The Miami Gardens Police Department’s 2-year-old Labrador retriever was back home after vanishing for about six days.

Gael jumped out of the MGPD patrol car and bolted across Northwest Second Avenue on Sept. 7, police said.

A resident recognized Gael and called police on Sept. 13 to report the K-9 was at North Miami Avenue and Northwest 191st Street.

Killed in the crash was 4-year-old Christine Celine Varella Mejia, and two other children, 8-year-old Abraham Medrano Mejia and 7-year-old Yamilah Claudio, are now fighting for their lives at Broward Health Medical Center.

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“She was just a baby, she didn’t deserve this,” said Gabriella Derras, Meija’s aunt. “I still remember the last time I talked with her. She wanted me to take her to Disney, and I promise her and I didn’t.”

Christine Mejia, her parents, an adult cousin and two underage cousins were heading to get pizza Saturday night.

Behind the wheel was Christine Mejia’s mother, who was driving them along the 4100 block of west Hillsboro Boulevard in Deerfield Beach and as she was about to make a U-turn to head westbound when traffic investigators said their car was hit by a motorcycle.

The motorcyclist has been identified as 18-year-old Maxwell Patel, who died at the scene.

The impact caused the Nissan to flip over and the car was left mangled. The adults were all taken to the hospital and two of the surviving children are in critical condition.

Abraham Mejia’s sister, Katherine Medrano, said her little brother is in a medically induced coma.

“He suffered multiple fractures around his whole body, he had severe brain trauma, he had to have brain surgery,” she said.

Derras said Yamilah Claudio also suffered multiple injuries.

“She had really bad head trauma,” she said. “At the moment just praying and hoping she makes it and gets better, she’s also in a medically induced coma.”

The family said they are leaning on to their faith and trying to stay strong during this very difficult time.

“This is every parent’s worst possible nightmare, losing your child, having your child in a comatose state, needing to have brain surgery, having your cousin in another room next to yours and not knowing what is going on with them in their little bodies,” said Medrano. “They are strong children and they are going to make it, I’m praying everyday.”

The Broward Sheriff’s Office said they are investigating the circumstances surrounding the crash.

Family members have created a GoFundMe page to help with funeral expenses for Christine Mejia, and a separate GoFundMe page to assist with hospital expenses for the children who are still recovering.

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It happened around 3:45 p.m. at the chain’s location at 15110 SW 56th St.

According to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, crews arrived to the scene and discovered the damage to the building, as well as a gas leak.

Officials quickly notified the gas company, authorities said.

One woman was taken to HCA Florida Kendall Hospital as a trauma patient, according to MDFR, while two other women taken to area hospitals.

Authorities said one of the injured women was the driver of the car.

There was no word from authorities on the circumstances that led up to the car crashing into the building.

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Authorities said a Pembroke Pines police officer was waiting at a red light at Sheridan Street and Flamingo Road just after 10:30 p.m. when he spotted the young girl “standing on the rear set exposing her upper body outside the right rear window” of a Lexus driven by her mother, Isabella Fernanda Saenz.

Police said Saenz, 26, crossed over a solid white line as the light turned green ― and her daughter was still hanging out of the window.

An arrest report states that the officer pulled Saenz over. The report states she was “unaware” her daughter was unbelted and hanging out of the window.

Police said Saenz smelled of alcohol and had “glossy” eyes. They said she later failed field sobriety testing and a breathalyzer test revealed a blood alcohol content of more than 0.12%, over the legal limit of 0.08%.

According to the report, Saenz told officers that she was coming back from “a kid’s birthday party in Miramar,” where she had a margarita.

After her arrest, she was booked into jail and given an $8,000 bond by a judge on Monday. She no longer appeared in Broward jail records as of Tuesday.

Records show Saenz has received multiple traffic tickets in Broward County dating back to 2023, some of which were later dismissed.

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It happened just before 7 a.m. on July 24 at 785 81st St. in the Biscayne Point section of North Beach.

Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz released footage from two of the cameras deputies were wearing.

The video shows what is called a Special Response Team busting down the door. Once inside, they start shouting at a woman to raise her hands.

A moment later, 17-year-old Durrell Young swings his door open with a gun in his right hand and moves toward the room deputies are in.

The entire interaction happens very quickly.

The Sheriff’s Office says the deputy told Young to put up his hands, but he did not comply, so the deputy shot him.

Authorities released a photo of the gun they said Young was armed with.

The Sheriff’s Office says Young and another man named on the warrant, 18-year-old Valentino Berry, were known to deputies due to previous gun-related offenses.

Berry was taken into custody. Young was pronounced dead at the scene.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is still investigating this shooting.

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A team used heavy-duty specialized equipment to push and pull more than 412,000 pounds out of the Sept. 6 crash site, along Northwest 67 Avenue, and to a nearby lot.

The National Transportation Safety Board continued to investigate what caused the jet to overrun the runway after landing and crash into a van and an SUV, killing five people and injuring five others.

The jet struck seven men — Julio Pineda, Rolando Aleman, Yoel Rodriguez, Carlos Acosta, Javierkys Reyes, Roosevelt Perdomo, and Ridoel Averhoff — who were in a white 2012 Ford E-150 Econoline van at MIA.

Pineda, 75; Aleman, 55; Rodriguez, 53; Acosta, 53; and Reyes, 47, died while working for Professional Ocean Service Corp., a company that cleans planes at MIA.

Perdomo, 36, and Averhoff, 32, were injured. The jet also struck Eugenio Corredor, who was driving a Toyota Corolla Cross SUV on Northwest 67th Avenue outside of MIA.

Corredor, 79, was also injured. Joseph Carroll and Jaime Silva, the pilot and the co-pilot of the Boeing 767-300 operated by 21 Air for Amazon, suffered minor injuries.

Carroll, 55, and Silva, 37, were released from the hospital to face scrutiny over the crash. Perdomo, Averhoff, and Corredor remained at Jackson Memorial Hospital on Tuesday night.

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Un equipo usó maquinaria pesada especializada para empujar y arrastrar las más de 412,000 libras del avión desde el lugar del accidente del 6 de septiembre, a lo largo de Northwest 67 Avenue, hasta un terreno cercano.

La Junta Nacional de Seguridad en el Transporte (NTSB) continúa investigando por qué el avión se salió de la pista después de aterrizar y chocó contra una van y una camioneta. El accidente dejó cinco muertos y cinco heridos.

El avión impactó a siete hombres que iban en una van Ford E-150 Econoline blanca de 2012 dentro de MIA: Julio Pineda, Rolando Aleman, Yoel Rodriguez, Carlos Acosta, Javierkys Reyes, Roosevelt Perdomo y Ridoel Averhoff.

Pineda, de 75 años; Aleman, de 55; Rodriguez, de 53; Acosta, de 53, y Reyes, de 47, murieron mientras trabajaban para Professional Ocean Service Corp., una empresa que limpia aviones en MIA.

Perdomo, de 36 años, y Averhoff, de 32, resultaron heridos. El avión también golpeó a Eugenio Corredor, quien conducía una camioneta Toyota Corolla Cross por Northwest 67th Avenue, fuera del aeropuerto.

Corredor, de 79 años, también resultó herido. Joseph Carroll y Jaime Silva, piloto y copiloto del Boeing 767-300 operado por 21 Air para Amazon, sufrieron heridas leves.

Carroll, de 55 años, y Silva, de 37, ya salieron del hospital y ahora enfrentan el escrutinio por el accidente. Perdomo, Averhoff y Corredor seguían internados en el Jackson Memorial Hospital el martes por la noche.

Las autoridades informaron que un policía de Pembroke Pines esperaba en un semáforo en rojo en Sheridan Street y Flamingo Road poco después de las 10:30 p.m. cuando vio a la niña “de pie en el asiento trasero, con la parte superior del cuerpo fuera de la ventana trasera derecha” de un Lexus que conducía su madre, Isabella Fernanda Saenz.

Según la policía, cuando el semáforo cambió a verde, Saenz, de 26 años, cruzó una línea blanca continua con su hija todavía colgando de la ventana.

El informe de arresto indica que el agente detuvo a Saenz, quien “no se había dado cuenta” de que su hija iba sin cinturón y con medio cuerpo fuera del vehículo.

La policía dijo que Saenz olía a alcohol y tenía los ojos vidriosos. Luego no pasó las pruebas de sobriedad y una prueba de aliento arrojó un nivel de alcohol en la sangre superior a 0.12%, por encima del límite legal de 0.08%.

De acuerdo con el informe, Saenz les dijo a los agentes que regresaba de “una fiesta de cumpleaños de un niño en Miramar”, donde se había tomado una margarita.

Tras su arresto, fue ingresada en la cárcel y el lunes un juez le fijó una fianza de $8,000. Hasta el martes, ya no figuraba en los registros de la cárcel de Broward.

Los registros muestran que Saenz ha recibido varias multas de tránsito en el condado Broward desde 2023, algunas de las cuales fueron desestimadas después.

About 6.7 million viewers tuned in to watch the 78th primetime Emmy Awards on NBC, according to data released Tuesday by the network.

“Widow's Bay” from Apple TV was Monday night's biggest winner by far on the telecast hosted by “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” star Mariska Hargitay, setting a record for a comedy with 14 Emmys. “The Pitt” won best drama for the second straight year.

The Emmys telecast brought in an estimated 6.87 million viewers on ABC in 2024, and 7.42 million on CBS last year.

Sunday's show was far higher than the all-time low of 4.3 million from the Fox telecast of January 2024, which was delayed by months because of Hollywood’s writers and actors strikes.

The Emmys telecast rotates annually between the four broadcast networks.

Los hechos ocurrieron poco antes de las 7 a.m. del 24 de julio en el 785 de 81st St., en la zona de Biscayne Point, en North Beach.

La sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz divulgó las imágenes de dos de las cámaras que llevaban los agentes.

En el video se ve a un equipo especial de respuesta (Special Response Team) derribar la puerta. Una vez adentro, los agentes le gritan a una mujer que levante las manos.

Un instante después, Durrell Young, de 17 años, abre de golpe su puerta con un arma en la mano derecha y avanza hacia la habitación donde están los agentes.

Todo sucede en cuestión de segundos.

Según la Oficina del Sheriff, el agente le ordenó a Young que levantara las manos, pero como no obedeció, le disparó.

Las autoridades publicaron una foto del arma que, según dijeron, tenía Young.

La Oficina del Sheriff indicó que Young y otro joven que figuraba en la orden, Valentino Berry, de 18 años, ya eran conocidos por los agentes por delitos anteriores relacionados con armas.

Berry fue detenido. Young murió en el lugar.

El Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) sigue investigando el tiroteo.

Harrity took one of the best-known photographs of the Vietnam War, of a baby girl lying in a box alongside her brother in what was then the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon.

“Chick was an amazing photographer,” said retired photojournalist Nick Ut, another AP Vietnam War photographer. "We all walked by this homeless boy near a woman selling cigarettes, but Chick saw the photo.“

An eighth-grade teacher in his hometown of Reading, Pennsylvania, urged Harrity to pick up a camera, launching him on “a lifelong journey documenting the world around him,” his wife of 51 years, Yvonne Henry, wrote in an online obituary.

He took pictures ‘of a group of pretty interesting people’

Harrity started his career in 1956 at a Reading newspaper and went on to spend 26 years at the AP, 13 of them in the Washington bureau. He then became chief photographer at U.S. News and World Report.

“I had the chance to run around the world taking pictures of a group of pretty interesting people. I was getting to witness history,” Harrity said in his family's obituary.

As a member of the White House press corps for 33 years, he covered presidents from Lyndon B. Johnson to George W. Bush and was at the White House documenting Richard Nixon's resignation. One Aug. 9, 1974, photo shows a teary-eyed Nixon bidding farewell to members of the White House staff.

Harrity served in the Air National Guard and attended Kent State University. His hobby was “writing and photographing stories ‘as a unit,’” the AP wrote in an internal article describing Harrity as the organization’s Albany photographer.

Harrity had a great sense of comedy that imbued his work and personal lives, his wife said. “The guy had a fantastic sense of humor in every single part of his life,” Henry said. “He always looked for something funny.”

When asked about her husband’s obituary, she said, “”His quote would be, ‘It’s been a wonderful ride.’”

His family's obituary also makes a reference to Harrity's appetite for deep knowledge about the stories he was covering.

A page titled “Chick's favorite cartoons” shows one of two men looking a sign with one arrow captioned “You are here” and another captioned “Those in in the know are here.” Another shows a character from the cartoon “Shoe” who's sent out to do some aerial photography. Perched on a rooftop, the character says, “Luckily I just get paid to take the picture, not to figure out why.”

He was known for forming relationships that made his photography possible

Harrity covered 1960s and 1970s protests in Washington and Milwaukee, among other cities. Sent to Vietnam to help cover the effects of the Paris Peace Accords to end the war, he demonstrated his ability to swiftly form relationships that helped him take top-notch photographs of a country he didn't know intimately, said retired AP photographer Neal Ulevich.

“Chick was not only a top-notch shooter but outstanding at getting along with everyone in a situation that he was new to,” Ulevich said.

Harrity retired from U.S. News on April Fool’s Day 2001, his family wrote in his obituary. He moved to northern California, where he contributed to the Calistoga Tribune and local arts organizations.

During his long career, he received the Associated Press Managing Editors’ award for excellence in photography, the National Press Photographers’ Association's Joseph Sprague memorial award, the Leica Medal of Excellence for photojournalism and the White House National Press Association's lifetime achievement award. He was also named the White House News Photographers Association's photographer of the year.

Beside his wife, Harrity is survived by “interesting, amusing, and treasured family and friends,” his family obituary reads. “He loved well. He was well loved.”

___

Associated Press journalist Edith M. Lederer contributed.

En el choque murió Christine Celine Varella Mejia, de 4 años. Otros dos niños, Abraham Medrano Mejia, de 8 años, y Yamilah Claudio, de 7, luchan por sus vidas en el Broward Health Medical Center.

“Era solo una bebé, no se merecía esto”, dijo Gabriella Derras, tía de la niña. “Todavía me acuerdo de la última vez que hablé con ella. Quería que la llevara a Disney, se lo prometí y no lo cumplí”.

Christine Mejia, sus padres, un primo adulto y dos primos menores de edad iban a comprar pizza el sábado por la noche.

Al volante iba la madre de Christine Mejia. Según los investigadores de tránsito, circulaba por la cuadra 4100 de West Hillsboro Boulevard, en Deerfield Beach, y estaba a punto de dar una vuelta en U para dirigirse hacia el oeste cuando una motocicleta chocó contra el carro.

El motociclista fue identificado como Maxwell Patel, de 18 años, quien murió en el lugar.

Por la fuerza del impacto, el Nissan se volcó y quedó destrozado. Todos los adultos fueron trasladados al hospital y dos de los niños sobrevivientes están en estado crítico.

Katherine Medrano, hermana de Abraham Mejia, contó que su hermanito está en coma inducido.

“Sufrió múltiples fracturas en todo el cuerpo, tuvo un traumatismo cerebral grave y tuvieron que operarlo del cerebro”, relató.

Derras indicó que Yamilah Claudio también sufrió múltiples lesiones.

“Tuvo un golpe muy fuerte en la cabeza”, dijo. “Por ahora solo estamos rezando y esperando que salga adelante y se recupere. Ella también está en coma inducido”.

La familia dice que se apoya en su fe e intenta mantenerse fuerte en este momento tan difícil.

“Esta es la peor pesadilla de cualquier padre: perder a tu hijo, tener a tu hijo en coma, que necesite una operación del cerebro, tener a tu primo en el cuarto de al lado y no saber qué está pasando dentro de esos cuerpecitos”, dijo Medrano. “Son niños fuertes y van a salir adelante. Rezo todos los días”.

La Oficina del Sheriff de Broward informó que investiga las circunstancias del accidente.

Los familiares crearon una página de GoFundMe para cubrir los gastos del funeral de Christine Mejia y otra página de GoFundMe para ayudar con los gastos médicos de los niños que siguen recuperándose.

El accidente ocurrió alrededor de las 3:45 p.m. en el establecimiento de la cadena ubicado en el 15110 SW 56th St.

Según Miami-Dade Fire Rescue (MDFR), al llegar al lugar los rescatistas encontraron daños en el edificio y una fuga de gas.

Las autoridades avisaron de inmediato a la compañía de gas.

Una mujer fue trasladada como paciente de trauma al HCA Florida Kendall Hospital, de acuerdo con MDFR. Otras dos mujeres fueron llevadas a hospitales de la zona.

Las autoridades indicaron que una de las heridas era la conductora del carro.

Hasta el momento, las autoridades no han informado qué llevó a que el vehículo se estrellara contra el edificio.

District Attorney Ryan Raybould said investigators determined the alleged conduct was not a misunderstanding or paperwork error.

The announcement came amid President Donald Trump's broader efforts to draw attention to noncitizen voting ahead of the midterm elections and claim it's a widespread problem, even though research shows it to be rare. Voting by noncitizens is punishable as a felony and can result in deportation.

The Texas charges were previewed earlier Tuesday by U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche during a White House news conference. He told reporters there would be a “big development” on illegal voting in Texas.

Of those seven, Raybould’s office said, some voted while others attempted to vote in the 2024 and 2018 general elections. Others falsely claimed citizenship on a driver’s license or knowingly registered to vote. The office did not make any claim that the seven were colluding with each other.

Those charged ranged in age from 20 to 69 and had citizenship in countries including Mexico, India, Nigeria and Congo. Six of the seven charged were lawful permanent residents, according to a news release from Raybould's office. One had been ordered to be deported in July.

Trump’s efforts to turn the spotlight on noncitizen voting have included pushing the U.S. Postal Service to send mail ballots only to voters verified as U.S. citizens, a plan that was rejected Monday by the Supreme Court, and having the Justice Department sue to force the release of detailed voter data in 30 states and the District of Columbia. Those lawsuits have so far been unsuccessful.

Department of Homeland Security employees also have been examining state voter rolls in a hunt for noncitizens. A whistleblower statement released this week suggested the activity could run afoul of state laws.

In 2025, election officials in Texas investigated 2,724 registered voters flagged as potential noncitizens after the secretary of state’s office checked a federal database that is used to verify citizenship against the state's voter rolls.

That office announced Tuesday that it has referred 117 of those cases to the Texas attorney general's office for investigation of potential noncitizen voting after cross checking the results from the federal database with other agencies and passport information. That represents a minute fraction of the nearly 18 million registered voters in Texas.

One of the units involved in the investigation that led to the seven charges announced Tuesday is part of Attorney General Ken Paxton's office. Paxton is in one of the most closely watched U.S. Senate races this year against Democrat James Talarico.

___

Wilder 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 annual report by environmental and human rights advocacy group Global Witness documented 105 killings in Latin America in 2025. Colombia was the deadliest country for the fourth consecutive year, with 39 killings, followed by Brazil with 26. Honduras and the Philippines recorded 12 each.

Land and environmental defenders are people who work to protect their land, natural resources and communities from threats such as mining, logging, agribusiness and other development, often by documenting environmental damage, organizing communities or patrolling territory.

Among those killed was Vicente Fernandes Vilhalva, a 36-year-old member of Brazil’s Guarani Kaiowa Indigenous people who was shot during an armed attack on his community in Mato Grosso do Sul in November. His community has been involved in a long-running struggle to reclaim ancestral territory.

Together, Colombia and Brazil accounted for 52% of all killings documented globally.

The worldwide toll fell for a second consecutive year, but the report cautioned that the decline does not necessarily mean environmental defenders are becoming safer. The group says killings remain significantly underreported, while land disputes, organized crime and competition over resources are increasingly converging in regions where communities are trying to protect forests, rivers and ancestral territories.

The group documented 142 killings and four disappearances in 2024 and 196 killings in 2023. At the country level, however, the trends varied sharply.

Killings fell in Colombia from 48 in 2024 to 39 last year and in Mexico from 19 to 10. In Brazil, they more than doubled from 12 to 26, while Honduras also recorded twice as many killings, with 12.

The report documented 2,375 killings and disappearances of land and environmental defenders since the organization began tracking them in 2012, one of the few efforts to systematically compile such cases worldwide. Global Witness works with more than 30 organizations in over 20 countries and checks cases against sources including media reports and judicial records.

Indigenous people and farmers bear the brunt

More than three-quarters of those killed in 2025 were Indigenous people, small-scale farmers or Afro-descendants, according to the report. Forty-seven victims were small-scale farmers and 44 were Indigenous. Seven of the Indigenous victims were members of community guard systems established to protect their territories.

Land disputes were linked to 84 killings, more than half the global total. Mining and extractive industries were associated with 11 deaths, logging with eight and agribusiness with six.

Organized crime and hitmen were suspected of involvement in more than a third of killings, according to Global Witness, reflecting what it described as an increasing overlap between criminal activity and the exploitation of land and natural resources.

Almost half of the 39 defenders killed in Colombia were Indigenous and another 15 were small-scale farmers. Thirty-five deaths were linked to land conflicts. The advocacy group identified suspected links to organized crime in 17 killings and another five to contract killers.

Thirteen of the killings happened in the southwestern department of Cauca, including four members of Indigenous Guard, community-led groups that patrol and protect Indigenous territories. The report documented 171 defender killings in Cauca since 2012, more than in any other Colombian department.

Astrid Torres, coordinator of the Colombian advocacy group Somos Defensores, said Indigenous authorities can come into conflict with armed groups seeking to control territory for drug trafficking and other illicit activities.

“They want to impose their order against the interests of the communities and their own authorities,” Torres said.

The region’s location near the Ecuadorian border and Pacific trafficking routes has made it strategic for armed groups involved in the cocaine trade.

Brazil sees a sharp increase in killings

The 26 killings documented in Brazil were more than double the 12 recorded a year earlier.

Eleven of those killed were small-scale farmers and seven were Indigenous. Most cases involved demands for recognition of ancestral territories or land reform, with half concentrated in the Amazon states of Rondonia and Para, where illegal logging and mining, cattle ranching and agricultural expansion have contributed to longstanding land conflicts.

The increase came despite greater Indigenous participation and commitments on land rights at last year’s COP30 climate summit in the Amazonian city of Belem. Brazil announced the titling of 10 Indigenous territories during the summit, though hundreds of applications remain pending.

Brazil’s Ministry of Indigenous Peoples told The Associated Press in a written response that reducing violence against Indigenous communities requires securing their territories, combating invasions and illegal activities and holding those responsible for crimes accountable. It said the government has resumed demarcating Indigenous lands and has carried out operations to remove outsiders from 12 territories, benefiting more than 67,000 Indigenous people.

Threats extend beyond Latin America

Killings were documented across 15 countries in 2025.

Asia accounted for 12% of the global total. The Philippines recorded 12 killings, the highest number outside Latin America, and the report said five involved suspected participation by the military amid counterinsurgency operations. Killings were also documented in India, Indonesia, Turkey, Guatemala, Ecuador, Nicaragua and France.

In Africa, three killings were verified — two in Tanzania and one in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The report cautioned that armed conflict, restrictions on civil society and insecurity make attacks especially difficult to document there.

In Congo, journalist Fiston Wilondja Mazambi was found dead in Bukavu after investigating alleged illegal gold mining by the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group. Global Witness has recorded 79 killings of defenders in Congo since 2012, the highest total it has documented in Africa.

The report also focuses on community-led protection strategies being adopted as Indigenous groups respond to threats that governments have often failed to contain. They include territorial patrols, early warning systems and community monitoring networks.

In Peru, where four defenders were killed last year, the report highlights the Kakataibo Indigenous Guard, whose members patrol Amazonian territory threatened by illegal coca cultivation and organized crime.

“Defending our territory is important to us as a community and as a people, and we’re proud to support the climate that we all depend on,” Segundo Ispón, commander of the Kakataibo Indigenous Guard, said in a statement. “But for this next generation coming up, the work is more dangerous than ever.” ___

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. 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.

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A broad area of low pressure spinning about 1,000 miles southeast of Bermuda over the open central Atlantic is the only game in town for the next week but could make a run at breaking the quiet streak by this weekend.

As of Tuesday morning, the National Hurricane Center was giving the system a medium chance of developing, but not only later this week when upper-level winds become more conducive to organization.

As we discussed in Monday’s newsletter, computer models are split on this one. Traditional physics-based models indicate little to no appreciable odds of development while our newer AI camp of models is more bullish, though have waffled on those higher odds from run to run.

Both the Euro AI ensemble system and the Google’s DeepMind machine learning-based 1,000-member ensemble system suggest a medium chance of development as the system loiters over the central Atlantic into next week.

While the low-pressure system will initially move northwestward, by the weekend high pressure building to its north could drive it back south, allowing it to do a quick loop-the-loop, eventually turning back toward the northeast ahead of an advancing jet stream dip next week.

The uncertainty with this one is high – both with its future development and track – and while it won’t be a concern for the U.S., interests in Bermuda will want to monitor the forecasts as the system hangs around in the vicinity for the next week or so.

If the system becomes better organized in the coming days and is designated an invest, we’ll have more specialized intensity models to help us better gauge future intensity, but models do suggest it’ll be in an environment that could support strengthening should it form.

For now, it’s no near-term threat, but we’ll follow the trends for Bermuda in the days ahead.

As part of the plea deal, Alex Saab agreed to cooperate in continuing federal investigations, paving the way for his eventual cooperation against his former protector. He also agreed to forfeit $195 million in criminal proceeds from the corruption scheme.

Saab, 54, was deported in May by Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodriguez to the U.S., which has been targeting the Colombian-born businessman for more than a decade.

The money laundering offense carries a maximum 20-year penalty but prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence at the low end of the recommended range and seek additional reductions should his cooperation prove substantial.

Saab was previously charged during the first Trump administration in 2019 and then arrested during a refueling stop in Cape Verde on what the Venezuelan government described as a high-level humanitarian mission to Iran.

But President Joe Biden pardoned Saab in 2023 in exchange for the release of several imprisoned Americans in Venezuela. The deal, part of a failed effort by the Biden White House to lure Maduro into holding a free presidential election, was harshly criticized by Republicans and federal law enforcement officials, who immediately began investigating Saab for other alleged crimes not covered by the narrowly tailored pardon.

“This case sends a clear message: Political connections, wealth and proximity to a corrupt regime will not put anyone beyond the reach of American justice,” said Jason A. Reding Quiñones, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, who attended Tuesday’s proceedings along with more than a dozen federal agents.

The new indictment centers on contracts for the so-called CLAP program set up by Maduro to provide staples — rice, corn flour, cooking oil — to poor Venezuelans at a time of rampant hyperinflation and a crumbling currency.

High-level protection offered in exchange for bribes

In an eight-page statement of facts submitted as part of the plea deal, Saab admitted to skimming at least $195 million from at least six contracts awarded to companies he controlled to import food and medicine.

The scheme “had the approval, participation and protection of some of the Venezuelan government’s highest ranking public authorities,” including from an individual described only as “Government Official 1A,” who designated a surrogate — one of four unnamed co-defendants — to receive bribe payments on their behalf.

Also receiving $17 million in kickbacks was former Gov. Jose Gregorio Vielma Mora, a Maduro ally who with Government Official 1A’s support secretly awarded a Saab-controlled company a contract in 2016 to deliver 10 million boxes of food rations in Tachira state, prosecutors allege. Vielma Mora was previously charged in the conspiracy in 2021.

To conceal the criminal activity and hide the payments, Saab said he and his associates falsified shipping records and set up a network of shell companies and bank accounts in countries including Antigua, Bulgaria, Liechtenstein, the Marshall Islands, Montenegro, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates.

Over time, as U.S. sanctions deepened the country’s financial woes, Saab and his associates received payment in the form of Venezuelan oil, gold and other natural resources.

In court Tuesday, Saab told Judge Kathleen Williams that he takes the antidepressant Zoloft and other medicines daily for what he described as “post-traumatic stress disorder” following his 2020 arrest.

Saab could become a witness against Maduro

U.S. officials have long described Saab as Maduro’s “bag man” and could ask him to serve as a character witness against the former president, who is awaiting trial on drug charges in Manhattan after being captured in a raid by the U.S. military in January.

The new U.S. prosecution of Saab and Maduro is taking place as the Trump administration overhauls relations with Venezuela, focusing its attention on tapping into Venezuela’s vast oil reserves. This month, Trump announced a partnership with Venezuelan oil entrepreneur Alejandro Betancourt in which the U.S. government will gain a stake and access to at-cost crude shipments from oil fields with a potential to produce 65 billion barrels.

Saab was little known even in Venezuela until after his first arrest, in 2020, when Maduro’s government invested huge resources rallying public support for his release.

Rodríguez, then serving as Maduro’s vice president, helped mount an international campaign in which she referred to Saab as an “innocent Venezuelan diplomat” who had been illegally “kidnapped” by the U.S.

But after Maduro’s capture, Rodríguez distanced herself from Saab, firing him from her Cabinet and stripping him of his role as the main conduit for foreign companies looking to invest in Venezuela.

Saab amassed a fortune through Venezuelan government contracts but became even more valuable to Maduro as U.S. sanctions forced Venezuela to conduct much of its oil sales and foreign trade outside of Western financial institutions.

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This story is part of an investigation that includes the FRONTLINE documentary “Crisis in Venezuela.” Watch the documentary at pbs.org/frontline, in the PBS App, on PBS stations and on FRONTLINE’s YouTube channel.

The Senate voted 74-24 Tuesday to begin consideration of the bill, a significant step forward. The legislation aims to put guardrails around escalating spending in college sports as the industry struggles to adapt to a new model in which schools can pay players. Major conferences, Senate leadership and President Donald Trump have backed the bill.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said the legislation aims to quell “the chaos we have in college sports.”

“It threatens the viability of many college athletic programs, it threatens the roster spots and scholarship positions of hundreds of thousands of student athletes,” Cruz said. “It threatens women’s sports. It threatens Olympic sports. If Congress does not act, all of that is in jeopardy of going away.”

Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the Commerce panel, called it “the last chance to save college sports.”

Still, the legislation faces opposition from several corners that could complicate a quick final passage in the Senate’s last three weeks in session before the November elections.

Some Republicans say it should have additional language on transgender girls and women in sports. Labor groups have concerns that it doesn’t do enough to protect athletes. The NAACP says that it will oppose the bill because lawmakers should not reward universities and athletic conferences “while many remain silent as Black voting rights come under attack in the states where they operate.”

Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey said ahead of the vote that the bill gives too much power to the NCAA without enough accountability for the athletes.

“Look at their history, it is not about player protection,” Booker said. “This is a money play, plain and simple.”

Bill attempts to address spiraling spending

The legislation aims to allow schools to enforce national rules for competing and recruiting and create new guidelines around transfers and eligibility, the likes of which have landed the NCAA in court dozens of times just over the last month.

It would provide a limited lawsuit immunity for the NCAA with the goal of eliminating some of these lawsuits, which most recently have come up over the new college rule allowing players five seasons of eligibility over five years.

Another big feature in the bill is a redefinition of “third-party” NIL — the name, image, likeness sponsorship deals that most blame for spiraling costs in college sports. Under current rules, schools can share revenue of up to $21.3 million among all players across their athletic program.

The legislation would double the salary cap to nearly $49 million per school, with the hope that shifting the money from third-party NIL to under the cap will set a more realistic limit on what schools can spend.

There's a last-minute push before the elections

Republicans currently hold a 53-47 majority in the chamber. Democrats are trying to flip the Senate in November’s midterms, which can complicate the legislative agenda.

“We’re going to get one shot at this, and I don’t know if we ever will again soon,” said Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt just ahead of the vote. “We’ve got a moment.”

The bill, he said, could “define the trajectory of college athletics.”

The potential for stormy weather carries into Wednesday. The day will offer a cloud/sun mix and east-northeast winds, sustained 5 to 10 mph. The onshore flow could carry scattered showers and storms across the region-- morning, afternoon, or evening. Temperatures will make a run for 90°F-- that’s near seasonable.

“It was difficult, but I never lost my faith,” said Sanchez. “From the very beginning, my faith in God overruled everything else and I knew I was going to get out of there and get well and be cured.”

But the journey wasn’t easy.

Sanchez was diagnosed with adult leukemia three years ago. It all started with a routine check-up and blood work..

“The next day the doctor called and asked me to go to the hospital, to the ER, so that they could run tests because my platelets were at a 12 and they are supposed to be around 150,” she said.

Dr. Hugo Fernandez is the Chair and Medical Director of Moffitt Malignant Hematology and Cellular Therapy at Memorial Healthcare System.

“In these leukemias, what happens is abnormal immature cells, which don’t function normally, they start taking over the territory in the bone marrow and basically crowd out the normal cells,” he said.

Chemotherapy gets rid of the bad cells and new targeted therapies help the healthy cells function properly.

“Don’t be scared of the diagnosis,” said Fernandez. “People say you have leukemia and faces go white and they think it’s the end of the world, but it may not be. In fact, for most people these days it’s not.”

Symptoms of adult leukemia include fatigue, frequent infections, easy bruising and bleeding, and unexplained weight loss.

Thanks to an early diagnosis and targeted treatment, Sanchez is now cancer free.

Today, the proud grandmother is looking forward to the future, one that includes her own wedding next year.

“I don’t take anything for granted,” she said. “I thank the good lord every day when I wake up and every night when I go to sleep. I feel blessed that he gave me the opportunity to be in this thing they call life.”

Twenty farms have carved out large corn mazes to honor the late country music icon, actor and philanthropist and raise money for her Imagination Library, which provides free books to children.

The “Jolene” crooner's death due to cancer on Aug. 25 in Nashville at age 80 brought an outpouring of tributes. They ranged from a drive to rename the country music capital’s airport in Parton’s honor to a surge in online streams of “9 to 5,” “Islands in the Stream” and her many other hit songs.

Now she is being immortalized in corn, with the mazes located in about a dozen states and two provinces, from Alabama to California and Ohio to Texas. Most also feature a Parton-themed trivia game, photo ops and other offerings.

Mazes were planned months before her death

Brett Herbst, founder of The Maize Inc., the Utah-based consulting company that designed the mazes, called Parton a “true American treasure.”

“Dolly’s impact on the world and her love for farming is immeasurable, and our corn maze tributes now take on new meaning and significance,” Herbst said.

The company said the mazes were in the works months before Parton died and are part of its annual campaign honoring country music’s brightest stars. Previous honorees included Reba McEntire in 2023, Luke Bryan in 2024 and Lainey Wilson in 2025.

Parton, who famously grew up poor in rural Tennessee, thanked organizers for supporting her charity before to her death. In a statement provided by The Maize Inc., she encouraged people to “get lost in this year’s country music corn maze for a little fun, laughter and a real good reason to get lost.”

Cornfield tributes now take on greater meaning

One of the mazes is in an expansive cornfield next to Twins BBQ in Brookfield, Connecticut, about 55 miles (90 kilometers) northeast of New York. The likeness of Parton beams skyward, ringed by the words “Dolly” and “An American Treasure” and a series of stars.

Danielle Gallop, who co-owns the business with her husband, admits to not knowing much about Parton before attending last year’s corn maze convention at Dollywood, the Tennessee theme park Parton co-owned. But she came away impressed.

“They told us all about her integrity and how she ran all of her businesses and how smart and generous and kind and just really ethical and humble” Parton was, Gallop said, “which is all the things that we aspire to be as business owners.”

Parton’s passing “made it exponentially more meaningful” to be honoring her this year, Gallop added. “She was such an icon.”

The labyrinths can be tricky

Stephanie Chen and her young son, William, were among those winding through the Parton maze Sunday.

They said the easiest part was navigating the part where the “Dolly” is written out in capital letters.

“Because there’s only one way through,” Chen joked.

Gallop says the trickiest part is Parton’s hair. “She has a lot of it, and it comes to little tips,” the owner said. “You don’t know where the next little opening is going to be. I got lost several times.”

The most memorable part of the experience has been seeing visitors dressing up for the occasion.

“We’ve had people in cowboy boots and cowboy hats and Dolly Parton shirts,” Gallop said. “It’s been really great to see all the love pouring out for her.”

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Marcelo reported from New York.

Bellingham used a neat long touch to get past an opponent near midfield and fed Mbappé in a breakaway into the area, and the France star quickly set up Espí's close-range score to give Madrid the victory and move the Spanish powerhouse even on points with Barcelona. The defending champion can regain the lead when it hosts promoted Racing Santander on Wednesday.

“We went from having it easy to losing control,” Real Madrid coach José Mourinho said. “But in the difficulty of the moment, facing the pressure of losing points, the team reacted and won the match, which in the end is the most important thing. The good thing is that nobody gets bored when Real Madrid plays. The games are always fun.”

Madrid had taken the lead against Elche with an own-goal by goalkeeper Matías Dituro in the 25th after the ball ricocheted off him following a well-struck free kick taken by Arda Guler. Mbappé added to the lead by scoring from close range after an assist by Yan Diomande in the 33rd.

Abiel Osorio pulled the hosts closer with a header in the 71st and Fer Niño netted the equalizer in the 83rd.

There was a bit of a scare immediately after Mbappé scored as he stayed on the ground in visible pain, but he eventually returned to the field after being attended by Madrid doctors.

The goal moved him to seven goals in six league matches, one goal more than Lamine Yamal, Raphinha, Sergio Camello and Roberto Fernández.

Mbappé had scored a brace in Madrid’s 4-1 win against Rayo Vallecano in the previous round.

He had a goal disallowed for offside just before halftime on Tuesday.

Bellingham came into the match by replacing Guler in the 68th.

Madrid’s only league setback this season was at Real Betis two rounds ago.

Mbappé and Vinícius avoid T-shirt

Players from both clubs wore t-shirts showing words of support for Ceuta as they came onto the field before the match. But Madrid players Mbappé, Vinícius Júnior and Ibrahima Konaté wore the shirt only halfway down their chest, without pulling them down, and obscuring some of the words on it. Mbappé and Vinícius removed their shirts before they saluted the other players and the referees.

They had not immediately explained why they did that.

In July, tens of thousands of migrants breached the frontier between Spain's North African territory of Ceuta and neighboring Morocco.

Valencia wins after shake-up

Valencia won 1-0 at Alaves to end a four-game losing streak and a winless start to the season.

The string of poor results had led to the firing of coach Carlos Corberán and soccer CEO Ron Gourlay this weekend. It then appointed Braulio Vázquez as its new sporting director and named B-team coach Óscar Sánchez as an interim manager.

Luis Rioja scored a 78th-minute winner for Valencia, which had been outscored 10-1 so far.

Valencia fans had been protesting and called players “mercenaries” after the 5-0 home loss to Barcelona. They have long called for the exit of owner Peter Lim.

Rayo Vallecano triumphs in Butarque again

Rayo Vallecano beat Espanyol 2-1 with first-half goals by Álvaro García and Adria Pedrosa in what may have been its last match before returning home to Vallecas Stadium.

It was Rayo's third home game played at Butarque Stadium — which belongs to second-tier club Leganes — because of unsafe conditions at Vallecas. It also beat Racing Santander 3-2 and drew Alaves 1-1 at Butarque.

Roberto Fernández scored for Espanyol in the second half for his sixth goal in six matches.

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See AP’s full soccer coverage here

El área afectada por la minería de oro en toda la Amazonía fue 20 veces mayor en 2024 que en 1985. El crecimiento fue aún más drástico en tierras indígenas, donde la minería abarcó 24 veces más superficie y se expandió casi siete veces solo entre 2016 y 2024.

Los precios récord del oro, impulsados en gran medida por la demanda de los inversionistas de activos seguros en medio del aumento de los riesgos globales, han alimentado una renovada fiebre minera en la Amazonía, disparando la deforestación y la contaminación por mercurio de comunidades ribereñas e indígenas.

El IPAM indicó que la minería agrava los riesgos climáticos que enfrentan las comunidades indígenas. El cambio climático, impulsado principalmente por actividades humanas que incrementan las concentraciones de gases de efecto invernadero en la atmósfera, ha intensificado las sequías y el calor en la Amazonía.

“La ocurrencia de fenómenos meteorológicos extremos amenaza el acceso al agua, los alimentos, el transporte y la atención médica”, señaló la organización. “Al mismo tiempo, la expansión de la minería ilegal contamina los ríos, acelera la degradación ambiental y alimenta problemas de salud y violencia, debilitando aún más la capacidad de las comunidades indígenas para adaptarse”.

Casi el 90% del área afectada se concentra en tres territorios. Uno de ellos es el Territorio Indígena Munduruku, ubicado en el estado norteño de Pará.

Representantes de la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos viajaron a Pará a principios de este mes para realizar una serie de audiencias con el pueblo munduruku, que incluyeron sesiones en su territorio. La visita buscó evaluar el cumplimiento de Brasil de las medidas provisionales recomendadas por la corte en 2022 para proteger los derechos de las comunidades indígenas.

Líderes munduruku presentaron pruebas —incluidas imágenes satelitales e informes de monitoreo en terreno— que muestran que mineros ilegales de oro habían regresado al territorio tras ser expulsados en operativos federales realizados en 2024 y 2025. También informaron que entre los impactos en la salud se encuentra un aumento de casos de malaria, mayores tasas de mortalidad infantil y contaminación por mercurio vinculada a retrasos en el desarrollo del lenguaje y la motricidad en niños.

En el gobierno del presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, las autoridades brasileñas han intensificado los esfuerzos para combatir la minería ilegal. La policía y las agencias ambientales han llevado a cabo grandes operativos contra redes criminales, mientras que los investigadores han recurrido cada vez más a la ciencia forense para rastrear el oro e identificar metal extraído ilegalmente.

Aun así, la aplicación de la ley no ha eliminado la minería ilegal en toda la Amazonía. Cuando las autoridades destruyen equipos de minería en un área, los mineros a menudo se trasladan a otro lugar o reanudan las operaciones después de que las autoridades se van. En el territorio munduruku, vigilantes indígenas habían identificado 10 nuevos sitios de minería ilegal hasta agosto.

En un comunicado emitido el 10 de septiembre, el Ministerio de Derechos Humanos de Brasil afirmó que funcionarios del gobierno asistieron a las audiencias y abordaron la continuidad de la fiscalización territorial, junto con mejoras al suministro de agua y la seguridad alimentaria. El ministerio también reconoció la necesidad de una “respuesta técnica más detallada” ante la contaminación por mercurio.

Según la ley brasileña, la minería está prohibida en tierras indígenas. El lunes, la Articulación de los Pueblos Indígenas de Brasil, conocida por el acrónimo en portugués Apib, manifestó en un comunicado que proteger el territorio munduruku requiere más que retirar a quienes lo invaden.

“Esta actividad forma parte de una economía criminal transnacional en la que grupos armados que controlan la extracción, el oro y las drogas se desplazan por las mismas rutas fluviales, y los permisos mineros se utilizan para dar una apariencia de legalidad al oro extraído ilegalmente”, expresó la Apib.

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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.

It is up to voters in both districts whether to renew a tax that gives hundreds of millions to schools and staff.

In Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday, the Broward County Public Schools superintendent, the teachers union president and other leaders came together.

It is not a new tax. This would renew the one already passed by voters.

The district is already closing schools and losing thousands of students every year.

“We’ve had to make a lot of tough decisions, especially the past two years with declining enrollment, which has also reduced our revenue source,” BCPS Superintendent Howard Hepburn said.

Hepburn said if the district lost the tax, more cuts would be inevitable.

“We would lose approximately $358 million. We would have to make some tough decisions that would definitely have an impact on our district,” Hepburn said.

The tax supports school safety workers and hundreds of mental health professionals.

But mostly, it supports teachers and staff, with $173 million a year.

Without it, the teachers union president said there is no question staff will leave after they lose a big chunk of their paycheck.

“More than teachers will leave,” Broward Teachers Union President Anna Fusco said. “Again, it helps every rank-and-file worker paycheck. Everybody.”

Down in Miami-Dade County, district leaders also stood side by side Tuesday.

Their own tax, giving schools roughly $570 million, is also up for renewal.

“Today’s a proud day because here we are again standing for what we believe in: A better community,” Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent Rafael Villalobos said.

Most of the money is dedicated to teacher salaries, with some going to school safety and security.

“I know this community understands the importance and the viability of education, and they will do the same in 2026,” Villalobos said.

He’s heard the not-so silent chorus of Celtics fans who bemoaned the front office’s decision to jettison 2024 NBA Finals MVP Jaylen Brown in the July trade with Philadelphia that sent the 36-year-old George to his fifth NBA team.

But George also isn’t shying away from his new situation.

“I understand my circumstances. I understand how huge JB was, not only for the organization, but here in the city. So, I didn’t take it personal,” George said. “To be honest, they should have a relationship, emotionally, to that trade. But my job is to kind of come into a great opportunity for me. Obviously, the last few years have been rough, just with injuries. But for myself, personally, I feel great again. I feel like I’ve turned that corner of dealing with injuries, and now, kind of re-establishing myself from a physical standpoint again. And with that, I can carry it over to the court.”

George, along with acquisitions Mitchell Robinson and Mike Conley, Jr. represent president of basketball operations Brad Stevens’ attempt to shore up the roster alongside Jayson Tatum.

The franchise centerpiece, Tatum is embarking on his first full season since tearing his Achilles tendon in May 2025 and then having his return late last season end with him being sidelined for the Celtics’ Game 7 first-round playoff loss to George and the 76ers.

Robinson comes in fresh off winning a championship with the Knicks, and the 38-year-old Conley will be suiting up with his fourth NBA team as he prepares for his 20th NBA season.

Robinson missed Tuesday’s news conference for a personal matter, but Stevens said he’s liked what he’s seen over the past few weeks during workouts between the three newcomers and returning members of Boston’s roster as they prepare to open training camp in two weeks.

The trio also joined Tatum and other current Celtics for informal workouts this summer.

The team held its annual season launch event on Monday and Stevens said there was only one image behind him when he spoke to everyone – a photo of the TD Garden court being refurbished.

“That happens every year right around the end of July. And to me, every single year you go through it looks like the blank canvas of a court being absolutely redone,” Stevens said. “Nobody’s stepped on it. And now it’s that year’s team. To write its own chapter. And I felt that way every time they do it.”

Characterized as a facelift or a complete renovation, the key players of the Celtics teams that hoisted the franchise’s 18th title in 2024 have changed over the summer.

Whether those alterations wind up paying off will depend on what this new trio — and particularly George — can provide at this stage of their careers.

Conley will be a role player behind Derrick White and Payton Pritchard, with Robinson likely backing up starting center Neemias Queta.

But for a player such as George, who has nine All-Star and six All-NBA selections, expectations are higher as he looks to step into the role of Tatum’s tag team partner in the starting lineup.

Conley insisted he’s “still got a lot left” and thinks two things he and George enter on Day 1 with are leadership and instant motivation to produce.

“It’s two guys who haven’t had a chance to win a championship,” Conley said. “So, it’s that sense of urgency that maybe reignites that for the guys who’ve been on this team, who’ve already won it.”

George reiterated several times that a run of injuries he had with the Los Angeles Clippers and Sixers, including knee surgery prior to last season, are in the rearview, and that he is a “great” place physically and mentally.

“It’s a new group, a new opportunity,” George said. “I think they’re getting, someone that’s ready to, not fill the shoes or fill the void of JB, but I think from a personal standpoint myself, I think I can come in and kind of still keep us in that contention. Give us a chance to win.”

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See AP’s full NBA coverage here

But the case was just one example of the Republican president’s numerous attempts to assert federal control over the upcoming midterms. Several others remain in various states of play, even as mail ballots have been sent out in at least three states and early voting starts in others this week.

Recently, the Department of Justice ordered officials in more than two dozen states to preserve records from the 2024 election as part of a campaign to force them to turn over detailed voter data despite repeated court losses.

And lacking the sensitive voter data the administration wants from many states, the Department of Homeland Security has launched its own probe to find noncitizen voters on state rolls, an effort that a federal whistleblower says is rushed, error-ridden and potentially violating state laws.

Meanwhile, Trump has continued to falsely claim that mail ballots are corrupt, that noncitizens are abundant on voter lists and that Democratic election fraud is widespread. During the recent Republican convention, the president goaded his fans in a verbal pledge to “cheat like hell, like they do.”

In response to Monday's Supreme Court ruling, Trump lashed back at the justices, saying they lacked the “courage necessary to save our America.”

The Constitution gives the power to run elections to states, rather than to the federal government. Election officials have said they’re prepared to run a safe, secure election even if Trump continues to fan the flames.

Democratic groups have signaled they are building out contingency plans in case Trump sends armed federal officers to the polls or Republicans make other attempts to improperly interfere in the election, a high-stakes contest that will determine which party controls Congress next year.

With his mail ballot reforms blocked for now, here's a look at Trump's other, ongoing efforts to reshape election procedures:

Trump has pressured states to use a controversial federal voter lookup tool

The president insists, contrary to reams of research, that large numbers of noncitizens are illegally voting around the country.

In his second term in office, he has sought to use the might of the federal government to crack down on the issue, including through a massive overhaul of a federal voter eligibility database called Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE.

The SAVE program was created under an immigration law mandating that the Department of Homeland Security help federal, state and local agencies prevent government benefits from going to noncitizens. Trump last year directed changes to significantly expand its abilities for mass searches by election officials.

Then, his administration sent letters and filed lawsuits to push states to run their sensitive voter data through the tool – a prospect some states have agreed to, but many have resisted to keep their residents’ personal information secure.

Since last year, at least 67 million registrations have been scanned through the program, but critics worry it could end up purging valid voters from the rolls. Some registrants have already been wrongly flagged.

A federal judge in June barred the new version of the SAVE program, calling it an illegal violation of Americans' privacy. The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to intervene and block that ruling with an emergency order. The Supreme Court has yet to weigh in on the case.

Meanwhile, the federal government continues to push states to give up voter registration information that contains addresses, dates of birth, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers.

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin in July warned that state officials could lose funding or face investigations if they failed to go along with Trump's election security demands. And the DOJ last week sent letters to 29 states and the District of Columbia ordering them to preserve 2024 election documents and advising them that they were “under investigation” and subject to ongoing litigation for their failure to give up the data.

Numerous investigations have found that while noncitizens have occasionally appeared on voting rolls and cast ballots, it is extremely rare.

DHS is conducting its own noncitizen voter investigation

In a last-ditch effort to hunt for noncitizen voters without detailed data from all states, DHS in August ordered a group of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services staff to pivot to a full-time manual investigation of state voter rolls, according to a whistleblower's report released Monday.

The anonymous federal whistleblower said federal employees are being directed to misrepresent themselves on the voter lookup tools in a way that likely violates state laws as they compare DHS-provided data with state records in an attempt to identify noncitizens who are illegally registered.

The probe known as the “Unlawful Voter Initiative” also asks employees to create federal law enforcement records about voters based on unreliable data, the whistleblower account warns. It's a prospect that could wrongly implicate U.S. citizens in documentation that could spur further investigation.

Asked about the initiative, DHS didn't deny its work but said the investigation was being conducted “diligently and professionally.”

“The department accessed publicly available data from states’ voter rolls and cross referenced them with known aliens in our systems,” a DHS spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “It’s not rocket science; it’s an easy step to secure our elections.”

Administration has signaled other efforts are in the works

Trump has repeatedly run up against the courts in his attempts to more widely reshape election administration, including through two executive orders tied up in lawsuits that allege the changes he wants are unconstitutional.

He also has been stymied in his attempts to get the Republican-led Congress to pass a strict proof-of-citizenship bill called the SAVE America Act. The legislation doesn't have enough votes in the Senate to pass.

But his administration also has used its law enforcement power to take unprecedented steps that have been successful. For example, the Federal Bureau of Investigation last year seized hundreds of boxes of ballots and other documents related to the 2020 election in Georgia's most populous county without offering an explanation. The FBI has also demanded 2024 ballots from Michigan's Wayne County, and received records related to the 2020 election from Arizona's Maricopa County.

Attorney General Todd Blanche on Tuesday signaled the Trump administration will be undeterred by the Supreme Court's ruling in its efforts to investigate and combat voter fraud.

“I expect you’re going to see that work continue," he told reporters at a Rose Garden press briefing.

Tammy Patrick of The Election Center, which has nearly 2,500 election officials as members, said those who run voting offices breathed a collective sigh of relief at the high court's decision on mail voting Monday night. It removes the main threat that could have immediately disrupted balloting nationwide.

She and various election administrators insisted that time-tested processes will hold for the 2026 midterms and that voters' voices will be heard.

“Voters should realize the midterms are going to be secure,” Patrick said. “They’re going to be legitimate.”

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Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New York and Nicholas Riccardi in Mason, Michigan, contributed to this report.

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Miami Fire Rescue officials said the two victims, an 18-year-old man and a 23-year-old man, were rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center in stable condition after suffering gunshot wounds outside Dukunoo Jamaican Kitchen, located at 316 NW 24th St.

The restaurant is located across from the Wynwood 25 apartment building in an area known for its restaurants, shops and nightlife.

Authorities said Miami police received multiple emergency calls and found a man with a gunshot wound outside Dukunoo Jamaican Kitchen.

Witnesses said officers later found a second victim outside Skinny Louie’s, the restaurant next door.

A Local 10 News crew was outside of the restaurant as police remained at the scene for hours, with officers monitoring the area behind police tape. A K-9 unit was also seen searching around the property.

An employee at a nearby business described the chaos after the gunfire and said he helped a wounded man.

“I seen a crowd of people just running straight towards us,” he said. “I didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t hear the shots myself because I was further in the back. As I’m coming out, a lot of people are running inside.”

The employee said people inside the restaurant were told there was gunfire outside.

“So I got everybody inside and then I locked the doors. I thought it was like an open shooter, but the shots had already happened by the time everybody was running inside,” he added.

He said he later found a wounded man outside and helped provide first aid.

“I came outside and I seen a gentleman on the floor. He had a bullet wound to his right buttocks and he was kind of bleeding out. People were applying pressure to him,” he said. “I had a belt. I don’t have it no more now. But I took my belt off and I kind of wrapped it around him and I told him like, don’t move because we don’t know if the bullet’s still in you. It would be dangerous for him to move.”

Miami police have not released additional details about what led to the shooting or identified a suspect or possible motive.

Anyone with information on the shooting is urged to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.

Local 10 reporter Saira Anwer contributed to this story.

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He never expected to be taken into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.

Pourrain, 34, an Argentine center midfielder for Miami United FC, a semi-professional club in the United Premier Soccer League, is now back in South Florida, reliving what he calls some of the worst weeks of his life.

“It’s really a horrible situation, horrible situation,” Pourrain said.

He spent more than three weeks in ICE custody across three different facilities, including one in Miramar that he described as having inhumane conditions.

“Miramar was the worst thing that happened to me in my life,” he said.

Pourrain has lived in South Florida since 2019. He said he has had a work permit for years and renewed his Florida driver’s license in July.

“It hurts because I love this country and I’ve lived here seven years,” he said. “I don’t deserve any of this. I never got any criminal records. I never had any kind of problem.”

On Aug. 6, Pourrain was flying out of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport for a semifinal match in Los Angeles. After passing through security, he said ICE took him into custody.

At a detention facility in Miramar, Pourrain said he was shackled to a chair for the first 24 hours.

“Handcuffs on the hands and the feet. A chain all over my body here,” he said.

He said he was then moved into a small room that was overcrowded with inmates.

Pourrain said the food was moldy, so he did not eat for days.

“It was a little room. It was 68 of us inside there -- I couldn’t even move. I was just like this, trying to put my head on the wall, tried to sleep a little bit. There was no bed,” he said.

Eventually, Pourrain was moved to another facility in Florida and then to Texas.

He was released on a $20,000 bond on Aug. 28, more than three weeks after he was taken into custody.

The Department of Homeland Security told Local 10 that Pourrain only had permission to stay in the U.S. for six months and overstayed his welcome.

DHS also denied his claims of inhumane treatment.

“Claims that there are subprime conditions at ICE detention centers are FALSE. ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens. All detainees are provided with 3 meals a day, clean water, clothing, bedding, showers, soap, and toiletries,” the agency said in a statement.

For Pourrain, he said he knows what he saw and worries about those still inside.

“It’s inhumane what happens inside. They don’t deserve it either,” he said.

While his court proceedings continue, Pourrain is back training with his team and teaching kids soccer.

But the memories have not gone away.

“I think I’ll never forget about this. Because it was tough on me, it was tough on my wife,” he said.

Hundreds of people filled the church on Tuesday on the 63rd anniversary of the bombing. The church marked the anniversary with the opening of a new visitors center that leaders said is aimed at educating people about one of the most horrific events of the Civil Rights Movement and urging a recommitment to continue the struggle for justice.

Bryan Stevenson, the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative and the guest speaker for the annual memorial service, said the remembrance falls at a time when politicians are trying to take content out of museums, attacking the Voting Rights Act and turning to the politics of division.

“We’re in a critical moment in America. There is a narrative struggle. There are people who are preaching the politics of fear and anger, and they want to govern through fear and anger,” Stevenson said.

Stevenson, who helped build memorials and museums tracing the legacy of slavery in America, said a “whole network of elected officials" — not only the Klan — shared responsibility for the climate that led to the deadly bombing.

“And today we have those same voices, and we have to stand against those voices by being committed to truth and justice,” Stevenson said.

Klansmen had placed a bundle of dynamite outside the church under a set of stairs. The bombing came during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, eight months after then-Gov. George Wallace pledged “segregation forever.”

The girls were gathered in a downstairs washroom before Sunday services when the dynamite exploded at 10:22 a.m. on Sept. 15, 1963. The explosion killed 11-year-old Denise McNair and Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Addie Mae Collins, all 14. A fifth girl, Sarah Collins Rudolph, the sister of Addie Mae, was in the room and was severely injured but survived.

Three Ku Klux Klansmen were eventually convicted in the blast: Robert Chambliss in 1977; Thomas Blanton in 2001; and Bobby Frank Cherry in 2002.

The opening of the education center comes at a time of uncertainty about how history is presented in national parks and museums. President Donald Trump in March 2025 signed an executive order aimed at defunding museum exhibits and programs that he said promote “divisive narratives.”

The church sits within the bounds of the National Park Service's civil rights monument in Birmingham, an area that includes the park where Black protesters were met by police dogs and fire hoses. But the church independently runs the visitors center.

The new center has space for exhibits, oral history initiatives, artist residencies, community quilting projects, public speaker series and other programming.

Church leaders envision the center as a place where people can reflect after visiting the church and bombing site.

“I want them to take away that history is not just in the past. History is also present, and that there’s still work to do,” said the Rev. Arthur Price Jr., the pastor of 16th Street Baptist. “When we talk about the challenges in our country, when we talk about the injustice, the inequity, and the inequality, there’s still a whole lot of work for us to do.”

Lisa McNair’s sister, Denise, was one of the girls who lost their lives in the 1963 bombing.

“It’s part of our shared American history, and if we don’t know our history, we’re destined to repeat it,” McNair said at Tuesday's event.

It is a court he shaped with three nominees during his first term and he has frequently expressed admiration when the court rules his way, only to turn sharply critical when it delivers him a defeat.

On Monday, the court rejected his administration’s planned restrictions on mail ballots for the midterm elections and by the morning on Tuesday, Trump took to social media to denigrate the decision and the justices he had appointed who rejected Trump's argument.

None of the three justices wrote about their rationale for joining the majority opinion, though Justice Brett Kavanaugh indicated he might see things differently if the election wasn’t coming up so quickly. Of the nine-member court, only Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito fully agreed with the administration.

Trump's rebuke also resurfaced his frustration over losses on tariffs and birthright citizenship — two other issues where the conservative majority court has checked the power of the Republican president.

The court has let Trump move ahead with much of his agenda

The justices have handed the president nearly two dozen victories in emergency appeals, often lifting lower court orders that had blocked key aspects of his boundary-testing second-term agenda. While technically temporary, those decisions have largely allowed his administration to push ahead with his crackdown on immigration, ban on transgender people serving in the military and dismantling of the Department of Education.

He also got significantly more power over federal regulatory agencies that Congress had created to operate independently when the court found presidents can fire those leaders at will. Another ruling that weakened the Voting Rights Act allowed his call for redistricting for partisan advantage to proceed.

Those decisions, though, achieved longtime goals of the conservative legal movement. “They’re the kind of cases that, for the most part, it doesn’t matter what administration would have brought them, the court would have come out the same place,” said Erin Murphy, an appellate attorney who clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts. She spoke at a Tuesday panel at Georgetown Law’s Supreme Court Institute.

Trump also has been dealt high-profile losses

Trump’s record has been more mixed, though, in cases where the court has gotten a full briefing and heard arguments. The justices struck down his far-reaching tariffs on nearly every other country, his restrictions on birthright citizenship and put the brakes on his push to fire a member of the Federal Reserve Board.

His administration is still pursuing those goals in new ways, but for Trump the losses have rankled. On Tuesday, he assailed the justices “for shockingly bad rulings that are of such magnitude that it won’t be easily possible for our Country to recover or heal.”

He referenced his own role in appointing three of the nine justices, writing that “these are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court.”

The missive came after a high-profile loss on the emergency docket: the high court’s rejection of his proposed restrictions on mail ballots before the fast-approaching midterm elections. Trump has long targeted mail voting even while using it himself, falsely blaming it for his 2020 election loss despite a lack of evidence of fraud.

“I think it's certainly right that this is not a MAGA court. The court is asserting its independence from the president,” said Don Verrilli, a former Solicitor General under President Barack Obama, also speaking at Georgetown.

The justices have twice rejected Trump-backed cases ahead of the midterms

The mail ballots decision was the second time in as many weeks that the court rejected a Trump-backed appeal related to the election. The high court also refused to allow Missouri to use new elections maps redrawn at Trump's urging to help Republicans gain an extra seat in the U.S. House.

The high court’s majority didn’t explain either decision in detail, as is typical on their emergency docket. But taken together, the decision seems to signal an unwillingness to intervene in election litigation before the pivotal November contests.

“My guess is there's a robust majority that doesn’t want to be the decision maker allowing the chaos to happen,” said attorney Roman Martinez, another former Roberts clerk who frequently argues before the court.

The court will likely end up being drawn into election litigation again, though, before or after the votes are cast. “As the rest of this electoral cycle unfolds, I think there is going to be a lot of turbulence around these issues,” Verrilli said.

The area affected by gold mining across the Amazon was 20 times larger in 2024 than in 1985. The growth was even more dramatic on Indigenous lands, where mining covered 24 times as much land — and expanded nearly sevenfold between 2016 and 2024 alone.

Record-breaking gold prices, driven largely by investor demand for safe assets amid rising global risks, have driven a renewed mining rush in the Amazon, spiking deforestation and mercury contamination of riverine and Indigenous communities.

IPAM said the mining is aggravating the climate risks facing Indigenous communities. Climate change, driven primarily by human activities that increase greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, has intensified droughts and heat in the Amazon.

“Extreme weather events threaten access to water, food, transportation and healthcare,” the nonprofit said. “At the same time, expanding illegal mining contaminates rivers, accelerates environmental degradation and fuels health problems and violence, further weakening Indigenous communities’ ability to adapt.”

Almost 90% of the affected area is concentrated in three territories. One of them is the Munduruku Indigenous Territory, located in the northern state of Para.

Earlier this month, representatives of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights traveled to Para for a series of hearings with the Munduruku people, including sessions in their territory. The visit sought to assess Brazil’s compliance with provisional measures recommended by the court in 2022 to protect Indigenous communities’ rights.

Munduruku leaders presented evidence — including satellite imagery and field-monitoring reports — showing that illegal gold miners had returned to the territory, after federal operations in 2024 and 2025 expelled them. They also reported that health impacts include a surge in malaria cases, higher infant mortality rates and mercury contamination linked to delays in children’s language and motor development.

Under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazilian authorities have stepped up efforts to combat illegal mining. Police and environmental agencies have carried out major operations targeting criminal networks, while investigators have increasingly used forensic science to trace gold and identify illegally mined metal.

Still, enforcement has not eliminated illegal mining across the Amazon. When authorities destroy mining equipment in one area, miners often move elsewhere or resume operations after officials leave. In the Munduruku territory, Indigenous watchdogs had identified 10 new illegal mining sites as of August.

In a Sept. 10 statement, Brazil’s Ministry of Human Rights said that government officials attended the hearings and discussed continued territorial enforcement, along with improvements to the water supply and food safety. The ministry also acknowledged the need for a “more detailed technical response” to mercury contamination.

Under Brazilian law, mining is prohibited on Indigenous lands. On Monday, the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, known by the Portuguese acronym Apib, said in a statement that protecting the Munduruku territory requires more than removing those who invade it.

“The activity is part of a transnational criminal economy in which armed groups control extraction, gold and drugs move along the same river routes, and mining permits are used to give a veneer of legality to illegally extracted gold,” Apib said.

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About three-quarters of U.S. adults said press freedom is “extremely” or “very” important to society's well-being, according to a newly released Pew Research Center study. But at least half said they also support government restrictions on reporting in specific circumstances, such as protecting national security or preventing inaccurate information.

At the same time, many Americans said it is “never acceptable” for the U.S. government to give journalists access to public figures in exchange for positive coverage, or to revoke a news organization's broadcast license.

“People are not all or nothing,” says Katerina Eva Matsa, director of news and information at Pew Research Center, when asked what was striking about the findings. “When you give them options and scenarios … they are negotiating. That was a very interesting perspective that the data gave us.”

The study, which was based on two surveys conducted earlier this year, also found that Americans were divided about whether the media is completely free to report the news, with Democrats and Republicans expressing very different levels of worry about restrictions on the press.

The polling comes at a bumpy time for media in the US

The analysis comes as the relationship between the U.S. media and Donald Trump's second administration becomes ever more fraught as the president, in his second term, seeks to restrict press coverage not to his liking. He or his administration has attacked, sued or taken administrative action against media outlets that have drawn his ire.

Matsa said that tension was one impetus for doing the report now. Other reasons: the changing media environment and the evolution of what “the press” is now, as well as the emergence of tech companies as gatekeepers of the news.

“Overall, there’s a lot of public conversation — and it’s the 250th anniversary of our nation,” she said. “So, it kind of felt like a good moment to look at how Americans think about this.”

Most Americans, about 7 in 10, said the Trump administration and the U.S. news media have a “very” or “somewhat” bad relationship. That's a slight increase from 2025, when 64% of U.S. adults said this.

They're more divided on whether the press faces additional restrictions under Trump's second term, although few think the press is freer than it was before. About 44% of U.S. adults said the press has become less free under the second Trump administration, while about 26% said there has been no change. Only 12% said the press is more free, and 17% said they're not sure.

Americans hold complex views on when the government can intervene

Despite U.S. adults' broad belief in the ideal of press freedom, the survey found, they're willing to contemplate restrictions in specific circumstances.

Most U.S. adults said the government should not be able to require a news organization to take down a story if it is critical of the government or clearly favors one political side. But about half say it should be able to force a retraction if a story contains false information, and about 6 in 10 said this about a story that poses a risk to national security.

The findings indicate most Americans are open to some form of government restriction on the media, despite their broad embrace of press freedom as a concept. At the same time, there is unlikely to be uniform agreement about what constitutes a national security risk, for example, or who gets to determine that — and the poll did not probe those distinctions further.

When asked whether it was more important for the press to be free to report news even if some reporting is inaccurate, or if preventing inaccurate reporting should be prioritized even if it limits press freedom, about half, 53%, of U.S. adults said it was more important to prevent inaccurate reporting, and 45% said press freedom was more important.

But they see limits for government too. Just over half of Americans say it is “rarely” or “never” acceptable for the U.S. government to force journalists to reveal the identities of unnamed government sources or take away a news organization's license to broadcast. About 2 in 10 say these actions are “sometimes” acceptable, and only about 1 in 10 say they are “usually” or “always” acceptable.

Political affiliation helps determine perspectives

Perhaps not surprisingly in a highly politicized environment, views on press freedom differed sharply according to political leaning.

Democrats were more likely than Republicans to prioritize a free press to begin with, the study found. About 8 in 10 Democrats said a free press is “extremely” or “very” important for society's well-being, compared to about two-thirds of Republicans.

Republicans were also more likely than Democrats to say the government should be able to require a news story be taken down in cases of national security. About 7 in 10 Republicans said this should be allowed, compared to about half of Democrats. A similar gap emerged on the publication of false information.

The share of Americans who said the media was “completely” free to report the news fell slightly from 33% last year to 28% in the latest survey. About half — 48% — said the press was “somewhat” free and about 2 in 10 said it was “not very” or “not at all” free.

There were differences between the parties there, too.

—In the new study, only about 2 in 10 Democrats saw the media as “completely” free to report the news.

—Meanwhile, most Democrats, 64%, said they were “extremely” or “very” concerned about potential restrictions on press freedom, while only about 3 in 10 Republicans held similar worries. The reverse was true during the Biden era.

The report is accompanied by a knowledge quiz based on the surveys that users can take to test how much they know about the First Amendment. It has eight questions, all of which were included in the survey. Matsa noted that while many Americans understand the basics of the First Amendment, many don’t know the mechanics of who it protects — and from whom.

For example, the study found that while 58% of U.S. adults know the Constitution protects the press from interference by the U.S. government, only 33% know that it does not protect the press from interference by private companies, such as a social media company or a web-hosting service.

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The Pew-Knight analysis was based on two polls conducted using samples drawn from the Pew Research Center's American Trends Panel, which is probability-based. One survey of 3,507 U.S. adults was conducted March 23-29, 2026, and the other was conducted among 3,488 U.S. adults from June 22-28, 2026. The margin of sampling error for the March survey of 3,507 adults is plus or minus 1.9 percentage points. The margin of sampling error for the June survey of 3,488 U.S. adults is plus or minus 1.8 percentage points.

The opposition coalition C64 organized demonstrations in the capital, Kinshasa, and several other cities, including Lubumbashi and Kindu in eastern Congo, despite restrictions on mass gatherings imposed due to the fast-spreading Ebola outbreak.

The protest in Kinshasa drew hundreds of people and began peacefully, but was dispersed by police with tear gas and warning shots after protesters clashed with pro-government supporters.

“The Congolese state is working with a political party militia,” said opposition leader Martin Fayulu. “God is great; I made it out alive. There was a massacre, and the police were firing at us.”

Congolese government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya condemned the opposition for disrupting activities by falsely claiming schools would be closed on Tuesday. “The right to protest is recognized in the Constitution, but it must be exercised properly,” he said.

Police also dispersed a June rally in Kinshasa that C64 organized against the constitutional changes. Several people, including Fayulu, were injured.

Congo is plagued by multiple crises, including an Ebola outbreak and an escalation of the decades-long conflict with the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels, one of more than 100 armed groups vying for control in the eastern provinces.

Tshisekedi, 62, has been in office since 2019 and is due to complete his second five-year term in 2028. He has said he would be willing to seek a third term if approved by voters in a referendum.

The Congolese Constitution bars any revision of presidential term limits. However, a bill under consideration in the National Assembly, a lower chamber, would allow the president to amend those provisions in the event of a “major dysfunction” that paralyzes state institutions, potentially following a referendum.

The country’s main opposition parties, which have been divided in recent years, joined forces in May under the banner of C64, or Coalition Article 64, to oppose what they describe as an attempt by Tshisekedi to remain in power. The coalition has called the proposed changes a “serious threat” to the country’s stability.

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AP’s Africa coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

The public works employee told a 911 dispatcher shortly after 10:40 a.m. on Saturday that he had parked the truck and left the key in the ignition at 1000 Atlantic Boulevard, records show.

“I left my truck running, and somebody jumped in the truck and took off,” the city employee told the dispatcher, according to the redacted audio released by police on Tuesday.

During the investigation, Ralph Major, another city employee, admitted that he had driven away in the city truck to “prove a point,” according to Officer Bradley Fox’s report to dispatch.

Monroe County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Major, 59, on Monday after a judge issued a warrant for his arrest, according to inmate and court records. He surrendered at the jail, according to Shannon Perzel, a Key West Police Department spokesman.

On Tuesday afternoon, Major faced a first-degree misdemeanor charge of misuse of the 911 or E911 system. His bond was $15,000. Monroe County Circuit Judge Albert Kelley was set to preside over the case.

Major is the facilities superintendent for Key West Parks and Recreation, according to the city’s directory. He also advertises dog training services on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Last year, Keys News identified Major as the president of the Key West Junior Football League, a volunteer-led youth sports organization with cheerleading, dance, and football programs.

Read Fox’s report to dispatch

Location

On Sept. 6, a 21 Air Boeing 767 cargo plane overran the runway while landing at MIA, killing five people and injuring five others. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating what happened.

The accident has renewed attention on what can happen when an aircraft leaves the paved runway environment.

In April 2025, Local 10 News Investigates reported on dozens of Florida East Coast Railway tank cars parked along tracks near FLL, close to the airport’s runway.

Some of the cars were marked with UN1987 hazardous-material placards, identifying flammable liquids.

At the time, aviation safety experts questioned whether staging potentially hazardous rail cars so close to an active runway created an unnecessary risk in the event of a runway excursion.

One expert interviewed by Local 10 called the location “the worst possible place to store those train cars.”

Local 10 also reported that airport officials had previously expressed concerns about the rail cars to FEC.

After our investigation aired, Broward County Aviation Department officials said they contacted FEC about the issue.

FEC did not indicate that it planned to change its practice of staging the rail cars near the airport.

Now, more than a year later, the county says the situation is being revisited.

In response to questions from Local 10 following the MIA crash, BCAD spokesperson Arlene Satchell said the department “does intend to contact the FEC to revisit the subject of its parked railcars near FLL.”

The county says it wants to determine whether FEC is considering any changes to its current staging practices following the MIA accident and whether the two sides can explore options to move the cars elsewhere or at least farther from the immediate vicinity of the airport’s runway.

“Maintaining a safe and secure airport is always a top priority,” the county said.

There is also a new wrinkle in the county’s response.

BCAD says that during the past year there have been no emails, letters or other formal communications between the Aviation Department and FEC about the railcars.

The county says there have only been informal exchanges.

BCAD said that following Local 10’s May 2025 follow-up report, an FEC representative indicated there were no upcoming changes to the company’s protocol for staging railcars near FLL.

Now, following the deadly MIA runway overrun, BCAD says it intends to reopen that conversation.

FLL does have EMAS

FLL does have an additional runway safety feature that MIA’s recent accident has brought into focus.

The airport has engineered materials arresting systems, or EMAS, at the ends of its runways.

The Federal Aviation Administration describes EMAS as a system installed beyond the end of a runway that is designed to absorb the energy of an aircraft that overruns the runway. The crushable material slows the aircraft and, when properly designed and constructed, can bring the aircraft to a stop in less space than a traditional runway safety area.

FAA documents for FLL specifically identify EMAS at the runway ends.

But EMAS does not eliminate every possible hazard beyond a runway.

As Local 10 reported in 2025, the concern surrounding the FEC railcars involves what could happen if an aircraft were to leave the runway environment and encounter the rail line or the tank cars.

That is a potential scenario — not something that has happened at FLL.

And there is no indication that the FEC railcars have violated federal regulations.

In fact, the Federal Railroad Administration previously told Local 10 that it had no indication FEC was violating rail safety regulations.

The question now is whether, in light of what happened at MIA, the location of those railcars deserves another look.

Broward County says it plans to ask FEC.

Local 10 also reached out to FEC for comment and asked whether the company plans to reconsider its staging practices. FEC has not yet responded.

The lawsuit filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court alleges Musselman kicked Baker-Mazara off the team after the Trojans were eliminated from NCAA Tournament contention to avoid paying the remainder of his NIL contract.

It also alleges Musselman directed racially charged remarks at Baker-Mazara following a Feb. 28 loss to 12th-ranked Nebraska. The Trojans were in the midst of losing eight straight games to end the season.

Baker-Mazara alleges breach of contract, conversion and intentional interference with prospective economic advantage in the lawsuit, which doesn't state a specific dollar amount he is seeking.

“The decision to remove the student-athlete from the men’s basketball roster was based on a number of considerations, none having to do with race,” USC said Tuesday in a statement. “We look forward to defeating this action in court.”

Baker-Mazara claims the Trojans terminated his NIL agreements with the program the day after he was removed from the roster on March 1, stating he had violated a “morals clause.” The lawsuit alleges USC has not paid the remainder of the promised NIL earnings.

“I gave everything I had to USC. I played through injuries, showed up for my teammates every day, and honored my commitments,” Baker-Mazara said Tuesday in a statement from his publicist. “Filing this lawsuit was not an easy decision, but I believe it is important to stand up for what you were promised and what you are owed.”

The lawsuit cites a locker room incident after the Trojans’ loss to Nebraska in which Baker-Mazara claimed Musselman “lost his mind” during a profanity-laced tirade in front of the team.

Baker-Mazara attempted to address his teammates in the locker room, the lawsuit says, when Musselman said, “You shut the (expletive) up! You are one of the worst teammates anyone can ever have!”

Baker-Mazara responded, "Wow Coach, do you need me to leave because I don’t understand this animosity,” according to the lawsuit.

Musselman responded, "Yes, leave! Go back to the (expletive) Dominican Republic! Nobody wants you here!! (Expletive) you!,” the lawsuit states.

Baker-Mazara, a 26-year-old from the Dominican Republic, took the comments to be racist and discriminatory, according to the lawsuit first obtained by The California Post.

The next day, Baker-Mazara was dropped from the team. The lawsuit says USC never gave him a reason for his dismissal.

Baker-Mazara averaged 18.5 points as the team's second-leading scorer while starting 22 of 26 games for the struggling Trojans last season, including a 14-point effort the 82-67 loss to Nebraska a day before being dismissed. At the time, no reason or details were provided in a brief statement from the school.

He wasn't selected in this year's NBA draft.

Baker-Mazara was MVP of the Maui Invitational, won by the Trojans last November.

USC was Baker-Mazara’s fifth school. He began his college career at Duquesne before transferring to San Diego State for his second season, when he earned Mountain West Conference sixth man of the year honors.

He went from there to Northwest Florida State College for one season and transferred to Auburn for two seasons, where he helped the Tigers reach the Final Four in 2025. He left Auburn to join USC for his final collegiate season.

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Associated Press writer Andrew Dalton contributed to this report.

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At the team's weekly media availability on Monday, Manning was asked if he'd seen any social media posts about the postgame celebration. He mentioned the fake video clip, called it “hilarious” and laughed about it. Several others in the room laughed with him.

A clip of Manning's remarks posted later on social media quickly drew widespread criticism directed at Manning over joking about violence against women in general and Rowe in particular.

“I made an insensitive comment about an AI video. There is nothing funny about it. It's easy to say I didn't mean it, but I know my words and actions were hurtful to a lot of people. I do not take that lightly and am deeply sorry for that,” Manning posted on Instagram.

“I specifically want to apologize to Holly Rowe for what she personally had to deal with because of my comments. I have a ton of respect for her and appreciate her showing me grace in this moment. I need to do better and will be more thoughtful going forward,” Manning said.

In a statement posted on X and Instagram, Rowe thanked Manning for his apology and said they discussed the matter.

“Thank you, Arch. I appreciate our conversation about this — which will remain private,” Rowe posted. “Apology accepted. We move forward with respect and kindness for one another.”

An ESPN spokesperson declined to comment.

Manning’s public misstep and ensuing apology are notable for one of college football’s most prominent players. The nephew of Peyton and Eli Manning and grandson of family patriarch Archie Manning has endorsements with major brands such as Red Bull, Vuori athletic wear and Google Gemini artificial intelligence, to name a few.

And they come as issues about depictions of violence toward women have impacted other sports. Last month, Good Good Golf lost its partnership with Callaway and its title sponsorship of a PGA Tour event in the fallout over a video for a new driver that showed a man shoving to the ground a woman who was trying to touch the golf club.

The Association For Women in Sports Media offered its support to Rowe and called for more education to fight against depictions of violence against women.

“Holly Rowe exemplifies the professionalism and integrity that AWSM strives to support and celebrate,” the group said. “In the aftermath of Arch Manning's apology, we encourage all teams to remind players and staff that women in sports media deserve respect, and the normalization of violence against women in any capacity is not acceptable.”

The fake Texas video that Manning laughed about stemmed from a real postgame exchange between Sarkisian and Rowe that appeared testy on live TV. Earlier technical difficulties had caused delays for Sarkisian’s halftime interview with reporter Laura Rutledge.

When Rowe tried to interview Sarkisian amid the loud postgame celebrations, the coach repeated “Texas fight!” and said “Hook'em!” before walking away.

A clip of that exchange was altered to show Sarkisian striking Rowe on the right side of her face, knocking her down.

Texas jumped from No. 4 to No. 1 after the victory. The Longhorns play UTSA at home Saturday night.

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Despite announcing his international retirement, the 39-year-old Inter Miami star was included Tuesday in Lionel Scaloni’s 28-man Argentina squad ahead of three home friendlies.

Messi has yet to confirm whether he will join the team, but the head of Argentina soccer said the icon accepted the invitation for the Oct. 6 game against Benin in Buenos Aires for what will be a grand finale.

“After a conversation with senior national team coach Lionel Scaloni, we decided to invite the best player in the world — our icon, our captain Lionel Messi — so that he can have the farewell he deserves on October 6,” said Claudio Tapia, president of the Argentine Football Association.

Messi led Argentina to the 2022 World Cup title and helped the Albiceleste reach the final at the 2026 edition.

“Furthermore, having received Lionel’s acceptance," Tapia said, "we want to invite all the Qatar World Cup champions to join him, along with their families, to witness the ‘last tango’ of the world’s best player.”

Earlier, Argentina had announced it would face Bolivia, Burkina Faso and Benin in its first batch of friendly matches following Messi's retirement from the national team after a 21-year spell.

The country's soccer association said the home match against Bolivia will take place Sept. 30 at the Mario Alberto Kempes Stadium in Córdoba.

The Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires will host the friendlies against Burkina Faso and Benin on Oct. 3 and Oct. 6, respectively.

Focus also turns to the future of Scaloni, whose contract expires in December. Scaloni had hinted he might step down following the 1–0 loss to Spain in the World Cup final on July 19.

Three Argentina players — Leandro Paredes, Nahuel Molina and Thiago Almada — were recently handed bans by FIFA for a scuffle after losing the the World Cup final. Paredes received a 10-match ban.

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Los médicos de la red pública, de la que depende el 70% de la población, iniciaron el 24 de agosto un paro en todo el país para exigir mejores condiciones laborales, un ajuste salarial y la provisión de más insumos. Según el Sindicato Nacional de Médicos (Sinamed), los sueldos de los galenos están congelados desde 2012.

Tras una serie de reuniones el Ministerio de Salud anunció que llegó a un entendimiento con el sector. Además de un aumento salarial de dos millones de guaraníes (unos 335 dólares), el gobierno acordó reconocer y remunerar los días festivos trabajados, incorporar más profesionales a la plantilla permanente del servicio público y aportar 260 millones de dólares adicionales a la cobertura de medicamentos e insumos.

El acuerdo representa “una señal concreta de que este gobierno escucha y dialoga para reivindicar a quienes sostienen todos los días nuestro sistema de salud”, dijo en una rueda de prensa el ministro del área, Isaías Fretes, quien asumió el cargo hace apenas dos días.

Su antecesora, María Teresa Barán, fue destituida el domingo por el presidente paraguayo Santiago Peña en medio de las trabadas conversaciones para poner fin a la huelga que derivó en renuncias masivas de médicos en las últimas semanas.

La secretaria general del Sinamed, Rossana González, adelantó que el acuerdo debería tener una recepción favorable entre los médicos que ahora deberán votar en una asamblea si lo aceptan.

“Hoy podemos decir que los cuatro puntos causales de la huelga fueron respondidos”, dijo González en una conferencia de prensa. “Hoy todos los médicos del país, sin excepción, vamos a tener un reajuste salarial”, añadió.

Una vez que el sindicato ratifique la propuesta se oficializará el levantamiento de la huelga. La asamblea general del gremio está convocada para la noche del miércoles.

Con poco más de seis millones de habitantes, Paraguay atraviesa desde hace varios años un colapso en el sistema público de salud que a menudo sufre falta de insumos y medicamentos, profesionales sobrecargados y hospitales y servicios saturados.

Healey proposed providing free home visits by nurses to all parents with newborns as well as updated regulations governing mental health screening of new mothers.

“To every mom who has struggled with her mental health before, during or after pregnancy, I want you to know we see you — I see you,” Healey said during a visit to Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

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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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“We need to talk more openly about this,” said Healey, who signed a maternal health law in 2024 that expanded access to doulas, midwives and birth centers, and required insurers to cover postpartum depression screenings.

Both sides agreed that Clancy killed her three children, then tried to take her own life by jumping from a second-floor window. The Massachusetts mother is now paralyzed from the waist down. Her attorneys argued she could not be held criminally responsible because of postpartum psychosis, while prosecutors said she should be found guilty because evidence indicated she knew what she was doing was wrong.

A mistrial was declared when jurors could not reach a unanimous verdict.

Healey, a Democrat, said she plans to ask state lawmakers to approve $2 million for a program aimed at offering home visits to all families welcoming the roughly 68,000 newborns in Massachusetts each year. No families would be required to participate, but those who do can have a nurse visit and answer questions about feeding, sleep, and caring for a new baby. The nurse would also monitor mothers' postpartum health, as well as screen for depression and other mental health concerns.

This would be the first state investment in a federally funded program that currently provides nurse visits to about 3,000 families each year, Healey said.

Healey also proposed a $250,000 investment in the Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Program for Moms and directed the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to update state regulations on perinatal mental health screenings to identify concerns during and after pregnancy.

Giving birth can be one of life’s most joyous experiences, Healey said, “but it’s also one of the most challenging.”

“For new mothers, it can be exhausting, isolating and overwhelming,” she said.

Massachusetts has long been a national leader in expanding access to health care, with one of the lowest uninsured rates in the U.S. Its landmark 2006 health care law, which sought near-universal coverage, became a model for key parts of the federal Affordable Care Act.

Yet maternal care gaps remain. Mental illness, including substance use disorder, was the leading underlying cause of death for pregnant women and new mothers in Massachusetts from 2019 through 2024, accounting for 38%, according to the state’s maternal mortality review committee. The panel also concluded that 85% of those deaths were preventable and more than half occurred between seven days and one year after giving birth.

Este colegio católico está ubicado en Caraballeda, estado de La Guaira, uno de los más afectados por los letales sismos y adonde esta semana se dio el inicio del nuevo periodo educativo. Los terremotos dejaron al menos 6.500 fallecidos y unos 17.900 ciudadanos quedaron sin vivienda por el colapso de 190 edificios.

Una pared derrumbada en el patio, las aulas vacías y la ausencia de los estudiantes fallecidos son un duro recordatorio y el gran desafío que representa el inicio del nuevo ciclo escolar.

Son “muchas emociones encontradas porque sé por lo que ellos han pasado”, dijo la maestra Correa al imaginarse lo que los niños sintieron a partir del dolor de su propia experiencia. “Son bien poquito los que vinieron hoy (martes)”, del total de alumnos del colegio fueron apenas cuatro de primaria, tres niñas y un niño.

Dijo que es importante para los niños el regreso a clases. Mencionó el caso de una de sus alumnas que perdió a su abuelo y a un tío en los terremotos y lo vital que ella “se sienta protegida” en la escuela.

Correa siente que como maestra no se equivocó de profesión y se dice a sí misma: "realmente esta es tu profesión... para esto fue que naciste”.

En las regiones afectadas algunas escuelas han abierto con menos de la mitad de su matrícula, en parte porque muchos niños y profesores tuvieron que marcharse a otros estados cuando sus casas se derrumbaron.

En agosto, este colegio en Caraballeda organizó una misa para recordar a los alumnos fallecidos. Los profesoress en esa ocasión colocaron fotografías enmarcadas y medallas conmemorativas sobre una mesa situada cerca del altar.

Una mujer llevó una caja con las cenizas de un alumno mientras los profesores, los padres y los estudiantes supervivientes se reunían para rezar.

Enfrentar la tragedia que provocaron los sismos en ese colegio, del movimiento Fe y Alegría que promueve la Compañía de Jesús en barriadas pobres de Venezuela, ha sido una tarea difícil, según los maestros y padres de familia.

La profesora de Geografía, Eliana García, durante aquel acto litúrgico lloró mientras miraba las fotografías de los alumnos que ya no están. La educadora no tiene hijos propios, pero afirma que ha ganado muchos de otras madres gracias a la enseñanza. Para García, los profesores son más que educadores: actúan como padres, abogados y cualquier otra cosa que sus alumnos necesiten.

Mientras se despierta cada día tratando de averiguar cómo seguir adelante, con el dolor a cuesta por la pérdida de su única hermana, García reconoce su dolor en los ojos de otros.

“Cuando miro el rostro de cada padre y cada niño que también ha perdido a un amigo, me doy cuenta de que esto será muy difícil de superar”, afirmó.

Las clases se han reanudando desde el lunes pasado poco a poco en La Guaira, a unos 20 kilómetros al norte de Caracas, el segundo estado más pequeño de Venezuela. En la Guaira se registró la mayoría de las muertes.

Su población de 440.000 habitantes es mayoritariamente pobre y vive del turismo, el comercio y las actividades en torno al principal aeropuerto y el segundo mayor puerto del país sudamericano.

Los terremotos fueron los más fuertes registrados en el país sudamericano en más de un siglo y ocurrieron con 39 segundos de diferencia a lo largo de la cordillera de la costa, donde se encuentran los mayores centros poblados del país. Los sismos provocaron severos daños también en Caracas y en los estados centro occidentales de Carabobo, Miranda, Aragua y Yaracuy.

El Ministerio de Educación ha informado de que unas 1.000 escuelas sufrieron daños en su mayoría leves, 87 presentan daños estructurales que impiden el regreso a clases y 11 se derrumbaron. Los alumnos de las escuelas que no se pueden utilizar están siendo reasignados a centros cercanos mientras continúan las reparaciones.

En particular, ninguna de las escuelas de Fe y Alegría se derrumbó, sin embargo, 73 de ellas sufrieron afectaciones moderadas o daños no estructurales que requerían reparaciones urgentes antes de normalizar su uso, dijo en agosto el sacerdote jesuita José Gregorio Terán, director general del movimiento en Venezuela, citado en un comunicado.

La jesuita es una de las órdenes religiosas más prominentes de la Iglesia católica y tiene presencia en más de un centenar de países. Fe y Alegría fue fundada en 1955 y dirige unos 1.500 centros educativos en Venezuela ubicados en barrios pobres y carentes de escuelas cercanas.

Forfeiting five first-round draft picks might make it difficult for the Clippers to deliver one.

“I don’t think in any way we’ve done permanent damage to this franchise. No question, this is a setback for the team,” Silver said Tuesday. “The ultimate goal in terms of these type of sanctions is to ensure that other teams don’t engage in this type of behavior in the future.”

He added that he has “no inkling” any other teams are doing it now.

Silver's news conference following the NBA's two-day Board of Governors meeting included his first remarks after the Clippers were found to have circumvented salary cap rules on Kawhi Leonard’s behalf — something the team vehemently denied during a yearlong investigation. The NBA hit the Clippers earlier this month with massive penalties as a result of that probe, suspending owner Steve Ballmer for one year, fining the team $30 million and forcing it to forfeit draft picks, among other sanctions.

Silver said he relied on precedent in his ruling, pointing to how the Minnesota Timberwolves were once docked five picks for cap circumvention. In this case, he said the penalty had to go beyond suspensions and financial consequences.

“That has to go directly to competition,” he said.

“I think that’s in some ways the most difficult part of adjudicating these disputes,” Silver added, “because while there have to be competitive consequences, our view, if these rules are violated, we still want to be a 30-team league. We recognize that in some ways we’re unfortunately punishing the fans of that team as well. That’s the balance we’re trying to seek.”

Ballmer said this weekend that he would accept the penalties and that the fine had been paid. His statement did not admit any guilt on the part of the franchise — which Silver assumed could be because there are other investigations into the Clippers that don't involve the NBA.

“Aside from that, I appreciate the fact that he has stood down, that he did apologize and is accepting responsibility," Silver said. “Our plan is to move forward. Every reason to believe that at the end-of-the-year period he’ll return to be an owner in good standing.”

The Clippers were not represented at the board meeting, Silver said, since the team remains in the process of finding an interim governor.

The trade sending Leonard back to Toronto was finally completed Monday.

Expansion update

Silver said the owners focused more on Las Vegas than Seattle when discussing potential expansion to 32 teams, because there are more unknowns when it comes to the Las Vegas bids.

A team could play in the existing T-Mobile Arena with some modifications, but there also is the possibility of putting a new team in an arena — or, this being Las Vegas, something closer to a total entertainment center — that would be built.

“Therefore, it’s a much longer timeline before we can throw the ball up for NBA basketball,” Silver said. “On the other hand, in Seattle, we have had operational groups out to Climate Pledge. You clearly have a state-of-the-art arena there. May require some modifications for NBA basketball. If we were opening in five weeks, we could be ready in Seattle.”

He said the next round of bids would be coming in shortly, after previously saying a decision on how to proceed would be made before the end of the year.

Portland's prospects

Silver said he hopes and believes an arena agreement will be reached that will ensure the Trail Blazers remain in Portland.

New Blazers owner Tom Dundon has previously said he would commit to a 20-year lease that would keep the team in Portland if the state, city and county agree to fund the renovation of the Moda Center, the oldest arena in the NBA that hasn’t been upgraded.

“I would see it as a failure if we did not keep the team in Portland,” Silver said. “I’ve spent a lot of time in that community over the years. They’ve shown amazing support for the Trail Blazers. They’re some of our best fans around the league.

“At the same time — now I speak for our WNBA team in the market as well — we need a state-of-the-art arena. I think by any objective measure now, the current building there is in the bottom measure of any arena in the league.”

The state already has pledged $365 million toward the deal, provided Portland contributes $120 million and Multnomah County also provides funds. Negotiations have become contentious and Silver said he hoped “that we can lower the temperature honestly a bit.”

New WNBA boss

With WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert planning to retire at the end the year, Silver said the NBA is interviewing search firms as it seeks a successor.

“We’ve heard from several potential candidates. We’ve heard from others who are recommending candidates,” Silver said. “We’re keeping that list right now at the office. Again, we will move forward on that process.”

He added there will continue to be a balance of how much of a role the NBA has in overseeing the league that turned 30 this year. Engelbert was the first person who held the title of commissioner of the WNBA.

“I felt that was more than symbolism. Under Cathy, we fairly significantly increased the portion of our office who is solely focused on WNBA,” Silver said. “I would say on issues particularly around basketball and player issues, I believe those people should be independent of the NBA and should be under the direct control of the WNBA commissioner.”

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See AP’s full NBA coverage here

CBO said the war is expected to contribute to inflation into the first quarter of 2027, making inflation roughly 0.5 percentage points higher than they had previously estimated. That's driven largely by the reduction of oil and natural gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz and disruptions to shipping through the Red Sea.

The estimate, prepared in response to a request for information from the top Democrat on the House Budget committee, Rep. Brendan Boyle, largely aligns with a previous estimate from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who pinned the costs at $37.5 billion, according to his Senate testimony.

The estimates come largely from replacing munitions and equipment lost in battle, the CBO said, and do not include costs related to U.S. military personnel killed or injured in the conflict or longer term veterans’ healthcare and disability compensation.

Boyle said that beyond with the war's human toll, “this nonpartisan CBO report makes clear that the war has also cost American taxpayers tens of billions of dollars and counting, while continuing to drive up costs.”

“Donald Trump and Republicans have spent years telling Americans that we cannot afford to help families here at home,” Boyle said in a statement, "but apparently they can find tens of billions of dollars, and potentially much more, for a reckless war that is leaving Americans to pay the price.”

The findings come as voters eye the war and high prices heading toward the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress, where Republicans now hold majority power in the House and Senate. The war, which started Feb. 28, is now in its seventh month, with no signs of a quick end to the on-off conflict.

The White House made a request for $87.6 billion in supplemental funding in June, largely for the war effort, but Congress has not approved it. CBO said the portion of that request that appears to be directly related to the conflict, $42.3 billion, is about 10% larger than CBO’s estimate of DoD’s costs.

The Defense Department declined to respond to CBO's request for information for its report, which was a break from norms. The budget office said it relied on government databases and public reports, and as a result, its estimates “are subject to considerable uncertainty.”

A Pentagon inspector general report Monday said the war has resulted in “strategic inventory shortfalls.”

Several of the victims' families joined with top lawmakers and the head of the National Transportation Safety Board outside the U.S. Capitol to demand action, but it may be difficult for this Congress to pass anything ahead of the midterm elections. And lawmakers are still trying to draft a compromise bill that will combine elements of the competing proposals that previously passed the House and Senate.

Doug Lane said he has the U.S. figure skating jacket that his son Spencer worked so hard to earn and pieces of his wife Christine's laptop that were retrieved from the wreckage after their plane plunged into the icy Potomac River in the deadliest U.S. aviation disaster since 2001. Everyone aboard was killed when American Airlines Flight 5342 from Wichita, Kansas, and the Army Black Hawk helicopter on a training mission collided. The victims included 28 members of the figure skating community.

Lane said the families don't want to see the key reforms recommended after this crash — which include requiring planes to be equipped with systems that will let pilots know exactly where other aircraft are — to wind up like some of the never-implemented measures proposed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Airline pilots are still pushing for secondary barriers to keep someone from storming the cockpit when the door is opened.

“That is what fading urgency looks like. Something everyone agrees will make people safer gets caught in process, objections, exceptions and delay until you look up and an entire generation has passed. Flight 5342 cannot follow that path,” Lane said.

The FAA quickly restricted helicopter traffic around Reagan National Airport when it became clear that a helicopter route in the approach path of the airport's secondary runway didn’t ensure enough separation between helicopters and planes. But the NTSB remains unsatisfied with the FAA's response to a third of the 33 safety recommendations it received.

FAA Administrator Brian Bedford testified on Capitol Hill Tuesday that his staff will work to address those concerns, but he also needs guidance from Congress.

Some progress, but families want meaningful reforms

Already, steps have been taken to prevent helicopters and planes from sharing the same airspace around Reagan airport, and air traffic controllers are now prohibited from relying only on pilots to see other aircraft and avoid them.

But concerning incidents continue to happen, such as when an airline jet was allowed to take off just as President Donald Trump's helicopter was taking off from the White House last month.

Lane and many other victims' families traveled to the nation's capital time after time in the 595 days since the crash.

“We can tell them stories, we can ask questions. We can push for answers. We can take action. That’s the work that belongs to us. But we cannot do anybody else’s work for them,” Lane said. “We need the people with the power to turn this tragedy into change to do theirs and to finish it.”

Senators Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell and NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said it would be a shame to reach the second anniversary of the crash, without Congress passing the reforms her agency recommended, nor the Federal Aviation Administration and Defense Department making more safety improvements. Cruz said he hopes Congress will be able to pass a bill during the lame duck session that will follow November's elections.

Families say airlines and Congress should push for safety

Rachel Feres, who lost her cousin and his wife and two young daughters in the crash, said she can’t believe there's still debate about whether pilots transporting hundreds of passengers should have the best collision-avoidance technology available, when most modern cars come equipped with arrays of sensors to check blind spots and even apply the brakes in an emergency.

Feres and the other families have been surprised at the amount of lobbying against requiring all planes flying in crowded airspace to be equipped with existing technology that can help pilots know the location of all other aircraft flying nearby. Homendy has said those ADS-B In systems would have prevented this crash. Some airlines have endorsed them, but cost concerns from other airlines and private plane owners have been a stumbling block.

The airlines have the money and power to get this done, Feres said. “This is not about whether you can afford to act … you have the leverage, you have the voice. The question is why safety so rarely gets the same urgency as the next quarterly earnings report.”

“Do the thing you would demand if your wife and son were on that airplane. Do what you would do if your granddaughter was traveling home with her teddy bear. You know how to move fast when money is on the line. Move fast when lives are,” Feres said.

Private planes can use a portable device and an iPad to get locations

But some airlines have already begun to add the technology to their planes, partly because in addition to the safety benefits, the systems can help increase the number of planes that can fly into an airport by spacing them more precisely. American Airlines leads the industry, having added the technology to its Airbus A321s over the past several years, equipping more than 300 of its roughly 1,000 planes to date. But the systems aren't yet standard equipment on all planes.

Roughly three quarters of the pilots of business jets and smaller single-engine Cessnas and Bonanzas use portable devices that only cost $400. They can tap into this location data and display the information about nearby aircraft on an iPad.

The safety reform bills stalled earlier this year when the narrower Senate bill came up one vote short in the House after the military reversed course and opposed it at the last minute. And lawmakers have had trouble reconciling the Senate bill with the more comprehensive House version that took a different approach on several key points.

Homendy said the victims' families deserve to see more action.

“We can’t spend another moment looking them in the eye and doing nothing. We have to. We have an obligation,” Homendy said. “We owe it to these families. We owe it to passengers. We owe it to the traveling public. We owe it to cargo pilots and so much more to improve safety now.”

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Associated Press writer Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed.

Jamisha Shamari Sylvain, de 27 años, fue detenida el lunes por la noche. Según el Burglary Apprehension Team de la BSO, los agentes la mantenían bajo vigilancia como parte de una investigación en curso.

De acuerdo con la BSO, Sylvain y otra persona entraron a un apartamento en la cuadra 5200 de Northeast Fifth Terrace, en Deerfield Beach, y se negaron a salir.

Agentes del distrito de Deerfield Beach, el SWAT y negociadores de crisis acudieron al complejo de apartamentos. Después de varias horas, los negociadores lograron ganarse la confianza de Sylvain y la convencieron de salir de forma segura junto con la otra persona, indicaron los investigadores.

Un video grabado por un vecino muestra a Sylvain saliendo de un apartamento con las manos en alto mientras los agentes esperaban cerca.

La segunda persona, identificada por la BSO como Deja Boynton, también fue detenida. Más tarde, la BSO confirmó que Boynton fue liberada.

Los investigadores explicaron que buscaban a Sylvain por acusaciones de que se aprovechó en repetidas ocasiones de personas mayores haciéndose pasar por cuidadora u otra profesional de confianza.

La BSO indicó que la investigación comenzó en octubre de 2025, cuando los detectives recibieron la denuncia de un anciano que presuntamente estaba siendo explotado por una mujer desconocida.

Según los investigadores, la mujer se hizo pasar por cuidadora en los apartamentos B’nai B’rith de Deerfield Beach. Las autoridades dijeron que la dejaron entrar al apartamento del hombre, donde presuntamente tomó su tarjeta bancaria y retiró un total de $1,600 de su cuenta.

Los detectives supieron luego de varios incidentes más en los que Sylvain habría usado un engaño similar, señalaron los investigadores. En algunos casos, se presentaba como cuidadora profesional o decía ser una nueva cuidadora asignada por el seguro médico de la víctima.

Una vez dentro de los apartamentos, Sylvain presuntamente robaba tarjetas de débito y pedía información bancaria personal, según los agentes.

Investigadores de varias unidades de la BSO trabajaron en conjunto para obtener una orden de arresto contra Sylvain.

La localizaron y fue ingresada en la BSO Main Jail el 19 de diciembre de 2025. Enfrentaba cargos que incluían robo en vivienda ocupada, explotación de adulto mayor, uso delictivo de información de identificación personal, robo de tarjeta de crédito y hurto mayor contra una persona de 65 años o más, según la BSO.

Sylvain salió de la cárcel en mayo de 2026.

Sin embargo, tras su salida, los detectives de la BSO identificaron al menos dos nuevos casos en los que, según los investigadores, usó un método similar para ganarse la confianza de adultos mayores.

En uno de ellos, Sylvain presuntamente engañó a una residente de The Pointe at Deerfield Beach Senior Living. Los investigadores sostienen que se hizo pasar por la administradora del edificio y robó una tarjeta de débito, tarjetas de crédito y dinero en efectivo.

Las autoridades piden a los adultos mayores y a sus familias verificar la identidad, las credenciales y las referencias de cuidadores y asistentes antes de darles acceso a su casa o a su información financiera.

La BSO también recomienda revisar con frecuencia las cuentas bancarias y los reportes de crédito, consultar con un amigo o familiar de confianza antes de dar información financiera y denunciar cualquier actividad sospechosa lo antes posible.

Cualquier persona en la jurisdicción de la BSO que crea que ella o alguien que conoce pudo haber sido víctima de una estafa similar debe llamar al número de no emergencias de la BSO: 954-764-4357.

El jefe de Bomberos de Miami, Robert Hevia, explicó que los tres hombres trabajaban poco después de las 8 a.m. del lunes en la obra del edificio de 58 pisos de Citadel, ubicada en el 1201 de Brickell Bay Drive.

“Es un día extraordinario para ellos”, dijo Hevia sobre los cuatro sobrevivientes.

Un hombre de 47 años resultó herido mientras operaba la máquina desde la cabina. Este tipo de equipo se utiliza para perforaciones pesadas. Según Hevia, el operador logró saltar de la cabina mientras la perforadora se volcaba.

Los otros dos hombres quedaron heridos y atrapados cuando el mástil inferior y la barra de perforación aplastaron una oficina temporal instalada en un contenedor por Related Companies, la desarrolladora del proyecto.

Hevia indicó que los rescatistas cortaron el contenedor de acero para liberar a los dos hombres, de 27 y 29 años. Uno de ellos abrazó a un bombero antes de salir caminando.

La mujer conducía una camioneta BMW blanca en dirección sur por Brickell Bay Drive cuando vio que la perforadora se venía abajo entre Southeast 12th Street y 13th Street.

Según Hevia, la conductora “logró poner el carro en reversa”, por lo que la máquina cayó sobre el capó. El motor se incendió y ella escapó con heridas leves por la parte trasera del vehículo.

“Las llamas subían 30 pies en el aire”, contó Christina Lardon, una testigo.

Los rescatistas llevaron a la mujer al HCA Florida Mercy Hospital y a los tres hombres al Ryder Trauma Center del Jackson Memorial Hospital.

“Fue una mezcla de impacto, asombro y miedo... Estoy muy afectada porque pude haber sido yo”, dijo Lardon.

La perforadora también dañó dos autos estacionados a ambos lados de Brickell Bay Drive, justo frente a la histórica cabaña de madera de 1905 de The Dade Heritage Trust.

“Estamos colaborando plenamente con los departamentos de construcción de la ciudad y del condado para asegurar el sitio y llevar a cabo una investigación completa”, señaló en un comunicado Kathleen Anne Corless, portavoz de Related Companies.

Un equipo de mitigación atendió un derrame de combustible. Equipos de OSHA y de la unidad Unsafe Structures del condado Miami-Dade también se presentaron en la obra.

Las autoridades informaron que la piloto, Faith Tenkley, de 23 años, era la única persona a bordo de la avioneta bimotor de hélice Piper serie PA-30 cuando descendió en el agua el 22 de agosto.

A pesar de lo aparatoso del aterrizaje, Tenkley salió solo con rasguños leves y no se reportaron otros heridos, según las autoridades.

En el video se ve a un policía de Boca Raton ayudando a Tenkley a subir a una camilla y a una ambulancia.

“Usted es la única que venía en el avión, ¿verdad?”, le pregunta el agente.

Otras imágenes captan los momentos posteriores al aterrizaje de emergencia, con la avioneta flotando en aguas poco profundas, muy cerca de la orilla.

Los agentes que llegaron al lugar alejaron rápidamente a los bañistas de la zona ante el temor de que la aeronave estuviera derramando combustible.

“Va a haber combustible de avión saliéndose al agua”, se escucha decir a un agente a las personas en la playa.

Un video grabado antes con un celular muestra la avioneta descendiendo hacia el mar cerca de South Beach Park, ante la mirada atónita de los bañistas.

En un principio, las autoridades temieron que el incidente terminara mucho peor. Sin embargo, la piloto sobrevivió y nadie en la playa resultó herido.

Tenkley contó después a Gulf Coast News que volaba desde Page Field, en Fort Myers, hacia el South Bimini Airport, en las Bahamas. Empezó a tener problemas mecánicos a unas 15 millas al oeste de Boca Raton.

Según Tenkley, el motor derecho de la avioneta falló y el tren de aterrizaje se rompió. Tenía autorización para aterrizar en el Boca Raton Airport, pero le preocupaba que un aterrizaje forzoso con tanto combustible todavía a bordo pudiera provocar un incendio.

Por eso decidió descender en el agua.

Tenkley relató que maniobró entre edificios y personas que practicaban paddle a lo largo de la costa hasta encontrar una zona despejada donde pudiera lograr un aterrizaje lo más suave posible.

Esa decisión evitó que el accidente dejara otros heridos.

Boca Raton Ocean Rescue, el Departamento de Policía de Boca Raton y Boca Raton Fire Rescue acudieron al lugar. La aeronave fue retirada del agua a la mañana siguiente.

Bomberos y paramédicos de Miami Fire Rescue informaron que las dos víctimas, un hombre de 18 años y otro de 23, fueron trasladadas de urgencia al Centro de Trauma Ryder del Jackson Memorial Hospital en condición estable tras recibir disparos afuera de Dukunoo Jamaican Kitchen, ubicado en el 316 de la calle NW 24.

El restaurante está ubicado frente al edificio de apartamentos Wynwood 25, en una zona conocida por sus restaurantes, tiendas y vida nocturna.

Las autoridades indicaron que la policía de Miami recibió múltiples llamadas de emergencia y, al llegar, encontró a un hombre con una herida de bala afuera de Dukunoo Jamaican Kitchen.

Testigos dijeron que los oficiales localizaron después a una segunda víctima afuera de Skinny Louie’s, el restaurante contiguo.

Un equipo de Local 10 News estuvo presente en el lugar mientras la policía permaneció en la escena durante horas, con oficiales vigilando el área detrás del cordón policial. También se observó a una unidad canina inspeccionando los alrededores de la propiedad.

Un empleado de un negocio cercano relató el caos que se vivió tras los disparos y contó que ayudó a un hombre herido.

“Vi a un montón de gente correr directo hacia nosotros”, dijo. “No sabía qué estaba pasando. No escuché los disparos porque estaba más atrás, en la parte trasera. Cuando salí, había mucha gente corriendo hacia adentro”.

El empleado señaló que, dentro del restaurante, le avisaron a la gente que había disparos afuera.

“Así que metí a todos y cerré las puertas. Pensé que era una situación de tirador activo, pero los disparos ya habían ocurrido para cuando todos entraban corriendo”, agregó.

Contó que después encontró a un hombre herido afuera y le ayudó a dar primeros auxilios.

“Salí y vi a un señor tirado en el piso. Tenía una herida de bala en la nalga derecha y estaba perdiendo mucha sangre. La gente le estaba haciendo presión”, relató.

“Yo tenía un cinturón, que ya no tengo. Me lo quité, se lo amarré y le dije que no se moviera, porque no sabíamos si la bala seguía adentro y moverse podía ser peligroso”.

La policía de Miami no ha dado a conocer detalles adicionales sobre lo que provocó el tiroteo ni ha identificado a un sospechoso o un posible móvil.

Cualquier persona con información sobre el tiroteo puede llamar a Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers al 305-471-8477.

In a social media post, Trump said the closure was needed for safety repairs. But he said the repairs, which Congress has allocated $257 million to cover, would only happen if the board was allowed to move forward with plans to add his name to the building. A federal judge has twice said that can't happen without the approval of Congress.

“Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing," U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said in the latest ruling Tuesday.

The Justice Department appealed the ruling. Trump, who was named the Kennedy Center's chairman last year by loyalists on the board, participated in the virtual board meeting and said on social media he'd given $17 million to an endowment intended to support the institution.

The meeting included testy exchanges at points between Trump and Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat who has led the campaign to block efforts to memorialize the president at the Kennedy Center. At one point, Beatty referred to Trump as someone who caused “extreme harm,” according to a participant in the meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Trump said Beatty was “incompetent” and “holding up everything.”

“You're holding up the whole country,” she responded.

White House spokesman Davis Ingle said, "Trump-deranged Dumocrats like Joyce Beatty oppose anything that celebrates the greatness of our country because they put America Last.”

Kennedy Center fans worry about possible demolition

The developments threw into limbo the fate of one of the nation's most prominent cultural institutions, a place where presidents, lawmakers and celebrities of all political ideologies have gathered for decades to recognize and celebrate the best in American arts and culture.

The venue's leaders have argued that the massive building, which began construction in 1965, was in dire need of renovations. A partial ceiling collapse in the building's main hallway earlier this month intensified the calls for renovations.

"The building is not currently built to last, the chairman knows that because he is among the best builders in the world,” Brian Ballard, Kennedy Center board member, said in a statement.

But Trump's insistence on a physical recognition of his work on the building, reminiscent of his tendency to add his name to buildings as a real estate developer, has been a persistent sticking point — alienating many of the institution's longtime supporters and facing repeated legal roadblocks.

The fight over the Kennedy Center marks a rare setback in Trump's second term bid to dramatically remake the nation's capital in his gilded tastes. He's demolished the East Wing of the White House and is replacing it with a ballroom and plans to build a triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery. He's also eyeing a golf course renovation along the Potomac River.

The Kennedy Center board voted in August to inscribe his name on the Kennedy Center's facade so it would read “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump.” If the Trump Kennedy Center Fund reached $100 million, another inscription would be added reading “Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”

The plaza in front of the Kennedy Center would also be renamed in Trump’s honor.

Cooper ruled in May that the Kennedy Center illegally added Trump’s name to the building, ordering it removed. The institution’s leaders complied in June but left a tarp and scaffolding in place where Trump’s name was once displayed.

Hanging over the hearing was the prospect that the administration may seek to demolish the Kennedy Center. In a filing last month, administration lawyers told the court that absent recognition of the president, the Kennedy Center would struggle to raise money for renovations. Without that money, they suggested, the building may need to be demolished, a prospect that alarmed some given Trump’s swift moves last year to dismantle the East Wing.

The Kennedy Center, the lawyers argued, “will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down, with a determination to follow on what to build on the site, such as a large outdoor amphitheater overlooking the Potomac River that has been proposed, by some, for many years.”

The latest death involved an 18-year-old resident of Mifflin County, in the center of the state, the county coroner's office said in a Facebook post. The cause was acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, a rare and severe neurological complication of measles, it said.

On Saturday, a 40-year-old woman from Jefferson County, a rural area in western Pennsylvania, died of measles complications. And last month, two measles-infected infants died in Lancaster County, in the southeastern part of the state.

None of the four were vaccinated, according to the state health department. The infants were too young for vaccinations, according to current recommendations.

The U.S. is enduring its worst year for measles since 1991 and has seen seven reported measles-associated deaths in the last two years — more than the combined total of reported deaths over the previous three decades.

Pennsylvania's measles outbreak continues to grow, with nearly 700 illnesses reported so far this year across 38 counties, including about 100 cases in the last seven days. The measles-associated deaths are the first reported in the state in 35 years, state officials say.

“My thoughts are with the two families who lost loved ones to this highly contagious virus, as Pennsylvania faces the worst measles outbreak in more than three decades,” the state's health secretary, Dr. Debra Bogen, said in a statement Tuesday, referring to the two most recent deaths — those of the adults.

“We remain committed to working with our partners across Pennsylvania to stem this outbreak and prevent more deaths. That means ensuring people have the facts about measles and access to the MMR vaccine, which kept measles outbreaks at bay for decades.”

The nation eliminated the domestic spread of measles in 2000 by maintaining high vaccination rates, but they have fallen in recent years to below the 95% coverage needed to prevent outbreaks. Meanwhile, measles infections have been surging in recent years.

In November, international health officials will meet to determine if the U.S. and Mexico have lost their measles-free status.

The problem has been years in the making, as fewer kids get routine vaccines due to parental waivers, health care access issues and rampant disinformation. More recently, Trump administration health officials, including Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have questioned and sown doubt about the established safety of vaccines at an unprecedented level while also defunding local efforts to improve vaccination rates.

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Last Saturday's historic fourth-quarter collapse by the Buckeyes in their 24-23 loss at Texas has brought angst and second-guessing usually reserved for losses to arch-rival Michigan.

Day spent Tuesday's news conference going through the post-mortem after experiencing only his second setback in 27 games in September while trying to outline his hopes of preventing the loss from snowballing and impacting the rest of the season.

“It’s extremely frustrating, it’s maddening and we’re excited to get back on the field and get going because the last couple of days haven’t been fun around here,” Day said. “Had some really good conversations with the guys. I think they’re going to be in a good mindset moving forward. We understand we have a lot of football ahead of us. So this highlighted some things that we got to get fixed.”

It was the first time in program history the sixth-ranked Buckeyes have lost when leading by at least 17 points at halftime. Going back to 2004, top-ranked teams in the AP Top 25 were 197-0 when holding a 20-point lead at any point in the fourth quarter. Ohio State was up 23-3 going into the final 15 minutes before the Longhorns scored on their final three drives.

Day might have been too aggressive at times — including a failed fourth-down conversion when the Buckeyes could have kicked a field goal — which he owned up to.

“When it’s time to go win the game, we all have to be on the same page and we have to live with the result. Just like we throw the ball on third-and-4 to Jeremiah (Smith) on a fade to go win the game (in the fourth quarter). Yeah, I absolutely own that. We didn't have enough answers in the fourth quarter to go win the game, but we will moving forward.”

One late-game situation Day acknowledged he might do differently next time is letting a team score in order to have enough time to possibly go on a game-winning drive.

Day called his final timeout with 53 seconds remaining when Texas' Hollywood Smothers was stopped on first-and-goal at the 1. Smothers ended up scoring two plays later and with 25 seconds on the clock.

“If we win the game, then it would’ve been the right decision. And in the moment you've got to make a hard decision and I decided to try to hold the line,” he said. “Ultimately would have loved to see what it would’ve looked like if they would’ve scored. So we’ll have to think about it when it happens again.”

Julian Sayin passed for 278 yards, but completed only five of 16 passes in the second half. The junior has a 75.9% completion rate in his two seasons as Ohio State's starter, but it is 62.5% in losses.

Before opening Big Ten play on Sept. 26 against Illinois, the Buckeyes (1-1) host Kent State on Saturday.

Ohio State is averaging 59 points and winning by an average margin of 51.7 points in its seven matchups against MAC teams since Day took over as head coach in 2019.

The bigger concern is making sure the Buckeyes correct mistakes by the time they have crucial road tests next month against No. 18 Iowa, No. 4 Indiana and No. 12 Southern California.

“It's see what we did wrong, try to improve those and make sure this doesn’t happen again," Sayin said. "I think we have a good group of guys on our team. I think we can use this as fuel. I love the group of guys on the team and have a lot of confidence in them.”

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“Every time somebody tells my story wrong, a piece of the movement gets buried with the lie," Seale said in a statement issued Tuesday by Blackstone Publishing. "'Seize the Time' was the blueprint and the start. ‘I, Bobby’ is me finishing what I started — with my own voice, my own memory and my own words.”

“Seize the Time” will come out in February, and “I, Bobby” toward the end of 2027.

Seale, who turns 90 next month, was in a San Francisco County jail in the late 1960s on charges related to two separate trials. At the time, he began relating to a local journalist his account of the militant organization he and Huey P. Newton started in 1966 and the principles its advocated for revolutionary change.

“Seize the Time," which had fallen out of print in recent years, will include an introduction by actor-comedian D.L. Hughley and will be available for the first time in e-book and audio editions.

The Panthers, labeled by then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover as the country's “greatest threat to internal security," peaked in the late 1960s and declined through the next decade amid violent personal and political divisions and FBI infiltration. Newton disbanded the Panthers in the early 1980s, years after Seale had already left.

Seale has since taught Black studies at Temple University, worked with young activists and released a handful of books, including “Power to the People: The World of the Black Panthers,” a collaboration with photographer Stephen Shames published in 2016.

In “I, Bobby,” Seale will revisit the “internal fractures, government persecution, and enduring legacy while allowing Seale to set the record straight on his life once and for all,” according to Blackstone.

Saudi Arabia has largely been on its own in confronting the Iranian-backed rebels, who rapidly captured more territory in Yemen over the past week and strengthened their ability to choke off Saudi oil exports out of the Red Sea.

The vulnerability of the kingdom’s oil production was further underscored by an attack days ago that damaged its biggest pipeline. The strike was reportedly carried out by Iran’s allied militias in Iraq. It means the East-West Pipeline will be largely shut down for weeks as it is repaired, regional officials say, likely taking several million barrels of oil a day off the market.

The Houthi offensive has opened up a new front in the Mideast’s war and boosted the hand of Iran, Saudi Arabia's traditional archrival in the region, which has attacked shipping through the region's other major maritime route, the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met in Cairo with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. The crown prince said in a statement that they both confirmed “their shared commitment to ensuring freedom and security of maritime navigation” in the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the choke point at the sea’s southern end. El-Sissi's office put out a statement expressing “Egypt’s unwavering position in supporting Saudi Arabia.”

Neither side gave firm details on any future steps. While Egypt is unlikely to offer military help to Saudi Arabia, the country is influential in the Arab world and can help rally support. Egypt has been at the center of mediation efforts in the last three years of turmoil in the region, keeping open relations with all parties, including Iran and its allies.

The kingdom looks for support as it faces tough choices

In recent days, Houthi fighters made dramatic advances, seizing the Red Sea port of Mokha and three strategic islands in and near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

The gains have further improved the Houthis’ position to seal off the strait to Saudi shipping, which they have been attacking since late July. Bab el-Mandeb connects the Red Sea to the open ocean and, from there, to Saudi Arabia’s biggest oil customers in Asia.

Saudi Arabia has so far seemed reluctant to unleash a major military campaign against the Houthis, wary of bringing greater Houthi attacks on its oil infrastructure and being dragged back into an all-out civil war in Yemen, its southern neighbor.

But as Houthi attacks continue, the kingdom faces a potential decision about whether to step up its military response or seek a diplomatic solution.

The Saudis’ most essential ally, the United States, has been unpredictable and sometimes unreliable. U.S. President Donald Trump seems reluctant to widen an already unpopular and stalemated Mideast war ahead of congressional elections. The United Arab Emirates, previously a partner in the Saudi-led coalition against the Houthis, has withdrawn from the war after conflicts between its allies in Yemen and Saudi Arabia’s.

Yemen's U.N. Ambassador Abdullah Al-Saadi told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that Yemen’s armed forces are regrouping and regaining control but called for a U.N. arms embargo against the Houthis to be enforced and the council to condemn the escalation.

He asked "whether the international community will accept for one of the world’s most important gateways for trade and energy to become a blackmail card in the hands of a transnational terrorist group.”

Egypt has been hurt as well by the Houthi campaign

Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping during the Gaza war led to a decrease in traffic through the Suez Canal, gouging Egypt’s revenues. During the Iran war, Saudi Arabia redirected its oil exports through the Red Sea, much of it going through the Suez Canal or through an Egyptian pipeline from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. But the shutdown of the East-West Pipeline is likely to greatly reduce or end those shipments for weeks.

There are limits to the help Egypt can give.

“I don’t think MBS wants troops from Cairo, which he knows would be a very difficult ask,” said analyst H.A. Hellyer, using the crown prince’s initials.

Instead, Cairo can give the Saudis political backing among Arab nations for whatever steps they take against the Houthis, said Hellyer, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.

“There’s genuine international consensus that the Houthis cannot be allowed to hold a choke point like Bab el-Mandeb hostage,” Hellyer said. But some nations are wary about working with Saudi Arabia because of past experience in Yemen.

The coalition that Prince Mohammed first put together to fight the Houthis in 2015 largely fell apart years ago because of infighting and factionalism.

“MBS is keenly aware of this and will be trying to make it clear there is a much better plan for going forward,” Hellyer said. “It just depends on how many are convinced.”

The fighting is pushing Yemen back into civil war

The Houthi advances have dealt heavy defeats to Saudi allies in Yemen, including its internationally recognized government, and revived a war that had largely gone quiet under a 2022 truce.

Fighting between the Houthis and Saudi-backed forces has killed more than 500 people in the last week alone, up from nearly 200 the week before, the World Health Organization said. The fighting has also displaced nearly 94,000 people.

Save the Children said at least 117 civilians were killed between Aug. 1 and Sept. 9, including 19 children. In the first week of September, 43 children were killed or wounded, the highest weekly casualty toll recorded by the group in a year, it said.

“Children are once again paying the highest price for some of the most severe violence the country has seen in years,” said the agency’s Yemen director, Rishana Haniffa.

Anees al Asbahi, a spokesperson for the Houthi-run Health Ministry, said Tuesday in a post on X that Saudi airstrikes killed three people, including two children, in Yemen’s Taiz province. The Associated Press could not independently verify the claim.

Alerts went off in several parts of Saudi Arabia early Tuesday, often a sign of missile or drone fire from the Houthis or Iraqi militias. There was no immediate word on any attacks.

On Monday, Houthi missile and drone attacks in southern Saudi Arabia wounded 13 civilians and damaged houses and vehicles, Saudi military spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki said.

The Houthis hold the capital, Sanaa, and the north and west of Yemen, where most of its population lives. The government and its allies — a mix of militias — hold the south and east, including the biggest port, Aden, and Yemen’s oil fields.

Saudi Arabia led an aerial bombing campaign for years against the Houthis beginning in 2015, but its allies made little progress on the ground. The conflict killed an estimated 150,000 people and at times pushed Yemen to the brink of famine.

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Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

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Jamisha Shamari Sylvain, 27, was taken into custody Monday evening after BSO’s Burglary Apprehension Team said they conducted surveillance on her as part of an ongoing investigation.

According to BSO officials, Sylvain and another person entered an apartment in the 5200 block of Northeast Fifth Terrace in Deerfield Beach and refused to come outside.

Deerfield Beach District deputies, SWAT and crisis negotiators responded to the apartment complex. After several hours, negotiators established a rapport with Sylvain and convinced her and the other person to safely exit the residence, investigators said.

Video from a neighbor showed Sylvain emerging from an apartment with her hands raised as deputies stood nearby.

A second person, identified by BSO as Deja Boynton, was also taken into custody. BSO later confirmed Boynton was released.

Investigators said they were pursuing Sylvain over allegations that she repeatedly preyed on elderly victims by posing as a caregiver or other trusted professional.

BSO said its investigation began in October 2025, after detectives received a report involving an elderly man who was allegedly being exploited by an unknown woman.

According to investigators, the woman posed as a caregiver at the B’nai B’rith apartments in Deerfield Beach. Authorities said she was allowed into the elderly man’s apartment, where she allegedly accessed his bank card and withdrew a total of $1,600 from his account.

Detectives then learned of several other incidents in which Sylvain allegedly used a similar ruse, investigators said. In some cases, she pretended to be a professional caregiver or claimed to be a new caregiver assigned through the victim’s health insurance company, they say.

Deputies said once inside the victims’ apartments, Sylvain allegedly stole debit cards and requested personal banking information.

Investigators from several BSO units worked together to obtain an arrest warrant for Sylvain.

She was located and booked into the BSO Main Jail on Dec. 19, 2025, on charges including occupied burglary, elderly exploitation, criminal use of personal identification information, theft of a credit card and grand theft of a person 65 or older, according to BSO.

Sylvain was released from jail in May 2026.

After her release, however, BSO detectives identified at least two new cases in which investigators say she used a similar scheme to gain the trust of elderly victims.

In one case, deputies said Sylvain targeted a resident at The Pointe at Deerfield Beach Senior Living. Investigators allege she pretended to be the building manager and stole a debit card, credit cards and cash.

Authorities are urging seniors and their families to verify the identity, credentials and references of caregivers and aides before allowing them access to a home or financial information.

BSO also recommends regularly checking bank accounts and credit reports, consulting a trusted friend or family member before providing financial information and reporting suspicious activity as soon as possible.

Anyone in a BSO jurisdiction who believes they or someone they know may have been victimized in a similar scam is urged to call BSO’s non-emergency number at 954-764-4357.

“The decision for the children to move school was taken following a discussion with the family’s security team about the practicalities of their current arrangements," the spokesperson said in a statement.

Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, had only just started the new school year in England after the family relocated from California in late August.

British media reported that the distance of the school run and the heavy traffic on the route were among the concerns raised by the couple and their security team. The family is living at a private, non-royal residence outside of London.

“This decision should in no way be interpreted as a reflection on the school or the exceptional care the children have received there," the statement added.

The news followed reports that Harry and Meghan were awaiting a new risk assessment from the government committee that reviews protection of VIPs, including a decision on whether the family should be entitled to publicly funded security now that they live in the U.K.

Harry and Meghan gave up their royal duties and moved to California more than six years ago, saying they wanted to earn their own living. They later signed lucrative contracts with Netflix and Spotify.

Although relations with the rest of the royal family have soured since then, Harry has recently expressed an interest in reconciliation so he could spend more time with his father, King Charles III.

Harry has fought a long-running battle with Britain's government for the restoration of publicly funded police protection, which was canceled when the couple gave up their royal roles.

He had previously said he couldn’t “see a world in which I would be bringing my wife and children back to the U.K.” without a security guarantee.

Earlier this month, the king reiterated that Harry and Meghan remain non-working members of the royal family and would continue to refrain from using formal royal titles, such as his royal highness and her royal highness, as they have done since 2020. The couple said they were surprised by the way the monarch issued that statement because they were given little time to review it.

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Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/royalty

“Alex Ovechkin is a Russian citizen who lives in Moscow with his family during the offseason and will live there following his retirement," team spokesperson Sergey Kocharov said Tuesday in a statement sent to The Associated Press. “As the longest-tenured athlete in Washington, D.C., and a pillar of the community, his focus and ours is on the season ahead and the continued impact he makes on the ice and in our city.”

Ovechkin is seen in the commercial standing behind Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Viacheslav “Slava” Fetisov also participated, leading to backlash on social media from fellow Hall of Famer Dominik Hasek, who called it support for Russia’s war against Ukraine.

The NHL deferred to the Capitals when asked for comment. Ovechkin is expected to be made available to reporters on Thursday when training camp opens ahead of his 22nd NHL season.

Ovechkin, who turns 41 on Thursday, previously voiced support for the Russian president in 2017 when he started a social movement called the “Putin Team.” At the time, he told reporters from the AP and The Washington Post, “I just support my country.”

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Ovechkin said, “Please, no more war,” when asked about the situation. Asked then about his relationship with Putin, Ovechkin said: “He’s my president, but I’m not in politics. I’m an athlete.”

Putin has cracked down on dissent in the years since launching what he calls a special military operation in Ukraine, including punishment for referring to it as a war.

Ovechkin broke Wayne Gretzky's goals record in April 2024 with his 895th. He has scored 929 in his career, which began in 2005 after the Capitals took him with the first pick in the 2004 draft.

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See AP’s full NHL coverage here

It happened just before 10:30 a.m. in the 2800 block of Funston Street.

According to Hollywood Fire Rescue, arriving crews found a fire in the rear of the home that extended from the refrigerator “into the attic.”

Firefighters “quickly” put down the blaze, according to HFR. Nobody was hurt.

“Firefighters conducted ventilation and overhaul operations to ensure the fire was fully extinguished and to check for any remaining hot spots,” HFR spokesperson Chai Kauffman said in an email. “A Hollywood Fire Inspector and the State Fire Marshal were requested to determine the cause and origin of the fire. The investigation remains ongoing.”

Miami Fire Chief Robert Hevia said the three men were working shortly after 8 a.m. on Monday at the construction site of Citadel’s 58-story building at 1201 Brickell Bay Drive.

“It’s a remarkable day for them,” Hevia said about the four survivors injured.

A 47-year-old man was injured while working as an operator in the cabin of the piling rig, used for heavy drilling. Hevia said he managed to jump out of the cabin as the rig was tipping over.

The two other men were injured and trapped after the rig’s lower mast and drill pipe crushed a temporary container office set up at the site by Related Companies, the developer.

Hevia said fire rescue personnel cut through the steel conex box to free the two men, aged 27 and 29. One of the men hugged a firefighter before walking away.

The woman was driving a white BMW sports utility vehicle southbound on Brickell Bay Drive when she saw the rig coming down between Southeast 12th and 13th streets.

Hevia said she “was able to pull her car in reverse,” so the rig landed on the hood, the engine caught on fire, and she escaped with minor injuries through the back of the BMW.

“The flames were shooting up 30 feet in the air,” Christina Lardon, a witness, said.

Fire rescue personnel took the woman to HCA Florida Mercy Hospital and the three men to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center.

“It was shock and awe and fear ... I am shaken because it could have been me,” Lardon said.

The rig also damaged two cars that were parked on opposite sides of Brickell Bay Drive just outside of The Dade Heritage Trust’s historic 1905 wood-frame cottage.

“We are working in full cooperation with City and County building departments to secure the site and conduct a full investigation,” Kathleen Anne Corless, a spokeswoman for Related Companies, wrote in a statement.

A mitigation crew worked on a fuel spill. Teams with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Miami-Dade County Unsafe Structures responded to the construction site.

Watch aerial video of the site

Location

Hours after Sheeran posted on social media about Macklemore's ouster and attributed the decision to the tour's promoters, Irish acts Aaron Rowe and Beoga, the Danish band Lukas Graham, and Finneas posted on Instagram that they were leaving the tour.

Rowe and Lukas Graham would have been replacements for Macklemore on Sheeran’s remaining U.S. dates, while Beoga had been performing several songs — including some the Irish folk band co-wrote — with Sheeran around the middle of each set. Finneas, who is Billie Eilish’s brother and musical collaborator, was due to tour with Sheeran in South America later this year.

“Artists must not be silenced when they speak up for the oppressed,” Finneas said on Instagram. “I have decided to withdraw from my upcoming tour dates with Ed Sheeran. I stand with Palestine and its people.”

Pressure mounts on Sheeran

The moves by his fellow artists put enormous pressure on Sheeran, who has tried to avoid politics and taking a side in the Gaza conflict, arguing that his fans don't come to his shows to hear politics.

Rowe and Beoga each cited their country’s history in their statements explaining their decision. “We are Irish people who understand colonialism. As founding members of the Irish Artists for Palestine movement, we are committed activists for justice and will continue to be,” Beoga said.

Rowe called Sheeran a friend and said the British singer-songwriter changed his life. “But as Irish people we know all too well about genocide, forced famine and violent occupation,” he said, adding that he couldn't “stand by and allow billionaires to use their position of power to silence the rightful voices of those who speak up.”

Meanwhile, Lukas Graham, the band that had hits with "Mama Said” and “7 Years,” expressed gratitude to Sheeran and called it “a difficult decision.”

“Money doesn’t give you the right to own the conversation. Nobody’s bank balance should decide who gets to speak or which suffering we’re allowed to acknowledge,” the band posted, seemingly referring to billionaire Robert Kraft’s role in Macklemore’s removal from the tour.

Emails seeking comment were sent to Sheeran and the tour’s promoter, the Messina Touring Group.

The crisis started with Macklemore being dropped

Sheeran weighed in on Macklemore being dropped after the rapper made pro-Palestinian comments onstage during their tour, saying the decision was made by the promoters alone. The British singer also said he refused to be drawn into a public discussion about the war in Gaza.

“Macklemore coming off tour was the promoter’s decision, it was not mine,” Sheeran wrote on Instagram on Tuesday. “I would never let down the fans who had made plans, nor would I abandon the touring crew and the other support acts and musicians who rely on me for work and to make a living."

Sheeran's statement came a day after Macklemore said he was kicked off the Loop Tour after exclaiming “Free Palestine!” during the Sept. 5 date at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium while introducing his protest song “Hind’s Hall.”

“To all of my Jewish brothers and sisters, criticism of Israel, criticism of apartheid, being against genocide, it in no way is criticism of you,” he said during the concert.

Macklemore said Monday on Instagram that several U.S. venues told the promoter they would prohibit him from performing as Sheeran’s opening act, rallied by Kraft, owner of NFL’s New England Patriots. His Kraft Group also owns Gillette Stadium, where the Patriots play.

In a statement Monday, Kraft said the decision to cancel Macklemore was a result of his recent comments “and a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community.”

Kraft's representatives didn't immediately respond to a Tuesday email seeking comment about the other musical artists' actions.

Sheeran says 'I am not complicit’

A growing chorus of organizations and experts say Israel’s wartime actions in Gaza amount to genocide — an accusation Israel vehemently rejects.

Macklemore was scheduled to perform at eight of the 10 shows Sheeran has remaining on his stadium tour, which is scheduled to resume Saturday in Philadelphia. Ahead are stops at Gillette Stadium, Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium and Indianapolis' Lucas Oil Stadium.

In his social media post, Sheeran said he “spoke with the venues at length all week to try to build a bridge,” but that “the venue’s and promoter’s decision was final.”

He wrote that he tries to use his music to “bring people from all backgrounds and cultures together” and that while he has personal views about “this devastating conflict,” he chooses not to speak publicly because people who come to his shows “do not expect a political forum.” He added: “I am not complicit.”

“I respect Macklemore’s strength of purpose to stand up and shout for what he believes," Sheeran added. "However, there is room for multiple approaches to the same end: peace. I choose to use my fame and platform to be a place of safety and sanctuary, to maintain diplomacy and keep conversations open, not closed.”

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Elise Russo contributed to this report.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the letter sent Tuesday to gambling regulators in 35 states and the District of Columbia. In the letter, the NFL, Major League Baseball, NBA, Major League Soccer and the NHL and the leagues' players associations asked that rules be established to permanently revoke betting privileges for anyone found to have threatened or “abusively harassed” any professional or amateur athlete, coach, official or team personnel."

The letter to state gambling regulators cited “the escalating threat facing professional players, coaches, and officials, the continued harassment and violent threats from sports bettors.”

“While the expansion of legal, state-regulated sports betting has brought new ways for fans to engage with their favorite sports, it has also introduced some negative consequences for players and other personnel involved with professional sporting events,” the leagues and players associations wrote. "Too often, individuals who lose sports bets direct threatening and harassing messages toward players coaches and their families via social media and in-person interactions.

“Threatening the safety of an athlete or their family members over a sports bet crosses a bright ethical and criminal line and it is entirely unacceptable. It is critical that state and local leaders safeguard the participants of sports at all levels.”

The letter noted that Ohio, West Virginia, Louisiana and Wyoming already exclude “bad actors” from licensed sportsbooks and mobile applications. The letter asks for broader protections from the other 35 states and District of Columbia, which do not have similar laws or protections in place since the Supreme Court paved the way for gambling legalization in 2018.

“We call on all state gaming commissions and state policymakers to promptly adopt uniform rules and legislative guardrails to help address this behavior,” the leagues and players associations wrote, asking state-regulated sportsbooks and mobile betting operators “to permanently revoke wagering privileges for any individual verified to have abusively harassed or issued threats of violence against any professional or amateur athlete, coach, official, team personnel or their respective families.”

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See AP’s full sports coverage here

The charges, jointly announced in San Diego by the Justice Department and the criminal investigations division of the IRS, are the latest effort by the Trump administration to investigate and charge alleged cases of fraud and waste in government programs.

The 12 defendants said they were operating licensed, at-home childcare facilities in the San Diego area, submitting attendance records and documenting when each child attended and for what times, in order to collect payments from government childcare subsidy programs. However, federal prosecutors say these at-home facilities rarely, if ever, had children. Defendants fraudulently collected from government programs for months or, in some cases, years, prosecutors said.

The federally funded childcare assistance programs are intended to help low-income families afford childcare so parents can work or go to school. After parents are accepted in the program, they select a childcare provider and the government reimburses the provider directly. But they don’t get enough money to cover all eligible families, forcing many eligible parents on growing waitlists.

It is this federally funded program that led to these defendants to operate these “ghost” daycares, prosecutors said.

“There were no children," Colin McDonald, head of the Justice Department's fraud enforcement division, told a news conference. “There were no daycares. But the taxpayers were paying for all of it.”

The department's fraud division was created in April and this was the first indictment of its type since.

All 12 defendants were arrested Thursday and the charges against them were unsealed Tuesday. Prosecutors said the investigation continues.

Federal prosecutors say some of the defendants were not even in the country when they were submitting claims for childcare payments. One defendant, Turkiya Alawad, 63, was found to be outside the U.S. between Jan. 1, 2024, and Jan. 30, 2024, but at the same time, submitted and collected for childcare payments for the dates they were away, prosecutors say.

Another defendant, Abdulrahman Alawad, 25, claimed to provide childcare to children in March and April but surveillance footage allegedly shows children entered Alawad’s facility only once, on the day a state inspector showed up. Alawad is alleged to have received more than $300,000 in payments from childcare programs in 2025.

Other defendants collected more than $1 million in childcare subsidy payments, prosecutors said. Jared Koopman, head of the IRS criminal investigations division, told reporters the defendants then used the proceeds to purchase luxury homes, send money overseas through wire transfers, and make large cash withdrawals.

“These are taxpayer-funded programs designed to help working families, children and vulnerable communities," Koopman said. “When those funds are diverted for personal profit, families lose, honest providers lose, taxpayers lose and the public trust in these programs is damaged."

While several of the defendants have similar last names, the Justice Department's McDonald told reporters each investigation and indictment was reached independently.

The indictments in California have similarities to what happened with Minnesota-based Feeding Our Future. Federal prosecutors charged Feeding Our Future with scamming Minnesota and federal taxpayers out of millions of dollars of childcare and meal subsidies.

The alleged daycare fraud case in California is larger than the one with Feeding Our Future, which submitted roughly $4.6 million in claims to the childcare assistance program. However, the Feeding Our Future case was much more focused on fraud in meal subsidy programs than childcare.

The operator of the Feeding Our Future’s childcare facility, Fahima Mahamud, 50, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and wire fraud charges in July. The facility's leader, Aimee Bock, was convicted and sentenced to nearly 42 years in prison in May for fraud and conspiracy charges. She has appealed her conviction. Nearly 80 people have been charged and dozens have been convicted since federal authorities announced their first indictments related to the fraud happening at Feeding Our Future in 2022.

The Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations Division had been investigating these childcare facilities going back to at least February. While the IRS is mostly known for the enforcement of tax law, the investigations division is one of the arms of the federal government that often focuses on white-collar crimes.

The Trump administration has put a heavy emphasis on investigating and charging alleged fraud and abuse of government benefit programs. Vice President JD Vance chairs the administration’s task force on the effort. McDonald said the public should expect more investigations and indictments in the coming months.

But some of their efforts have faced criticism and legal challenges. In December, Vance amplified a YouTube video of a popular right-wing influencer accusing childcare providers of running scams. State authorities visited the centers and found nearly all of them operating normally. Nonetheless, the administration used the specter of fraud to launch an unprecedented immigration crackdown in Minnesota. Officials later attempted to freeze federal funds for childcare in five Democratic-led states, but were halted by a lawsuit.

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Associated Press writer Moriah Balingit contributed to this report from Washington.

Jeffrey Buskey, 60, of Litchfield, is charged with 21 counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault against David Meehan, who was 14 when he arrived at the Youth Development Center in Manchester in 1995.

Testifying for a second day Tuesday, Meehan said Buskey wasn’t the only staffer who sexually assaulted him. That prompted Buskey’s defense to ask for a mistrial, which Judge Will Delker denied. He instead instructed jurors to disregard that testimony, but when it happened again a few minutes later, Delker said he had no choice but to declare a mistrial.

“Jury trials are very particular in regards to the type of evidence that is admissible. In this instance, the judge found that some of the evidence that came in should not be heard by the jury,” said the prosecutor, Associate Attorney General Thomas Velardi. “When the judge believes such evidence does come in, and there is not an adequate way to instruct the jury to disregard it, the judge believes he must declare a mistrial.”

Velardi said the state will consider its options, including retrying the case. Meehan, Buskey and the defense attorneys left the court without comment. A phone message was left for the attorneys.

In addition to the allegations involving Meehan, Buskey also faces separate charges involving three other former residents of the state-run facility now known as the Sununu Youth Services Center. His arrest along with another former staffer in 2019 thrust one of the nation’s largest youth detention scandals into public view.

Since then, the state has conducted an unprecedented criminal investigation and made nine additional arrests. It also established a settlement fund to compensate victims and began defending itself against more than 1,100 lawsuits alleging physical, sexual or emotional abuse spanning six decades.

Meehan’s suit was the first to be filed and the only one to go to trial so far. A jury awarded him $38 million in May 2024, though that verdict remains in dispute as the state seeks to reduce the amount to $475,000. The Associated Press generally does not identify those who say they were victims of sexual assault unless they have come forward publicly, as Meehan has done.

As testimony got underway Monday, prosecutor Audriana Mekula asked Meehan, “What is YDC to you?”

“Hell,” he answered.

A federal jury in the nation's capital was scheduled to hear attorneys' opening statements on Tuesday for Trayon White's trial on one count of bribery. White has pleaded not guilty to the charge and denies breaking the law.

White was arrested in 2024 on a charge that he accepted over $150,000 in bribes in exchange for pressuring D.C. employees to extend city contracts for violence intervention services. Authorities say they secretly recorded conversations between White and an FBI informant who gave White $35,000 in cash on four occasions.

Other D.C. Council members voted unanimously to oust White from the council after his arrest. But he won a special election last year to retake the Ward 8 council seat vacated by his expulsion.

Phil Knight, co-founder of Nike, and his wife, have supported the institute for more than a decade, previously giving it more than $200 million, including a $75 million gift earlier this year. Along with creating the new women’s hospital, their new donation will help the medical center expand cardiovascular care and clinical research and training programs for the heart institute’s medical personnel. It will also make it easier to integrate patient care across the medical center.

“Women’s health needs change throughout life, and too often patients are asked to navigate multiple specialties and care settings on their own,” Ray Moreno, the medical center’s CEO, said in a statement. “The Knights’ gift is an opportunity to bring these resources together, expanding access for women across Oregon and creating a strong foundation to bridge care gaps in women’s health.”

Philanthropy to fill the gaps

The donation is particularly significant because it comes at a moment when U.S. hospitals are seeing far more pregnant patients who are also managing chronic health conditions like diabetes, hypertension, addiction, and behavioral and mental health issues. It also lands at the same time healthcare organizations are struggling with the impact of government funding cuts.

“Resources are scarce, and healthcare is increasingly looking to philanthropy to fill in the gaps,” Dan Oseran, the heart institute’s executive medical director, told the Chronicle. “A gift like this reduces that friction a little bit and provides the ability to do things we wouldn’t otherwise be able to do.”

Medicine and medical research have been among the top causes capable of attracting mega-philanthropy ever since the birth of modern philanthropy in the late 19th century, said Benjamin Soskis, a historian whose work focuses on philanthropy and the nonprofit sector.

“They are some of the few institutions that can reliably absorb big-dollar donations,” Soskis said. “At a moment when there is more and more talk about the wealthy warehousing fortunes, the Knights have updated a standby of the traditional philanthropic playbook to provide a model of getting a lot of money out the door now.”

Billions in giving based on relationships

Counting pledges and direct gifts, the Knights’ latest commitment pushes their total charitable giving to more than $9 billion over the past two decades, with about $2.5 billion of that going to their family foundation and donor-advised funds. They have appeared on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list of the biggest donors 12 times since 2006.

The Knights’ charitable giving is often the result of long-term relationships they have built with nonprofit leaders they have come to trust over time.

“These are very personal decisions based on their trust and belief in the institutions and the people that they work with,” said Oseran of Providence Heart Institute. “Each step along the way, when you can point to those achievements and successes, it engenders greater confidence that they have in your being good stewards of their philanthropy. That’s the dynamic of how we got to this ($1.1 billion) gift.”

The couple, whose net worth stands at about $25 billion, according to Forbes, have given huge sums to a range of Oregon nonprofits. They have given more than $2.7 billion to Oregon Health & Science University over the years, including a $2 billion donation for its Knight Cancer Institute last year. They launched the institute with a $100 million gift in 2008.

They have donated more than $2 billion to the University of Oregon, Phil Knight’s alma mater, to support scientific and related programs, including $500 million in 2016 to launch the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact. They gave another $500 million in 2021 to expand research programs, build new facilities, and support students and faculty at the Knight Campus.

The couple also gave $400 million in 2023 to the 1803 Fund, a Portland, Oregon, nonprofit, for its Rebuild Albina project, an effort to revive the economic and cultural prosperity of a once-thriving Black neighborhood that fell into neglect in the 1970s.

The Knights have given at least $580 million to Stanford University, where Phil Knight earned an MBA. That includes $400 million in 2016 to establish Knight-Hennessy Scholars, a graduate program, and $105 million to Stanford’s business school to create the Knight Management Center. They also gave Stanford $75 million in 2022 to launch the Phil and Penny Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience, an effort to learn what causes cognitive decline and diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and how to delay and treat degenerative brain conditions.

Educating donors can lead to surprising support

The Knights have also supported college athletics, environmental programs, and sports and recreation activities for youth, among other causes.

Gifts like the Knights’ latest one prove that spending time with donors and educating them about an organization’s work is extremely important and can lead to surprising windfalls, said Erin Hall, a development consultant and former nonprofit CEO.

“I don’t think we can ever do enough of that because that is how donors find out everything about your organization and that is how donors feel good about where their investment is going,” Hall said. “What a great way to leave a legacy and to be able to watch your investment come to life. That’s a pretty cool thing for a donor, and that’s going to also keep the donor engaged for the next need that that organization has.”

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Maria Di Mento is a senior editor at the Chronicle of Philanthropy, where you can read the full article. This article was provided to The Associated Press by the Chronicle of Philanthropy as part of a partnership to cover philanthropy and nonprofits supported by the Lilly Endowment. The Chronicle is solely responsible for the content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

Authorities said the 23-year-old pilot, Faith Tenkley, was the only person aboard the Piper PA-30 series twin-engine propeller plane when she landed on Aug. 22.

They said despite the dramatic landing, Tenkley escaped with only minor scratches and was no other injuries were reported.

Video shows a Boca Raton police officer helping Tenkley onto a stretcher and into an EMS vehicle.

“You are the only one on the plane, right?” the officer asks.

Additional video also captures the moments after the emergency landing, as the plane floats in the shallow water just offshore.

Responding officers quickly moved beachgoers away from the area because of concerns about fuel leaking from the aircraft.

“There’s going to be jet fuel leaking into the water,” an officer can be heard telling people on the beach.

Earlier cellphone video from the crash shows the small plane descending into the ocean near South Beach Park as stunned beachgoers watch.

Authorities initially feared the incident could have ended much worse. But the pilot survived, and no one on the beach was injured.

Tenkley later told Gulf Coast News that she was flying from Page Field in Fort Myers to South Bimini Airport in the Bahamas when she began experiencing mechanical problems about 15 miles west of Boca Raton.

Tenkley said the plane’s right engine failed and the landing gear broke. She had been cleared to land at Boca Raton Airport but was concerned that attempting a hard landing with a significant amount of fuel still aboard could cause a fire.

Instead, she chose to land in the water.

Tenkley said she maneuvered around buildings and paddleboarders along the coast before finding an open area where she could make what she hoped would be a smooth landing.

The decision ultimately kept the crash from injuring anyone else.

The Boca Raton Ocean Rescue, Boca Raton Police Department and Boca Raton Fire Rescue responded to the scene. The aircraft was removed from the water the following morning.

Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that, “Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing.”

The Trump-aligned board at the Kennedy Center voted in August to inscribe the president’s name on the venue’s facade so it would read “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump.”

If the Trump Kennedy Center Fund reached $100 million, another inscription would be added reading: “Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”

The plaza in front of the Kennedy Center would have also been renamed in Trump’s honor, as part of the board’s vote.

Cooper ruled in May that only Congress can approve changes to the Kennedy Center’s name. In an emergency hearing on the matter in August, the administration argued it was no longer attempting to rename the building and that the vote was simply a recognition of Trump’s effort to secure money for much needed renovations.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, whose wife sits on the Kennedy Center board, compared the move to the way hospitals and colleges recognize high dollar donors.

But a lawyer for U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board, argued the changes amounted to “deja vu” and violated Cooper’s earlier ruling.

“The law is extremely clear: The John F. Kennedy Center is named for President Kennedy — and no one else," Beatty said in a statement Tuesday. "But President Trump is holding the Kennedy Center hostage unless he can put his name on this sacred memorial. The Court just rejected this proposal for the second time. This unlawfulness is as breathtaking as it is wrong, and it needs to stop.”

Tuesday's ruling is the latest twist in a months-old naming saga that first saw the board installing Trump's name above Kennedy's. After Cooper shot down that move, an elevated tarp was erected which obscures Trump's name and most of Kennedy's.

A more recent board proposal floated multiple options for getting Trump's name on the grounds, including inscriptions like “Renovation and endowment overseen by President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.” Another option: “With Gratitude for Support from President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”

The proposed board resolution was submitted to the court by Beatty as part of her effort to prevent the board from proceeding with the planned closure. It flatly states that “without such appropriate recognition” it's unlikely that Trump will financially support what the board says are desperately needed renovations.

Cooper, in his Tuesday ruling, tartly notes “the government plays word games.”

In a scheduling hearing Tuesday morning, prior to the release of his ruling, Cooper appealed to lawyers for both sides to find a mediated solution to the fate of the performing arts center. The center's board has claimed the building is in desperate physical shape and the institution is desperately close to insolvency.

“Is it possible to turn down the temperature a little bit?" Cooper asked. “I'm not ordering you to do it, but there is a larger public interest here.”

Capt. Tim Hawkins, U.S. Central Command spokesman, said the Iranian boats “recently attempted to take possession of a U.S. unmanned surface vessel" but failed after the military "forcefully responded."

Iranian state media reported Monday that a pair of fishing boats came under attack in Hormozgan province on Iran’s southern coast and that several fishermen were reported missing, citing a provincial official.

It is the latest volley of fire in the more than 6-month-old war as both sides seek control over the Strait of Hormuz, where the U.S. has succeeded in recent weeks in loosening Iran’s grip over the critical energy shipping corridor. But the impact of the unpopular conflict has driven up the cost of oil and gasoline prices, posing political problems for President Donald Trump and his Republican Party ahead of November's congressional midterm elections.

“Oil will drop like a rock as soon as the Military Conflict with Iran is over, and that will not be long,” Trump asserted in a social media post Monday.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday called the foreign minister of Oman to discuss the Gulf Arab country’s efforts to deescalate tensions and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the State Department said.

Escalating Houthi-Saudi conflict puts more pressure on oil prices

Global oil markets have been further roiled by increased attacks from Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen against Saudi Arabia's shipping and infrastructure.

The new front in the Middle East conflict has cut off or hindered alternate routes for Saudi Arabia to get its oil to the world, including an attack days ago that damaged its biggest pipeline and advances that strengthened the Houthis' ability to choke off Saudi oil exports out of the Red Sea.

Besides the hit to the global economy, new reports out of Washington have detailed the U.S. costs for the war against Iran, the reduction to stockpiles of advanced missile interceptors, and the damage that has been inflicted on American aircraft, bases and diplomatic outposts.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday that the war has cost the Pentagon more than $38 billion through Aug. 1 and will cost up to $3 billion a month or more depending on the intensity of the conflict. That figure largely aligns with what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has told Congress that the fighting has cost so far.

The CBO said the war is expected to contribute to inflation into the first quarter of next year.

Iranian strikes also have damaged and destroyed hundreds of buildings and other structures at U.S. bases in the Middle East as well as dozens of American aircraft and drones, according to a report from the Pentagon inspector general released Monday.

Iran and the US have clashed over sea drones

Hawkins said Tuesday the sea drone involved in the latest clash is a “Saildrone” — a small, roughly 25-foot (8-meter) craft — which can operate by itself. U.S. Central Command has been using them in the region for several years to surveil maritime traffic.

Hawkins said all of the command’s surface drones “remain fully accounted for.” The military has long asserted that the technology on the Saildrones is commercially available and not sensitive in nature.

Ahmad Nafisi, Hormozgan’s deputy governor, told the Islamic Republic News Agency that the two boats came under attack Monday evening from what he described as an “enemy drone” in the Persian Gulf. The IRNA report did not mention an attempt by Iranian forces to seize a U.S. drone.

The latest incident, which was reported earlier by Axios, comes a week after Iranian state television reported that the country's navy captured one of the U.S. military’s underwater drones at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz.

Hawkins said then that an Anduril Dive-LD drone had malfunctioned while it was surveying the waters in the region and the U.S. military no longer had possession of it. He stressed that the drone was defective and noted that it was also an “older model that neither collected sensitive data nor carried any classified sonar or radar equipment.”

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Associated Press writers Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut and Lisa Mascaro and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

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Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputies said Jonathan Escobar was arrested Monday in connection with two cases stemming from reported thefts at the First Horizon bank branch at 5901 Miami Lakes Drive.

In the first case, deputies said Escobar, who resides in the county’s unincorporated West Little River area, stole four Amscot money orders totaling $4,000 from a victim’s account on Sept. 8. They said he later cashed the money orders and kept the proceeds.

Deputies said the entire transaction was captured on surveillance video.

A second arrest report states that Escobar, who had worked as a teller since June 22, took more than $18,000 through a series of transactions.

Bank personnel conducted an audit of Escobar’s cash drawer on Friday and found a shortage of $7,657.80, according to the report.

Investigators said another audit found that Escobar cashed 11 Western Union money orders for $1,000 each against an account holder’s account, despite the orders having a face value of $10 each.

They said the transactions resulted in an additional $11,000 loss, bringing the bank’s reported total loss to $18,657.80.

On Monday, Escobar returned to the bank with a folder and was asked to meet with human resources and a bank investigator, according to the report.

Before the interview, investigators discovered six additional money orders with a face value of $10 each, the report states.

During the interview with bank representatives, Escobar admitted to “cashing the altered money orders against unsuspecting victim accounts and removing money from his cash drawer for personal gain,” according to the report. Investigators said he later reported his drawer as balanced so the theft would not be detected.

Jail records show Escobar is facing one count each of third-degree grand theft and organized fraud of $20,000 or less in each case.

As of Tuesday morning, he was being held in a $10,000 bond at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

Agentes de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade informaron que Jonathan Escobar fue arrestado el lunes en relación con dos casos. Ambos surgieron a raíz de robos denunciados en la sucursal de First Horizon ubicada en el 5901 de Miami Lakes Drive.

En el primer caso, Escobar, residente de la zona no incorporada de West Little River, robó el 8 de septiembre cuatro giros de Amscot por un total de $4,000 de la cuenta de una víctima, según los agentes. Luego cobró los giros y se quedó con el dinero.

Los agentes indicaron que toda la transacción quedó grabada por las cámaras de seguridad.

Un segundo informe de arresto indica que Escobar, quien trabajaba como cajero desde el 22 de junio, se apropió de más de $18,000 mediante una serie de transacciones.

De acuerdo con el informe, el personal del banco hizo una auditoría de la caja de Escobar el viernes y encontró un faltante de $7,657.80.

Según los investigadores, otra auditoría reveló que Escobar cobró 11 giros de Western Union por $1,000 cada uno contra la cuenta de un cliente, aunque el valor real de cada giro era de $10.

Esas transacciones causaron una pérdida adicional de $11,000, lo que elevó el total reportado por el banco a $18,657.80.

El lunes, Escobar regresó al banco con una carpeta y le pidieron reunirse con recursos humanos y con un investigador del banco, según el informe.

Antes de la entrevista, los investigadores encontraron otros seis giros con un valor real de $10 cada uno.

Durante la reunión con representantes del banco, Escobar admitió que había cobrado “los giros alterados contra cuentas de víctimas desprevenidas y sacado dinero de su caja para beneficio propio”, según el informe. Los investigadores señalaron que, después, reportaba su caja como cuadrada para que no se descubriera el robo.

Según los registros de la cárcel, Escobar enfrenta en cada caso un cargo de hurto mayor en tercer grado y uno de fraude organizado por $20,000 o menos.

Hasta la mañana del martes, permanecía en el Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center con una fianza de $10,000.

Personal de Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue acudió a la vivienda de una sola planta poco después de las 12:30 p.m. del lunes, luego de que un vecino viera las llamas en el vecindario Lauderdale Manors.

Los bomberos encontraron al hombre atrapado en el baño de la casa, de cinco habitaciones y construida en 1958, cerca de Northwest 18th Avenue y 16th Court.

El hombre fue trasladado al Broward Health Medical Center con heridas que ponen en riesgo su vida. Un bombero sufrió quemaduras leves mientras trabajaba en la vivienda.

Los detectives pidieron a cualquier persona con información sobre este u otros casos llamar a Broward County Crime Stoppers al 954-493-8477. Quienes llamen pueden permanecer en el anonimato.

Nota relacionada: Rescatan a hombre de incendio en una casa de Fort Lauderdale y lo trasladan de urgencia al hospital en estado grave

The new collective bargaining agreement goes into effect at midnight, at which time a seven-year contract will be the longest a player can re-sign with his own team — and six years in free agency. The final eight-year deals are getting done Tuesday.

Ryan Leonard will tie Alex Tuch as the Capitals' highest-paid player

Washington locked up Ryan Leonard for $84 million starting with the 2027-28 season. Making an average of $10.5 million a year through 2035, he will match new Capitals teammate Alex Tuch, who also got eight years in a sign-and-trade with Buffalo, for the highest-paid player on the team when Leonard's new deal kicks in.

“Ryan is a young and talented player who is still years away from entering his prime, and we believe he has tremendous potential to continue growing into an important player for our organization," general manager Chris Patrick said in announcing Leonard's contract. "While reaching his full potential will take time, we have been impressed with his work ethic and the way he continues to develop his game. We are confident in Ryan’s ability to continue improving as a hockey player, and we believe this agreement provides him with the opportunity to grow and develop within our organization, while giving us the ability to keep a talented young player in our lineup for years to come.”

Leonard, a 21-year-old winger, is going into just his second full NHL season after breaking in during the spring of 2025. This contract cements his place as part of the Capitals' young, post-Alex Ovechkin core, which is expected to also include brothers Ilya and Aliaksei Protas.

Drake Batherson signs the richest deal in Senators history

Ottawa signed Drake Batherson for $86 million, which is the most lucrative contract in Senators history. The previous record was Tim Stützle's eight-year, $66.8 million extension from September 2022.

Batherson will count $10.75 million against the salary cap starting in 2027, surpassing Stützle’s $8.35 million. He'll be 29 at that point.

“He was drafted and developed by our organization and has shown a commitment to wanting to be in Ottawa long term,” GM Steve Staios said of Batherson. "We view him as a key part of our core group.”

Batherson has set career highs in scoring each of the past seven seasons, topping out at 71 last year. He is just the second player in league history to do that seven times in a row, joining Vic Stasiuk from 1953-54 to '59-60 with Detroit.

Even with the cap going up, players want long-term security

Since the NHL and the NHL Players' Association came to an agreement on this CBA in late June 2025, 33 players have signed an eight-year contract. Twelve of those have come in the past three months, including Colorado's Cale Makar setting the record for the most money at $163.2 million.

After being flat or nearly flat coming out of the pandemic, the salary cap is the middle of a series of record increases, now that revenues have caught up and are skyrocketing. The cap went from $95.5 million last season to $104 million this season and will be $113.5 million in 2027-28, when most of these new contracts will go into effect.

Philadelphia signing Anaheim’s Leo Carlsson to an offer sheet in July that made him the highest-paid player in the sport at $18 million a year — which the Ducks matched to keep him — led to a spike in salaries this summer.

Vegas center Jack Eichel, who is now making $13.5 million on his long-term contract signed last October, said agent Pat Brisson told him about what was coming and they had talks with NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh and others at the union and decided to go the full eight years anyway.

“It’s an incredible deal for me and my family, and we’re super grateful for the organization and the city believing in us,” Eichel said last week. “There’s no signer's remorse. Yeah, I'm a happy guy.”

Eichel led the Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup in 2023. He and fellow standouts such as Makar, Minnesota's Kirill Kaprizov, and Florida teammates Sam Bennett and Aaron Ekblad are proven commodities.

Many of the young players getting eight-year deals this offseason are team gambles of varying degrees.

As recently as Monday, Buffalo signed 22-year-old center Noah Ostlund for $52.8 million, banking on his potential. Ostlund has played in just 71 games in the league thus far.

Pittsburgh signed Ville Koivunen for $32 million over eight years in August. He has 14 points in 42 career games.

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See AP’s full NHL coverage here

Kardashian has sought to move on since the court last year found eight people guilty for their roles in what the celebrity described as “the most terrifying experience of my life.” In Tuesday's joint statement with stylist Simone Harouche, Kardashian expressed gratitude to the French justice system.

“The experience was deeply traumatic, and its impact has stayed with us. Today’s decision is not about the compensation, but about accountability and recognition,” the statement to The Associated Press from the two Americans read. “We are thankful to the Court and everyone who supported us throughout this process, and we hope to now move forward and continue to heal.”

The court awarded a former receptionist at the Hôtel de Pourtalès 109,516 euros ($126,472), according to his lawyer. Kardashian had been staying at the hotel when the robbery gang targeted her.

The receptionist said he had been traumatized by the Oct. 2, 2016, jewel heist during Fashion Week. He had sought 550,000 euros ($634,868) in damages and interest. His lawyer, Mohand Ouidja, welcomed the decision as a victory.

The lawyer read the court’s written decisions pertaining to Kardashian and the others aloud to the AP.

The court awarded the hotel 50,000 euros ($57,741). It awarded 1 euro — the amount she had requested — to Harouche, Kardashian’s stylist who was present during the robbery.

French lawyers who acted for Kardashian during the trial didn't respond to text messages and phone calls this week from the AP.

Two of the robbers, dressed as police, forced their way into her suite, bound Kardashian with zip ties and tape and made off with more than $6 million in jewelry, including a diamond ring she’d worn that night to a Givenchy show.

Because of their ages, the robbers became known in France as “les papys braqueurs,” or the grandpa robbers. Six of them were in their 60s and 70s when they were tried for armed robbery, kidnapping, gang association and other charges.

With time already served in pretrial detention, none of those found guilty went back to prison. None of them appealed the verdict.

Kardashian said in a statement issued after their conviction that she was “deeply grateful to the French authorities for pursuing justice in this case.”

“The crime was the most terrifying experience of my life, leaving a lasting impact on me and my family,” the celebrity said. “While I’ll never forget what happened, I believe in the power of growth and accountability and pray for healing for all. I remain committed to advocating for justice and promoting a fair legal system.”

Median U.S. household income rose a healthy 2.6% in 2025 from the previous year, after adjusting for inflation, to $87,460, the Census Bureau said Tuesday. That is a record high, topping 2019 household income of $85,320. The median is the level at which half of households had higher earnings and half had less.

The figures show that even after taking into account higher prices, the typical household now earns more than it did before the pandemic. But it's a small gain over a six-year period, which helps explain the generally sour mood Americans have had about the economy since COVID-19 struck in early 2020. Concerns about affordability have taken a leading role in the fast-approaching midterm elections.

Household income has risen 2.5% since 2019, according to Census data. Yet over the previous six-year period, from 2013 to 2019, a period of very low inflation and declining unemployment, it jumped 19%.

The Census report also showed that women's paychecks rose 3.2% last year, while men's declined slightly. The solid gain for women narrowed the gender wage gap, though it remains large, with women earning nearly 84 cents for every dollar earned by men, up from less than 81 cents in 2024.

The Census report also showed that income inequality in the U.S. remained high last year, even as Americans at most levels saw their inflation-adjusted incomes grow.

Americans at the top 10% of incomes reported growth of 1.7% last year to $261,300, the report said, while the poorest one-tenth reported a slight decline to just over $20,000. As a result, the top one-tenth earn a bit more than 13 times the poorest households, up from 12.7 times in 2024. The record was 13.5 in 2021.

A household is defined by Census as a family unit or an individual living alone or living with people who aren’t relatives.

The agency includes all sources of cash income, including wages, investment income, and payments from government programs such as Social Security and unemployment insurance. It doesn’t include non-cash benefits, such as food aid — formerly known as food stamps — or Medicaid.

By demographic group, Asians reported the highest median incomes, at $126,300, a 1.6% increase from 2024. White households saw their incomes rise 2.9% to $96,710 while Hispanic households reported a 1.1% rise to $73,260. Black households saw the biggest increase, of 4.8%, to $59,980.

Cuba has become a betting market in the USA.

The betting site Polymarket shows how people in the U.S. are betting on everything from the removal of Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel from power to when and if the U.S. will invade Cuba or make an economic agreement with Cuba.

The last prediction is whether the U.S. will go and get indicted Cuban leader Raúl Castro.

Sept. 10: Russia denies Cuba full membership in BRICS

BRICS is an organization of 11 emerging economies around the world. The organization works to influence their global importance and reshape economic governance.

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The membership includes Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.

Partner nations include Belarus, Cuba, Nigeria and Thailand.

The Russians turned down Cuba for full membership into the organization because of Cuba’s poor economic conditions and poor predictions by economists moving forward.

Sept. 9: Cuba and the U.S. stuck in diplomatic rhetoric

Cuba’s Brigadier General Emir Mesa Corona, who is in charge of personal security at the Ministry of Interior, sent a strong message to the U.S. not to even think of trying to kidnap Raul Castro or anyone in Cuba’s government or they will face serious consequences.

At the same time, Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parilla admitted that backroom negotiations with the U.S. continue but the U.S. will not soften their positions. Cuba wants the economic embargo lifted while the U.S. wants regime change.

Sept. 8: Blind passion for Cuban politics leads to a political circus between Miami, Havana and DC

As a little boy growing up in Miami, I remember when every presidential candidate from both political parties would come to campaign in Miami and promised that if elected, they would work to see a “Free Cuba.” They would end their speeches with “Viva Cuba Libre.” Local politicians representing different municipalities in Miami-Dade would talk about U.S. foreign policy towards Cuba like they controlled it, and yet, they had nothing to do with it within their scope of responsibilities. But it got them the votes they needed to be elected and remain in power, while political leaders in Cuba continued to blame everything wrong on the island on the U.S. economic embargo, or as they call it, “the blockade.”

On Jan. 3, the U.S. military captured Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela with the assistance of their current Interim President Delcy Rodriguez and brought him to the U.S. to face justice. Shortly thereafter, President Donald Trump announced that Cuba would be next.

The Trump administration began to sanction Cuban organizations and individuals of the government in an attempt to squeeze them out of power. So far, they are still in power. The Cuban government began to prepare for a U.S. invasion. To this date, it has not happened and probably never will.

On May 20, the U.S. Justice Department indicted Raul Castro for the downing of the Brothers to the Rescue planes in 1996 in a theater-like political rally at the Freedom Tower in downtown Miami. So far nothing has happened and nothing is going to happen. There is no Delcy Rodriguez in Cuba. A week ago, many media outlets across Miami reported, based on sources from inside the island, that Raul Castro was gravely ill. This past weekend, Raul reappeared surrounded by Cuba’s military elite.

Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the three Cuban-American members of Congress from South Florida had announced that by the end of 2026, Cuba would fall. Now it has been pushed back to 2029. Furthermore, Rubio recently said that the problem in dealing with Cuba is the Helms-Burton Law (Senator Jesse Helms and Richard Burton, both Republicans) that was enacted by Congress in 1996, also with the hard work of the late Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart and signed into law by Democratic President Bill Clinton.

The three Cuban-American members of Congress made it clear that the goal was to return Cuba to democracy. What democracy? Cuba did not have a democratic government before Fidel Castro took power. How much do they really know about Cuban history? Or is it just a play on words and empty promises?

So as time passes each day, the Cuban-American community is beginning to ask itself, what is really going on in D.C.?

It would not surprise me that in the near future the Trump organizations would negotiate to buy the empty Melia Hotels in Cuba and put the Trump name on them. After all, we now own a big chunk of Venezuelan oil and there was no regime change as promised.

Will we ever learn? How much longer are we going to be blind by our passion?

Sept 6: Raul Castro makes public appearance

After much speculation about Cuba’s Raul Castro being close to death, the Cuban leader showed up at a military event yesterday accompanied by his grandson, Raulito, and Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel.

Sept 3: Raul Castro stable, according to sources

Sources in Cuba say Raul Castro, 95, is stable despite reports about his declining health. According to sources, retired General Abelardo Colome Ibarra, known as “ El Fury,” is currently in worse condition. Colome Ibarra was head of the Ministry of the Interior and highly respected by the Castro brothers and the Cuban military.

Sept 3: President Trump’s hands are tied with regard to Cuba, Rubio says

After months of saying Cuba would be next, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said today that the president’s hands are tied because of the Helms Burton Law which requires no normalization between the U.S. and Cuba unless there is regime change and a move towards a democratic government.

Even if Raul Castro was to die in the near future, I do not expect regime change.

Only the U.S. can change the Helms-Burton Law and I don’t expect that to happen anytime in the near future or after the mid-term elections.

Sept. 2: Children in Cuba start new school year amid more challenges than any other year before

Children in Cuba started the new school year Tuesday facing a lack of supplies, books, uniforms and teachers, and buildings that are falling apart, along with a lack of food to feed the children.

According to the Cuban minister of education, this will be a very challenging year unlike any others.

Cuban education was once one of the big accomplishments of the revolution. However, it was also used to indoctrinate the students in an ideology that no one on the island nation believes anymore.

Sept. 1: Raul Castro hospitalized, sources say

Reliable sources inside Cuba have informed me this afternoon that Raul Castro has been hospitalized. We need to be careful and not to over speculate what might happen until further notice.

Dr. Andy S. Gomez is Local 10’s Cuba Analyst. Gomez is considered one of the leading scholars on Cuba. He worked in higher education for 32 years before retiring from the University of Miami in 2012.

The State Department on Tuesday notified Congress that it will reprogram $52 million in foreign military financing from Slovakia, North Macedonia, Tunisia and Iraq to Panama, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Colombia, Ecuador and Peru last week and pledged to them additional support as the Trump administration has prioritized the Western Hemisphere in its foreign policy with an emphasis on combating drug trafficking and illegal immigration.

It is just the latest in a series of moves that have reduced either money or troop deployments to Europe in response to President Donald Trump's complaints about NATO allies not spending enough on their defense budgets and other matters. Both North Macedonia and Slovakia are NATO members.

But it also comes as the administration has put particular attention on the Western Hemisphere, aligning deeply with right-wing governments as Trump celebrates a renewal of the 19th century Monroe Doctrine establishing Washington's dominance in the Americas.

Foreign military financing provides recipient countries with U.S. taxpayer dollars to allow them to purchase military equipment from American defense contractors.

The State Department said the funds would be used to “combat narcoterrorism in our backyard and help continue to secure the Panama Canal,” adding that the Western Hemisphere has been historically neglected in U.S. military assistance.

“These funds will prevent adversaries from establishing strategic footholds in our hemisphere,” the department said in a veiled jab at China, which has increasingly sought to boost its presence in Latin America.

The shift of money does not eliminate foreign military financing for Tunisia, Iraq, North Macedonia or Slovakia, although the exact amount remaining for those countries was not immediately clear.

The State Department said, though, that the current distribution of financing does “not align with the administration’s prioritization of” the Western Hemisphere.

If convicted, the maximum sentence 33-year-old Nick Reiner could get is life without the possibility of parole, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said at a news conference. Before reaching its decision, Hochman said his office did a thorough review, including speaking to Rob and Michele Singer Reiner’s families and evaluating mitigating factors in Nick Reiner’s favor.

Nick Reiner, who briefly appeared at a court hearing Tuesday morning, has twice pleaded not guilty. The death penalty had been on the table because of the lying-in-wait allegation, the fact that multiple people were killed, and the use of a knife, which is considered a dangerous weapon. However, it's been two decades since California's last execution, and Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a moratorium on the practice in 2019.

Nick Reiner's public defender highlights his mental illness

Reiner's attorney, Deputy Public Defender Kimberly Greene, said prosecutors made the right decision.

“Nick has a serious mental illness and a long history of struggling with self-medication. His circumstances are a tragic example of how difficult it can be for people experiencing significant mental health challenges to access and navigate the treatment and support they need,” Greene said in a statement. “Nothing can undo the profound loss experienced by the Reiner family and those who loved them. Our hearts remain with the family.”

Nick Reiner was charged with first-degree murder on Dec. 16, two days after the stunning killings. Reiner’s former defense attorney, Alan Jackson, adamantly insisted that “pursuant to the laws of California, Nick Reiner is not guilty of murder.”

Jackson had to withdraw for undisclosed reasons that he said were beyond his and the client’s control, and a public defender took over for him.

A grand jury indicted Reiner in July. The judge in the case was deciding whether to make public the transcripts of those secret grand jury proceedings, a move that would likely reveal many key details about the killings.

Hochman said his office will not oppose the transcripts' release, but Nick Reiner's siblings Jake and Romi Reiner were adamantly opposed, saying it would add to their trauma and harm.

At Tuesday's hearing, Judge Sam Ohta said he will hear arguments on the issue next month.

Nick Reiner wants access to his trust fund

Reiner has asked a different judge to force the release of money from a trust his parents set up for him when he was a child, so that he can rehire Jackson, a high-profile defense attorney whose clients have included Kevin Spacey and Karen Read.

The trustees overseeing the funds argue Reiner shouldn't get them, but his lawyers argue that he is still innocent under the law and that the money would legally be his regardless of his parents' deaths. Reiner is awaiting a ruling on the money. Jackson has said he wants to return to the case.

Hochman said he does not expect a trial until next year.

Hours earlier, Rob Reiner was honored at the Emmys

Rob Reiner received an emotional tribute at the Emmy Awards on Monday night. He won a posthumous Emmy for best guest actor in a comedy series for his role on “The Bear,” and was honored by his friend and “Bear” co-star Jamie Lee Curtis.

“He was generous, kind and funny as hell, and a friend to all,” Curtis said. “And we all miss Rob and Michele and all those we lost this year.”

Nick Reiner was the second of Rob and Michele Reiner's three children. He and his father co-wrote the script for the 2015 film “Being Charlie,” which was partly based on the son’s teenage struggles with addiction and homelessness.

Rob Reiner began as an actor, starring in the TV sitcom “All in the Family” as Michael “Meathead” Stivic, the liberal son-in-law to a much more conservative and bigoted Archie Bunker, played by Carroll O’Connor. Reiner won two Emmy Awards for the role.

He became a prolific director whose work included some of the most memorable and endlessly watchable movies of the 1980s and ’90s. His credits included “This is Spinal Tap,” “Stand By Me,” “A Few Good Men,” and “When Harry Met Sally…” during the production of which he met photographer Michele Singer. They wed soon after and were married for 36 years.

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This story has been updated to correct that Nick Reiner has twice pleaded not guilty in the case, rather than not entering a plea, and that he is 33 years old, not 32.

“I have talked to Adam Silver a couple times, and I think he’s a great guy,” Cunningham said Monday after a Fever practice during the women’s FIBA World Cup break. “He was very knowledgeable and full of wisdom and so getting to talk to him and hear his perspective of how he approaches the NBA is huge, who he’s kind of looking for. I think if you want to know the real answers, you go to him.

“But I think he’s going to put someone in place who really wants to take our league to another level than it’s already at,” Cunningham added. “Our league is booming, so why would we not (want) someone who’s going to make it even more booming?”

Current commissioner Cathy Engelbert recently announced she would retire at the end of the year. Silver has a long history of speaking with players about various topics in the NBA or the WNBA, though the NBA declined to specifically address what Silver and Cunningham discussed.

Cunningham, however, was more outspoken about the traits and characteristics she wants to see in the WNBA's next leader, though she didn't share names of any possible candidates she might have in mind.

Cunningham has emerged as a polarizing player this season because of her position on transgender athletes competing in women's and girls sports. She has not backed down from her opinion despite a backlash that has included fans of Cunningham and her stance being confronted at games.

Yet Cunningham believes the league needs a unifier.

“I think the WNBA has always been a place for people to feel safe and comfortable. I think there's all types of walks in this organization, or in this league, which I think is absolutely awesome,” Cunningham said. “But I do think with that you need someone who's going to unite everybody because it can be so different. But that doesn't mean it's a bad thing. I think it makes it a lot of fun.”

She also wants someone committed to helping the league continue to grow.

The WNBA has seen ticket and merchandising sales, television ratings and interest in the league soar since the Fever drafted Caitlin Clark with the No. 1 selection in 2024 even amid the many controversies about everything from whether the hard fouls that Clark has taken this season are too hard to questions about Englebert's leadership.

Engelbert's accomplishments include signing a new, richer television contract, a new collective bargaining agreement and added charter flights for teams.

Cunningham said it may be time for the league to discuss if playing games on back-to-back nights creates a better product on the court or if they could be eliminated with shorter in-season breaks — though she noted that's part of the reason for higher salaries.

But the biggest thing Cunningham is looking for is someone who values the players.

“I really do think that you need a commissioner who is players’ first, who wants a relationship with their players," Cunningham said. "I think that’s so important. That doesn’t mean we’re always going to get along, and we’re always going to agree. Like they have a job, they work for the owners, and so they’re going to have to make hard decisions. But if you have that open line of communication and that respect level, I think that it just feels different. I think that is a very important piece for our new commissioner.”

And regardless of the fans or the critics, Cunningham insists she wants the WNBA to continue its overall mission.

“You continue to have a growth mindset and see other people's walks of life and really get to know why they are the way they are, and I think that's truly fun," she said. "Like you are playing the best basketball, you're in the best league in the entire world and you're getting to learn so much about who you are as a human, how other people are as a human. But with all that, with all the diversity you do need someone who's going to unite our league and have a common goal and get us all on the same page. I think that's super important.”

Indiana is waiting for All-Stars Clark and Aliyah Boston and coach Stephanie White to rejoin the team. The trio was part of the United States’ gold-medal winning team in Berlin. The Fever resume play on Friday at Toronto.

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See AP’s full WNBA coverage here

LIV's future has never been more murky after the rival circuit filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week as it plots a new model no longer bankrolled by the Saudi Arabia sovereign wealth fund. Still to be determined is how many players stick around for the less lucrative “LIV 2.0.”

The other part of the equation is where else they would go.

Koepka got out of the last year of his LIV contract and was offered a path back to the PGA Tour through the “returning member program.” Rolapp then offered that to Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Cameron Smith — all major champions since 2022 when LIV launched — and gave them a three-week deadline to accept with no guarantee it would be offered again.

“In terms of where we are today, we are not currently contemplating a returning member program like the one you saw in January,” Rolapp said on a conference call to discuss the eligibility for the new competition model on the PGA Tour that starts in 2028.

“Everyone at the PGA Tour, myself included, has been focused on what is best for the organization.”

Rolapp has leaned into meritocracy in the new model, making players earn their place. Koepka, along with the other players offered a return, had five-year exemptions from winning majors.

Koepka was required to pay $5 million to charity, and he had no access to player equity grants for five years. He also was not eligible for any of the $20 million signature events unless he qualified for them through his play. Koepka failed to get into any of those tournaments, and he did not qualify for the PGA Tour's postseason.

Rahm has been elusive when it comes to his plans. He has one year left on the contract he signed ahead of the 2024 LIV season and now that contract is in doubt because of the Chapter 11 filing.

“There's a long legal process they have to go through before a lot of things fall into place,” Rahm said Tuesday at the BMW PGA Championship on the European tour. “I really can't give you an answer right now. ... Until this current season is done, I really won't be able to give you an answer.”

Rolapp has been guided by making the PGA Tour the ultimate destination in golf, and the two-tier system that includes a Championship Series with stronger fields and higher purses makes it the most attractive place to be.

The likes of Rahm and DeChambeau are two of the biggest pieces missing if golf wants to patch itself together after such a disruptive time brought on by LIV. Rolapp also has to respect his players who watched their peers chase Saudi riches that caused the disruption.

Rolapp said in June when he revealed the bones of the new model, "We do have to account for whatever lingering discipline is left, or rules that have been broken. There’s scar tissue, and that has to be accounted for. That’s not to say we’re going to be punitive, it’s just that we’re a membership organization of rules.”

At least two players who were with LIV are in position to return by earning 10 tour cards available through the European tour — Patrick Reed, who leads the Race to Dubai, and Eugenio Chacarra, who is No. 3 on the list. Both have been out of LIV for more than a year, so the tour's one-year ban has expired. Bernd Wiesberger of Austria also is in position to get a card.

The PGA Tour has not said how many cards it would offer the European tour going forward. They are still negotiating an alliance that provided those cards, and that could be a path back for European tour members like Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton.

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See AP’s full golf coverage here

Robertson, of Dogi-Fi Dog Trainer in Pompano Beach, witnessed a crash while traveling southbound on Interstate 95.

“The car spun out and just crashed right into the wall,” Robertson said. “From there, I immediately pulled my truck over, and I jumped over the wall in the Express Lane.”

The woman who was driving was injured, but a seatbelt kept her 120-pound Alaskan Malamute safe.

“The whole car was smashed in, the windshield cracked,” Robertson said. “Like everything, all the airbags deployed. To see this dog come out of the car completely untouched is really unbelievable.”

Without the seatbelt, Robertson said it was likely the dog would have flown straight through the windshield. He recommends buying a piece of equipment that costs less than $10 and clips to a harness that goes into the car’s buckle.

“It’s super durable and it also has this bungee cord, kind of like a shock absorber,” Robertson said.

He also recommends a crash-tested crate with doors on both sides, so that emergency crews can reach it.

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Victory restaurant and lounge in Miami’s Midtown area was ordered shut for the second time with inspectors finding a dead rodent and dozens of rodent droppings.

A well-known name, Golden Corral in Hialeah, was also closed after inspectors found live and dead roaches, rodent droppings and food being held at unsafe temperatures.

And for the first time on dirty dining, a rehabilitation facility, Club Fellowship in South Miami-Dade was ordered shut after inspectors found rodent droppings, dozens of live roaches and other violations.

All three will be allowed to reopen following a re-inspection that finds the problems have been corrected and the kitchens meet state standards.

Below is a list of the specific violations.

**VICTORY RESTAURANT & LOUNGE

MIDTOWN MIAMI

3252 NE 1ST AVE

MIAMI

INSPECTION BASED ON COMPLAINT

ORDERED SHUT 9/14

17 VIOLATIONS FOUND

ALSO ORDERED SHUT 7/7 (RODENT ISSUE)

“Dead rodent present. Observed a dead rodent at second floor storage next to freezer upstairs.”

“Rodent activity present as evidenced by rodent droppings found. Observed approximately 25+ droppings at second floor storage near stairs. Observed approximately 10+ droppings at second floor by AC unit pipes. Next to freezer upstairs storage. Repeat Violation.”

“Dead roaches on premises. Observed one dead roach at storage by stairs.”

“Food-contact surface soiled with food debris, mold-like substance or slime. Observed can opener soiled at prep table.’

“Floor soiled/has accumulation of debris. Observed floor under counter soiled by bar area hookah.”

“Nonfood-contact surface soiled with grease, food debris, dirt, slime or dust. Observed reach in cooler across cook line soiled.”

“Carbon dioxide/helium tanks not adequately secured. Observed second floor storage by alcohol storage. Repeat Violation.”

“Employee beverage container on a food preparation table or over/next to clean equipment/utensils. Observed employee drink container stored by dishwasher.”

“Employee with no hair restraint while engaging in food preparation.”

“Equipment in poor repair. Observed reach in cooler gaskets torn at drawers by cook line.”

“Floor area(s) covered with standing water. Observed standing water at floor by bar area. Repeat Violation.”

“Straws provided for customer self-service not individually wrapped or in an approved dispenser. Observed straws provided for customer self-service not individually wrapped at bar area. Employee stored properly. Repeat Violation.”

“Raw animal foods not properly separated from each other in holding unit based upon minimum required cooking temperature. Observed raw chicken container stored over raw lamb container at walk in cooler.”

“Handwash sink used for purposes other than handwashing. Observed hand sink at hookah bar area used as a dump sink. Repeat Violation.”

“No currently certified food service manager on duty with four or more employees engaged in food preparation/handling.”

“No measuring device available for measuring utensil surface temperature when using hot water as sanitizer in a dish machine.”

“Ready-to-eat, time/temperature control for safety food prepared onsite and held more than 24 hours not properly date marked. Observed cooked white rice stored inside walk in cooler not dated.”

**CLUB FELLOWSHIP

(REHABITITATION CENTER)

9827 EAST HIBISCUS STREET

MIAMI

ORDERED SHUT 9/14

8 VIOLATIONS FOUND

“Rodent activity present as evidenced by rodent droppings found. Observed more than 30 rodent droppings on the floor of the kitchen area, close to the reach in cooler by the kitchen entrance.”

“Roach activity present as evidenced by live roaches found. Observed approximately 18 live roaches crawling on the kitchen floor under the rubber matt. Observed another 6 live roaches crawling on the floor of the kitchen by the oven.”

“Dead roaches on premises. Observed 6 dead roaches on the floor of the kitchen area.”

“Food-contact surface soiled with food debris, mold-like substance or slime. Observed can opener soiled.”

“Employee wearing jewelry other than a plain ring on their hands/arms while preparing food. Observed employee wearing a watch while engaged in food preparation.”

“No handwashing sign provided at a hand sink used by food employees. Observed at the kitchen area.”

“Water draining onto floor surface. Observed the water of the dishwasher machine dumped onto the floor of the kitchen area due to improper sewage disposal.”

“Non-pitting surface rust on food-contact equipment. Observed a rust shelf by the 3 compartment sink.”

**GOLDEN CORRAL

1734 WEST 49TH ST.

HIALEAH

ORDERED SHUT 9/14

11 VIOLATIONS FOUND

“Rodent activity present as evidenced by rodent droppings found. Observed approximately 6 rodent droppings under hot holding units at buffet.”

““Roach activity present as evidenced by live roaches found. Observed 2 live roach crawling on hot food dispenser at buffet line. Also observed 2 live roaches crawling under rack by dishwashing area. Observed 2 live roaches at kitchen/preparation area.”

“Dead roaches on premises. Observed 1 dead roach on dishwasher drain board. Observed 1 dead roach on floor at meat room. Observed approximately 3 dead roaches under equipment at kitchen/ preparation area.

“Accumulation of dead or trapped birds, insects, rodents, or other pests, in control devices. Observed approximately 10 dead roaches on device inside hot holding unit at buffet line. Observed approximately 8 dead roaches on device on cold holding unit at buffet line.”

“Food-contact surface soiled with food debris, mold-like substance or slime. Observed soiled with food debris and grease waffles maker at buffet line.”

“Accumulation of debris on exterior of ware washing machine.”

“Nonfood-contact surface soiled with grease, food debris, dirt, slime or dust. Observed soiled with food debris gasket on unit at pizza assembly. Observed soiled with food debris and grease cans rack at kitchen area.”

“Reach-in cooler interior/shelves have accumulation of soil residues. Observed soiled with food debris shelves at walk in cooler.”

“Dented/rusted cans present. See stop sale. Observed 2 rusted tomatillo sauce cans and five dented and rusted creamy mushroom sauce cans on rack at kitchen area, operator discarded during inspection.”

“Time/temperature control for safety food cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit. Observed hush puppies mix (58F - Cold Holding) in reach in cooler across fryer, as per operator less than 1 hour due preparation, operator moved to walk in cooler for rapid cooling. Also observed Buffet line: potato salad(46F - Cold Holding); chicken salad (45F - Cold Holding); coleslaw (45F - Cold Holding); cut melon (46F - Cold Holding) as per opera less than 2 hours, operator moved to walk in cooler and add ice for rapid cooling.”

“Time/temperature control for safety food, other than whole meat roast, hot held at less than 135 degrees Fahrenheit. Observed baked potatoes (128F - Hot Holding) on standing unit at kitchen area, as per operator less than 1 hour, operator proceed to reheated.”

Esta semana cerraron otras tres cocinas después de que los inspectores encontraran múltiples problemas.

Victory Restaurant & Lounge, en la zona de Midtown en Miami, recibió orden de cierre por segunda vez. Los inspectores hallaron un roedor muerto y decenas de excrementos de roedor.

También cerró el Golden Corral de Hialeah, un nombre muy conocido, donde se encontraron cucarachas vivas y muertas, excrementos de roedor y alimentos guardados a temperaturas inseguras.

Además, por primera vez en Dirty Dining, un centro de rehabilitación, Club Fellowship, en el sur de Miami-Dade, recibió orden de cierre. Allí los inspectores encontraron excrementos de roedor, decenas de cucarachas vivas y otras infracciones.

Los tres podrán reabrir cuando una nueva inspección confirme que corrigieron los problemas y que sus cocinas cumplen con las normas estatales.

A continuación, un resumen de cada caso:

De Moraes enfrenta acusaciones planteadas por el juez André Mendonca, quien fue designado por Bolsonaro. Fuera del tribunal el martes, varias decenas de simpatizantes de Bolsonaro protestaban y exigían que De Moraes abandone el tribunal o sea sometido a un juicio político por el Senado.

Los dos jueces en el centro de una crisis sin precedentes en el máximo tribunal son percibidos como extremos opuestos del polarizado espectro político de Brasil. En octubre, se espera que el presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva se enfrente al senador Flávio Bolsonaro, hijo de Bolsonaro, en lo que probablemente será una elección reñida, como lo fue hace cuatro años.

Muchos brasileños pasarán la mañana pegados a sus televisores mientras el tribunal decide si De Moraes debe ser incluido en la investigación sobre el clausurado Banco Master, un caso que ha atrapado a políticos de alto rango y a miembros del Poder Judicial.

De Moraes negó haber cometido irregularidades en escritos que envió al tribunal más temprano el martes. También acusó a Mendonca de emprender una vendetta en su contra.

Mendonca hizo públicos la semana pasada documentos que mostraban que el jefe de Banco Master, Daniel Vorcaro, quien ahora está en prisión, buscó asesoría legal con De Moraes cuando estaba a punto de ser arrestado. Los documentos también mostraban que el banco tenía un contrato por 130 millones de reales (23 millones de dólares) con el bufete de abogados de la esposa de De Moraes.

La sesión del martes comenzó tras un retraso de 40 minutos, con el presidente del tribunal, Luiz Edson Fachin, leyendo el informe de la policía federal que Mendonca hizo público la semana pasada. El informe contenía documentos que mostraban que Vorcaro utilizó asesoría legal de De Moraes. Fachin indicó que programó la sesión del martes para abordar “un momento difícil” para el tribunal.

“Los desacuerdos son legítimos. Los enfrentamientos personales no lo son”, expresó Fachin en sus declaraciones iniciales. “La decisión corresponde al pleno, no a un solo juez. No podemos entregar a las futuras generaciones un Supremo Tribunal más pequeño que el que recibimos. Pero eso no puede significar la ausencia de desacuerdos”.

El tribunal no considerará el martes si Mendonca se excedió e investigó ilegalmente a De Moraes, una afirmación que el propio de Moraes y expertos legales han planteado recientemente.

En cuanto Fachin terminó sus palabras de apertura, dos de los 10 jueces del tribunal solicitaron no votar sobre la decisión de investigar a De Moraes.

Kassio Nunes, quien preside el tribunal electoral de Brasil, señaló que su cargo no le permite participar en la decisión, porque su resultado podría tener algún impacto en la campaña electoral.

José Dias Toffoli, quien anteriormente se apartó de la supervisión del caso Banco Master debido a sus vínculos con Vorcaro, también se negó a votar. Toffoli volvió a negar cualquier irregularidad en su relación con el banquero.

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Savarese informó desde Sao Paulo.

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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.

Sterling pleaded guilty at Basingstoke Magistrates’ Court to driving his Lamborghini Urus dangerously before he crashed on the M3 in southern England on May 28.

No other vehicles were involved and no injuries were reported, officials previously said.

The 31-year-old also admitted possession of six nitrous oxide canisters for wrongful inhalation, a class C drug, and failing to provide a specimen.

Sterling, who scored 20 goals in 82 appearances for England, is currently without a club. He has played for a number of England’s top teams — Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal — and was at Dutch club Feyenoord on a short-term deal last season.

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De la Espriella sostuvo que se trató de una “operación ofensiva de precisión quirúrgica” que incluyó el apoyo de la inteligencia, unidades élite antisecuestro, la Fuerza Aeroespacial Colombiana y la policía.

“Hombres del GAULA (Grupos de Acción Unificada por la Libertad Personal) fueron insertados sobre el punto objetivo y ejecutaron una acción rápida y contundente que permitió devolverles la libertad a estas ocho personas”, informó el mandatario en la red social X.

Ni De la Espriella ni el Ejército identificaron por sus nombres a los secuestrados rescatados. La policía divulgó imágenes de los ocho hombres sentados en sillas con chalecos de la policía marcados con la palabra “rescatado”.

En un video publicado por el Ejército, uno de los rescatados fue comunicado con su madre. “Me hacía mucha falta mamá, el ejército me rescató”, le dijo con el teléfono en altavoz mientras su madre lloraba al otro lado de la línea.

Las operaciones militares de rescate de secuestrados son menos comunes que las entregas de secuestrados a misiones humanitarias, en las que suele participar la estatal Defensoría del Pueblo.

El Comando Sur de Estados Unidos felicitó a las autoridades colombianas por el rescate de los secuestrados en un mensaje en X en el que subrayó que la Coalición de las Américas Contra los Cárteles, a la que recién se unió Colombia, sigue comprometida con “interrumpir las redes narco-terroristas”.

La operación se realizó en una zona rural del municipio de Convención, perteneciente a Catatumbo, donde opera tanto el ELN como facciones disidentes de la antigua guerrilla Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) que no se acogieron al acuerdo de paz firmado hace una década.

“Al ELN se lo digo con absoluta claridad: el secuestro no tiene ninguna justificación. Vamos a perseguir a quienes secuestran, extorsionan y aterrorizan a los colombianos hasta llevarlos ante la justicia”, advirtió el mandatario conservador.

De la Espriella también informó el martes que un militar resultó herido y cinco integrantes del ELN murieron en un combate con el ejército en Bolívar, en el norte del país, incluido alias “Niche”, a quien señaló de “planear y ejecutar ataques terroristas mediante drones cargados con explosivos, francotiradores y áreas preparadas”.

Cambio en la política de seguridad

El mandatario puso fin a los diálogos de paz con grupos armados ilegales que había propiciado su predecesor, el progresista Gustavo Petro (2022-2026), por considerar que no dieron muestras reales de voluntad de paz y que aprovecharon las negociaciones para fortalecerse militarmente.

El ministro del Interior, Rodrigo Lara, dio el martes un balance ante el Congreso sobre el crecimiento de los grupos ilegales, retomando cifras recavadas por la Fundación Ideas para la Paz, un centro de investigación sobre el conflicto.

Lara detalló que al inicio del gobierno de Petro, en diciembre de 2022, había 15.120 hombres en armas, mientras que en julio de 2026 la cifra ascendió a 28.802 integrantes. Reprochó un crecimiento del 152% del Clan del Golfo, el cartel activo más grande del país; un aumento de más del 100% en las disidencias de las FARC y del 22% del ELN.

El ELN, en armas desde 1964, ha perpetrado varios ataques con explosivos en lo que va del gobierno de De la Espriella —quien se posesionó el 7 de agosto— en rechazo al cierre del diálogo.

Esa guerrilla mantiene en su poder a varias personas secuestradas, cuya cifra exacta se desconoce. El fin de semana el ELN detalló en un comunicado que tiene en su poder al conductor de una ambulancia de un hospital del Catatumbo, a quien señalan de supuestamente transportar a heridos de las disidencias FARC, dinero y armas.

Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue personnel responded to the one-story house shortly after 12:30 p.m. on Monday after a neighbor saw the flames in the Lauderdale Manors neighborhood.

Firefighters reported finding the man trapped inside the bathroom in the five-bedroom house, built in 1958, near Northwest 18th Avenue and 16th Court.

Fire rescue personnel reported taking the man, who suffered life-threatening injuries, to the Broward Health Medical Center. A firefighter suffered minor burns while working at the house.

Detectives asked anyone with information about this or other cases who wants to remain anonymous to call Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.

Related report: Man rescued from Fort Lauderdale house fire, rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries

Location

“One thing is for sure, you will not see me skate this season,” Leerdam said in a video message on her YouTube channel that had more than 160,000 views Tuesday.

“I’m 27, life changes, feelings change, and I wouldn’t feel comfortable saying I’m fully retiring,” the Dutch skater said.

Leerdam won Olympic gold in February in the 1,000 meters at Milan cheered on by YouTuber-turned-boxer Paul, her partner since 2023. She also took silver in the 500.

“I’ve had an obsession with skating,” she said in the YouTube post, adding “I’ve always been more than a skater. I am so multifaceted.”

Leerdam was in New York at the weekend attending the U.S. Open women’s singles final with Paul, and hinted Monday she would create more videos for social media channels. She has 6.3 million followers on Instagram.

By skipping this winter season, Leerdam will miss a home European Championships at Heerenveen and the world championships in February in Beijing, where she took silver in the 1,000 at the 2022 Olympics.

Heerenveen also will stage the next Olympic speedskating events for the French Alps hosts of the 2030 Winter Games, when Leerdam will be 31.

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See full AP coverage of European sports here

The 21-year-old Bedard is the second-youngest captain in the history of the storied franchise, behind Jonathan Toews. The Blackhawks had gone without a captain since trading Nick Foligno to Minnesota in March.

“Being named captain of the Blackhawks is an unbelievable honor and something I’m truly humbled by,” Bedard said Tuesday in a news release. “The captains who have come before me have left an incredible legacy. To now have the opportunity to carry that tradition forward is something I don’t take lightly."

The long-expected move comes after Bedard agreed to a $75 million, five-year contract in July. It occurs as Bedard ramps up his rehab in his recovery from an operation on his left shoulder. The No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft is expected to miss the start of the coming season after getting hurt while skating with a group of NHL players in western Canada.

Bedard has been Chicago’s most important player since he made his much-anticipated NHL debut in October 2023. He continued his steady improvement in his third season, setting career highs of 30 goals and 45 assists in 69 games.

“Connor perfectly embodies what it means to be a Blackhawk,” general manager Kyle Davidson said. “From the moment he entered the league, Connor has led by example and has set a remarkable standard for himself while demonstrating his ability to make the players around him better."

But Bedard hasn’t experienced much winning since arriving in Chicago. The Blackhawks went 29-39-14 last season, an 11-point improvement from the previous season and still nowhere near playoff contention. The Original Six franchise has finished No. 31 in the NHL each of the past three years.

Chicago is looking for its first postseason appearance since the NHL used an expanded playoff format after the 2020 season was affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

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See AP’s full NHL coverage here

Police surrounded the demonstrators outside the Caglayan courthouse before detaining them.

On Sunday, Turkish authorities cracked down on multiple LGBTQ+ groups and individuals, detaining dozens of members, breaking into association offices and raiding popular hangouts. The organizations’ websites were also blocked.

The crackdown aimed to “protect children, the institution of the family, and public order,” Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said. He said the operation, dubbed “My Family is Safe,” targeted 162 suspects, nine associations and 13 businesses.

On Tuesday, Michael O’Flaherty, the Strasbourg, France-based Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, expressed concerns over the raids and detentions, saying “mere references to ‘family values’ or ‘protection of children’ cannot serve as legal justification for human rights restrictions.”

“I call on the Turkish authorities to release anyone detained for engaging in human rights or civil society work,” he said in a statement, adding that he would continue to monitor the situation.

Outside the courthouse, demonstrators carried banners reading: “Being LGBT+ and organizing is not a crime” and chanted slogans in support of LGBTQ+ rights before police intervened.

“We are going through a period where there is an attempt by the ruling power to portray LGBT+ people as the cause of every problem in this society,” 36-year old Banu Aslan, one of the protesters, told The Associated Press.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party, which has roots in Turkey’s Islamic movement, has been increasingly vocal against LGBTQ+ groups in a bid to consolidate the more conservative elements of its base. In 2015, it banned Istanbul Pride, which had tens of thousands of attendees in previous years. Since then, authorities have violently dispersed any attempted gatherings for Pride.

This summer, an LGBTQ+ cruise ship that tours the Mediterranean and has docked in Turkey multiple times in the past was refused permission to dock there.

A storm system will move in from the Atlantic Thursday and Friday with an even higher chance for thunderstorms. Depending on how much heating we get to add fuel to the storms, some could be severe with strong wind gusts. This stormy pattern is expected to last into the weekend.

His social media missive was just the latest in a long history of Trump assailing justices, particularly those he had nominated, who ruled against him on his administration's most prominent initiatives. The president has been publicly furious with the Supreme Court over its decisions against restricting birthright citizenship and his ability to issue tariffs unilaterally.

On mail-in voting, the Trump administration had made a last-minute push to have the U.S. Postal Service play a central role in deciding who would be able to receive a ballot. But state election officials argued there was not enough time to make the changes for the Nov. 3 midterm elections — and said their systems were already secure and accurate.

The court ruled late Monday in an emergency order that the restrictions would most likely lose in court, at least for this year’s election.

“The Court’s inability and unwillingness to do the right thing for our Country will go down, in a very negative way, in the annals of History,” Trump wrote in a lengthy social media post Tuesday. “This Supreme Court is bullied and cajoled by the Radical Left into making decisions that have set America back at least a hundred years.”

Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas publicly dissented from the order, and Trump on Tuesday called them “legends both.” Trump has nominated three of the justices on the Supreme Court — Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh.

“These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court, they are merely a shell of their original selves,” Trump said. He asserted that the court "is costing the United States Trillions of Dollars with shockingly bad rulings that are of such magnitude that it won’t be easily possible for our Country to recover or heal.”

It won't be the last time Trump criticizes the court, his attorney general says

Attorney General Todd Blanche said later Tuesday that the administration was going to comply with the decision but “that doesn’t mean that we’re not going to do everything in this administration that we can to make sure that there are free and fair elections.”

Blanche also defended Trump's commentary about the court, dismissing the idea that it was undermining the court's independence and saying it was part of the democratic process for the president to be critical of another branch of government.

“He has every right and indeed, he should communicate his concerns with the Supreme Court whenever he has them," Blanche said at the White House. “This isn’t the first time that he’s done it, and it won’t be the last.”

The president has a lengthy track record of attacking judges, often very personally, who issue decisions that go against his wishes, and Trump has long viewed his legal appointments as owing loyalty to the person who nominated them to the bench.

So as Barrett, Kavanaugh and Gorsuch ruled against Trump at varying points over the years, the president has not hesitated to go after them publicly, while praising them if they sided with him in a case.

Yet this court, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, has ruled in favor of Trump on several of his priorities, most notably the 2024 decision from the court's conservative majority that said former presidents are presumptively entitled to immunity for all official acts. That paved the way for Trump to run for reelection without threat of a criminal trial that year.

Trump has opposed mail voting and falsely blamed fraud associated with mail voting for his 2020 election loss. A report by the Brookings Institution published in 2025 found that mail voting fraud occurred in only about four cases out of every 10 million mail ballots cast.

Roughly a third of voters use mail ballots, and mail voting has already begun in some states. The decision allows states to continue sending out mail ballots under the same processes they’ve used for years.

On Tuesday, Trump also complained that the decision took too long to issue.

“It is not easy for me to write this criticism of the United States Supreme Court — it will likely cost me dearly for years to come — but I feel it my obligation and duty, as President, to do so for the America we love!” Trump said.

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Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.

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Troopers said the crash occurred at approximately 3:33 a.m. on the southbound Don Shula Expressway near Southwest 104th Street and Killian Parkway.

According to FHP officials, the motorcyclist collided with the cement truck, causing a fire to ignite on the motorcycle.

Officials said the motorcyclist, who has only been identified as a man at this time, died at the scene from his injuries.

They said the southbound lanes of the Don Shula Expressway were temporarily closed but have since reopened.

No other details about the crash were immediately released.

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Officers with the Fort Lauderdale Police Department said they responded to a report of a Brightline train striking a pedestrian just north of the Broward Boulevard crossing, near the Brightline station just before 1:30 a.m.

Police said they arrived at the scene and found man who had been struck by the train. They said Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue medics pronounced him dead at the scene.

Authorities said an investigation is underway into the man’s death. No other information about his age or identity was immediately released.

Police said traffic along Broward Boulevard and Southwest Second Street was impacted following the incident but had reopened by about 3:30 a.m.

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Hollywood Fire Rescue medics said they responded at about 5 a.m. to the crash near Taft Street and North 64th Avenue. They said a driver vehicle struck a concrete utility pole and streetlight before overturning.

The driver of the other vehicle fled the scene, Hollywood police confirmed.

Authorities said the driver of the overturned vehicle sustained minor injuries and was evaluated by Hollywood Fire Rescue medics. They said that individual was transported to a nearby hospital for further treatment.

Investigators said the crash also damaged a traffic signal post and other traffic-control devices. The roadway remained impacted while crews worked to make repairs.

No other details about the crash or a possible suspect were immediately released.

Han pasado 13 días sin sistemas activos en la cuenca del Atlántico, que incluye el Golfo, el Caribe y el resto del océano. Es una racha de calma notable y sin precedentes, porque coincide con lo que suelen ser las semanas más activas de la temporada de huracanes.

Una amplia zona de baja presión gira a unas 1,000 millas al sureste de Bermudas, en mar abierto sobre el Atlántico central. Es el único sistema a vigilar durante la próxima semana, pero podría poner fin a esta racha de tranquilidad para este fin de semana.

Hasta la mañana del martes, el Centro Nacional de Huracanes (NHC) le daba al sistema una probabilidad media de desarrollo. Esa posibilidad se abriría solo a finales de esta semana, cuando los vientos en los niveles altos de la atmósfera sean más favorables para su organización.

Como explicamos en el boletín del lunes, los modelos de pronóstico no se ponen de acuerdo con este sistema. Los modelos tradicionales, basados en la física, prácticamente no le dan posibilidades de desarrollo. En cambio, los modelos más recientes de inteligencia artificial le asignan probabilidades más altas, aunque estas han variado de una actualización a otra.

Tanto el sistema de ensamble Euro AI como el sistema de ensamble de 1,000 miembros de Google DeepMind, basado en aprendizaje automático, apuntan a una probabilidad media de desarrollo. Según ambos, el sistema permanecería casi estacionario sobre el Atlántico central hasta la próxima semana.

En un principio, la baja presión se desplazará hacia el noroeste. Sin embargo, para el fin de semana, una zona de alta presión que se fortalece al norte podría empujarla de regreso hacia el sur y hacerla describir un giro rápido sobre sí misma. Luego viraría nuevamente hacia el noreste, por delante de una vaguada de la corriente en chorro que avanzará la próxima semana.

La incertidumbre es alta, tanto sobre su posible desarrollo como sobre su trayectoria. El sistema no representa una preocupación para Estados Unidos, pero en Bermudas conviene estar pendientes de los pronósticos, ya que se mantendrá en las inmediaciones durante aproximadamente una semana.

Si el sistema se organiza mejor en los próximos días y es designado como “invest” (zona bajo investigación), contaremos con modelos de intensidad más especializados para estimar mejor su evolución. Aun así, los modelos sugieren que, de formarse, encontraría un entorno que podría favorecer su fortalecimiento.

Por ahora no representa una amenaza inmediata, pero seguiremos atentos a su evolución y a lo que pueda significar para Bermudas en los próximos días.

Según los agentes, el accidente ocurrió alrededor de las 3:33 a.m. en los carriles en dirección sur de la autopista, cerca de Southwest 104th Street y Killian Parkway.

De acuerdo con la FHP, el motociclista impactó contra el camión de cemento y la motocicleta se prendió en llamas.

Las autoridades indicaron que la víctima, identificada por ahora solo como un hombre, murió en el lugar a causa de sus heridas.

Los carriles en dirección sur de la Don Shula Expressway permanecieron cerrados durante un tiempo, pero ya fueron reabiertos.

Por el momento no se han dado a conocer más detalles sobre el accidente.

Oficiales del Departamento de Policía de Fort Lauderdale dijeron que respondieron a un reporte de un tren de Brightline que había atropellado a un peatón, justo al norte del cruce de Broward Boulevard, cerca de la estación de Brightline, poco antes de la 1:30 a.m.

La policía indicó que, al llegar a la escena, encontraron al hombre que había sido atropellado por el tren. Señalaron que paramédicos de Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue lo declararon muerto en el lugar.

Las autoridades dijeron que se abrió una investigación sobre la muerte del hombre. Por el momento no se dio a conocer más información sobre su edad o identidad.

La policía informó que el tráfico en Broward Boulevard y Southwest Second Street se vio afectado tras el incidente, pero las vías reabrieron alrededor de las 3:30 a.m.

Paramédicos de Hollywood Fire Rescue dijeron que respondieron alrededor de las 5 a.m. al lugar del accidente, cerca de Taft Street y North 64th Avenue. Indicaron que uno de los vehículos impactó contra un poste de servicios públicos de concreto y un farol antes de voltearse.

El conductor del otro vehículo huyó de la escena, confirmó la policía de Hollywood.

Las autoridades señalaron que el conductor del vehículo volcado sufrió heridas leves y fue evaluado por paramédicos de Hollywood Fire Rescue, quienes lo trasladaron a un hospital cercano para recibir más atención médica.

Los investigadores indicaron que el choque también dañó un poste de semáforo y otros dispositivos de control de tráfico. La vía permaneció afectada mientras las cuadrillas trabajaban en las reparaciones.

Por el momento no se dieron a conocer más detalles sobre el accidente ni sobre un posible sospechoso.

The 49-50 vote on whether to move forward with the legislation was a pivotal election-year test for the $2.3 trillion cryptocurrency market as the industry has pushed aggressively for a uniform set of rules. The Senate debate came as cryptocurrency companies have become a major political force, and as Trump has amassed significant wealth in crypto while in office.

While some Democrats are friendly toward the industry and support the idea of regulation, they have been adamant that the bill include strong ethics safeguards to prevent the president and his family from enriching themselves while he's in office. The opposition appears to have only solidified two months before the midterm elections, despite significant donations that crypto groups have given to some Democrats in recent years. In the end, no Democrats supported it.

“Let’s make sure that we do not pass a crypto bill that will let Donald Trump continue to rake in billions of dollars in crypto profits while working families across this country struggle to deal with higher prices and an economy that gets worse by the day,” said Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee.

Several Democrats who have been supportive of the bill aside from the ethics concerns said they were still open to negotiating.

Virginia Sen. Mark Warner said he still wants regulation of the crypto industry, but “we cannot pass landmark legislation governing this industry while allowing the president of the United States to personally profit from it.”

The White House indicated Tuesday that it would now turn to agencies to implement parts of their crypto agenda and warned that the failed vote would continue to stifle financial innovation domestically while it flourishes abroad.

“The full cost of today’s result may not be known for years to come, but this much is clear: It increases the risk that the standards that global financial markets adhere to in the future will be those of Brussels or Beijing, rather than Washington and New York,” Patrick Witt, the White House's crypto adviser, said.

Trump agrees to some changes as Democrats push back

As Democrats made clear they would block the bill, Trump agreed to some concessions on ethics, including new restrictions on federal elected officials from issuing digital assets like the presidential meme coins he and his wife Melania launched before he took office for his second term. He agreed to new concessions Sunday, such as additional powers for state attorneys general that Democrats had sought to enforce the crypto measures.

Those concessions were not enough for Democrats, who sent a counteroffer late Monday to expand the ethics provision but were not able to strike a final deal. Among other issues, they said the bill still needed stricter enforcement and a requirement for Trump or any future president to divest if holdings reach a certain value.

"Instead of spending their time twisting themselves into knots to appease President Trump, Republicans should have worked more closely with Senate Democrats to craft a bill that could pass with strong ethics provisions,” said Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego, who was involved in last-minute talks with GOP senators on the bill.

Republicans needed Democratic support to win the 60 votes necessary to move forward on the bill in the 53-47 Senate.

North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican who worked with Gallego to strengthen the ethics provision, said before the vote that he was pleased with Trump’s latest concessions.

“We’re so close,” Tillis said. “It’s just a shame to not take this opportunity.”

Trump has amassed big crypto profits

Trump’s family has raked in big profits in the crypto sector since he was reelected, including the meme coin, announced the day before Trump took office. Top investors were invited to a private reception with the president.

Trump’s family also has a controlling stake in World Liberty Financial, a crypto firm co-founded with the president’s special envoy Steve Witkoff. Trump reported more than $500 million in revenue from World Liberty Financial sales of crypto products, including “governance tokens,” in his annual disclosure report filed with the Office of Government Ethics. That is a significant share of the more than $1.4 billion that the president reported from crypto businesses last year.

A measure enacted into law last year regulating stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency, barred members of Congress and their families from profiting off them, but it did not extend to Trump or his family.

Legislation aims to give crypto firms legal certainty

Republicans who have been working on the legislation for more than a year say it could now stall indefinitely. The House and Senate will be out of session during October and before the elections, and the dynamics could significantly shift if Democrats win back the majorities of the House or Senate, or both, in November.

Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, a lead sponsor of the bill, said beforehand that a no vote means ”opposing real ethics reforms on politicians’ personal investments, handing American leadership in digital assets to our foreign competitors, and leaving Americans with zero protections in the digital asset markets.”

Supporters say the legislation aims to give the industry more legal certainty and protect consumers by creating a broad set of guardrails and regulatory requirements, including better enforcement to prevent bad actors and protections to prevent a market collapse.

As talks continued Tuesday morning, Lummis posted on X that it was “now or never for the Clarity Act,” referring to the bill’s name.

“The time for negotiating is over,” she wrote.

Crypto cash has flooded campaigns

Opponents, mostly Democrats, say the bill is a giveaway to the industry as crypto companies have become generous donors to candidates in both parties around the country.

“It’s no secret that they are seeking to ram a bill through Congress based upon not the merits of the bill, but the threat that they will spend even more money in elections against people who vote against it,” said Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut.

In 2024, the crypto industry spent more than $130 million in congressional races, including $40 million in Ohio and $10 million each in Arizona and Michigan.

“DC received a clear message that being anti-crypto is a good way to end your career, as it doesn’t represent the will of the voters,” Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase, the nation’s largest crypto exchange, wrote in a social media post the day after the 2024 election.

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Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim and Joey Cappelletti contributed to this report.

According to the Homestead Police Department, Marie Rose Guerrier has since been reunited with family.

Police have not said what led to her disappearance.

Speaking at a meeting with John Coale, the U.S. special envoy for Belarus, Lukashenko said that “we have reached quite a few agreements related to our economic ties.” He urged Washington to help unblock some Belarusian assets he said were “stuck in Citibank.”

Since U.S. President Donald Trump returned to the White House, Lukashenko has released hundreds of political prisoners in a series of U.S.-mediated deals that also lifted some U.S. sanctions.

Speaking before the meeting with Coale, Lukashenko said that he's open for discussing “a deal big or small.” Lukashenko also said that he would like to discuss the prospects for lifting more U.S. sanctions, exporting Belarusian fertilizers to the U.S.

As part of a deal in March that Washington helped broker, Lukashenko ordered the release of 250 political prisoners, while the U.S. agreed to lift sanctions from two Belarusian state banks and the country’s Finance Ministry, and to remove the top Belarusian potash producers from a sanctions list.

Another deal in April released prominent journalist Andrzej Poczobut in a swap with Poland that saw a total of 10 people freed.

Lukashenko has governed the nation of 9.5 million with an iron fist for more than three decades, and the country has been sanctioned repeatedly by Western countries — both for its crackdown on human rights and for allowing Moscow to use its territory in the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Lukashenko’s rule was challenged after a 2020 presidential election, when hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to protest a vote they viewed as rigged. In an ensuing crackdown, tens of thousands were detained, with many beaten by police. Prominent opposition figures fled the country or were imprisoned.

Five years after the mass demonstrations, Lukashenko won a seventh term last year in an election that the opposition called a farce.

The Belarusian opposition has welcomed Coale's efforts as an important humanitarian mission, but emphasized that Lukashenko's government has jailed more political prisoners.

Belarusian opposition leader-in-exile Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said she was deeply grateful to Trump, Coale and the U.S. administration for “making political prisoners a priority,” adding that “their engagement has already brought real results.”

At the same time, she emphasized that “repression continues” and Lukashenko “continues supporting Russia’s war.”

“The purpose should be to empty the prisons, not to rehabilitate the dictatorship,” Tsikhanouskaya said.

Belarus still has 912 political prisoners, including 20 journalists, according to the Viasna human rights center.

“Harsh political repressions continue in the country, and the regime employs a ‘revolving door’ policy, with new political prisoners constantly put behind bars,” Pavel Sapelka, a lawyer with Viasna, told The Associated Press. “Lukashenko treats political prisoners like commodities to be traded for the lifting of sanctions, yet the repressive nature of the regime remains unchanged.”

Speaking at a meeting with Coale, Lukashenko denied that Belarus has any political prisoners.

“There is no need for us to persecute anyone for political reasons today,” Lukashenko said. “The fugitives are spreading a narrative in the West ... that while we are releasing some people, we are continuing repressions and detaining twice as many in their place. That is absolutely untrue!”

Observers say that contacts with the U.S. has given Lukashenko an opportunity to ease international isolation.

“Lukashenko is a very experienced politician, and contacts with the U.S. will allow him not only to reduce his total dependence on the Kremlin, but also to return to the international stage and seek an easing of the European Union sanctions, which are hitting the Belarusian economy much harder,” political analyst Valery Karbalevich told the AP.

A U.N. group of experts on the situation in Belarus said in a report released Tuesday that Belarusian authorities were using the country’s criminal justice system as an instrument of repression, systematically targeting and persecuting government opponents.

“The international community must not look away,” expert Susan Bazilli said. “Those responsible for serious human rights violations must know that impunity is not a permanent shield, and victims must know that their rights have not been forgotten.”