells aquarium fish and plants. The renovated interior features hand-crafted tile and a red-and-gold Torah ark.

Josephai is proud that people of different faiths helped him rebuild. A Muslim donated the lamps, a Christian gave a Ten Commandments plaque, a Hindu foundation paid for the chandeliers.

An oil lamp hangs in front of the ark, its flame kept burning by Josephai. He also keeps the synagogue prayers going, a promise made to his grandmother after his siblings moved to Israel in 1972.

“Every Jew has a dream that his last breath should be in Israel," he said. “I believe my last breath should be inside this synagogue.”

Josephai, 70, hopes a Jewish organization will take over the synagogue, along with the library and museum he is building.

“Once I’m gone, there is no one who can tell these stories,” he said. “But this is our fate and that’s how it is.”

Thapan Dubayehudi, a Malabari Jew who moved to Vienna in 2022, called Josephai “a one-man army” keeping the history alive. He remembers sitting with Josephai as they assembled and lit hundreds of lamps in the sanctuary during Hanukkah.

“I’d carry that memory with me if God gives me 90 years of life,” he said.

A strong identity that is both Indian and Jewish

Keith Hallegua also stayed to fulfill family responsibilities.

“Never did I ever think that I would be the last Jew in Jew Town,” said Hallegua, who remained to care for his brother and mother.

His mind teems with memories. Singing the Paradesi Jewish tunes that blended Sephardic chants with local folk elements. The aroma of his mother's chili chicken. His grandmother's frantic cleaning ahead of Passover, Hallegua’s favorite season. The new clothes for Rosh Hashanah.

“That’s never going to come back,” Hallegua said.

He realizes his memories will vanish with him. It's deeply painful, and some days he wants to leave Jew Town. But he is grounded by his homeland and its history.

As he once explained, “I was born a Jew in India and I shall die in India, a Jew.”

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Customs data released Friday showed China’s trade surplus narrowed to $112.5 billion from $125.6 billion in June.

Exports rose nearly 24% in July from a year earlier, compared with a 27% increase in June. Imports climbed 27.5% year-on-year, but that was lower than June's jump of 36%.

Disruptions to port operations due to typhoons helped to slow trade, though the actual figures were slightly better than analysts had forecast.

“The boom in Chinese trade slowed a touch in July but the big picture is that export and import values remain elevated, helped by soaring global demand for electronics and green tech products,” Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics said in a report.

The Iran war interfered with shipments of aluminum from the Middle East, leading to an increase in Chinese exports of the metal, he noted.

Trade data show China has fully transitioned from providing mostly low cost manufacturing to supplying vital machinery and components for advanced manufacturing.

China’s exports of high-tech items surged nearly 41% in January-July from the same period the year before, while shipments of vehicles, many of them electric, jumped 55%. Exports of electronics and machinery rose 26%.

Sustained demand for such goods, despite rising tariffs and other trade barriers in the U.S. and some other countries, helped push its trade surplus to a record high of nearly $1.2 trillion in 2025.

After U.S. President Donald Trump boosted tariffs on imports from China and many other countries, China’s exports to the U.S. slowed precipitously. They climbed just 2.6% year-on-year in the first seven months of this year, while imports from the U.S. grew 1.4%.

But trade issues and restrictions on China's access to advanced technology are likely to be high on the agenda during a planned visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to the U.S. next month.

In key industries such as autos, its leaders have been adjusting policies to counter price wars due to brutal competition and slack demand, while the U.S. and some other major trading partners have complained Chinese exporters are flooding global markets due to massive excess manufacturing capacity inside China.

Still, the government issued a report last week condemning what it said was the “myth of overcapacity.”

A commentary issued by the state-run Xinhua News Agency, pointed to a surge in exports of air conditioners to Europe due to skyrocketing demand during a ferocious heat wave.

“Europeans are buying these products, and for good reasons,” the Xinhua commentary said. “These products solve problems local brands often fail to address.”

The data released Friday showed exports to the European Union were up nearly 17% in January-July, while exports to Southeast Asia, which as a bloc is now China's biggest trading partner, surged 25%.

Among other key categories, the total volume of China's crude oil imports fell 13.2% in the first seven months of this year, though due to higher prices the value of those imports rose slightly. Imports of natural gas slipped 3% by volume and 1.6% in dollar terms.

China's exports of strategically vital rare earths fell 10% by volume in January-July, but they jumped 58% in value.

Investigations are ongoing into how cyanide found its way into an ecosystem where wild and domestic animals coexist. Growers have disputed claims that cyanide from their tomatoes killed the elephants.

The elephant deaths and disputes about the cause have intensified concerns over growing human-wildlife conflict in the region due to expanding agricultural activities near Amboseli park. Kenya has until recently been widely recognized for rebuilding its elephant population from historic lows to more than 36,000 individuals by reducing poaching.

Sixteen elephants died in one month

Kenya's Wildlife Service said last month that 15 elephants had died in the Amboseli ecosystem in a span of a month. The service updated the numbers to 16 on Friday. Preliminary laboratory tests detected cyanide, while postmortem examinations found tomatoes in the animals’ stomachs.

The wildlife service on Friday said it requested the Pest Control Products Board to establish a team to investigate whether the chemical “may have been improperly used, stored, or disposed, and whether water, soil, or grass may have been contaminated.”

The head of veterinary services at Kenya's wildlife agency, Dr. Isaac Lekolool, said the elephants had shown signs of “paralysis and difficulty breathing” before they died. Initial tests pointed to cyanide poisoning, although further laboratory tests are being done to determine the concentration of cyanide.

“We are yet to find out where this cyanide came from,” Lekolool said, adding that the elephants had also consumed watermelons. He urged caution over the handling and use of pesticides on farms.

Farmers skeptical that cyanide from their farms was to blame

Elvis Muchai has farmed on the edge of Amboseli for two decades. In all that time, he said, he has never heard of farmers poisoning wildlife, and he was skeptical that farmed tomatoes believed to have been contaminated with the chemical were to blame for the elephants' death.

Muchai, who farms tomatoes in Kimana area, said local communities have long coexisted with elephants despite suffering repeated crop losses when the animals cross the park’s electric fence and raid farms, particularly during the dry season.

“We are used to the animals eating from our farms,” he said.

One of Kenya's most productive farming regions

Kimana, which borders Amboseli, is one of Kenya’s most productive agricultural areas, growing tomatoes, onions and French beans that are transported to markets to the capital, Nairobi.

The samples tested for toxic chemicals were obtained from the elephants' stomach contents and the analysis of blood samples is ongoing, Lekolool said. He disputed earlier claims that cyanide, which is regulated by the government for use in mining, may have been present in the park due to illegal mining.

Farms have expanded near the park and conflict between people and elephants remains the second leading cause of deaths after poaching, according to Kenya’s National Elephant Plan. Between 2000 and 2020, at least 1,160 elephants died in incidents linked to self-defense or retaliatory killings as communities sought to protect their crops, property and lives, the Plan notes.

But Duncan Juma, communications director of Kenya’s wildlife service, ruled out human-wildlife conflict in the death of the elephants, saying “the community loves these animals.”

Urgent need to tackle human-wildlife contact

The International Fund for Animal Welfare, or IFAW, said the recent suspected cyanide poisoning highlights the urgent need to tackle the underlying causes of human-wildlife conflict.

“As people and elephants increasingly share space, protecting wildlife and safeguarding communities’ livelihoods must go hand in hand,” IFAW wrote in a statement.

IFAW’S East Africa director Ben Wandago said the reported cyanide poisoning must be “urgently and thoroughly investigated” and recommended that coexistence solutions to protect communities living near the park be implemented.

“This tragedy also underscores the urgent need for the strict control and responsible handling of highly toxic substances to prevent them from entering the natural environment,” he said.

Farmers are doubtful that the cyanide could have originated from commonly used agricultural inputs.

Muchai said he has never encountered cyanide among the pesticides or chemicals sold to farmers in the area and insisted that products available on the market are regulated by the Kenyan government.

“The chemical they are talking about, we’ve never seen it or heard of it here,” he said.

Last season alone, Muchai said elephants destroyed about half an acre of his tomato crop, costing him an estimated 500,000 Kenya shillings ($3,800).

“We have lived with these animals for years. They eat our crops, and many of us have never received compensation,” he said.

Another farmer, Rymondy Mrosso, also questioned whether pesticides used by local farmers could explain the deaths and wondered why only elephants appeared to have been affected.

“We have goats, cows and other wildlife such as gazelles that also feed in these areas,” he said. “If the crops were poisoned, why were only the elephants affected?”

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For more on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse

The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

The 14-year-old shooter took his own life at the school, officials said.

Five school staff members, including teachers and administrators, died in the shooting around 10 a.m. at Debsirin Nonthaburi School in Nonthaburi province northwest of Bangkok, Deputy Interior Minister Polapee Suwunchwee said at the scene.

The boy also killed his grandparents at the home he shared with them prior to the school shooting, Polapee said.

Bangyai Hospital, about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the school, said 23 people were wounded, of whom 10 were in critical condition, with most suffering gunshot wounds. Earlier reports gave conflicting casualty numbers.

A witness said students hid inside a classroom while they heard gunshots from another building before police officers knocked on the door and cleared a way for them to leave the building.

Amporn Niamfuang, who owns a restaurant 50 meters (160 feet) from the school, said there was the sound of a single gunshot and then a pause.

“And then there were multiple continuous shots,” Amporn said, recalling the narrow road outside the restaurant filling with fleeing students. “Students were running scared and pouring onto the street. Young girls were holding each other’s hands and crying. I went inside to hide.”

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, speaking after touring the school, confirmed reports that the shooter was 14 and had killed himself. He said the student had shown signs of stress connected to school.

The gun, described by police as small and compact, was legally registered to his grandfather, he said.

About an hour after the shooting, people stood outside comforting one another as police and first responders walked around the co-educational state school, which has an enrollment of about 3,000 students ranging from 12 to 18 years old.

All classes will be suspended between Aug. 10 and Aug. 14 and school staff have been instructed to work from home during that time, the school said.

Police find grandparents dead at family home

After the shooting, police went to his home and found both grandparents dead of apparent gunshot wounds, regional police Commander Wattana Yeejeen said.

The student appeared to have shot them before attending school as normal. He waited until classes started and began shooting inside his classroom before walking out and firing more shots, Police spokesperson Trairong Piwpan said.

The boy fired more than 20 shots and police found he still had 30 rounds after shooting himself, he said.

Several family members, including his uncle and sisters of the grandfather who were at the family home while police investigated, said he usually kept to himself and was a good student.

The family members said they were unaware of any troubles he faced at home or school.

Thailand has high rate of gun owners

Thailand has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in Asia, second only to Pakistan and far surpassing its Southeast Asian neighbors.

Data collected in 2017 by the groups Small Arms Survey and GunPolicy.org in their last extensive international study found civilian gun ownership in Thailand was about 15.1 guns per 100 people, compared with less than one per 100 in neighboring Malaysia.

Thailand had 3.49 deaths by firearms per 100,000 people, according to 2023 statistics published by World Population Review. That puts it well behind parts of Latin America and the Caribbean, but relatively high in Asia. Only the Philippines is higher in Southeast Asia.

In February, a 17-year-old stole a gun from police and opened fire at a public high school in southern Thailand, briefly taking people hostage in a two-hour attack that killed one person and injured two others.

A 14-year-old boy was accused of a 2023 shooting at a major Bangkok shopping mall.

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Jintamas Saksornchai in Bangkok and Kaweewit Kaewjinda in Nonthaburi, Thailand, contributed to this report.

And tell you. And tell you.

Trump has spoken repeatedly of his prowess with green lawns since returning to the White House — at some events even spending more time talking about it than the war in Iran, the economy or November's midterm elections.

It was on the president's mind just five weeks after his second inauguration, when he pointed out the Oval Office window during an interview with The Spectator. “You see the grass outside, right?” he asked before detailing his plans to pave over much of it. “Some people would like to leave it. But the problem is, you can’t."

Trump has kept on the topic constantly ever since, saying as recently as Monday at a White House event with military spouses: “Grass is like humans. It has a life.”

All told, he's mentioned grass in at least 45 public events or interviews over the past 18 months — or at least once every 12 days. That doesn't include the numerous social media posts that he has also made on the topic.

Trump's gravitation toward grass speaks to his decades as a New York real estate developer and personal love of building things and overseeing construction projects. But it is also an indication of how much time he spends on the golf course and his extensive, second-term efforts to revamp the White House and greater Washington in his own image. The president has already far outpaced the 26 times he mentioned grass during the entirety of his first four-year term.

The White House didn't answer questions for this story. But the Republican president has made clear where his interest in — and knowledge of — grass comes from.

“I know a lot about grass because I own a lot of golf courses," he said while announcing the recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors last August. "And, if you don’t have good grass, you’re not in business very long.”

A week later, while visiting park police officers in Washington, the president declared, “I know more about grass than any human being, I think, anywhere in the world.”

Trump frequently touts his Washington overhaul and Rose Garden patio

Matt Koch, the lawns research fellow for gardening giant Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, met recently with the president to discuss planting new grass on the White House’s South Lawn. He proudly considers himself a “grass nerd” and came away convinced Trump is an honorary one.

“An amazing dialogue, talking grass for half an hour,” Koch said of the Oval Office discussion. “Going back and forth about grass.”

Trump has managed to bring up grass at events as varied as the signing of an executive order on TikTok and the 2025 White House celebration of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. He mentioned it while pardoning turkeys last Thanksgiving, while addressing the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, and while signing a directive on quantum technology.

Last September, while hosting Republican lawmakers for dinner, he pledged of green spaces around Washington, “We’re gonna re-grass them with the best guys in the country.” That same month, during an event announcing the intended renaming of the Department of Defense, Trump assured attendees, “I’m very good at grass.”

Trump most frequently mentions grass while promoting his Washington beautification efforts. In May, he spent 10 minutes of a Cabinet meeting detailing his efforts to fix fountains and give D.C.'s parks and monuments a face-lift — sometimes sounding more like a small-town mayor than the leader of the free world.

Ironically, the president brings up the topic while defending his decisions to remove grass for new construction — like when he covered the lawn near the White House's Rose Garden with a stone patio.

“Problem with the grass, you couldn’t do anything with it,” he said during a 2025 Oval Office tour for hosts of the “All-In” podcast.

The president also frequently recounts that hordes of women, including journalists, Cabinet members and administration officials, used to complain to him about their high heels getting stuck in the mud in the old, grassy Rose Garden.

“The women would be lifting up their shoes, saying, ‘You’ve destroyed my shoes,'” he said during a luncheon last fall. When hosting the Los Angeles Dodgers in July, he relayed that women in heels “would go down like quicksand.”

Trump's helipad is wiping out even more grass

Erecting a UFC octagon to mark his 80th birthday in June reduced large swaths of the South Lawn to dusty dirt. In the weeks since, crews have been building a sprawling helicopter landing pad, meaning even more grass has been removed from the lawn.

Trump said the helipad was needed because the new, more powerful fleet of helicopters now being used as Marine One tore up the previous sod.

“When you land on the grass, it’s not that the grass gets discolored — it gets ripped out,” he said in June. Trump even described tufts of turf going “all over” and said, “Half of the grass was sitting in front of the Oval Office front door.”

Scotts Miracle-Gro donated $1 million in monetary and product support to the National Park Service to restore the South Lawn after the UFC fight, and Trump used the meeting with Koch in June to select a custom turfgrass blend of four kinds of tall fescues and four Kentucky bluegrasses. The company's former CEO, James Hagedorn, is a Trump supporter.

Trump, Koch said, asked good, detailed questions as he was shown carpet sample-like swaths of each grass variety.

“You can tell he spends a lot of time on golf courses," Koch said. “He obviously owns courses, and he knows grass from being around it.”

Koch returned to the White House last week as crews began resodding some areas of the White House lawn outside the helipad construction area. There are plans next spring to plant seeds from the grass blend Trump selected. By then, growth will be optimal, and the helipad work should be complete, making the lawn restoration easier.

Many golfers are obsessed with grass

Also key to the president's grass fixation is his love of golf.

Bert McCarty, a Clemson University professor of turfgrass science and management, said golfers like how top courses are so different — from incorporating the ocean in places near beaches to relying on inclines in the mountains.

Trump, McCarty said, is “like most golfers. He likes the challenge of the course and the differences of the course to add variety."

Last August, Trump pledged that, after his administration's various improvements, parks in Washington will “look like Augusta" — a reference to the home of the iconic Masters tournament, where aesthetics are so important that bags from the pro shop and food wrappers are green so that any possible litter blends in with the grass during TV broadcasts.

McCarty said most people “look at the beautiful flowers and the striped-up fairways, and they just think it’s heaven." But “Augusta basically spares no expense to achieve the look they're after," he added, and municipalities “can't compete with that.”

Cost aside, though, Trump may be thinking even bigger than Augusta, pointing to his own golf course in Northern Virginia.

“It’ll look like, more importantly, Trump National Golf Club,” he said. “That’s even better.”

Any concession would be tough for the Republican president, who has insisted there is no truth to his sagging poll numbers, the sluggish economy and the U.S. military’s dwindling stockpiles of key weapons following the Iran war he launched with Israel more than five months ago.

“He divides the world into winners and losers, and this would make him a loser,” said Eliot Cohen, who served as counselor of the State Department in the George W. Bush administration. “And the image of being a loser, I think, would be intolerable for him.”

The sticking point has been over control of the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world's oil normally flows. While both sides say a deal is close, the Trump administration has ruled out any arrangement that would cement Iran’s grip over the Persian Gulf waterway, including Tehran charging fees.

But Iran has insisted on some measure of control, saying the strait will not go back to being an open international waterway as it was before the war. Despite thousands of U.S. strikes, Iran can still fire drones and missiles at vessels, giving it a chokehold over commercial shipping.

Cohen said yielding ground to Iran would be difficult for the president, even if the conflict keeps gasoline prices elevated and poses problems for Republicans in November’s midterm elections.

But David Schenker, a former State Department official in the first Trump administration, said the increasing economic pressure may actually prompt Trump to compromise on the strait, even if it's likely to have profound implications on global trade.

“There will be a lot of spin both ways, but my guess is that the president has tipped his hand as to the urgency for him of resolving the crisis,” said Schenker, now a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “This is a concession he may very well be willing to make.”

Trump says weapons stockpiles are ‘a little bit tighter’

Trump, however, has so far conceded little about the war.

He posted on social media Thursday that the U.S. military still has “massive amounts” of weapons and that large amounts are being manufactured. He threatened jail time for the alleged “leakers” of information on the nation's weapons stockpiles.

Trump was referencing a Washington Post story that reported his frustration with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the shrinking inventories of advanced weapons, as the Cabinet had gathered at Camp David last week.

A senior administration official said there had been a “robust and healthy” discussion about Iran in the Cabinet meeting and would not provide additional details except to say there had not been a "knock-down, drag-out fight” over the matter. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration deliberations.

Experts say the U.S. military is running short on weapons like advanced missile interceptors that have defended American troops from Iranian attacks. The Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, has released reports on declining inventories based on budget documents and other public information.

When asked later about weapons stockpiles, Trump told reporters that “we need more all the time.” He claimed that certain kinds of munitions are in “virtually unlimited supply” and others are “a little bit tighter.” He didn't offer more specifics.

He insisted that “we’re in great shape. But, with that being said, we always want more. We have to have more,” noting that the military could tap into U.S. supplies of munitions around the world if needed.

Hegseth was on Capitol Hill this week, meeting privately with Republican senators as he makes the case for billions of dollars in additional Pentagon spending as part of a major GOP budget package.

Sen. Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat and former Navy pilot, said the weapons shortfall stems from a war that lacked a well-defined goal and strategy beyond striking more than 14,000 targets.

“My contention on this is, if you knew what the goal is, maybe the target list would have been 500 targets. Maybe it would have been 200 targets," Kelly said, adding the Pentagon wants "billions and billions of dollars to fix their self-inflicted problem.”

Trump has made a dubious claim about polling

Trump also has claimed in a social media post Tuesday that his polling numbers are the best “they have ever been.” He cited accomplishments including employment numbers and the “Denuclearization of Iran.”

But about two-thirds of U.S. adults say the war with Iran has not been worthwhile, according to a poll from late July by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That includes the vast majority of Democrats and independents, as well as about 37% of Republicans.

On employment, the United States had nearly 159 million jobs in June, not including farmworkers, which was a record. In Trump’s second term, however, job growth has slowed considerably.

Trump also continues to claim that the Strait of Hormuz is open to commercial shipping. He said Thursday that the strait is “sort of open right now” and pointed to the Navy's blockade of Iranian ports.

“But they can always shoot something, they always have something or drop a mine,” Trump said of Iran. “And if you have one mine sitting out there, you sort of mess things up because people don’t want to take their billion-dollar boats and accidentally get hit by a mine.”

At least two ships were hit in the Strait of Hormuz in the past week, while several others reported near misses or warnings from entities claiming to represent Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, according to maritime data company Lloyd’s List Intelligence.

Vessel traffic through the strait increased to 84 transits last week, up from 45 the week before. But traffic is still far below the more than 700 transits seen in a typical week before the crisis, Lloyd’s List said.

A deal over the Strait of Hormuz could hinge on fees

U.S. and Iranian officials say they are close to reaching an agreement to reopen the strait. That is even as the U.S. military insists the strait is open through a route it helps oversee near Oman’s coast, saying this week that it “remains free and open for all commercial vessels seeking to transit the international waterway.”

The Associated Press reported Wednesday that the potential deal is being portrayed as a temporary solution to the dispute over the strait, and that it would allow ships to enter the Persian Gulf through an Iranian-controlled route and exit through an Omani-controlled route.

The Trump administration has said repeatedly that it is strongly opposed to any arrangement that would see Iran charge fees.

Any temporary routes through the waterway will not have tolls, charges or other impediments, according to a U.S. official not authorized to comment publicly who spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity. The official said Trump’s preferred choice is diplomacy and he “holds all the cards” in dealing with Iran.

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Associated Press reporters Lisa Mascaro, Darlene Superville and Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed to this report.

Then she took the blame for the Indiana Fever's stinging 86-84 overtime loss to defending champion Las Vegas.

“Obviously, it just can't happen,” the three-time All-Star said just hours after she was one of 12 players named to the FIBA Women's World Cup team. “Those are free throws I usually make and certainly frustrating. Obviously, one of them gives us a two-possession lead and kind of caused my pain there, for sure, so that's on me.”

It wasn't a great night for Clark by any measure. While she scored 20 points, had eight assists and made two go-ahead 3-pointers in the final 4 1/2 minutes of regulation, it was the miscues she rued after first watching a 20-point first-half lead slip away and then failing to protect a three-point lead in the final seconds of the fourth quarter and a two-point lead at the end of overtime.

Jackie Young took advantage of the first opening by scoring a franchise-record 15 consecutive points to finish the second quarter and start the third. Chelsea Gray then made the Fever pay for their late miscues — making a buzzer-beating 3 to tie it at 75 following the missed free throws and then making another buzzer beater to win it following Clark's final turnover, forced by A'ja Wilson.

Clark went 7 of 20 from the field, 2 of 10 on 3s and had more fouls (four) than rebounds (three). Still, she didn't make any excuses.

“I didn't know we scored nine points in the third quarter, but you know we still battled, still fought, we put ourselves in position to win the game,” Clark said. “And then, honestly, it was me that made the costly errors for us. So that's on me to helps us win. That's my job. That's what I get paid to do.”

As usual, though, it wasn't just Clark.

Kelsey Mitchell, July's WNBA Player of the Month, missed one of two free throws with 9.2 seconds to go in the fourth quarter. And then, instead of fouling to prevent the tying 3-point attempt, or corralling the loose ball, Gray got her chance to tie the score.

“Aliyah Boston read it perfectly, her timing was perfect,” coach Stephanie White said, noting they gave up 18 points on turnovers, too.. “It's a loose ball and it bounced their way. We've got to come up with that play.”

White also acknowledged making her own mistake — not calling timeout at the end of overtime when they were struggling to get a shot, which led to Clark's turnover.

And, though, that seemed of little solace to Clark, White saw it another way.

“Players already hate that they miss free throws, right? They hate that they miss plays,” White said. “You've just got to keep them positive in those moments."

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

The rookie quarterback ran in from the 5 on the final play to give the Carolina Panthers a 33-30 victory over the Arizona Cardinals in the Hall of Fame game that kicked off the NFL preseason on Thursday night.

King, who was the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year last season at Georgia Tech, was 21 of 34 for 180 yards and two touchdowns. He ran for 39 yards and the winning score.

“Well, that was a lot of fun. Just the back and forth of it. Just a really good game,” Panthers coach Dave Canales said. “The guys were resilient and finish is what we preach as a team. We practice for these situations, end of half, end of game. ... Haynes did a fantastic job, just keeping the play alive, doing whatever he had to do, run it, throw it. Really proud of the group.”

Carson Beck also had an impressive debut for Arizona.

After Beck left, Kedon Slovis tossed a 1-yard TD pass to Bryson Green with 1:55 remaining to give the Cardinals a 30-27 lead.

But King rallied the Panthers on a night when both teams didn’t play their starters. Bryce Young was King’s biggest cheerleader on the sideline.

King’s 4-yard TD pass to Anthony Tyus III in the opening minute of the fourth quarter put Carolina ahead 24-20. King threw a 15-yard TD pass Ja’seem Reed in the second quarter. He had a 26-yard run on third-and-14 to keep the final drive going.

“These are things that he did throughout his career,” Canales said of King. “The bottom line is move the chains.”

Both teams gave their backups and reserves opportunities to shine.

Beck, Slovis and King took advantage.

Beck, a third-round pick from Miami, completed 15 of 19 passes for 188 yards and one touchdown. After leading the Hurricanes to the national championship game — a loss to Fernando Mendoza and Indiana — Beck wasn't overwhelmed by the national stage.

“It was a cool environment and for him to just kind of, it’s just another game and that’s the way he took it and he’s been in big ones and that’s how his mindset works,” rookie Cardinals coach Mike LaFleur said.

Slovis was 9 of 10 for 106 yards.

Veteran Jacoby Brissett is the Cardinals' starter and their backup is journeyman Gardner Minshew. But expectations are low for Arizona in a division that includes the defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks, Rams and 49ers.

So Beck may get a chance to play at some point if he develops under LaFleur. Canales raved about what he saw from the opposing sideline.

“He operated like a professional. He looked fantastic,” Canales said. “He was accurate. He was on time. Our rush was decent. He got the ball out, threw some really beautiful passes down the field, up the sideline on some double moves, over the middle, to keep the drive alive in some third-down situations, so tip my hat to him.”

King is expected to be Carolina’s No. 3 QB behind Young and veteran Kenny Pickett.

The Panthers won the NFC South last season at 8-9 and lost to the Rams in a wild-card game.

Pickett started and was 8 of 11 for 62 yards before King replaced him.

Beck completed all six of his passes on a 98-yard touchdown drive that included a 35-yard strike to Jalen Brooks on third-and-7 from Arizona’s 7.

He threw a perfect deep ball to Brooks for a 49-yard gain and finished that drive with a 5-yard TD pass to Simi Fehoko.

Cardinals running back Jeremiyah Love, the No. 3 overall pick in the draft, sat out even though he hoped to persuade LaFleur to let him play.

Gold jackets

Quarterback Drew Brees, running back Roger Craig, kicker Adam Vinatieri, wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald and linebacker Luke Kuechly make up the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2026.

Tomlin makes his TV debut

Former Steelers coach Mike Tomlin made his first appearance with the NBC broadcast crew. Tomlin left Pittsburgh after 19 seasons and became the lead studio analyst for “Football Night in America.”

Brissett and McBride in the Hall

Brissett and All-Pro tight end Trey McBride stopped by the Pro Football Hall of Fame Museum to see their jerseys displayed for breaking records last season. McBride set an NFL record for receptions by a tight end in a season with 126. Brissett set a record for completions in a game with 47 against San Francisco last Nov. 16.

Honoring Fitz

Cardinals players wore red T-shirts with Larry Fitzgerald's No. 11 in warmups and on the sideline.

“It's a great feeling to know your organization stands behind you,” Fitzgerald said. “I'm really happy they would honor me like this.”

Up next

Panthers: At Buffalo on Aug. 15.

Cardinals: At Las Vegas on Aug. 13.

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

After the Rams held their final practice of camp Thursday, McVay said Donald's formal workout with the team went well at their regular training complex in Woodland Hills on Wednesday.

“He looked great, and he's still continuing to go through his process,” McVay said. “No new news on that front. ... We've had a plan in place for a while, and the workout was one of those things. (Calling it an official workout) was kind of semantical to be able to use the equipment and things like that under the (rules) of the CBA. He's very deliberate and intentional about what this looks like. I'm careful to say things are going in the right direction. He's feeling good, but we're not to where we're able to say he is or isn't ready to do it. But he's doing great, and he looked outstanding, as I think all of us would expect.”

McVay reiterated that the Rams will wait indefinitely for Donald's decision on whether to end his 2 1/2-year retirement. McVay also wouldn’t speculate on whether Donald would entertain the notion of returning to the Rams later in the regular season.

“He has earned the right to be able to say how he feels,” McVay said. “I saw (video of) the workout. I've been seeing the things that he's been doing. He and I probably talk every day, so it's one of those deals that if he wants to do it, we'd be excited about the possibility. And I think it's really important to acknowledge that if he doesn't, this guy gave this organization everything he had for 10 years. So if he is going to do it, he's going to do it the right way.”

Donald only began to entertain the notion of a comeback in early June after the Rams traded for Myles Garrett, and he has been working to get in football shape for several weeks. He has worked out at the Rams’ complex and at home while the team went through the past two weeks of training camp, which formally ends Friday.

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL

Clark missed two free throws with seven seconds left in regulation and Indiana up by three, then lost the ball with seven seconds to go in overtime and the Fever a point ahead. Clark had 20 points and eight assists along with eight turnovers.

A’ja Wilson had 26 points, 13 rebounds and the key defensive stop against Clark that set up Gray’s winner. Jackie Young added 22 points, including a franchise-record 15 in a row to close the first half and open the second. Gray had 11 points, hitting three 3s.

Las Vegas overcame a 20-point first-half deficit, a three-point deficit at the end of regulation and a two-point deficit at the end of overtime to salvage a win in the three-game season series.

Kelsey Mitchell led the Fever with 28 points, but missed a late free throw in regulation before Clark's misses. Aliyah Boston added 21 points and 12 rebounds.

Las Vegas erased its big deficit by closing the first half on a 15-0 run to cut a 42-22 deficit to 42-37. Young scored the final 13 points of the half, the first basket of the second half and five of the first seven points in the second half to give the Aces a 44-42 lead.

Indiana finally found its shooting touch midway through the fourth quarter.

It rallied from a 64-55 deficit with 6:16 left and led 75-72 when Gray hit the first of her two buzzer-beaters. Gray did it again in overtime knocking down a shot to erase an 86-84 deficit. Both plays withstood replay reviews.

The game was stopped for several minutes with 4:38 left in the third quarter when security escorted a woman, who was sitting in the front row directly across from the Aces bench, out through a tunnel. A few minutes later, she assisted back to her seat and two men who were seated near her were taken out.

The Fever issued a statement that said one fan was removed then elected not to return when it was determined the fan conduct policy had not been violated. Young told reporters someone had been “chirping" all night and at that point, she thought he had crossed the line. Young declined to elaborate on what was said.

Up next

Aces: At Minnesota on Saturday.

Fever: At Chicago on Saturday.

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

Pese a las críticas que ha recibido de ambientalistas, Sheinbaum ratificó el jueves su decisión de seguir adelante con las evaluaciones de los polémicos proyectos que podrían abrirle la posibilidad a México de disminuir la dependencia que tiene del gas proveniente de Estados Unidos, que es su principal proveedor. En la actualidad el país latinoamericano importa 75% del gas que utiliza.

La técnica de fracturación hidráulica, que implica la inyección de agua con arena y algunos aditivos a presión suficiente como para provocar microfisuras en las rocas y favorecer el flujo del gas natural, ha sido rechazada por los ambientalistas que sostienen que consume y contamina el agua potable con químicos tóxicos y libera enormes cantidades de gas metano que agravan el cambio climático.

Al exponer los alcances de los estudios que realizaron los 54 especialistas invitados por el gobierno, José Antonio Hernández Espriú, investigador de la Facultad de Ingeniería de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), afirmó que para la fracturación hidráulica el grupo de expertos solo está recomendando que “se emplee exclusivamente agua salada” y que se descarte el uso del agua dulce debido a que está comprometida para el consumo humano, la agricultura y la ganadería.

Hernández Espriú dijo en la conferencia presidencial matutina que se debe reutilizar y reciclar, al menos, 75% del agua empleada en los procesos y establecer un sistema permanente de monitoreo para evitar los daños ambientales.

Sobre las regiones donde podrían desarrollarse los proyectos, el comité descartó la cuenca Tampico-Misantla, que está frente a las costas del Golfo de México y que abarca desde el estado de Veracruz hasta Tamaulipas, por las afectaciones ambientales y sociales que podría ocasionar.

Pero los especialistas dejaron abierta la posibilidad para continuar las evaluaciones de viabilidad de yacimientos no convencionales de gas natural en la cuenta de Sabinas-Burro-Picachos, ubicada en los estados norteños de Coahuila y Nuevo León, y la cuenca de Burgos del noreste de Tamaulipas.

Ante las recomendaciones de los especialistas, la mandataria anunció que el Instituto Mexicano de Tecnología del Agua iniciará las perforaciones de pozos exploratorios para determinar si hay agua salada en las áreas donde se podría extraer gas no convencional.

El informe del comité fue rechazado por unas 30 organizaciones civiles locales que acusaron a los especialistas de estar sesgados a favor del gobierno. En un comunicado sostuvieron que el estudio “no buscaba responder si México debía prohibir el uso del fracking, sino cómo usarlo con menos culpa”.

Sheinbaum —una científica experta en temas de cambio climático—por años estuvo en contra, al igual que su antecesor Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024), a los proyectos de fracturación hidráulica.

Pero en los últimos meses decidió cambiar de postura en medio de las tensiones que han surgido en las relaciones entre México y la administración del estadounidense Donald Trump.

El año pasado México batió récords al gastar 9.100 millones de pies cúbicos de gas al día, de los cuales 6.800 millones fueron importados. La mayor parte del gas se usa para generación eléctrica y el gobierno prevé que necesitará 30% más para 2030.

El juez Bryan Biedscheid determinó en su fallo que 420 millones serán utilizados para servicios de atención para jóvenes. El resto del dinero se asignará a labores de concienciación y prevención, servicios de detección y otros costos durante los próximos cinco años.

En la primera fase del juicio, el jurado ordenó en marzo pasado sanciones civiles por 375 millones de dólares contra Meta después de determinar que la empresa perjudicó deliberadamente la salud mental de los niños y ocultó lo que sabía sobre la explotación sexual infantil en sus plataformas.

En la segunda fase, los fiscales habían solicitado al juez que impusiera cambios fundamentales en la compañía con el objetivo de poner fin a funciones adictivas, mejorar los procesos de verificación de edad y prevenir la explotación sexual infantil mediante configuraciones predeterminadas de privacidad, así como una supervisión más estrecha.

La decisión significa que el aspecto de las plataformas de Meta podría cambiar. El juez ordenó a Facebook e Instagram crear y desplegar frecuentemente banners y pantallas informativas para explicar con claridad sus funciones de protección, las mejores prácticas y herramientas para abordar, por ejemplo, los comentarios inapropiados. Esos cambios, así como una campaña educativa en Nuevo México, quedarían sujetos a una revisión por parte del estado.

“No estamos de acuerdo con el fallo y apelaremos”, indicó un portavoz de Meta el jueves por la noche en un comunicado.

“Trabajamos arduamente para mantener a las personas a salvo en nuestras plataformas y hemos sido transparentes sobre los desafíos de identificar y eliminar a los actores malintencionados y el contenido dañino. Seguimos confiando en nuestro historial de protección de los adolescentes en línea y continuaremos defendiéndonos de las afirmaciones que tergiversan los hechos”, añadió.

El Departamento de Justicia de Nuevo México no respondió de momento a un correo electrónico en busca de comentarios.

El tribunal destacó que las leyes federales de privacidad infantil impiden que Meta ponga en funcionamiento herramientas de verificación de edad a niños menores de 13 años. La Ley de Protección de la Privacidad Infantil en Internet --conocida como COPPA-- significa que no puede ordenar a que Meta solicite a los niños que presenten datos personales ni que sean rastreados de forma pasiva en línea, incluso con fines de verificación de edad.

La corte también señaló que ordenar únicamente a Meta, y no a otras empresas de redes sociales, verificar la edad de los menores "no sería equitativo y sería extremadamente perjudicial” para la compañía.

En su lugar, le ordenó a Meta seguir mejorando sus herramientas de garantía de edad en Nuevo México, las cuales incluyen el uso de inteligencia artificial para determinar la edad de una persona a partir de señales como quiénes son sus amigos y el tipo de contenido publican y consumen. Meta también debe tratar de desarrollar un “modelo de predicción para menores de 13 años” en los próximos dos años.

Además, Meta también deberá solicitar en Nuevo México un comprobante de edad a todo usuario de Instagram y Facebook que considere que es menor de 13 años. En caso de determinar que un usuario es menor de 13 años, o menor de 18 pero sin poder estimar una edad específica, Meta deberá tratar al usuario como si fuera un menor de 13 años o un menor de 18 años hasta que el usuario verifique su edad.

La empresa también deberá forjar alianzas con escuelas o con una organización de seguridad infantil para crear un portal de denuncias en donde el personal escolar pueda señalar a los usuarios que sean menores de 13 años. Además, debe eliminar cualquier información personal que haya recopilado de usuarios menores de 13 años.

Meta deberá informar sus avances en cuanto a las medidas de mitigación dos veces al año, de acuerdo con la orden.

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Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con la ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.

Nearly half of the Team USA athletes who competed in Italy came to the East Room reception, according to the White House, along with coaches, staff, and other representatives.

Among those attending was speedskater Jordan Stolz, whom Trump said was the single most-decorated American Olympian of the 2026 Games while marveling at his “very strong legs.” Stolz, during a rally with the president in Wisconsin earlier this summer, briefly placed a gold medal around Trump's neck.

“Today, we’re truly honored to welcome to the White House perhaps the greatest group of Winter Olympians in American history,” Trump said, as athletes in USA windbreakers filled rows of risers behind him.

They gave Trump a Team USA jacket and sneakers, and the president promised to hand out special coins and invited attendees to a post-event tour of the Oval Office.

Three hundred U.S. athletes participated in this year’s Winter Olympics and Paralympics, winning 57 medals in total. Thursday's event was originally scheduled to be held in the stone patio area that Trump had built near the Rose Garden, but was moved indoors as heavy evening rains fell.

“These men and women sacrificed years of their lives and countless early mornings to be the best in the world,” Trump said.

Then, apparently recalling himself as a one-time athlete, the president added, “That’s right. I guess you get up early in the morning, don’t you? I remember those days. But I didn’t do it as well as you. Not quite.”

Trump also asked who was already training for the next Olympics and most the athletes raised their hands. He noted that the 2034 Winter Olympics will be held in Salt Lake City and that Los Angeles is hosting the 2028 Summer Games.

The Olympic gold medal-winning U.S. men’s hockey team visited Trump at the White House in February and later received about a two-minute bipartisan standing ovation during his State of the Union address that night. Members of the gold-medal-winning U.S. women's hockey team declined an invitation to attend the speech, citing previously scheduled academic and personal commitments.

Trump said at the time that the women's hockey team would be honored at a later date, and two of its members, Abbey Murphy and Joy Dunne, attended Thursday's celebration and got shout-outs from Trump. He also spoke at length about the men's team, even though its members didn't make a return to the White House trip.

In a video posted earlier Thursday on social media, ice dancers Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik indicated that they did not want to come to the White House.

Trump stayed mostly focused on the Olympics and not politics in his remarks, though he told those assembled, “We’ve done a lot to help save women’s sports,” drawing only a muted reaction from some athletes. At his “Make America Great Again” rallies, Trump often gets cheers for declaring his opposition to transgender rights.

Trump also said Thursday that we’re “saving college sports” and called on Congress to pass legislation overhauling the way such sports are governed, promising to sign it.

“We’re doing everything we can to protect the cherished sporting traditions that have long been part of our nation from the beginning,” the president said.

La embajada china en Buenos Aires acusó el jueves a Estados Unidos de hipocresía después de que una cooperativa eléctrica de la provincia argentina de Neuquén denunciara que la embajada estadounidense amenazó con revocar las visas de sus directivos por un acuerdo con el gigante chino de las telecomunicaciones Huawei.

“Estas prácticas reflejan plenamente la arrogancia y el prejuicio de Estados Unidos, constituyen una grave falta de respeto hacia la soberanía de otros países y un grave menoscabo de los principios del libre mercado”, señaló la embajada china en un comunicado.

La embajada también pidió a Washington que “corrija su percepción de China y ponga fin a sus prácticas hegemónicas y a sus maniobras políticas”.

El cruce diplomático ocurre mientras el ultraliberal mandatario argentino mantiene un delicado equilibrio entre su cercanía con el presidente estadounidense Donald Trump, su principal aliado en la región, y el fortalecimiento de los vínculos económicos con China, uno de sus mayores socios comerciales.

El miércoles, Argentina renovó por otros cinco años el acuerdo bilateral de intercambio de monedas (swap) con China, reforzando la cooperación financiera entre ambos países. El canciller Pablo Quirno también tiene previsto viajar a China en los próximos meses. Su oficina declinó a comentar sobre el comunicado del país asiático.

El comunicado de China se produjo días después de que CALF, la mayor distribuidora de energía eléctrica del sur argentino, denunciara que sus directivos habían sido amenazados con la revocación de sus visas estadounidenses por negociar con Huawei.

La cooperativa dijo en un comunicado que uno de sus gerentes recibió mensajes por WhatsApp advirtiendo que quienes participaran en la expansión de las operaciones de Huawei en Argentina podrían tener restricciones a sus visas estadounidenses.

CALF anunció en julio que ampliaría su alianza estratégica con Huawei para impulsar la expansión de su red de conectividad en Neuquén.

El embajador de Estados Unidos en Argentina, Peter Lamelas, no respondió a una solicitud de comentario. Sin embargo, el jueves escribió en la red social X: “Decidir quién entra y quién no es una responsabilidad de cualquier nación. Negar o revocar una visa no es un castigo, es una decisión para proteger la seguridad y los intereses del país”.

CALF informó el jueves que Lamelas le envió una carta en la que pidió una reunión con sus autoridades y ofreció ayuda para buscar alternativas tecnológicas de empresas norteamericanas.

La Federación Argentina de Cooperativas Eléctricas y Otros Servicios Públicos (FACE), que representa a cooperativas eléctricas y de servicios públicos en Argentina, sostuvo el jueves que sus entidades “no responden a intereses corporativos ni a estrategias geopolíticas” y que cualquier diferencia debe resolverse mediante un “diálogo institucional, transparente y respetuoso”.

El equilibrio de Milei

El gobierno de Trump busca contrarrestar la creciente influencia de China en América Latina utilizando tácticas de lo que sus funcionarios describen como una versión moderna de la Doctrina Monroe, la política de 1823 que advertía de cualquier intervención de las potencias europeas en el hemisferio occidental.

Estados Unidos revocó este año las visas de tres altos funcionarios chilenos después de que Chile avanzó con los planes para construir un cable submarino de fibra óptica que conectaría al país con China. El año pasado, Trump también amenazó con asumir el control de Estados Unidos sobre el Canal de Panamá, en medio de la disputa geopolítica con Beijing.

Milei, que goza de excelente sintonía con Trump, calificó al gobierno comunista chino de “asesinos” durante la campaña presidencial.

Washington ha respaldado al gobierno de Milei con apoyo político y financiero, incluido un paquete de asistencia por 20.000 millones de dólares aprobado el año pasado para estabilizar el mercado financiero. Sin embargo, a casi tres años del inicio de su gestión, los productos chinos han inundado el mercado argentino y los vínculos económicos con Beijing siguen creciendo.

Plataformas de comercio electrónico como Shein, Temu y AliExpress se encuentran entre las aplicaciones de compras más populares del país; más de 20 fabricantes chinos comercializan más de 60 modelos de vehículos en Argentina. Y la empresa china Ganfeng Lithium ha invertido miles de millones de dólares en yacimientos de litio del norte argentino.

“En cierto sentido, Trump le ha dado margen de maniobra a Argentina”, dijo a The Associated Press Benjamin Gedan, director del Programa de América Latina del Stimson Center. “Pero los acuerdos con Huawei suelen ser una línea roja para Estados Unidos” porque habitualmente involucran infraestructura sensible y activos estratégicos, acotó.

Towle was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma, an aggressive form of cancer in the bile ducts, in August 2023. Her mother, Elizabeth Morrow, and brother, Austin Towle, posted a video to her TikTok account confirming she died Wednesday.

“Syd went peacefully last night after an almost three-year long battle with cholangiocarcinoma,” her brother said. “She fought really hard, and we’re so proud of her, and we thank all of you for your support over the years.” Towle's mother said they appreciated the messages of support and that “she will not be forgotten.”

Her family described her as “an endless ray of sunshine” and a friend to many. Sydney Elizabeth Towle was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, on Nov. 15, 1999, and grew up in Hobe Sound, Florida, according to the New York Times. The newspaper reported that she died at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

At the time of her diagnosis, Towle already had a presence on social media where she shared videos from her everyday life. She often posted from the beach and loved the outdoors. She was an avid surfer and runner.

Once she received the diagnosis at age 23, she began posting her unvarnished reality of the disease and treatment while holding fast to her hobbies, style and positive attitude. She had over 1 million followers on TikTok alone.

In a video posted days after she was diagnosed, Towle said, “I’m in good spirits, I’m smiling. If anything, it just makes me appreciate life more.” That essentially became the ethos that guided her online presence, where she shared videos of herself running, going out with friends and traveling alongside videos from a hospital bed or at chemotherapy appointments.

In a column this year advocating for increased funding for research of the rare disease, Towle’s mother wrote that she had seen her daughter become “a beacon of hope for so many” through her candid online presence. “Thousands of people send her messages, stop her on the street and leave comments on her videos, describing how her vulnerability has helped them through their own struggles,” Morrow wrote in February.

Towle graduated from Dartmouth College in 2022, where she studied government and environmental studies. She worked as a social media manager at Epic Games.

She had posted on her LinkedIn account about plans to run the 2026 New York City Marathon in November to raise money for the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation. She had raised more than $10,000 for the nonprofit that advocates for research and provides patients and caregivers with resources.

“I know it might seem crazy to try to run a marathon with everything going on,” she wrote on the platform months ago. But she noted the importance of hope in her experience with the disease. “Hope keeps us alive, it keeps us going, it makes the impossible seem possible.”

Towle is survived by her mother and brother. Her father, Philip Towle, died in 2016.

La policía desplegó varios retenes para registrar vehículos, buscando posibles sospechosos o explosivos, como parte de un cordón de seguridad. Los controles se concentraron especialmente en la vía que conecta con el aeropuerto, por donde arriban las delegaciones e invitados especiales que asistirán el viernes a la jura presidencial.

Mientras, en la vía que comunica con el vecino departamento del Cauca se ubicaron tanquetas militares y policías de las fuerzas especiales con armas largas. La víspera, hallaron en esa ruta a un autobús cargado con explosivos que tendría como destino a Cal y fue presuntamente enviado por la disidencia de las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) que no se acogió al acuerdo de paz firmado hace una década con el Estado.

La seguridad se convirtió en el principal reto del acto que tendrá como protagonista a de De la Espriella, quien ha denunciado amenazas en su contra y prometido tener mano dura contra los grupos armados ilegales revirtiendo así la política de paz que impulsó su antecesor, Gustavo Petro.

"Hay mucha expectativa...lo único que yo quiero es que haya seguridad; ya el trabajo uno lo consigue", aseguró a The Associated Press Víctor Vélez, de 65 años, quien pasaba por un retén de las autoridades.

La juramentación se realizará en la tarde del viernes en un auditorio de la Universidad Santiago de Cali, con una capacidad para más de 2.000 personas. Sus alrededores fueron custodiados por agentes y las alcantarillas registradas por expertos antiexplosivos.

Voces críticas

Mientras los mandatarios locales celebraron que Cali albergue un evento destacado, asegurando que traerá beneficios económicos y reputacionales, algunos ciudadanos reprochan que se trata de una “provocación” para una ciudad en la que la mayoría de los votos los obtuvo el progresista Iván Cepeda, aliado político de Petro.

Para Ramiro Prieto Parra, un docente de 62 años, la toma de posesión presidencial no va a traer mejoras permanentes para la ciudad, mientras que puede generar “conflictos sociales, porque él (De la Espriella) sabe que esta es una ciudad donde él no es bien recibido", explicó a la AP.

En Puerto Resistencia, una zona residencial de Cali que fue epicentro de las multitudinarias protestas antigubernamentales de 2021, una decena de personas se preparaban para proteger una escultura que se alza cerca de 10 metros con un puño izquierdo que sostiene la palabra “resiste”. Se espera que ese lugar sea un punto de concentración de las manifestaciones en contra de De la Espriella durante la juramentación.

En el 2021 el país vivió el ciclo de protestas antigubernamentales más grande de su historia reciente. Iniciaron por un descontento por una reforma fiscal y se extendieron a reclamos estructurales por la desigualdad social. Según Naciones Unidas, más de 40 personas perdieron la vida en las manifestaciones.

De la Espriella dijo en campaña que de llegar a la presidencia tumbaría el “adefesio” de monumento que fue levantado por la denominada “primera línea”, como fueron conocidos en las manifestaciones de 2021 quienes estaban más cerca de la policía antimotines para defenderse, por considerarla una “oda al terrorismo”.

“Nos persiguieron, nos desaparecieron, nos mutilaron, nos sacaron ojos, nos hicieron irnos del país, nos encarcelaron. Y ahora, ¿por qué no nos dejan quietos?”, cuestionó Rolando Quintero, uno de los voceros de la “primera línea”. “El monumento hace parte de la ciudad y de la nación...es una expresión de los derechos del pueblo”, explicó a AP.

Quintero aseguró que harán actividades culturales y esperan una jornada pacífica, aunque teme que el dirigente envíe a los antimotines o militarice la ciudad una vez asuma el mando.

Judge Bryan Biedscheid said in a ruling late Thursday that the bulk of the money — $420 million — will be used for treatment services for young people. The rest will go toward awareness and prevention, screening services and other costs over the next five years.

The new penalty is in addition to the $375 million in civil penalties that jurors ordered against Meta in March after determining the company knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms. In the second phase, prosecutors asked the judge to impose fundamental changes at Meta aimed at reining in addictive features, improving age verification and preventing child sexual exploitation through default privacy settings and closer oversight.

The total amount Meta is responsible for — $942 million — is a small fraction of of its annual profit, which was about $60 billion in 2025. Investors seemed to shrug off the New Mexico ruling in after-hours trading Thursday, sending Meta’s stock down less than half a percent to $589.44.

Still, the ruling is another setback for Meta, which faces an avalanche of lawsuits from thousands of families of children harmed by social media.

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said it sends an unmistakable message that companies will be held accountable when their product designs knowingly put children at risk.

“Today’s decision is a victory for every parent who has worried about what social media is doing to their child and every child who deserves to grow up safer online,” he said in a statement.

Meta vowed to appeal.

“We work hard to keep people safe on our platforms and have been transparent about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors and harmful content," the company said in a statement. "We remain confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts.”

The look of Meta's platforms could change

The judge ordered Facebook and Instagram to build banner and informational screens to clearly explain its protection features, best practices and tools to address inappropriate comment, for example, and display them regularly. Those changes and an educational campaign in New Mexico would be subject to review by the state.

The court said federal children’s privacy laws prevent Meta from applying age-verification tools to children under 13. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, means it cannot order Meta to request children to submit personal data or be passively tracked online, even for age verification purposes.

The court also noted that ordering verification of children’s ages only for Meta and not other social media companies would be “inequitable and unduly injurious” to the company.

Instead, the court ordered Meta to continue to improve its age assurance tools in New Mexico, which include using artificial intelligence to determine people’s age based on signals such as who their friends are and what types of content they post and consume. Meta must also attempt to develop a dedicated “under-13-years-of-age prediction model” in the next two years.

Additionally, Meta should also request proof of age for Instagram and Facebook users in New Mexico it estimates to be under 13. If it determines a user to be under 13, or under 18 but without being able to estimate a specific age, Meta must treat the user as under 13 or under 18 until the user verifies their age.

The company must also partner with schools or a child safety organization to create a reporting portal where school staff can flag users who may be under 13. And it must delete personal information it has collected on users under 13. The court also ordered Meta to report on its progress twice a year on how it’s complying with the abatement measures.

Meta is gearing up for a trial this month in California amid flood of lawsuits

Meta is also gearing up for a trial later this month in federal court in Oakland, California. Here, Meta will face the first four of 29 states that sued it in a federal multi-district lawsuit filed in 2023 for contributing to the youth mental health crisis by knowingly designing features on Instagram and Facebook that addict children to its platforms.

Eight states, including Tennessee, where a trial is currently ongoing, filed lawsuits in their own state courts.

And late last month, Meta, along with TikTok, Snap and Google’s YouTube, were sued by the families of four teenagers who died by suicide over what they describe as “years of escalating harms” from using their platforms that eventually resulted in their deaths.

What comes out of New Mexico is the first of many dominoes that will fall for Meta, said Laura Edelson, an assistant professor at Northeastern University focusing on social media and cybersecurity.

“America is not going to pass a law that bans social media," Edelson said. "But if companies like Meta know they’re causing harm to users by product design, the states are finally finding a way to rein this in.”

____

This story has been updated to correct the judge's last name to Biedscheid, not Biedcheid. ___

Ortutay reported from Oakland, California, and Yu from Phoenix. Associated Press writer Mikella Schuettler in Phoenix contributed. Schuettler is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

The final tournament of the regular season determines the top 70 in the FedEx Cup who advance to the postseason.

James, the No. 1 player in the PGA Tour University ranking that came with a tour card, has to win to reach the top 70. He was tied for the lead until a bogey-birdie-bogey finish for a 62, both bogeys coming after he missed 6-foot par putts.

Koivun earned his card from the accelerated PGA Tour University program for underclassmen — he clinched his card as a sophomore and deferred it one year — and is in much better shape at No. 70. Koivun missed some birdie chances coming in and shot 67.

Hossler is at No. 122 in the FedEx Cup and also has to win to reached the first playoff event next week. He ran off four straight birdies early in his front nine at Sedgefield Country Club, and played the the final holes in 4 under with a 30-foot eagle putt on the par-5 15th.

“Try and win a golf tournament,” Hossler said. “That's all there is to it.”

James, the 36-hole leader at the Canadian Open in his professional debut before crashing on the weekend, made a 15-foot eagle putt on the 15th that allowed him to catch Hossler.

With the chance at another 59 at Sedgefield, he three-putted from just inside 25 feet on the par-3 16th, birdied the 17th and then came up short of the green from the first cut on the 18th, chipped to 6 feet and missed the par putt.

Still, it was an impressive start at a tournament where so many players know they have to go low and finish high if they want to advance.

“Every week someone always shoots anywhere from 63 to 60 or 59 the first day, so it’s always there. You just try to put yourself in position, play the best you can,” James said.

No one had a more bizarre round than Sahith Theegala, whose postseason is safe at No. 43. He didn't make a par on the front nine — eight birdies and one bogey. And then all he could manage were pars on the back nine until stuffing his approach tight on the 18th for a birdie and a 62.

“Pretty wild,” Theegala said. "I've never had a round like that. I think historically I’ve always struggled to start rounds really well, so that was the first time I ever started a round with six (birdies) in a row. That was an incredible start. It didn’t feel like a fluke or anything, either.

“Got to the back nine and just stopped hitting fairways,” he said. “And really that cost me a lot of opportunities. Yeah, it was an interesting round.”

Eric Cole shot 63 and was in fourth, and the six players at 64 included five of them who are outside the top 70 in the FedEx Cup. The exception is Matti Schmid at No. 67, far from safe.

“I feel like I’m in a decent position if I play the golf that I know that I can play,” Schmid said. “I don’t really think about it. I just want to put three more good rounds on the board.”

Brooks Koepka, who returned to the PGA Tour this year after four years at LIV Golf, needs a high finish to reach the postseason and had to settle for a 67, which was closer to the cut line than the lead on a course that yielded 36 rounds of 66 or lower.

The focus is on those who risk finishing out of the top 70. That wouldn't be the end of their seasons, but most would need to play in the FedEx Cup Fall to make sure they finish in the top 100 to simply keep a full card for 2027.

James doesn't face those prospects because his No. 1 ranking in PGA Tour University makes him exempt through 2027. Even so, it would be a big feat to go from the library to the postseason in just over two months. Koivun put himself in that position by winning the 3M Open two weeks ago.

Hossler knew he had to win if he wanted to play next week in the playoff opener, but he is trying to keep it all in perspective.

“There's lots of players that this week’s performance does impact moving on or not or whatever,” Hossler said. “Obviously, every week that we play out here has implications for future years. I think if you let that consume you, it’s a dangerous thing.

“I'm going to go try and play great golf and kind of see where the cards fall.”

___

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

In a findings letter to the school, the department said that while administrators paid lip service to being race-neutral in admissions, they used other factors as stand-ins for race, including personal essays and whether someone was a first-generation college student.

The Durham, North Carolina, school said in an emailed statement it was reviewing the letter and is committed to following the law “in a manner that is consistent with our academic mission.”

“Duke Law School doesn’t get a free pass to discriminate against white and Asian students simply because it thinks it has good intentions,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division said in a news release. “Using ‘diversity’ essay questions to identify preferred races for admission is still illegal discrimination based on race.”

Affirmative action in college admissions has been illegal since a 2023 Supreme Court ruling. The same ruling said colleges could continue to assess how applicants’ backgrounds might speak to broader characteristics, but President Donald Trump has repeatedly accused colleges of using other proxies to maintain racial diversity, which conservatives view as illegal discrimination.

The department recently found that the medical schools at Yale University and the University of California, Los Angeles, illegally considered race in admissions. It announced in June that it was launching similar investigations into 15 other medical schools.

The Trump administration previously targeted undergraduate admissions at selective colleges, demanding they collect data to show they are complying with the Supreme Court ruling.

In its findings against Duke Law, the DOJ said Black or Hispanic applicants were much more likely to be admitted than white or Asian applicants with the same academic credentials. Further, it said, in 2024 and 2025, the median Law School Admissions Test scores of rejected white and Asian applicants exceeded the median scores of admitted Black applicants.

The department said it was seeking to reach a settlement with Duke Law.

Now, in the middle of hurricane season, Puerto Ricans are facing another crisis — no water.

Tens of thousands of people are trying to collect every drop before they’re forced to go without as the island’s government rations water during a serious drought gripping the U.S. territory.

On the way to the island is some relief from a company in Lauderdale Lakes.

Jeffrey Szur, with Altitude Water, is sending about 100 water-making systems built in South Florida to Puerto Rico.

Szur said the machines use condensation and atmospheric water generation technology to make water from the air.

The systems have been deployed during natural disasters before, including the fires in Maui and in hurricane-impacted areas like Asheville.

The units can be plugged into generators or run on solar power, making them useful in places with deteriorating infrastructure like Puerto Rico.

“It’s not just the drought, it’s also the infrastructure where they’re losing all this water. They can’t deliver it,” Szur said.

“Even before the drought, people were already without water.”

For many Puerto Ricans, this is the latest in a series of crises on the island.

Sofia Droz, who went viral earlier this year, shared the difficulties of living in what she called a paradise where many people are forced to leave.

“You have this generation who loves Puerto Rico and really wants to push the island forward, but the living conditions are just unbearable,” Droz said.

“This isn’t a third world country. We’re talking about a U.S. territory.”

About 100 of the water-making systems are on their way to Puerto Rico. The company said a distributor working with the government there purchased the units for about $250,000.

When asked whether he trusts the systems will make it to where they’re needed, Szur said he plans to travel to Puerto Rico himself to make sure they do.

“(Acting President) Delcy Rodriguez’s strategy is to buy time, it’s to discuss about the earthquake,” Jesus Armas, a former political prisoner, said. “She doesn’t want to discuss about free and fair elections, about democracy, about new electoral authority, about new members of the Supreme Court.”

Neither the government nor the opposition have said expressly when elections could be held in Venezuela.

“What is the regime going to do when it truly has its back against the wall?,” political analyst Luis Salamanca asked.

Salamanca believes democracy will eventually come to the country. But in similar situations around the world, organizing that process has taken up to a year and a half.

“I am one of those who believe that a path toward democratic elections will indeed emerge,” Salamanca said.

How Rodriguez may react if ultimately faced with leaving office would be a wildcard.

“It’s not going to be so easy, it’s not going to be fast,” Armas said.

Armas also says he believes Rodriguez will attempt to remain in power, but is hopeful the United States will force her out.

“I don’t want any other person in Venezuela, any other innocent to have to live what I live or what other political prisoners were living right now,” Armas said.

On Thursday, the U.S. State Department released a statement celebrating this process, calling it a unique opportunity. The statement said the dialogue was Venezuelan-led, but many believe it’s all being guided by the United States.

Trash piled up on streets in Miramar, the upscale Havana neighborhood where the embassies from around the world are located, not immune to the effects of spiraling shortages and blackouts.

Though with full electricity, an assembly of leftist organizations from 25 countries in Havana came together with Cuba’s president front and center. They’re all there in solidarity, an anti-imperialist calling to arms and calling the U.S. a threat.

“The aggression will not end in 2028, and acceptable terms will not be reached with a weakened state; its very weakness makes it more violent,” Stephanie Weatherbee Brito, of the International Assembly of the Peoples, said.

The Cuban military is the latest target of Trump administration sanctions.

Five more organizations and eight more individuals are all involved in importing, producing and repairing weapons and military equipment.

The newest sanctions were announced as the CIA revealed a new spy task force, made up of analysts and covert influence specialists, to identify and exploit divisions within the country’s ruling elite.

“This is all part of a plan that Washington has to maybe crack the Cuban government at a time that they show no willingness to open up or change the regime,” Cuba analyst Andy Gomez said.

Last month, a State Department report built a case chronicling the history of Cuba’s spies partnering with Russia and China, sowing division in the U.S.

Some were revealed after damage was done: Manuel Rocha spying in plain sight. Before that, Juan Pablo Rique and the Wasp Network, whose intel played a role in the shootdown of Miami’s Brothers to the Rescue planes in the 1990s.

“What this report does is to the American people allows them to see for themselves this decades-long influence and espionage campaign that the Cuban regime has been supporting,” Tommy Pigott, a State Department spokesperson, said on “This Week in South Florida” on Sunday.

Spycraft between Cuba and the U.S. has been underway for decades, but was scaled back in the last decade because of the medical incidents they named “Havana Syndrome.”

A department spokesperson confirmed Thursday evening that the department had received the contempt referral, is “reviewing it and will work with the Senate accordingly.”

The vote approving the contempt resolution came a week after Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 100 times when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, an episode that raised fresh legal questions about the ability of Congress to compel testimony from a previously pardoned witness.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the committee chairman who pressed for the contempt finding, said that constitutional protection did not apply because Fauci last year received a pardon from Democratic President Joe Biden and thus did not have to worry about the threat of prosecution.

“Dr. Fauci faced no risk of federal prosecution,” Paul said at the outset of Thursday’s vote. ”All he had to do was tell the truth.”

He told colleagues that the issue before them was not Fauci’s opinions, policies or “anything he said from a podium six years ago.”

Instead, he added, “We were voting on whether a witness who has received the benefit of a sweeping federal pardon can be ordered by this committee to answer questions and then defy that order without consequence.”

Fauci, in a statement last week explaining his decision to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights, said he had good reason to fear the possibility of criminal charges given what he said was Paul’s determination “to get me to say something, anything, that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, quote, behind bars, unquote.”

Fauci’s lawyer, David Schertler, said in a statement that the contempt resolution was “a continuation of Senator Paul’s personal vendetta against Dr. Fauci, who spent 50 years in public health and has saved countless lives.” Schertler accused Paul of abusing his power by trying to “weaponize the Justice Department.”

“Today’s partisan committee vote is a crude political stunt intended to punish Dr. Fauci for exercising his constitutional rights,” Schertler said. “The Senate should reject Senator Paul’s meritless and politically-motivated contempt resolution. For years, Senator Paul has proclaimed to anyone who would listen that Dr. Fauci should be prosecuted and put in prison. Dr. Fauci has committed no crime – and Senator Paul knows it.”

The pardon from Biden covered acts from 2014 through the January 2025 day it was issued, but does not shield him from state-level prosecutions or protect him from federal investigations into any testimony he did give that lawmakers deemed false. The current Justice Department has repeatedly initiated false statement investigations into perceived adversaries of President Donald Trump as part of what critics have called a retribution campaign.

Democrats who unanimously opposed the contempt resolution agreed with Fauci that he had a well-founded fear of self-incrimination given the publicly stated desires of Republican lawmakers, including Paul, to see him prosecuted in connection with COVID. The Trump administration has also raised questions about whether the Biden pardons were valid given Biden’s frequent use of an autopen to conduct official business.

“The goal was to wait for Dr. Fauci to make any kind of misstatement and then have a weaponized Department of Justice file criminal charges for that new statement that would not have been covered by the pardon, leaving Dr. Fauci little choice but to invoke his constitutional right to not walk directly into a trap,” said Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., before the vote.

Trump himself weighed in Thursday at the White House, noting in response to a reporter’s question that two advisers from his first term, Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, were jailed on contempt charges during the Biden administration after they defied congressional subpoenas and refused to even show up for their scheduled hearings.

“When you see that happen, you sort of say maybe he should,” Trump said of Fauci being prosecuted. “What he did is far more serious than a lot of crimes, frankly.”

Paul’s decision to send the referral directly to the Justice Department would leave it to prosecutors in Washington to decide whether to investigate or potentially attempt to prosecute Fauci for contempt. A referral from Congress does not compel the Justice Department to act.

The committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, questioned whether the referral would be legally valid if Paul did not seek a vote before the full Senate, where the 60 votes needed to pass the resolution are seen as unlikely. He said punishing a witness for exercising a constitutional right against self-incrimination would complicate future efforts by Congress to conduct oversight and compel appearances and testimony.

“If this committee now seeks to punish a witness for asserting their (constitutionally) protected Fifth Amendment rights, future witnesses will argue that appearing before Congress exposes them to punishment regardless of whether they comply with a subpoena and invoke a constitutional protection,” he said. “They will point directly to this vote — this vote — as a justification for refusing to appear at all.”

DOGE began posting its estimated savings on a web page known as the Wall of Receipts. Lawmakers asked the Government Accountability Office to evaluate the accuracy of the estimates, and the watchdog found them lacking in some cases.

Auditors found that 108 of 264 leases identified for termination on the Wall of Receipts were already in the process of termination when DOGE was established. In another case, DOGE reported $1.7 billion in savings on a Department of Defense contract for IT services, but in the end, no action was taken to terminate the contract, so no savings were achieved.

More broadly, DOGE was not transparent regarding the methodologies used to calculate savings. The GAO said DOGE officials did not respond to requests for information. The report concluded by saying the data quality issues found limit the value of the Wall of Receipts for policymakers.

“In addition, when government data are not reliable, it can hinder the public’s trust in government,” the report stated.

DOGE began posting its estimated savings on Feb. 17, 2025, and had reported savings of $110 billion as of July 7 across a wide range of contracts, grants and leases. President Donald Trump's executive order establishing DOGE sunset its operations on July 4. Billionaire Musk initially led its operations, but stepped back from that role after just a few months.

Democratic Sens. Gary Peters of Michigan and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut requested the GAO report. Peters said everyone supports rooting out waste and fraud, but DOGE was a slapdash and deceptive effort that did real damage to the government's ability to serve Americans.

“Elon Musk and the Trump Administration claimed billions of dollars in savings it could not substantiate, took credit for work already underway, and refused to show its work, all while putting Americans’ sensitive data at risk and hollowing out critical agencies,” Peters said in response to the report.

La visita de Milei, la primera que hace un gobernante argentino desde 2007, empezó pasado el mediodía, cuando dejó una ofrenda floral ante el monumento a los héroes de la independencia ecuatoriana, según imágenes difundidas por la Secretaría de Prensa de la Presidencia. Los medios periodísticos no tuvieron acceso directo.

La misma secretaría difundió horas más tarde un comunicado conjunto de los gobiernos de ambos países sudamericanos detallando varios acuerdos, entre ellos uno nuevo de extradición en reemplazo del que data de 1933 que servirá “para la lucha contra la impunidad y el crimen organizado transnacional”.

Uno de los casos más icónicos es el de Herán Luque Lecaro, ex alto funcionario del gobierno de Guillermo Lasso (2021-2023), pedido en extradición desde hace dos años por Ecuador, donde está acusado de delincuencia organizada y fue sentenciado en ausencia a 10 años de cárcel. El pedido sigue en proceso.

También se informó de un convenio de ciberdefensa, que fija protocolos de intercambio de información, capacitación y entrenamiento. Además un acuerdo automotriz para la venta mutua de vehículos y otro para mejorar la conectividad aérea, el comercio y el turismo. En Argentina, de acuerdo con cifras oficiales, residen unos 33.000 ecuatorianos.

Durante la visita, el gobierno argentino informó además que declaró como amenaza terrorista al grupo criminal ecuatoriano Chone Killers, tras lo cual John Reimberg, ministro del Interior de Ecuador, señaló en X que "no habrá fronteras que protejan a los terroristas ni refugios para quienes amenazan la paz de nuestros pueblos”. A inicios de julio, Estados Unidos —estrecho aliado de Argentina en la región— hizo lo mismo.

En mayo de 2026 Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador y Perú suscribieron el acuerdo de Santiago para enfrentar en conjunto la delincuencia transnacional, lo que contempla acciones coordinadas contra estructuras criminales.

Noboa también ratificó, según el comunicado, el respaldo de Ecuador a lo que denominó “los legítimos derechos de soberanía de Argentina sobre las islas Malvinas, Georgias del Sur y Sandwich y sus espacios marítimos circundantes" y pidió a que con Gran Bretaña se inicien negociaciones para buscar una solución pacífica y definitiva al reclamo argentino.

En agosto del 2025 Noboa visitó a Milei en Buenos Aires, donde ambos dirigentes conservadores coincidieron en avanzar hacia el fortalecimiento de la cooperación contra la corrupción, lavado de activos, terrorismo y delincuencia organizada.

En el primer trimestre de este año, la canasta comercial binacional evidenciaba un superávit argentino de 2.523 millones de dólares. Argentina mantiene superávit positivo por 28 meses seguidos.

Tras su paso por Ecuador, Milei tiene previsto viajar a Colombia para la jura presidencial el viernes de Abelardo de la Espriella, en la que también estará Noboa.

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Lighthouse Point police said officers responded around 10:13 a.m. to a home near the 2600 block of Northeast 52nd Street following reports of an “animal bite.”

Police said the attack occurred after two dogs escaped from a fenced yard and began roaming the neighborhood. They said the dogs encountered a smaller dog, identified by neighbors as Brody, on the front porch of a nearby home, where one of the loose dogs attacked it.

Authorities identified the two loose dogs as American Staffordshire mix dogs. Police said Brody is a spaniel.

They said Brody’s owner and neighbors tried to separate the animals but were unable to do so. The owner then retrieved a gun and fatally shot the attacking dog in an effort to stop the attack.

Police said the second loose dog fled and later encountered another resident nearby, biting the person in the leg and causing a puncture wound before leaving the area. The dog later returned to its residence, where it was secured by its caretaker.

Lighthouse Point Fire Rescue medics evaluated the wounded resident at the scene. The resident later chose to seek additional medical treatment independently, police said.

They said Brody suffered serious injuries and was taken by its owner to a local veterinary hospital for treatment.

Neighbors told Local 10 News they heard screams and rushed outside to find the larger dog attacking the Brody’s neck. Residents also described the neighborhood as a popular area for families and dog walkers.

“The dog was not letting up it grabbed his neck really good. He tried to punch it to stop it. Even the neighbor over there tried but couldn’t do it,” a man who lives nearby said.

Police said Broward County Animal Care staff members also responded to the scene and placed the dog in quarantine.

They are now working to determine where the two attacking dogs came from and the circumstances that led to the attack.

They said no charges had been filed as of Thursday. The investigation remains ongoing.

Anyone with additional information regarding this incident was asked to contact the Lighthouse Point Police Department at 954-942-8080.

Those in the race to fill the seat will oversee the county’s airport and seaport and will have regional responsibilities to include emergency management, environmental protection and public safety.

Caryl Shuham, currently a Hollywood commissioner, has a background in civil engineering and has been a construction lawyer for decades, skills she believes she can bring to the dais.

“I would be, I think, described as an elected official that represents their constituents with dignity and respect, and I plan to continue that on the Broward County Commission,” she said.

Eugen Bold has been a high-level Broward County staff member for the past five years. His experience stems from working as a director in policy for a county commissioner, experience he says can translate to the leadership the county is lacking.

“I am running to reimagine Broward County the way it operates, the way it delivers, the way it uses and spends taxpayers dollars, and the way it works with other agencies with the goal of improving quality of life,” said Bold.

A.J. Ryan is a former Dania Beach mayor and current commissioner. He said he is confident that his former experience in leading a city and with his youth and energy makes him the right fit for the job.

“I have the institutional knowledge, and I have the experience to really represent this place the right way,” he said.

Candidate Jeffrey Jones is a businessman who grew up in Hallandale Beach. Local 10 reached out to Jones for his comments, but he has not replied as of the time of this story’s publication.

Key issues the county is facing includes Amendment 3, a question on the November ballot to cut local property taxes and expand the homestead exemption.

It’s an amendment that the three candidates Local 10 spoke with were against.

Also at issue is public safety and spending from Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony.

The candidates each weighed in on wanting to see more transparency and accountability from Broward County’s top cop.

“I think there has to be a balance between ensuring that our officers are equipped to the best that they can be, but also that the taxpayers are not being hit with a cost with,” said Shuham.

“As an institution, I do believe that BSO can do a better job when it comes to accountability, transparency and working with the county commission,” said Bold.

Added Ryan: “He does not spare any expense when it comes to public safety and I understand that. You cannot put a price on a life, but when it comes to certain equipment, certain studies, new facilities, I feel like we could probably sharpen the pencil a little more on that.”

Nathan Thomas, who is younger than many of his students, teaches engineering courses online at Miami Dade College.

Thomas began taking classes at Miami Dade College when he was just 10 years old and earned his associate degree at 14.

“If you go to school earlier, don’t get influenced by other people’s decisions or paths because it’s different from yours,” Thomas said.

Thomas later earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering before returning to Miami Dade College to teach.

He is now entering his second year of law school.

The home was located in the area of Northwest 95th Street and 19th Avenue in an unincorporated area of Miami-Dade.

According to authorities, two people were detained due to what was described as a possible theft.

SKY 10 was over the scene and observed several deputies appearing to point guns at the home.

Authorities have not provided any information on the circumstances that led up to the arrest or positively identified the suspect.

The group joined a lawsuit filed in May that sought to block the proposed $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund," which the Trump administration later scrapped after bipartisan pushback. The updated lawsuit, filed by legal advocacy group Democracy Forward, now also targets the audit immunity deal conferred on the president, his sons and the Trump Organization, which remains in place.

The updated lawsuit says Trump and his family are “obligated to pay taxes owed, just like every other taxpayer." But under the immunity order, IRS employees will be forced to drop ongoing audits of the president and his businesses, giving Trump "a lucrative and unconstitutional emolument," the lawsuit says.

“The integrity of our tax system depends on one fundamental principle: every taxpayer is subject to the same laws and the same standards,” Doreen Greenwald, the national president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said in a statement. “When political actors direct employees to treat certain taxpayers differently, it undermines public confidence in our tax system and places dedicated civil servants in an impossible position.”

The lawsuit asks the court to bar the Trump administration from implementing or enforcing the immunity deal, which officials have said applies only to claims open at the time of the settlement and does not protect the president from examination of future tax filings. The case alleges the agreement violates a law that bars the president from interfering with tax audits.

According to the initial outline of the audit deal, spelled out in a one-page document signed by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, the U.S. was “forever barred and precluded” from examining current tax filings or prosecuting any of the plaintiffs — Trump, his sons and the Trump Organization — as well as other “related or affiliated” individuals.

It’s unclear how much Trump owes the federal government in back taxes, but the latest details of the deal could wipe away what could be more than $100 million in back taxes, according to previous New York Times and ProPublica reporting.

The Justice Department and an attorney for Trump didn't immediately respond to emails seeking comment Thursday.

The original lawsuit filed in May was focused on the “Anti-Weaponization Fund" announced as part of the settlement of Trump's lawsuit over his leaked tax returns. The fund was proposed as a way to compensate people who say they were politically targeted by the Justice Department, but it quickly drew outrage over the potential that those considered for payments could include people convicted of assaulting police at the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot.

The judge overseeing the case, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, blocked the administration in May from proceeding with the fund.

Days later, Blanche told Congress that the administration was no longer moving forward with the fund. Blanche on Sunday formally rescinded plans for the fund in writing amid pressure from two Republican senators who were threatening to block his confirmation as attorney general.

The updated lawsuit filed Thursday says Blanche's order on the fund doesn't go far enough to prevent the administration from moving forward with the payouts in the future and is asking the judge to permanently block officials from taking further action to create the fund.

The lawsuit notes that Trump has "made clear that he intends to keep the Fund alive, affirming his belief that the January 6 rioters and other Fund beneficiaries 'should be paid back for what they were forced to endure.'"

Pediatric emergency medicine Dr. Purva Grover with Cleveland Clinic says the past several months she’s seen a spike in tragedies for children from e-bikes.

“Largely there is a huge disconnect in information,” she said. “I think that that’s where all of these issues are leading out to.”

But it’s a problem nationwide regardless of age.

The latest data from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission shows that between 2017 and 2024 there were an estimated 155,200 emergency room visits due to e-bikes. There were also 310 deaths reported.

In that same time period, e-scooters sent an estimated 380,000 people to the emergency room, but Grover believes the numbers are “severely underreported.”

“It’s just a matter of time when we’ll be able to collect this data much more appropriately to really understand the true scope, but I fear that what you’re seeing right now is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Grover.

Grover said it’s important to always wear a properly fitted, certified helmet that’s tested for higher speeds.

She says a regular bicycle helmet may not provide adequate protection.

Grover also said to follow local traffic laws and be aware that large vehicles have blind spots and may not see an e-bike or e-scooter.

“These are 50 to 60 pound big machines which can travel at a speed from anywhere from 20 to 28 mph and can cause significant injuries to the rider and to the passersby as well,” said Gupta.

Otherwise, mostly to partly cloudy skies and gentle, east-northeast winds can be expected for Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

Friday will offer a sun/cloud mix with the possibility for scattered showers and storms. Near seasonable temperatures are forecast -- lows in the upper 70s, highs around 90°F.

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Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies said Daniel Borman, 36, of Springfield, New Jersey, started yelling at flight attendants who cut him off from alcohol.

Multiple off-duty law enforcement officers were on the flight, however, including the former chief of the Minneapolis Police Department, Brian O’Hara who said something “was just off.”

“I was standing on the chair while the other guys were behind him and just grabbed one of his arms,” O’Hara said. “I had to get his arm off of the chair, and put it behind his back.”

He added, “Apparently, my wife told me I was yelling at him to put his hands behind his back, like I was still a cop. But I have no memory of that.”

A deputy from the Bergen County, New Jersey Sheriff’s Office was aboard and had handcuffs to place on Borman, O’Hara said. The ordeal lasted about 45 minutes.

Of the man’s behavior, O’Hara said, “It’s bothersome to watch someone abuse women like that so disrespectfully and threatening them when they’re just trying to do their job.”

United Airlines issued a statement reading: “We thank our crew and customers for assisting with the situation and helping ensure the safety of everyone onboard.”

Borman, facing a disorderly intoxication charge, was no longer listed in Broward jail records as of Thursday afternoon.

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At a community meeting on Thursday, representatives for Related Group said the gathering was intended to address what they described as misinformation surrounding the proposal at 1301 South Ocean Dr.

“You want to come in and you want to build a skyscraper so the rest of us are sitting here and you’re like this,” one concerned Hollywood resident told members of the development team, reflecting ongoing opposition from some community members.

The proposal, approved by city commissioners this spring, would bring a 27-story luxury high-rise to a 3.5-acre site that is currently home to a community center, park and public parking lot. Under the plan, the community center would be rebuilt as part of the redevelopment.

Keith Poliakoff, an attorney representing the developers, said misconceptions about the project have fueled public concern.

“Some people think that the park is being demolished. Some people don’t understand that the community center is being rebuilt. A lot of people don’t understand the city is making $2.7 billion over the course of the 99-year lease for this project,” Poliakoff said.

Residents have spent years opposing the redevelopment, arguing that replacing public beachfront land with a high-rise would permanently alter the character of the area. During public meetings, many urged city officials to reject the proposal.

Poliakoff disputed the notion that the project lacks broad public support.

“I don’t think it’s unpopular,” he said. ”I think that it is again a misconception. There are close to 250,000 voters in the city of Hollywood. Of that you’ll hear from 20-50 at a meeting in opposition. That’s not a tremendous amount of opposition."

The development is moving forward under Florida’s Live Local Act, which limits local governments’ authority over zoning for qualifying housing developments. Under the law, local zoning regulations are preempted as long as 40 percent of the units are reserved for affordable housing.

According to Poliakoff, the project is entering its final stages of local review.

“We’re almost at the end,” he said. “We have a final planning and development board meeting, a final city commission meeting in October, and at that point, we’re starting the construction drawings and we’re ready to begin the project.”

En una reunión comunitaria el jueves, representantes de Related Group dijeron que el encuentro tenía como objetivo abordar lo que describieron como información errónea en torno a la propuesta en 1301 South Ocean Dr.

“Ustedes quieren venir y construir un rascacielos, mientras el resto de nosotros estamos aquí y ustedes están así”, dijo un residente preocupado de Hollywood a miembros del equipo de desarrollo, reflejando la continua oposición de algunos miembros de la comunidad.

La propuesta, aprobada por los comisionados de la ciudad esta primavera, llevaría una torre de lujo de 27 pisos a un terreno de 3.5 acres que actualmente alberga un centro comunitario, un parque y un estacionamiento público. Bajo el plan, el centro comunitario sería reconstruido como parte de la remodelación.

Keith Poliakoff, abogado que representa a los desarrolladores, dijo que las ideas equivocadas sobre el proyecto han alimentado la preocupación pública.

“Algunas personas piensan que el parque será demolido. Algunas personas no entienden que el centro comunitario será reconstruido. Muchas personas no entienden que la ciudad recibirá $2,700,000,000 USD durante los 99 años del contrato de arrendamiento de este proyecto”, dijo Poliakoff.

Los residentes han pasado años oponiéndose a la remodelación, argumentando que reemplazar terrenos públicos frente a la playa con una torre alteraría permanentemente el carácter de la zona. Durante reuniones públicas, muchos instaron a los funcionarios de la ciudad a rechazar la propuesta.

Poliakoff rechazó la idea de que el proyecto carezca de amplio apoyo público.

“No creo que sea impopular”, dijo. “Creo que, nuevamente, se trata de una idea equivocada. Hay cerca de 250,000 votantes en la ciudad de Hollywood. De ellos, se escuchará a entre 20 y 50 personas oponiéndose en una reunión. Eso no representa una enorme cantidad de oposición”.

El desarrollo avanza bajo la Ley Live Local de Florida, que limita la autoridad de los gobiernos locales sobre la zonificación para proyectos de vivienda que cumplen con los requisitos. Bajo la ley, las regulaciones locales de zonificación quedan anuladas siempre que el 40 por ciento de las unidades estén reservadas para viviendas asequibles.

Según Poliakoff, el proyecto está entrando en sus etapas finales de revisión local.

“Estamos casi al final”, dijo. “Tenemos una reunión final de la junta de planificación y desarrollo, una reunión final de la comisión de la ciudad en octubre y, en ese momento, comenzaremos con los planos de construcción y estaremos listos para iniciar el proyecto”.

The agreement was announced Thursday on the first day of classes for Bossier Parish Schools near Shreveport.

“Dismissal of the case allows us the freedom to make our own decisions that are in the best interest of all students, staff and our community, while keeping in mind the history of the past 61 years,” Bossier Schools Superintendent Jason Rowland said in a statement.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill announced the settlement. Last month she announced she had helped lift a desegregation mandate for the rural Concordia Parish School Board along the Mississippi River.

“It’s long past time for these old consent decrees to come to an end. These decades-old cases are expensive, ineffective, and they take power away from local communities,” Murrill said on social media.

The U.S. Justice Department spent decades fighting for such cases but reversed course under Trump. Officials in his administration have framed the remaining segregation orders as federal intrusion into local school systems. Louisiana officials agree they’re no longer needed and describe them as relics of a time when Black students were forbidden from attending some schools.

The Bossier Parish Schools order said the parents who filed the original suit in 1964 that led to the oversight agreement are dead and that their children, who were part of the original court proceedings, couldn't be contacted.

The school system said it worked for decades with the Department of Justice, collaborating with its lawyers over “every new school, classroom wing addition and attendance zone change.”

Rowland thanked past board members and employees for doing everything the system needed to do to get out from the intense federal monitoring.

The superintendent said he trusts district leadership to make sure everyone in the system is treated fairly.

Cassandra Barksdale and her attorneys filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Kaiser Permanente alleging the mix-up led to the surgery and months of physical and emotional pain.

According to the lawsuit, another patient's tissue sample was mistakenly labeled as belonging to Barksdale, who at age 43 then underwent a full hysterectomy on May 15, 2025, and was told she would get instructions about chemotherapy.

It's unclear how the mix-up occurred. In September, Barksdale was informed that a DNA analysis found the tissue sample showing an aggressive form of endometrial uterine cancer belonged to a different patient and not to her, the lawsuit says.

“She came into Kaiser Permanente looking for answers, and she left with a diagnosis that did not belong to her. And every step that was taken after that was based off of misinformation,” her attorney Shannan Young said.

Barksdale went to Kaiser Permanente Southwood Medical Center in Jonesboro, Georgia, in early 2025 to seek treatment for heavy bleeding and fibroids, which are noncancerous growths in and around the uterus. She underwent a biopsy on March 10, 2025.

Barksdale said that after she got the biopsy results on March 17, 2025, she lived for months believing she had an aggressive type of cancer, sending her and her sons into a deep depression.

“I even started making funeral plans with them to let them know, you know, if I don’t make it out, this is what I want done,” Barksdale said.

Representatives for Kaiser Permanente wrote in a statement that, “Ms. Barksdale should not have experienced this.”

“We have highly trained staff and very thorough processes in place to prevent errors like this from taking place. After this occurred last year, we took immediate steps to ensure it could not happen again. We realize the impact of this incident and are committed to working with Ms. Barksdale and her counsel to resolve this in the most fair and accountable way we can.”

Because of privacy laws, information about the other patient — including what happened to her and whether cancer treatment was delayed — isn’t publicly available.

It is not clear just how often pathology samples are mislabeled or mixed-up during medical testing. An Ohio woman filed a similar lawsuit saying a 2019 error on a biopsy led to a misdiagnosis of lung cancer and unneeded surgery. Researchers studying prostate cancer discovered three cases of biopsy sample misidentification over two years, according to a 2011 research paper.

Labs have turned to a number of best practices to try and prevent errors, including barcode systems for specimen labeling and point-of-care testing.

The Georgia lawsuit asks for unspecified damages.

“There’s no amount of money that’s going to return back to her, her healthy organs, or erase the experiences and the pain that she’s had. But our justice system recognizes that when somebody’s negligence harms another person, accountability requires more than ‘I’m sorry,'” Young said.

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Chandler reported from Montgomery, Alabama.

“The abruptness and sustained magnitude of the increase” is largely due to the condition getting its own diagnosis code last fall, which is providing a more accurate picture of what was an underrecognized problem, the authors of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report wrote.

Hospital emergency room diagnoses of the condition, cannabis hyperemesis syndrome, rose 16% from last October to May of this year, federal researchers found.

The syndrome — seen in people who frequently use marijuana, especially smokers — is characterized by recurring nausea, uncontrollable vomiting and excruciating abdominal pain.

Past research has suggested that an estimated 2.75 million Americans suffer from it each year, and that hospital emergency room visits have been rising as daily recreational marijuana use has increased.

But experts also have said that the syndrome probably has been underdiagnosed, possibly because doctors may not have understood patients' marijuana use or because they attributed the suffering to a different illness.

Tracking the syndrome depended on combining diagnostic codes for nausea and vomiting, and for cannabis use. But last October, a new code was introduced to streamline the diagnosis.

In the new paper, researchers at the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control looked at emergency room data from about 7,500 healthcare facilities across the country through May. From January 2023 through the summer of 2025, almost 200,000 syndrome-related visits were made to the emergency departments.

The burden on ERs was relatively flat over most of the study period. But then it jumped in October, when the new code went into effect.

The largest increases were seen in people aged 15 to 24, in teenage girls and women, and in Black Americans and in American Indian and Alaska Natives.

The increase in younger people diagnosed with the syndrome “was actually one of the surprising findings for us,” said CDC's Alana Vivolo-Kantor, the study's first author.

“Because the assumption going in was, ‘well, how can they have chronic use?’” she said. “How early were they using cannabis?”

The findings suggest a need to raise awareness about the syndrome, particularly in teens and young adults. The report also suggests a need for more research, including into how newer high-potency THC and hemp-derived products — some of which come in the form of vapes, drinks and gummies — are being used by, and affecting, younger Americans, she said.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Agentes de la Oficina del Sheriff de Broward dijeron que Daniel Borman, de 36 años y residente de Springfield, Nueva Jersey, comenzó a gritarles a los auxiliares de vuelo después de que dejaran de servirle alcohol.

Sin embargo, varios agentes del orden fuera de servicio se encontraban en el vuelo, incluido el ex jefe del Departamento de Policía de Minneapolis, Brian O’Hara, quien dijo que algo “simplemente no estaba bien”.

“Yo estaba parado sobre el asiento mientras los otros hombres estaban detrás de él y simplemente agarré uno de sus brazos”, dijo O’Hara. “Tuve que quitarle el brazo del asiento y colocárselo detrás de la espalda”.

Agregó: “Al parecer, mi esposa me dijo que yo le gritaba que pusiera las manos detrás de la espalda, como si todavía fuera policía. Pero no recuerdo nada de eso”.

Un agente de la Oficina del Sheriff del condado Bergen, Nueva Jersey, estaba a bordo y tenía esposas para colocárselas a Borman, dijo O’Hara. El incidente duró unos 45 minutos.

Sobre el comportamiento del hombre, O’Hara dijo: “Es perturbador ver a alguien maltratar a mujeres de esa manera, con tanta falta de respeto, y amenazarlas cuando simplemente están tratando de hacer su trabajo”.

United Airlines emitió un comunicado que decía: “Agradecemos a nuestra tripulación y a nuestros pasajeros por ayudar con la situación y contribuir a garantizar la seguridad de todos a bordo”.

Borman, quien enfrenta un cargo de intoxicación y alteración del orden público, ya no aparecía en los registros de la cárcel de Broward hasta la tarde del jueves.

El hecho ocurrió poco antes de las 12:30 a.m. del 27 de julio en Round1, informó la policía.

Bailey, de 35 años y residente de Miramar, está acusado de mantener relaciones sexuales de manera pública con Karina Manderson, de 35 años y residente de Pembroke Pines.

Según el Departamento de Policía de Pembroke Pines, los agentes respondieron a Round1 tras recibir reportes de dos personas que mantenían relaciones sexuales en el bar del establecimiento.

La policía informó que revisó las grabaciones de vigilancia, las cuales mostraban que Manderson “estaba inclinada hacia adelante a la altura de la cintura” mientras Bailey se encontraba detrás de ella. Un testigo dijo a los investigadores que observó a ambos teniendo relaciones sexuales y que, cuando les pidió que se detuvieran, Bailey se subió los pantalones y ambos se retiraron lentamente del área del bar.

Al entrevistar a los sospechosos, la policía indicó que ambos admitieron haber consumido varios tragos de licor en el bar. Los investigadores dijeron que Bailey reconoció que “ambos tenían los pantalones abajo” y que estaba exponiendo sus partes íntimas, pero aseguró que “nunca hubo penetración”.

La policía dijo que no encontró evidencia que sugiriera que las bebidas de alguno de los sospechosos hubieran sido adulteradas.

Ambos fueron arrestados más tarde esa misma mañana y acusados de exhibicionismo.

Bailey es un ex receptor abierto de la NFL que jugó durante tres temporadas con los Rams de St. Louis, de 2013 a 2015, después de ser seleccionado en la tercera ronda del Draft de la NFL de 2013.

En 2015, Bailey recibió disparos mientras estaba sentado en un vehículo estacionado en Miami Gardens. Aunque finalmente se recuperó de sus heridas, el tiroteo provocó su retiro del fútbol americano profesional.

Antes de asistir a la Universidad de West Virginia, Bailey cursó la escuela secundaria en el sur de Florida, tanto en Miami Carol City Senior High, en el condado Miami-Dade, como en Miramar High School, en el condado Broward.

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Now 19, Jah’Kobe Bessent awaits his fate for a crime spree in August 2022 that ended in the fatal crash. Investigators said Bessent, then 15, was driving a stolen vehicle and fleeing from police when he caused the wreck that killed 35-year-old Maria Tellez-Valderrabano.

State prosecutors said Bessent and 13-year-old Jacory Flournoy first broke into a Fort Lauderdale home while the residents were sleeping, stole their car and later crashed into another vehicle, killing Tellez-Valderrabano.

Tellez-Valderrabano’s family was in court Thursday wearing pendants with her picture on them as several of Bessent’s relatives testified in his defense.

“I saw it on the news. I had a feeling that he was involved in it,” one family member said.

During the sentencing hearing, Bessent’s aunt, Latonya Burns, described what she said was a difficult and traumatic upbringing that severely affected his mental state.

Bessent’s sister, who is also behind bars, testified that she and her brother were physically abused. She said there were times when their mother ordered her to hold Jah’Kobe down while he was beaten.

State prosecutors argued that the disturbing details of Bessent’s upbringing should not take away from the fact that a woman was killed and a family lost their loved one.

The victim’s family said they want justice for Tellez-Valderrabano’s death, but the judge will ultimately decide Bessent’s sentence.

At the time of this report, Bessent’s father was on the witness stand.

No, it wasn't a prank call.

Brown was indeed headed to the Philadelphia 76ers, where he was set to form an All-Star trio with Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey.

Little did he know LeBron James was on his way to Philly, too.

Brown has slowly settled into his new team, all while admitting he's still processing the details of his messy breakup with the Celtics.

If the 29-year-old Brown lived in a perfect world, he'd still wear Celtics green this season, and for the rest of his career, if he could, rather than get traded.

He's ready to move on and try with perhaps the best starting five in the NBA to win a championship with the Sixers.

“I'm still processing to some degree," Brown said Thursday. “Just, the excitement of coming to a new city, a new place, new expectations, new energy. Then also leaving somewhere that you've been for a very, very long time.”

Brown, the No. 3 pick in the 2016 draft, formed a potent 1-2 partnership on the court with Jayson Tatum that resulted in the 2024 NBA championship. Their off-court relationship was dissected throughout NBA media circles and the topic of are they-or-aren't they friends could have strained their effectiveness in Boston.

Brown, who still has three seasons and about $182 million left on what was then a record, five-year, $304 million supermax deal he signed in 2023, was respectful of Tatum, but noted they had “not really” talked since the trade.

“We won a championship together," Brown said. “Anybody that you win a championship with, you think that’s what a brotherhood or a lifelong legacy would entail. Obviously, there’s ups and downs in any type of relationship, for sure.”

Brown has spoken in previous years about how he has felt disrespected by both media and people around the league for what he has achieved during his career.

Though he took Eastern Conference finals and NBA Finals honors during the Celtics' most recent championship run, he was left off the U.S. 2024 Paris Olympics roster.

Then, last season, with Tatum playing in just 16 games during the regular season while he rehabbed from a ruptured Achilles tendon, Brown averaged career highs in points (28.7), rebounds (6.9) and assists (5.1) while finishing sixth in MVP voting.

The Celtics promptly dangled him as trade bait to Milwaukee in a failed bid to land Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Brown said the “whole process” of how his career in Boston ended bothered him.

“Maybe one day, we’ll share the details of how everything transpired and all the moving parts that took place in this,” Brown said. "Obviously, it’s a lot of speculation; I feel no need to chime in on it because I’m focused on what’s in front of me.”

The 76ers and new team president Mike Gansey swooped in and landed Brown in exchange for Paul George and a slew of draft picks.

Brown alone was a significant upgrade and made the 76ers, who haven't won an NBA title since 1983, a serious contender to win the East.

Little did Brown know his presence was enough to help sway four-time NBA MVP and four-time NBA champion James, leading to the free agent signing last month with the Sixers.

“I thought maybe after Jaylen, we had a better chance,” Gansey said. “I guess that was all we needed.”

How's this for a starting five: two league MVPs in Embiid and James, a five-time All-Star in Brown, a 2026 All-Star starter in Maxey and third in last season's NBA rookie of the year voting in VJ Edgecombe.

Expectations this season are sky high.

Brown faced much of the same pressures to win in Boston, dealing with a hefty media corps and trying to please an overzealous fanbase. He thrived.

“I think at different points in my career, how I handled pressure would probably look different at this point,” Brown said. “I probably ignore a lot of it, you know, just water under the bridge. My relationship with the media hasn't always been the best. That's part of the reason why I started streaming (on Twitch) and stuff like that.”

Brown — deeply involved in Boston community initiatives — skipped holding the traditional introductory press conference at the Sixers' New Jersey complex or South Philadelphia home arena. Instead, he chose a recreation center where he was greeted by screeching, joyous children in Brown T-shirts, high-fived the mascot and a DJ pumped tunes until he and other team personnel arrived.

“As I’m still getting to learn this community, I just wanted to make it clear that this was an important pillar in my life, community and the foundation," Brown said. "As I’m getting started on the journey here in Philadelphia, the introduction, the first impression is everything. I just wanted to let people know in Philadelphia that this is something that’s important to me.”

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba

In an interview after his arrest, Aaron Farinacci said “fire is powerful, beautiful, and that things that go through fire experience a kind of rebirth," Spokane County Detective Michael Drapeau wrote in a court filing Wednesday.

Farinacci, 37, is charged with starting the Old Trails fire, one of three blazes in the Spokane area that have burned more than 850 buildings, destroying whole neighborhoods and streets. Tens of thousands of people were forced to evacuate and many still can't return home. No deaths or serious injuries have been reported.

Farinacci is also charged in connection with four smaller fires ignited in the summer of 2025 and last month.

He was scheduled to be arraigned on five first-degree arson charges Thursday, but his lawyer asked for a competency evaluation before he enters a plea. Spokane Superior Court Judge Jeremy Schmidt said he would review that request. He set bond for $2 million, ruling that Farinacci was a risk to community safety, a flight risk and that there was potential for a violent offense.

Defense attorney Colin Charbonneau did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

Farinacci denied starting the Old Trails fire when police initially contacted him, but during an interview with Drapeau, he confessed to that fire as well as others last year and last month, the detective wrote. That led to the four additional arson charges.

He told the detective that he always carries marijuana or cigarettes so he would have a legitimate reason to have a lighter and matches.

“He knows arson is an easy crime to get away from if you have time, and he had time,” Drapeau said.

Farinacci researched the weather to predict a day that would be hot and windy and have low humidity for starting the Old Trails fire, Drapeau said. He also looked up the work of a well-known serial arsonist and purchased items to make a “time delay device” for igniting a wildfire, using notebook paper, matches, a cigarette and a rubber band, the detective said.

Farinacci picked Saturday, Aug. 1, to start the fire because he knew there would be strong winds — reaching 50 mph (80 kph), the detective said.

Farinacci said he knew it was going to get bad but claimed he didn’t intend for it to grow as much as it did, Drapeau said.

Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels said Thursday that it’s going to be weeks before people can safely return to their homes in areas burned in the Spokane fires. The other two major blazes, the Autumn Lane and Fairview fires, were also started by people, though not necessarily deliberately, investigators have said.

Paul Child, 64, has been credited with leading police to Farinacci. He was driving with his grandson along some railroad tracks when he saw a man standing there and looking toward nearby trees. About 10 minutes later, the man was still there.

“He was bent over in the brush, acting nervous,” Child told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “You get the feeling this guy’s up to something.”

Drapeau said Farinacci also admitted responsibility for 25 fires near his apartment building in summer 2025. Most were near the Spokane River or the Centennial Trail.

Farinacci admitted to starting the Aubrey White fire that ignited on July 6, 2025, near the Centennial Trail and threatened homes and structures, the court filing said. It led to evacuations and road closures. An investigation determined it was caused by arson, but police didn't have any suspects at the time.

Farinacci also faces arson charges for the Meenach fire that started on July 8, 2025, the Fort George fire on Aug. 11, 2025, and the Indian Bluff fire on July 24, 2026.

Farinacci served about a decade in prison after killing his father in Mesa, Arizona, in 2010. He also shot himself. He was charged with murder but pleaded guilty in 2012 to manslaughter and aggravated assault. Farinacci’s lawyer repeatedly raised concerns about his mental health during the case.

Drapeau said Farinacci indicated that he moved to the Copper River Apartments in the Spokane area in October 2022.

The detective said Farinacci's son was born in 2025, and he started having difficulty dealing with “life issues” and began smoking marijuana.

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Associated Press reporter Hallie Golden contributed to this story from Seattle.

Herbert Wayne Smith, 65, was arrested Wednesday in connection with the blaze that has destroyed seven structures and scorched more than 15 square miles (39 square km) of forest in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Calaveras County.

Smith is suspected of “recklessly causing" the blaze on Monday while “operating equipment capable of producing sparks” without clearing flammable vegetation as required, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Prosecutors will determine whether to file criminal charges.

An apologetic Smith told KCRA-TV that he was using a chain saw to cut some scrap wood when it ignited.

“I’m so sorry for everything that’s happened,” Smith told the news station. “This is going to destroy my life, one way or another."

Investigators will determine whether the fire contributed to the death of the person found in a burned home near the town of Angels Camp, the Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office said.

In eastern Washington state, three major fires continued to burn around the city of Spokane. Officials said Thursday that cooler temperatures and calmer winds have allowed firefighters to make progress against the blazes. No deaths have been reported, though at least 800 buildings have been destroyed.

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It happened just before 12:30 a.m. on July 27 at Round1, police said.

Bailey, 35, of Miramar, is accused of openly having sex with Karina Manderson, 35, of Pembroke Pines.

According to the Pembroke Pines Police Department, officers responded to Round1 after receiving reports of two people who were having sex at the bar of the establishment.

Police said they reviewed surveillance footage which showed Manderson “leaned over at the waist” while Bailey was behind her, and a witness told investigators that they observed the two having intercourse, and when asking the suspects to stop, Bailey pulled up his pants and the two slowly left the bar area.

When speaking to the suspects, police said both admitted to drinking multiple shots while at the bar, and investigators said Bailey admitted “they both had their pants down” and that he was exposing himself, but said “penetration never took place.”

Police said there was no evidence to suggest that either of the suspects’ drinks had been tampered with.

Both were arrested later that morning and charged with indecent exposure.

Bailey is a former NFL wide receiver who played three years for the St. Louis Rams from 2013 to 2015 after being selected in the third round of the 2013 NFL Draft.

In 2015, Bailey was shot while sitting in a parked car in Miami Gardens. While he ultimately recovered from his injuries, the shooting caused him to retire from professional football.

Before attending West Virginia University, Bailey went to high school in South Florida at both Miami Carol City Senior High in Miami-Dade County and Miramar High School in Broward County.

The president said he was signing two executive actions on immigration, including one limiting the number of people eligible for U.S. citizenship after being born in the United States, while another focused on stopping people from coming to the U.S. to give birth.

The written executive order released later Thursday was narrower in scope than the previous one shot down by the Supreme Court and appeared to focus on restricting automatic citizenship to specific categories of people, including children born to adults with connections to foreign embassies or organizations as well as anyone considered an “alien enemy” of the United States.

It also aimed to restrict birthright citizenship to anyone whose parents “engaged in fraudulent activity to obtain citizenship."

A second order seeks to curb what Trump called “birth tourism” by increasing restrictions on visitors to the U.S. who want to obtain visas to give birth while in the country.

It was not immediately clear how successful the president's most recent attempt to restrict birthright citizenship would be. Trump said he thought his latest actions would be constitutional and his drive to reopen the question reflected the administration's zeal to restrict who gets to become an American.

“I thought we were going to win it at the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, we had a bad decision, very unfair decision. Our country suffers because of it and we’re ending it a different way,” Trump said.

The Migration Policy Institute noted in a 2026 article that it’s already considered fraud and grounds to restrict a visa if someone seeks a visa specifically to come to the U.S. and obtain citizenship for a child. Previous administrations have also sought to prosecute so-called “birth tourism" schemes that helped women hide their pregnancies while traveling to the United States to give birth.

Birthright citizenship has become a key rallying point in the president’s second term anti-immigration agenda, with the president and supporters arguing it makes the country a magnet for immigration and that American citizenship should be reserved for those who truly value it, as opposed to just being given to anyone born here.

But immigration advocates and many legal experts say that the Constitution is clear in outlining who is considered a citizen. They've also argued that birthright citizenship is a benefit to the U.S. by giving everyone an equal stake in the country's future and that restricting who can become a citizen would create a second-class of people in America.

The Trump administration has painted birth tourism as a widespread problem. There's no official estimate of how many births can be considered “birth tourism” births, but an estimated 26,000 might fall into that category out of the roughly 3.5 million births in the U.S. every year, MPI wrote in its 2026 article.

In June, the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s previous efforts to declare that children born to people in the U.S. illegally or temporarily aren’t American citizens, and upheld a broad conception of birthright citizenship.

The American Civil Liberties Union predicted that Trump's second attempt would also be rejected.

“The Supreme Court already decided this issue: Birthright citizenship is guaranteed by the Constitution. No additional executive order can change the meaning of the Constitution. Any executive order that tries to rewrite birthright citizenship will meet the same fate as the last one,” said Cody Wofsy, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, in a statement Thursday.

On Trump’s first day in office of his second term, he signed an executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship, which allows anyone born in the United States to automatically become an American citizen.

Trump’s administration was immediately sued by opponents who said the executive order went against the 14th Amendment, adopted after the Civil War, which makes anyone born in the country a citizen, with very limited exceptions.

The executive order was blocked by several lower courts and never took effect.

In June, the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s order by a 6-3 vote. But the vote was too close for many immigration advocates and legal observers who felt the legal question of birthright citizenship was a long-settled issue.

When it came to the legal question of whether birthright citizenship was protected by the Constitution, the vote was even narrower. Only five justices said it was enshrined in the Constitution, while Justice Brett Kavanaugh rejected the executive order, but did so specifically on the grounds that federal law conveys birthright citizenship.

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Santana reported from Sacramento.

In recent weeks OpenAI and Anthropic also have described instances of AI models going beyond humans' instructions to access the web and find ways around other companies' digital security.

Meta said in a statement that a “misconfiguration" during cybersecurity testing by Irregular, an independent company hired by Meta, inadvertently allowed one of its models to access the internet.

“The model subsequently exploited a security vulnerability in a third-party service, in a manner similar to previously-reported instances with other companies,” the company said. Meta said it is investigating the incident and will issue a report when that's complete.

The disclosure has added to worries about AI models acting autonomously.

Separately this week, the United Kingdom's AI Security Institute announced it had found “unsanctioned agent behavior” during cyber testing. In one case, an agent created fake online identities to pressure a person to approve use of malicious code.

“On investigation, we found that some of the agents being tested had engaged in sustained, potentially harmful activity directed at real people and organizations,” AISI said Tuesday. “We declared a security incident and, within roughly one hour of discovery, had contained it and begun a full investigation.”

During the agency's testing, Anthropic and OpenAI models took “autonomous, unsanctioned action” on the internet. Some guardrails to prevent misuse had been disabled, the agency said.

“As was standard in our cyber testing, we had intentionally permitted internet access, and model-provider cyber classifiers were deliberately disabled — conditions that do not reflect how frontier models are made available to the public,” AISI said. “We do this to best assess the maximum capability of models.”

Anthropic said it is “grateful” for AISI's work and added that it underscores the need for a broader conversation about how to safely evaluate AI agents as their capabilities grow.

OpenAI said the AISI incidents took place “in testing environments with reduced safeguards, under conditions that do not reflect ordinary use." It added it will continue working with others across the industry to "strengthen shared practices for conducting evaluations safely as models become more capable.”

The first company to disclose a hack late last month, OpenAI said it had tasked the AI models involved with pursuing “advanced exploitation using complex attack paths” to test cyber capabilities, but the technology went to unexpected lengths. It apparently decided on its own to target Hugging Face, a well-known AI development hub and marketplace, to obtain information it needed to carry out a task.

A spokesperson for Irregular, the San Francisco-based AI security company, said the Meta episode involves a test-environment issue that was disclosed last week by Anthropic.

Irregular said it's writing a paper to share “best practices for containment” to prevent such incidents in the future and securely run cyber tests.

The former Senate leader was first admitted to the hospital on June 14. He disclosed weeks later that his hospitalization was the result of a fall and said he was undergoing physical therapy.

McConnell, 84, gave no specific date for his return to the Capitol, but senators are expected to soon leave Washington for the traditional August recess. Votes are unlikely for the next five weeks once they adjourn.

“On the advice of my doctors, I’ll maintain an intensive regimen of physical therapy from home during the state work period, and I’ll continue to engage with my staff and colleagues on important Senate business," McConnell said in a statement released by his office.

McConnell had polio in his early childhood and has long acknowledged some difficulty walking and climbing stairs as an adult. The Office of the Attending Physician has said McConnell was undergoing a strenuous course of physical therapy and rehabilitation since he left the hospital, which includes multiple sessions a day designed to rebuild strength and reduce the risk of future falls.

The senator is determined to finish out his seventh term, which concludes in January.

McConnell’s absence is being felt in the Senate as Republicans were unable to advance a farm bill out of committee Thursday. The committee's chairman, Sen. John Boozman of Arkansas, said he spoke with McConnell this week about the bill.

“I know how much he would have wanted to be here to advocate for Kentucky’s farmers and rural communities,” Boozman said in kicking off the committee's meeting Thursday.

But there has also been criticism that McConnell has not been transparent enough about his health. The state's Democratic governor, Andy Beshear, recently called on the senator to either prove that he is fit to continue serving after his lengthy hospital stay or resign from office.

The storms — called haboobs — occur throughout the U.S. Southwest when strong downdrafts from thunderstorms stir up loose dust and dirt that get blown along in front of the approaching storm cell.

They can produce massive walls of dust and debris that blind drivers and make people sick.

The latest storm rolled in during the early morning hours Thursday, three days after the other one struck. There were no reports of any significant impacts, though both storms reduced visibility to half a mile (0.8 kilometers).

“Luckily, they both happened when it was later at night, so there was less traffic on the roads,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Salerno in Phoenix.

Both storms were extreme, Category 5 events on a scale of dust storm severity, with huge concentrations of dust and wind speeds of about 50 mph (80 kph), according to researchers at Arizona State University, which helped develop the scale.

The scale — unveiled this year — was developed using data going back to 2010.

“To have Class 5 dust storms occur one right after another a few days apart is unprecedented in our records,” said Randall Cerveny, a professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State. “We don't see that.”

They were only the fifth and sixth dust storms in the last 16 years to reach Category 5, Cerveny told The Associated Press in a phone interview.

He noted the Phoenix region has been drier than normal, which can increase the amount of dust that is kicked up. Scientists have said human-caused climate change increases the odds of both severe drought and heavier storms that could set the stage for more intense dust storms in the future.

In the second week of her Massachusetts murder trial, prosecutors brought more friends, a former work colleague and her former father-in-law to testify about Clancy's mental and emotional state. They said she was mostly open about her postpregnancy mental health struggles but seemed like a loving mother who cared for her kids.

Clancy has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the deaths of Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and 8-month-old Callan.

Defense attorneys don't dispute that she killed her children on Jan. 24, 2023, after sending her husband out on errands, but they argue that she was too mentally ill to bear criminal responsibility for her actions.

Prosecutors, however, said that sending her husband out of the house was a ruse and that the 35-year-old former labor and delivery nurse acted intentionally. She remains paralyzed from the waist down after jumping from the home’s second-story window that night.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.

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A friend recalls a difficult reunion after the killings

Much of the week has been dominated by witnesses detailing their memories of Clancy in the days, weeks and months before the killings.

Outwardly, Clancy appeared normal, most said, attending family functions, lunches with friends and activities with her children. None of the witnesses Thursday testified they heard Clancy express suicidal or homicidal thoughts, talking of hearing voices or wanting to harm her children.

But after the birth of her third child, she told a friend she was having trouble sleeping and noted harmful side effects from medications she was taking. Another former colleague at Massachusetts General Hospital, Andrea Hennigan, recalled a lunch where Clancy said she wouldn't return to work because she “was not in a mental state to take care of patients.”

“She talked about insomnia and not feeling herself,” she said. “I believe she might have used the words brain fog or something like that.”

The month of the killings, Clancy texted Hennigan that she was experiencing “bad or negative side effects” from her medications. She told another witness, Amy Bevins, around then that the medications had “caused her to have some dark thoughts.”

Another witness, Bethany Decollibus, attended a birthday party for Clancy's daughter, Cora, in January 2023. Asked about her sleep troubles, Clancy said “things haven’t gotten better and that she feels like a zombie.”

Lindsay Clancy's former father-in-law testifies

Christopher Clancy praised his former daughter-in-law's mothering skills. But he admitted knowing she was having issues. At one point, he suggested the grandchildren stay with him and his wife, but his son declined.

“I knew she was having a hard time sleeping,” Christopher Clancy said. “I knew she just didn’t feel well. I knew she went to the emergency room where my wife was working. Those types of struggles.”

Lindsay Clancy's attorneys in criminal and civil cases have said that she had postpartum psychosis, a condition that a small fraction of women exhibit after childbirth, and that she had bipolar disorder that wasn’t fully diagnosed until after the killings. Her attorneys say her condition seemed to worsen on the psychiatric medications, some of them problematic for bipolar patients.

If convicted of murder, she faces life in prison without parole. If found not guilty due to a lack of criminal responsibility, she would be committed to a state mental health facility.

Another case that echoes Clancy’s is going back to court

Meanwhile, the judge and the district attorney learned Thursday that they face a retrial in another case involving a mother’s mental state when she killed her two school-age children in 2018.

Massachusetts’ top court threw out Latarsha Sanders’ murder convictions in the stabbings of sons Edson “Marlon” Brito, 8, and La’son Brito, 5.

Sanders told police in a recorded interview that she stabbed the boys because “bad people” text-messaged her commands to carry out a “ritual” connected to “Voodoo stuff” and the Illuminati. The latter is a purported powerful secret society at the center of various conspiracy theories, and Sanders’ family said she had become obsessively fearful of it.

Like Clancy’s lawyers, Sanders’ defense argued she was mentally ill and shouldn’t be held criminally responsible, while prosecutors said she acted deliberately.

A defense neuropsychologist diagnosed Sanders with schizophrenia spectrum disorder, among other conditions, and testified that she was “grossly psychotic” when she killed the children.

The appeal turns on psychiatric evidence

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court faulted the judge for not letting jurors hear many specifics from Sanders' medical records. They showed, among other things, that clinicians at a prison and a psychiatric hospital suggested similar diagnoses after Sanders’ arrest.

Withholding the records from jurors “impermissibly stripped” the defense of its medical foundation, Justice Frank M. Gaziano wrote in a unanimous decision.

Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz's office said in a statement that it was thinking through next steps. Messages seeking comment were sent to a clerk for Superior Court Justice William Sullivan and to a court system spokesperson.

Sanders’ lawyer, Robert F. Shaw Jr., said he looked forward to retrying the case.

“The hope is that those records and that evidence will be able to be viewed by a jury with fresh eyes,” he said by phone.

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Peltz reported from New York.

Ahora con 19 años, Jah’Kobe Bessent espera conocer su destino por una ola delictiva ocurrida en agosto de 2022 que terminó en un accidente fatal. Los investigadores dijeron que Bessent, quien entonces tenía 15 años, conducía un vehículo robado y huía de la Policía cuando provocó el accidente que causó la muerte de Maria Tellez-Valderrabano, de 35 años.

Los fiscales estatales dijeron que Bessent y Jacory Flournoy, de 13 años, primero irrumpieron en una vivienda de Fort Lauderdale mientras los residentes dormían, robaron su automóvil y posteriormente chocaron contra otro vehículo, causando la muerte de Tellez-Valderrabano.

La familia de Tellez-Valderrabano estuvo en la corte el jueves usando colgantes con su fotografía mientras varios familiares de Bessent testificaron en su defensa.

“Lo vi en las noticias. Tenía el presentimiento de que él estaba involucrado”, dijo un familiar.

Durante la audiencia de sentencia, la tía de Bessent, Latonya Burns, describió lo que, según dijo, fue una crianza difícil y traumática que afectó gravemente su estado mental.

La hermana de Bessent, quien también está tras las rejas, testificó que ella y su hermano sufrieron abuso físico. Dijo que hubo ocasiones en las que su madre le ordenó sujetar a Jah’Kobe mientras lo golpeaban.

Los fiscales estatales argumentaron que los perturbadores detalles de la crianza de Bessent no deben restar importancia al hecho de que una mujer murió y una familia perdió a un ser querido.

La familia de la víctima dijo que quiere justicia por la muerte de Tellez-Valderrabano, pero será el juez quien finalmente decida la sentencia de Bessent.

Al momento de este reporte, el padre de Bessent se encontraba en el estrado de los testigos.

Federal prosecutors said Thursday that they arrested Ángel Aguirre, Guerrero's former governor, on accusations of “concealing evidence to determine the whereabouts of the students" of the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College.

The former governor, belonging to a party that gave rise to Mexico's ruling Morena party, is the highest-profile arrest in the case to date since the detention of former federal Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam, who is facing criminal charges of forced disappearance, obstruction of justice and torture. Aguirre governed Guerrero from 2011 until he resigned in October 2014, one month after the students disappeared.

The disappearance of the students from the rural teacher’s college of Ayotzinapa after they commandeered several buses on their way to a protest shocked Mexico and the international community, and continues to fuel outrage as the truth of the case continues to trickle out nearly 12 years later.

According to Mexican authorities, a cartel in Guerrero state's city of Iguala attacked the students in collusion with security forces as well as local, state and federal authorities, including the military. Officials were presumably involved by taking part in the crime or concealing it.

Ernestina Godoy, the Attorney General of Mexico, stated that two testimonies gathered this year indicate that Aguirre not only requested that officials hand over the security camera footage from one of the locations of the attack that night but also ordered the destruction of any evidence related to the events.

“The Attorney General’s Office has evidence proving that this order to conceal the evidence was issued directly by the then-governor, with the participation of high-level state officials,” she said.

“Far from being an isolated act or a technical oversight, the concealment of the recordings was the result of a malicious operation, deliberately orchestrated from the highest levels of the State Executive Branch.”

Godoy did not explain why the testimonies of a collaborator and a protected witness, collected in January and May 2016 respectively, were obtained more than a decade after the events. She only indicated that when she arrived at the Attorney General’s Office at the end of last year, she began a “reanalysis” of the case with a “new investigative approach.”

Hours later, the Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center, which represents the families, stated in a social media post that neither the students’ parents nor their attorneys had been notified of the arrest and that they were unaware of the charges. “If it is solid and in accordance with the law, the process that is beginning could help settle a debt of justice for the families,” the center said.

The current federal administration had committed to inform parents first of any developments, a key demand from families for years.

Clemente Rodríguez, the father of one of the students, recalled that from the beginning families asked for Aguirre to be investigated. “He has to tell everything he knows,” he told The Associated Press.

After three administrations, dozens of arrests and an investigation plagued by irregularities, key questions remain unanswered. Authorities believe the students were killed, but only bone fragments from three of them have been found, and the motive for the attack remains unclear, although it is believed to have been linked to heroin trafficking in buses to the U.S. operated by the local cartel in collusion with authorities.

On Sept. 26, 2014, students were attacked in a coordinated manner at various locations. In one instance, cameras recorded the moment when security forces stopped one of the buses outside the Palace of Justice, the seat of the courts, but initial official statements claimed that this footage did not exist. Now, the federal prosecutor’s office confirms what investigators from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) denounced years ago: that these recordings were hidden or destroyed to conceal evidence.

The administration of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who served from 2018 to 2024, described the Ayotzinapa case as a “state crime.”

During President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration, which began in October 2024, the president said that new lines of investigation were reopened, some of which, according to the prosecutor, have led to the arrest of the former governor.

Paz dio un mensaje a la nación en la ciudad de Sucre por los 201 años de la fundación de Bolivia en el que pidió disculpas por sus errores y destacó el apoyo de la población a pesar de haber aplicado medidas económicas impopulares como el fin del subsidio a los combustibles.

El mandatario aseguró que todas las reformas “requieren de estabilidad política y continuidad institucional” por lo que convocó a “construir un gran acuerdo nacional” y apostar por el diálogo tras las movilizaciones impulsadas por sindicatos obreros, campesinos y seguidores del expresidente Evo Morales (2006-2019) que durante 53 días protagonizaron protestas y bloqueos que asfixiaron al país.

Adelantó que además del proyecto de ley de inversiones —que busca atraer capital extranjero— también enviará al Congreso un paquete de iniciativas que incluyen dos que buscan abrir el sector de los hidrocarburos y la minería a alianzas con privados.

Para que estos proyectos sean aprobados por la Asamblea Paz necesita negociar con todas las fuerzas politicas porque no posee mayoría.

Durante su discurso el mandatario reconoció que uno de los grandes males del país es la corrupción, por lo que anunció la creación del Alto Comisionado de Integridad Institucional y Transparencia en la administración pública.

Recientemente el secretario de Estado de Estados Unidos, Marco Rubio, ratificó el apoyo al gobierno de Paz y celebró la profundización de la cooperación para “brindar seguridad y prosperidad a ambas naciones”.

Tras llegar a la presidencia a fines el año pasado Paz dio un giro en la política exterior y se acercó a Estados Unidos para relanzar las relaciones diplomáticas rotas durante casi 20 años de los gobiernos de izquierda de Morales (2006-2019) y Luis Arce (2020-2025).

En marzo Paz se reunió con el presidente estadounidense Donald Trump y varios gobernantes de América Latina para combatir el narcotráfico y el terrorismo, entre otros delitos, bajo el denominado Escudo de las Américas.

En ese mismo mes la policía capturó en Bolivia al presunto narcotraficante uruguayo Sebastián Marset, uno de los más buscados y que fue entregado a Estados Unidos.

Paz resaltó en su discurso que otros 16 capos narcotraficantes fueron detenidos.

Por la noche, en conferencia de prensa, el ministro de Gobierno Marco Antonio Oviedo aseguró que en el país existe “una lucha de carteles internacionales de narcoterrorismo que se están disputando el territorio boliviano”.

A su vez informó que los asesinatos de al menos cinco personas, entre ellas un oficial de la policía, en la región oriental de Santa Cruz, estarían relacionados con Marset.

Posteriormente, la policía presentó a siete detenidos. Oviedo dijo que cuidaban una pista clandestina "para hacer despachos de droga a Brasil”.

El 29 de julio, en la localidad de San Matías —fronteriza con Brasil—, se produjo una balacera donde murieron cuatro personas. Días después, en una localidad vecina un oficial de la policía que realizaba un operativo fue quemado.

La ola de asesinatos continuó con otros cinco casos que aún se investigan, mientras la policía realiza operativos en la frontera con Brasil.

The truck dumped the ducks from one side of a half-raised bridge. After forming a yellow pool in the river, the ducks floated for around 15 minutes before a winner and runner-up were plucked from the water.

The annual event, a fundraiser for Special Olympics Illinois, draws thousands of participants. At an accompanying festival, participants snapped pictures with inflatable ducks and doodled on a chalkboard under the prompt, “I adopt a duck because …” Some sported rubber duck-printed shirts.

Becky Cavanagh, the Ducky Derby ambassador and a 13-year Special Olympics athlete, held up the winning duck to the cheers of crowds packed on both sides of the river.

Cavanagh said her favorite part about the Special Olympics was “making new friends.” Asked before the race how she felt about picking the winning duck, she cheered. “Woo!”

Special Olympics Illinois organizes competitions across the state for people with disabilities and special needs. It costs $10 to sponsor a “lone duck,” which will feed an athlete lunch at a competition, and $30 for a “quack pack” of six ducks, which supplies gold medals for a team. The competition has raised more than $480,000.

The sponsor of the fastest duck wins an SUV, and the runner-up will win $2,500 in cash, said Pete Beale-DelVecchio, president of Special Olympics Illinois.

“It really is a fantastic day for our athletes,” he said ahead of the race at an area next to the river, where derby attendees posed with inflatable rubber ducks and bopped along to a live DJ.

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Mayes-Osterman is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Ocurrió a primeras horas de la tarde del jueves en el área de la cuadra 20300 de Northwest 35th Avenue en Miami Gardens.

Los agentes acudieron rápidamente al lugar tras recibir reportes de una balacera.

Según Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, una persona fue trasladada en helicóptero al HCA Florida Aventura Hospital como alerta de trauma.

SKY 10 sobrevoló el lugar alrededor de las 2:15 p.m., donde se podía ver a agentes rodeando un vehículo que quedó con la puerta del lado del conductor abierta y varios objetos esparcidos en el suelo junto al automóvil.

Las autoridades no han proporcionado información sobre las circunstancias que llevaron a la balacera reportada.

Esta es una noticia de última hora que será actualizada a medida que haya nueva información disponible.

Pero Bracamonte, una enfermera jubilada de 74 años de Tucson, afirmó que siente que el calor ha afectado más aspectos de su día a día: planes de verano con familiares en toda la región, encuentros con amigos, viajes por carretera y su rutina diaria de caminata matutina.

“He notado al menos una diferencia de 10 grados en el clima. Cada verano, parece que hace más y más calor”, aseguró.

Al igual que Bracamonte, los estadounidenses sienten cada vez más un impacto personal del calor extremo, según una nueva encuesta de The Associated Press y el NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

De acuerdo con el sondeo, los adultos en Estados Unidos tienen más probabilidades de afirmar que el calor extremo ha tenido un “gran impacto” o un “impacto menor” en sus planes de viaje o vacaciones, en sus facturas de electricidad, en su sueño, en las actividades al aire libre de su familia y en más aspectos de su vida cotidiana que en julio de 2024.

Gran parte de ese cambio se dio entre personas que viven en el oeste o en la región centro-norte del país.

Los demócratas también tienen más probabilidades que los republicanos de decir que el calor extremo ha tenido un “gran” impacto en cada uno de los aspectos analizados.

El calentamiento ha puesto en peligro al planeta, especialmente en los últimos años; los científicos calculan que la temperatura media de la Tierra en 2025 se mantuvo entre las tres más altas registradas, junto con 2024 y 2023. Estados Unidos ha sufrido peligrosos domos de calor en los últimos años, y temperaturas inusualmente altas incluso a comienzos del año.

El reciente clima abrasador ha influido en miles de muertes relacionadas con el calor al provocar la muerte de más personas cada año que todos los demás fenómenos meteorológicos combinados. Aumenta el riesgo de incendios forestales, tensiona la infraestructura pública, devasta la agricultura y causa estragos en reuniones como eventos deportivos.

Ahora, la encuesta muestra cómo el calor extremo transforma la vida diaria de los estadounidenses.

“Tengo que levantarme a las 5 de la mañana para caminar antes de las 6, porque para las 7 (la temperatura) ya está en los 80 grados (Fahrenheit, alrededor de 27 grados Celsius)... Pierdo un par de horas de sueño porque tengo que despertarme más temprano”, añadió Bracamonte, quien dijo que se identifica como una demócrata muy liberal. “No puedes quedarte afuera sin enfermarte, a menos que bebas agua todo el tiempo; hace muchísimo, muchísimo calor”.

Aumentan las facturas de electricidad

Alrededor de 8 de cada 10 estadounidenses dicen que sus facturas de electricidad han tenido un “gran” o un “menor” impacto por el calor extremo durante el último año, frente al 69% en julio de 2024, según la encuesta.

Casi la mitad (el 44%) de los estadounidenses que viven en la región centro-norte dicen que el calor extremo ha tenido un “gran” impacto en sus facturas de electricidad, frente al 29% de hace dos años.

El aumento de los precios de la electricidad en los hogares se ha convertido en un tema político cada vez más destacado en los últimos años. El clima extremo es solo uno de los factores que afectan las facturas de electricidad, pero implica que la gente usa más energía para el aire acondicionado, o en los meses fríos, para la calefacción.

“Siento que mis costos de servicios públicos probablemente se duplicaron en los últimos tres o cuatro años”, afirmó Daemien Williams, un inspector de puentes de 50 años que vive en Cahokia Heights, Illinois, y se identifica como demócrata. “Sí reviso mis facturas con bastante detalle y veo que los kilovatios y el consumo en realidad han subido, no solo el precio que cobran por ello”.

Impactos en planes de viaje y vacaciones, así como en las actividades familiares al aire libre

El calor extremo afecta la vida de los estadounidenses de otras maneras, de acuerdo con la encuesta.

Alrededor de 4 de cada 10 estadounidenses dicen que el calor extremo ha tenido un gran impacto o un impacto menor en sus planes de viaje o vacaciones, frente a aproximadamente una cuarta parte en 2024.

“Ha afectado a toda mi familia porque normalmente nos reunimos mucho durante el verano”, explicó Bracamonte. “Tenemos familia en Texas y en el norte de Arizona. Y hemos visto que ha habido muchos más incendios, muchas más inundaciones, todo eso. Así que eso, en cierto modo, frena nuestros planes de viajar”.

Las olas de calor extremo aumentan el riesgo de incendios forestales, y un mundo más cálido potencia las tormentas que, en última instancia, podrían traer más precipitaciones.

Alrededor de 7 de cada 10 estadounidenses dicen que el calor extremo ha tenido un gran impacto o un impacto menor en las actividades al aire libre de su familia, frente a aproximadamente 6 de cada 10 en 2024.

Sean Conway, un especialista en marketing directo de 41 años en North Shore, Massachusetts, dijo, por ejemplo, que los entrenamientos de fútbol de sus hijos podrían posponerse o cancelarse debido a temperaturas extremas.

Pero para Conway, que se considera un independiente moderado con inclinación republicana, esto es algo menor. “A veces, simplemente hay que estar afuera con el mal tiempo”.

No sorprende que muchos estadounidenses digan que perciben los impactos, afirmó Jennifer Francis, climatóloga del Woodwell Climate Research Center, quien no participó en la encuesta.

“Las olas de calor brutales y potencialmente mortales se han vuelto más frecuentes, más intensas y más persistentes en muchas partes del mundo, incluidos nuestros estados del oeste y de la región centro-norte”, indicó. “El calor extremo, combinado con largos periodos de sequía, ha afectado directamente nuestra salud, además de tener efectos indirectos en nuestros bolsillos”.

La creencia en el cambio climático se mantiene en gran medida estable

Aunque más estadounidenses dicen sentir un impacto personal del calor extremo, eso no significa que un número creciente crea en el cambio climático.

Aproximadamente dos tercios (66%) de los estadounidenses creen que el cambio climático está ocurriendo, una ligera disminución frente al 73% en septiembre de 2025. Cerca del 17% dice no estar seguro de si el cambio climático está ocurriendo, y alrededor del 15% dice que no está ocurriendo.

Williams, el residente de Illinois, atribuye su creencia en el cambio climático en parte a cambios extremos del tiempo, incluidas temperaturas muy altas y muy frías.

“Mi mayor indicador del cambio en el clima es que las inundaciones ocurren con mucha más frecuencia”, observó, y señaló que cree tanto en causas naturales como humanas.

John Hazel, de 33 años, de Waco, Texas, dice que ha notado cambios desde que era más joven.

“Cuando era niño, parecía algo muy raro cuando (la temperatura) llegaba a 100 (grados Fahrenheit, o 37 grados Celsius); todo el mundo decía: ‘guau’. Y ahora es todos los días”, afirmó Hazel, investigador de escenas del crimen. “Las estaciones se sentían un poco más equilibradas. Ahora se siente como si el verano se quedara más tiempo: empieza antes y dura más”.

Hazel, quien se identifica como un republicano conservador y cree en el cambio climático, dijo que planifica en función del calor.

“En cuanto sales, ya estás sudando aunque no estés haciendo gran cosa. Definitivamente, he notado que tienes que tomar descansos de estar afuera; tienes que bañarte, ducharte más seguido, añadió Hazel. “Sin duda es una consideración mayor”.

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La encuesta, en la que participaron 1.165 adultos, se realizó del 23 al 27 de julio de 2026, utilizando una muestra extraída del panel AmeriSpeak de NORC, basado en probabilidades, diseñado para ser representativo de la población de Estados Unidos. El margen de error muestral para los adultos en general es de más o menos 3,7 puntos porcentuales.

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Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con la ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.

El propietario y presidente de Voepass, José Luiz Felicio Filho, figura entre los acusados por el suceso, que ocurrió en la ciudad de Vinhedo, a las afueras de Sao Paulo. Los fiscales locales aún deben decidir si él y los demás serán imputados en una fecha por determinar.

La policía federal también acusó a otros 15 empleados actuales y anteriores de Voepass de poner en peligro la seguridad del tráfico aéreo, lo que resultó en un desastre mortal, un delito que podría conllevar penas de hasta 12 años de cárcel. Entre los cargos adicionales contra algunos integrantes del grupo figura la omisión de fallas técnicas en los registros de mantenimiento de las aeronaves.

El percance ocurrió cuando el ATR 72-500 bimotor turbohélice, que cubría la ruta desde Cascavel, en el estado sureño de Paraná, hacia el aeropuerto internacional de Guarulhos, se precipitó 3.900 metros (13.000 pies) hasta el patio trasero de un condominio cerrado, causando la muerte de 58 pasajeros y cuatro tripulantes.

Los investigadores añadieron que las grabadoras de datos de la aeronave mostraron que su sistema de deshielo falló repetidas veces, o fue activado y desactivado manualmente durante 136 vuelos.

André Ribeiro, investigador de la policía federal, manifestó que se autorizó de manera irregular el despegue de la aeronave hacia condiciones severas de congelamiento de las que ya se tenía conocimiento, pese a que había presentado fallas en el sistema de deshielo en tres vuelos anteriores ese mismo día.

“Esto marca un antes y un después en los desastres por choques aéreos aquí”, declaró Ribeiro, que también planteó que los fiscales deberían examinar nuevas acusaciones contra la Agencia Nacional de Aviación Civil (ANAC, por sus siglas en portugués).

Thalles Andrade, un abogado de las familias de las víctimas, indicó en un comunicado que procurará obtener que “todos los responsables, personas y empresas, incluidos directores, empresas involucradas en la operación y en la venta de boletos” paguen indemnizaciones.

“Vamos a ir por todos los que, por acción u omisión, contribuyeron a esto”, advirtió.

Las 16 personas acusadas formalmente en el caso no hicieron comentarios sobre la medida de la policía federal.

La policía anunció sus hallazgos en una conferencia de prensa tras una investigación de dos años. Concluyó que omisiones deliberadas, prácticas de mantenimiento inadecuadas y fallas organizacionales contribuyeron directamente a que la aeronave partiera rumbo a condiciones meteorológicas peligrosas.

El mes pasado, una investigación de la fuerza aérea brasileña confirmó que una combinación de condiciones severas de congelamiento, al igual que fallas de sistemas mecánicos y distracciones de los pilotos, contribuyeron al choque aéreo más mortífero en el país desde 2007.

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Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.

La presidenta Claudia Sheinbaum anunció el refuerzo de la seguridad en las zonas de producción de aguacates para impulsar la reanudación de las exportaciones lo antes posible y evitar cualquier impacto grave en la economía mexicana o en el mercado estadounidense.

Estados Unidos es un gran consumidor de aguacate mexicano: compró más de medio millón de toneladas en los cuatro primeros meses de 2026, unos 2.200 millones de aguacates. Pero antes de su importación verifica ‘in situ’ la calidad de la fruta para evitar que introduzca plagas al país. Si este control no se hace, detiene las compras y los precios pueden verse afectados.

Estas inspecciones se suspendieron el miércoles por motivos de seguridad en Michoacán, principal productor de esta fruta y región de alta actividad del crimen organizado.

No es la primera vez que se detienen las exportaciones. A principios de 2022, en vísperas de la Super Bowl, se produjo una interrupción que duró una semana, aunque no afectó al consumo de guacamole el día del partido porque los aguacates ya se habían enviado.

A continuación, las causas de esta nueva interrupción:

¿Por qué en ocasiones se paralizan las exportaciones?

En Michoacán operan muchos cárteles que, además de producir y traficar droga, se financian a través de extorsiones a todo tipo de sectores económicos, y el del aguacate es uno de los más importantes.

En las últimas dos décadas, los inspectores de Estados Unidos se han visto a veces afectados por ese escenario de violencia. En 2024 dos empleados del Departamento de Agricultura estadounidense (USDA por sus siglas en inglés) fueron asaltados y retenidos temporalmente.

En esta ocasión no se dio a conocer un incidente concreto y las autoridades de Michoacán dijeron que la suspensión fue “preventiva” por unas detenciones recientes ligadas a casos de extorsión.

El analista mexicano David Saucedo considera que la importancia de las exportaciones de aguacate a Estados Unidos es una de las razones por las que la administración de Donald Trump ha designado a cuatro cárteles que operan en el estado como organizaciones terroristas.

Además de la seguridad, ¿preocupa algo más a EEUU?

Sí. La Comisión del Aguacate de California pidió un mayor control de la fruta con destino Estados Unidos después de que el 4 de agosto se informara del hallazgo de una larva sospechosa durante una inspección a una empacadora mexicana. La comisión dijo en un comunicado que no pudo recogerse una muestra, pero podría ser una plaga controlada que se come las ramas del árbol de aguacates.

Las autoridades mexicanas no han hecho ningún comentario sobre este tema.

La comisión californiana también afirmó que no debe permitirse que el crimen organizado intervenga en el sector. “La Administración Trump hace bien en proteger al personal estadounidense y plantar cara a los cárteles”, dijo su presidente, Ken Melban. “No se puede permitir que los cárteles se aprovechen del acuerdo de libre comercio entre Estados Unidos, México y Canadá para socavar a los productores estadounidenses y destruir la producción nacional”.

El consumo de aguacates se ha disparado en Estados Unidos en las últimas décadas, y California solo cultiva una pequeña parte de los aguacates necesarios para satisfacer esa demanda.

¿Cuál es el proceso para exportar aguacates a Estados Unidos?

Los aguacates mexicanos representan más del 80% de las importaciones estadounidenses de este producto. En 2025 México vendió a Estados Unidos aguacates por 3.653 millones de dólares y solo en marzo de este año fueron exportadas casi 150.000 toneladas.

Pero como Estados Unidos también cultiva esta fruta, el Departamento de Agricultura de ese país envía a inspectores que vigilan las plantaciones y empacadoras en México para garantizar que el producto exportado no entre a su país con plagas.

¿Cuánto duran los paros?

Generalmente la situación se soluciona en cuestión de días porque los paros de las exportaciones dañan a todos. Este sector da empleo a unas 200.000 personas solo en Michoacán. Si se prolonga la interrupción de las ventas puede haber desabastecimiento en el mercado estadounidense. Y si no se mueve el aguacate, los criminales no pueden cobrar su extorsión, con lo que pierden dinero.

Un productor de Michoacán contaba a AP esta semana que él paga de extorsión 1 peso por kilo exportado y exporta unas 90 toneladas al día, lo que a él le supone pagos de más de 5.000 dólares diarios. Habló pidiendo el anonimato por miedo.

Cuando se detiene la verificación, las autoridades mexicanas suelen ofrecer más seguridad, como anunció el jueves Sheinbaum. La presidenta dijo el jueves que también van a evaluar con la embajada que sean funcionarios mexicanos los que verifiquen el producto. Esta opción ya se manejó en el pasado, pero USDA siguió a cargo de las inspecciones aunque con fuerzas de seguridad mexicanas acompañando.

Pese a que el ambiente se tranquiliza generalmente pronto, los productores aseguran que eso no significa que las extorsiones terminen.

¿Se mantienen las exportaciones desde otros estados?

Sí. La suspensión de actividades de verificación solo afecta a Michoacán. Únicamente otro estado mexicano, Jalisco, está autorizado por la USDA para exportar a Estados Unidos, pero la cantidad que vende es mucho menor.

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La periodista de AP Amy Taxin contribuyó a esta nota desde Santa Ana, California.

No, it's not quite rose-colored glasses. But the veteran quarterback is wearing red contact lenses during training camp this summer in his return to the team that drafted him in 2013.

Fashionable? Maybe. Functional? Definitely.

“It’s something that we’ve been doing,” said the 35-year-old Smith, acquired in the offseason from Las Vegas. “It blocks out the sunlight and all that, so it’s actually pretty cool. It keeps the glare from the sun out of your eyes.”

Smith was still wearing the UV protection lenses while speaking to reporters after practice Thursday, giving the quarterback's eyes an almost sinister look. One reporter joked that he was scared, causing Smith to break into a not-so-evil grin.

“As I got back here, I spoke to some eye specialists," Smith said, “and they suggested it and then we started doing it.”

The quarterback was asked if he was having eye issues or simply opted for the contacts over wearing a tinted visor on his helmet so there was less squinting and more seeing.

“It’s just something we’re trying out, just to see what it was like,” he said. “I like it, so we’ve been sticking with it.”

Several players around the league have tried wearing the glare-reducing contacts, including Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert last summer. Smith said he first saw them when then-Jets teammate Santonio Holmes wore them during the 2013 season.

Oh, and by the way, Smith isn't seeing red these days.

“The entire room is yellow, so it’s a yellow tint to everything,” he said. “But yeah, it’s pretty cool. You guys should try it.”

They seem to be working for Smith, who is off to a solid start to camp. He played his first four NFL seasons for the franchise before stints with the Giants, Chargers, Seahawks and Raiders. New York, looking for a veteran signal caller in the offseason, acquired Smith and a seventh-round draft pick in March from Las Vegas for a sixth-rounder.

He'll enter the season as the unquestioned starter and is feeling comfortable in new offensive coordinator Frank Reich's system.

“I’m excited about the schematic advantages that he’s able to create, but also the ways that he allows players to go out there and make plays and to have freedom to take ownership of the offense,” Smith said. “I think there’s a fine balance with X’s and O’s and also having great players and allowing those guys to be themselves. Coach Reich, he’s played in the league, so he understands that dynamic and that balance.”

The Jets play their first preseason game next Friday night at home against Tampa Bay and former coach Todd Bowles. It wasn't yet known if New York coach Aaron Glenn will play his starters, including Smith, at all in that game. Smith, who has played in the preseason the last several years, sounded open to the possibility.

“I love playing football.” Smith said. “Whenever coach tells me to go out there, I go play.”

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL

The Korea Aerospace Research Institute's Danuri spacecraft flew over the impact site soon after the Falcon 9 upper stage inadvertently plowed into the moon on Wednesday. Danuri made multiple passes, snapping photos from lunar orbit that were released by the space agency Thursday.

The terrain is noticeably darker where the rocket hit and carved out a crater, sending dust and rock everywhere. Korean space officials said Danuri gathered before and after shots.

NASA expects its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to fly over the crash site next week to view the aftermath.

Elon Musk's SpaceX launched Danuri from Cape Canaveral in 2022.

The company also sent a pair of private lunar landers to the moon last year. The upper stage from that launch is what crashed into the moon this week at 5,400 mph (8,700 kph), placed on an accidental collision course by solar activity and gravity, according to SpaceX.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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On Thursday, the Heat, in partnership with the Advocacy Network on Disabilities, hosted its annual back-to-school shopping spree.

Heat players and staff members helped children with their shopping at a Walmart in southwest Miami-Dade County.

Local 10’s Clay Ferraro was there for all the fun, and his full report can be seen at the top of this page.

Este jueves, el Heat, en colaboración con Advocacy Network on Disabilities, realizó su jornada anual de compras por el regreso a clases.

Jugadores y miembros del personal del Heat ayudaron a los niños con sus compras en un Walmart del suroeste del condado Miami-Dade.

Clay Ferraro de Local 10 estuvo presente para toda la diversión, y su reportaje completo puede verse en la parte superior de esta página.

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An arrest report from the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office states that TikTok tipped authorities off that Maylin Elena Viana, 29, had uploaded the illicit clip of herself and the victim.

The arrest report doesn’t state how Viana knows the child.

Deputies said Viana “admitted to recording the victim and his genitalia” and said they additionally found a video in an Instagram account of Viana engaging in further lewd conduct with the child.

Viana, who lives in the rural Redland area, was arrested on charges related to the promotion of child sexual abuse material and lewd and lascivious molestation.

As of Thursday, she was being held without bond in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

Un informe de arresto de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade indica que TikTok alertó a las autoridades de que Maylin Elena Viana, de 29 años, había subido el video ilícito en el que aparecían ella y la víctima.

El informe de arresto no indica qué relación tiene Viana con el niño.

Los agentes dijeron que Viana “admitió haber grabado a la víctima y sus genitales” y señalaron que además encontraron un video en una cuenta de Instagram en el que Viana participaba en otros actos lascivos con el niño.

Viana, quien vive en la zona rural de Redland, fue arrestada por cargos relacionados con la promoción de material de abuso sexual infantil y abuso lascivo y libidinoso.

Hasta el jueves, permanecía detenida sin derecho a fianza en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight.

Speier is appealing the ban, according to the MLB Players Association.

Additionally, Mariners manager Dan Wilson was also suspended one-game and will serve his suspension in the series finale Thursday against the Tigers. Managers cannot appeal a suspension. Manny Acta will serve as the manager for the Mariners.

Speier had relieved Bryan Woo in the eighth inning of Seattle’s 4-2 win. After getting the first two outs, Speier threw two inside fastballs to Torres, with the latter pegging him on the upper left leg on a 96.3 mph pitch.

Torres and Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh proceeded to have words with each other before the benches and bullpens cleared. There were no punches thrown, and Wilson was ejected in the aftermath after Speier was tossed from the game. It was the second time this season Wilson was removed from a game.

“It’s always frustrating when your guy’s the guy that gets thrown out,” Wilson said Wednesday. “I think, you know, their guy hits somebody and there’s no consequences.”

Torres was the fourth Tigers batter plunked after Woo hit three batters for only the second time in his career. Tigers rookie Max Clark took a pitch off his elbow guard leading off the third, Riley Green was hit by a pitch in the fourth, and Zach McKinstry in the fifth — both breaking balls on the back foot. McKinstry got first base only after a replay review showed that the ball grazed the front of his foot.

Raleigh had been plunked as well in the bottom half of the seventh by Detroit left-hander Enmanuel De Jesus with a 95-mph fastball in the bottom of the seventh.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb