But the U.S. government has no way to create an automatic, preauthorized “dead man’s switch” that would prompt immediate retaliation.

Instead, if Trump were killed, the transfer of power to his successor is governed by the 25th Amendment and the Presidential Succession Act of 1947. Vice President JD Vance instantaneously would become commander in chief and have authority for any retaliation.

Under such a scenario, Vance could do exactly what Trump called for, though there also is a chance he could decide not to follow his predecessor's orders — or offer a direct response in a different way.

“The U.S. has, for a whole variety of reasons, never utilized a technical ‘dead man’s switch,'” said Garrett M. Graff, author of “Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government’s Secret Plan to Save Itself -- While the Rest of Us Die.”

The United States does have extensive contingency plans for continuity of government in the event of a nuclear attack or other major catastrophe that wipes out most or all of Washington. But those plans also do not allow for immediately launching retaliatory strikes upon the death of a president, even if that president had demanded that the military be ready to do so.

Trump nonetheless posted on his social media website Saturday that Iran had made threats “to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate” him and he said 1,000 “missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands more to immediately follow, should the Iranian Government act on its threat.”

Iran's supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, said hours later that Iranians would continue to avenge the killing of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The elder Khamenei died in the initial U.S. and Israeli strikes that started the war in late February, and he was mourned in funeral events throughout Iran this week. His son said retaliation “is the will of our nation and must certainly be carried out.”

“We pledge to take revenge for the pure blood of you and all the martyrs of these two wars from the criminal and disgraceful killers," he said on remarks aired on state television. "This revenge is the will of our nation and must certainly be carried out.”

The White House on Saturday did not immediately answer questions about what would become of Trump's military orders should he be killed.

During those recent funeral events, mourners repeatedly held posters or banners calling for Trump to be killed along with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Israel alerted U.S. officials to fresh Iranian plots to kill Trump. The White House has refused to comment, but Trump appeared to reference to such threats in comments during this week's NATO summit in Turkey, saying, “They want to take out the U.S. leader — me.”

Sabrina Singh, former Biden administration deputy Pentagon press secretary, said “Iran wanting to target senior American leaders is something that we know is happening."

“You have to take these as credible threats,” Singh said.

US retaliations would almost certainly come, just not automatically

Trump was targeted in two domestic assassination attempts during the 2024 presidential campaign and saw a gunman storm the White House Correspondents' Association dinner he was attending in April.

The president flew part of the way back to Washington from Turkey this week aboard an older Air Force One jet rather a new Qatari-gifted aircraft, raising fresh security questions about the newer plane. Images of the jet, which was retrofitted at an estimated cost of $400 million, show it is not equipped with some of the same missile detection and countermeasure systems as earlier versions.

The swap occurred as the U.S. and Iran once again began trading strikes, jeopardizing last month's initial deal to end the war. Asked about Iranian threats, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, “I’m No. 1 on their list."

Graff said the U.S. prepared years of plans for how nuclear launch authority would devolve in the event of a surprise attack. That included, during 30 years of the Cold War, the country keeping fleets of airborne command posts flying 24 hours a day with a general aboard one of them who could take over nuclear launch orders in the event Washington was lost.

“What I believe Trump is saying is that he’s left standing orders to attack if he’s killed, e.g., that the Pentagon should proceed with standard launch protocols,” Graff said. “There’s a lot of reason to doubt the legality of such standing orders, since in the event of a president’s death, the nuclear launch authority would immediately pass to the vice president or designated successor — and ultimately it would be up to him or her to determine whether to proceed.”

Trump’s post only refers to firing missiles at Iran, which the U.S. has done scores of time since its war with Iran began. He did not expressly threaten involving nuclear weapons.

Graff said that, in addition to leaving standing orders in case of his death, Trump also might say “something to Vance like, ‘If I’m killed, nuke Iran,'" and that would make ”more sense and would be absolutely legal”

Biden administration once warned Iran about Trump, too

Washington receiving credible threats against the president and top U.S. leaders from Iran and other foreign adversaries is not uncommon and is often disclosed via national security briefings or other classified means. But far less common is Trump declaring publicly that he personally has been targeted by Iran.

Still, this is not the first time Washington has threatened Iran over threats against Trump.

In 2022, the Biden administration warned Iran against attacking U.S. citizens after the Justice Department's disclosure that a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had planned to assassinate John Bolton, Trump's first-term national security adviser. Now a Trump critic, Bolton last month pleaded guilty to illegally retaining classified documents in a case led by Trump’s Justice Department.

President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in 2022 that “should Iran attack any of our citizens, to include those who continue to serve the United States or those who formerly served, Iran will face severe consequences.”

Two years later, in the heat of Trump’s campaign against Democrat Kamala Harris, Biden's vice president, the Biden administration again quietly warned Iran. This time, officials made clear that an attack on Trump would be considered an act of war.

Schjelderup, making just his second start of the tournament, fired a shot that caromed off the right post and into the net to stun an England team that had dominated possession most of the first half. Bellingham’s equalizer from close range was his fifth goal of the tournament, eliciting a roar from that crowd that included Mick Jagger and former England great David Beckham.

Schjelderup, who set up both of Erling Haaland's goals in Norway's round of 16 win over Brazil, celebrated by stretching his arms wide and looking at the crowd as his teammates lifted him onto their shoulders. Meanwhile, England's Harry Kane sat near midfield, grabbing his leg and looking toward the officials. No foul was called.

It was a quiet first half for Haaland, who has seven goals in this tournament, behind the eight of France's Kylian Mbappé and Argentina's Lionel Messi.

The winner advances to play either Argentina or Switzerland, who were set to play Saturday night in Kansas City, Missouri.

There was a brief moment of silence before the match in honor of Jayden Adams, the 25-year-old midfielder for South Africa whose death was announced earlier Saturday.

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

Iran’s new supreme leader, still unseen since the war began, vowed in his first statement since the funeral of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that Iranians would avenge his killing in the war’s opening strikes on Feb. 28.

Such revenge “is the will of our nation and must certainly be carried out,” Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said in a statement carried on state television, hours after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened more missile attacks.

Oman said it and Iran agreed to keep talking about the crucial waterway “at the technical and political levels,” a day after the United States called on Iran to publicly say the crucial waterway is open and ships won’t be attacked.

Iran accuses Washington of violating the interim deal

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he met with his counterpart in Oman to discuss “appropriate mechanisms for ensuring the safe passage of ships.”

The world for decades has considered the strait an international waterway. Iran has insisted that the strait now remain under its control and that it be allowed to charge ships moving through it, a stance it took after the war began. The U.S. urges mariners to transit on a southern route through Oman’s territorial waters.

About a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed through the strait before the war began. Iran’s grip on it during the war led to a global energy crisis, though oil prices have sharply dropped since wartime highs of $120 a barrel.

Iran's top diplomat also accused the U.S. of violating the interim deal by ending waivers allowing Iran to sell crude oil on the open market in U.S. dollars. Washington ended them in response to the attacks on ships in the strait.

“Reality check: There can only be mutual compliance,” Araghchi wrote on X.

Trump says he responded to threats to kill him

A thousand “missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands more to immediately follow, should the Iranian Government act on its threat,” Trump wrote on social media overnight

He said he was responding to threats “to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate” him. During Khamenei's funeral, mourners held posters or banners calling for Trump to be killed along with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Trump has declared the ceasefire over but said the U.S. would continue negotiations.

U.S. officials, speaking Friday on condition of anonymity about the current situation with Iran, said the resumption of strikes in recent days came after what they described as a rogue faction of Iranian hard-liners tried to sabotage the ceasefire.

Iran has insisted its theocracy is unified under the new supreme leader.

After the U.S. wrapped up its latest strikes on Thursday, more attacks reportedly hit Iran, raising questions about who else may be targeting the Islamic Republic.

Israel didn't claim them, meaning the Gulf Arab states may have launched them, likely as a means to deter Iran from attacking them again. Iran on Thursday retaliated for U.S. strikes by targeting Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and Qatar.

The strikes in Iran over two days killed at least 17 people and wounded 115 others, Iranian Health Ministry spokesperson Hossein Kermanpour said.

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Price and Weissert reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Sam Metz in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.

Rattín died in Buenos Aires, according to the Argentine Football Association, or AFA, which expressed its “deepest sorrow at the passing of a historic symbol of Boca Juniors and the national team,” with whom he played in two World Cups.

A defensive midfielder known for his physical, hard-tackling style, Rattín won six Argentine league titles with Boca Juniors and was a Copa Libertadores runner-up in 1963.

“Rattín was one of us and loved these colours so much that they were the only ones he chose to defend throughout his 14-year career. A leader, an Argentine and forever a Bostero,” the club said.

With Argentina, Rattín played at the 1962 World Cup in Chile and the 1966 tournament in England, and also finished runner-up in the Copa América twice.

In the quarterfinals of the 1966 World Cup, Argentina faced England at Wembley Stadium. In the 36th minute, Rattín protested a foul and was sent off for “verbal dissent.” At the time, referees did not use cards but instead verbally informed players that they had been dismissed.

As he left the pitch, Rattín crumpled one of the corner flags, which featured the design of the English flag. He then sat down on the red carpet reserved for the late Queen Elizabeth II.

The two acts of protest sparked a barrage of objects thrown at him by fans from the stands.

In the wake of the confusing incident, and amid growing concern over the increasingly violent nature of the game, FIFA’s refereeing authorities concluded that a practical, universally understood system was needed to communicate cautions and dismissals.

Kenneth George Aston, who headed FIFA’s refereeing committee, took inspiration from traffic lights and, in 1967, introduced the yellow and red cards that are still used today.

Rattín’s defiant gesture at Wembley also marked the beginning of the football rivalry between Argentina and England. It reached its most iconic chapter in the quarterfinals of the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, when Argentina won thanks to Diego Maradona’s unforgettable goals — one scored with his hand, unnoticed by the referee, and the other after a brilliant solo run.

Argentina plays Switzerland in another World Cup quarter-final on Saturday. Many supporters are hoping for a semifinal meeting with England, who will face Norway in another quarter-final also on Saturday.

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His death was confirmed by Gayton McKenzie, South Africa’s minister of sport, arts and culture, in a statement on Saturday.

“It is with profound shock and a heavy heart that I have learnt of the passing of Jayden Adams, midfielder for Mamelodi Sundowns and Bafana Bafana, at the age of 25," McKenzie posted on X.

"South African football has lost one of its brightest young talents, and our nation mourns alongside his family, his team-mates and the millions of supporters.”

Adams helped South Africa reach the World Cup knockout stage for the first time.

Further details of his death were not given.

“The cause of Jayden’s passing has not yet been confirmed," McKenzie said. “I wish to appeal to members of the media and the public to exercise restraint and compassion, and to refrain from speculation.”

A moment of silence in honor of Adams was held ahead of the World Cup quarterfinal between Norway and England in Miami Gardens, Florida, on Saturday.

Adams started in South Africa's first Group A games against Mexico and Czech Republic. McKenzie said Adams played the second game only hours after learning that his grandmother had died. He came on as a second-half substitute in the third game against South Korea.

Adams played several seasons for Stellenbosch before joining Mamelodi Sundowns last year. He helped the club win the CAF (African) Champions League this year.

“Death has cruelly stolen one of our own. It has robbed our nation of a remarkable footballer,” the South African Football Players Union posted on X. “We will forever remember his humility, his extraordinary talent and the pride with which he represented South Africa. Rest in eternal peace, Jayden. You will never be forgotten.”

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and the South African Federation of Trade Unions also expressed their condolences.

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

Wrobleski replaced Cincinnati right-hander Chase Burns, who won't be active for Tuesday night's game at Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park because of tightness in his right groin.

Peters took the roster spot of Athletics first baseman Nick Kurtz, who was put on the injured list because of a sprained right thumb.

Wrobleski, 26, is 10-2 with a 2.69 ERA and 73 strikeouts in 100 1/3 innings. He joins two-way star Shohei Ohtani, right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, first baseman Freddie Freeman, third baseman Max Muncy and outfielder Andy Pages as Dodgers All-Stars.

Ohtani will have his left knee drained Sunday to relieve continued irritation and will not go to Philadelphia.

Peters joins White Sox teammates Miguel Vargas and Munetaka Murakami on the All-Star roster. Murakami, a rookie slugger from Japan, was added Friday just hours before he returned to action against the Athletics after missing six weeks with a right hamstring strain.

Still a rookie at 26, the speedy, slick-fielding Peters is batting .303 with six homers and 35 RBIs is his first full major league season. He has 20 doubles and three triples; the most recent came in the seventh inning of Chicago's rout of the Athletics on Friday that made Peters the first White Sox player to hit for the cycle since Jose Abreu in September 2017.

Chicago obtained Peters' rights last December from Tampa Bay. He appeared in only four games with the Rays last season without a hit in 12 plate appearances, but the one-time Savannah Banana has taken off in Chicago.

“The White Sox gave me this opportunity and I went into it just trying to make the most out of it and just be who I am as a player, too," Peters said. “I know there was a lot of bunting in the beginning and just trying to figure out who I am at the big league level and you know they give space for that, too. Just an incredibly supportive group and that's helped me thrive.”

A native of Winkler, Manitoba, Peters became the second Canadian to record a cycle. He joins Cleveland right-hander Cade Smith and Miami infielder Otto Lopez, who holds dual Canadian-Dominican citizenship, as Canadians on the 2026 All-Star roster.

Peter's said becoming an All-Star was a pipe dream at the start of the season. But after several months, he thought it might become a possibility.

“I guess toward the end of this first half, I was like ‘OK, maybe there's a chance,' but there's a lot of really, really talented players in this league," he said.

Kurtz is batting .266 with 20 home runs, 66 RBIs and a league-leading 76 walks. The 23-year-old was the AL rookie of the year last season, when he batted .290 with 36 homers and 86 RBIs.

He landed on injured list for the second time in his career after being sidelined with a strained left hip flexor in May 2025.

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Haaland has become a social media phenomenon, with his own posts and memes from others turning even soccer novices into diehard fans.

His domineering physical appearance coupled with his goofy online persona have contributed to the craze. Fans remark on his flowing blond mane, color-coordinated hair ties and playful posts like a Snapchat-filtered selfie in which he proclaimed Shrek his “twin.” The contrast between his strength and skill on the field and his softer, looser online presence has also subjected him to the “babygirl” treatment online. That term is used frequently by fans of endearing male celebrities or characters who come across as sensitive, caring or vulnerable.

Haaland is emblematic of a broader embrace of soccer players as pop culture figures, driven in large part by how they present themselves off the pitch.

Haaland as a ‘pretty Norwegian princess’

Sarah Wilson, a baseball content creator in New York, is new to following soccer, but has become a big enough fan in the past month that she embarked on a lengthy hunt to buy the jersey of her new favorite player.

“I love Erling Haaland more than life itself,” Wilson, 31, said in a now viral video. “I cannot fathom being such a pretty Norwegian princess and also being one of the best strikers in all of football.”

Haaland is being catapulted into a fame even more intense than he had already known as the Premier League's top scorer. This moment boils down to the pairing of elite skills with quirky personality, Wilson said.

“Him being really, really talented — that’s the first pillar of it all. And then you find out that he’s 25 years old and he’s probably the most Gen Z athlete in the World Cup,” Wilson told The Associated Press, noting his use of Snapchat and goofy filters in photos online. Many are thinking, “‘Wow, I love that guy, he’s hilarious. Now he’s my new favorite player,’ which is exactly what happened with me,” she added.

Haaland’s expressive reactions on the pitch and his unique appearance have spawned hundreds of memes. He’s leaned into this virality, posting cheeky selfies on Instagram, uploading long-form vlogs on YouTube and interacting with fans on his public Snapchat stories, often poking fun at himself.

After scoring two goals to knock out Brazil, he posted a smug selfie from the locker room with the caption, “Well well well.” When an Instagram video with nearly 100 million views likened his appearance to a green onion — its wiry roots standing in as his hair — Haaland responded in the comments with a side-eyeing dog GIF. When Google added a Viking row animation to his search results, Haaland wrote on X, “One thing to do today… search my name on Google,” with a winking emoji.

Haaland said in a team news conference on Thursday that he's enjoyed being embraced in the U.S.

“I think it’s a good thing because I like the Americans. I think they are kind of hilarious as well. They are funny. I like the way they are,” he said. “I think it's just good and honestly, on every single thing, the World Cup so far here has been amazing.”

Sports are a “cultural force,” one on par with politics or religion, said Jeffrey Kassing, an Arizona State University professor who has studied fans' and athletes' social media use. It’s natural that Haaland has “crossed over” into non-soccer audiences, he said. A song from his youth has gone viral. A lookalike contest is in the offing. Even dogs are sporting blond wigs.

“There used to be a whole lot of gatekeeping that would happen with athletes; you would only ever hear from athletes maybe in an interview or in a press conference,” Kassing said. Haaland is evidence of how players have much more control in shaping their image now, he added.

Fans also try to ‘shape the perception’ of their favorite players

Fans' access to athletes contributes to what is called a parasocial relationship, defined by one-way knowing, said Gayle Stever, a professor at Empire State University who has studied the dynamics between celebrities and fans for decades. Haaland’s fans feel like they know him on a personal level, but he doesn’t know the nearly 60 million people who follow him on Instagram alone.

The majority of parasocial relationships are “positive, healthy and normal,” Stever said. Only a small percentage of people take it to the extreme, she said.

Skyla Clarke, a 19-year-old sports management student in Brisbane, Australia — and lifelong soccer fan — says she's seen that uglier side rear its head; attacks on players after poor performances, and even unprovoked hate toward athletes’ wives and partners are not uncommon. Haaland himself called AI-generated content of players a “bit scary.” But he noted in Norwegian that the attention on the team and its traditions — the rowing cheer, for example — is a sign of praise.

“Usually if it’s like that, it means that you’re doing something right, and that your country is doing something right,” Haaland said.

Even healthy parasocial dynamics can seem unusual to those uninitiated in internet culture. Haaland is not the only player whose persona has blown up on social media, nor is he the only one fans have anointed a babygirl.

Fans have described feeling “maternal” toward Luka Modrić — especially after Croatia’s elimination in the 40-year-old's final international game. Modrić is a “special case” whose difficult upbringing amid Yugoslavia's dissolution plays into how fans characterize him online, Clarke said. Some will incorporate childhood photos of him into their content, creating “a deeper appreciation for him as a player,” she added. Clarke's TikTok video about Modrić’s potential retirement reached hundreds of thousands of viewers in a matter of days.

Modrić himself has a rather tame social media presence, especially compared with Haaland, but Kassing noted fans “take it upon themselves to try to shape the perception” of those with whom they develop a parasocial attachment. In Modrić and Haaland’s cases, some do this by overlaying bows and hearts on their images.

Ahead of Norway’s match against England in the quarterfinals on Saturday, fans have also focused intensely on Haaland’s friendship with English player Jude Bellingham, his former teammate. Some have “shipped” the two footballers, making edits of them hugging or celebrating together and drawing comparisons to the television sensation “Heated Rivalry,” in which two pro hockey opponents develop a romance off the ice.

“People have been saying ‘heated Haalandry,’” said Nulara Ratwatté, a 19-year-old art student at the University of Melbourne. She's one of many fans whose videos about their newfound love of Haaland have gone viral.

Ratwatté said she’s “not supposed to talk about football” because of her lack of knowledge, but she's not looking back after catching Haaland fever. She describes him as a “big, friendly giant,” and despite her lack of soccer savvy, she's now tuning in to cheer Norway on.

“Truly, from the bottom of my heart,” she said, “I love him.”

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AP Sports Writer Tim Reynolds in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, contributed to this report.

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

She draped one of Wimbledon’s strawberry-red towels over her head.

And eventually — after she had wasted five match points and a 5-2 lead and conceded the second set of a drama-filled final — she left the court completely for a bathroom break.

During Noskova's brief time off the court, two shiny objects caught her attention: the Venus Rosewater Dish that is awarded to the women's champion and the smaller dish for the runner-up.

“I was like, ‘I’m not going to take the small one. I’m taking the big one. I have been so close. This will probably be the heartbreak of my life,’” Noskova said. "'I’m going to leave my soul on court in the third set, whatever that be.'”

The 21-year-old Noskova did just as she promised herself, overcoming her second-set meltdown to beat Karolina Muchova 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 in an all-Czech final for her first Grand Slam trophy on Saturday.

When Noskova finally finished it off with a service winner on her sixth match point — and first of the third set — she covered her face and dropped down to the grass on her back.

Minutes later, Noskova was being awarded the Venus Rosewater Dish by Kate, the Princess of Wales.

“It’s never easy to get the last point,” Noskova said during her victory speech. “Karo, you really made me work for it.”

Noskova became the third Czech woman in four years to win the grass-court major, after Marketa Vondrousova in 2023 and Barbora Krejcikova in 2024.

Muchova and Noskova played doubles together at the 2024 Paris Olympics and finished fourth.

“I am so glad that I could play my first Grand Slam final with you,” Noskova told Muchova during her speech. “We made history today. All our Czech fans at home are proud of us no matter the result. It was a good day for both of us.”

Petra Kvitova, who won Wimbledon in 2011 and 2014, was in attendance, as was the greatest Czech-born player of them all, Martina Navratilova — who won a record nine singles titles at the All England Club and was seated next to Princess Kate in the Royal Box; and Jan Kodes, the 1973 champion.

Kipling’s poem

An excerpt of the poem “If” by Rudyard Kipling that was placed above the players’ entrance to Centre Court more than a century ago summarizes the challenges Noskova had to overcome.

“If you can meet with triumph and disaster,” the excerpt says. “And treat those two imposters just the same.”

It's not the first time that Noskova has had to overcome adversity at Wimbledon.

Her mother died just before she played the tournament two years ago.

“I definitely would not be standing here without her, so thank you,” Noskova said in a dedication to her mother during her speech when she blew a kiss skyward.

Navratilova wiped away tears listening to Noskova's tribute.

Moments earlier, Muchova began her runner-up speech by calling Noskova “my ex-friend.

“I’m kidding, obviously,” Muchova quickly added. “You’re so young and this was your first final of a Grand Slam and the way you handled it ... was really unbelievable. ... You deserve it.”

It was the 29-year-old Muchova's second Grand Slam final after getting beat by Iga Swiatek at the French Open in 2023.

Wasted chances

Blasting aces and winners from all over the court early on, Noskova looked like she was going to run away with it almost like Swiatek's 6-0, 6-0 rout of Amanda Anisimova in last year's final, which lasted all of 57 minutes.

Saturday's match was just 68 minutes old when Noskova earned her first match point — which ended when she landed a backhand into the net.

Two points later, there was another backhand miss from Noskova; then Muchova took advantage of a net-cord shot on Noskova's third match point in the same game.

Serving for the title in the next game, Noskova double faulted on her fourth match point. And then on the fifth occasion to end it, Muchova produced a big serve and forehand winner.

In all, Noskova lost five straight games.

“It’s hard to watch,” Tracy Austin said on the BBC as she called the match alongside John McEnroe. “We know what that feels like when you start to get tight and you can’t loosen up and then the lead starts to unravel.”

Noskova said, “Winning it this way, really having to fight for it, having all these ups and downs, it matters a lot. I have to learn a lot from this match."

Czech success

It’s Noskova’s second grass title of the season after beating Jessica Pegula in the Berlin Open final.

But as this match displayed, it hasn’t been all straightforward. Noskova saved a match point in the third set of her third-round match against Sorana Cirstea.

The 12th-ranked Noskova will climb to No. 7 — a new career-high — when the next rankings are released on Monday.

She's the youngest woman to win Wimbledon since Kvitova was also 21 in 2011.

Jana Novotna, one of Noskova’s first coaches, also won Wimbledon (in 1998).

How to explain all the Czech success?

“They play on clay in the summer where you have to out-maneuver your opponent and then in the winter they go indoors and it’s first-strike tennis,” Austin said. “The best of both worlds to create an all-court player.”

In the men’s final on Sunday, top-ranked Jannik Sinner will attempt to defend his title against French Open champion Alexander Zverev.

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AP Sports Writer Ken Maguire contributed.

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

Sunday’s Rain timeline:

Waking up to rain and thunderstorms on Sunday morning. Starting near the coast, the rain will eventually stream inland throughout the day.

The showers and thunderstorms will not be everywhere all at once; instead, they will be scattered, with dry periods between waves of rain.

The risk of rain continues even after sunset,, but coverage will decrease through the night.

Sunday’s Flood risk is low, 1 out of 5 but this increases early week.

Rain chances will continue Monday through Wednesday, bringing a risk of street flooding. Remember if you come across high water, do not drive through it!

For the record, the name is pronounced chil-OW’-skee.

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred still botched the pronunciation of Cholowsky’s name at the podium Saturday when the Chicago White Sox indeed made the UCLA shortstop the No. 1 pick of the draft.

No harm done, Cholowsky insisted.

“I didn't hear it get butchered,” Cholowsky said. “I heard Roch and kind of lost it.”

Cholowsky burst into tears at a draft party far from the Philadelphia site of the draft.

He led off the lineup of MLB draft prospects who did not show up at the city’s convention center, just a few miles away from Citizens Bank Park, the home of Tuesday’s All-Star Game. MLB said Friday that no amateur players were scheduled to attend the draft, just like last year.

Cholowsky was thrilled he'll be headed to Chicago, where he enjoyed a fruitful predraft meeting with team officials and mingled in the clubhouse of a team that has been perhaps the biggest surprise in baseball and entered Saturday in first place in the AL Central.

“It really felt like to me like a college clubhouse," Cholowsky said. “It’s just a different feel in there.”

A 6-foot-2 right-handed hitter, Cholowsky was a Golden Spikes finalist at UCLA and had a 1.088 OPS with 21 homers and 60 RBIs in his junior season. He was the Big Ten Player of the Year.

White Sox general manager Chris Getz said in a statement that Cholowsky "is a leader on the field as well as in the clubhouse. He has more than lived up to very high expectations, and we cannot wait to get him into our organization, get started and see him continue his growth and success.”

The next two picks went about as widely predicted.

Tampa Bay selected Texas high school shortstop Grady Emerson with the second pick and Minnesota took Georgia Tech catcher Vahn Lackey third.

Just 18 years old, the 6-3, 185-pound Emerson bats left, throws right and is widely considered the best all-around player in the draft. A University of Texas commit, Emerson transferred to Fort Worth Christian for his senior year, when he played under head coach Rusty Greer, a nine-year MLB veteran who spent nine seasons with the Texas Rangers.

The 21-year-old Lackey didn’t receive any Division I offers until his senior year of high school and has since blossomed into one of the top catching prospects in the draft out of Georgia Tech. The 6-foot-2, 215-pounder showed some versatility by also playing third base.

The rest of the top 10

San Francisco selected right-handed pitcher Jackson Flora — a noted fried chicken aficionado — out of UC Santa Barbara with the No. 4 pick. The Pirates took outfielder Derek Curiel from LSU with the fifth pick. Louisville outfielder Zion Rose went sixth to Kansas City and Oak Grove High School (Mississippi) outfielder Eric Booth Jr. went seventh to Baltimore.

The Athletics drafted Georgia Tech outfielder Drew Burress with the eighth pick, Atlanta took Virginia outfielder AJ Gracia with the ninth pick and Colorado selected Kentucky shortstop Tyler Bell 10th.

There were just three pitchers selected among the first 20 overall.

The Philly connection

Phillies fans cheered the 34th overall pick in the draft when the White Sox drafted high school star Landon Thome.

The Nazareth Academy (Illinois) infielder is the son of former Phillies, White Sox and Cleveland great and baseball Hall of Famer Jim Thome.

Jim Thome helped changed the perception of the Phillies from long-time losers to championship contenders when he left Cleveland and signed a six-year, $85 million contract with Philly ahead of the 2003 season.

The 18-year-old Thome went two picks before the Phillies drafted California high school shortstop Tyler Spangler with the 36th pick — and sent the bulk of the fans fleeing for the exits.

Family affair

The Marlins selected shortstop Jacob Lombard with the No. 14 pick. Lombard is the son of Detroit Tigers bench coach George Lombard Sr and younger brother of top Yankees prospect George Lombard Jr.

The Brewers took high school shortstop Trey Ebel with the 25th pick. He is the brother of Brady Ebel, whom they drafted with the 32nd selection last year. Their father is Los Angeles Dodgers third base coach Dino Ebel — expected to pitch to Phillies slugger Bryce Harper in the Home Run Derby on Monday night.

The players were no-shows

With former White Sox and Phillies players Jimmy Rollins and Greg Luzinski on hand to rally hundreds of fans at the draft, Chicago had the top selection for the first time since taking Harold Baines in 1977.

Baines was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2019.

The White Sox, who the No. 1 pick after they lost 102 games last season and won the draft lottery, have pegged Cholowsky as a future star that can help them win their first World Series title since 2005.

Led by All-Star third baseman Miguel Vargas, the White Sox have emerged as one of the top surprises and entered Saturday in first place in the AL Central after enduring three straight 100-loss seasons.

“It's definitely a lot more motivation to get up there and join those guys at some point,” Cholowsky said. “Being part of a contending team is pretty cool. I value winning a lot.”

Cholowsky is the first collegiate shortstop to go No. 1 overall since Vanderbilt’s Dansby Swanson in 2015 and was UCLA’s first No. 1 draft pick since Gerrit Cole in 2011.

No players in Saturday's draft went to the podium after their name was called.

Major League Baseball has weaved the idea of forcing players to attend into negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement. MLB proposed requiring up to 10 prospects to attend the draft, and each would get a $50,000 draft attendance bonus.

That meant the loudest ovation during draft festivities belonged to the Phillie Phanatic when he was introduced during mascot roll call. Phillies fans just about booed Braves mascot Blooper out of the convention center and had more jeers for Manfred.

Manfred turned the crowd reaction around before the start of the draft as he name-dropped some of the great stars in Phillies history.

There was another announcement to make inside the convention center.

“We’re going to see the arrival of tremendous talent today,” Siera Santos of MLB Network told the crowd.

Just not live in Philadelphia.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Forecasters advised people to stay hydrated and find places to cool off, warning of temperatures 15 to 25 degrees Fahrenheit (8 to 14 degrees Celsius) warmer than normal in many areas, including at night — especially bad for people's health because their bodies won't have a chance to recover. The heat dome was expected to affect as much as two-thirds of the continental United States.

“The heat doesn’t necessarily stop when it’s dark out,” said Josh Adam, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Bismarck, North Dakota, where temperatures will surpass 100 F (37 C) until Tuesday, a dramatic spike for a state where summer temperatures are typically in the 80s.

Tynika Smith of Bloomington, Minnesota, handed out frozen towels and wash cloths along with battery-operated fans at encampments of homeless people in nearby St. Paul and will continue next week, when temperatures are forecast to climb into the mid- to high 90s. The residents put the ice packs around their necks and on their heads.

“They can’t get into a car with air conditioning or go into a house,” said Smith, who also distributed water, freezer pops, food and hygiene supplies.

The encampments are so secluded that it's difficult for the residents to walk or bicycle to cooling centers, she said. There also is little outside shade, while the temperature inside their tents gets even hotter than outdoors.

“I can only do so much,” Smith said, “but at least I can help them stay cool for a little bit.”

Temperature records expected to be broken

The National Weather Service predicted that more than 90 U.S. local temperature records will be tied or broken through Wednesday — with two-thirds of those being overnight heat records. Temperatures were not forecast to drop below 80 F (27 C) at night in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Miami; Tampa, Florida; Galveston, Texas; and Charleston, South Carolina.

The heat dome — formed when high pressure traps hot air while blocking cooling winds and rain — is one of the strongest to affect the Dakotas in 25 years, said Chad Merrill, a senior meteorologist with AccuWeather.

Record triple-digit highs were forecast for the weekend in Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana and the Dakotas.

In Helena, Montana, where temperatures were expected to creep above 95 F (35 C), Last Chance Splash Waterpark & Pool was holding a swim meet for hundreds of swimmers.

The timing couldn’t be better, as it’s uncommon for Helena to get so hot, said Sean Swingley, assistant manager.

“It’s certainly a hot day, but the pool is nice and cool,” Swingley said. “Usually in the summer we have a couple 95 degree days, but it mostly hovers around 85 to 90 in June and July.”

Nevada, a state accustomed to hot weather, was even hotter than normal, said Andrew Gorelow, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Las Vegas. The temperature there was expected to hit 111 F (48 C) on Saturday, Gorelow said.

Hydrating and finding cool spaces is critical, experts said.

They also warned that the heat could spike fire risk in some parts of the country that already are dry, including the Rockies, where Merrill said dry thunderstorms could develop.

Climate change is supercharging heat

Climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas is causing more intense and longer-lasting heat waves that cover larger areas, scientists say.

This year's temperatures also are expected to be affected by El Nino, a natural warming of the equatorial Pacific that alters weather patterns and spikes temperatures across the globe.

The current El Nino — which formed last month and is too young to have affected this heat wave much — is expected to rank as among the most intense since the weather service began tracking the phenomena in 1950, experts said.

By fall it has an 81% chance of becoming “very strong” — the top category — according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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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.

Fourteen hours later, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo would return to the wife he’d met as a teenager in Mexico and the modest house he’d built for his family on the city’s east side.

It’s what he’d done for decades, according to Ronaldo Salgado, his oldest son. He said his father built hundreds of houses over 35 years, creating a life for his family and watching as his three sons headed off to college.

On Tuesday, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot Salgado Araujo, 52, after he was pursued by federal agents driving unmarked vehicles while he was taking his crew to their latest job site. The shooting has outraged Houston leaders and renewed public scrutiny over ICE and Trump's immigration crackdown.

Four Democratic members of Congress who represent the Houston area said at a vigil Saturday that they would push for an independent investigation into the shooting.

“We are never going to forget that his blood is on Donald Trump’s hands,” Rep. Christian Menefee said. “We are not at war. Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was not a casualty. He was a human being who was murdered by our government.”

Salgado Araujo was not the target of ICE's operation

Federal agents were looking for someone else when they tried to stop Salgado Araujo’s white van, Garcia said, citing a briefing she receiving from ICE's acting director. The Department of Homeland Security has said an ICE officer fired at the van in self-defense after Salgado Araujo, who officials described as an “illegal alien,” rammed an ICE vehicle. They have provided no evidence.

The three men that Salgado Araujo was driving said he was shot through a passenger window and that the ICE officer who fired was not in front of the van or even in danger, a lawyer who has spoken with them said Friday.

His family has also disputed the account from ICE. They said lawyers, who were helping him apply for a work permit, had explained how he should behave if immigration agents stopped him. Salgado Araujo was close to obtaining legal status when he was killed, they said.

“He knew what to do,” Ronaldo Salgado told reporters this week. “He knew not to sign anything. He knew that the first phone call he should make should be either to myself or to my mom. So that way we can get the process started of getting him out.”

He believes his father may have been scared that he was being followed by unmarked vehicles, worried someone was planning to steal his van or his tools.

The shooting in the heavily Hispanic neighborhood is at least the eighth death during the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement campaign.

A kind, present husband and father

Salgado Araujo entered the U.S. more than 30 years ago, settling in Houston with his wife where they raised their three children.

Education was a constant focus in the house, said Ronaldo Salgado, who is now a teacher. One of his brothers is an engineer. The other is in college studying engineering.

Several childhood friends of Salgado recalled that his father was kind and soft-spoken, always inquiring about his wife’s day and how his sons’ friends were doing after a long day at work.

“We didn’t really see him until the end of the day when he came home to have dinner, but that just shows how much of a hard worker he was,” said neighbor Jessica Alanis Magdaleno. “Everything they have now is thanks to the dedication to that.”

Josué Flores, a friend of Ronaldo Salgado since their freshman year of high school, said he first saw Lorenzo Salgado Araujo at his son’s football game.

“I think it speaks volumes of the kind of person that he was,” Flores said, recalling how Salgado Araujo showed up for his son even after an arduous day of work.

Salgado Araujo’s wife, a relative said, is “inconsolable.”

“She is very upset... angry, sad, disoriented,” Jose Torres Ramon, a nephew who lives in Mexico, told The Associated Press in a Facebook message.

Ronald Salgado, his oldest son, said at the Saturday vigil that he hoped he was making his father proud.

“I’ll keep fighting for him," he said.

His brother Lorenzo Salgado Jr. said the shooting of his father was “a hard moment to be an American.”

“Even though my government, my federal government took away my father, we the people will bring justice,” he said. “We the people are America.”

After coming home in the evening, Salgado Araujo liked to listen to music on the porch and pet the family dog. His family has described him as a simple man of routine.

“He did not deserve to die,” Ronaldo Salgado said. “He dedicated his life in the United States to giving his family the American dream.”

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Associated Press reporters Jack Brook in New Orleans, Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas, and Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed.

She carried cold water in one hand. She had an unfolded fan in the other, flapping it with hopes of creating her own little breeze. And the elements seemed to be winning; no matter what she tried, the England fan was still, at best, uncomfortable.

"I can’t imagine playing 90 minutes in it,” said Gregory, who came to the U.S. with her husband from their home in Telford, England to follow their team through the World Cup.

Norway had Harry Kane to worry about. England had Erling Haaland to worry about. And both sides — in what has been a theme for this World Cup — had the weather to worry about. It was 92 degrees Fahrenheit (33 Celsius) when the teams started warm-ups Saturday afternoon, and with the humidity factored in it felt like 104 F (40 C).

That's a far cry from the seasonable 72 F (22 C) in London or 59 F (15 C) in Lillehammer at that time.

“I think we have trained very lightly,” Norway manager Ståle Solbakken said on the eve of the match. “We haven’t done much hard work. We obviously have tactical sessions, but at a lower tempo and have not trained for long periods.”

In other words, rest and hydration took precedence for Norway — which spent much of the week in South Florida to acclimate. England didn't arrive in the Miami area until later in the week.

“Up until now we’ve played in cool conditions, I would say,” England defender Nico O'Reilly said. “But we’re ready for it.”

This wasn't England's first trip to South Florida on its World Cup journey. The team arrived in Palm Beach Gardens — about 90 minutes north of Miami Gardens — on June 2 for more than a week of training and to get a feel for the heat and humidity.

England also had to adjust to the high temperatures of its Kansas City base camp, and survive Mexico’s altitude to beat the co-host in the round of 16, but hadn't faced anything like the combination of heat and humidity that greeted the teams Saturday.

Gregory said she felt for the players.

“It’s hard just sitting and watching it,” Gregory said.

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Gracie Fisher is a student in the University of Georgia’s Carmical Sports Media Institute.

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here.

Saturday’s forecast:

More storms are expected this weekend. While similar to the hit and miss sea breeze storms we’ve had all week, we now have tropical moisture mixed in. That means rain will be more widespread and it will be heavier. It won’t rain all day, but storms will be more numerous. There is no need to cancel your Saturday plans but have a plan B where you can wait for the storms to pass over you.

Sunday’s forecast:

Rain should be more widespread Sunday with our first street flooding threat in our eastern cities. The day is not a washout but it’s starting to get close.

Monday and Tuesday’s forecast:

These are the two days I want you to make sure you’re prepared for. There is the potential for street flooding both days. We haven’t had a heavy rain forecast like this in a month. Not only do we have tropical moisture streaming in from the Gulf, but we also have a front that will enhance the lift of the storms. This combination may lead to rain totals of 2″-3″.

The impact of Saharan Dust:

One part of the forecast that remains difficult to model is the impact of Saharan dust. We expect a plume of dust to move over Southeast Texas from Monday evening through Tuesday, and current imagery suggests it could be fairly dense.

Thick layers of dust aloft tend to dry the atmosphere and promote sinking air, which can limit the intensity of rainfall. If the dust is less concentrated, however, its tiny particles can serve as condensation nuclei and actually enhance rain development.

At this point, I expect abundant Gulf moisture to outweigh the dust’s suppressing effects. Still, if storm impacts are more limited than expected on Monday and Tuesday, Saharan dust is a likely reason.

10 Day Forecast:

Once we get through Tuesday high pressure will begin to build in. By the end of next week drier weather is expected with hotter temperatures.

Government spokesman Bayo Onanuga did not specify the total number of students rescued, but authorities said at the time of the abductions on May 15 that more than 40 people had been abducted. One of the teachers abducted alongside the students was killed shortly afterward.

Eight militants were arrested as part of the operation, while an unspecified number of the militants were killed, Onanuga said.

The abductions in a southern state had represented an escalation of the country’s security crisis because most such abductions previously had taken place in the north.

“This successful military operation has ended the siege and standoff of over 50 days and has brought relief to the entire nation and the affected families in particular," Nigerian President Bola Tinubu said in a statement.

In the same week as the Oyo abduction, dozens of children were kidnapped in Borno, the epicenter of Nigeria's security crisis.

Abductions at schools are common in Nigeria, where militant groups target them to put pressure on the government and extract ransoms.

A representative for Khanna, a California Democrat who is an outspoken progressive, said the confrontation occurred Wednesday in the middle of a three-day tour of the West Bank. As the congressman visited a Palestinian village that had been abandoned after settler attacks, masked men with guns stopped his group and refused to let them leave.

The New York Times said the incident was witnessed by one of its photographers. Khanna's office said it occurred in the town of Khirbet Zanuta.

Khanna said that when Israeli soldiers arrived he was dispirited to see them interact in a friendly manner with the settlers and block the exit for the congressman's party. Not until the U.S. Embassy and Israeli police were called was Khanna's group allowed to proceed.

“If this can happen to an American member of Congress, imagine what life is like for Palestinians who have no smartphones, no security, and no national platform,” Khanna, who is exploring a presidential bid in 2028, said in a fundraising email he sent out shortly after his post Saturday about the incident.

In a statement, the IDF said it received a report of Israeli citizens blocking foreign nationals and media in Khirbet Zanuta.

“Upon receiving the report, IDF troops were dispatched to the scene, quickly dispersed the Israeli civilians, and reopened the blocked road,” the military said in a statement. “The IDF soldiers operating in the area did not take part in blocking the road.”

Democratic politicians from the United States have stepped up their criticism of Israel amid a sharp turn against the country by the party's voters since the war in Gaza began. This past week, former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, whose father was born in Jerusalem and fought in Israel's war of independence, gave a blistering speech last week in Tel Aviv in which he said Israel has become a “territorial pariah.” Emanuel also is a potential White House contender.

In a recent survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, about 58% of Democrats said the U.S. is “too supportive” of Israelis.

Also Saturday, the Israeli military said it detained four suspects who were attacking foreign journalists traveling to Sinjil, another West Bank community. The assailants blocked the journalists' vehicle and damaged it and were armed with clubs and knives, according to the military's statement.

CNN reported that it had a team among the journalists who were attacked. The network said the journalists were there to cover the one-year anniversary of the killing of a Palestinian-American man who was beaten to death by Israeli settlers.

The West Bank has seen a surge of settlement construction, and settler violence against Palestinians, in the past few years. Israeli officials have condemned particularly grave violence by settlers but tend to describe the incidents as exceptions, and attackers are rarely punished.

The international community overwhelmingly considers the settlements illegal. Israel’s government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come under heavy criticism from Palestinians and rights groups for accelerating settlement expansion, which they say is aimed at preventing the establishment of a future Palestinian state there.

Israel views the West Bank as disputed territory and says its final status is subject to negotiations. Key Cabinet ministers have pushed for formal annexation of the territory.

The city health department on Friday released a list of 31 buildings on the Upper East Side that have been ordered to clean and disinfect their cooling towers as the city deals with the latest outbreak of the disease, which is a serious form of pneumonia.

The distinctive, cylindrical-shaped art museum was among 19 that have already completed the remediation, according to the department’s list. The rest were expected to complete the work by Saturday.

City officials stressed the positive test results do not confirm any of the buildings as the source of outbreak as the tests conducted could not distinguish between live and dead bacteria.

The museum was also not shuttered at any point because of the positive test or remediation work, they said.

“The city has confirmed that there is no additional action needed at this time, and this poses no risk to anyone inside the building,” the museum said in a statement Saturday, noting that it has an outside company that conducts regular monthly testing and treating of its cooling tower.

The Guggenheim was designed by the renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright and is designated a UNESCO World Heritage site as one of the defining architectural works of the 20th century.

More than 50 people have been diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease in connection with the Upper East Side cluster, of which less than 20 remain hospitalized, according to the most recent data from the city health department. No deaths have so far been reported.

Seven people died and more than 100 were sickened during a major outbreak in the upper Manhattan neighborhood of Harlem last year that was ultimately traced to cooling towers atop Harlem Hospital and a nearby construction site where the city’s public health lab is located.

Legionella bacteria generally grow in warm water and can spread in building water systems such as showerheads, hot tubs and cooling towers.

The structures are usually found on the top of buildings and control the temperature of systems such as refrigeration, but they do not affect drinking water or the building’s indoor air or air conditioning.

Legionnaires’ disease is also not transmitted person-to-person. People often contract it by breathing in tiny droplets of contaminated water.

Symptoms usually develop two days to two weeks after exposure and include cough, fever, headaches, muscle aches and shortness of breath, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

People are at an increased risk for Legionnaires’ disease if they are age 50 or older, smoke or vape, have a chronic lung disease or have a weakened immune system.

The respiratory ailment's name comes from an outbreak that hit attendees of an American Legion convention in Philadelphia in 1976.

The blazes, which also lashed France this week, came as parts of Western Europe are facing their third heat wave in six weeks. Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures increasing twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

In Spain's Andalusia, a combination of light winds and high humidity are helping crews but the sheer size of the fire still poses challenges, Antonio Sanz, head of the region's emergency services, said. The fire has so far scorched some 66 square kilometers (25 square miles) of forest and farmland — about the size of Manhattan.

Sanz said fire crews carried out controlled burns overnight around the perimeter of the fire, which broke out late Thursday in a semi-arid area near the Sierre de Los Filabres mountains in in Almería province, just as Spain was sizzling.

Favorable weather conditions were expected into Sunday, which could help firefighting efforts, Spain's official EFE news agency reported. Justice Minister Félix Bolaños said nearly all homes on the fire front's perimeter were undamaged.

Most of the victims, who are believed to be foreign nationals, died after ignoring shelter-in-place instructions, authorities said. Seven people died while on foot after abandoning their cars.

Four of the dead were believed to be British because the steering wheel of their burned-out car was on the right side, as with British vehicles, regional authorities said.

Sanz said Saturday that authorities had completed autopsies and DNA samples were collected to identify them.

Spain’s Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares has spoken with his counterparts from the U.K., Belgium, Canada and the Netherlands about the fire, EFE reported. Almería is home to one of the largest communities of foreign nationals in Andalusia.

Authorities proactively evacuated 1,448 people from some 11 areas.

Many are fleeing the flames

Jeffrey Kember and his wife, Christine, were watching a favorite TV show in their Los Pinos farmhouse when the blare of a siren alerted them to the fire. The couple jumped into their respective cars while also trying to help a neighbor with two toddlers.

The husband described how they got separated and how he was unable to speak to his wife because she didn't have a phone on her.

“I'm driving through the flames. It was actually flames. I though, ‘I can’t stop, I just gotta go,” he told The Associated Press, his wife now next to him outside an evacuation center. "It was eerie because all of a sudden I came out of the flames and it was all bright sunshine. It was like surreal.”

Meanwhile, Spanish authorities arrested two people for ignoring evacuation orders and returning to a high-risk area, according to EFE. Authorities are still combing through the Bédar area in search for any victims.

Europe withers in intense heat

Spain has battled frequent and severe heat waves in recent years, with temperatures often exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). Wind, high temperatures and little rainfall help small wildfires grow into unchecked blazes.

Bolaños, the justice minister, on Saturday attributed the ferocity of the Almeira wildfire to a “climate emergency.” He said the fire, at its most intense, advanced as fast as 100 meters per minute (328 feet per minute.)

Spain’s Meteorological Agency warned that the wildfire risk over the weekend will remain very high.

In June, Spain experienced several days of record-setting heat, with over 1,000 excess deaths. Globally, 2025 was the third-hottest year on record, bringing several intense heat waves across Europe.

Wildfires lash France

Several wildfires remained active across France on Saturday as temperatures soared. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said that 32 people have been arrested across the country since the beginning of the summer in connection with wildfires.

“Those unacceptable acts, which have disastrous consequences and mobilize our firefighters at the risk of their lives, now fall into the hands of the justice system,” he said. “We will continue our determined action and will not let anything slide.”

French President Emmanuel Macron also weighed in, recalling in a post on X that nine out of 10 wildfires start because of human activity. More than 25,000 hectares (62,000 acres) of land have burned in France since the start of 2026, roughly double the area compared to the same period last year.

France is experiencing the peak of its third heat wave this summer, with temperatures reaching 40 C across western and central areas and around 37 C (98 F) in Paris. In the French capital, the Eiffel Tower will close in the afternoon over the weekend instead of late at night, as it usually does. The Louvre and Orsay museum have also announced reduced opening hours because of the heat wave.

Last month was France’s hottest June on record, with deaths surging by nearly a third during the hottest week.

Spain and Portugal have faced deadly fires before

Spain is no stranger to wildfires, with last year's fire season burning more than 393,000 hectares (971,000 acres). according to the European Forest Fire Information System, an area twice as large as London. Four people died.

Spain's deadliest wildfire was in 1979, when 21 people perished in Lloret de Mar, a coastal town about an hour north of Barcelona.

In 2017, a wildfire in neighboring Portugal left 66 people dead in Pedrogao Grande, located 200 kilometers (120 miles) northeast of Lisbon. In that blaze, 47 people died on one road while similarly attempting to flee in their cars.

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This story has been corrected to say the name of the Spanish town in the dateline is Bedar, not Bejar.

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Associated Press writer Samuel Petrequin in London contributed to this report.

The exchange came as Ukraine’s drones have lately been hitting oil refineries and other infrastructure across Russia to undercut its war effort, triggering a widespread fuel crisis with gasoline shortages. Moscow has responded by intensifying its bombardment on Kyiv and other cities, exposing Ukraine’s vulnerability to ballistic missile strikes.

Ukraine’s General Staff said 21 tankers used to transport oil and petroleum products were damaged overnight, in addition to four tugboats, two cargo ships and a dredging vessel. Russian officials said one person was killed in the Ukrainian drone strikes and that only four ships came under attack.

In Ukraine's northeast Sumy region, four people were killed, including a child, and 17 people were wounded when two aerial glide bombs hit a crowded area where civilians were present, said Sumy regional head Oleh Hryhorov.

Eleven people, including one child, were wounded in missile and drone attacks overnight on Kyiv, the State Emergency Service reported. In the southern region of Odesa, two people were killed after a Russian missile struck a building, said regional head Oleh Kiper. Another man was wounded by shrapnel.

Explosions and fires were reported across Kyiv’s Solomianskyi, Darnytskyi and Dniprovskyi districts, the emergency service said.

Russia launched 12 missiles, including six ballistic missiles, along with 121 drones against Ukraine overnight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. He said most of the drones and some of the missiles were shot down, but the ballistic missiles reached their targets, reiterating Ukraine's dire air defense gaps.

Ukrainian air defenses said they shot down or electronically suppressed two missiles and 111 drones. The air force said direct hits were recorded at 11 locations.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces targeted drone production facilities in Kyiv, as well as the ports of Izmail and Chornomorsk in the Odesa region.

The ministry also said Russian air defenses destroyed 178 Ukrainian drones overnight over eight Russian regions, as well as over the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula and the Black and Azov seas.

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

The new jet, a present from the U.S. ally that the administration spent $400 million on to retrofit and upgrade, entered service last week. But Trump used an older model Air Force One jet to leave a NATO summit in Turkey and later referenced threats against him made by Iran.

The subpoenas seek to force the reporters to testify before a federal grand jury in Manhattan next week, the Times said, adding that federal agents delivered some subpoenas to the reporters at their homes.

They were issued after FBI Director Kash Patel and other Justice Department officials met at the White House on Friday to talk about the matter, according to a person familiar with the discussions who was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The journalists subpoenaed included Julian E. Barnes, Eric Lipton, Tyler Pager and Eric Schmitt, the Times reported.

“The appearance of federal law enforcement agents on the doorstep of news reporters should shock the conscience of any American who believes in the Constitution and the press freedom it protects,” David McCraw, a lawyer for the Times, said in a statement.

Bruce D. Brown, president of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said Trump's “war on the press is looking for another victim.”

He said in a statement that the subpoenas "break from longstanding Justice Department practice to protect the public interest and press independence by requiring prosecutors to only seek information from reporters as a last resort when all other avenues have been exhausted.”

The department said that "to be clear, reporters are not the targets, those leaking classified information are.”

Its statement said "we value and appreciate the important role that the press plays in this country, but DOJ also plays an important role to make sure that the people entrusted with our nation’s secrets do what they’re supposed to do with that information, which means not sharing classified information.”

While recognizing “there may always be natural tension there,” the department said "we are not going to ignore the law and stop investigating the people who work in the administration and think it’s okay to leak classified information impacting national security.”

Part of a pattern of anti-press actions

Issuing subpoenas represents further ramping up of Trump's effort to threaten independent new organizations by leveraging the power of the federal government against them. It is also part of a systematic pattern by the Republican president to attempt to undermine press freedom in order to shield him from negative coverage.

Earlier this year, the Justice Department issued subpoenas seeking to compel testimony from reporters at The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. In both cases, the department later withdrew the subpoenas, though.

In January, FBI agents searched the home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson, who has been covering Trump’s transformation of the federal government, as part of a leak investigation into a Pentagon contractor accused of taking home classified information.

Adam Steinbaugh, senior attorney for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said Friday's subpoenas and the prospect of “hauling reporters before grand juries sends a chilling message to journalists and whistleblowers alike: Watch what you say, or expect a knock on the door.”

“These tactics are becoming more common,” Steinbaugh said in a statement. “That doesn’t make them normal.”

During his first term, Trump suggested that the press constituted an “enemy” of the American people. Since returning to the White House, he has waged an aggressive campaign against the media unlike any in modern U.S. history.

Trump's attacks against news outlets and media figures he believes are overly critical of him has included filing lawsuits against outlets whose coverage he dislikes, threatening to revoke TV broadcast licenses and seeking to bend news organizations and social media companies to his will.

The Justice Department over the years has developed and revised internal policies governing how it will respond to news media leaks.

Though the department across presidential administrations has periodically seized the phone records of individual journalists in hopes of identifying sources for national security stories, it is extremely rare for the government to attempt to compel reporters to reveal their sources before a grand jury.

In April 2025, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi rescinded a policy from President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration that protected journalists from having their phone records secretly seized during leak investigations — a practice long decried by news organizations and press freedom groups.

Doing so again gave prosecutors the authority to use subpoenas, court orders and search warrants to hunt for government officials who make “unauthorized disclosures” to journalists.

A memo Bondi issued said members of the press are “presumptively entitled to advance notice of such investigative activities,” and subpoenas are to be “narrowly drawn.” Warrants must also include “protocols designed to limit the scope of intrusion into potentially protected materials or newsgathering activities,” the memo stated.

Trump didn't use his new Air Force One while leaving Turkey

The president flew the new Air Force One to Turkey during this week's visit. But he departed Wednesday on one of the older-model Air Force One jets for Mildenhall, a Royal Air Force base in Suffolk, England.

The newer plane also flew to Mildenhall. Trump then switched to that plane for the flight home to Joint Base Andrews.

The abrupt swap came as a shaky ceasefire with Iran had collapsed, with the U.S. launching airstrikes on Iran and Tehran attacking three Gulf Arab states. Iran and Turkey share a border, sparking speculation that the new jet lacked certain sophisticated security and countermeasure systems.

The Times, citing anonymous sources, reported the switch had come at the urging of the Secret Service, and that the newer plane lacked some of the advanced security features of the older aircraft, including antimissile capabilities.

Trump denied any security concerns, posting on social media that the stop in Mildenhall was so that service members there could view the new jet. During the flight, Trump denied to the reporters accompanying him that security concerns involving Iran were a factor in flying two planes home.

Still, asked if he was aware of any credible threats against Air Force One by Iran, Trump responded, “I have a threat all the time. I’m No. 1 on their list."

The White House did not answer messages seeking comment about the subpoenas of the Times journalists.

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Associated Press writers Eric Tucker, Alanna Durkin Richer, Michelle L. Price and Konstantin Toropin contributed to this report.

The case's dismissal late Friday became a foregone conclusion when Trump last year used his pardon powers to erase every case that the government prosecuted after a mob of his supporters stormed the building on Jan. 6, 2021. The judge who presided over the Proud Boys leaders' trial saw no basis to preserve the convictions after Trump's sweeping act of clemency last year.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, whom Trump nominated during his first term, said there is “little mystery” about why the second Trump administration decided to abandon this case and every other Jan. 6 riot case.

“President Trump’s views about the prosecution of those who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6 — whether those views are based on fact or fiction — are well known, as is his intention to extend clemency to them,” Kelly wrote.

The judge stressed that his order should not be mistaken as an endorsement of the Department of Justice's decision to abandon the case. He referred to the Capitol riot as “a perilous event” and an assault on the constitutional imperative for a peaceful transfer of power between presidents.

“Moving forward, if this Nation’s experiment in self-government is to last another 250 years, the American people — no matter their partisan preferences — will have to act together to preserve, protect and defend that miracle through our constitutional framework,” Kelly wrote.

Juries in the nation's capital separately convicted leaders of the Proud Boys and another extremist group, the antigovernment Oath Keepers, of orchestrating violent plots to keep Trump, a Republican, in power after he lost the 2020 presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden.

A different judge has not ruled yet on the Justice Department’s related request to throw out Oath Keepers' seditious conspiracy convictions.

Friday's ruling applied to four of five Proud Boys members who were convicted after a jury trial: Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola. Trump commuted their prison sentences, but they were not covered by the president's mass pardons.

Former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio was convicted at the same trial but received a pardon from Trump. Kelly had sentenced Tarrio to 22 years, the longest prison term in any Capitol riot case.

Two days later, he was found dead. What happened, Wells' parents say, is a mystery riddled with conflicting stories, implausible explanations and missing details. It is a case shadowed by the state's fraught racial history and lingering distrust in law enforcement.

At a news conference Friday in New York City, Christine and Elmore Wonsley called for a thorough and transparent investigation into their son’s death, skeptical of claims that Wells told his friends to leave the island without him and suggestions that he, an elite athlete who knew how to swim, had accidentally drowned.

Wells’ body was found early Monday along the shore of Horn Island, about 7 miles (11.2 kilometers) off the Mississippi coast, more than a day after he was last seen alive. The roughly 11-mile long (17.7 kilometer) spit of land is near the Alabama state line. The island is uninhabited and accessible only by boat. About 200 people were there on July 4, the family’s lawyers said.

“We just want to know what happened and why our baby didn’t come home,” Christine Wonsley said, looking upward several times as she stood alongside her lawyer, Ben Crump, and the Rev. Al Sharpton, who will officiate Wells’ funeral.

Family commissions independent autopsy

Crump said Wells' family has commissioned an independent autopsy, performed by a forensic pathologist in Washington, D.C. with no ties to Mississippi law enforcement, while they await the results of an official autopsy, which could take weeks. They also plan to employ experts to recover messages that appeared to have been deleted from his cellphone, Crump said. They will eventually turn the device over to authorities, he said.

Wells' family also encouraged witnesses to come forward and asked people to submit any video they recorded that may show him on Horn Island, echoing a call by the Jackson County Sheriff's Office to help shed light on the moments before Wells’ disappearance and death.

A photo posted on social media, purportedly from the boat ride to the island, shows Wells with his arms around three white male friends. Sheriff John Ledbetter said Wells’ friends were cooperating and that investigators don’t suspect foul play. Crump said those friends now have lawyers and that his investigators haven't attempted to speak with them yet.

Wells' death has led to rampant speculation and suspicion as people grapple with Mississippi's history of racial tension and what it means to be a Black person in a majority white space.

Actor and producer Tyler Perry is helping pay for Wells' funeral, former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick is helping pay for his independent autopsy, and filmmaker Spike Lee showed up to the news conference to show support for Wells' family.

Family doesn't trust Mississippi authorities, Crump says

Crump said Wells' parents hired him to conduct an independent investigation into their son’s death because they don't trust that law enforcement officials will perform a fair inquiry in a state still reckoning with its Jim Crow past, including the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till and the murders of three civil rights workers in the 1960s.

“The history of Mississippi is something that they don’t just read about in books,” Crump told reporters at Sharpton’s National Action Network headquarters in Harlem. “It's a lived experience for many Black Americans that oftentimes when our children are killed in highly questionable situations that there is this notion that ‘Oh, there was nothing wrong, no foul play, let’s just sweep it under the rug.’ Well, we refuse to sweep it under the rug.”

It is the second case that Crump has taken on in the state in recent months. He also was recently retained by the family of a Mississippi 1-year-old who was killed when police fired into a moving car.

Ledbetter told The Associated Press this week that investigators suspect that Wells “chose to stay on the island with the assumption that he was going to ride back to the mainland with someone else.”

Wells didn't have his cellphone or keys

But Wells didn't have his cellphone or his keys — his friends did.

“What teenager would leave their phone behind if they’re going to stay on this island? What teenager wouldn’t take their phone?” Crump said. “It’s not adding up at all.”

Crump said bystander video from the island showed a person he said was Wells arguing with someone to give him his phone back. In another discrepancy, Crump said that a witness reported Wells had planned to leave on the boat with his friends, contradicting the sheriff's theory.

“The friends come back and he's left there with some story about how he said leave him behind,” Sharpton said. “But then by some magic one of the friends has his keys and his phone.”

The sheriff did not return The Associated Press' messages seeking his response to the family's concerns.

Parents try to track down their son, then report him missing

Wells’ mother, Christine Wonsley, said she started to worry when a friend of his called her just after 11 p.m. on July 4.

After trying to track him down on her own, she reported him missing to police and went with her husband to meet an officer in a McDonald’s parking lot, she said, a process exacerbated by a dispute over which law enforcement agency had jurisdiction over the island. One of Wells’ friends had also reported him missing to the U.S. Coast Guard.

Wells’ father, Elmore Wonsley, said he went out on a boat on the morning of July 5 looking for his son near Horn Island. Crews from multiple local and state agencies began an extensive search, and his body was recovered early Monday, family members confirmed.

“If he’s drowning, nobody sees him drown? Nobody offers assistance? Nobody tries to help? I mean, obviously he stands out," Crump said. "I think he’s the only Black person I saw when I’m looking at the videos.”

Christine Wonsley said she used an app to track his phone and, after a friend went to where it was on land to pick it up, noticed that some of his messages appeared to be deleted. Wells, a shutterbug at social and family events, had two Snapchat accounts — but both were devoid of pictures or saved messages, she said.

As they searched for their son, Elmore Wonsley went to retrieve Wells' keys from the home where he stayed with his friends from the boat the night before their island trip. He said his son's car was still parked in the yard.

A peacemaker with football aspirations

Wells, who would have turned 19 next month, played wide receiver on the football team at Southwest Mississippi Community College in Summit, Mississippi, and had aspirations of playing at a high-level Division I program.

His coach, Les George, told WAPT-TV that Wells “was a guy that never had a bad day. Never.”

“He was very sociable with everyone, didn’t meet a stranger,” George said. “He would pop up at my office and come sit on the couch just to hang out and talk.”

Christine Wonsley said she and her husband schooled Wells in history and talked to him about navigating the racial tensions that still permeate the South.

Wells was a peacemaker who didn’t like division, once breaking into a dance while still in diapers to ease tensions while his parents were arguing, they said. He wanted everyone to be included and shied away from confrontation.

“Nolan is a person with a big heart,” Elmore Wonsley said.

Wells' parents said they last saw him the night before the boat trip. He came to their house, baked them salmon for dinner and hugged his mother goodbye.

As people mourn and protest Wells' death, Christine Wonsley urged them to follow his example.

“Please be peaceful," she said. "Nolan was not someone who liked fights, physical fights. He didn’t even really like arguments. Don’t go out there trying to be tough. Think about what Nolan would want, and he wouldn’t want that type of behavior.”

Former coach Julian Nagelsmann resigned after his team failed to make the round of 16 for the third World Cup running.

Klopp, a serial trophy winner with Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund, was quickly identified as the favorite to succeed him.

The German federation said talks were held in New York on Friday with Klopp, who is currently in an executive role as head of global soccer for the Red Bull group.

“In the constructive exchange, an understanding was reached on essential key points of a potential contract,” it said. “Both sides are confident that the negotiations, subject to an agreement with Klopp’s current employer Red Bull, can ultimately be successfully concluded.”

Klopp has been working as a pundit on German TV at the World Cup, even taking part in postgame interviews with Nagelsmann at the side of the field.

He has not been a coach since leaving Liverpool in 2024 after winning a full set of trophies with the iconic club, including the Champions League and Premier League.

“About two years ago I stopped at Liverpool and said that I lacked the energy for another job or for another year with Liverpool. Since then I’m more than recharged, I’m ready,” he told German broadcaster Magenta TV last week.

Germany has repeatedly failed at the World Cup since winning the trophy for the fourth time in 2014.

Since then it was eliminated at the group stage in 2018 and 2022. Germany advanced beyond the group stage at this year's expanded 48-team format, but was knocked out by Paraguay on penalties in the newly-introduced round of 32.

Klopp held talks with German federation president Bernd Neuendorf and vice president Hans-Joachim Watzke.

The 59-year-old has been regarded as one of the game's top coaches since breaking Bayern Munich's dominance of German soccer by winning two league titles with Borussia Dortmund.

He took over at Liverpool in 2015 and ended the Merseyside club's 30-year wait for an English league title in 2020.

He also won the Champions League among seven major trophies during his time at Anfield. He might have won more if not for the fact he was competing against a dominant Manchester City under Pep Guardiola.

There has been speculation about whether he would return to coaching and, as recently as March, he denied claims he’d join Real Madrid.

Following Germany's exit from the World Cup, Klopp said there was a “need to change things fundamentally,” arguing that Nagelsmann was an “excellent coach” who wasn’t to blame for another disappointing campaign.

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James Ellingworth in Duesseldorf contributed to this report.

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

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

Jodie Foster, “Emily in Paris” star Lily Collins, and “Ted Lasso” actress Hannah Waddingham were also among the invited guests in the Royal Box at Centre Court for the all-Czech women’s final, along with two-time Wimbledon singles champion Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic.

Eileen Gu, a three-time Olympic goal medalist, was also on hand. The U.S.-born skier, one of the stars of the Milan Cortina Games, competes for her mother’s homeland of China.

Kate, the patron of the All England Club, was scheduled to present the trophy to the winner, as she has done in prior years.

The princess, who early last year announced her cancer was in remission, also visited the grass-court tournament last week and sat next to Andy Murray to watch the tennis.

Wimbledon singles champions Maria Sharapova (2004), Marion Bartoli (2013), and Simona Halep (2019) were also in the Royal Box.

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

Two weeks after winning her first major at the Women's PGA Championship, Ryu birdied four of her last five holes at Evian Golf Resort. She had a chance at tying the LPGA scoring record of 59 but settled for a lengthy two-putt birdie putt on the closing hole.

Ryu didn't know what she had done until she looked at the scorecard and counted all the sub-par holes — nine birdies and an eagle — and realized it was a par 71.

“But after the putt and I counted my score with my caddie,” she said. “Oh my God, it’s 11-under par today. It was so amazing. My caddie says, ‘Yep.’ I’m so happy right now.”

Her 60 broke by one shot the record for lowest round in an LPGA major. Leona Maguire and Jeung-eun Lee6 in 2021, and Hyo Joo Kim in 2014, each shot 61 at the Evian Championship, which was designated an LPGA major in 2013.

The lowest round in a men’s major is 62 by four players — Branden Grace at Royal Birkdale in the 2017 British Open, Xander Schauffele and Rickie Fowler in the 2023 U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club, and Schauffele and Shane Lowry in the 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla.

Next up for Ryu is to finish it off. Her record day put her at 18-under 194 — another LPGA major record — for a three-shot lead over Aki Iwai of Japan, who shot 65.

The next closest players to Ryu were seven shots behind — Brooke Henderson (64) and Mao Saigo of Japan (67).

Lottie Woad of England, who began the third round with a one-shot lead, struggled to a 72 and fell nine shots off the pace.

Ryu picked up birdies on both par 3s on the front nine, and then holed out for eagle with a 7-iron from 155 yards on the par-4 sixth hole.

“That hole is a little tricky because little narrow and the green is little hilly. So that's why I just want to make par on that hole,” Ryu said. “I hit 7-iron there and then it’s pretty good shot there. I just walking towards (the green) and it’s going in. So it was so happy and surprise there.”

Only one of the three previous players to shoot 61 at the Evian — Kim — went on to win, and Ryu realizes she still has work left. Iwai already has made 21 birdies this week to offset some of her mistakes and is three behind — the same margin Ryu faced at the start of the day.

“Last year I missed the cut, and so I want revenge,” Iwai said. “Really optimistic tomorrow. I just keep going.”

Ryu had minor back surgery after a runner-up finish at the Kroger Queen City Championship, returning just over a month later to win her first major in the Women's PGA at Hazeltine. Now she has a chance to join Nelly Korda, who missed the cut at Evian, as a double major winner this year.

Two majors in three weeks was a lot for her to digest.

“That is amazing, amazing dream,” Ryu said. “So I just want that one to come true, but we have one more day and Aki is pretty good player and everybody is so good player, so I just doing pretty well.”

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

The speedboat was carrying 32 Indian tourists and four crew members when it overturned Saturday afternoon shortly after leaving Hon May Rut Ngoai Island, which is near Phu Quoc, Vietnam’s largest island, authorities were quoted as saying.

“The boat had not even gone half a kilometer when it just tipped over,” Ashish Kumar, an Indian who witnessed the accident, told The Associated Press over the phone. “We screamed, ‘Help! Help!’”

He said nearby boats immediately rushed to the rescue. “But by then it was too late,” he said.

Kumar said that there was no emergency medical care available at the shore when survivors were brought back.

He said that at least some of the passengers were on a company tour organized by their employer, which makes smartphones and other electronics.

Three of his friends were on the boat. “Two have died, and the other, I was told, is critical,” he said.

India’s Lava International, a smartphone and consumer electronics manufacturer, confirmed that some of its employees and channel partners were among those involved in the accident. “Our immediate priority is to extend all possible support to those affected and their families,” it said.

Strong winds and waves lashed rescue boats

VN Express news site quoted witnesses as saying that some people were trapped inside the capsized boat. Footage on Vietnamese TV showed rough seas and strong winds as rescue teams threw life buoys to people in the water. Jet skis ferried survivors back to shore while people on the beach provided first aid.

Twenty-one people were rescued, and all the dead were recovered, authorities said. The injured were taken to hospitals.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Le Minh Hung ordered an investigation and directed authorities to hold those responsible accountable. He also asked officials to review waterway and maritime safety in the area where the accident happened.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed condolences over the tragedy and wrote on social media that the Indian Embassy was providing all possible assistance.

Many of those on board are believed to be from India's southern Telangana and Tamil Nadu states.

Authorities in Telangana have set up a control room to coordinate assistance and provide information to their families. The Tamil Nadu chief minister wrote on social media that he had urged Indian authorities to provide assistance to the victims and ensure that the bodies of those killed are brought back as soon as possible.

More Indians are visiting Vietnam

Phu Quoc in the Gulf of Thailand is one of Vietnam's most popular beach destinations. Hon May Rut island is about 10 kilometers (6 miles) south of Phu Quoc. They're known for their white-sand beaches and clear waters and draw millions of domestic and foreign tourists each year.

India is one of Vietnam's fastest growing tourism markets. The Southeast Asian country welcomed about 750,000 Indians in 2025, up nearly 50% from the previous year.

Officials attribute the growth to an expanding network of direct flights between major Indian and Vietnamese cities, and Vietnam's liberal e-visa policy.

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This story has been corrected to show that it was a witness, not Modi, who said many of the passengers were on a company tour organized by employer.

He blended in as well as one can in a town where everyone knows just about everyone else. He was not campaigning. “I didn’t want to turn it into something that was about me rather than about the celebration,” he said.

This Sullivan — Dan. J — has been an unconventional candidate from the start. He drew intense, immediate blowback for having the same name and party affiliation as the senator — Dan. S. — in a race that could help decide control of the Senate in November. The incumbent and GOP allies accused the same-named challenger in the Aug. 18 primary of being a sham candidate working with Democrats to sow confusion and help Peltola. Dan. J. Sullivan and the Peltola campaign have denied that claim.

A top state elections official booted Dan J. Sullivan from the ballot. The Alaska Supreme Court later ordered that he be included.

All candidates, including independents, run in one primary in Alaska. The top four vote-getters advance to the ranked vote general election in November. Primaries in the top races can be crowded, with more than a dozen candidates. Dan. J. Sullivan is among 16 hopefuls in the Senate race. The incumbent and Peltola are the highest-profile candidates and the only ones so far to report raising money.

Petersburg, where the challenger has lived for decades, is an island community of about 3,000 people in southeast Alaska that is accessible only by air or water. Many longtime residents find it hard to believe claims that their Dan Sullivan, a retired elementary and middle school teacher, is a dirty trickster.

“You really have to do a lot of mental gymnastics to suddenly not respect Dan Sullivan, because he’s honestly a very stand-up human being," said Orin Pierson, publisher of the Petersburg Pilot newspaper.

Petersburg residents reflect and weigh their choices

Even some who do not know how they will vote, or declined to say, criticized the state’s attempts to block the political novice, saying he met the age, residency and citizenship requirements set out by the U.S. Constitution.

“To say somebody can’t run — that he’s fake — that’s fear,” said Linda Bunge, who attended a community potluck at a park where yellowish seaweed carpeted the beach at low tide. Bunge said she probably will vote for Peltola, a former congresswoman, but would consider Dan J. Sullivan.

Jeigh Stanton Gregor, a borough Assembly member who worked with him years ago at the local elementary school, said he was somewhat surprised Sullivan was running because people previously tried to recruit him for local offices. He called Sullivan’s character “unimpeachable.”

Stanton Gregor said he wants to see how the campaign plays out before deciding which candidate to support. Dan J. Sullivan’s concerns about healthcare costs resonate with him, but Stanton Gregor also has found the senator easy to work with and respects Peltola. A registered Democrat, Stanton Gregor said he generally votes for the person, not the party.

“Being a good human carries a lot of weight with me,” he said.

Sullivan regroups after successful court fight

Last month, Republican Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, who oversees elections, announced an investigation into Dan J. Sullivan's run. She cited “credible allegations” that he ran in coordination with another candidate and campaign in an effort to “manipulate voters.” The announcement came after a lawyer for the National Republican Senatorial Committee asserted that Dan J. Sullivan's work with a consultant who has worked with Democrats was evidence of an attempt to confuse voters and “rig the election” for Peltola. It is an assertion that the Republican Senate campaign arm has continued to make.

Dan J. Sullivan argued the state had no legal basis to block his candidacy. He said the allegation he worked with Peltola was “entirely false” and that the prior work of a consultant was not a legitimate reason to investigate him. The state Democratic Party and campaign groups denied recruiting Dan J. Sullivan or having any affiliation with him. The director of the state Division of Elections, Carol Beecher, in disqualifying him, did not mention finding any evidence of coordination.

But she determined he had not filed a “good-faith candidacy.” She cited factors such as his lack of affiliation with the Republican Party before filing and having a campaign site similar in appearance to the senator's.

A state court judge voided her decision, ruling it was not based on constitutional or legal requirements and that there was not enough evidence to support her conclusion that Dan J. Sullivan aimed to confuse voters. The state Supreme Court affirmed placing him on the ballot but left to the Division of Elections to figure out how to do that.

While the challenger sought to appear as Republican Dan J. Sullivan, he is listed as Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., with no party affiliation. The senator is listed as Republican Dan S. Sullivan and as “incumbent,” a title not included for other candidates seeking reelection.

Dan J. Sullivan said he does not think that is fair, but if the agency's concern “is truly that I’m going to confuse people, then this certainly will be a way that people should not be confused.”

He acknowledges his name gives him an advantage over the 13 candidates with little to no name recognition or campaign support. He is now trying to figure how to make the most of the limelight and deal with the scrutiny. He plans to take steps to fundraise and may campaign in other communities and participate in forums. Sullivan has a Facebook page and a basic campaign website.

“I want something to change, and it’s my right to do that,” he said. “I could put up a yard sign; I could write letters. In this case, I thought, wow, this would reach a lot more people.”

Trump's compensation fund was a motivation to run

There was not one issue that prompted the Petersburg Sullivan to run, but he said he had grown frustrated by a senator he sees as unresponsive to constituents. He also wanted the incumbent to join Alaska's senior senator, Republican Lisa Murkowski, in speaking out against a compensation fund proposed by the Trump administration and the possibility rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, could benefit from it.

Dan J. Sullivan said he worries President Donald Trump's tariff policies and the war with Iran are driving up costs for Alaskans. He does not see the rural healthcare funding approved by Congress last year and promoted as transformational by the senator as helping address immediate needs.

Petersburg, like many small Alaska communities, has limited healthcare options. Residents needing specialized care must travel to larger cities. Residents will often maximize a trip to Juneau, the nearest city of size, by taking their vehicles on the state-run ferry and stocking up at Costco on cheaper groceries and supplies.

Resident Grace Wolf said she appreciates what the senator has done, saying he is fiscally responsible and that she likes his military background. The senator was a long-serving Marine and retired as a colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve. But “I feel like this time around, grassroots might be the way to go," she said.

She plans to vote for Dan J. Sullivan, whom she knows as Mr. Sullivan.

Wolf worries about people being able to afford to stay in or move to the area and about protecting the health of local fisheries so important to the economy. Having people in office who can relate to those challenges is important, she said.

"I think we stand a better chance with having them at the helm and protecting our interests. It doesn’t matter if they’ve got a ‘D’ or an ‘R’ by their names. They’re our neighbors and they know what we’re going through.”

The vigil was held at 10 a.m. at the SEIU Texas office, located at 3219 Harrisburg Blvd. in Houston.

Congressmembers Al Green, Christian Menefee, Sylvia Garcia and Lizzie Fletcher attended the vigil, along with other elected officials.

Adebayo struck Herro at least once during the encounter, said the person, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because neither player nor their teams revealed any details publicly.

Herro was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks earlier this month in the deal that brought Giannis Antetokounmpo to the Heat, where he'll play alongside Adebayo, the Heat captain.

The Heat said they were aware that an incident took place and declined further comment. Herro spoke briefly to The Miami Herald and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel after a summer game between the Bucks and Heat, saying “my only comment is no comment.” Herro attended that game; Adebayo was not present for the contest.

ESPN first reported details of the altercation.

The person who spoke to the AP said one of the factors related to the altercation was that Herro had evidently made some critical comments about Adebayo — and the three-year, $166 million extension that Miami gave him in 2024. Herro is believed to have made those comments in direct messages to someone on social media, and screenshots of those conversations eventually went public.

In other events in Las Vegas at summer league on Friday:

Young discusses new deal with Wizards

The Washington Wizards essentially have been holding team meetings in Las Vegas, with veterans at Summer League to watch No. 1 pick AJ Dybantsa — and players such as Anthony Davis showing up to support Trae Young at the news conference discussing his $212 million, four-year deal.

Young seemed to enjoy the team bonding.

“I’m a people’s person,” Young said. “I think to be the best version of yourself, you've got to be in the most comfortable spot for yourself. I mean, surround yourself with the right people and the right things. And for me, just being around here (for) the few months that I was after I got traded, it just felt like this could be my next home. And I mean, that’s why I’m here.”

Young is a four-time All-Star who was sidelined by injuries for most of this past season, averaging just 17.9 points — more than seven points per game below his career average — in only 15 games with Atlanta and Washington. He made five appearances with the Wizards after getting traded to them by the Hawks, who had Young for his first 7 1/2 NBA seasons.

Young said he's heard the criticism of how much money the Wizards committed to him, insisting he's not bothered.

“I don’t really care about what other people think,” Young said. “I just care about what the people in this organization think, my teammates think and how we’re going to get better and how we’re going to find ways to win games. So, what everybody else has to say, I mean, it’s all irrelevant to me.”

Union displeased with second apron

Newly installed National Basketball Players Association executive director David Kelly lashed out at the second apron Friday, saying the union will fight it in the next collective bargaining agreement.

“We are not fans of the second apron,” Kelly said. “We did not propose the second apron. We should have done a better job of fighting back against the second apron, and in the future, we will have a much more unified union, and we will do a better of fighting it back against a second apron.”

Kelly was responding to a question surrounding something NBA veteran Kyle Kuzma wrote on social media earlier this month. Kuzma said “the first and second apron are starting to function like a hard cap on player value, team continuity, and player movement.”

Kuzma called on the union to raise its game and not, as he put it, have the league “continue to run circles around us time and time again with elite lawyers, economists, cap experts, media strategists, and long term business operators.”

Kelly took some issue with that, saying he did so respectfully.

“You don’t ever go into any sort of a competition trying to score as many points as your opponent,” Kelly said. “We do not need anyone who is equal to the NBA. The NBA is not the standard. We need people who will fight for us and force the NBA to raise their game to our standard.”

The current CBA is scheduled to remain in place through at least the 2028-29 season.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA

Ohtani will have fluid removed from his left knee following a three-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks in which he will continue to start at designated hitter. Ohtani had been scheduled to pitch on Friday night, but instead led off with a 381-foot homer to left center after the Dodgers decided to make it a bullpen game to avoid further aggravating the ongoing discomfort in his left knee.

“The goal is to be able to throw according to regular schedule,” Ohtani said through an interpreter after the 9-3 loss. “Although I could have started today, it would have still been pushing the envelope a little bit. But the intention, my every intention, is to use the off days to make sure that I’m in a good place to be able to be in the rotation.”

Ohtani has been dealing with the ailment for at least a month. The right-hander had an outing cut short against the Pittsburgh Pirates on June 11 because of inflammation in the knee.

“He’s been managing this quite well,” manager Dave Roberts said before Friday’s game. “If there’s a chance that we could kind of be proactive and get it drained and do whatever we need to do to kind of try to manage it, along with the rest for the All-Star break, we were going to do that.”

The four-time MVP has once again been one of the best players in the big leagues this season, and he stands alone as a two-way player.

Ohtani is batting .290 with 21 homers and 57 RBIs and is 8-2 on the mound with a 1.79 ERA and 95 strikeouts in 85 2/3 innings. However, his effectiveness as a pitcher has diminished somewhat in Ohtani’s past four starts. He allowed 12 earned runs in 24 2/3 innings in a span corresponding with the left knee irritation. Ohtani had given up five runs in his first 10 starts.

“I think that our hope is if we can (have Ohtani) not make this start ... (and) kind of get the inflammation out, you know, get strong, recover body-wise, then I think he should be in a much better spot,” Roberts said.

The Dodgers don’t expect the procedure will affect Ohtani’s availability as a pitcher in the second half of the season, but Roberts said it was too early to know where he would be slotted in the Dodgers’ six-man rotation following the All-Star break. Los Angeles starts an East Coast road trip next Friday with a three-game set against the New York Yankees.

Ohtani’s absence will be a blow for baseball’s midsummer showcase at Citizens Bank Park. The Japanese star — who turned 32 earlier this week — is among the game’s most popular players and led MLB in jersey sales last year.

He hit his 300th career homer on Tuesday night, a leadoff shot against Colorado’s Michael Lorenzen that made him the first Japanese-born player in the majors to reach the milestone.

The Dodgers are the two-time defending World Series champions since adding Ohtani in free agency on a record-breaking 10-year contract in December 2023.

Los Angeles has baseball’s best record at 61-34. Being in contention to pull off the major leagues’ first three-peat since the 1998-2000 Yankees factored into Ohtani’s willingness to miss the All-Star Game, especially having to adjust to the demands of both hitting and pitching regularly for the first time since 2023. He has never played in the MLB postseason after being a full-time two-way player.

“Nothing is going to fall in front of being healthy for October,” Roberts said. “For him to concede and miss a start for the best interests of him and the team, that’s not a surprise.”

St. Louis Cardinals designated hitter Iván Herrera was named as a replacement to the National League All-Star team on Friday after Ohtani was ruled out of the game.

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AP Baseball Writer David Brandt contributed to this report.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

“They told her she wasn't supposed to live past 20 years old,” Lillard's younger sister, Cindy McVey, told The Associated Press on Friday. “She had the enthusiasm and the drive to continue living and make the best of her life.”

McVey attributes her sister's death to the effects of long-haul COVID-19. A death certificate lists causes as chronic pulmonary failure and post-polio syndrome, McVey said.

Lillard slept in the iron lung cylinder that encased her body as the air pressure in the chamber forced air in and out of her lungs. As a child, she went to grade school for two hours a day and was tutored the rest of the time. She attended Shawnee High School by using a phone system that allowed her to interact with her teachers and classmates through an intercom in her classrooms.

Her family went on road trips to Missouri thanks to a custom trailer and her father calling hotels to find out if they had doors wide enough to accommodate the machine Lillard slept in. Lillard was even able to drive for a time.

“To me, it was just normal,” recalled McVey, 75.

Polio was once one of the nation’s most feared diseases, with annual outbreaks causing thousands of cases of paralysis. The disease primarily affects children.

Vaccines became available starting in 1955. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a national vaccination campaign cut the annual number of U.S. cases to fewer than 100 in the 1960s and fewer than 10 in the 1970s. In 1979, polio was declared eliminated in the U.S., meaning it was no longer routinely spread.

Later the internet would help Lillard stay informed and learn about all sorts of topics, including her disease, which paralyzed her from the neck down.

With therapy she was able to regain partial use of her left arm and use of her legs. But she could only move her left arm side to side at her waist. Even though she couldn't reach up, she spent many years living alone and preparing her own meals.

The internet also allowed Lillard to meet her future husband. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Lillard wanted to understand more about what happened. In a chat room, she met a man in Egypt and communicated with him online for more than 20 years, McVey said.

Lillard married Baha Salh in February after he was finally able to obtain a visa to travel to Oklahoma.

“They were really soul mates,” McVey said. “He's extremely brokenhearted.”

During the coronavirus pandemic, Lillard got COVID-19 twice. Before getting COVID-19, she had less than 25% lung capacity. The last five years of her life, she wasn't able to leave home as it became harder to breathe. For the past two years, she was in the iron lung nearly 24 hours a day, McVey said.

McVey described her sister as artistic and creative. She wrote poems and composed songs. She wrote her own obituary, which is now posted online by a funeral home. She described being a Humane Society volunteer. “She was an avid Beagle lover and assisted in animal rescue as a cross poster on Facebook,” Lillard wrote.

She later updated her obituary to say she “died of long-haul Covid 19,” but McVey added the date of her death.

In recent years, McVey and Lillard were desperate to find someone who could fix the iron lung, one of several she had over her lifetime.

“But since she's the last one, we don't need that anymore,” McVey said through tears.

He was hoping to find beads from broken friendship bracelets — something symbolic among fans of Taylor Swift. No such luck.

Instead, he picked up a single AirPod, a ring pop, an ovulation test kit strip and a rainbow fan, among others. Then he packaged them all into 1-inch boxes and sold them online — 50 pieces of trash purchased by Swift fans as far away as Australia, Germany and the United Kingdom.

“People were like, ‘Is there any more? Is there any more?’” he said.

Over the past week, fans have scoured Manhattan’s streets and the internet for crumbs — sometimes literal — from what's been called “the United States’ royal wedding.” But Swift managed to keep the thousand-person mega event almost entirely private.

The story she hasn't told

For nearly two decades, Taylor Swift has remembered everything. The rooms. The weather. The clothes left behind. The exact words people said before they walked away.

Her career was built on transforming private moments into public memory — songs that made millions feel as though they were reading pages from a diary (sometimes they were). But one of the most anticipated chapters of her life has been defined by something different: the story she has chosen not to tell.

A week after her star-studded wedding to Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, not one verified photo had been released of the interior, the ceremony or Swift’s gown. Guests and crew members signed strict NDAs and surrendered cell phones. The couple used street closures and walls of tents around the arena to keep the celebration out of view.

Some New Yorkers chafed at the security restrictions around a key transit hub on a holiday weekend, all during a heat wave. The secrecy also showed how, when you’re as famous as Taylor Swift, staying truly private requires a level of wealth and influence few people have.

Still, fans in Swift T-shirts crowded the barricades, watching lines of black SUVs disappear inside the arena.

In the early morning hours, a bakery van stopped outside. A catering employee offered a box of apple honey pastries, which a police officer handed out to waiting fans. One fan could be heard yelling: “Oh my God, you guys, we’re having Taylor Swift’s dessert!”

Sifting through the pieces

Gignac, who has been turning New York City trash into art for 25 years, creates limited-edition collections from major New York moments, including the Knicks parade, where the discarded objects themselves told the story — the colors, the celebration, the evidence of thousands of people gathered in one place.

Swift’s wedding was different.

“I was like, OK, let me see how close I can get,” Gignac said. “Everything going on on the block outside of Madison Square Garden was a part of the festivities as well — it’s just a very different part.”

The area outside the Garden was “fairly clean,” he said, but he collected enough. He tied discarded straws into knots to “reinforce the wedding theme.”

Fans who saw the boxes later told him the project reminded them of Swift’s “New Year’s Day,” a song about staying after a party is over and holding on to what remains.

“You’ve never had a song change your life, and the artist be the soundtrack of your life?” Gignac said. “That’s such a massive role in your day to day — it’s nice to have something from that.”

When the photos never came

The lack of images created a void that was quickly filled with artificial intelligence: fake photos of Swift and Kelce in wedding attire, Swift in a gown and fabricated glimpses of the “secret garden” celebration that guests had described inside Madison Square Garden, where the arena was transformed with greenery, trees and flowers.

Some were obvious jokes: users inserting themselves into the wedding or pretending they had been hired to photograph it. Others were designed to be convincing — blurry, pixelated images that looked as though they had been secretly captured inside.

Swift fans are known for decoding “Easter eggs” and clues in Swift’s lyrics and public posts. Longtime Swift fan Alexa Volland said those same habits helped many quickly debunk AI-generated images by spotting warped facial features, impossible dress straps and hidden watermarks from detection tools like Google DeepMind’s SynthID.

“They built a habit of close observation,” Volland said.

Volland, a video producer for the News Literacy Project, said she was surprised no images had emerged, but happy Swift kept control.

“As a Swiftie, I would prefer to have those first looks come directly from her,” she said. “I know that we will eventually get a song that is probably the most revealing, way more revealing than any AI-generated image ever made."

‘The rose garden over Madison Square’

Margaret Willison, a Swiftie in Boston, was still waiting for one wedding detail.

“I need to know what her first song was,” she said. “It’s been haunting me.”

Willison has taught workshops on Swift's music and fandom, and says this kind of tension has defined her career. Swift has the ability to turn moments that may seem insignificant "into a cathedral we all get to be part of,” Willison said, filling them with meaning.

Willison said many fans trust Swift will eventually share the pieces she wants them to know.

“We don’t want something that’s been stolen from her,” she said.

More than a decade ago, Swift sang about leaving the spotlight and choosing “the rose garden over Madison Square.” In the end, Willison said, they weren't mutually exclusive.

“In all of her previous relationships, there was this tension between how much she was able to shine and still be understood by a partner,” she said. “Isn’t it incredible that she found that she didn’t have to choose?”

Needing a triple for the cycle after homering earlier in the seventh, Peters hit a hard grounder past Athletics first baseman Joey Meneses and down the right-field line. He never hesitated as he rounded second — ignoring a stop sign from third base coach Justin Jirschele — and beat the relay throw with a headfirst slide into third, drawing a huge ovation.

“When I hit the ball, I was thinking three,” he said.

Peters became the first White Sox player to hit for the cycle since Jose Abreu on Sept. 9, 2017, and the fifth in major league history to do it from the No. 9 spot in the batting order. The way he did it was even more rare.

According to MLB, Peters became just the third player since 1961 to get two hits in the same inning to complete the cycle. The others were Felix Pie in 2009 and Jim Ray Hart in 1950.

“It’s No. 1, for sure,” Peters said when asked where it ranked among his career achievements. “That was incredible. It’s awesome, amazing.”

The 26-year-old from Canada made his big league debut last Aug. 8. This was his 93rd career game. He raised his batting average to .303 with his 4-for-4 night, driving in four runs and scoring two as the White Sox beat the Athletics 14-1.

“It’s impressive, there haven’t been too many of those,” Chicago manager Will Venable said. “Those are pretty rare, and Tristan has done such a good job of playing the right way — putting swings on good pitches to hit.”

Surprising Chicago remained atop the AL Central, percentage points ahead of Cleveland.

Peters was stranded at second after his two-out double to center in the third. In the fifth, his run-scoring single to right made it 2-0.

In the seventh, Peters followed Kyle Teel's leadoff walk with a two-run homer. His triple drove in the last run of an eight-run inning in which the White Sox sent 12 men to the plate.

He's the third major leaguer to hit for the cycle this season, joining the Cubs' Pete Crow-Armstrong and the Phillies' Bryce Harper.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

The blaze, one of Spain's deadliest wildfires, broke out late Thursday in a semi-arid area near the Sierra de Los Filabres mountains in Almeria province, as the country has been dealing with soaring temperatures.

Most of the victims died after ignoring shelter-in-place instructions, said Antonio Sanz, head of Andalusia’s emergency services. Some tried to escape via a dry riverbed that “turned into a death trap,” he said.

Four victims were believed to be British nationals because the steering wheel of their burned-out car was on the right side, as with British vehicles, regional authorities said. Other unspecified nationals also were believed to be among the dead, and the death toll was expected to rise, authorities said.

Seven people died while on foot after abandoning their cars, Sanz said, adding that most of the deceased were believed to be foreign nationals.

Dean Taylor, a resident who divides his time between Spain and the U.K., said he managed to just barely escape the neighborhood by using back roads to get out.

“It was quite terrifying,” Taylor said in an interview with The Associated Press. “It's a very sad day, isn’t it? It’s devastating, really."

The blaze is a challenge for firefighters

The fire was still burning as of Friday afternoon. Some 150 firefighters and 220 soldiers from Spain’s military emergency unit were battling the blaze, which had consumed more than 3,200 hectares (7,900 acres) of forest and farmland.

Moreno, the Andalusian regional leader, said containing the fire was difficult because of the steep, dry terrain.

“It consists mainly of scrubland and esparto grass,” Moreno said. “Everything is extremely dry due to the heat waves, making it the perfect fuel; combined with the wind, it’s a ticking time bomb.”

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez expressed his condolences. “Immense sadness and desolation in the face of the terrible consequences of the fire affecting the province of Almeria,” he wrote on X.

Europe battles intense heat again

Spain has battled frequent and severe heat waves in recent years, with temperatures often exceeding 40 C (104 F). Wind, high temperatures and little rainfall help small wildfires grow into unchecked blazes.

In June, Spain experienced several days of record-setting heat, with over 1,000 excess deaths attributed to heat.

Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures increasing twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. Parts of Western Europe are facing their third heat wave in six weeks. Globally, 2025 was the third-hottest year on record, bringing several intense heat waves across Europe.

France also at risk of wildfires

France is experiencing the peak of its third heat wave of the summer, with temperatures reaching 40 C (104 F) across western and central areas and around 37 C (98 F) in Paris.

French authorities have also warned of a very high wildfire risk, as large fires in the south have already scorched thousands of hectares this week, disrupting the Tour de France cycling race and stretching firefighting resources.

The largest wildfire, in the eastern Pyrenees near the Spanish border, had decreased in intensity by Friday, authorities said. But it has burned about 5,000 hectares (12,000 acres) and forced the temporary evacuation of more than 10,000 people from nearly villages.

Last month was France’s hottest June on record, with deaths surging by nearly a third during the hottest week.

Scientists warn that climate change caused in part by the burning of fuels like gasoline, oil and coal is exacerbating the frequency and intensity of heat and dryness, making certain regions more vulnerable to wildfires.

Spain and Portugal have faced deadly fires before

Spain is no stranger to wildfires, with last year's fire season burning more than 393,000 hectares (almost 1,520 square miles), according to the European Forest Fire Information System, an area twice as large as London. Four people died.

Spain's deadliest wildfire was in 1979 when 21 people perished in Lloret de Mar, a coastal town about an hour north of Barcelona.

In 2017, a wildfire in neighboring Portugal left 66 people dead in Pedrogao Grande, located 200 kilometers (120 miles) northeast of Lisbon. In that blaze, 47 people died on one road while similarly attempting to flee in their cars.

———

Associated Press journalist Sylvie Corbet, in Paris, contributed.

The Maine Democratic Party announced later Friday that it will hold a nominating convention on July 25 to choose Platner's replacement for the November ballot.

Platner’s paperwork was received by the Maine secretary of state's office Friday afternoon.

In a letter to the secretary of state's office, which Platner also posted on social media, he wrote that the Mainers who had nominated him “voted for a new kind of politics” that is “representative of people down here in the real world — not billionaires, oligarchs, or the political establishment.” It was the same outsider chord that had been a trademark of his tumultuous campaign, in which Platner drew backing from progressive leaders including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna of California.

“I seek to further the movement we have built together and the future we believe in,” he went on, without detailing what that meant.

Maine is considered a key state for control of the narrowly divided Senate, and Democrats were desperate for a candidate capable of defeating Republican Sen. Susan Collins.

The formal withdrawal comes two days after Platner said he would quit the race, facing an allegation of sexual assault that he has denied. Maine Democrats are seeking a new nominee, and several hopefuls have already begun jockeying for position.

Maine Democratic Party Chairman Charlie Dingman said delegates representing all of Maine’s 16 counties will choose someone “who has the energy, ideas and popular support” to defeat Collins. The party said 601 delegates will participate.

“Our message to Mainers is this: While these circumstances are unprecedented and the challenge is enormous, your state party is ready and capable of rising to this challenge,” Dingman said.

State law includes a provision for Democrats to replace Platner before the general election but the replacement must by named by July 27.

Several Democrats have announced runs for the Senate nomination this week. They include three candidates who lost the June primary for the governor nomination — former Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention director Nirav Shah, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson.

Others who have announced runs include Maine Beer Company co-founder Dan Kleban; former 2nd Congressional District candidates Jordan Wood and Paige Loud; and former Maine Senate candidates David Costello and Andrea LaFlamme. State Rep. Valli Geiger has also expressed interest in the post but has not formally announced.

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This story has been corrected to show that state Rep. Valli Geiger has expressed interest in running but has not formally announced.

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Kinnard reported from Columbia, South Carolina.

Cody Allen Laviolette, 36, is charged with aggravated assault and unlawful restraint. He was arrested on Friday. Laviolette’s mother, Patty Laviolette, was also arrested on a charge of manufacture and delivery of a controlled substance.

According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, authorities began their investigation on May 23 after the suspicious death of Kelly Taylor Mariah Little 31. The sheriff’s office said she leaves three children behind.

In a Facebook post from May 26, the sheriff’s office said they were called to a report of Little having a medical emergency involving a seizure in the Onalaska area. Little was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Conroe where she died the following day.

"During the course of this investigation, multiple witnesses came forward with evidence collected has led investigators to examine the activities of Cody Allen Laviolette‚" the sheriff’s office said in a new Facebook post announcing Laviolette’s arrest, which was posted on Friday.

• Houston mayor, police chief amplify calls for independent investigation in ICE shooting death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo

The sheriff’s office also said during the course of their investigation, several women have come forward to report their interactions with Laviolette.

"Investigators have also identified additional individuals who may have information but could be reluctant to come forward because they believe, based on statements allegedly made by Cody, that he is protected by his and his family’s influence in the Onalaska area. The Sheriff’s Office is asking anyone who may have witnessed criminal activity involving Cody Laviolette or who believe they may have been a victim to contact investigators," the Facebook post reads.

Authorities say any information from witnesses and victims could help them advance the ongoing investigation into Little’s death.

Those with any information are urged to contact Craig Finegan or Kayla Hemperly at the Polk County Sheriff’s Office at 936-327-6810.

More storms are expected this weekend. While similar to the hit and miss sea breeze storms we’ve had all week, we now have tropical moisture mixed in. That means rain will be more widespread and it will be heavier. It won’t rain all day, but storms will be more numerous. There is no need to cancel your Saturday plans but have a plan B where you can wait for the storms to pass over you.

Sunday’s forecast:

Rain should be more widespread Sunday with our first street flooding threat in our eastern cities. The day is not a washout but it’s starting to get close.

Monday and Tuesday’s forecast:

These are the two days I want you to make sure you’re prepared for. There is the potential for street flooding both days. We haven’t had a heavy rain forecast like this in a month. Not only do we have tropical moisture streaming in from the Gulf, but we also have a front that will enhance the lift of the storms. This combination may lead to rain totals of 2″-3″.

The impact of Saharan Dust:

One part of the forecast that remains difficult to model is the impact of Saharan dust. We expect a plume of dust to move over Southeast Texas from Monday evening through Tuesday, and current imagery suggests it could be fairly dense.

Thick layers of dust aloft tend to dry the atmosphere and promote sinking air, which can limit the intensity of rainfall. If the dust is less concentrated, however, its tiny particles can serve as condensation nuclei and actually enhance rain development.

At this point, I expect abundant Gulf moisture to outweigh the dust’s suppressing effects. Still, if storm impacts are more limited than expected on Monday and Tuesday, Saharan dust is a likely reason.

10 Day Forecast:

Once we get through Tuesday high pressure will begin to build in. By the end of next week drier weather is expected with hotter temperatures.

The 33-year-old Schwarber, who leads the majors with 32 homers, had been expected to participate on his home field.

Murakami was a surprise because he had missed more than a month with a strained right hamstring. The White Sox made the announcement when he returned to action Friday night.

Murakami, who was also named Friday as an All-Star injury replacement, has 20 homers this season and will join Shohei Ohtani (2021) as the only Japanese-born players to participate in the derby.

Schwarber will be joined by teammate Bryce Harper, with both trying to put on a show for the crowd at Citizens Bank Park.

Boston’s Willson Contreras, Kansas City’s Jac Caglianone, Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero, St. Louis' Jordan Walker and the New York Yankees’ Ben Rice are the other participants.

Schwarber, a four-time All-Star, has 219 homers since 2022, trailing only Aaron Judge (227) over that span.

This will be Schwarber's third appearance in the derby. He made the finals in 2018 at Nationals Park before losing to Harper and was also part of the 2022 derby at Dodger Stadium, losing in the first round to Albert Pujols.

Last year, Schwarber won the All-Star Game for the NL in a “swing-off” tiebreaker, homering three times on three swings at Truist Park in Atlanta.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

The president at first suggested his renovations would last a century. But, within weeks of the project originally reaching completion last month, the water was beset by an algae bloom and pieces of the new coating appeared to be peeling off the bottom.

Trump has blamed the peeling on vandals, though critics allege it's from shoddy repair work.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, whose agency oversees the National Park Service, told conservative podcaster Katie Miller in an interview released earlier this week that the new round of draining was planned. He also said that the water might still contain debris from an extensive Independence Day fireworks display over the National Mall.

“Drain the water, clean up the fireworks stuff,” Burgum told Miller, who is the wife of deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller. “Repair the vandalism that was done. Fill it back up again.”

The work on the Reflecting Pool is just one of a number of projects Trump has spearheaded across the nation's capital. Most prominently, he demolished the White House’s East Wing to build a $400 million ballroom and plans to build a towering arch between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.

He initially announced his intentions to beautify the Reflecting Pool this spring, saying he wanted it completed before the nation’s 250th birthday celebrations.

Water was drained and Trump directed that the bottom be painted what he called “American flag blue.” In May, the president posted on his social media site of the pool: “The goal is to have it done, at this higher level, prior to July 4th — We are ahead of schedule!”

But problems began quickly after the initial work was finished. Trump blamed vandals, and court documents later showed that the National Park Service reported to the U.S. Park Police a June 9 incident in which a sharp knife or razor cut the pool’s new liner.

On Thursday, former Olympic canoe racer David Hearn pleaded not guilty in D.C. Superior Court to deliberately damaging the Reflecting Pool. Hearn has said he reached inside the pool to examine the peeled sealant and let go of a chunk when he was told to by a park worker.

His attorneys and other Trump administration critics have derided the case as an abuse of prosecutorial power and maintain he is being scapegoated for the poor job done fixing up the Reflecting Pool.

At least three other people have been charged in the same court with misdemeanors for allegedly removing pieces of paint from the Reflecting Pool, according to online court records. All three pleaded not guilty during their initial court appearances Wednesday.

The pool was closed for the Independence Day celebration, which featured what Trump said was the largest fireworks display in the world. The president had said that the pool would have to be drained anew as part of the new round of repairs.

Burgum has also said that the Trump administration won't seek bids for the new rounds of repairs. He told CNN's “State of the Union” last weekend: “We’ll use the same company because they did a fantastic job."

Ohio-based Green Water Solutions, also known as Greenwater Services, was given a $1.7 million contract to install a water-purification system in the Reflecting Pool, while Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings was awarded $14.7 million to repaint and waterproof the pool’s concrete floor.

Democratic senators and House members are investigating the pool project, including seeking answers about how much taxpayer funding is involved.

"Effective immediately, the suspension of all involved South Carolina pilots has been lifted," Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell wrote Friday morning on social media. “Carry on Patriots.”

The suspension followed "Salute from the Shore," a July 4 tradition honoring servicemembers in South Carolina since 2010 that features vintage and modern military aircraft flying along the 187-mile length of the state’s shoreline, with the intent of sparking patriotism among thousands of beachgoers gathered for the holiday.

This year’s salute included F-16s with the South Carolina Air National Guard’s 169th Fighter Wing out of McEntire Joint Base, as well as a C-17 from the 437th Airlift Wing based at Joint Base Charleston. For the first time, Apache helicopters joined the air parade, which also featured civilian-owned vintage planes like T-34s and T-6s.

Numerous attendees often post video on social media of the display, but this year, online images of the Apaches flying at what appeared to be a low height over crowded beaches sparked concern with the South Carolina National Guard, which launched a review of the event and temporarily suspended the eight pilots from flying duties while that was ongoing, later clarifying the suspension was “a routine, non-punitive safety measure, not a disciplinary action.”

Late Thursday night, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth noted on social media that the Pentagon was getting involved, writing, “We’ll fix this. Carry on, Patriots.”

The message was similar to one issued by Hegseth in March, after the lifting of a suspension for a pair of Army pilots who hovered two AH-64 Apache helicopters near Kid Rock’s Tennessee home during a training run while he clapped and saluted.

“No punishment. No Investigation. Carry on, patriots,” Hegseth said then in a social media post, less than three hours after the Army announced its review. Kid Rock, an outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump, said he thought it was “really cool” that the pilots stopped to hover at his house.

South Carolina Republicans rebuked the suspension of its Guard pilots. Rep. Russell Fry, who represents the Myrtle Beach area, said Thursday that the pilots "should be celebrated, not sanctioned.”

Ahead of Parnell's post noting the suspension had been lifted, Republican Gov. Henry McMaster — who serves as commander-in-chief of the state's National Guard — said he trusted the pilots' acumen, writing in a social media post that Guardsmen fly in wartime.

“Surely, they know how to safely navigate the coast of South Carolina — and her scores of cheering residents and tourists on our 250th anniversary," McMaster wrote.

McMaster's office said Friday the governor was pleased the suspension had been lifted. Asked whether the governor — a longtime Trump ally — had directly intervened, a spokesperson said the office “remains in regular communication with state and federal partners as part of its routine operations.”

The Pentagon declined to comment beyond Parnell's statement. Maj. Lisa Allen of the South Carolina National Guard confirmed in an email Friday that the suspension had been lifted but did not respond to a question over whether the Guard were still conducting an internal review.

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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP

The incident happened on a morning flight from the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki to Memmingen, near Munich, operated by Malta Air, a subsidiary of Ryanair, Europe’s largest budget carrier.

Ryanair said in a statement the flight “returned to Thessaloniki shortly after takeoff when a passenger window dislodged in-flight.”

The 61-year-old passenger, who was not identified by name, suffered neck and shoulder injuries and friction burns, according to a Greek hospital official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly to the media.

It was not immediately clear if the injured passenger remained in hospital later Friday.

Passengers told Greek media that they heard a loud bang, oxygen masks dropped and the plane began to lose altitude.

One passenger, identified only as Christina, told Radio Thessaloniki that some passengers panicked and screamed and that one passenger was partially sucked out of the window.

“His whole head, neck, shoulders” were pulled out of the window, she said, adding that those seated near him pulled him back in.

“Most people had fallen asleep, we had closed our eyes. We heard a sound, I’d describe it like a tire bursting … but very loud,” she said. “We knew straight away we lost pressure because we lost altitude."

She said there were "screams, shrieks, shouting.”

The airline has not said what caused the window to dislodge, but the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said it was notified that the flight turned back because of “a right engine issue and cabin decompression.”

Ryanair did not immediately respond to an email request seeking comment on the engine issue.

The NTSB, the U.S. federal agency that investigates aviation and other major transportation incidents, said it was standing by to assist the investigation. It said the probe will be led by the Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation Committee of the Republic of North Macedonia, which under international aviation rules takes the lead because the incident occurred in that country's airspace.

The agency in North Macedonia, which borders Greece to the north, did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

A series of short videos recorded from inside the plane and shared by Radio Thessaloniki showed passengers wearing oxygen masks after the cabin lost pressure. Another appeared to show the blown-out window, with a man seated nearby wearing an oxygen mask. A third video, apparently filmed after the aircraft landed, showed first responders working in the aisle.

Shye Gilad, a former airline pilot who teaches at Georgetown University’s business school in the United States, said the incident underscored the importance of keeping seatbelts fastened while seated. A rapid decompression can create a brief but powerful suction effect near a breach in the cabin before the cabin's pressure stabilizes, he said.

“The seatbelt can help in those first few seconds. It’s a difference maker and people should keep their seatbelts fastened at all times,” Gilad said, adding that events such as Friday's incident are “a very rare” because “it takes a lot to breach a cabin.”

The aircraft was a Boeing 737-800, which can seat up to 189 passengers. The narrow-body plane was delivered new to Ryanair in 2008, according to flight-tracking site Flightradar24.

Flight records show that the aircraft climbed past 15,000 feet (4,570 meters) about six minutes after departure and then immediately descended to about 6,000 feet (1,830 meters) “to burn fuel for 30 minutes” before returning to Thessaloniki about an hour after taking off, Flightradar24 said.

The plane landed normally and passengers returned to the terminal, and one passenger requested and received medical assistance on the ground in Thessaloniki, the airline said in a statement. A replacement aircraft was later provided to fly the passengers to Germany.

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Yamat, AP's airlines and travel writer, reported from Las Vegas.

Scheffler missed two key putts in the final three holes Friday in the Scottish Open, the last one from 6 feet for par that gave him a 2-over 72 to miss the 36-hole cut by two shots.

“Got off to a poor start and after that, I didn’t really it close enough to give myself a bunch of looks,” Scheffler said. “That’s how you shoot over par.”

Instead of trying to make up ground on the weekend at The Renaissance Club, Scheffler was making plans to head to Royal Birkdale earlier than he expected to prepare for the British Open.

Scheffler had made 78 consecutive cuts dating to the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship. It was the longest streak on the PGA Tour since Tiger Woods set the record of 142 cuts in a row from February 1998 to May 2025.

The cut fell at 2-under 138 when the potential for stronger afternoon wind didn't materialize. Scheffler finished at even-par 140 after his early start, and already was looking ahead to his title defense at the British Open at Royal Birkdale, a links course he has not played.

“A little different than I was planning,” Scheffler said. “Figure out how I get down to Birkdale and go from there.”

Scheffler's cut streak included 25 tournaments that had no 36-hole cut. Woods played in 31 such tournaments during his streak. Byron Nelson held the previous record at 113 in a row during an era where players had to finish in the money — typically the top 20 except the majors and a few other events — for it to be considered making the cut.

“It’s a little different now with some of the signature events not having cuts,” Scheffler said. “But I don't think I finished outside of the top 20 or something like that many times this year. I’m definitely proud of the consistency, and wish I had a couple days over the weekend to make up some ground.”

Scheffler was three shots out of the lead when he started Friday morning. He missed a 3 1/2-foot par putt on No. 11, his second hole. On the par-5 12th, his chip out of high grass to a back pin caught a ridge and rolled into a bunker, leading to a second straight bogey.

He holed a 30-foot birdie putt after making the turn at the par-5 first — his only birdie on a par 5 this week — and had one birdie chance inside 20 feet over the next five holes.

His last big hope was the par-5 seventh, when Scheffler said he caught a gust that caused his second shot to come up just short and roll back off the front. He pitched nicely to 7 feet and missed the birdie chance.

Then, his tee shot on the eighth found a divot in the middle of the fairway and he hit a clunker low and to the right into a pot bunker. He splashed that out to 20 feet and holed it for par to keep alive his chances.

“I felt like I needed at least a birdie coming in on my last few holes. I felt like the cut was going to be 2 or 3 under,” Scheffler said. “I know I had to make the putt on 8 and I had to make birdie, I felt, on 9. Just hit a good iron shot just a little short.”

His 7-iron hit the slope in front of the green with a front pin, his chip was weak and came up 6 feet short and he missed the putt.

Scheffler also missed the cut in the Scottish Open in 2022 a week before the Open at St. Andrews. He then missed the cut at the FedEx St. Jude Championship — the last year it had a full field with a 36-hole cut — and had not missed one since.

“For whatever reason, I just haven’t played my best golf on this course," said Scheffler, who has only two top 10s in his five appearances at The Renaissance Club.

“It could be one of those things where you just get over jet lag, get used to new style of golf, new types of grasses, and maybe I just haven’t adjusted as quick, or maybe this golf course just doesn’t suit my eye much,” he said. “I’ll reflect on that at the end of the year and assess what my plans are going into next season.”

Xander Schauffele had his streak of 72 straight cuts end at Torrey Pines in January. The longest active streak now belongs to Matt Fitzpatrick at 29 in a row.

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

Widdecombe, 78, was found dead on Thursday in her Haytor Vale home on the edge of Dartmoor National Park in southwest England after sustaining what police said were “serious injuries.”

The killing was not believed to be an act of terror and there was no information to suggest it was politically motivated, Devon and Cornwall Police Assistant Chief Constable Matt Longman said.

Longman did not discuss a possible motive but said the suspect was in custody as the investigation continues.

“This is really shocking news, and my thoughts, I think all of our thoughts, will be with the family and friends of Ann Widdecombe at this awful time,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer said. “Ann was a distinguished politician over many, many years with many achievements, and it’s a huge, huge loss.”

Widdecombe found fame after leaving Parliament as a contestant on the Strictly Come Dancing and Celebrity Big Brother reality television shows. She later joined the Brexit Party and became a spokeswoman for the anti-immigration Reform UK party.

She served in the House of Commons as an MP from 1987 to 2010 and was known for socially conservative views opposing abortion rights and expansion of LGBTQ rights.

Starmer said the security of lawmakers was “of the utmost importance” as he urged people to rise above political differences.

Security has been tightened for politicians after the murders of two serving members of Parliament in the past decade. Labour lawmaker Jo Cox was shot and stabbed in 2016 by a far-right extremist, and Conservative David Amess was stabbed in 2021 by an attacker inspired by the Islamic State group.

Nigel Farage, leader of Reform, said he was deeply upset over Widdecombe's death and noted that “things have become even more dangerous” for people in public life.

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson called Widdecombe a “heroic Brexiteer and a great speaker who could move Tory audiences to such ecstasy that she was a very hard act to follow."

The management company that represented her after she left politics said her life and career were driven by strong Christian values and a commitment to public service.

“She loved the cut and thrust of political debate and, 16 years after leaving Parliament, was still actively campaigning for Reform UK and offering forthright views on the hot topics of the day,” Cloud9 Management said.

“As Ann once said...‘we get one go this side of eternity, one go. Life is not a dress rehearsal, you take opportunities that you like and you go for it, that’s my philosophy’.”

Apple said in the lawsuit filed in a California federal court that OpenAI encouraged Apple employees it was recruiting to share confidential information, even guiding how to avoid scrutiny when taking jobs at the other company.

“This case is about Apple’s former employees stealing Apple’s trade secrets for the benefit of OpenAI,” the filing says. “Apple brings this suit to put a stop to it.”

Two former Apple employees who now work for OpenAI are also named as defendants. One is Tang Tan, who helped design the iPhone, Apple Watch and iPod and is now OpenAI’s chief hardware officer. The other is Chang Liu, a former electrical engineer Apple says it entrusted with some of its most sensitive product development efforts before Liu left Apple to join OpenAI earlier this year.

OpenAI said it is still reviewing the filing, but spokesperson Drew Pusateri said in a statement Friday that OpenAI has “no interest in other companies’ trade secrets. We remain focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere.”

The suit accuses OpenAI of seeking shortcuts on hardware

OpenAI has never said exactly what type of device it is building, but has described it as an effort to find a new way to interact with AI that goes beyond “traditional products and interfaces.” It’s part of a broader push to create a physical embodiment of the latest AI advances, a decade after Amazon and Google introduced screen-free talking speakers into homes.

The lawsuit claims the effort was built partly on knowledge stolen from Apple.

“OpenAI’s nascent hardware business now rests on the shakiest of foundations, rotten to its core by its illegal reliance on misappropriated trade secrets,” the lawsuit says.

Apple said it began investigating whether some of its confidential information was compromised and “uncovered a pattern of theft” of Apple’s trade secrets by former employees who moved on to positions at OpenAI.

The lawsuit alleges both Liu and Tan accessed Apple’s confidential company information and files while working at OpenAI. Among the allegations, Apple claims Liu accessed and downloaded several confidential hardware-related files on an Apple-issued device he kept after departing. It also alleges Tan directed job candidates who were still working for Apple to bring “Actual parts” from Apple to their interviews at OpenAI.

Apple said in the lawsuit that it reached out to OpenAI in February to raise its concerns early in its investigation, but said that OpenAI did not respond.

An Apple spokesperson said in a statement Friday that the company will “always defend our teams’ hard work and innovations, and we are taking all appropriate steps to do so.”

A partnership with Apple has edged toward rivalry

Apple sought help from OpenAI several years ago as it was behind in the AI race sparked by ChatGPT’s arrival. The two companies partnered in 2024 to use ChatGPT as an AI-powered “answer engine” on the iPhone when the built-in Siri technology couldn’t satisfy user needs. More recently, the partnership has veered toward rivalry.

As part of its expansion efforts, OpenAI recruited former Apple designer Jony Ive to oversee a project to build an AI-powered device that many analysts believe could eventually challenge Apple’s products.

Last year, OpenAI announced it was working on a secret hardware collaboration with Ive to pioneer a new way of communicating with artificial intelligence. As part of the collaboration, OpenAI acquired io Products, a product and engineering company co-founded by Ive, Tan and two others, in a deal valued at nearly $6.5 billion.

That led a little-known tech startup iyO Inc. to sue Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman for trademark infringement due to the similar-sounding name and the firms’ past interactions. The startup also sued one of its own former employees for allegedly leaking a confidential drawing of iyO’s unreleased product, and it later added trade secret theft claims against Tan to the lawsuit.

Apple’s lawsuit also names io Products as a defendant. Lawyers who previously represented the firm and Tan referred The Associated Press to OpenAI for comment.

Apple’s lawsuit comes as OpenAI has been exploring whether to go public on Wall Street and faces heightened competition from rivals including Anthropic and Google.

OpenAI winnowed down some of its business ventures earlier this year to focus on its core product, ChatGPT, but has continued to pursue a device, the company’s chief financial officer told The Associated Press this spring.

“We have consumer hardware that will come towards the end of this year,” CFO Sarah Friar told the AP in April.

The site TickPick listed the lowest price for the Spain-Belgium game on Friday at Inglewood, California, at $1,381, down from $3,261 before the U.S. lost to Belgium in the round of 16.

The lowest price for the England-Norway match at Miami Gardens, Florida, on Saturday was $2,049, down from $3,866 before England defeated Mexico to reach the quarterfinals. It listed the lowest price for the Argentina-Switzerland game at Kansas City, Missouri, at $1,142, down from $2,381 before the round of 16.

Standing outside SoFi Stadium on Friday, Jake van Baarsel said he bought tickets two days earlier. The 65-year-old from Riverside, California, said he hadn’t previously planned on attending because he knew ticket prices were so high. But when his son called to tell him he obtained seats at a lower price, he decided to pay for two at $1,000 each to share the moment with his 13-year-old grandson.

“It’s one of those things — it’s a memory maker for my grandson and me,” he said. “So how much money do you put on a memory?

“So yeah, it’s steep for a game, but we enjoy.”

Others who bought tickets well ahead of Friday’s quarterfinal match paid far more.

Lisandro Pineda, 70, of East Los Angeles, said he paid about $2,200 a month ago.

“The price was too high, I think, but it’s a resale, remember,” he said. “I didn’t want to be left out. I’ve never been to a World Cup. I didn’t go to the one we had before. So I figured, I have the money, I have the time, what the heck, buy the ticket, so here we are.”

Kourosh Modarress, 68, of Los Angeles, said his family bought hospitality tickets at $7,000 each after they failed to obtain other tickets in one of FIFA's sales rounds.

“I think it’s highway robbery,” he said.

FIFA had nearly 1,200 category two tickets priced at $7,380 on sale Friday for the World Cup final on July 19 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

The governing body's last-minute tickets sales site, which at times had listed the game as sold out, had 1,178 seats available across five sections of the top deck along the sidelines: 282 in section 344, 299 in section 343, 139 in section 335, 443 in section 334 and 15 in section 333.

FIFA also was selling 68 front category one tickets in the lower deck at prices ranging from $19,995 to $32,970 and had remaining hospitality tickets in its Trophy Lounge and Trophy Lounge+ sections priced at $34,500 and $32,500, including food and drinks.

Soccer's governing body did not immediately respond to a request for comment on why the additional tickets had become available.

Resale tickets for the final were available on FIFA's marketplace at prices from $7,440.50 to $11,499,998.85.

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

The drop, which the agency expects to amount to about 1 million barrels per day in 2026, is due to higher oil prices and disruptions to physical supply that weighed heavily, but unevenly, on various parts of the world, the report said.

The supply disruptions were caused by the war between the U.S. and Iran, which left ships loaded with crude oil stranded in the Persian Gulf for more than three months, unable to safely travel through the Strait of Hormuz, a major route for oil and gas shipments.

“The future of Hormuz is probably more uncertain today than it was at the beginning of the war," said Jim Burkhard, vice president and head of crude oil research at S&P Global Energy.

Burkhard said Iran is still trying to control the strait, while the U.S. has not been able to fully restore normal operations, making a return to prewar conditions unlikely.

Global oil demand averaged just 97.9 million barrels per day in May, down 5.3 million barrels per day from a year earlier. Much of the decline was in Asia, which relies heavily on oil from the Middle East.

China’s decrease of 1.5 million barrels per day, representing a 9% decline, was by far the largest globally, the report said.

But the main exception to the global slump in oil usage was in the U.S., where gasoline use increased in the second quarter of 2026, despite the fact that pump prices were about 50% above their prewar levels in May, the report said.

How China's actions are keeping oil prices from spiking higher

China decided to massively cut down on purchasing oil from the global market as the price rose during the spring, reducing its consumption by almost 6 million barrels per day, Burkhard said.

“What China said is, ‘You know what, prices are high, there’s a crisis. We have this huge inventory stock, we can sustain demand. We’re just going to cut by 50% the amount of crude oil we buy,’” Burkhard said.

One way China cut back its consumption was to temporarily stop filling up its strategic petroleum reserve, which it had been adding to at a rate of nearly 1 million barrels per day, said Daniel Sternoff, senior fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University.

The crisis also accelerated China's saving of road transportation fuels as its use of electric vehicles grew, he said. “What we’re tracking so far, at least since the crisis began, is China is probably on track to see somewhere between 500,000 and 600,000 barrels per day worth of demand losses for gasoline and diesel. So that’s pretty significant,” Sternoff said.

Why oil prices aren’t higher after renewed tension between the U.S. and Iran

A fragile ceasefire enabled some ships to exit through the Strait of Hormuz in June, which allowed more oil on the market. That led to lower oil prices.

But even after tensions escalated between the U.S. and Iran earlier this month, prices didn't spike.

“This gray zone conflict that the U.S. and Iran are in, it’s not really a shock to the oil market,” Burkhard said. “It can push prices up and down a few dollars like it did the other day, but it’s not the same shock that it was in early March when Iran did what many thought was unthinkable.”

Another reason oil prices didn't spike very high after recent military strikes is that there were fewer buyers available to scoop up the supply that had become available, experts said.

On top of China dramatically reducing consumption, several refineries in Russia were unable to process crude after being damaged in drone hits from Ukraine, and refineries in the Middle East remained damaged from the war, Burkhard said. As a result, prices for gasoline, diesel and other refined products have stayed inflated longer than oil prices, he said.

“There’s this gush of supply of crude oil being made available to the market, and there’s simply less demand for that crude oil,” Burkhard said.

In the US, high gas prices didn't keep drivers home

Gasoline prices surpassed $4.50 on average for a gallon of regular in the U.S. in May, rising more than 50% since the start of the war, according to AAA data. But that didn't stop drivers from hitting the road; in fact, gasoline consumption rose in the U.S. during the second quarter of the year.

One reason may be because the percentage of household income spent on gasoline in the U.S. has been declining for years, Sternoff said. Plus, many people have been transitioning from remote work to in-office jobs, he added.

“Even though it’s a really political price that people pay a lot of attention to, if you are in the higher quintiles of income in the U.S., you might grumble about it, but you’re not really driving less just because of that increase in prices,” Sternoff said.

Harry, Meghan and their two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, met with the king and Queen Camilla at Highgrove House, a country estate west of London, Buckingham Palace confirmed.

The Duke of Sussex had arrived Monday in his homeland for a number of charity events that were overshadowed by speculation of whether he would meet with his father.

British tabloids and news broadcasts were filled with speculation about whether Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, would accompany him and, more importantly, whether they would bring their two children so they can finally get to know Grandpa Charles.

However, the monarch’s schedule is often years in the making, with events penciled in long before they take place. An opportunity to hold such a meeting would have been fleeting, particularly because the children would need to return to school in the fall and because they live in California.

The wish to seize the moment fueled tensions between Harry and royal officials earlier this week. That was highlighted by embarrassing scenes when royal officials first invited Harry to stay at Buckingham Palace, then rescinded the offer after the prince didn’t accept it in a timely manner.

Harry’s visit also coincided with him losing his final lawsuit in his quest to tame the British tabloids. A judge ruled that he failed to prove his privacy invasion claims against the publisher of the Daily Mail.

His legal battles have been a source of friction with his family, however. Harry has said he wants to reconcile with his 77-year-old father, who is being treated for an undisclosed form of cancer.

Harry and Charles met briefly for a cup of tea in September during a short visit in London, the first time they’d seen each other in well over a year.

But the prince has also wanted his children to see the monarch, whom they first met during celebrations for the late Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022.

The royal children, Archie, 7, and Lilibet, 5, are now old enough to remember meeting their grandfather, and will certainly hope for pictures with the king, though the event was deemed private and no images will be publicly released.

Tensions within the House of Windsor have heightened ever since Harry and Meghan gave up their royal duties and moved to California to pursue lucrative media deals, free from the pressures of royal life in London.

They reached a new low after Harry published an explosive memoir that included unflattering depictions of the royal family and damning allegations of a toxic relationship between the monarchy and the press.

Harry’s description of royals leaking information about other family members in exchange for positive coverage of themselves is just one of the tawdry allegations in his book, “Spare.” The prince was especially scathing about Camilla, accusing her of feeding private conversations to the media as she sought to rehabilitate her image after her longtime affair with Charles when he was heir to the throne.

After losing a court battle over his security issue last year, Harry said he hoped to rebuild relations with his family, even as he suggested that the royals had sought to prevent him from receiving police protection to punish him for walking away from royal duties.

“I would love reconciliation with my family. There’s no point in continuing to fight anymore,” Harry told the BBC. “I don’t know how much longer my father has.”

The visit Friday is a step toward mending those fences.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press because the financial figures were not disclosed by either side. The Spurs, who went to the NBA Finals this past season behind the All-NBA center and unanimous Defensive Player of the Year, announced that Wembanyama had signed, simply saying the sides agreed on “a multi-year contract extension.”

"Spurs family, I’m here to stay," Wembanyama wrote on social media Friday. “Whatever it takes."

The agreement comes at a discount; Wembanyama could have agreed to a deal that would have topped $300 million over five years — but chose a lesser amount to help give the Spurs flexibility going forward with their young core and in anticipation of the contracts some of those budding stars will be eligible for in coming years, the person said.

And that was the only detail really for the sides to hammer out. The 22-year-old Wembanyama is already considered one of the game's most dominant players, and it was a no-brainer that the Spurs would offer an extension. The only question was whether Wembanyama would accept a deal that starts with him making 25% of the salary cap figure, or if he'd hold out to see if he could initially make 30% of the cap.

ESPN first reported the agreement.

Wembanyama will make about $16.8 million this coming season, the last under the terms of his rookie contract. The newly signed deal kicks in for 2027-28 and will start with a salary of around $43.5 million, then keep rising from there. The 7-foot-4 center from France would have a $57.5 million option for 2031-32.

Wembanyama was the Most Valuable Player of the Western Conference finals this past season, finished third behind Oklahoma City's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Denver's Nikola Jokic in the overall MVP voting for the season, and has led the league in blocks per game in all three of his NBA seasons so far.

He averaged 25 points and 11.5 rebounds this past season, leading San Antonio to a 62-20 record, the No. 2 seed in the West and a berth in the NBA Finals against the New York Knicks. The Spurs lost that series in five games.

“It’s painful. It’s painful,” Wembanyama said a few minutes after the finals ended. “But I’m not running away from that. I’m using it to fuel me. ... I’m not satisfied with not winning. But as I said, this is the biggest lesson of my life. As a team, there’s no better experience than what we just lived.”

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba

Lawyers representing Meta filed a notice of appeal Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. The lawyers will provide their arguments related to the appeal in subsequent court filings.

The case centered on a 20-year-old woman who said she became addicted to social media as a child and that it worsened her mental health struggles. The jury found that negligence by both Meta and Google-owned YouTube, which was also a defendant in the case, was a substantial factor in causing harm to the young woman, identified in court only by her initials, KGM, and her first name, Kaley.

The jury awarded her $3 million in damages and recommended an additional $3 million in punitive damages. Her lead attorney, Mark Lanier, said in a statement Friday that the legal team is expecting the appellate court to “continue the careful application of the law to this case, affirming the verdict of the trial court.”

A notice of appeal starts what can be a lengthy process. A Meta spokesperson provided a statement Friday that they also gave when the jury returned the verdict in March, saying that teen mental health is “profoundly complex and cannot be linked to a single app.”

José Castañeda, a spokesperson for Google, said in a statement Friday that YouTube plans to appeal and that “these are standard motions for this case to move forward.”

Meta and Google had each filed post-trial motions for judgment notwithstanding the verdict — a routinely filed motion by defense lawyers asking a judge to toss out the jury’s verdict — and for a new trial. The trial judge, Carolyn B. Kuhl, denied those motions in early June.

Tech companies like Meta and YouTube are shielded from legal responsibility for content posted by third parties, based on Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act. To get around those protections, the plaintiffs focused on the design features of the platforms like “infinite scroll,” or the endless nature of feeds on the platforms, and autoplay functions.

Questions about encroaching into content-related territory were the subject of many objections from the defendants throughout the five-week trial.

The verdict in this case came during a time of legal woes for Meta. A jury in New Mexico returned a verdict finding that Meta's platforms harm children’s mental health and safety just one day before the California jury reached its decision. The New Mexico jury, siding with state prosecutors who brought the case, landed on a penalty of $375 million. Meta has said the company disagrees with the verdict and will also appeal in that case.

“We will continue to defend ourselves vigorously, and we remain confident in our record of protecting teens online,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement at the time of the verdicts and again on Friday.

Kaley's case was a first-of-its-kind lawsuit, and the verdict could influence the outcome of thousands of similar lawsuits accusing social media companies of deliberately causing harm. TikTok and Snapchat parent company Snap Inc. were also initially named as defendants in the case, but each settled for undisclosed sums before the trial began.

Civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, who was retained by the family of Nolan Xavier Wells earlier this week, has said the family has concerns about the investigation and planned to conduct an independent autopsy. Wells travelled by boat to Horn Island, Mississippi, on July 4 with a group of friends, but did not make the return trip with them that afternoon. His body was found early Monday morning, more than a day later.

While Jackson County Sheriff’s Office officials said investigators don't suspect foul play in the Black college student's death, the sheriff has asked for any witnesses or people with video from the popular beach island about 7 miles (11.27 kilometers) off the coast of Mississippi to come forward to help shed light on the moments before Wells' disappearance and death.

Wells' death has galvanized the Black community. Actor and producer Tyler Perry is helping pay for Wells’ funeral, former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick is helping pay for his independent autopsy and filmmaker Spike Lee showed up to the news conference to show support for Wells’ family.

Wells, who would have turned 19 next month, attended Southwest Mississippi Community College, where he played wide receiver on the football team. His family members have raised concerns, saying they’ve seen video of a fight allegedly involving their son, and saying that as an elite athlete he was able to swim.

Wells was left without his phone or keys, lawyers say

Attorneys said Friday that the friends who left Wells on the island took his phone and keys when they departed. Crump said Wells' family used an app to track his phone, and a friend went to where it was on land to pick it up.

“What teenager would leave their phone behind if they’re going to stay on this island? What teenager wouldn’t take their phone? It’s not adding up at all," Crump said.

He added that the family believes text messages from social media apps had been deleted from his phone when they got it back, and they plan to employ experts to try to retrieve all the data they can.

A photo posted to social media, allegedly from the boat ride to the island, shows Wells with his arms around three white, male friends. Speculation and suspicion about the teen’s death have been rampant online, as people grapple with the state’s history of racial tension and what it means to be a Black person in a majority white space.

Wells' mother, Christine Wonsley, looked to the sky several times as lawyers spoke Friday, to hold back tears. When she spoke, she said this was not how she wanted the world to know her son.

Wonsley said they had taught him about history, but he was a peacemaker who didn't like division, and wanted everyone to be included.

“We just wanna know what happened,” she said, through tears. “And why our baby didn't come home.”

Family demands thorough investigation into Wells' death

Crump called for a thorough investigation, saying to law enforcement, "They want to know that you have not taken the path of least resistance.”

“If the roles were reversed and you had three young Black men on a boat with a young white man and that young white man ended up dead, what kind of investigation would be conducted by the Mississippi law enforcement officials? How many times would those three young Black men be interrogated?” he added.

It's the second case that Crump has taken on in the state in recent months. He also was recently retained by the family of a Mississippi 1-year-old who was killed when police fired into a moving car.

Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter said earlier this week that Wells' mother had called to report him missing around midnight into the morning of July 5. Crews from multiple local and state agencies began an extensive search Sunday of the island and surrounding waters. His body was recovered early Monday, family members confirmed.

An official autopsy was conducted Tuesday, though officials have said it could be weeks before results are released. Ledbetter said Wells’ friends were cooperating with the investigation.

“From the people we’ve talked to, it sounds like he chose to stay on the island with the assumption that he was going to ride back to the mainland with someone else,” Ledbetter told The Associated Press earlier this week.

Crump and Wells' family said some of those details didn't seem to add up either, saying from the videos they had seen Wells was one of, if not the only, Black person on the island where there were around 200 people celebrating the holiday. They said the girl the friends said Wells was speaking to gave a different story about him leaving with those friends. They raised questions about why no one would have given him a ride home if he chose to stay.

“If he’s drowning, nobody sees him drown? Nobody offers assistance? Nobody tries to help? I mean, obviously he stands out. I think he’s the only Black person I saw when I’m looking at the videos,” Crump said.

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AP reporter Jake Offenhartz contributed to this report.

The Spain goalkeeper had kept a clean sheet for a record 650 minutes — the tournament's longest scoreless streak — before Belgium ended it in the quarterfinals on Friday.

Charles De Ketelaere got in front of Pau Cubarsi to head in Timothy Castagne's cross in the 41st minute, making the score 1-1. Spain won 2-1 to advance to the semifinals next Tuesday against France.

Belgium became the first team to score against La Roja at this year's World Cup, snapping their tournament record of six consecutive clean sheets.

Spain’s streak began with a 0-0 draw in the round of 16 at the last tournament in 2022, when Morocco advanced after a penalty shootout. There was also a surprising scoreless draw against Cape Verde to open group play this year, followed by four consecutive shutout victories to advance to the quarterfinals.

Simón broke the previous record of 517 consecutive scoreless minutes during a 3-0 win over Austria to open the knockout round. Italy goalkeeper Walter Zenga set the previous mark in 1990 with five consecutive clean sheets at his home World Cup.

The 29-year-old Simón’s shutout streak started in 2022 in Qatar when he entered a 2-1 loss to Japan in group play.

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

A mere four days after Merino scored a clutch goal as a substitute in injury time to beat Portugal, he found himself in the right spot again in the quarterfinals when Belgium's backup goalkeeper spilled the ball into his path.

Merino booted it home in the 88th minute, sending Spain to a 2-1 victory Friday and into a titanic semifinal showdown with tournament favorite France.

“I’ve done this again, and it’s happened to me again, so it would seem that coincidence exists,” a smiling Merino said. “If you’re ready and you try, I guess it can happen for you.”

Already a versatile contributor in any role he can get as a depth player for his country or English club Arsenal, the multi-positional Merino has transformed into the ultimate super-sub while providing exactly what Spain needed to survive two knockout matches against top opponents.

Merino has scored two goals in his first World Cup — and they're both historic.

“Honestly, it’s crazy to be able to help the team once again,” he said. “This time in a different way, but at the same time to believe and trust that the opposing goalkeeper could make a mistake and to stay alert. ... I prepare for when the moment comes, and hopefully they keep coming.”

Merino is the first to admit he also needed luck, and Belgium keeper Senne Lammens provided it after he was forced into his first World Cup match in the 71st minute by an injury to starter Thibaut Courtois.

Merino came on in the 86th minute and scored on his second touch of the match, charging into the box and pouncing after Lammens lost control of Pau Cubarsí’s long shot.

Fabián Ruiz scored a rebound goal in the 30th minute for Spain, but Belgium forward Charles De Ketelaere evened it with the first goal allowed by the Spanish team in the entire World Cup in the 41st minute.

Merino's clutch goal against an upset-minded Belgium sent La Roja to the semifinals for the first time since they won the World Cup in 2010. A powerhouse matchup with France has been anticipated since the draw was announced late last year, and Spain was grateful to secure its spot.

“We came here for this, to play against the best teams in the world,” Merino said. “We are confident in our possibilities, at the same time respecting the opposition. This is one of those games that you dream of when you’re a kid, and now we have the chance to compete against a massive rival. Hopefully we’ll get the win.”

Spain and France will meet Tuesday in Arlington, Texas, in a matchup anticipated for years. Neither team has lost at this year's World Cup.

“It will be a clash of giants,” Spain coach Luis De La Fuente said through a translator. “We are capable of winning this game — and not just now, but I would have said this a few weeks ago as well. They are a great giant of football, but I trust our team.”

Courtois made four saves, but the Real Madrid keeper went down to the grass in the second half after a long kick. He received treatment during the hydration break, but broke down in tears when coach Rudi Garcia removed him moments later.

Only Germany's Manuel Neuer has played more World Cup matches than Courtois' 21. Lammens, the capable Manchester United keeper, was forced to become the first goalkeeper other than Courtois to play for Belgium in the last four World Cup tournaments — and he wasn't able to make the play that would have kept it level.

“We were on equal footing with Spain, and we have nothing to feel bad about,” Garcia said. “In the first half, they only had one chance, but they were very efficient. Unfortunately, to beat a team of this caliber, you need luck on your side as well, and it was too much for us to get into the semifinals.”

Belgium desperately pressed for an equalizer in the final minutes with substitute forward Romelu Lukaku leading the effort, but Aymeric Laporte acrobatically volleyed the best chance out of the box in the second minute of injury time.

“We knew how we could hurt them, and I think we did this today," Belgium defender Brandon Mechele said. "It’s a pity that it ended like this, but I think we can be proud of the tournament we played.”

Spain remained unbeaten in 37 straight competitive matches since March 2023, while Belgium's streak of 18 consecutive unbeaten matches across all competitions ended.

Spain didn’t allow a goal in its first five matches at this year's tournament, and goalkeeper Unai Simón hadn’t conceded in a World Cup-record 650 minutes dating to Qatar.

The streaks abruptly ended when De Ketelaere muscled past Cubarsí and headed home a cross from Timothy Castagne for Belgium’s tying goal.

Belgium hadn’t generated anything close to a strong scoring chance before the latest big moment for De Ketelaere, the Atalanta forward who scored two goals in Belgium’s 4-1 rout of the co-host U.S. on Monday.

Belgium captain Youri Tielemans was removed from the starting lineup after getting injured during warmups. He joined injured defender Amadou Onana on the sidelines.

___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

In Houston, where the killing of an immigrant by an ICE agent has garnered national attention, the monthly number of ICE arrests outside of detention facilities has more than quadrupled, even as in-custody arrests are still more common. The number of arrests in public spaces and homes jumped from a monthly average of 150 under former President Joe Biden to more than 640 under the first 13 months of the Trump administration. Those made up nearly a third of all ICE arrests in the city as of early March 2026, rising from 16% under Biden.

Statewide, the share of community arrests jumped from 14% to 36% of all arrests. Meanwhile, the increase nationwide was smaller, growing from 34% to 43%.

This shift in strategy from jail pickups to arrests in broad daylight can raise risks of violent altercations in public places, an immigration professor and immigration lawyer warn.

That’s what happened this week when ICE agents fatally shot 52-year-old Lozano Salgado Araujo in Houston, they said.

“The shooting of the gentleman in Houston is exactly the tragic outcome to the kind of on-the-street encounter between ICE and residents of local communities that has become increasingly common — but also increasingly violent,” said César Cuauhtémoc García-Hernández, an immigration law professor at Ohio State University.

Salgadao Araujo, a father of three, was driving his van to work Tuesday morning when ICE agents in unmarked black vehicles stopped them. A Mexican citizen who had lived in Houston for 35 years, he had no criminal record. He was also not the target immigration agents were looking for when they stopped his van, and his son said he was also in the process of obtaining legal residency.

An updated review of federal immigration data through early March 2026 by the Tribune also found arrests of people with criminal convictions in Houston fell from 61% under Biden to 39% under Trump.

Additionally, overall arrests in Houston and Texas have increased in the last year. In February 2026, ICE made around 7,100 arrests, of which 1,660 were in Houston. That’s a substantial increase in arrests from February 2025, when ICE made nearly 4,200 arrests, of which nearly a third were in Houston.

The Tribune analyzed federal government data obtained by the Deportation Data Project, a group of immigration lawyers and professors. The data is aggregated directly from government immigration agencies through Freedom of Information Act requests, the group says.

The Department of Homeland Security, in a statement on Friday, disputes the project’s data.

“This data is being cherry-picked by the Deportation Data Project to peddle a false narrative,” the department said. “DHS nor ICE have verified the accuracy, methodology or the analysis of the project and its results. The bottom line is that the Deportation Data Project is not accurate.”

The local criminal justice system has long served as an easy spot for immigration agents to find and send undocumented immigrants into ICE custody. But immigration and legal experts say federal officers have shifted their strategy to keep up with the administration’s demand for thousands of ICE arrests a day.

In particular, immigrants are less likely to commit crimes compared to U.S. citizens so García-Hernández said ICE may be running into a “mathematical limitation.”

“To meet the aggressive and historically unprecedented deportation promises that the Trump administration has made, ICE has to start targeting people who are not on the radar of the local police or incarcerated,” he said.

And as the administration shifts to more “non-custodial” ICE arrests — which are arrests of people who aren’t already in state or federal custody — Paúl Pirela, a Houston-based immigration lawyer, said this tactic can lead to more dangerous altercations.

“By doing the non-custodial arrest and doing these public raids in crowded areas, mistakes will happen and then you’re putting people in danger,” Pirela said.

Pirela also said they risk more racial profiling.

“And the dangerous part is that it could lead to more violence,” he added.

Salgado was fatally shot in Houston’s east end, a predominantly Latino neighborhood. Pirela also said ICE presence and ICE raids have been concentrated in Harris County’s other Latino neighborhoods, such as north Houston and Humble, a town about 20 miles northeast of downtown Houston.

Overall, García-Hernández also attributed the sharp rise in non-custody arrests in Texas to the state’s major immigrant population, which he said provides federal agents more targets for arrests.

Texas, home to the second-largest population of undocumented immigrants in the country — with more than 1.6 million of the estimated 13.7 million nationally — has become a focus of Trump’s promise to carry out the largest mass deportation operation in the country’s history.

And Harris County is estimated to have more than 600,000 undocumented residents, placing it second to Los Angeles County, according to a 2025 report from Migration Policy Institute.

“The fact there are large migrant population centers in Texas’s urban centers and that these are people who are waking up every morning and leaving home to go to work means that it is much easier to spot these individuals,” García-Hernández said.

In addition, he said, Republican leaders in Texas have long welcomed ICE agents to the state by reducing barriers of immigration enforcement operations.

Most recently, Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to withdraw funding from Houston and two other major cities earlier this year over policies that he said limited police cooperation with ICE. Civil rights groups said Houston then gutted its ordinance — which directed local officers not to prolong traffic stops and other encounters to give federal agents time to respond to suspected undocumented individuals — to keep $114 million in public safety grants.

The resignation comes as a Pasadena city council member exclusively told KPRC 2 that the sergeant was being investigated for allegedly misusing the department’s Flock Safety license plate reader camera system to track a fellow officer.

For months, KPRC 2 has been looking into allegations surrounding Sgt. Michael Palitz after receiving information about an internal investigation. As part of that reporting, KPRC 2 requested Palitz’s personnel records, receiving a heavily redacted file, and continued pressing city officials for answers.

During a Pasadena Civil Service Commission meeting in June, KPRC 2’s Rilwan Balogun spoke with Police Chief M.P. Jackson about the ongoing case after encountering him at the meeting.

When asked whether Palitz had been suspended after KPRC 2 submitted public information requests, Jackson said, “I don’t think the two are connected,” but declined to discuss the pending investigation.

“I can’t really discuss pending cases,” Jackson said.

When asked if there was anything else he could share, Jackson responded, “No, sir.”

Council member details allegations

Pasadena City Council Member Emmanuel Guerrero told KPRC 2 he believes the investigation centered on allegations that Palitz improperly accessed the city’s Flock camera system to monitor another officer.

“Based on what we gathered, [he] was using our camera system, our Flock system, to track and stalk a female officer,” Guerrero said.

When asked to clarify whether he was alleging Palitz was under investigation for misusing the Flock camera system and stalking a fellow officer, Guerrero responded, “correct.”

Guerrero said his understanding is that the system itself flagged repeated use of the account.

“To my understanding, it was an overwhelming use that the system itself flagged and notified that account associated to the officer,” Guerrero said.

KPRC 2 has not independently verified the specific allegations discussed by Guerrero, and Pasadena police have not publicly released details of the investigation.

Department confirms resignation while investigation continues

In a statement to KPRC 2, Pasadena Police Sergeant April Ontiveros, with the Administration & Media Relations Unit, confirmed Palitz resigned while the investigation remained active.

“Yes, he resigned while under investigation,” the statement said. “Regardless of his employment status, our investigation will continue in accordance with legal requirements until it reaches its conclusion. Additionally, our department does not release information on open/active personnel investigations to protect the integrity of the investigation.”

Palitz’s resignation does not end the department’s internal investigation, according to the department.

Questions about use of surveillance technology

Flock Safety describes its cameras as investigative tools designed to identify vehicles, not people.

According to the company:

“A Flock camera is a license plate reader camera built to identify vehicle details that may help generate investigative leads. That includes the license plate, along with attributes like make, model, color, and other visible characteristics. Flock cameras are not general-purpose surveillance systems designed to identify people. They are built to focus on the vehicle involved in an incident and the details that can help distinguish it from other vehicles on the road.”

Guerrero, who said he supported implementing the Flock system, said the allegations concern him because of the trust residents place in law enforcement.

“The people put their confidence in us to utilize systems that could support and protect the way of life, and to use it against certain individuals is a betrayal of our community’s trust,” Guerrero said.

KPRC 2 is not aware of any open criminal investigation or whether any case has been presented to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.

KPRC 2 sought responses from city leaders

KPRC 2 reached out to Sgt. Michael Palitz on Friday seeking comment regarding his resignation and the allegations surrounding the investigation. As of publication, he had not responded.

KPRC 2 also emailed Mayor Thomas Schoenbein and city council members Bianca Valerio, Emmanuel Guerrero, Pat Van Houte, Jonathan Estrada and Dolan Dow seeking comment because they served on the city council in 2025 when Palitz was suspended and later returned to duty.

Council Member Pat Van Houte was the only person, other than Guerrero, to respond.

“I had not heard about this. The last I heard was two days ago, and Sgt. Palitz was still an employee at that time. I am not in a position to have the details as to why the sergeant resigned. I checked with the Mayor and he said your best contact would be Police Chief M.P. Jackson.”

Guerrero said he decided to speak publicly because he believes elected officials have a responsibility to hold public employees accountable.

“As an elected official, and as our police officers, we have to be held to a certain standard,” Guerrero said. “If we fail to do so, we fail our people, we fail our community.”

We remember the pillow forts, the bedtime stories, the nights we stayed up reading under the covers or woke to the sound of rain outside the window. The bed itself fades into the background because it’s always been there.

But for thousands of children, that isn’t the case.

That’s the mission behind Sleep in Heavenly Peace, a nonprofit dedicated to making sure no child sleeps on the floor. Across the country, volunteers build and deliver handcrafted beds—complete with a mattress, bedding and pillows—to children who need them most.

Recently, the Houston North chapter reached an extraordinary milestone: the construction of its 10,000th bed.

Inside The MET Church, the soundtrack was simple—hammers tapping, drills whirring and volunteers calling out measurements as piles of lumber slowly became rows of finished bed frames. It was equal parts assembly line and community gathering, with neighbors, families and local businesses working side by side toward a shared goal.

Among them were volunteers from ABACUS Plumbing, Air Conditioning & Electrical, who traded their everyday tools for sanders, clamps and hammers, joining dozens of others to help bring the milestone to life.

It’s easy to look at a bed frame and see wood, screws and paint. But to the families receiving them, these beds represent something much bigger: comfort, stability and the simple dignity of having a space that’s truly their own.

The 10,000th bed is an impressive milestone, but it’s also a reminder that every one of those beds belongs to a child with their own story. One child sleeping a little more comfortably. One family carrying a little less worry.

After the final screw was tightened, we followed the journey of the 10,000th bed from the workshop to its new home, where it was delivered to a local family in need. Watching the bed arrive was a beautiful reminder that while volunteers build the beds, it’s the moments they create that leave the greatest impact.

While the milestone is worth celebrating, the work continues.

Sleep in Heavenly Peace relies on volunteers, donations and community partners to keep building, because there are still children waiting for a bed of their own.

Sometimes changing a life doesn’t begin with a grand gesture.

Sometimes it begins with a hammer, a helping hand, and a place where childhood dreams can begin.

🔨 Learn more about volunteering with Sleep in Heavenly Peace and how you can help make a difference at shpbeds.org

Judge Tony Graf said he will decide if the case against Tyler Robinson should advance to trial after hearing again from the two sides on Sept. 1.

Kirk, a 31-year-old confidant of President Donald Trump, was killed as he spoke to a crowd of thousands at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10. Robinson is charged with aggravated murder and could face the death penalty.

Friday's proceedings capped a week of preliminary testimony and brought an emotional moment for Kirk's family: The court played surveillance video that prosecutors said showed Robinson on the rooftop where he allegedly fired a single bullet that hit Kirk in the neck.

Kirk's widow, Erika, clutched a tissue and watched intently as a person said to be Robinson ran across the roof. When the figure dropped to a crawl near the roof's edge, she turned and embraced Kirk's mother, Kathryn, who was crying. They held each other and kept their heads down until the video was almost over.

Defense questions reliability of evidence

Prosecutors this week presented a recorded interview with Robinson's former roommate, who said the 23-year-old defendant expressed remorse for the shooting before turning himself in. Lawyers from the Utah County Attorney's Office also offered DNA analysis that investigators said linked Robinson to both the suspected murder weapon and a tool he allegedly used to etch messages onto bullet cartridges.

Robinson's team did not offer alternative theories for Kirk's death. But one of his attorneys, Michael Burt, repeatedly questioned the reliability of DNA tests and other evidence from prosecutors.

“If you had a lot of DNA on your hand, we shook hands and I went to pick up an exhibit, a gun, and I touched the trigger of it, your DNA could be on that trigger, right?” Burt asked Caitlin Oliver, a forensic biologist with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a federal law enforcement agency.

“It is possible. Yes,” Oliver replied.

The defense attorney noted that government policies don’t allow analysts to say that DNA evidence is “infallible” or that it has a “zero error rate.”

Experts say the science behind DNA testing is sound.

Chief Deputy Utah County Attorney Chad Grunander questioned the relevance of bringing in Oliver as a witness. He suggested prosecutors met the burden of proof needed to advance the case to trial.

“Your honor's heard four days of testimony now. The evidence is overwhelming. It’s devastating," Grunander said.

Robinson did not testify at the hearing. One of his attorneys told the judge they had advised him not to. He has not entered a plea.

Kirk family thanks supporters

Kirk’s family released a statement Friday expressing gratitude for the support and prayers they've received.

"We pray that truth will continue to be heard through a process that is fair, transparent, and grounded in the facts,” the statement said.

The video that prosecutors said showed Robinson running across a roof at Utah Valley University was played for the court gallery at the request of Kirk's family. Portions of the recording were zoomed in to better show the figure on the roof, and red circles were added to some images to direct the viewer's attention.

An unaltered version of that video was shown earlier.

Prosecutors on Thursday aired portions of an April 20 interview with Robinson's roommate, Lance Twiggs, who also was his reported romantic partner. The day after Kirk was shot in the neck, Robinson allegedly cried and told Twiggs “he wishes he hadn’t done it,” a recording played in court revealed.

Later that same day — and only about an hour before turning himself in — Robinson posted “it was me at UVU yesterday,” in a chat room on the Discord instant messaging platform, according to investigators and messages shown by prosecutors.

Defense attorneys unsuccessfully fought the public release of Twiggs' statements and the chat room messages. They argued prosecutors would characterize the material as a confession, undermining Robinson’s right to a fair trial.

Roommate: Robinson never talked about Kirk

Prosecutors contend the shooting endangered others at Kirk’s campus event — an aggravating circumstance that could make the crime punishable by death under Utah law. Robinson also faces possible sentence enhancements based on claims by prosecutors that he targeted Kirk because of his political views.

Twiggs said in the April interview with prosecutors and investigators that Robinson sometimes talked about politics, including Trump. But Twiggs said he never heard Robinson talk about Kirk before the shooting. The defendant also did not talk much about gender issues or LGBTQ rights, Twiggs said.

The weeklong preliminary hearing attracted intense media coverage and spectators who lined up — sometimes overnight — for one of 14 seats in the courtroom reserved for the public.

Preliminary hearings typically don’t last so long. Legal experts said the slow pace reflects a cautious approach by Graf and the large volume of evidence.

Conjecture over that evidence has fueled unsubstantiated conspiracy theories that there might have been a second shooter or that Kirk's death was staged.

“I think that the prosecution wanted to dispel those theories by putting out into the public record the overwhelming case that it possesses against Robinson,” said Paul Cassell, a law professor at the University of Utah and former federal judge.

___

Brown reported from Billings, Montana.

Made with just two ingredients, it’s Buchanan’s signature match-day cocktail, and it’s surprisingly simple to recreate at home.

To learn the proper technique, Houston Life’s Melanie Camp stopped by restaurant Flora with her bestie, food and travel journalist Mai Pham (better known as @FemmeFoodie), for a lesson from Obed Gallardo, Flora’s Director of Beverage.

The recipe itself couldn’t be easier: Buchanan’s Whisky and pineapple juice.

But according to Gallardo, the real magic isn’t in the ingredients.

“The secret is in the shake.”

While it may seem like a small step, shaking the cocktail vigorously creates the light, frothy texture that makes it an authentic Buchanita. It aerates the pineapple juice, softens the whisky, and gives the drink its signature finish.

Don’t have a cocktail shaker? No problem.

Gallardo says a protein shaker or any container with a secure lid works just as well. The key is giving the drink a really good shake before pouring it over fresh ice.

It’s an easy trick that takes a simple two-ingredient cocktail to the next level.

Whether you’re hosting friends for a match, heading to a watch party, or simply looking for a refreshing summer cocktail, the Buchanita is an easy way to bring a little FIFA World Cup 26™ spirit home.

Watch the full Houston Life segment to see Obed Gallardo’s technique, learn the proper shake, and discover why this simple cocktail has become Buchanan’s signature match-day cocktail during the FIFA World Cup 26™.

Click HERE for the recipe.

Flora Mexican Kitchen is located at 3422 Allen Pkwy, Houston, TX 77019, inside Buffalo Bayou Park.

The U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe to reporters the state of play with Iran, said the resumption of strikes this week came after what they described as a rogue faction of Iranian hard-liners trying to sabotage the ceasefire between Tehran and Washington.

It comes as U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated on social media Friday that he views the interim ceasefire deal as “OVER!” But he said the U.S. would continue talks aimed at putting a permanent end to the war.

The officials said Friday that Trump is giving U.S. negotiators limited time to reach a deal with Iran, but, in a sign of the challenges ahead, they underscored that the president had a wide range of options if talks fall apart. They also said a power struggle was playing out in real time in Iran after U.S. and Israeli strikes at the start of the war killed its longtime leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran says it wants to control Strait of Hormuz ‘exclusively’

The U.S. is working on pressing Iran to make a public statement that the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for world energy markets, is open and free to ships to transit, the officials said.

On a call with reporters, the officials suggested that leaders in Iran even told their U.S. counterparts that the ship strikes were a mistake and the country hoped to continue negotiations despite that.

Trump didn't care that the firing on ships came from a hard-line faction and responded with more powerful counterattacks, showing Iran that there would be consequences no matter who was behind it, the officials said.

But moments before the U.S. officials spoke, Tehran’s diplomat at the United Nations told reporters that any activity in the Strait of Hormuz, including its opening or demining operations, “rests exclusively with Iran.”

“Any attempt, by external actors, to interfere with or establish a power arrangement would violate the (interim deal), and undermine its implementation, delay the restoration of normal commercial navigation, jeopardize maritime safety, and increase regional tensions,” Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani said outside the U.N. Security Council.

Iran has said the strait must now be under its sole control and that vessels should begin to pay fees to Tehran — even though the world for decades has considered it an international waterway. About a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed through the strait before the war began.

Iran's grip on the strait during the conflict led to a global energy crisis, though oil prices have sharply dropped since wartime highs of $120 a barrel.

Any nuclear deal will require Iran to turn over enriched material

The U.S. officials said to reporters Friday that any deal on Iran's nuclear program would require Tehran to turn over its stockpile of highly enriched uranium. If the U.S. does not reach a deal with Iran to turn over its nuclear material, it has military options to ensure that it remains buried underground forever, the officials said. They did not detail those options.

The highly enriched material that could potentially be used to make a nuclear weapon is believed to be buried after strikes the U.S. launched on Iran last summer. Iran says its nuclear program is intended for peaceful purposes.

The officials said they would never reach a nuclear deal with Iran if it would not first abide by terms of the ceasefire deal and stop renewed attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

That struggle underscores the long-term challenges the Trump administration faces in the wake of the war it started and expected to wrap up months ago. Trump in late February broke off talks with Iran over its nuclear program and launched the military campaign, saying he was taking the action because Tehran was attempting to rebuild its program and develop long-range missiles.

He faces political pressure in the U.S. to bring the conflict and its economic impact to a close and avoid the kind of prolonged Middle East conflict he had campaigned against.

Unclaimed strikes came after US ended its attacks

No one claimed responsibility Friday for airstrikes that hit Iran after the U.S. said it finished its attacks, leaving questions about who else may be targeting the Islamic Republic.

On Friday, Iranian state media quoted Esmail Kousari, a member of the Iranian parliament’s national security committee and a former commander in the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, as warning the UAE would “pay the price for its cooperation with the United States.” He accused the Emirates of having a “behind-the-scenes” role in the recent U.S. attacks.

U.S. Central Command spokesperson Capt. Tim Hawkins said there were “no operational updates” after Trump’s pronouncement about the ceasefire.

Gulf Arab states, which Iran has targeted repeatedly since the war began Feb. 28, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday about the strikes. Israel, which took part in the Iran war, also has not claimed any recent attacks on Iran.

The strikes Thursday, just as Iran prepared to bury the late Khamenei, hit areas across southern Iran. The country’s theocracy hasn’t directly blamed anyone, though one lawmaker warned the United Arab Emirates about allegedly providing support to the U.S. campaign against Iran.

Iran responded to the strikes Thursday by launching a wider volley of attacks across the Mideast, targeting Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and Qatar. One person was reportedly hurt in Kuwait as air defense systems targeted the incoming fire across the region.

Mediators and allies regroup after strikes

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi plans to discuss the strait with his Omani counterpart at a meeting Saturday in Oman, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency said. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told his country’s state broadcaster TRT that he believed “a solution can be reached” this weekend between Iran and Oman, which lie on opposite sides of the narrow waterway.

The U.S. continues to urge mariners to travel on a southern route through Oman’s territorial waters to avoid Iran.

The leader of the UAE, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, traveled to Kuwait immediately after the Iranian attack for a meeting with the small, oil-rich nation's ruling emir. Gulf Arab countries also held calls with Qatar's foreign minister. He has been deeply involved, along with Pakistan, in mediating Iran-U.S. talks.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he spoke separately Friday with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and with Qatar’s ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and stressed to both the need for restraint and diplomacy.

Israel's government said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Trump on Thursday night, with Trump updating Netanyahu “on American moves in the Gulf.”

Israel Katz, Israel's defense minister, also renewed threats that his nation stood ready to confront Iran if needed.

"If we will have to return, we will return with even greater force,” Katz told a military ceremony.

___

Associated Press writers Konstantin Toropin in Washington and Farnoush Amiri in New York contributed to this report. Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

“I was looking for, like, a personal revolution,” Waterhouse said. Putting the words together for “Loveland,” the album's wistful penultimate track, helped her get there. “It’s always amazing to me how, you kind of write the album and you become it. You become somebody new from it.”

True to that spirit, Waterhouse worked with new collaborators on the project — including songwriter Amy Allen and producer Aaron Dessner, a member of the rock band The National and a frequent collaborator of pop-crossover artists including Taylor Swift, Gracie Abrams and Noah Kahan. Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac put down a drum track for “Morals” — a fun twist after Waterhouse acted in the limited series “Daisy Jones & the Six,” based on a Taylor Jenkins Reid novel widely considered to be inspired by the band’s origins.

“Maybe that’s what made me think to reach out,” Waterhouse, said. “I thought, you know, maybe he’s seen the show. It might help me get in the door.”

Waterhouse spoke to The Associated Press about making “Loveland” and exploring the evolution she has felt since welcoming her daughter with partner Robert Pattinson. She also teased future projects. Remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity.

AP: When announcing the album, you wrote that this project was “born in the space between who I was and who I’m becoming.” How did you attempt to capture the emotions of that experience in the album?

WATERHOUSE: A revelation I've had for myself recently is that there is inherently a friction there, that I think has been really deepened by becoming a parent. I think before I had much more of a kind of wild abandon, where my whole life was my work and my artistic life. And now that I have this beautiful gift that's been given to me — my daughter and this responsibility, and also how present I feel in her life, and want to be — I had a lot of insecurity and fear and doubt about how I was going to still have these two things exist at once. So it's funny, I don't think the record is like a record, really, about me, you wouldn't listen to it and be like, “Oh, this is a 'she's just become a mum' record" but it's the things I know about it that are laced deep within it. There are certain songs where I address that very rawly, I think in the song “Weirdo” especially.

AP: On songs like “Weirdo,” or “Notting Hill,” how do you navigate interrogating your personal experiences and emotions, while also maintaining your privacy?

WATERHOUSE: When I’m writing I don’t really think about that much at all because I also know that not everything that I write has to go on an album and be released into the public. There's things that you can write that can just be for yourself, and kind of like help you externalize a feeling that’s unexplainable.

It’s interesting, it’s like two different parts of my brain: The part that doesn’t care what anybody thinks and is just writing so freely, and then, later on, when you're like choosing the singles, or choosing what's going to be on the record, this other voice comes in and it's not a purist. It’s much more like, I want people to like this and I want to be loved. You’ve got the two different voices warring with each other, and it’s hard to get them to speak to each other, or know which voice should succeed.

I’m always mining from my own past in a way, and “Notting Hill” was really about mourning a place, but also memorializing it. I sold my apartment and never really said goodbye to it because I had a baby in America. And I, you know, fell in love in that apartment, had some of the worst nights of my life, some of my best. And then suddenly you outgrow somewhere so quickly and you’re having a baby in a different country, and it’s a walk-up and you’d never be able to get a stroller in there, and it's like full of everything in your 20s. It's giving its flowers to this place that raised me.

AP: I saw that Mick Fleetwood played drums on “Morals.” I’m curious how that came to be.

WATERHOUSE: That was a fun way to collaborate. When we got a response from Mick Fleetwood, I was kind of amazed. We struck an agreement that he would drum on “Morals” — I got like a billion videos of him in a studio in Hawaii playing all these incredible takes and I was just blown away that the whole thing was happening. And then I recorded a song for his record, that is with Amy Allen. He’s been working on a record for quite some time. I don’t know how much I’m allowed to say about it, but it was a very cool thing to have happened.

AP: When we last talked, you were preparing to bring your daughter, then 6 months old, with you on tour. Has she heard the new album?

WATERHOUSE: She knows now what I do, it's funny. I was reading to her the other night and there was a “choose, what would your world be like? and where would you live? the mountains?" and we were kind of like picking things and there were a bunch of jobs and I said, “Which one does mommy do?” and she pointed to the woman with the guitar. So it’s kind of crazy. She's almost 2 1/2 now, so she’s really switched on, like knows what we’re doing, I can explain it to her much better. I’m just like in heaven with her, just enjoying her so much and I feel so deeply grateful that I get to bring her with me.

On Houston Life, the Houston Hula Academy shares a special Tahitian dance performance while highlighting the history and cultural influences that inspired the beloved story. Alisha Satoafaiga along with her dad Chief Asmoua Tama Satoafaiga discussed what Moana represents to many Polynesian families and how the film has helped spark conversations about cultural identity and representation.

Started in 2022, the academy’s mission is to preserve and share Polynesian traditions through dance, music and education, helping connect Houston audiences to the vibrant cultures of the Pacific Islands. The academy is under the umbrella of Drums of the Pacific, USA which was started in 1998 by Chief Satoafaiga.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe to reporters the state of play with Iran, say they are making progress negotiating with top Iranian leaders. But the U.S. officials said they want Tehran to issue a statement saying Iran’s forces will stop attacking ships in the strait to help ensure that negotiations move forward.

President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has chosen not to sign a sweeping housing affordability bill in protest of Congress not approving a strict voter ID bill that lacks sufficient support to pass.

The housing measure will become law without Trump’s signature because he didn’t veto it. Still, the president’s rejection of the legislation cuts short the GOP’s efforts to address a key voter concern about rising costs, exacerbating tensions with his own party in a midterm election year.

Here's the latest:

US officials send mixed signals on Iran’s enriched uranium

Senior U.S. officials said that any agreement with Iran over its nuclear program will require Tehran to turn over its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

But on a call with reporters, the officials suggested they were not confident Iran would honor that part of the agreement until the country first heeds the terms of the ceasefire deal and stops renewed attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

If the U.S. does not reach a deal with Iran to turn over its nuclear material, it has military options to ensure that it remains buried underground forever, the officials said. They did not detail those options.

The highly enriched material that could potentially be used to make a nuclear weapon is believed to be buried after strikes the U.S. launched on Iran last summer.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to describe to reporters the state of play with Iran.

— By Michelle L. Price

US officials say new attacks in the Strait of Hormuz came from an errant part of Iranian political system

Senior U.S. officials are blaming a power struggle in Iran for that country’s latest attacks on ships in the waterway.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe to reporters the state of play with Iran, said U.S. negotiators are making progress talking to Iranian leaders.

But they said there are hard-line officials in Iran who are looking to undermine the ceasefire — and have helped spur a new round of attacks in the strait.

The officials said Trump has initiated new strikes on Iran in the meantime.

The president is aware of the power struggle issue, they say, and is giving officials space to get on the same page. But he won’t wait forever.

Part of the reason Iran now faces a power struggle, however, was strikes by the U.S. and Israel that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei early in the war.

— By Michelle L. Price

US wants Iran to publicly guarantee that the Strait of Hormuz is open and safe for ships

Senior U.S. officials are demanding that Iran’s leadership publicly state that ship traffic in the strait has been fully restored.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe to reporters the state of play with Iran, say they are making progress negotiating with top Iranian leaders.

But the U.S. officials said they want Tehran to issue a statement saying Iran’s forces will stop attacking ships in the strait to help ensure that negotiations move forward.

Moments before the U.S. officials spoke, however, Tehran’s diplomat at the United Nations struck a more defiant tone, telling reporters that any activity in the strait “rests exclusively with Iran.”

— By Michelle L. Price and Farnoush Amiri

US imposes sanctions on Iranian financier

The U.S. on Friday imposed sanctions on Iranian financier Ali Ansari, who Treasury says oversees a global network of assets benefiting Iran’s leader, Mojtaba Khamenei.

Ansari, who is already under U.K. sanctions, is accused of diverting public funds into real estate holdings outside of Iran to benefit himself and Iranian leadership.

“Treasury will continue using every tool at its disposal to isolate him and other regime elites from the global financial system,“ Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. ”We will preserve these assets for the Iranian people.”

Prime minister affirms Pakistan’s readiness to broker peace

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif spoke with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Friday to discuss regional developments.

The conversation came as Pakistan’s civilian and military leadership has been encouraging the United States and Iran to return to the negotiating table and discuss issues covered under the memorandum of understanding that Islamabad helped broker to help end the regional conflict.

In a post on X, Sharif said they discussed the evolving regional situation and stressed the need for restraint, dialogue and diplomacy to preserve the hard-earned peace gains of recent months.

“I reaffirmed Pakistan’s readiness to continue playing its role as an honest and sincere mediator for lasting regional peace,” Sharif wrote.

US lawmakers cite ‘significant progress’ on a Russia sanctions bill

U.S. lawmakers leading an effort to sanction countries purchasing Russian oil say they have reached an agreement with the Trump administration to move forward with an updated bill.

The original bill was unveiled about a year ago and has languished in the Senate as the sponsors worked to win full backing from the White House.

“We are very pleased with this significant progress and expect to roll out the legislation very soon,” the lawmakers said in a joint statement.

The original bill called for a 500% tariff on goods imported from countries that continue to buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other exports. It targeted nations like China and India, which account for roughly 70% of Russia’s energy trade and bankroll much of its war effort.

The four senators announcing the progress on their effort are Republicans Lindsey Graham and Roger Wicker, and Democrats Richard Blumenthal and Jeanne Shaheen.

Reflecting Pool is getting another draining

Crews are again draining the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool as Trump’s problem-plagued efforts to revamp it push well past his goal of having it ready by July Fourth to mark the nation’s 250th birthday.

The president at first suggested his renovations would last a century. But, within weeks of the project originally reaching completion last month, the water was covered by algae and pieces of the new coating appeared to be peeling off the bottom.

Trump has blamed the peeling on vandals, though critics contend it’s from shoddy repair work.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a podcast interview released this week that the new round of draining was planned and that the water might contain debris from the Independence Day fireworks over the National Mall.

“Drain the water, clean up the fireworks stuff,” Burgum said. “Repair the vandalism that was done. Fill it back up again.”

▶ Read more

DC calls on Michigan and the US Virgin Islands to bring their troops home

Washington, D.C., council members have added their voices to a chorus of groups asking Michigan and the U.S. Virgin Islands to bring their National Guard units home.

“Temporary, event-specific assistance for a major national celebration is fundamentally different from an open-ended military presence in District neighborhoods,” reads a letter sent Thursday that was signed by all 13 council members.

A coalition of groups previously sent a similar letter to Michigan raising questions about how troops sent to help with the July 4 celebration were diverted to a surge in President Donald Trump’s crime-fighting initiative in the nation’s capital.

“DC residents have been saying for 11 months straight that we need the National Guard and federal surge forces out of our communities immediately,” Keya Chatterjee, executive director of the group Free DC, said in a statement.

No immediate change in US military operations following end of ceasefire

Capt. Tim Hawkins, the spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said there were “no operational updates at this time” when he was asked about the end of the ceasefire announced by President Donald Trump in a social media post earlier Friday.

Trump said in a post on his social media platform that the United States told Iran “in no uncertain terms, that the Cease Fire is OVER!”

When asked if the end of the ceasefire would mean a restart to the air bombing that was the mainstay of the conflict, Hawkins said he wouldn’t forecast future operations.

Hawkins did say that U.S. forces in the region “remain vigilant, lethal, and prepared to execute operations directed by the Commander in Chief.”

Critics accuse Trump of damaging voters’ trust

On Capitol Hill, the leading Democrats with election oversight responsibility said Trump, rather than bolstering U.S. election integrity, is further politicizing the voting process.

“President Trump is trying to dismantle yet another independent guardrail of our democracy designed to keep elections fair and secure,” said Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and Rep. Joe Morelle, D-New York. “Purging commissioners just months before the midterm elections and further gutting support for our state and local elections officials is a blatant part of his plan to politicize our elections and enable more unlawful and dangerous election interference.”

Padilla is the ranking member of the Senate Rules Committee and Morelle is ranking member of the House Administration Committee.

A US license could let Ukraine produce Patriot missiles, but it won’t be simple or quick

President Trump’s pledge to give Ukraine a license to produce Patriot air-defense systems could mark a major breakthrough for Kyiv, but experts and Ukrainian officials warn that turning the idea into real weapons would likely take years.

Speaking Wednesday alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, Trump said the United States would allow Ukraine to make the U.S.-designed systems Kyiv has long sought to shield its cities and infrastructure from Russian missiles and drones.

“We’ll give them the right to make Patriots. We’ll show them how to do it,” Trump said. “I think they can produce them pretty quickly.”

But the statement left open a crucial question: What exactly would Ukraine be allowed to produce?

▶ Read more

Trump says talks with Iran to continue despite ceasefire ending

The president posted Friday on social media that Iran had “asked us to continue ‘talks’” and his administration has agreed to do so.

But Trump added that “in no uncertain terms” that the ceasefire is no longer in place.

It’s unclear how productive talks can be to end the war with Iran so long as the status of the Strait of Hormuz is uncertain and attacks could supersede any commitments made in negotiations.

Trump’s decision on housing bill comes more than a week after he canceled plans to sign it

He announced then that he was using it as leverage in his push for a strict voter ID bill.

The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act aims to lower the cost of housing and spur more home construction. It’s the broadest federal effort in decades to address America’s housing affordability problems, as state and local regulations have made it difficult to build in many of the communities that are also sources of job growth and economic opportunity. White House economists estimated earlier this year a national shortage of 10 million homes and the bill could help to close a portion of that gap.

But Trump called the bill “a yawn” and “so unimportant” compared to legislation that would require proof of citizenship for all voters.

He surprised Republican lawmakers June 24, when, shortly before a planned signing ceremony at the Capitol, he announced he wouldn’t approve the bill until lawmakers first passed the voting legislation.

▶ Read more

Stocks and oil prices drift as global markets continue to calm

U.S. stocks and oil prices are drifting toward a quiet finish of the week Friday following earlier fireworks on worries about how the war with Iran will affect the global flow of crude.

The S&P 500 rose 0.1% and was on track to close out a fourth winning week in the last five. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 65 points, or 0.1%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% higher.

Oil prices were holding relatively steady, even after a series of unclaimed airstrikes hit Iran after the U.S. said it finished its attacks. The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose 0.2% to $76.47.

That’s above the $72 it was at the start of the week, when it was back below its level from before the war with Iran, but it’s still well below its wartime peak of nearly $120.

▶ Read more

Trump won’t sign housing bill but will let it become law

Trump has chosen not to sign a sweeping housing affordability bill Friday, in protest of Congress not approving a strict voter ID bill that doesn’t have enough support to pass.

“I will not sign the Housing Bill, which has been fully approved by Congress and sent to the White House, in PROTEST over the fact that the United States Senate is not capable of passing THE SAVE AMERICA ACT,” Trump posted on social media.

The housing measure will become law without Trump’s signature. He had 10 days to issue a veto and stop the measure, which he chose not to do.

Trump’s rejection of the bipartisan housing legislation exacerbates tensions with his own party in a midterm election year and cuts short their efforts to address a key voter concern about rising costs.

Trump ousts election commission members in latest push to reshape US voting process

Trump has ousted members of the bipartisan Federal Election Commission that resisted his efforts to require would-be voters to document their U.S. citizenship before registering.

The White House on Friday confirmed the executive action against members of the Election Assistance Commission, which distributes federal grants to states, oversees the testing of voting systems and maintains the national voter registration forms.

It’s the latest move in the Republican president’s effort to expand White House influence over how U.S. elections are conducted and comes after a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that gave the president new personnel authority to fire members of independent agency boards.

▶ Read more

Unclaimed airstrikes target Iran after US attacks, raising questions of who launched them

The series of unclaimed airstrikes that hit Iran after the U.S. said it finished its attacks have again raised questions of who else may be targeting the Islamic Republic.

The strikes Thursday, just as Iran prepared to bury the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, hit areas across southern Iran. The country’s theocracy hasn’t directly blamed anyone for the strikes, though one lawmaker issued a warning to the United Arab Emirates over allegedly providing support to the United States in its campaign against Iran.

Gulf Arab states, which repeatedly have been targeted by Iran since the war began Feb. 28, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday over the strikes. The attacks come as they and the U.S. insist the Strait of Hormuz must be open and free to ships to transit.

▶ Read more

The local prosecutor said the cost of medical care required also for one of the defendants alone would have bankrupted Vinton County, which led the court to change the grandfather's bond and release him from jail on his own recognizance for care at a hospital so the county didn't have to pay for it. Meanwhile, the county sought help from other prosecutors on the criminal case and is counting on approval next week of $1 million from the state to assist with care for the children, including some who have medical needs or are unable to speak.

Vinton is Ohio's smallest county and one of its poorest, a rambling 415 square miles (1075 square kilometers) of isolated Appalachian terrain with one traffic light and a single grocery store. That makes the case of the Siders family “an unprecedented child welfare crisis” there, state officials said.

Affording it is requiring the actions of both local and state officials.

One defendant was released to avoid more costs

On Tuesday, 73-year-old Gary Siders Sr. was released from jail after his bond was adjusted to not require up-front payment, and he was moved out of the county for medical care.

Vinton County Prosecutor William Archer Jr. said Siders had fallen at the jail and it became apparent that he “has a serious medical condition that requires specialized care.” In the regional jail, the costs of that care would fall on the county, Archer said.

“Based on the information the county was provided, his medical care could potentially bankrupt Vinton County,” Archer told reporters Wednesday. “We were not going to put that burden also on our local taxpayers.”

Siders is charged with felony child endangerment. Also charged were his 67-year-old wife, Christina Siders; son Gary Siders Jr., 36; and daughter-in-law, 33-year-old Elizabeth Siders, the children's mother. They have pleaded not guilty, and some of their attorneys cautioned against drawing conclusions before more is known about what happened.

Vinton County Common Pleas Judge Laina Fetherolf Rogers made clear in her order that should the elder Siders' health improve enough to leave the hospital, the GPS tracking device he'll be required to wear also will be “paid for at the State's expense.”

“A lot of small counties like us, we’re in the same boat as Vinton,” said Mike Davis, prosecutor for Pike County, another financially-strapped southern Ohio county. “If a person has a medical issue, do we pay the medical bills and keep them in jail and blow our budget, or do we let them out and risk something happening that’s worse?”

Archer emphasized that authorities determined the strategy didn’t put the public at risk in Gary Siders Sr.'s case, given his health condition and the fact the case strictly involved family members.

Other prosecutors are helping with the criminal case

The judge agreed this week to Archer's requests to bring on three special prosecutors — Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson, Assistant Attorney General Kara Keating and Highland County Prosecutor Anneka Collins, an expert in child abuse cases — to share the load of the case “without compensation.” That means their offices will cover their own costs.

Vinton County Sheriff Ryan Cain also has requested assistance from the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation, according to records released by Wilson's office, which is not unusual.

“Money’s green and it’s absolute. You either have it or you don't,” said Davis, who said he could relate to Archer after Pike County had to grapple with a major criminal case of its own: the 2016 Rhoden family murders.

He said the demands of a significant criminal prosecution are felt across a small county's entire government operation, as workloads are shifted among government office staffs of oftentimes just one or two people and larger spaces and reliable internet service have to be secured for the influx of investigators and out-of-town media outlets.

The county is expecting $1 million for children's services

Removing the 16 siblings from their home also instantly more than doubled the number of children in temporary custody in Vinton County — a daunting prospect for a county with about 12,600 residents and the smallest budget among Ohio’s 88 counties.

On Monday, a state legislative panel is expected to approve a request from the Ohio Department of Children and Youth to provide $1 million in additional state cash to Vinton County to help it cope with the “emergent and developing child protection crisis.”

The Siders children ranged in age from 18 months to 18 years, and some were described as “feral” and unable to speak. Authorities said their medical conditions varied and alleged that they had been kept in about a 12-foot-by-12-foot room for several years. Two were flown for hospital care.

Archer did not elaborate but said this week that all the children are “safe and being cared for.”

The eldest was born in May 2008, two months after then-18-year-old Gary Siders Jr. and Elizabeth, who was 15, crossed the state line to get married at the Mason County Courthouse in West Virginia with the consent of Elizabeth's parents, according to court records. She's had pregnancies most years since then, the records show.

The 16 Siders siblings at the center of the endangerment case were all born in hospitals, according to birth certificates reviewed by The Associated Press on Friday. Among them are three sets of twins. Elizabeth Siders also had a fourth set of twins in 2022, records show, who died hours after birth.

The state Department of Children and Youth estimates that placement costs for the siblings will run between $150 and $250 per child per day. That adds up to roughly $850,000 a year, or more than three times the amount generated by Vinton County's levy that's split between children's and senior services.

South Central Ohio Job & Family Services is consulting with its attorneys about setting up a trust for the children after an influx of financial and other types of donations poured in following news of the case, the agency said on Facebook.

The state cash headed to Vinton County will allow the agency to “ensure vulnerable children receive the safety, treatment, and support they urgently require,” the funding request said. Additional expenses, such as court costs and police overtime associated with the case, can also be covered with the state money.

___

Associated Press reporter Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.

The shooting Tuesday during an attempted traffic stop by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Houston has revived critical voices deriding the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and how ICE operates. Immigration arrests around the country recently surged to 10,000 over a five-day period, fueled in part by massive Congressional funding.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, has released no evidence to support the officer's story that Lorenzo Salgado Araujo ignored their commands and rammed into an ICE vehicle with his white van, or that the officer fired in self-defense.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia has said the acting director of ICE told her officers thought someone in the van, but not Salgado Araujo, had a final order of removal but did not share a name.

The officers were not wearing body cameras and neither ICE nor DHS have released photos, videos or other evidence from the scene.

The men tell an attorney that the ICE story is untrue

Salgado Araujo was a 52-year-old homebuilder who was shot and killed as he was driving his crew to a construction site. His family said he had lived in the U.S. for more than 35 years, had no criminal record and was close to finishing the long process of obtaining legal status when he was killed.

ICE detained the other three men in the van and they all told a lawyer that no officer was in front of the van or even in danger.

“After speaking with these men, I have no doubt that what they’re saying is the truth. I know that these agents — the agency — is going to try to cover it up,” attorney Hugo Balderas-Ibarra said during a news conference.

Images of the van after the shooting appear to show no damage, he said.

ICE has not released the names of the detained men, but family members said they have been able to briefly talk with them. Salgado Araujo's brother was among those arrested.

Garcia said at the same news conference it was unsurprising that Salgado Araujo drove off when ICE tried to stop his vehicle, given that their vehicles were unmarked and had no lights.

“What would you do if you were being followed by someone and the cars were unmarked?” Garcia said.

Salgado Araujo was at least the eighth person to die during the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement campaign. No immigration officers have been charged in the killings and video footage in several previous shootings has contradicted the accounts of federal officers.

The detained men say ICE is pressuring them to self-deport

ICE is pressuring the men to self-deport, which would make it harder for them to share their version of events with investigators or others, said Juana Degollado, who said her stepfather Daniel Tirado Pantoja is among the detained men. She said he has no legal permission to live in the U.S. but has no criminal record.

“It is extremely important that we preserve the integrity of this investigation,” Balderas-Ibarra said. “That will all be out the window if they are deported.”

DHS said allegations that the men have been pressured to leave the country are “categorically false.”

DHS said Thursday that officers investigating a tip weeks earlier saw two white vans at the address of a target. While heading to that address Tuesday, officers saw a white van and someone inside who resembled the person they were looking for, the department said in a statement.

“No one in that van had warrants or any legal problem,” Degollado told The Associated Press in a text message.

ICE refuses to release officer's name or other information

DHS said it will not release the officer’s name because they could face threats and violence and their family could be at risk.

DHS also has not responded to requests for other information, including how long the officer has worked for ICE or whether anyone involved in the shooting is on administrative leave.

Unlike some previous deaths involving federal immigration officers, few photos or videos surrounding the shooting have emerged publicly in the days since Salgado Araujo's death.

The League of United Latin American Citizens offered a $5,000 reward for video or other evidence, but the positions of the vehicles means surveillance cameras in the area were blocked from recording the shooting, CEO Juan Proaño said.

Local prosecutors are talking to witnesses

Local prosecutors were not invited into the investigation by federal officials but have spent the past three days in the Houston neighborhood looking for surveillance footage and talking to witnesses, Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said.

Teare said anyone with video or other information must share it with his office so the truth about the shooting can be determined.

“We will go to the ends of the earth to collect all the evidence, so that we can eventually let the public know what happened,” Teare said.

The FBI is tightly controlling the evidence in the case, but Houston Mayor John Whitmire said he wants a local independent investigation and the police chief will meet with federal investigators next week to see what can be done.

“We recognize that it is a federal police agency that was out of control Tuesday morning,” Whitmire said.

Houston police do not work with ICE and the mayor said he found out about the shooting from the media.

Salgado Araujo's family said they found out he was dead through the ICE statement instead of directly from the agency. Garcia said officers kept his belongings and sent him to the hospital where he died without including his name.

___

Brook reported from New Orleans and Foley from Iowa City, Iowa. Associated Press reporters Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas; Rebecca Santana in Washington; and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed.

Whitmire was joined at a 2:30 p.m. news conference at Houston City Hall by U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, Houston Police Chief Noe Diaz and other local officials. Whitmire said he had met with Salgado Araujo’s family and expressed both his condolences and his anger at the situation.

• LULAC says witnesses in fatal Houston ICE shooting are being pressured to self-deport

“I was chairman of criminal justice in Austin for 30 years, involved in many investigations and oversight reviews of police action. In those 30 years, which included the tragedy of Sandra Bland, Joe Campos Torres, and I could list many more, none are more egregious than the one that ICE brought to Houston Tuesday morning,” Whitmire said.

Whitmire reiterated that the Houston Police Department was not involved in the incident whatsoever. He also says the city has done everything possible to gather information about the shooting and turning it over to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.

“When we learned about it, the FBI had arrived and secured the site. The FBI has all the evidence that would normally go into an HPD or other law enforcement’s investigation. They have the evidence, in this instance the van, the passengers, the deceased, and they’re tightly controlling it,” Whitmire said.

He says they have asked for the information to be shared with HPD. He is also amplifying calls for an independent investigation into the shooting.

“We are publicly stating and are doing, we will not rest until we have an independent and thorough investigation,” he said.

U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, who had a press conference earlier Friday, also shared some information.

She said she had a conversation with the acting director of ICE, who she says assured her Salgado Araujo was not a target of the operation.

“We have to ask ourself, then why did he end up being killed by ICE,” Garcia said.

According to Congresswoman Garcia, the vehicles being used by ICE during the operation did not have body cams, dash cams, nor any markings, sirens, or lights on them.

“What would you have done if a black SUV looking vehicle just started chasing you?” she questioned.

Garcia also says from talking to the lawyer representing the three individuals who were detained by ICE and witnessed the shooting, they each say that there was never an ICE agent in front of Salgado Araujo’s van. She also says the lawyer told her the detainees say they think Salgado Araujo was not in the vehicle when he was shot.

• Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was not the intended target in Houston ICE shooting, U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia says

She is calling on anyone who was near the site of the shooting when it happened and may have video, pictures, or testimony to share it with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.

“The smallest thing could be the big break,” she said.

Houston Police Chief J. Noe Diaz said although the Houston Police Department was not involved in the investigation or have any jurisdiction over the investigation, he did send a letter to the DHS Inspector General and the Special Agent in Charge of FBI Houston to let them know that HPD is ready to support their teams in any way that they can.

“We amplify the mayor’s request for an investigation to be conducted in a timely and thorough manner,” Diaz said.

Diaz was asked about what changed since Tuesday that made the city and other officials call for an independent investigation.

“Well the facts have changed, now we hear because of the congresswoman’s great work that the wrong person was in the van, and perhaps it was the wrong van, so those are concerning and they should be concerning to everybody in the community, everybody that’s a Texan, everybody who live in the U.S., those facts weren’t available then so as we move forward we will continue to listen to the community to ensure that this is getting the adequate attention, to ensure that the community knows and trusts that someone is looking at this with every single eye available,” Diaz said.

• Whitmire: Houston has no authority to investigate after ICE shoots, kills Lorenzo Salgado Araujo

“We’re not settling to wait for an FBI report for all we know could take a year, we want answers,” Whitmire said.

Whitmire said he directed Houston Police Chief Noe Diaz to be “proactive” in pursuing an investigation amid witness statements that contradict ICE’s account of the fatal shooting of 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo.

Diaz has a meeting with Houston’s FBI bureau chief next week, Whitmire said, adding that the chief asked the federal agency to “start sharing information.”

“Our hands have been tied, but I’ve instructed the chief [and] city attorney to untie those hands,” Whitmire said in an afternoon news conference.

Democratic leaders from across Texas and the country have called for an independent investigation into Tuesday’s shooting death of Salgado Araujo by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent during an “enforcement operation” in Houston. The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General is leading a federal investigation into the shooting.

ICE said Salgado Araujo, who was stopped while driving a van, attempted to run over a federal agent. Three passengers in the van have disputed that account, according to their lawyer. The men are in federal custody.

Whitmire also expressed frustration about ICE’s handling of the shooting and offered condolences to Salgado Araujo’s family, who have lived in Houston for decades.

“Mr. Salgado was chased by unmarked vehicles, [and] before he could identify himself and speak as a Houstonian, he was shot and killed,” Whitmire said. “I’ve met with his family today and expressed the entire city’s condolences and anger, and assured them that I and the levels of government represented here today, and the DA’s office, would do everything, use all of our resources and our waking hours, to pursue an independent and transparent investigation.”

The Harris County district attorney’s office launched its own investigation into the shooting on Thursday, but District Attorney Sean Teare said his office has had limited access to evidence in part because of the federal agencies’ involvement. 

Whitmire said he had spoken with Teare about the difficulty of conducting their own investigations, as the FBI is “tightly controlling” all of the evidence related to the shooting.

“They control the scene, the deceased, the van, the witnesses. So yes, they control the investigation,” Whitmire said.

Friday’s announcement was a shift from Whitmire’s statements a day after the shooting, when he indicated that the city and its police department were incapable of investigating Salgado Araujo’s death because “there cannot be two ongoing investigations.” HPD said none of its officers were involved in the shooting, which Whitmire also said meant they lacked jurisdiction to investigate.

Friday morning, before Whitmire’s directive, Diaz sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI stating the Houston Police Department recognized it had “no independent jurisdiction” over a potential investigation and offering to make all of the department’s resources available to aid federal agencies in their investigation. 

Diaz echoed concerns during Friday’s news conference, saying city police did not have the jurisdiction or access to evidence needed to complete a full investigation. 

Salgado Araujo was not the target of ICE’s operation, U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, told The Texas Tribune on Thursday after she had spoken to acting ICE Director David Venturella. Diaz said information brought in part by Garcia’s questioning of ICE actions shifted the police department’s stance on whether to more aggressively pursue its own investigation.

“The facts have changed, right? So now we hear, because of the congresswoman’s great work, that the wrong person was in the van, and well, perhaps it was the wrong van,” Diaz said. “Those are concerning, and they should be concerning to everybody in the community.”

DHS has said they were given a tip from a local law enforcement partner before pursuing Salgado Araujo’s van. Diaz repeatedly said the tip did not come from Houston’s police department.

Texas’ Department of Public Safety and the Harris County Sheriff’s office, in statements to the Tribune, also said they did not provide the tip to ICE.

Garcia said during Friday’s news conference that none of the ICE agents involved had body cameras or dashboard cameras inside the unmarked car the agents used to pull over Salgado Araujo’s van. Whitmire, a former Democratic state senator from Houston, criticized the circumstances leading to the shooting and ICE’s lack of recording equipment or protocol usual for law enforcement.

“I was chairman of [the Senate Committee on] Criminal Justice in Austin for 30 years, involved in many investigations and oversight reviews of police action in those 30 years,” Whitmire said. “None are more egregious than the one that ICE brought to Houston Tuesday morning.”

Stephen Simpson contributed.

The company is already one of the largest in South Korea, along with Samsung Electronics, and is a member of the Kospi index. Even with a recent pullback, the country's Kospi index is up 77% so far this year and SK Hynix shares have more than tripled.

SK Hynix priced its American depositary receipts, or ADRs, at $149 each Thursday. They opened Friday at $170 and closed at $168.01. The offering of 177.9 million ADRs raised proceeds of $26.5 billion, making it the biggest-ever initial share sale in the U.S. by a foreign company. An ADR is issued by a bank or broker and is a simplified way for U.S. investors to own foreign stocks through the U.S. markets.

SK Hynix is going public in the U.S. amid a surge in IPO proceeds. There were 48 IPOs raising a total of $104.8 billion during the second quarter, according to Renaissance Capital. It is the biggest quarter for deal proceeds in five years, in large part because of SpaceX raising $75 billion. Many of the companies going public are capitalizing on the demand for all things AI.

SK Hynix has a dominant position globally for high bandwidth memory, which is essential for the development of advanced AI technology. The company recently entered a partnership with Wall Street’s most valuable company, Nvidia, for advanced memory chips as AI infrastructure expands globally.

Increasing demand for AI has been driving a surge in profits for chipmakers. Memory chips have become more expensive as demand outpaces supply along with the advancement of artificial intelligence technology. Technology giant Apple recently announced an increase in prices for Macs and iPads because of the jump in price for memory chips.

The U.S. is SK Hynix’s largest market, accounting for 68.8% of its revenue last year. It is planning an expansion that includes building its first U.S. production facility, located in Indiana. Overall, the company had revenue of just under $65 billion in 2025. That helped profits double to about $28 billion.

The company recently joined with Samsung and the government in announcing plans to invest a combined 800 trillion won ($518 billion) in building a new computer chipmaking hub in South Korea’s southwest region, part of national efforts to expand investment beyond the greater Seoul metropolitan area, the country’s economic center and heart of its semiconductor sector.

The promise of growing profits has catapulted stock prices within the tech sector, particularly for chipmakers. Micron Technology's stock value more than tripled in 2025 and is on pace to more than triple again in 2026. Nvidia's stock had similar growth several years ago and notched more relatively modest gains in 2025.

Big chipmakers have become the most valuable and influential companies on Wall Street. Their high stock values give them outsized influence over Wall Street and major indexes have been setting records mostly because of the tech sector.

Shares in SK Hynix traded in Seoul slipped 0.3% on Friday.

The sources were not authorized to publicly disclose the deal before a formal announcement.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony scheduled for early June was postponed after the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority said the two countries needed more time to resolve “outstanding issues.” The delay followed President Donald Trump’s earlier threats to block the bridge’s opening.

Commercial traffic is now expected to begin before Aug. 1, according to two officials, though a date for the official ribbon-cutting ceremony has not yet been set.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers referenced the deal during an interview Friday.

“I had a conversation with the secretary yesterday, Secretary of Commerce Lutnick, and the deal will be announced in the next few days,” Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers said Friday on WJR radio. “This is getting wrapped up. That bridge is going to get open.”

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, congratulated those who have worked to open the bridge.

“This bridge is a testament to the enduring partnership between Michigan and Canada and what we can get done when we think big and bet on our shared future together,” she said in a statement.

The delay in opening the Gordie Howe International Bridge became an issue in one of the country’s most closely watched Senate races. Democratic candidate Mallory McMorrow, who has since dropped out, tried to turn the controversy into a political liability for Trump and Republicans.

The 1.5-mile-long (2.4-kilometer-long) bridge, which spans the Detroit River and connects the Motor City with Windsor, Ontario, was slated for a ribbon-cutting ceremony on June 12. It was abruptly postponed after officials said the U.S. and Canada were still working to resolve “outstanding issues.”

The dispute gave Democrats a rare opportunity to tie Trump directly to a project with visible economic consequences in a battleground state.

In February, Trump demanded in a social media post that Canada hand over at least half ownership of the new bridge to the U.S. government and accept other unspecified demands, part of his broader clashes with Canada over trade.

Canada financed the bridge’s construction. The project was negotiated by Rick Snyder, the former Republican governor of Michigan, and work has been underway since 2018 and cost close to $4.4 billion.

Named after the late Canadian hockey great Gordie Howe, who spent 25 seasons leading the Detroit Red Wings, the bridge is expected to be another vital economic artery between Canada and the United States.

The toll bridge, jointly owned by Canada and Michigan, is expected to help ease congestion at the existing Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit-Windsor tunnel. Work has been underway since 2018.

Detroit and Windsor have been neighborly for generations, with residents in both countries frequently crossing the shared river border for entertainment and shopping. Windsor’s population in 2021 was about 230,000. Like Detroit, the Canadian city’s economy has a strong focus on manufacturing and the auto industry.

Commercial trade between the two cities primarily has been across the nearly century-old and privately-owned Ambassador Bridge, which is closer to downtown Detroit than the Gordie Howe Bridge.

The Moroun family are owners of the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor. Federal campaign finance records show Matthew Moroun donated $1 million to Trump’s super PAC earlier this year.

The S&P 500 rose 0.4% to close out its fourth winning week in the last five. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 149 points, or 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.3%.

SK Hynix, a giant South Korean maker of memory chips, shone in the debut of its stock trading on the Nasdaq. After raising roughly $26.5 billion by selling American depositary shares at a price of $149 each, it jumped immediately after trading began in the midday hours and finished with a gain of 13.1%.

SK Hynix’s stock in Seoul has already surged 634% over the last year thanks to euphoria around AI. The boom has created real profits due to surging demand for computer memory. But it’s also raised worries that AI stock prices have shot have too high and that all the world’s spending on chips and data centers won’t be able to produce enough productivity and profit growth to make it worth it.

That’s led to sharp recent swings for AI stocks, which have grown into some of Wall Street’s most influential because of their huge sizes.

Nvidia was the strongest single force lifting the S&P 500 Friday after rising 4%.

Beyond the uncertainty about AI, the focus on Wall Street is shifting to the upcoming reporting season for companies’ profits during the spring.

Delta Air Lines said it was able to absorb higher fuel prices from April through June because of strong demand from customers to fly, including a wide range of corporate travelers. That helped it report profit and revenue for the spring that topped analysts’ expectations, and it gave a forecasted range for upcoming profit in the summer whose midpoint was above analysts’ expectations.

Delta’s stock fell 1.8%, though, after coming into the day with a strong 28.2% rise for the year so far.

Companies across industries will need to produce big growth in profits to justify the big moves for their stock prices, which are broadly near records. Next week will feature earnings reports from many of the biggest U.S. banks, including Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo on Tuesday alone.

Elsewhere on Wall Street, Circle Internet Group rose 5%. The company behind the USDC cryptocurrency, which is supposed to keep the value of $1, said it won U.S. regulatory approval to establish a bank. It will operate under the name Circle National Trust, and CEO Jeremy Allaire said the move “marks a defining step in bringing blockchain technology and digital assets into the core of the U.S. financial system.”

WD-40’s stock jumped 10.6% after reporting much stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 31.75 points to 7,575.39. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 149.60 to 52,367.01, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 74.72 to 26,281.61.

In the oil market, prices continued to pare jumps from earlier in the week on worries about how the war with Iran will affect the global flow of crude.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, dipped 0.4% to $76.01.

That’s above its $72 price from the start of the week, but it’s still well below its wartime peak of nearly $120. The worry is that continued fighting could block oil tankers from the Strait of Hormuz and prevent the delivery of crude from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide.

President Donald Trump said on his social-media platform that he agreed to continue talks with Iran but also that the United States told Iran “that the Cease Fire is OVER!”

In the bond market, Treasury yields ticked higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.56% from 4.54% late Thursday.

High yields have weighed on financial markets worldwide. Yields have climbed on worries about expensive oil and high inflation, which could push the Federal Reserve and other central banks to raise interest rates.

Higher rates can keep a lid on inflation, but they also slow the economy and hurt prices for all kinds of investments.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed. South Korea’s Kospi jumped 2.5%, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.2% for two of the world’s bigger moves, but stocks fell 1% in Shanghai.

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AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

Chef Joe Steinocher, executive chef of III Catering—the hospitality arm of the Texas Medical Center—shares his simple grilling tips to create an impressive meal for a group.

1. Build an Entire Meal on the Grill

Use the entire space to prepare each course outdoors. Cooking multiple courses on the same grill saves time and adds a smoky flavor throughout the meal.

2. Keep it simple

Use simple recipes that highlight seasonal ingredients. Chef Joe’s go-to menu includes (recipes below):

3. Make a timeline

One of Chef Joe’s biggest pieces of advice is to give yourself plenty of time. Starting about an hour and a half before serving allows enough time to grill meats, prepare the sides, and let the meat rest before slicing. If dinner gets delayed, the rested proteins can always be quickly warmed before serving—making it easier for hosts to spend time with guests instead of worrying about the food.

With a little planning, fresh seasonal ingredients, and a hot grill, creating a memorable summer meal for family and friends can be both simple and delicious.

Recipes

Coffee-Rubbed Tri-Tip

Tri-Tip

Coffee Rub

Toast the peppercorns, coriander, cumin, fennel, and mustard seeds in a dry skillet until fragrant. Grind the toasted spices and combine them with the remaining coffee rub ingredients.

Coat the tri-tip lightly with oil, then season generously with the coffee rub.

Grill over high heat until a flavorful crust develops on all sides. Move the steak to indirect heat and continue cooking, occasionally basting with the apple cider vinegar mixture, until the internal temperature reaches about 120 degrees for medium-rare before resting.

Charred Scallion Chimichurri

While the steak rests, grill the scallions until well charred. Blend them with the parsley, garlic, oregano, vinegar, olive oil, lemon juice, sugar, salt, and pepper to make the chimichurri.

Slice the tri-tip against the grain and serve with the charred scallion chimichurri.

Grilled Peaches with Vanilla Ice Cream and Brown Butter Almonds

Brush the peaches lightly with olive oil and place cut-side down on a hot grill until charred and softened.

Transfer the peaches to a bowl, sprinkle lightly with sugar, cover, and let them rest so they release their juices and create a natural syrup.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a saucepan and continue cooking until it turns golden brown and develops a nutty aroma. Stir in the sliced almonds and allow them to toast in the warm butter.

Serve each grilled peach with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Spoon the peach syrup over the top and finish with the warm brown butter almonds.

For more recipes or to connect with III Catering, visit www.IIIcatering.com.

Nearly half a year later, after another shooting death under disputed circumstances blamed on the department, the promise still hasn't been fully met — prompting outrage from critics who say the cameras are a chance at accountability for officers enforcing President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers involved in the Houston shooting death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican man who lived in the U.S. for more than 35 years, were not wearing body cameras, Homeland Security has said.

No evidence has emerged to support DHS’ version of events — that an officer opened fire at Salgado Araujo after he rammed an ICE vehicle chasing his van. Witnesses deny those claims. Cameras could have helped shed light on what exactly took place.

The shooting has opened ICE up to fresh scrutiny over its tactics at a time when arrests have ticked up and as DHS is flush with billions of dollars from an infusion granted by Congress — some of which was earmarked to outfit officers with body cameras.

“Even after we’ve given ICE specifically $20 million for body cameras and Kristi Noem promised in February of this year that she was going to purchase them and get them in the field, that here we were in Houston that the agents didn’t have them,” said Rep. Sylvia Garcia, a Democrat from Houston, during a news conference Friday.

Body cameras, and the lack of them, a key issue in Trump's second term

Days after Alex Pretti was killed while protesting ICE activity in Minneapolis in January, Noem announced that every Homeland Security officer on the ground there would be issued body-worn cameras. Noem said it was the beginning of a nationwide effort to get them to every officer around the country as funding becomes available.

“We will rapidly acquire and deploy body cameras to DHS law enforcement across the country,” Noem, who has since been replaced by Markwayne Mullin, said in a social media post.

Homeland Security said Thursday that body cameras have been deployed to more than half of ICE field offices around the country and that the remainder would get them in the next 60 days.

Garcia said she told the acting head of ICE, David Venturella, during a phone call that she was outraged over the lack of body-worn cameras. She said Venturella told her that less than a third of officers nationally have been issued body cameras. He promised her that all officers would get them by the end of July, she said.

“Trust me, I will hold him to it, and I will make sure that all my colleagues in Congress and the Democratic caucus hold him to it,” she said.

Michelle Gross, president of the Minnesota-based advocacy group Communities United Against Police Brutality said ICE shouldn't conduct enforcement operations until all officers are equipped with body cameras.

“If they’re going to be running around with guns and stopping people, you damn well better have some body cameras," she said. “This is an agency that's soaking up an incredible amount of tax dollars and we can’t have any accountability?"

In earlier shootings, some officers wore cameras — but not all

Homeland Security said at the time of the Pretti shooting that four of the Border Patrol agents were wearing cameras. Investigators from Customs and Border Protection were able to use video from those cameras as well as other sources to determine that more than one officer on the scene fired shots during the Pretti death.

The department has not said whether any of the ICE officers on the scene of the killing of 37-year-old mother of three Renee Good earlier in January were wearing the cameras. Bystander video of both shootings was highly scrutinized and fanned public outrage over the incidents.

The former acting head of ICE, Todd Lyons, said while testifying to Congress in the aftermath of the Minneapolis events that the body camera footage would eventually be released to the public but it so far has not. Lyons has since retired.

Lyons and his counterpart at CBP, Rodney Scott, testified at the time that thousands of their officers were already outfitted with body cameras, with more to come.

“That’s one thing that I’m committed to is full transparency. And I fully welcome body cameras all across the spectrum in all of our law enforcement activities,” Lyons said.

In a January court filing, at a time when roughly 2,000 ICE officers were deployed to Minnesota, a senior ICE officer said in a court deposition that body-worn cameras had not been deployed to deportation officers working out of the St. Paul office. Samuel J. Olson, the head of the St. Paul field office, said the agency would need roughly half a year to do all the equipping and training needed to roll out body cameras to all the ICE law enforcement officers in the state.

The body camera issue has come up at other times during Trump's second term as growing numbers of ICE and CBP officers are enforcing the president's mass deportation agenda.

In Chicago, as Homeland Security officers were out in force as part of “Operation Midway Blitz," a judge required federal immigration officers to wear body cameras, saying that they would provide evidence to back up how agents handle confrontations with protesters.

Homeland Security blames Democrats for slow rollout but Dems push back

Homeland Security officials have blamed Democrats for the fact that not every officer has cameras yet.

“The officers involved in the incident in Houston had not been issued body-worn cameras due to back-to-back Democrat shutdowns," the department said.

Those shutdowns were fueled by Democrats' anger over President Trump’s immigration crackdown and demands to force reforms on Homeland Security.

In the wake of the Pretti and Good shootings, the one area where Republicans and Democrats appeared to agree was the need for widespread adoption of body cameras for officers taking part in immigration enforcement tasks. In April, Congress gave Homeland Security $20 million for “the procurement, deployment, and operations of body-worn cameras” for officers carrying out immigration enforcement tasks.

Garcia called the accusation that Democrats were to blame for the officers not having body cameras “ludicrous.”

“That’s just a freaking excuse, because the bottom line is they made a commitment,” said Garcia.

As public outcry has rippled across the internet and the streets of Houston, Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and most of the state’s GOP congressional delegation have kept mum about the death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican national who had lived in the country for decades. A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot him to death earlier this week when authorities tried to stop his van during an operation.

Details about the shooting have been fluid and little video evidence has emerged, even as the government’s account is called into question by witnesses. An ICE spokesperson said agents, who did not have body-worn or dashboard cameras, opened fire Tuesday morning because Salgado Araujo “weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer resulting in our officer firing his weapon in self-defense.”

However, three men who were in the van with Salgado Araujo disputed ICE’s version of events; one noted there were no law enforcement officers in front or behind the vehicle — only to the side. The witnesses, who are now in immigration custody, said Salgado Araujo never rammed ICE’s vehicles with his van, according to written accounts relayed by their lawyer.

Additionally, U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia said she was informed by ICE’s acting director that Salgado Araujo was not the target of the operation.

At a press conference Friday, Garcia and other Houston Democrats renewed their criticisms of ICE and their demands for an investigation conducted outside the agency. They also called for ICE and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, to release evidence supporting their claims.

Garcia, who represents the neighborhood where the shooting occurred, said she had not heard from Abbott nor any of her congressional Republican colleagues.

The governor’s office declined to respond Friday when asked about Garcia’s comments. A spokesperson referred the Tribune to the Texas Department of Public Safety for “information on how Rangers investigations start.”

Garcia said the differing accounts between ICE and witnesses, as well as DHS’ original reference to the incident as a targeted enforcement operation without mentioning Salgado Araujo was not the target, underscores the need for an outside probe.

“That’s why we need a complete, thorough investigation, and a fact-finding from top to bottom — and we have to make sure that it does include our local partners,” Garcia said, alluding to calls for Houston police and DPS to step in. “ICE cannot be doing this [investigation] alone, because otherwise, we’ll end up just like in the [Renee] Good case — nothing.”

Sen. John Cornyn did not respond to an inquiry about whether he believes there should be an investigation independent from the one being overseen by DHS’ Office of the Inspector General. In a statement to The Texas Tribune, Sen. Ted Cruz expressed trust in the government’s probe.

“This is an active investigation, and I have full confidence that, once it is complete, we will have a full and accurate account of what occurred,” Cruz said.

Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, also had not said anything about the shooting as of Friday afternoon. Nor had U.S. Reps. Morgan Luttrell, Michael McCaul and August Pfluger, the three Texas Republicans who sit on the House Homeland Security Committee, the panel with jurisdiction over ICE.

Spokespersons for Luttrell, McCaul and Pfluger, along with the Texas House speaker and lieutenant governor, did not immediately respond Friday to requests for comment.

The shooting occurred in Houston’s Magnolia Park neighborhood, a heavily Hispanic area near the Houston Ship Channel in the city’s East End. But the area was moved out of Garcia’s district when Republicans redrew Texas’ congressional map last summer, putting it in the 9th Congressional District. GOP nominee Alex Mealer is the favorite to win the Republican-leaning seat in November.

Responding Tuesday night to DHS’ post on X detailing the agency’s claim that the ICE officer acted in self-defense, Mealer expressed her belief that the feds would get to the bottom of the matter.

“Today is yet another reminder of the dangers law enforcement face everyday as they protect our safety,” Mealer wrote on X. “I have full confidence in law enforcement’s ability to conduct a thorough investigation and ensure justice is served.”

Mealer has not made any public statements about the shooting since Tuesday, and her campaign did not immediately respond Friday to questions about whether she supported an independent investigation or believes ICE should release evidence.

In January, after ICE agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis, also sparking widespread outrage, the Republican committee chairs of the House and Senate’s homeland security committees both scheduled oversight hearings and requested testimony from immigration enforcement agency leaders.

Those testimony requests were sent to ICE and other agencies three weeks after the fatal shooting of Renee Good, and the hearings were ultimately held in February, giving lawmakers an opportunity to press then-ICE acting director Todd Lyons and other Trump administration personnel.

Rep. Andrew Garbarino, the New York Republican who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, said his panel is monitoring the investigations into the shooting. He did not say if he would hold an oversight hearing or call authorities to testify.

“The Committee remains in contact with ICE and DHS regarding the shooting in Houston, and we will continue to monitor the investigations as they develop,” Garbarino said in a statement to The Texas Tribune. “My top priority as Chairman is ensuring the safety of the public and of the law enforcement officers who are charged with upholding it.”

The committee office for Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky and chair of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, did not immediately respond to an inquiry about his plans.

In the wake of the late January ICE shooting of U.S. citizen Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, the second that month and a case in which there was ample video evidence captured by bystanders, a handful of Texas Republicans did discuss the incident. Cruz and McCaul both called for an investigation shortly after Pretti’s killing.

Abbott, meanwhile, said the federal government should “recalibrate” its approach to its massive deportation operation.

“In general, we need to have respect for law enforcement officers in the country,” Abbott said, appearing on conservative radio host Mark Davis’ show in January. “ICE, they are law enforcement officers. And so they, being the White House, need to recalibrate on what needs to be done to make sure that respect is going to be re-instilled.”

Samanta Habashy contributed to this report.

More than 100 custom cars and trucks from across the region will compete for the chance to become the next official Hot Wheels die-cast car. Judges will evaluate each build based on authenticity, creativity and garage spirit, with one winner advancing to the national semifinals.

The free, family-friendly event also features plenty to see beyond the competition, including life-size Hot Wheels vehicles, an exclusive Formula 1 display car, interactive play areas, collector displays and limited-edition merchandise.

Whether you’re a lifelong car enthusiast or just looking for a fun weekend outing with the family, the Hot Wheels Legends Tour promises an exciting day celebrating creativity, craftsmanship and car culture.

The 39-year-old Djokovic enjoyed a warm, smile-filled embrace with his 24-year-old opponent at the net after the 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 defeat Friday, quickly packed up his tennis bags and then waved to the boisterous crowd as he held one hand to his chest to show his appreciation as he walked off.

Will the seven-time Wimbledon champion ever be back to play on these hallowed lawns again?

Only time — something that Djokovic is running out of — will tell.

It's been nearly three years since Djokovic won his record-extending 24th Grand Slam singles title at the 2023 U.S. Open. And despite reaching the semifinals at all four Grand Slams last year and reaching a final and another semi in two of three Slams this year — he acknowledges that's not enough.

“For 99% of the players, that would be a very good Grand Slam result,” Djokovic said. “For me, it’s good but not good enough, because I’m blessed and cursed to be used to something of a highest degree in terms of results and achievements.

“I always have the highest expectations for myself," Djokovic added. "So it’s kind of that internal battle really of what I’ve been through for the 20-plus years of my career, what the goals were always, the expectations, and trying to balance it out and really be a little more humble in that sense.”

Still, Djokovic expressed interest in playing Wimbledon when he’s 40: “I would like to, at least one more time,” he said.

“I feel when I’m healthy," Djokovic added, “I’m still able to play as a top-five player, still able to compete at the highest level.”

For Sinner, it was a measure of revenge after Djokovic won their last meeting in five sets in this year’s Australian Open semifinals.

“Playing against Novak,” Sinner said, “what he’s still showing is true inspiration.”

Aiming to defend his title at the grass-court Grand Slam, the top-ranked Sinner will face second-seeded Alexander Zverev in Sunday’s final.

Zverev ended the “Ferytale” run of British wild card Arthur Fery with an overpowering 7-6 (0), 6-2, 6-4 victory earlier as the star-studded crowd on Centre Court witnessed two one-way contests.

Zverev will be playing for another major trophy a month after winning his first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros.

If there were any lingering questions over Sinner’s physical status after his meltdown at the French Open, they should be answered now.

Sinner blasted his way past Djokovic and showed off the kind of dominance he displayed before that second-round defeat in Paris.

“I knew mentally,” Sinner said, “that today I had to raise my level, which I’ve done.”

Andre Agassi attributed Sinner's performance in part to Djokovic: “What these guys can do now is all because he has shown them what’s possible,” Agassi said on the BBC.

No heat issues for Sinner

It was another warm day in southwest London, with the temperature rising to about 85 degrees Fahrenheit (29 Celsius). It was also breezy, though, and a bit cloudier than in recent days.

Still, it felt nothing like the suffocating heat and humidity in Paris when Sinner wasted a big lead against Juan Manuel Cerundolo, who was ranked No. 56, and had his 30-match winning streak ended.

Djokovic was coming off the longest quarterfinal in Wimbledon history, when he outlasted Felix Auger-Aliassime after 5 hours, 15 minutes on Tuesday.

Sinner, by contrast, hadn’t lost a set since he was pushed to five by Miomir Kecmanovic in the first round.

From the start, Sinner pushed Djokovic back with his powerful groundstrokes and came up with big serves in big moments.

When Sinner faced his only break point of the match early in the third set as late-afternoon shadows started creeping across the court, he produced an ace.

Sinner has won 9 straight vs. Zverev

Zverev, whose breakthrough at Roland Garros came in his fourth Grand Slam final, is attempting to become the first man in the professional era (since 1968) to win his second major title at the next event immediately after his first.

Sinner has won his last nine meetings with Zverev and 14 straight sets.

“I have to trust myself and I have to believe that I can win and that’s what I’m going to do,” Zverev said before he knew who his opponent would be.

The 114th-ranked Fery, who grew up five minutes from the All England Club and played at Stanford University, was attempting to become the first wild card to reach the final since Goran Ivanisevic won Wimbledon in 2001.

Zverev did well not to let the pro-Fery crowd get behind the local player too much and a double fault from Fery early in the first-set tiebreaker put Zverev in control.

British cheering

The British spectators did their best to encourage Fery early on, chanting his name between points as they sipped their Pimm’s under their wide-brimmed hats.

When it was over, Fery walked off to a standing ovation and applauded the crowd in return.

“I know that 99.99% of the stadium was wanting Arthur to win," Zverev said. “But it was still such an incredible atmosphere. It was such a fair crowd as well.”

The women’s final on Saturday features two Czech players, Karolina Muchova against Linda Noskova.

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AP Sports Writer Ken Maguire contributed to this report.

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

The exact source of one of the nation's largest outbreaks in years of cyclospora infections is still not known. And it can be hard to figure out what food sick people had in common because sometimes it’s a single ingredient that might be common in multiple recipes — like basil or cilantro.

Luckily cyclospora infections are generally treatable with antibiotics and rarely cause serious complications.

And there are ways to avoid getting it altogether.

Here are tips for reducing the risk:

Cyclospora can be tricky to investigate

Cyclospora is a microscopic, spherical parasite that commonly causes watery diarrhea “with frequent and sometimes explosive bowel movements,” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

More than 1,500 people in Michigan have been diagnosed with the parasitic infection and investigations into similar illnesses have been going on in 30 other states, making it the largest such outbreak in state history and one of the nation’s largest in years. No deaths have been reported.

Cyclospora surges can be tricky to investigate, and food poisoning sources can be hard to establish. Investigations can take months and sometimes never find a clear source.

In the past, people have been infected by consuming fruits or vegetables that were exposed to feces-contaminated irrigation water. Also, it’s possible that food distributors may channel contaminated foods to both grocery stores and restaurants, making it hard to discern where tainted food came from.

Outbreaks tend to occur most often in the late spring and summer.

The heat-loving parasite infects the bowels and spreads through feces.

Food safety tips

While the source of the outbreak is unknown, it's a reminder to always practice basic hygiene, including washing hands with soap and water after using the bathroom and before handling food, said Dr. Erika Noel, an assistant professor at Hawaii's medical school and a pediatrician on the island of Kauai.

Alcohol-based hand sanitizers don't kill cyclospora, but soap and water are highly effective at killing or removing the parasite from hands.

Previous outbreaks have been linked to raspberries, basil, cilantro, snow peas and salad mixes.

Noel has some tips for washing produce: When washing items like cilantro and basil, separate the leaves. For green onions, cut off the roots, remove the outer layer and run them under water while rubbing the surface. Cooking produce to an internal temperature of 158 degrees Fahrenheit (70 degrees Celsius) or higher will kill cyclospora.

Research shows that washing fruits and vegetables in vinegar can be helpful. Vinegar won't kill the parasite but can help remove it. Noel recommends submerging produce in a bowl filled with three parts water and one part vinegar and swishing it around for a few minutes. Using a salad spinner to rinse with water can help get rid of the vinegary taste.

Instead of purchasing pre-mixed salad and washing individual leaves, opt for a head of lettuce and removing the outer layer.

For melons, scrub the outside before cutting through as the knife can carry germs from the rind into the fruit inside.

Peel fruits and vegetables as much as possible.

Don't forget to wash cutting boards and countertops.

Some produce can be challenging to clean

Anything with tight crevices or fragile skin can be challenging to clean, like broccoli and cauliflower. Because berries are challenging, Noel recommends cooking them in pies or making jam instead of eating them raw.

Anything grown underground and covered in thick dirt are also tough to clean, such as root vegetables like carrots, potatoes and radishes.

If using pre-mixed salads that have labels that indicated the items have been washed, it's best to wash them again in water and vinegar.

'We don't need to panic'

Noel doesn't want the outbreak to lead to people avoiding eating fruits and vegetables; the health benefits outweigh the risks.

“We don't need to panic,” she said.

Just be aware and ensure basic hygiene habits, which is always a good practice.

As comfortable as McIlroy looked, Scheffler struggled from the start and wound up with a 72 to miss the 36-hole cut for the first time in nearly four years. He had made 78 cuts in a row, the longest streak since Tiger Woods set the record (142) more than 20 years ago.

“Got off to a poor start and after that, I didn’t really it close enough to give myself a bunch of looks,” Scheffler said. “That’s how you shoot over par.”

Jordan Smith of England had the low score of the tournament with a 63 and was the first to post at 9-under 131, joined by the resurgent Tom Kim (66) and McIlroy, who has not won since going back-to-back in the Masters in April.

“It would have been nice to be a couple better,” McIlroy said. “But it’s obviously another good day and in good position.”

But the most surprising development at The Renaissance Club was Scheffler. Instead of heading to the range after his round, he was making plans to head south earlier than he imagined for his title defense in the British Open at Royal Birkdale.

He had not missed the cut since the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship.

Scheffler had company that was equally surprising. Patrick Cantlay and Bernd Wiesberger became the first players since Jordan Spieth at the 2023 Sony Open to share the 18-hole lead and then miss the cut. Cantlay shot a 74, while Wiesberger shot 43 on the back nine for a 78.

Brooks Koepka, who was one shot off the lead going into Friday, also missed the cut.

McIlroy, who won the Scottish Open three years ago, found a new wedge to help him with firm turf at Renaissance and next week at Birkdale. He still faces a busy leaderboard going into the weekend.

Smith ran off four straight birdies early on the back nine, all of them inside 10 feet. Kim, who tied for third in the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, holed a 40-foot eagle putt on the par-5 seven and finished with two birdies on his last five holes.

Kim fell out of the top 100 in the world before steadily climbing back up. The U.S. Open was a big step, and it eventually got him into the British Open next week.

“I think being under the radar was kind of nice, just be able to work on my game and keep getting better,” Kim said. “Not being in the spotlight all the time, you don’t see everything, you don’t see all the good stuff. I knew I was really, really close. And I’m still working towards trying to be the best I can be. But all those little things kind of kept adding, kept adding, and I think it’s shown the last couple weeks.”

Matt Fitzpatrick had a 65 and was one shot out of the lead along with Min Woo Lee. The group at 133 included defending champion Chris Gotterup and Scotland's own Robert MacIntyre, who thrilled the gallery in the arena around the par-3 15th with a 30-foot birdie putt. The cheer was so loud he raised his putter to salute them.

Gotterup, who played alongside McIlroy and MacIntyre, was one shot out of the lead playing the 18th when he drove right into high, wispy grass. With the wind at his back, his iron bounced hard and rolled close to 100 yards, onto and through the green and against a television tower.

He chipped beautifully from the drop area, but failed to convert the par. Even so, he was only two back going for his fourth win of the year. Gotterup is coming off a victory last week in the John Deere Classic.

The British Open is offering three spots to the leading finishers not already qualified. Among those in position at the halfway point was Nicolai Von Dellingshausen of Germany, at No. 258 in the world who won his first European tour event last year in the Austrian Open.

“Honestly, I was nervous,” he said. “This is the best player field I've played during the year. There are a couple good names out there. Trying not to look too much into it and playing my own game.”

___

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

School supplies can get expensive, so we’ve made a list of places where you can find either free or cheap supplies for your family.

Braeswood Church Community Health Fair

When: Saturday, July 11, 8 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Where: Braeswood Assembly of God Church Fondren Campus | 10611 Fondren Rd

Price: Free

The Braeswood Community Health Fair is a chance for families to receive free school supplies and health services.

Attendees can pick up backpacks, shoes, markers and more, while also enjoying free food, health screenings and vaccinations.

Can’t make it on July 11? A second health fair will be held July 18 at the church’s Branch Forest Campus, located at 14635 Branch Forest Dr.

To register or learn more, click here.

Mayor’s Back 2 School & Health Fair

When: Saturday, August 1, 8 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Where: George R Brown Convention Center | 1001 Avenida De Las Americas

Price: Free

The Mayor’s Back 2 School and Health Fair is designed to help economically disadvantaged elementary school students.

The event will hand out 20,000 backpacks filled with school supplies, and families can also take advantage of free on-site health screenings.

To register or learn more, view the flyers here.

Spearhead Missions Back to School Bash

When: Saturday, August 1, 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Where: Booker T Washington Park | 813 S 1st St

Price: Free

Spearhead Missions, an international Christian ministry, is hosting a back-to-school celebration with free backpacks, school supplies and more.

Important to know: Backpacks will be distributed while supplies last. Children must be registered, present at the event and between the ages of 5 and 17 to receive supplies. Each child is eligible for one backpack, and adults may register up to five children. Be sure to bring your tickets to claim your supplies.

Be ready to show your tickets in order to receive your supplies.

To register or learn more, click here.

12th Annual Rock-In-Hood Back to School Event

When: Wednesday, August 5, 8 a.m. - 11 a.m.

Where: Worthing High School | 9215 Scott St

Price: Free

Pre-registration is now open for the 12th Annual Rock-In-Hood Back-to-School event!

Families can receive free hair services, school uniforms and school supplies while supplies last.

To register or learn more, click here.

Back-to-School Backpack Drive & Free Wash Day

When: Saturday, August 8, 8 a.m. - 12 p.m.

Where: Wash Bodega | 6604 W Bellfort Ave

Price: Free

This event offers free backpacks filled with school supplies and free laundry services. What could be better than that?

500 students of all grade levels can receive free supplies, and families who bring their own detergent can wash unlimited loads free of charge from 7 a.m. to 12 p.m.

If registration reaches capacity, you’ll be added to a waitlist and given first priority next time.

To register or learn more, click here.

Back 2 School Daze - 5th Annual School Supply Drive

When: Saturday, August 8, 11 a.m.

Where: Houston Texans YMCA | 5202 Griggs Rd

Price: Free

The BE Impactful Foundation is partnering with several Houston organizations for 5th Back to School Daze!

Families can receive free school supplies for students in grades K-12, along with free haircuts and food while supplies last.

School supplies will be given out on a first-come, first-serve basis, and while registration isn’t required, it is helpful so organizers can estimate attendance.

Games and contests will be hosted every 30 minutes for the chance to win extra prizes!

To register or learn more, click here.

Records from the medical examiner’s office shows Araujo died from a “penetrating gunshot wound of the torso.”

A ruling of homicide from the medical examiner is not the same as in a legal or criminal context. It is simply describing a cause and manner of how someone died.

The medical examiner’s ruling comes two days after an ICE agent shot and killed Araujo during a “targeted enforcement operation.”

According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the shooting happened around 6:50 a.m. Tuesday in the 6800 block of Canal Street while agents were attempting to arrest Salgado Araujo, who ICE identified as an undocumented immigrant from Mexico.

• RELATED: ICE agents involved in fatal Houston shooting were not wearing body cameras, DHS says

ICE officials said Salgado Araujo rammed an ICE vehicle and attempted to run over an ICE agent, prompting “our officer firing his weapon in self-defense.” Salgado Araujo was later pronounced dead at Ben Taub Hospital.

Family members and civil rights advocates have disputed portions of the federal account and are calling for an independent, transparent investigation into the shooting.

On Thursday, DHS officials said the officers involved had not yet received their body-worn cameras and blamed government shutdowns they say delayed funding for that equipment.

• RELATED: Hundreds march in Houston demanding justice after ICE shoots, kills Lorenzo Salgado Araujo

“The officers involved in the incident in Houston had not been issued body-worn cameras due to back-to-back Democrat shutdowns,” DHS said. “The process of purchasing and issuing body-worn cameras to all of our ICE field offices was interrupted by the Democrats multiple government shutdowns. Body cameras have been deployed to more than half the field offices with the remaining half to receive them in the next 60 days.”

The department said equipping ICE officers with body cameras has been a priority and cited what it described as a sharp increase in assaults on agents.

• RELATED:‘A hardworking Mexican man’: Son of man killed by ICE in Houston demands investigation

“Providing our ICE law enforcement officers with body cameras has been a priority for DHS -- especially as our officers are facing a more than 1,300% increase in assaults against them,” the agency said. “Now thanks to the Secure America Act, ICE has historic funding to provide law enforcement with the resources they need, including body cameras.”

The absence of body camera footage means investigators will instead rely on witness statements, physical evidence and other available video, if any exists, to reconstruct what happened.

The shooting remains under investigation by federal authorities.

Meanwhile, Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare has launched a parallel review and is urging anyone who witnessed the shooting to contact investigators.

• RELATED: Harris County DA investigators return to east Houston scene of ICE agent shooting that killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo

Houston city officials have said they do not have jurisdiction to investigate because the shooting involved federal law enforcement officers rather than local police.

Mayor John Whitmire and several Houston City Council members have called for a transparent federal investigation and the public release of the findings.

The 23-year-old Robinson decided not to testify in the hearing. He's charged with aggravated murder in the Sept. 10 assassination of Kirk on the Utah Valley University campus. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. State District Judge Tony Graf didn't say when he would rule.

Robinson’s lawyers called a final witness in an attempt to raise doubts about DNA evidence in the prosecution’s case. The defense previously challenged the reliability of ballistics tests on a bullet fragment recovered from Kirk’s body and fought the release of a recorded interview with Robinson’s roommate.

The Latest:

Some emotional final moments in the courtroom for the Kirk family

At the end of the day’s proceedings, the judge allowed Kirk’s family and the rest of those in the courtroom to view an edited, enhanced version of the surveillance video that prosecutors said showed Tyler Robinson at the time of the shooting.

Graf agreed to show the video in court — but out of view of the media camera’s livestream — after Jeffrey Neiman, the Kirk family’s attorney, argued that they had a right to see evidence the judge would consider when deciding whether to send Robinson to trial.

The video then played, showing someone on the rooftop where Robinson allegedly fired a single bullet that hit Kirk in the neck.

Kirk’s widow, Erika, watched intently as the person ran across the roof, but when the figure dropped to a crawl near the roof’s edge, she turned and embraced Kirk’s mother, who was crying. They held each other and looked away until the video was almost over.

Kirk family calls preliminary hearing a ‘step forward in the pursuit of justice’

Kirk’s family released a statement shortly after the court session ended expressing gratitude for the support and prayers offered to them and saying the preliminary hearing “marks an important step forward in the pursuit of justice for Charlie.”

“As difficult as these last few days have been, it brings our family comfort to know that the world has witnessed the overwhelming evidence of what occurred to Charlie that day,” the family wrote.

“Nothing will ever undo the loss of our beloved Charlie. As this case moves into its next phase, we pray that truth will continue to be heard through a process that is fair, transparent, and grounded in the facts.”

Attorney Jeffrey Neiman, who represents the Kirk family, left the courthouse without answering questions.

Utah Sen. Mike Lee says evidence against Robinson is ‘damning’

The Republican senator attended Tyler Robinson’s preliminary hearing on Thursday, along with far-right influencer Jack Posobiec.

“It’s damning,” Lee said in a video he posted to the social media site X. “It contains multiple confessions by the defendant Tyler Robinson acknowledging not only that he killed Charlie Kirk, but acknowledging that he did so having planned it in advance in great detail and acknowledging at one point that he was motivated by hate.”

Preliminary hearing is done for now, final arguments will be in September

Both sides are done presenting evidence for the preliminary hearing and State District Judge Tony Graf has adjourned.

The hearing won’t resume until Sept. 1, when both sides will make their final arguments to the judge about whether Tyler Robinson should stand trial.

The long break is intended to give the attorneys time to write legal briefs.

Analyst says rifle DNA testing was at least ‘1 trillion times more likely' to support inclusion of Tyler Robinson

The ATFE forensic biologist said under cross-examination that testing on swabs taken from several parts of the rifle and ammunition supports the conclusion that the DNA found was primarily contributed by Tyler Robinson.

DNA from more than person was found on some of the items, Oliver told Deputy Utah County Attorney Ryan McBride. The testing also looks for the highest concentration of the DNA found on an item in order to help determine the “major contributor” of that DNA profile.

The DNA samples on some parts of the rifle were at least 1 trillion times more likely to have been contributed by Tyler Robinson and one other unrelated person, than they were to have been contributed by two unknown, unrelated people, Oliver said.

Defense questions forensic biologist about DNA testing techniques

Caitlin Oliver, a forensic biologist at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, is testifying about the DNA techniques used in the case.

Items tested for DNA include a towel and rifle found in a wooded area near the Utah Valley University campus after the shooting and a rotary tool that Tyler Robinson’s roommate told investigators the defendant used to engrave messages on bullets.

Prosecutors tried to preemptively strike Oliver’s testimony, saying the evidence is already overwhelming and devastating for the defense, but the judge wanted to hear it.

Defense attorney Richard Novak asked Oliver about industry recommendations for describing DNA results, ways DNA samples are extracted and different testing methods. Oliver said her lab uses “likelihood ratios” and doesn’t definitively conclude that a person’s DNA was on an object.

“So from a scientific standpoint, you couldn’t ... blast a headline in the media, ‘Mr. Robinson’s DNA found on this item,’?” Novak asked.

Correct, Oliver said.

Judge says news media camera can stay, but can’t record video of evidence today

Graf said after reviewing livestream recording that it’s clear the news media camera operator caught the issue first, about 14 seconds before the judge himself spotted it and asked that the exhibit be taken down.

“Compliance with court orders is essential in all proceedings,” Graf says, and protecting the constitutional rights of both defendant Tyler Robinson and Charlie Kirk’s widow Erika Kirk is “paramount.”

Transparency for the public is also important, Graf said.

Defense attorney Richard Novak wanted the judge to bar the news media camera from the courtroom for the rest of the preliminary hearing as well as for a Sept. 1 proceeding, when both sides will present final arguments over whether the case should go to trial.

But Graf said the camera can stay, as long as it doesn’t record video of any evidence presented. He later noted that the livestream’s audio can capture discussion about such evidence.

Media attorney says courtroom livestreams are a team effort

Typically, an announcement is made that an exhibit is going to be shown on the courtroom screen. That gives the camera operator a moment to redirect the camera or to wait a beat before focusing in, depending on what the judge has ordered.

But in this case, prosecutors showed the exhibit with no warning, news media attorney Michael Judd said.

Judd said the camera operator quickly realized what had happened and moved the camera away within about two seconds.

Deputy Utah County Attorney Ryan McBride agreed that the image should not have appeared on the livestream, but told the judge the text of the messages — if not the actual image — had already been made public in law enforcement documents.

Graf said he wants to review the livestream recording before deciding how to handle the violation.

Judge is deciding how to handle a violation of an order barring some evidence from public view

Graf is taking a break to review livestream footage from Thursday, because a piece of evidence that was supposed to be kept from public view was briefly shown on camera.

The evidence — an image of written communication between Tyler Robinson and his then-roommate and romantic partner — has been published and is even able to be purchased as photographic prints, defense attorney Richard Novak told the judge. He said the publication violated Robinson’s fair-trial rights, and he wants the judge to issue sanctions, a kind of legal punishment.

The judge allowed prosecutors to display an image of the evidence on Thursday, but said it could only be shown to the courtroom gallery. Later, prosecutors put up a side-by-side comparison of that image with another photo, and the side-by-side view was briefly caught by the news media camera operator, who quickly panned away.

Salt Lake City woman came bearing gifts for the Kirk family

Tiani Shoemaker drove about an hour from her Salt Lake City home bearing gifts for Charlie Kirk’s mother and hoping for a seat in the courtroom. Security turned her away.

Shoemaker said she brought a hat decorated with the words, “love like a mother,” and a note expressing her condolences and admiration for Kathryn Kirk.

The note was to tell Kirk that “the whole world’s hurting because of the loss of your son,” Shoemaker said, adding that she wanted to be “a part of history.”

“This really is like the whole world is focused on little Provo, Utah right now,” she said.

Shoemaker said some of her friends and extended family members witnessed the shooting and were left traumatized. “They couldn’t even be in large crowds for a while. It’s really — it’s upsetting, you know?”

Zoomed-in version of ‘sniper’s perch’ video to be shown in court

The judge said at the close of Thursday’s hearing that at the request of Kirk’s family, he would allow to be shown inside the courtroom an altered version of a campus surveillance video that prosecutors said shows Robinson crawling out to a rooftop “sniper’s perch” before shooting Kirk.

The unaltered video was previously shown. The altered version includes footage that zooms in on a figure that prosecutors said was Robinson and red marks that were added to the video.

Court is in session

Graf is again reminding attendees of his courtroom rules, including restrictions on electronic devices for many attendees.

Court security director says courtroom visitors shouldn’t look at the parents

Chris Palmer, Court Security Director at Utah State Courts, spoke outside the courthouse as people lined up again hoping for a spot in the courtroom. He warned them that people in the gallery should not make the parents of Charlie Kirk or Tyler Robinson feel uncomfortable by looking at them during the hearing.

“These people come here to get justice, and they don’t need to feel like they’re under a microscope from somebody sitting behind them or ahead of them,” Palmer said.

Joshua Carr of Provo, Utah, was among those in the gallery and said “People were pretty respectful.”

“I wasn’t seeing people turning their heads. Again, we have the — the public was there. We had the Robinson family in front of us, we had the Kirk family behind us.”

Would-be court watchers hope persistence will pay off

Billie Webb of Salt Lake City was among the people who slept outside the courthouse all night hoping to get one of the few public seats inside the hearing.

“I’ve tried to go every single day,” Webb said Thursday night. “Today I wasn’t able to get in once again. I did get in yesterday for the first time. I did get in yesterday for the first time and I am absolutely determined to be there tomorrow.”

“Showed up at 3 a.m. Today for this one. Still did not get in. I was 16th and there’s 14 spots. So I will be camping all night here today. Probably 12 hours. 9 p.m. to 9 a.m.,” she said.

Score. Friday morning, Webb got the pink wristband she needed for a spot inside.

There are only 14 seats for the public in the courtroom

People have been lining up early — sometimes sleeping outside the doors overnight — in hopes of getting a wristband for a seat in the courthouse this week. Only 14 wristbands are given out each day, on a first-come, first-served basis.

Chris Palmer, the court’s director of security, warned Thursday morning that tents and other camping supplies won’t be allowed as people seek a seat for the final day of the hearing Friday. He also warned against jumping in line or saving spots for someone else.

Earlier in the week, court security said it discovered some people had bought colored wristbands to try to sneak in.

Defense tries to sow doubt about ballistics evidence

One of Tyler Robinson’s attorneys, Michael Burt, tried to inject doubt into the prosecution’s case by challenging the reliability of ballistics tests on a bullet fragment recovered from Kirk’s body.

Authorities sought to tie the fragment to the suspected murder weapon, but the results were inconclusive.

“Saying anything but inconclusive was inappropriate,” said Samantha Karner with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The defense earlier in the week had questioned the reliability of DNA evidence that investigators said linked Robinson to the scene. Experts say the science behind DNA testing is sound.

Robinson’s attorneys plan to have a second person from ATF testify Friday.

The prosecution ended its presentation Thursday afternoon.

Testimony in five-day preliminary hearing wraps Friday

After testimony in the preliminary hearing ends Friday, State District Judge Tony Graf will rule whether prosecutors have shown enough evidence to proceed to trial. But a decision from Graf won’t come immediately.

Attorneys on both sides say they’d like the benefit of seeing the court transcript of the preliminary hearing and want to submit written briefs before Graf weighs in.

That will take weeks to play out. Graf set oral arguments on the evidence presented in the preliminary hearing for Sept. 1.

Graf tends not to make immediate rulings.

Garcia was joined at a news conference by Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare, attorney Hugo Baldera-Ybarra and U.S. Rep. Al Green to discuss new developments in Tuesday’s ICE-involved shooting in Houston’s East End.

• RELATED: ‘A hardworking Mexican man’: Son of man killed by ICE in Houston demands investigation

Garcia said she spoke with Acting ICE Director David Venturella, who confirmed Salgado Araujo was not the intended target of the operation.

According to Garcia, ICE officers were attempting to locate another individual who had a final order of removal. She said the operation was based on an administrative immigration warrant, not a criminal arrest warrant, and that officers did not personally know the individual they were trying to locate.

Garcia also criticized how the operation was carried out, saying the agents involved were driving unmarked vehicles that did not have emergency lights or sirens and were not equipped with body-worn cameras or dashboard cameras.

• Hundreds march in Houston demanding justice after ICE shoots, kills Lorenzo Salgado Araujo

“They should have body cameras,” Garcia said, adding that members of the public should know they are being stopped by law enforcement “instead of being followed by black SUVs.”

Garcia also criticized the Department of Homeland Security for publicly identifying Salgado Araujo before his family had been notified of his death.

“No family should ever learn about the death of a loved one through social media or a press report,” Garcia said, adding that DHS should apologize to the family.

• Mexico to request criminal charges over deaths following fatal shooting of Houston man by ICE agents

She also expressed concern that the three detained witnesses could be deported before investigators can interview them. Garcia alleged ICE is encouraging the men to accept voluntary departure, which she said could jeopardize the investigation.

Attorney says witnesses tell a different story

Baldera-Ybarra said he met with the three detainees Thursday morning at the Montgomery County Processing Center in Conroe.

• Mexico to request criminal charges over deaths following fatal shooting of Houston man by ICE agents

He said one of his clients lost his brother in the shooting, while the other two lost a close friend.

“My clients’ version of events is very different,” Baldera-Ybarra said.

• LULAC says witnesses in fatal Houston ICE shooting are being pressured to self-deport

He called for the men’s immediate release, arguing they are key witnesses whose testimony should be preserved before any immigration proceedings continue.

• Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was not the intended target in Houston ICE shooting, U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia says

Baldera-Ybarra said he fears the men could be pressured into signing paperwork agreeing to voluntarily leave the country before they have an opportunity to fully participate in the investigation.

He also criticized ICE’s handling of use-of-force investigations, alleging the agency has a pattern of claiming self-defense in shootings involving vehicles and deporting immigrants before investigations are complete. He further alleged Latino immigrants have been disproportionately targeted during immigration enforcement under the Trump administration.

Those allegations have not been independently verified by KPRC 2.

DA asks public for videos, witnesses

Teare said his office has been investigating the shooting since Tuesday, just as it would any officer-involved shooting in Harris County.

“We’re doing everything we can to ensure every case receives a full, fair investigation,” Teare said.

• RELATED: ICE agents involved in fatal Houston shooting were not wearing body cameras, DHS says

He emphasized the importance of transparency.

“If we aren’t transparent and the people do not believe we are holding law enforcement accountable, we will lose the trust of the people,” Teare said.

Teare urged anyone who witnessed the shooting or has surveillance or cellphone video to contact investigators.

Al Green

Rep. Al Green thanked Teare for continuing the local investigation.

“Thank you to the Harris County District Attorney for not letting the feds bully you into not investigating,” Green said.

The Walk for Lives event will take place from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, July 11, at Houston City Hall, 901 Bagby St.

The Houston event is one of more than 100 family-led Walk for Lives events being held across the country as part of the DEA’s Fentanyl Free America initiative, a nationwide campaign focused on prevention, education and support.

Organizers say the event is designed to bring together families, community members, health professionals and law enforcement to honor those lost to fentanyl while providing resources that could help save lives.

What to expect

The free event will include:

• A one-mile community walk
• Testimonials from families impacted by fentanyl-related deaths
• Educational presentations from experts
• A community resource fair featuring prevention education, recovery support and grief counseling

According to the DEA, the walks are organized by bereaved family members, many of whom lost children to fentanyl-related poisonings, and are supported by volunteers and community partners.

Why organizers say it matters

The DEA says fentanyl-related overdoses and poisonings remain the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45. The agency also says an average of nine high school students die each week from a drug-related death, and more than one million parents in the United States have lost a child to a drug-related death.

The Walk for Lives initiative is intended to increase awareness of the dangers of illicit fentanyl while connecting families and individuals with education, treatment and support services.

How to participate

Community members interested in attending can register and find additional Walk for Lives locations at Walkforlives.org.

The DEA also offers free fentanyl prevention and educational resources through its Fentanyl Free America initiative.

Federal agents were attempting to stop the vehicle as part of an unspecified “targeted enforcement operation” in a predominantly Latino neighborhood when Lorenzo Salgado Araujo — whom ICE identified as an undocumented immigrant from Mexico — attempted to evade arrest, according to the ICE statement.  

Salgado Araujo allegedly attempted to ram an ICE vehicle, refused to follow multiple verbal commands and tried to run over the ICE agent before the federal officer fired his weapon in self-defense, the statement said.

The shooting comes after federal immigration agents have faced scrutiny for a series of fatal shootings of American citizens in the past year and a half, some of which roiled the nation and led to fierce criticism of President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration enforcement.

Trump and his administration have routinely said they are targeting immigrants who have a criminal history, but the federal government’s data shows that a majority of the people ICE has arrested under the second Trump administration don’t have criminal convictions. 

ICE’s description of the Houston shooting is similar to claims in other cases which were later contradicted by video evidence or eyewitness statements. In Texas last year, an agent shot and killed a man on South Padre Island. The agent said the man’s car slightly struck him and he feared for his life. Lawyers for the man’s family and a witness disputed the official account.

By late Tuesday, no law enforcement or bystander videos had been released or emerged to corroborate or contradict ICE’s description of the Houston incident.

The Houston Police Department said Tuesday its officers were not part of the ICE operation and they only showed up afterward to help with directing traffic. 

FBI Houston spokesperson Connor Hagan said the office is leading an investigation into the potential assault on a federal law enforcement officer. Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General is leading an investigation into the fatal shooting of the man, according to Hagan. DHS, which oversees all immigration agents, has not identified the immigration officer who shot Salgado Araujo, while Hagan referred questions about the agent back to ICE.  

Democratic lawmakers and civil rights groups quickly demanded an independent investigation. 

“ICE’s actions across the country have caused them to lose the faith and confidence of communities,” said  U.S. Rep. Christian Menefee, D-Houston. “We must ensure transparency in this investigation. My heart is with everyone impacted by this fatal shooting.”

DHS didn’t immediately answer The Texas Tribune’s questions about why ICE agents were trying to pull over Salgado Araujo or how he came onto ICE’s radar. According to a public records search, the only Texas resident by that name was a 52-year-old Houston man who has no criminal convictions in Texas. 

Ronaldo Salgado identified himself as Salgado Araujo’s son on Facebook in a post that said his father lived in the United States for nearly 35 years and worked in construction to help provide for his family. Salgado did not respond to requests for an interview.

In the Facebook post, he said his father was in the “process of obtaining his work permit through the legal process” and “was on his way to work, picking up his workers” when the shooting happened.

The Houston Fire Department said dispatched medical responders found Salgado Araujo with a gunshot wound to his abdomen. He died at a local hospital, according to ICE. 

“My father did not deserve this,” Salgado wrote. 

The block where the incident took place is a mix of homes and businesses, such as a La Michoacana Meat Market and a local snack stand. The shooting occurred between a barbershop and a psychic reading shop, right by Houston’s Second Ward neighborhood where the average annual income, according to a 2022 report from the city, is around $52,000.

The predominantly Hispanic area of the city is a target of revitalization due to its proximity to downtown and the Port of Houston, and is the beneficiary of the 2026 FIFA World Cup upgrades being implemented across one of the country’s largest cities. As new development spills over from Houston’s downtown area into the East End, the region is becoming more residential, creating a mix of new buildings and old homes of Hispanic families who have lived there for decades.

Mildred Guerra, 23, an insurance agent who lives and works in the east Houston neighborhood, said recent ICE operations concern her.

“I’m very worried about our customers,” she said, adding that many of their customers have started calling in payments by phone rather than coming in person.

Calls for independent investigation 

U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, said the man’s family and her constituents “deserve a complete and transparent accounting” of the fatal shooting. 

“ICE has released an initial account, but the facts must be independently and thoroughly investigated, including the circumstances that led to the use of deadly force,” Garcia said in a post on X. “All available footage, communications, and other evidence should be preserved and reviewed as part of a full and impartial investigation.”

Alejandra Salinas, a progressive Houston City Council member, echoed that call along with Menefee, the Houston Democrat. 

LULAC, the country’s largest Latino civil rights organization, started a petition demanding an independent investigation and requesting that “every piece of evidence” be released to the public. 

The petition cites an unrelated case in Chicago in which a Border Patrol agent’s statements of firing in self-defense was disputed by video footage and his own text messages.

The Harris County District Attorney’s office said in a statement that the case was an “active federal investigation” but did not answer questions about whether its office was investigating the shooting or planned on presenting the case to a grand jury. It also did not answer a question about whether its civil rights division, which typically reviews police shootings in the county, has any staff assigned to investigate it.

“Our office will collaborate with federal authorities to ensure a thorough local review of the evidence,” the district attorney’s spokesperson Courtney Fischer said in a statement.

The Texas Department of Public Safety, which investigates police shootings around the state, did not immediately respond to questions about whether it is doing its own probe into Tuesday’s shooting.

Other immigration agents’ shootings

Salgado Araujo is the latest fatal shooting by an immigration agent in Texas and across the country since President Trump ordered his administration to crack down on immigration, following through with a vow that was at the centerpiece of his successful 2024 campaign. 

On March 15, 2025, an ICE agent helping local police route traffic around an accident shot and killed 23-year-old Ruben Ray Martinez in South Padre Island, where the San Antonio resident was celebrating his birthday with friends. ICE’s involvement in the shooting only became public knowledge after watchdog group American Oversight received documents about the incident as part of a public records request. DHS said agents shot Martinez after he tried to run over ICE agents. But video footage didn’t definitively show Martinez attempting to run over the agents. Lawyers for his family argue footage refutes the Trump administration’s claims. 

A Cameron County grand jury in February chose not to indict the ICE officer who shot Martinez after the local district attorney presented evidence from the shooting. 

Most notably, immigration agents in January fatally shot 37-year-old Renée Good and 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minneapolis during separate protests against immigration enforcement operations. 

DHS claimed Good tried to run over ICE agents, but video footage of that incident caused some people to question whether Good attempted to run over the agents. 

In Pretti’s killing, video footage showed Border Patrol agents had already restrained the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs nurse, who was armed with a handgun holstered on his hip, before two Border Patrol agents shot him 10 times. 

Prosecutors have not criminally charged any of the immigration agents in connection to those Minneapolis shootings.

In October 2025, a Border Patrol agent shot Marimar Martinez five times during an immigration enforcement operation in Chicago. 

DHS initially said that Marimar Martinez tried to ram agents with her vehicle before the Border Patrol agent exited his vehicle and fired his weapon. The federal government had originally charged Martinez with assaulting officers. But federal prosecutors later dropped the charges after evidence, including the agents text messages and video footage, showed that Martinez didn’t ram her vehicle into the agents. 

Historically, it is rare for federal and local police officers to face criminal charges after shooting someone while on duty. But in May, Minnesota prosecutors charged Christian Castro, a 52-year-old ICE officer, in connection with the wounding of a Venezuelan man during an immigration operation in that state. 

Many of the previous shootings have spurred backlash to Trump’s immigration enforcement and demands that federal agents scale down their presence and operations in U.S. cities.

Ayden Runnels and Lomi Kriel contributed to this story.

Ward, 28, who starred in the Netflix crime drama “Top Boy,” sobbed after a jury in Snaresbrook Crown Court found him not guilty of two counts of rape, two counts of assault by penetration and one count of sexual assault.

Ward has appeared in films including “Blue Story,” “The Book of Clarence” and last year's American political satire “Eddington,” alongside Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal.

In 2020, he won the Rising Star award at the British Academy Film Awards, or BAFTAs. He was nominated for an acting BAFTA for Sam Mendes’ “Empire of Light” and for a BAFTA television award for the Steve McQueen-directed series “Small Axe.”

Ward had denied the charges and said he had “full faith” he’d be cleared of the charges. He testified at trial that he met the woman at a party and that they had consensual sex.

Defense lawyer Humzah Ilyas said Ward had put his life on hold for more than three years and was “looking forward to getting back to doing the work he loves.”

According to LULAC, the three men are all Mexican nationals and include Salgado Araujo’s brother, Víctor Hugo Salgado Araujo, as well as two workers, Daniel Tirado Pantoja and José Trinidad Rojas Pliego.

RELATED: ‘A hardworking Mexican man’: Son of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo demands investigation after his father was shot, killed by ICE agent

Proaño told KPRC 2 that two of the three men are “inclined” to sign voluntary departure paperwork. He said LULAC members have been in contact with the men and are encouraging them to remain in the United States while federal investigators continue examining the circumstances surrounding the shooting.

“We need them to stay. They’re the only witnesses to what actually happened. They were in the vehicle, and we need to get their statements,” Proaño said. “We need to get those statements while they’re on U.S. soil, and we need to make sure that they’re not deported either.”

Proaño also said the three men are being held at an ICE detention facility in Conroe. KPRC 2 has not been able to independently confirm their location.

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, others in vehicle were not intended ICE targets

According to the office of U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, Salgado Araujo was not the intended target of the enforcement operation.

• Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo has mono

The shooting happened around 6:50 a.m. Tuesday in the 6800 block of Canal Street while agents were conducting a targeted ICE operation, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Surveillance video obtained by KPRC 2 captures the final moments before Salgado Araujo was shot and killed by an ICE agent Tuesday during what federal officials described as an attempted immigration enforcement operation.

DHS identified Salgado Araujo as an undocumented immigrant from Mexico.

In a statement, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said the encounter began after officers received information from law enforcement partners and conducted surveillance at a target address.

“After receiving a credible tip from our law enforcement partners, our officers conducted surveillance on a target’s address. Weeks prior to the incident, they noted two white vans at the property. On July 7, officers were almost at the target’s address when they observed a white van with an individual who resembled the target. Officers then initiated the vehicle stop.”

Proaño disputed DHS’s account of the encounter.

“100% profiling. There’s no question about it,” Proaño said. “They saw two brown people, basically, driving this vehicle. They were casing a 97% Latino community in Magnolia Park.”

ICE agents were not wearing body cameras

DHS has confirmed there is no body camera footage of the incident. The agency attributed the lack of body cameras to what it described as “back-to-back Democrat shutdowns,” saying the funding delays prevented ICE officers from being equipped with the devices.

Without body camera footage, investigators are expected to rely on witness statements, physical evidence, and any available surveillance or cellphone video to determine what happened.

The shooting remains under investigation by federal authorities.

Meanwhile, Salgado Araujo’s family and civil rights advocates have challenged parts of the federal government’s account of the incident and continue to call for an independent and transparent investigation.

RELATED: Harris County ME rules ICE shooting death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo a homicide

According to Proaño, keeping the three detained men in the United States is critical because they could serve as potential witnesses as investigators seek to establish what happened during the encounter.

“They live in mixed-status family households, and they do not want to bring additional potential legal jeopardy to their family members,” Proaño said.

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“This case was always about two courageous young girls who simply wanted the same opportunities as their peers to participate in school life,” their lawyer, Chris Erchull of GLAD Law, said in a statement Thursday. “Their willingness to stand up to extraordinary hostility made clear the human cost of laws that target transgender youth.”

The teenagers, Parker Tirrell and Iris Turmelle, took on Trump’s executive order last year, amending their 2024 complaint against New Hampshire's law on banning transgender girls from school sports. A federal judge had granted a court order allowing them to play as the case proceeded.

For Tirrell, it meant being able to keep playing on her high school girls’ soccer team. For Turmelle, it was having a chance to try out for different sports.

Both sides agreed to pause the case and wait for a ruling from the Supreme Court as it considered similar state laws barring transgender girls and women from playing on school and college athletic teams in Idaho and West Virginia. Last month, the court upheld the laws. It also said that barring transgender girls and women doesn’t run afoul of the federal law known as Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in education.

One teen and her family decided to move from New Hampshire

Turmelle and her family moved out of New Hampshire last summer following proposed legislation against transgender people. One measure signed into law by Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte last year prohibits medical professionals from providing puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy to new transgender patients under age 18.

“Though there may be a carve-out for people already receiving gender-affirming care, that is way too close a call for us to risk staying,” Turmelle's mother, Amy Manzetti, wrote in an op-ed piece at the time. “Other New Hampshire laws also seek to erase her.”

Most Republican-controlled states in the past five years have adopted laws or policies limiting gender-affirming care for transgender minors and limiting which school bathrooms transgender people can use, as well as sports restrictions. The Williams Institute at UCLA estimates that about 3% of youth ages 13 to 17 identify as transgender.

“The challenges with relocation are significant and burdensome — this includes having to find new employment, buying and selling homes, packing and moving possessions, integrating kids with a new school system, losing access to longstanding family and friends, and potential loss of income,” Corinne Goodwin, the executive director of Eastern PA Trans Equality Project in Pennsylvania, said in an email.

"But these families do so because they love their kids and know that supporting them with the care and opportunities they need is critical to their long-term success and happiness.”

The other teen gave up playing soccer at high school

Tirrell, 17, began her junior year last fall on the girls' junior varsity soccer team. Things were fine at first, and each time she scored a goal, she got a round of ice cream from her parents. But a few weeks into the season, she decided to stop playing.

“With all of the political stuff going on, soccer wasn't just about the game anymore,” her mother, Sara Tirrell, told The Associated Press in an interview.

It became more about preparing for the possibility of conflict.

“Were there any local Facebook groups where they were sort of agitating about potential protests and how do we prepare, and what are we walking into, and we never kind of knew,” she said. “We were on a lot of pins and needles, especially after the previous season."

She was referring to a controversy at an away game where two dads from an opposing team were banned from school grounds for wearing pink wristbands marked “XX” to represent female chromosomes. They sued the school district and a judge ruled against them. They have appealed their case.

Last fall, there was an increased presence of school administrators at the games and bus drivers pulled in closer to the field so the students weren’t in the parking lot, she said.

“Parker didn’t talk about it a lot, but I think she could see that stress for everybody — for her, for her teammates, for her coaches,” Sara Tirrell said. "She felt kind of bad about pulling them all into that circus again. And so she ultimately said, ‘This isn’t fun anymore and I don’t want to do it.’”

Parker’s father described the atmosphere as “palpable tension.”

Even playing on her own turf, “there would typically be a couple of police officers at the home games where there weren’t previously,” Zach Tirrell said.

In the past, Parker also played soccer in a recreation league and could still do so.

“But I think it all kind of still sort of weighs on her,” her mother said. "It's the same group of kids that she plays with who, honestly, have been very supportive and love to have her on the team and have expressed that to her many times over. But I think she still has that worry in her brain around, ‘What are other people going to say and do if I show up at a game?’”

Parker's parents hope she'll return to playing soccer some day. In the meantime, “she plans to be around and use her voice to continue standing up to discrimination,” her mother said. “In some ways she’s had to grow up a lot faster than some of her peers.”

___

Associated Press reporter Geoff Mulvihill in Haddonfield, New Jersey, contributed to this article.

In courthouses and public squares, they marked the nation's 250th anniversary with a dire warning: The rule of law in America is in grave danger. They delivered a similar message at a library in Grosse Pointe just outside Detroit — the last stop on an extraordinary tour to defend judicial independence and bolster trust in courts.

Americans' confidence in the court system and democracy has dipped in recent years. The country is more polarized, and President Donald Trump has repeatedly cast doubt on the fairness of the judicial system.

Some judges on the tour said in phone interviews this week that the United States was at a precipice.

“Looking back in history, we have teetered," former Ohio Supreme Court Justice Michael Donnelly said. "This is a moment where we can decide to reinstill those beliefs that we are a country of laws and not of men.”

Judges step off the bench

The four-day tour through the Rust Belt is a sharp departure for a typically reserved and insular branch of government. Federal judges in particular largely limit their comments to the courtroom and written decisions, focusing on the facts of individual cases.

But that restraint is loosening amid a barrage of attacks by Trump and other White House officials, the administration's rampant defiance of U.S. district court orders and its expansive view of executive power. Trump has called a district judge who ruled against one of his immigration moves “crooked” and suggested with no evidence that Supreme Court justices who struck down his tariffs were motivated by foreign interests.

More federal judges have recently begun talking about receiving death threats and profane messages, though they have not blamed Trump or any other officials. Some have blasted administration policies in sharply worded opinions that strayed beyond the legal dispute before them. Even U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has weighed in.

In an appearance in March, Roberts said personal criticism of federal judges was dangerous and had to stop. The rare rebuke from the head of the nation's top court came two days after Trump's remark about a “crooked” judge, though Roberts didn't mention Trump or anyone else by name.

The U.S. Marshals Service reported 564 threats against federal judges in the government fiscal year that ended in September, up from 509 the year before.

“I don’t want to say we have moved into an era of lawlessness, but it sometimes feels that way,” said former U.S. District Court Judge Victoria Roberts, who joined the bus tour in Michigan.

Timothy Lewis, another former federal judge on the tour, said his concerns about the politicization of the judicial branch reached a tipping point a decade ago, when Senate Republicans thwarted President Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. Today, the rule of law is facing an "existential threat" from an ongoing breakdown of norms, according to Lewis, who spent seven years on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

“I have fundamental concerns," he said, “about where we are headed as a nation.”

Their route has been varied

The tour started Tuesday in the western Pennsylvania town of Greensburg — once the hub of a thriving coal industry that now lures visitors from nearby Pittsburgh for highland recreation and a historic downtown.

Judges mingled with customers at a coffee shop before speaking at the domed, ornate Westmoreland County Courthouse. Then it was off to Washington, also in western Pennsylvania. The town of 13,000 people, where about 15% of the population is Black, was a key stop on the Underground Railroad and a regional base for the Civil Rights Movement.

From there, the bus headed west for events Wednesday in Columbus, Ohio, and the city of Wooster in Amish country. The judges stopped at a Cracker Barrel restaurant on the way. They spent Thursday in Cleveland before circling Lake Erie north to Michigan.

The two groups that planned the tour — dubbed “Justice in Motion” — say they were inspired by a similar campaign in Poland in 2021 after that country's governing party took control of key judicial institutions.

Independent Polish judges visited scores of towns to promote the rule of law and teach voters about the country's constitution. The U.S. tour also aims to educate people.

An effort to combat misinformation about what they do

Maureen O'Connor, a former chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, said judges risk ceding the narrative about their roles and motives to “voices of misinformation” if they don't speak up.

A letter she received years ago, and still keeps, reminds her of that danger. The writer accused O'Connor, a Republican, of betraying her party when she repeatedly struck down Republican-drawn legislative maps as illegal gerrymanders. “There was just a basic misunderstanding of what my role was as a judge,” O'Connor said.

O'Connor is among roughly 30 judges, including two former federal judges and two current federal judges, who participated in the tour. One of the federal judges was nominated by a Democrat, the other three by Republicans. The state judges, some of whom are also still on the bench, represented both parties.

They were joined by former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett, former Ohio attorneys general and a few lawyers. The event was put together by the Democracy Rising Collaborative and Keep Our Republic, nonpartisan advocacy groups.

Organizers say they chose stops that would get the judges in front of as many people as possible to build connections and trust. The judges embraced that mission.

“The lifeblood of the judiciary is public confidence,” Donnelly, the former Ohio Supreme Court justice, said. “If you lose that, it’s very difficult to get it back.”

British actors Benedict Cumberbatch, Hugh Laurie and Damian Lewis watched from the Royal Box, as did fashion designer Tom Ford and Anna Wintour.

Tendulkar, considered one of the greatest cricketers ever, retired in 2013 after playing in his 200th test match. Wimbledon called him “ cricket royalty.” Another former cricket star, Brian Lara of the West Indies, was also in the Royal Box, an area reserved for special guests invited by the All England Club.

Netherlands defender and Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk was also a guest. The Dutch were eliminated at the World Cup in the round of 32.

The 88-year-old Hoffman wasn't in the Royal Box, though he was a guest there in 2024.

Earlier on Centre Court, Alexander Zverev advanced to Sunday's final by beating British wild card Arthur Fery.

___

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

But eight months after its first mention and after repeated promises it was being drafted, the so-called MAHA agenda is nowhere to be found. When asked for a status update this week, an EPA spokesperson said MAHA is an ongoing effort, not a single report.

The apparent reversal on the release of a formal environmental health agenda is the latest in a cascade of disappointments for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s MAHA movement, who say they've lost faith that the Trump administration will take any significant action on pesticides, chemicals or other issues they view as key to address America's chronic disease epidemic. It also reflects the EPA's relentless rollback of environmental regulations even in the face of pressure from an important voting bloc that has supported President Donald Trump.

“I had really hoped that there would be specific steps that were taken through a MAHA agenda,” said activist Kelly Ryerson, whose social media account “Glyphosate Girl” focuses on nontoxic food systems. “We haven’t had any of the wins that we were requesting.”

Many in the diverse coalition of MAHA activists that Trump credits for helping him win back the White House say they plan to vote on issues over party in November's congressional elections, raising the political stakes of their increasingly public tensions with the Republican administration.

“People are done with the profits of corporations being prioritized over public health,” said Alexandra Muñoz, a molecular toxicologist who collaborates with activists on certain issues. “And I think that will have an important role in the midterms.”

MAHA is frustrated with EPA's actions

“Trump’s EPA,” as Zeldin frequently calls the agency, has vigorously pursued a deregulatory agenda. Earlier this year, Zeldin proposed overturning the landmark finding that climate change is a threat to human health. He moved to roll back dozens of environmental regulations in what he called “the greatest day of deregulation our nation has seen,” froze billions of dollars for clean energy and upended agency research.

At the same time, Zeldin has touted multiple “MAHA wins," some of which activists say are anything but. For example, he said the agency intends to regulate some chemicals called phthalates for environmental and workplace risks, but didn’t address the thousands of consumer products that contain the ingredients.

This week, the EPA diverted from past assurances that the MAHA report was in its “final stages,” telling The Associated Press in an email that the EPA’s actions should speak for themselves.

“The notion that MAHA is a single document waiting to be unveiled fundamentally misrepresents how we operate,” an agency spokesperson said, adding that work on MAHA priorities is “active and expanding every day.”

Ryerson and other MAHA activists said they've engaged with agency officials about changes they'd like to see, and occasionally succeeded. Her network of farmers worked with the administration on a recent executive order to advance regenerative agriculture. But she said EPA then used the order to justify new proposed uses for various herbicides, a move she called a “slap in the face.”

The same week, the Supreme Court dealt another blow to the MAHA cause in siding with pesticide maker Bayer in a ruling related to its legal liability for alleged harm caused by its Roundup weedkiller. The Trump administration had backed the company in the case.

Environmental activists say the rise of Kennedy and his MAHA mission has rippled across the administration, raising the public's awareness of pesticides — and expectations that Trump's administration would act.

“If RFK and the MAHA movement hadn’t put that issue in the center of the public spotlight, no one would be scrutinizing this nearly as closely," said Sarah Starman, a senior food and agriculture campaigner at the nonprofit Friends of the Earth.

EPA says getting microplastics out of drinking water is complicated

In a well-publicized gesture aimed in part at the MAHA movement, Zeldin in April included microplastics and pharmaceuticals on a list of contaminants that could be regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Activists had pressured Zeldin for months to crack down on microplastics and other environmental contaminants.

But in a reversal in late June, the EPA did not include microplastics or pharmaceuticals on a list of chemicals it plans to test for under a mandatory program used to collect information about concerning chemicals in drinking water that could be harming human health.

The move rendered the EPA's earlier public health promises "functionally toothless,'' said Betsy Southerland, a former senior official in EPA’s water office.

Zeldin said on social media that “the technology to test and treat for microplastics in drinking water is still in development.” The EPA said in a Federal Register notice that it was “not feasible to develop a drinking water analytical method within the statutory timeframe.”

After making “a big splash in the press” on microplastics, "EPA has quietly stalled that momentum," said Southerland.

A White House Make America Healthy Again Report, released a few months into Trump’s second term, identified long-term exposure to environmental chemicals — including those widely found in plastics — as a leading cause of chronic disease in children.

Former industry lobbyists now have leading roles at EPA

Jeremy Symons, a senior adviser at the Environmental Protection Network, a group of former EPA employees and political appointees who are critical of the Trump administration, said Zeldin “pays lip service to MAHA, but sadly he is actually making Americans less safe from toxic chemicals.''

Alongside MAHA's influence on the Trump administration, industry lobbyists have made inroads at the EPA.

Kyle Kunkler, a former lobbyist for the soybean industry, leads pesticide policy at the EPA. The agency recently allowed continued use of dicamba, a weedkiller that has been linked to increased risk for some cancers.

Zen Honeycutt, a MAHA activist and founding executive director of Moms Across America, said the move is “what happens when the EPA allows itself to be pressured by corporations and by business.”

EPA also employs other former industry insiders. Nancy Beck, a former executive at the chemical lobbying group the American Chemistry Council, is a top official in EPA's Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. Lynn Dekleva, another former chemistry council executive, serves as a Beck deputy.

The EPA said Kunkler and other political appointees have consulted with agency ethics officials to resolve any potential conflicts of interest. The MAHA movement has “driven this agency's work since President Trump's first day in office," a spokesperson said in an email, citing various initiatives including $945 million in grants to help states and communities cut “forever chemicals” known as PFAS in drinking water and identifying 30 drinking water contaminants proposed for nationwide monitoring.

On Thursday, the agency announced it was teaming up with Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to protect consumers from heavy metals and other contaminants in food.

But for Ryerson and others, the lack of a promised MAHA agenda reads as a tactic to escape accountability.

“It absolves them of any failures, especially when it comes to midterms,” Ryerson said. “They won’t have to point to some list that they haven’t been able to achieve really anything on.”

Friday, July 10

• HL Rhythm Energy Question of the Week
• Houston Hula Academy
• Drums of the Pacific
• Hot Wheels Legends Tour
• III Catering
• Sleep in Heavenly Peace

Thursday, July 9

• Meet the Houston 6-year-old golfer makes national tournament history
• • Ascend Golf Academy
• Fort Bend County Fair Celebrates 90 Years with Pat Green, Sawyer Brown and a Star-Studded 2026 Lineup
• • Fort Bend County Fair
• Houston City College: College that fits your schedule
• • Houston City College
• Goode Company Seafood celebrates 40 years
• Goode Company Seafood x Texas Parks and Wildlife

Wednesday, July 8

• Fort Bend County Fair
• Fung’s Kitchen
• East Houston Medical Center hosts free FIFA World Cup 2026™ watch parties and a chance to win a free trip to the final
• • East Houston Medical Center
• Houston’s Ensemble Theatre marks 50th anniversary with premieres, revivals and, honoring the past
• • The Ensemble Theatre
• Stars of Netflix’s ‘Little House on the Prairie’ chat reimagining the iconic story
• • Netflix’s Little House on the Prairie

Tuesday, July 7

• KPRC 2 Insider
• Inside the New Era of Fitness: How 24 Hour Fitness Is Rethinking the Modern Gym
• • 24 Hour Fitness
• Cosmic Ice Cream and Trill Burgers teaming up for National Ice Cream day
• • Cosmic Ice Cream
  • Trill Burgers
• Houston Ballet’s Dance 2 Thrive program brings movement, music and wellness to the Community
• • Houston Ballet
  • Dance 2 Thrive registration form

Monday, July 6

• Why Trae Tha Truth Keeps Turning His Birthday Into Houston’s Biggest Give-Back
• • Traeday 2026
• PopUp Bagels lands in Houston — grip, rip and dip your way to a viral bagel
• • PopUp Bagels
• When a smile needs more than veneers: one Houston patient’s transformation
• • Texas Dental Implant Center
• Your Bucket List Guide
• Flora Houston
• Make this at home! The Two-Ingredient Cocktail Popping Up Around Houston During the FIFA World Cup 26™
• • Bucanita by Buchanan’s

Thursday, July 2

• HL Rhythm Energy Question of the Week
• These women athletes from Afghanistan escaped Taliban rule. Now the players of Houston Shine FC find joy in soccer again
• • Houston Shine FC
• ‘Read With Jenna’ debuts cozy Book Nook aboard MSC Seascape sailing from Galveston
• • ‘Read with Jenna’
• Keep Kids Safe Around Water: Expert Guidance on Supervision and Drowning Prevention
• • Bivona Law Firm
• New Sprouts in Kingwood Is Here | And Yes, You Can Sample Just About Anything
• • Sprouts Farmers Market

Wednesday, July 1

• Celebrate America’s 250th with Houston Life’s special Fourth of July Show
• • Houston Christian University’s Independence Hall
  • Baytown’s Fourth of July Festivities
  • PBS’s Annual A Capitol Fourth celebration
  • Houston Zoo
  • Blue Bell Creameries
• LIST: Fourth of July fireworks, parades, celebrations across Greater Houston

Tuesday, June 30

• This Thai-inspired hot dog brings new flavor to your Fourth of July cookout
• • MaKiin Concepts Hospitality Group
• Firework Safety | Cy-Fair Fire Department, TX
• United Against Human Trafficking
• Houston native shares how being stranded at sea during COVID inspired a documentary, memoir and mission to help others
• • Angela Harger Productions
• 5 Things Houston Homeowners Should Know Before the Next Power Outage
• • GenPro.com

Monday, June 29

• Meet the cast of ‘Young Washington’ ahead of the film’s July 3rd release
• • ‘Young Washington’
• From Houston to American homes: Good Ranchers celebrates America’s 250th with homegrown meat
• • Good Ranchers
• New Zealand by train: Scenic journeys, culture and food
• • Gabe Saglie The Travel Guy
• Gexa Energy gives back: Make-A-Wish reveal brings joy to local child
• • Gexa Energy
• Hands-on training at Houston City College prepares students for high-demand careers
• • Houston City College

Friday, June 26

• HL Rhythm Energy Question of the Week
• Best Friends Animal Society hosts a free pet adoption event this Saturday
• • RSVP to Best Friends “Bring Love Home” Adoption Event
• Houston’s own Tyce Green stars in Disney’s ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’
• • Houston Broadway Theatre’s “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”
• Stay connected with reliable internet during hurricane season
• • Ezee Fiber
• Better STAAR scores, bigger goals: Here’s why Good Reason Houston focuses on a path to a living wage
• • Good Reason Houston
• Baytown Is Going Big for the Fourth of July
• • Visit Baytown
• Rodney Atkins

Thursday, June 25

• Best Friends Animal Society hosts a free pet adoption event this Saturday
• • RSVP to Best Friends “Bring Love Home” Adoption Event
  • Best Friends Houston
• A New Sprouts Farmers Market Has Opened in Webster—Here’s What You’ll Find Inside
• • Sprouts Farmers Market
• Why this financial expert says small business success starts with financial organization
• • Aragon Tax Return Services
• Mattress expert links poor sleep to serious health risks
• • Texas Mattress Makers

Wednesday, June 24

• Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo announces historic agriculture complex benefitting Texas youth
• • Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo
• Vegan recipes to add to your summer cookout menu
• • Dr. Chinwe Orabuchi
• Could your roof be hiding storm damage: What Houston homeowners should know
• • Adams Roofing
• Companion Energy brings ‘Energy that Cares’ to the Houston Humane Society
• • Companion Energy
• Travel Mom Emily Kaufman says now’s the time to book Australia
• • Travel Mom
  • Visit Sydney
  • Visit South Wales

Tuesday, June 23

• Houston Life goes LIVE from new IKEA Webster ahead of Grand Opening
• • KPRC 2 Insiders, Enter for a chance to win IKEA gift cards!
  • IKEA
  • IKEA Webster: Friends and Family Shopping Event

Monday, June 22

• HL Rhythm Energy Question of the Week
• Family-owned restaurant Foreign Grill shares Uzbek flavors ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026™ match
• • Follow Foreign Grill on Instagram
• Prime Day Picks to upgrade your home
• • Home Improvement Expert, Kathryn Emery | Be The Best Home
• Meet the Houston skincare brand embracing beef tallow with no frills and all the beneficial ingredients
• • NutréLux Beauty
• Future-Proof Careers: Celebrating the HVAC Technicians Who Keep Houston Cool
• • Fortis College
• Why cruises are the hottest ticket this summer - expert tips & where to go
• • Carnival Cruises
  • Travel Expert, Jeanenne Tornatore | The Outside Insider

Thursday, June 18

• HL Rhythm Energy Question of the Week
• KPRC 2 INSIDERS: Enter for your chance to win a $250 Kroger gift card!
• • Kroger
• The South Dakota Road Trip You Didn’t Know You Needed
• • Your Bucket List Guide
  • Travel South Dakota
• Hands-on training at Houston City College Southeast prepares students for high-demand careers
• • Houston City College
• Stay connected with reliable internet during hurricane season
• • Ezee Fiber

Wednesday, June 17

• WANTED: An audience ready to laugh at the Texas Outlaw Comics tonight at Houston Improv
• • Texas Outlaw Comics
• The cast of Netflix’s ‘I Will Find You’ talks bringing the bestselling thriller to life
• • Netflix’s Harlan Coben’s "I Will Find You"
• Saunawelt opens Houston’s first public European sauna house
• • Saunawelt
• Village Plumbing, Air & Electric shares summer safety tips as company celebrates 80 Years of servicing Houston
• • Village Plumbing

Tuesday, June 16

• ‘Heart & Hustle: Houston’ Star Muneera Page opens up about fame, friendship and season two
• • OWN’s “Heart & Hustle: Houston”
• Looking for a Father’s Day activity? See more than 100 exotic cars at Velocité in Houston
• • Velocité – A Father’s Day Tradition in Motion
• AEW Star Thunder Rosa balances two wrestling worlds while inspiring fans to chase their dreams
• • All Elite Wrestling at Smart Financial Centre
  • Follow Thunder Rosa on Instagram
• Transform your outdoor space with Carvestone - Plus, a chance to win $5,000 in outdoor furniture
• • Allied Outdoor Solutions

Monday, June 15

• Local 17-year-old filmmaker makes her mark with movie focusing on men’s mental health
• • “Used to Be” tickets
• WWE star Braun Strowman chats season 2 of ‘Everything On The Menu’
• • USA Network’s “Everything on the Menu With Braun Strowman”
• How Houston Habitat for Humanity is helping families build generational wealth
• • KPRC 2 Habitat for Humanity
  • Houston Habitat for Humanity
• Houston’s own Cris Sosa competes on NBC’s ‘America’s Got Talent’ Season 21
• • Comedian Cris Sosa
  • NBC’s “America’s Got Talent”

Friday, June 12

• HL Rhythm Energy Question of the Week
• Why the Rothko Chapel may be Houston’s most transformative space
• • Rothko Chapel
• Keep your home cool and save on energy with these tips from Champion & Nash
• • Champion and Nash
• Marco’s Pizza brings New York-style pizza to your neighborhood
• • Marco’s Pizza
• Meet Yassine Cheuko, personal bodyguard to soccer superstar Lionel Messi

Thursday, June 11

• FIFA Fan Festival™ Houston

Wednesday, June 10

• Houston physician and educator Dr. Tim Garson makes history approachable and relatable to modern life in new book
• • Dr. Arthur “Tim” Garson
  • Book: “Five Thousand Years of Controversies: A Family’s Journey Through World History”
• Ishida Dance Company presents ‘Waiting/Rex’ at Asia Society Texas
• • Ishida Dance Company Tickets
• Father’s Day finds and summer-ready home upgrades
• • Kathryn Emery
• Peptides and functional health: How Antiage Institute helps Houstonians age better
• • Antiage Institute

Tuesday, June 9

• How a community effort saved Houston’s printmaking legacy
• How custom coasters are made by hand at Red Bird Press studio
• • Red Bird Press
• A 34-Day soccer watch party in Houston with Diplo, wagyu burgers and VIP lounges?
• • The Ranch Presents Pitch Live
• Find the right mattress with expert help in Texas
• • Texas Mattress Makers

Monday, June 8

• Meet Saxboy Billy, the man behind the viral “Puerto Rico Song”
• • Follow Saxboy Billy on Instagram
• Celebrate Culture through music and movement with Tx2 Dance Company
• • T2 Dance Company
• NBC’s ‘American Ninja Warrior’ Season 18: What Lauren Kelly learned from the Hosts
• • NBC’s “American Ninja Warrior”
• Replace an entire arch, not just a tooth: How ONEARCH changes lives
• • Texas Dental Implant Center
• Visit San Antonio

Friday, June 5

• The music collective behind the Houston remix for FIFA World Cup 2026™
• • Bombón
  • Official FIFA World Cup 26™ Houston Sonic ID
• Why Alley Theatre’s “Misery” is leaving Houston audiences gasping
• • Misery at Alley Theatre
• Young Houstonians will learn how to train like a pro at the Simple Truth Will Anderson Jr. ProCamp
• • Will Anderson Jr. Football ProCamp

Thursday, June 4

• Magician Michael Carbonaro is ready to wow fans in Houston with his new show ‘WONDERBOY’
• • Michael Carbonaro at Houston of Blues
• HCC Southwest ramps up hands-on training in AI, robotics and cybersecurity
• • Houston City College
• The Travel Mom’s tips for planning and booking a breathtaking Alaskan cruise
• • The Travel Mom
  • Holland America Cruises
• Spice Routes: Cardamom Challenge a culinary passport awaits at Houston’s stunning Ismaili Center
• • Ismaili Center

Wednesday, June 3

• Celebrate Freedom Festival returns to Emancipation Park this Saturday
• • Juneteenth Houston
• Why this red velvet cornbread recipe belongs on your Juneteenth table
• • Chef Cassi
• Houston Rockets Skills Camp returns to various locations this summer
• • Houston Rockets Youth Skills Camp
• KPRC 2’s 2026 Hurricane & Flood Survival Guide
• IMDB “Masters of the Universe”

Tuesday, June 2

• CPR and AED basics: Simple skills that can help save a life
• • Register for FREE CPR webinar on June 3
  • Gail Gould
• Meet the local break dancers uplifting women and youth through hip-hop, culture, and the arts
• • BGirl City Worldwide
• Cool Treats in the Heights: Where to find Hawaiian shaved ice and frozen cocktails
• • Happy Go Lucky

Monday, June 1

• Houston Author Jenny Block drops new book about finding authenticity, success and joy in life
• • Follow Jenny Block on Instagram
• The laughs keep coming in season 2 of Netflix’s ‘The Four Seasons’
• • Netflix’s “The Four Seasons”
• Discovery Green celebrating summer with free family fun and soccer-inspired events
• • Discovery Green
• Why natural looking dental implants are the new luxury in facial rejuvenation
• • Texas Dental Implant Center

Friday, May 29

• Texas Teen Pageant Queens use their platforms to empower foster kids, fight bullying, and inspire future farmers
• • Kyleigh’s Kidz
• Immersive Gamebox is launching ‘Soccer Arcade,’ the world’s first immersive soccer experience
• • Immersive Gamebox
• Tanji Patton reveals what’s next after 11 seasons of Goodtaste TV
• Sweet, Savory & Spicy: Creative cantaloupe recipes worth trying this Summer
• • Goodtaste with Tanji Patton

Thursday, May 28

• Game day skin care tips for FIFA World Cup 2026™ watch parties and summer heat
• • Board-Certified Dermatologist Dr. Sherry Ingraham
• A Quick Drive From Houston, This Louisiana Resort Delivers Vegas-Style Luxury Without the Flight
• • Coushatta Casino Resort
• Licasa Treatment Center Opens in Conroe to expand compassionate mental health and addiction care
• • Licasa Treatment Center

Wednesday, May 27

•  Powering Houston’s future: Electrical apprentices showcase skills at annual Wire-Off Competition 
• • IEC Texas Gulf Coast
• Los Souldees is the local band bringing the sounds you love from the past with a fresh Houston twist
• • Los Souldees

Tuesday, May 26

• Lone Star College
• A Houston little boy’s toughest battle led to a monster surprise!
• • Gexa Energy
• Captain MC’s Seafood
• The Window Source Houston

Friday, May 22

• Get your bike ready for summer rides with these simple safety tips
• • Sun & Ski Sports
• This easy road trip from Houston comes with luxury suites, gaming, and a powerful legacy
• • Coushatta Powwow
  • Coushatta Casino Resort
• Hear the hits - ‘Beautiful: The Carole King Musical’ in Houston
• • “The Carole King Musical” at Theatre Under the Stars
• Support local veterans while having fun at the Patriots Charity Classic
• • Patriots Charity Classic Event

Thursday, May 21

• The World comes to Houston! Here’s what to expect ahead of the FIFA Fan Festival™ kicking off in EaDo
• • FIFA Fan Festival™
• This easy road trip from Houston comes with luxury suites, gaming, and a powerful legacy
• • Coushatta Casino Resort - New Legacy Tower
• SUMMER SWEEPSTAKES: Enter to win 3 weeks of free airport parking from The Parking Spot
• • The Parking Spot
• Train for Houston’s in demand jobs at HCC Northeast - Public Safety, Automotive, & more
• • HCC Northeast
• Schlotzsky’s Deli launches new stacked subs in Houston - Try three bold flavors
• • Schlotzsky’s Deli

Wednesday, May 20

• Schlotzsky’s Deli launches new stacked subs in Houston - Try three bold flavors
• • Schlotzsky’s Deli
• Swap, shop, sustain: Houston’s eco-friendly clothing event returns this Sunday
• • The Houston Clothing Shop
• A Houston little boy’s toughest battle led to a monster surprise!
• • Gexa Energy
• Early detection, AI tools, personalized care redefine preventive health
• • Fountain Life Houston Clinic
• Get your backyard summer ready with pest control, pool upgrades, trampolines and whole home backup power
• • Kathryn Emery
• Need summer plans? This easy Galveston getaway has dinosaurs, beaches & lazy rivers
• • Moody Gardens

Tuesday, May 19

• In the Kitchen with Kroger: Memorial Day hosting doesn’t have to start from scratch
• • KPRC 2 INSIDERS: Enter for your chance to win a $250 Kroger gift card!
  • Kroger
• Moody Gardens
• Houston Ballet closes 2025-2026 season with two standout productions
• • Houston Ballet
• From award-winning tv to action-packed films, Bob Odenkirk chats ‘Normal’
• • Follow Bob Odenkirk on Instagram

Monday, May 18

• Celebrate World Ocean Day in Galveston with art, music & ocean fun for free 🌊 🌊
• • Artist Boat
• A collector’s dream: U.S. Coins & Jewelry opens brand new showroom for buying and selling
• • U.S. Coins and Jewelry
• Mental Health Awareness Month: How to spot the signs when stress becomes something more
• • The Harris Center for Mental Health and Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD)
• Spring couple transforms builder-grade patio into beautiful backyard with Allied Outdoor Solutions
• • Allied Outdoor Solutions
• Why natural looking dental implants are the new luxury in facial rejuvenation
• • Texas Dental Implant Center

Friday, May 15

• HL Rhythm Energy Question of the Week
• At Houston’s Alley Theatre, “Dear Alien” explores the beautiful weirdness of being human
• • “Dear Alien at Alley Theatre
• Gear up inside the newly renovated and relocated Sun & Ski Sports Memorial City
• • Sun & Ski Sports Memorial City
• The Travel Mom on the perks of RV life on the road
• • The Travel Mom
  • Go RVing

Thursday, May 14

• Musaafer Houston Beekeeper cocktail program highlights honey from local neighborhoods
• • Musaafer
• Help us save lives at the KPRC 2 Community Blood Drive with Gulf Coast Blood
• • Schedule an appointment
• Port Aransas
• Children’s Museum Houston

Wednesday, May 13

• Why one Fulshear homeowner calls his generator “The Easy Button”
• • GenPro.com
• Family fun meets coastal charm in Port Aransas, Texas’ premier Gulf Coast getaway
• • Port Aransas
  • Red Dragon Pirate Cruises
• Local chef turns pandemic setback into a thriving Filipino food pop-up business
• • Aleng Nina’s
  • Chef Nina’s Pop-up Event at Third Place

Tuesday, May 12

• Rob Riggle among authors featured in ‘A Celebration of Reading’ 2026
• • Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation
• Texas’ legendary 1877 tall ship ELISSA joins Sail250 voyage to New York Harbor
• • The Official Official Tall Ship of Texas
  • Galveston 250 Kickoff Party Tickets
• The Future of noninvasive wellness is in Sugar Land
• • Oasis Aesthetics & Wellness and Oasis Dry Eye Center
• Chef Jose Hernandez on his roots, restaurants, and fresh pasta
• • Savoir Restaurant
  • Patton

Monday, May 11

• Texas breweries shine at World Beer Cup as American Craft Beer Week kicks off
• • What’s on Tap Radio
• Could Retirement Living Actually Feel Like a Resort? Inside Life at Eagle’s Trace
• • Eagles’ Trace by Erickson Senior Living
• Empty Bowls Houston returns for its 20th anniversary
• • Empty Bowls Houston
  • Houston Food Bank

Friday, May 8

• HL Rhythm Energy Question of the Week
• Children’s Museum Houston and Houston Life present a first look inside the ‘Gallery of Wonder’ on KPRC 2
• Easy at-home kitchen STEM activities to spark curiosity with Children’s Museum Houston
• • Children’s Museum Houston
• Rung Film Festival returns to Houston, highlighting Pakistani storytellers on the big screen
• • Rung Film Festival
• Scammed out of $90,000: Houston woman shares warning for seniors
• • AARP Houston
• KPRC 2’s “Eat Like a Local”

Thursday, May 7

• Celebrate National Hamburger Month with OMG! Burger
• • OMG! Burger
• How Houston City College Is Building the City’s Workforce
• • Houston City College
• The Insperity Invitational presented by United Healthcare happening in The Woodlands this weekend
• • Insperity Invitational
• Bridge the Gaps

Wednesday, May 6

• From local finds to feel-good vibes, ‘Shop Fulshear First’ family-friendly night market
• • “Shop Fulshear First”
• Why you keep repeating the same unhealthy relationship patterns and how to change them
• • Jenn Pinkerton
• Houston Grand Opera

Tuesday, May 5

• Bun B announces “UGK Been Ridin’ Dirty,” Celebrating 30 Years of a Southern Hip-Hop Classic
• • Bun B Presents “Been Ridin’ Dirty” Tickets
• From classroom to center stage: The Tommy Tune Awards showcase Houston’s rising theatre talent
• • Tommy Tune Awards Finalists List
• Houston Life co-hosts learn calligraphy with live event artist Jenny Blaschke
• • Jenny Blaschke

Monday, May 4

• “Houston’s Enchilada Queen” Sylvia Casares serving up big flavor & family tradition
• • Sylvia’s Enchilada Kitchen
• This Houston program uses comedy to build confidence and change lives
• • Comedy Unlocked
  • The Opportunity Center
• Hot products: Summer grillin’ and chillin’ with Lifestyle and Home Improvement expert Kathryn Emery
• • Kathryn Emery
• New Smile: AI-driven design at Texas Dental Implant Center
• • Texas Dental Implant Center

Friday, May 1

• HL Rhythm Energy Question of the Week
• Teatro Indigo
• Teatro Indigo at Hobby Center for the Performing Arts
• Mahjong for a Cause
• Sam Houston Race Park

Thursday, April 30

• St‑Germain Elderflower Liqueur
• National Pet Month is here! Houston SPCA offers tips for responsible pet ownership
• • Houston SPCA
• From Knee Replacement to the Boston Marathon: A Story of Movement, Medicine, and Meaning
• • Dr. Richard A. Berger Outpatient Hip and Knee Surgery
• Tyler Henry “The Hollywood Medium” heading to Houston for unforgettable live show
• • Tyler Henry Live at Smart Financial Center
  • Connect with Tyler Henry

Wednesday, April 29

• In the Kitchen with Kroger: Celebrate Mother’s Day with Kroger, the world’s largest florist
• • KPRC 2 INSIDERS: Enter for your chance to win a $250 Kroger gift card!
• Sail into Alaska with Princess Cruises - tips from The Travel Mom, Emily Kaufman
• • The Travel Mom
  • Princess Cruises
• How wearing denim became an international symbol of supporting assault survivors and victims
• • National Denim Day
  • Fort Bend Women’s Center
• Country superstar Parker McCollum surprises nurses ahead of National Nurses Week

Tuesday, April 28

• Inside Golden Roastery: A popular Middle Eastern shop serving traditional desserts and coffee
• How to make a popular Arab dessert Kunafa
• • Golden Roastery (Walk-in offer only; get 20% off Kunafa items from now to May 10)
• Help us save lives at the KPRC 2 Community Blood Drive with Gulf Coast Blood
• • Community Blood Drive at KPRC 2
• Cedric The Entertainer brings the laughs in new Netflix animated film ‘Swapped’
• • Netflix’s ‘Swapped’

Monday, April 27

• Summer safety for kids: what parents need to know
• • Bivona Law Firm
• From Blueprint to Backyard Oasis: A Missouri City Transformation Designed for Real Life
• • Allied Outdoor Solutions
• First annual AAPI Fest coming to Alief
• • AAPI Fest
  • Kaminari Taiko of Houston,
• The story behind Agnes and Sherman where Asian flavors meet American comfort food
• • Agnes and Sherman
  • AAPI Restaurant Weeks
• Hosts Mike “The Miz” Mizanin and Rocsi Diaz chat reboot of ‘American Gladiators’
• • American Gladiators

Friday, April 24

• HL Rhythm Energy Question of the Week
• Step inside August Wilson’s “Fences” at Houston’s Alley Theatre - A timeless story of love, legacy, and second chances
• • August Wilson’s “Fences” at Alley Theatre
• Prime Video’s ‘Cocaine Quarterback’ Owen Hanson visits Houston, shares incredible comeback story
• • “Cocaine Quarterback” on Prime Video
• National Bucket List Day: A Trafalgar River Cruise with The Travel Mom
• • The Travel Mom
  • Trafalgar

Thursday, April 23

• Silambam Houston highlights the beauty of Indian classical dance at the Hobby Center
• • Silambam Houston
• A preview of Great Age on the Green, Houston’s new festival celebrating aging boldly
• • Great Age on the Green
• Kids learn money the fun way with Financial Fortunes card game
• • Financial Fortunes Card Game
• Teeing off for the LPGA’s first major of the season - The Chevron Championship
• • The Chevron Championship

Wednesday, April 22

• Houston is driving the Biotech future - starting with students
• • Texas Medical Center BioPath Program
• From ‘Dance Moms’ to the stage and page: Nia Sioux’s next act
• • Follow Nia Sioux on Instagram
• From ‘Dance Moms’ to the stage and page: Nia Sioux’s next act
• • Nia Sioux’s Memoir “Bottom of the Pyramid”
• Wildflowers, western heritage, and a Mother’s Day to remember at The George Ranch
• The George Ranch

Tuesday, April 21

• Orchid care 101: Simple tricks to keep your orchids blooming longer
• • Ace Berry
  • Flora & More
• Affordable luxury: New upholstered bed collection unveiled at Texas Mattress Makers
• • Texas Mattress Makers
• Music, food and rodeo fun for all at the Galveston County Fair & Rodeo
• • Galveston County Fair & Rodeo
• Texas Dental Implant Center

Monday, April 20

• Robins Landing Neighborhood Floor Plans - Houston Habitat for Humanity
• Homeownership Process - Houston Habitat for Humanity
• Volunteering - Houston Habitat for Humanity
• ReStore - Houston Habitat for Humanity
• Third Ward - Houston Habitat for Humanity

Friday, April 17

• ‘Houston Life’ is live today at the Houston Ballet Nutcracker Market Spring
• • Houston Ballet Nutcracker Market® SPRING
  • Dog Collar World
  • Linked by Stevi
  • The Hive
  • Big Creek Farms
  • EK The Boutique
  • House of Cottonwood
  • ParkerJoe

Thursday, April 16

• TUTS presents ‘Monty Python’s Spamalot’ rides into the Hobby Center
• • Monty Python’s Spamalot at TUTS Tickets
• One ticket, endless fun at the Galveston County Fair and Rodeo
• • Galveston County Fair and Rodeo
• Carpet Giant celebrates 50 years of proudly serving generations of Houstonians
• • Carpet Giant Website (mention Houston Life to get $150 off your purchase of $1,000)
• Faith ‘One Arm Wonder’ Malton and Zack ‘Pitbull’ Ruhl rappel 30 stories for non-profit Camp For All
• • Camp For All
  • Faith Malton

Wednesday, April 15

• Brush up on your makeup routine at Blushington River Oaks
• • Houston Life Deals (Get 20% off beauty services at Blushington River Oaks)
  • Blushington River Oaks
• The King himself shares how to save 20% on tickets to the Texas Renaissance Festival
• • Texas Renaissance Festival
• Ethan’s Ohana
• Cube Against Cancer 2026 Houston
• Cube Against Cancer
• Fortis College

Tuesday, April 14

• Former Texans WR Steven Sims Jr. to host FREE youth football camp
• • Must See Foundation
• Why it’s not just the generator - it’s the company behind it
• • Gen Pro
• How the Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce helps local companies grow
• • Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
• Step Onward Foundation uses music to fight homelessness in Texas
• • Step Onward Foundation
  • Sunday Funday Community Celebration

Monday, April 13

• Robins Landing Neighborhood Floor Plans - Houston Habitat for Humanity
• Homeownership Process - Houston Habitat for Humanity
• Volunteering - Houston Habitat for Humanity
• ReStore - Houston Habitat for Humanity
• Third Ward - Houston Habitat for Humanity

Friday, April 10

• Your guide to the Houston Barbecue Festival this weekend: Top pitmasters, unlimited BBQ samples, and more
• • Houston BBQ Festival
• Texas CASA’s partner agencies train volunteers to be a voice and a lifeline for children in the foster care system
• • Become a CASA
• ‘Grow the Game’ Initiative expands soccer access in Houston ahead of the World Cup with Guinness World Records attempt
• • Airbnb GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™
• Houston’s Garden Theatre celebrates 5 years with Stephen Sondheim’s “Company”
• • The Garden Theatre
• Father daughter duo Steve Zahn and Audrey Zahn chat new film ‘She Dances’

Thursday, April 9

• The Salvation Army Women’s Auxiliary kicks off 22nd annual ‘Chic Boutique’
• • Chic Boutique
• Aramie Payton brings Broadway pedigree to Alley Theatre’s revival of “Fences”
• • Alley Theatre
• Layoff leads Houston creator to viral small business mission
• • Follow David on Instagram
• At just 19, Jalyn Hall is stepping into his moment
• • NBC’s “The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins”
• KPRC 2’s “Eat Like a Local”

Wednesday, April 8

• Houston Underwater Film Festival returns this weekend with stunning ocean films 🌊🌊
• • School, college and scuba students: claim a free ticket by emailing huff@hups.org
  • Houston Underwater Film Festival Tickets
• Celebrate Earth Month by sipping sustainably!
• • Wine and Travel Contributor Daniela Garrido
• Shred Day Houston: Safely destroy documents and fight hunger on April 18
• • Comerica Shred Day Houston
• Trade-show-tested home picks: Coffee, Water, Bidets and Moving Gear
• • Kathryn Emery Home Improvement & Lifestyle Expert
• A kid’s guide to top play picks to cut screen time and spark creativity
• • Kid-trepreneur Dylan Emery

Tuesday, April 7

• Grand Marshals Kam Franklin & Brian Ching preview the 39th annual Art Car Parade
• • Houston Art Car Parade
• This Texas artist is turning Titanic artifacts into art
• • Souls of the Titanic
• In Houston, Your Windows May Not Last as Long—Here’s What to Know (and What to Do About It)
• • Pella Windows and Doors
• Houston’s Trillest Chef bringing bold flavors of H-Town the national stage
• • Follow Chef Machete on Instagram
• Texas Dental Implant Center

Monday, April 6

• Houston’s Garden Theatre celebrates 5 years with Stephen Sondheim’s “Company”
• • The Garden Theatre
• Sysco’s World Cup-themed food show is a preview of how Houston plans to feed the world
• • Sysco World Cup-themed food show
• The Houston Art Car Parade

Friday, April 3

• HL Rhythm Energy Question of the Week
• WWE Wrestler Je’Von Evans
• WWE Monday Night Raw at Toyota Center Tickets
• IBEW Local 66
• KPRC 2’s “Eat Like a Local”

Thursday, April 2

• Disney on Ice
• The Chevron Championship
• Maxine Sharf brings ‘Maxi’s Kitchen’ to Houston Life with her mom
• • Follow Maxine Sharf on Instagram
  • "Maxi’s Kitchen: Easy Go-To Recipes to Make Again and Again"
• Father daughter duo Steve Zahn and Audrey Zahn chat new film ‘She Dances’

Wednesday, April 1

• Spring gets sweeter with two easy recipes: Carrot cupcake and blueberry crumble bun
• • Follow Cookbook Author Florence Jackson on Instagram
• This Houston Restaurant Hasn’t Raised Prices Since Its Food Truck Days
• • Black Restaurant Week
  • Chitalian Pizzeria
• Tarot, the Fool card and finding meaning on Derrick’s birthday (April Fool’s Day)
• • Tarot Card Reader Amber Ambrose
• Theatre Under the Stars presents ‘Back to the Future: The Musical’ through April 5th
• • TUTS “Back to the Future: The Musical”

Tuesday, March 31

• Send Well Wishes to Tessa on her last day
• • Tessa Barrera announces she’s leaving ‘Houston Life’
• Calling all book lovers: Houston indie bookstore crawl returns for its third year of literary adventure
• • 2026 Houston Bookstore Crawl
• Preview the 13th annual Insperity Invitational presented by United Healthcare
• • Insperity Invitational
• Texas roots and coastal growth, how the Oyster Bros in Palacios are redefining the gulf oyster
• • Oyster Bros
• Goodtaste with Tanji Patton

Monday, March 30

• How Autism Moms of Houston became a lifeline for families raising children who are neurodivergent
• • Autism Moms of Houston
  • Autism Awareness Festival
• An offer fit for a new you! Grab the Alloy Personal Training Houston Life Deal
• • Alloy Personal Training Houston
  • Houston Life Deals
• Who’s responsible when a child is hurt at daycare?
• • Bivona Law
• At just 19, Jalyn Hall is stepping into his moment
• • NBC’s “The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins”

Friday, March 27

• Family fun, charity, & of course golf shine at Texas Children’s Houston Open ⛳
• • Texas Children’s Houston Open
  • TCHO Cleats for Kids

Wednesday, March 25

• Tessa Barrera announces she’s leaving ‘Houston Life’
• Plan aims to turn Garden Oaks Theater into an arts hub before it’s too late
• • Save the Garden Oaks Theater
• Fore! Preview the 2026 Texas Children’s Houston Open
• • Texas Children’s Houston Open
• Women, Wealth, and breaking ‘The Success Lie’
• • Chantell Preston
  • “The Success Lie” by Chantell Preston
• McGovern Allergy & Asthma Clinic
• Gexa Energy

Tuesday, March 24

• From puppy playtime to pesky nipping, helpful springtime tips for dog owners
• • Stephanie Bennett’s Believe in Dog Training
• How one Houston program is helping kids discover confidence—and their future
• • Sam Houston Area Council Boy Scouts of America
• Houston Ballet’s Busy Spring: Nutcracker Market, Sons de L’âme & YAGP Finals
• • Houston Ballet
• Breaking barriers and popping corks with CEO and Master Sommelier June Rodil
• • Master Sommelier June Rodil
  • Goodnight Hospitality

Monday, March 23

• Blooming Wonders at ARTECHOUSE
• • Spring arrives at ARTECHOUSE Houston with ‘Blooming Wonders’
• Texas Dental Implant Center
• • Trusted Dental Implant Care in Houston — Board-Certified Periodontist Helps Complex Cases
• Disability Attorney Marc Whitehead
• • Expert tax advice: Are your Social Security and Disability benefits taxable?
• Allied Outdoor Solutions
• • From basic to beautiful: See this stunning backyard transformation in Weston Lakes

Thursday, March 19

• Springtime fun at the Houston Zoo
• • Zoo Bloom
  • All you can Zoo
  • Saving the Galápagos Islands

Wednesday, March 18

• Houston Latino Film Festival celebrates 10 Years with Cheech Marin
• • Houston Latino Film Festival
• Find the good vibes every weekend for Jazzy Sundays in the Parks
• • Jazzy Sundays in the Parks
• Get to know Dash rising star, Avery Patterson
• • Houston Dash
• Kevin Williamson makes fans SCREAM all over again in latest franchise installation
• • Kevin Williamson
• Self Employed? Tax Filing Moves That Help You Qualify for a Mortgage
• • Habayit Home Loans
  • Mortgage Expert Rich Bonn’s Upcoming Webinar

Tuesday, March 17

• Houston’s Mezclada Dance Company blends hip hop, Latin and contemporary dance forms into high-energy performances
• • Performing Arts Houston New/Now featuring Mezclada Dance Company
• METRO rolls out systemwide changes: A first look at the new technology to help streamline your ride
• • Metro Houston
• Houston Life Deals: Fun & savings for the entire family
• • HoustonLifeDeals.com
• Frontier Utilities teams with Kids’ Meals Houston to pack thousands of meals
• • Frontier Utilities

Monday, March 16

• Affordable rodeo-ready outfits you can find at Target this season
• • Target.com
• Houston’s growing need for linemen: Why the trade pays and how to start
• • IBEW Local 66
• ET hosts Nischelle Turner and Kevin Frazier share highlights from the 98th Academy Awards
• • Entertainment Tonight Oscars Coverage
• Houston Ballet principal dancer Karina González brings Frida Kahlo to life in Broken Wings
• • “Broken Wings” at Houston Ballet Tickets
• The Largest Indoor Waterpark in the U.S.? It’s Just a Road Trip from Houston
• • Kalahari Resorts and Conventions

Friday, March 13

• HL Rhythm Energy Question of the Week
• Houston Life Deals: Fun & savings for the entire family
• Outriding the Devil: Angela Ganter’s incredible rodeo comeback
• • Outriding the Devil premieres at River Oaks Theatre
• ‘Aliens’ 40th anniversary cast reunion and more at Pop Culture Con 2026
• • Pop Culture Con
• Alley Theatre brings Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” to Houston with a fresh twist
• • “The Importance of Being Earnest” at Alley Theatre Tickets
• Bounce your way to better fitness: trampoline workouts in West U
• • Motiv Fitness at West University
• Moon 2 Mars Festival returns to Space Center Houston with out-of-this-world fun and concerts this spring break
• • Space Center Houston

Thursday, March 12

• KPRC 2 INSIDERS: Enter for your chance to see Tim McGraw at RODEOHOUSTON
• The Birthday Joy Program helps kids in foster care, shelters and group homes celebrate their special day
• • the Birthday Joy Program Website
• Inside “The Feminine Universe” Houston’s new all-women immersive art experience
• • The Feminine Universe Art Show Tickets
• Bring the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo home with these sips and bites
• • Entertaining Expert Paul Zahn
• Spring is in full swing at CITYCENTRE Houston
• • CITYCENTRE
• Kalahari Resorts and Conventions

Tuesday, March 10

• Enjoy Spring Break at the Houston Museum of Natural Science
• • Houston Museum of Natural Science
• Honoring the fallen & recognizing community heroes
• • Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo
  • BP America
• Houston author Margie Seaman proves it is never too late to chase a dream
• • Margie Seaman
  • “Someday Is Our Horizon” by Margie Seaman on Amazon

Monday, March 9

• NestFest beach cleanup invites volunteers to protect nesting sea turtles on the Galveston Coast
• From bumper boats to STEAM activities, enjoy a FUNonmenal spring break at Discovery Green
• • FUNomenal Spring Break at Discovery Green
• This veteran-owned business is helping Houstonians keep the heat the out and the savings in with new windows
• • The Window Source
• You’ve been diagnosed with cancer, now what? Non-profit CanCare pairs you with survivors who can help
• • CanCare
• Spring Break Staycation: Why The Travel Mom says Houston families love Great Wolf Lodge
• • The Travel Mom
  • Great Wolf Lodge

Friday, March 6

• Houston Life Deals
• Pickle vs. anime: Largest pickle festival in Texas comes to Rosenberg with anime-inspired food
• • In A Pickle Festival
• Expedia’s 2026 Air Hacks: Best days to book, when to fly and top savings
• • Expedia Air Hacks Report
• The Parking Spot making airport parking a breeze
• • The Parking Spot
• A rustic dream venue just outside Houston
• • Country Oaks Venue
• Rare Texas artifacts step out ‘From the Vault’ at The Bryan Museum
• • The Bryan Museum
• Rhythm Energy Question of the Week

Thursday, March 5

• Gold Buckle Foodie Awards at Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo
• Houston Life Deals
• Avoiding vacation headaches: New Vrbo survey on group travel reveals common pet peeves
• • Vrbo
• Houston wellness trend: A local body sculpting technique focused on lymphatic health
• • The Tox
• Catching up with Russell Dickerson ahead of debut RODEOHOUSTON performance
• • RODEOHOUSTON

Wednesday, March 4

• Houston Life Deals
• Moon 2 Mars Festival returns to Space Center Houston with out-of-this-world fun and concerts this spring break
• • Space Center Houston
• What to Wear to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo: Your Ultimate Style Guide 
• • Boot Barn
• Destin-Fort Walton Beach, more than beaches: reefs, fishing, little adventures
• • Visit Destin-Fort Walton Beach
• Baz Luhrmann’s ‘EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert’ gives fans a front-row seat to The King
• • “EPiC: Elvis Presley In Concert” Film

Tuesday, March 3

• Diana Ross coming to Smart Financial Centre at Sugar Land
• Learn about the untold history of Black baseball
• • Houston Freedmen’s Town Conservancy
• Houston Life Deals
• Modern dental implants give Houston patients natural, comfortable smiles
• • Texas Dental Implant Center
• Houston native Kyrie McAlpin Talks ‘The Burbs’, Keke Palmer & a very Seth MacFarlane Christmas party

Monday, March 2

• Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo
• • Houston Life kicks off opening day at 2026 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo
• Suits & Boot Injury Lawyers

Friday, February 27

• Gabriel Basso takes us behind the scenes of Netflix’s ‘The Night Agent’
• • Netflix’s “The Night Agent”
• Mudbug Mania: Tanji Patton celebrates crawfish season in Houston
• • Goodtaste with Tanji Patton
  • Crawfish Shack
  • Crawfish Hideaway
• Theatre Under The Stars reveals 2026-27 season with Broadway tours & local shows
• • Theatre Under the Stars
• Boot Barn
• What to see and do in Malta — beaches, history and booking tips from The Travel Mom
• • The Travel Mom

Thursday, February 26

• Diana Ross at The Sugar Land Smart Financial Center
• KPRC 2 INSIDERS: Enter for a chance to see Creed perform at RodeoHouston
• Get a peek inside RodeoHouston’s World Championship BBQ Cookoff
• • Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo
• Soulful river cruises that connect Black travelers to heritage and culture
• • AmaWaterways Soulful Experience River Cruise
• Houston Life Deals
• Allied Outdoor Solutions
• HCC Southeast College

Wednesday, February 25

• Behind the scenes of TUTS’ ‘Million Dollar Quartet’
• • Tickets to ‘Million Dollar Quartet’ at Theatre Under the Stars
• Houston influencers share their best thrifting tips for Rodeo
• • Find your nearest Goodwill store
• Plan the ultimate spring break getaway for everyone at Moody Gardens
• • Moody Gardens
• Ride along: METRO Police Chief explains new safety measures for Houston transit
• • Metro Houston

Tuesday, February 24

• Spring Break, but make it San Antonio
• • Visit San Antonio
• Alley Theatre’s ‘English’ explores identity, belonging, and the weight of learning a new language
• • Tickets to ‘English’ at Alley Theatre
• Looking for a Career Change? Here’s How You Could Be Job-Ready in 10 Months
• • Learn more about programs at United Education Institute Houston

Monday, February 23 (WE ARE BACK!!!)

• Indian Film Festival of Houston celebrates France with film, food and culture
• • Indian Film Festival of Houston Website
• KPRC 2 INSIDERS: Enter for a chance to see Riley Green perform at RodeoHouston
• • Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo
• Chris Hemsworth will keep you on the edge of your seat in ‘Crime 101’
• • “Crime 101” Movie Times
• Modern dental implants give Houston patients natural, comfortable smiles
• • Texas Dental Implant Center

February 6 - 20

• Houston is off air due to the Winter Olympics, but that doesn’t mean we’ll stop entertaining you. Be sure to follow us on social media to see all the HL fun. We’ll be back Feb. 23.
• • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Pinterest

Thursday, February 5

• Papa Johns Pizza
• The Cody Stephens Foundation saves lives with free heart screenings for young athletes
• • Cody Stephens Foundation
• Get ready for the return of the one and only Monster Jam in Houston
• • Tickets to Monster Jam at NRG Stadium
• Getting your best night’s sleep: How the latest materials and technology can help you sleep better
• • Texas Mattress Makers
• What is an “Orphan Generator”? And why it could put Houston homes at risk during an outage
• • GenPro.com
• Follow Mersha the Mini Panther on Instagram (Use MERSHA20 to get a discount at PrettyLitter)

Wednesday, February 4

• Simon & Garfunkel Story at The Sugar Land Smart Financial Center
• Behind the scenes of ‘Real Women Have Curves’ on stage at Alley Theatre
• • Tickets to ‘Real Women Have Curves’ at Alley Theatre
• Decoding body language: How to spot liars, read subtle signals, and communicate with confidence
• • Jan Hargrave
• In the Kitchen with Kroger: Why they are your one stop shop for the Big Game and Valentine’s Day
• • Kroger

Tuesday, February 3

• MFAH’s new exhibit explores Frida Kahlo’s lasting legacy
• • ‘Frida: The Making of an Icon’ at MFAH
• United Way of Greater Houston’s 211: Help is one call away
• • United Way of Greater Houston’s 211 Helpline
• After the freeze - now what? How to care for perennials and shrubs in Houston
• • Gardening with Skip
  • Houston Home and Garden Show
• Go back in time at Popfancy Dessert Bar’s new retro 80’s sci-fi arcade cafe
• • Popfancy Fan Cafe

Monday, February 2

• Kenny G at The Sugar Land Smart Financial Center
• The relationship advice that helps couples feel closer — even during hard conversations
• • Connection Expert Jenn Pinkerton
  • Connectin Cards Couples Edition on Amazon
• Paris Hilton’s “Infinite Icon”
• Arandas Bakery
• Texas Dental Implant Center

Friday, January 30

• Monster Energy Supercross heads into Houston featuring the world’s fastest racers
• • Monster Energy Supercross at NRG Stadium This Weekend
• From Trinidad and Tobago to Top Chef: Tristen Epps’ journey is rooted in culture
• • Chef Tristen Epps
  • A Classically Black Dinner - Vibrant + Modern + African
• Few physicians leave a legacy like this: Houston honors cancer pioneer Dr. Philip Salem
• • Salem Oncology Center
• The Travel Mom: Family-Friendly Wave-Season Deals from Princess
• • The Travel Mom
  • Princess Cruises

Thursday, January 29

• The Simon & Garfunkel Story at The Sugar Land Smart Financial Center
• Former KPRC 2 reporter shares ‘With Love From Harlem’: The story behind America’s First Black power couple
• • ReShonda Tate’s new book ‘With Love from Harlem’
• American Home Buyer
• How personalized aesthetics - Botox, fillers & lasers - can help you age better
• • Anti Age Institute
• The cast of ‘Bridgerton’ takes us behind-the-scenes of the ton for season 4
• • Netflix’s Bridgerton Season 4

Wednesday, January 28

• KPRC 2’s new evening anchor Stephania Jimenez makes her Houston debut with passion and purpose
• • Follow Stephania on her KPRC 2 Instagram Account
• Cars, boats and more: What to know about this year’s Houston AutoBoative Show 2026
• • Houston Autoboative Show (Save $20 with Family Four Pack Option)
• Get a taste of Old Town Katy with Tanji Patton of Goodtaste TV
• • Goodtaste with Tanji Patton
  • Peanut Butter Pie from Southern Dough
  • Southern Dough Baking Co.
  • Humble Grounds Coffeehouse
  • Harvest Kitchen & Bakery
• A Family Business Built on Trust: Luke’s Plumbing & Air Conditioning Serves Houston for Over 30 Years
• • Luke’s Plumbing & Air Conditioning

Tuesday, January 27

• Remembering the iconic artist David Adickes on his 99th birthday and his lasting legacy in Houston
• • David Adickes Art Website
  • Follow ‘Adickes Art’ on Instagram
• Plan a Vacation Day: Experts share 2026 travel trends and how to protect your trip
• • The Travel Mom
  • Follow The Travel Mom Emily Kaufman on Instagram
  • Travel Guard Insurance
• Texans Serving Texans: Gexa Energy gives back
• • Gexa Energy
• Bill Skarsgård steps beyond horror roots in new film, ‘Dead Man’s Wire’

Monday, January 26

• Houston relationship and intimacy expert dishes on the small relationship habits that make love last
• • Houston Relationship Therapy
  • VIVID Relationships app
• Crawfish & Noodles gearing up for a busy crawfish season
• • Crawfish & Noodles
• Traveling smarter in 2026: What travel experts say to book now
• • Travel Expert Jeanenne Tornatore
  • Follow the Outside Insider on Instagram

Friday, January 23

• Discover why Sam Houston Race Park is a top spot for family outings with “Houston Life”
• • Sam Houston Race Park
  • Corgi Races
  • Shannon Jewelers Presents Diamond Dig
  • Wiener Dog Races

Thursday, January 22

• WEIGH IN: What are your must have products during a freeze?
• Cars, boats and more: What to know about this year’s Houston AutoBoative Show 2026
• • Houston Autoboative Show (Save $20 with Family Four Pack Option)
• Honoring Dr. Philip A. Salem for innovations in cancer care and research
• • Salem Oncology Center
• Bert Kreischer talks fatherhood, fame, and his new scripted comedy series, “Free Bert”
• • Netflix’s “Free Bert”
• Last chance to enjoy the Green Mountain Energy Ice at Discovery Green
• • Ice at Discovery Green

Wednesday, January 21

• Seth Rogen, Ike Barinholtz & Chase Sui Wonders chat comedy series ‘The Studio’
• • Apple Tv+’s ‘The Studio’
• Allied Outdoor Solutions
• Living Designs Furniture
• The Women’s Resource empowers women and girls through free financial and career coaching services
• • The Women’s Resource
• Houston woman helps bring Black cowboy history to PBS
• • Alma’s Way on PBS Kids
  • Black Cowboy Coalition

Friday, January 16

• School Makes You Super: KPRC-TV reporter and mom Haley Hernandez debuts first children’s book to ease school anxiety
• • Buy ‘School Makes You Super" here
• Children’s Museum Houston celebrates the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
• • MLK Day Celebration at Children’s Museum Houston
• Two experts explain why Key Largo, Florida should be on your 2026 travel list
• • The Travel Mom
• The man known as “the human lie detector” works to keep serial killers behind bars
• • Killer Confessions

Thursday, January 15

• Young voices, lasting legacy: Houston students honor Dr. King in 30th Annual Oratory Competition
• • Foley MLK Jr. Oratory Competition
• Breaking through the plateau with Dr. Ian Smith’s ‘The Last 15′
• • Follow Dr. Ian Smith on Instagram
  • Purchase “The Last 15″ on Amazon
• Mindful eating tips and a pesto vinaigrette recipe to kickstart a healthier new year
• • Leaf & Grain
• Stay powered and protected with GenPro.com, Houston’s premier generator specialists
• • Call or log on to book an estimate and receive a functional mini generator worth $50 for FREE

Wednesday, January 14

• Check out the fun, food and giveaways for Houston Rockets fans this week
• • Houston Rockets Game Day Tickets
• A Kroger pharmacist’s guide to everyday wellness in 2026
• • Enter for a chance to win a Kroger gift card
  • Kroger
• Mix-MATCH Festival returns with over 20 performances celebrating Houston’s creative spirit
• • Tickets to 3rd Annual Mix-MATCH Festival
  • Daisies & Pancakes

Tuesday, January 13

• Kick off the new year with magic: Magician Curt Miller returns with his show “The Conjurer”
• • Curt Miller
  • Tickets to The Conjurer: An Intimate Magical Experience with Curt Miller
• Brad Meltzer Book Signing
• • Follow Brad Meltzer on Instagram
• Innovative Lasers of Houston

Monday, January 12

• Turn to tea this year to slow down, reset, and satisfy without regrets
• • Tea Please
• The Travel Mom: Family fun at Knott’s Berry Farm - a California getaway everyone will love
• • The Travel Mom
  • Visit Buena Park
  • Knott’s Berry Farm
• Pet adoption events for the new year at Fort Bend County Animal Services
• • Fort Bend County Animal Services
• New Year, New Smile: AI-driven smile design at Texas Dental Implant Center
• • Texas Dental Implant Center

Friday, January 9

• Shop The Sale Houston with proceeds benefitting childhood cancer research
• • The Sale Houston
• A new chapter begins: Jenna Bush Hager and Sheinelle Jones chat about their new pairing
• • TODAY with Jenna & Sheinelle
• Former radio personality, Sarah Pepper returns to Texas to emcee 2026 Chevron Houston Marathon
• • Follow Sarah Pepper on Instagram

Thursday, January 8

• Belle comes to Houston - Kyra Belle Johnson stars in Disney’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’ now at the Hobby Center
• • Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” Tickets at Hobby Center
• Mathew Knowles launches new Destiny’s Child nationwide tribute tour; Houston is first stop
• • Destiny’s Child: Iconic Reimagined Tribute Tickets
• Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo

Wednesday, January 7

• The story behind Luke’s Plumbing and Air Conditioning serving Houstonians since 1991
• • Luke’s Plumbing & Air Conditioning
• Where karaoke meets claw machines: Welcome to Klaw‑Oke Kingdom in Pearland
• • Klaw-Oke Kingdom
• Brace yourself, the 1993 Oilers vs. Bills game is featured in new docuseries ‘Don’t Call it a Comeback’
• • VICE TV’s “Don’t Call It A Comeback”
• New Year, Strong Start: EōS Fitness Experts Share Tips to Crush 2026 Goals
• • EōS Fitness

Tuesday, January 6

• Houston bagel pros talk schmear, slices and specials ahead of National Bagel Day
• • Bagel Shop Bakery
• Comedian Chinedu Ogu takes H-Town-rooted comedy on a national tour
• • Chinedu at Punch Line Houston
• Start your new year weight loss journey at Health Solutions and Weightloss
• • Health Solutions and Weightloss
• Enroll Now: Key deadlines and tips for 2026 Marketplace coverage
• • Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas

Monday, January 5

• Rosca de Reyes Season is here - and this Houston bakery is busy
• • Arandas Bakery
• Damp or Dry January? These non-alcoholic wines actually taste like wine
• • Daniela Garrido | Wine and Travel Expert
• New Year, New Smile: AI-driven smile design at Texas Dental Implant Center
• • Texas Dental Implant Center
• Freeze Miser

Friday, January 2

• Tough but fair: NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Llamas visits Houston Life
• • NBC Nightly News
  • Tom Llamas
• Tarot Card Reader Amber Ambrose
• Opening weekend kicks off at Sam Houston Race Park TODAY!
• • Sam Houston Race Park

Thursday, January 1

• New Year’s fitness made simple: Tips and a low-impact workout for beginners
• • Hoodfit
• Chantell Preston
• HiFi at The Finn

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The heat wave will start this weekend and last at least a week, with some areas feeling its effects until the end of the month, meteorologists said. Temperatures will be 15 to 25 degrees Fahrenheit (8 to 14 degrees Celsius) warmer than normal in many areas, including at night, they said. Hotter nighttime temperatures are especially bad for both human health and efforts to tamp down an already active wildfire season.

“This upcoming heat wave does look pretty remarkable,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources. “This is going to be a long duration, widespread and high-intensity heat event that’s going to affect millions of people for over a week.”

Trapping hot air, threatening records

A dome of high pressure — which traps hot air like a pot lid while blocking cooling winds and rain — will initially park over the Northern Plains, but it will be so big that it will trap sweltering temperatures across as much as two-thirds of the continental United States, three meteorologists told The Associated Press. While it will initially miss the East Coast, the heat dome will shift and wobble, maybe even spreading from coast-to-coast over the next 10 days or more, they said.

Forecasters are expecting record triple-digit highs this weekend in Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota.

The weather service is predicting more than 90 U.S. local temperature records will be tied or broken through Wednesday, with two-thirds being overnight heat records that can hinder how the human body recovers from broiling days.

“Nights can be just as dangerous as days. If you don’t get heat relief at night, that’s going to spill out into your daytime experience and become extremely dangerous,” said meteorologist Bob Henson with Yale Climate Connections. “Heat is not to be played with. It’s just as dangerous as a tornado or hurricane that can kill you just as easily, just in a quiet and different way.”

Heat wave will be bigger, longer-lasting and stronger than most

Swain said what makes this heat wave so different is how big a warm shadow it will cast and how long it will persist.

In the past couple of weeks, major heat waves have caused extensive suffering in Europe, the U.S. East Coast and most recently the U.S. Southeast. Now any place in the United States that escaped the earlier July heat waves will get this one, Swain said.

Rain is likely to sneak below the southern edge of the heat dome and douse the U.S. Southeast during the daytime, setting up something strange, Climate Central meteorologist Shel Winkley said. Because of the added moisture and humidity, the Southeast could get record-shattering nighttime heat but below-normal daytime warmth, he said.

The weather service is predicting record nighttime heat in a number of locations from Texas to Florida to North Carolina on Saturday. Temperatures won't drop below 80 degrees (27 degrees Celsius) at night in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Miami; Tampa, Florida; Galveston, Texas; and Charleston, South Carolina, according to the forecast.

While heat domes are not unusual in the summer, Winkley said this one stands out because of how strong it is, likely to set records for the amount of high pressure that it will contain. It's especially unusual for being so far north, he said.

It’s likely to persist so long because drought-stricken areas have less soil and air moisture that would normally slow the warming of the air, Swain said. The drier, hotter air then worsens the drought conditions and stokes more heat in a vicious cycle, he said.

This will add to wildfire risk, already bad because of the drought, he said.

Climate change is worsening the heat

The El Nino that recently formed is too young to have a pronounced impact on this heat wave, but climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas clearly does, the three meteorologists said.

“We know that heat waves are becoming more intense, they’re lasting longer, they’re covering larger areas than they used to because of human-caused climate change,” Swain said. “And so when we see an event like this, we know there is at least a partial contribution by the long-term warming trend.”

Climate Central uses 20 different computer models to compare what's forecast to what would be expected in a world without greenhouse gas-caused warming as part of its Climate Shift Index. A 20,000-square-mile (52,000-square-kilometer) swath of the country from Southern California to northern Minnesota where 24 million people live this weekend will have warmth reaching the highest level on that index, meaning the heat is at least five times more likely because of climate change. Their analysis produced similar readings for the East Coast heat wave over the July 4 weekend and the recent Southeast heat wave.

“Using attribution science we know that those temperatures would be virtually impossible without the influence of climate change,” Winkley said.

___

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.

The White House on Friday confirmed the executive action against members of the Election Assistance Commission, which distributes federal grants to states, oversees the testing of voting systems and maintains the national voter registration form.

Though the move likely won't have major effects on the November midterms, it's the latest instance of the Republican president trying to exert White House influence over how U.S. elections are conducted, and it's the first test of his newly expanded presidential power after the Supreme Court ruled recently that the president can fire members of independent agency boards without cause.

“The President, and head of the Executive Branch, reserves the right to remove individuals that may not be totally aligned with the important task of securing America’s elections and ensuring every legal vote is counted. The Slaughter decision gives the President precedence to do so,” said a White House statement to AP.

The president removed the four-seat commission's two Democratic members, Thomas Hicks and Benjamin Hovland. The panel's Republican member, Christy McCormick resigned. Former Republican commissioner Donald Palmer already had left his post voluntarily earlier this year. The changes were first reported by VoteBeat, a news outlet that covers elections and voting across the U.S,

Trump has repeatedly tried to reshape voting regulations, even though the U.S. Constitution grants control of elections to the states and not the president. Citing that separation of powers, courtshaveblocked most of Trump's two executive orders that sought to reshape voting. Trump has also launched an investigation of his 2020 loss, which he continues to falsely insist was due to fraud, and this week his administration threatened states if they did not try to purge what federal officials believe are noncitizens from their voter rolls.

Still, Trump has largely been powerless to change election processes through executive fiat and David Becker, a former Department of Justice attorney who runs the Center for Election Innovation & Research, said his purge of the EAC wouldn't alter that.

“This doesn't really change anything about how our elections will be run, and how states are successfully ensuring secure, convenient, safe elections,” Becker wrote on the social media site BlueSky Friday morning.

Critics accuse Trump of damaging voters' trust

On Capitol Hill, the leading Democrats with election oversight responsibility said Trump, rather than bolstering U.S. election integrity, is further politicizing the voting process.

“President Trump is trying to dismantle yet another independent guardrail of our democracy designed to keep elections fair and secure,” said Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California, and Rep. Joe Morelle, D-New York. “Purging commissioners just months before the midterm elections and further gutting support for our state and local elections officials is a blatant part of his plan to politicize our elections and enable more unlawful and dangerous election interference.”

Padilla is the ranking member of the Senate Rules Committee, and Morelle is ranking member of the House Administration Committee.

The lawmakers noted that the Supreme Court's conservative majority enabled Trump's move with its decision to “upend decades of executive power to appease the President.”

Staff at the Election Assistance Commission did not immediately respond Friday to a request for comment on the agency's operations moving forward.

While the White House statement did not offer a specific reason for Trump's action, the commission has previously declined to change the national voter registration form to require documentation of an applicant's U.S. citizenship, as Trump's urged in a sweeping March 2025 executive order on U.S. elections. Though the form itself does not require citizenship documents, voter registration materials from the agency do state clearly that it already is illegal to falsely claim U.S. citizenship to vote.

A federal judge blocked the order, ruling it exceeded the president's authority since the U.S. Constitution grants authority over elections management and oversight to Congress and the states. The administration has indicated it will appeal.

Trump hasn't said whether he'll pick new members

It was not clear whether Trump planned to nominate new members immediately or leave the positions vacant — a move that, months ahead of midterm elections, could prevent the agency from distributing new grants to state or local elections offices and perhaps complicate its role in overseeing testing and certification of voting systems around the country.

“The Administration from the start has been working across all agencies and local partners to safeguard elections from fraud and abuse, and investing in a strong infrastructure to sustain that mission especially in the midterm elections,” the White House said.

Congress created the commission as part of the Help America Vote Act, a bipartisan law signed by Republican President George W. Bush in 2002. The act requires the commission to include two Democrats and two Republicans, nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Hicks and McCormick were appointed by President Barack Obama. Trump appointed Hovland during his first presidency.

According to VoteBeat, Hicks and Hovland were notified of their removal by an email signed by Morgan DeWitt Snow, the deputy director of presidential personnel in the Executive Office of the President.

More court fights are always possible

Hicks and Hovland could challenge their dismissals, but that ultimately could require the Supreme Court to revisit two decisions it just issued on the president's power over independent agencies.

The court ruled 6-3 last month in the case of former Federal Trade Commission member Rebecca Slaughter that Trump had wide executive authority to fire political appointees of independent executive agencies. Trump had fired Slaughter without cause despite a provision of federal law that required a reason and a nearly century-old Supreme Court precedent insulating independent agency heads from presidential whims.

The court's six conservatives said that the previous restrictions on presidential prerogatives violated the Constitution's separation of powers. The logic extends to other agencies, including the National Labor Relations Board, the Merit Systems Protection Board and the Consumer Product Safety Commission, where Trump also has fired board members.

In the separate case of Federal Reserve Board member Lisa Cook, whom Trump had tried to fire, a 5-4 majority deviated from the Slaughter decision and ruled that the president could not fire central bank governors without cause. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh sided with the court's three liberals in the Cook case. They justified their exception to their Slaughter reasoning by citing the central bank's unique structure as congressionally chartered but independent, quasi-private institution whose “appearance of independence is key to the Federal Reserve’s design” and its role in setting monetary policy that shapes the U.S. and world economy.

Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed to this report.

Hidalgo shared the diagnosis Friday morning, saying she received confirmation from lab results after extensive testing initially pointed to exhaustion.

“I’ve been dealing with a lingering sore throat and intense fatigue,” Hidalgo said in a statement. “The only treatment for mono is rest.”

Earlier Thursday, Hidalgo attended Harris County Commissioners Court but said she was unable to remain for the entire meeting because she wasn’t feeling well. She also said she wore a K95 mask during the meeting.

According to Hidalgo, her doctor advised her to rest to help ensure a full recovery and prevent the illness from becoming more serious.

She acknowledged that she had continued interacting with community members before learning she had mono because she believed her symptoms were caused by exhaustion.

“Thankfully, mono is not spread through casual contact,” Hidalgo said.

Judge says she’ll remain available during recovery

Hidalgo said she expects to be less visible in the community over the next several weeks while recovering but emphasized that county operations will continue.

“My team will represent me when necessary,” she said. “I remain fully available and reachable, especially in the event of an emergency.”

She added that while her stamina may be limited, she has a team of professionals to assist with county business and pledged to be transparent if her illness affects her ability to perform her duties.

Hidalgo said she expects to return to her normal schedule after a few weeks of limited engagements.

What is mono?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, infectious mononucleosis is most commonly caused by the Epstein-Barr virus.

Symptoms can include:

• Extreme fatigue
• Sore throat
• Fever
• Headaches and body aches
• Swollen lymph nodes
• An enlarged liver or spleen
• Rash

The CDC says most people recover within four to six weeks. Mono is spread primarily through saliva and is not easily transmitted through casual contact. Health officials recommend avoiding sharing drinks, food and personal items, such as toothbrushes, with others.

Those experiencing symptoms should contact their health care provider for evaluation.

Hugo Balderas-Ibarra, an immigration attorney representing the three men who were passengers in the van driven by Salgado Araujo, talked to the men, who are in immigration custody, on Thursday afternoon, according to his office.

Balderas-Ibarra also received written statements from the men and shared them with the Washington Post.

According to a statement on Tuesday from an ICE spokesperson, federal agents attempted to stop Salgado Araujo’s van as part of a “targeted enforcement” operation. The statement said Salgado Araujo “weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer resulting in our officer firing his weapon in self-defense.”

“That is a lie,” Jose Trinidad Rojas, 51, wrote in a handwritten statement. “It is impossible for them to say that they were going to get run over … there were no officers in front of or behind the vehicle. They were on the sides.”

The men told Balderas-Ibarra that they were on their way to a construction job site after buying ice and water about 6:30 a.m. When they pulled up to a stoplight they noticed an unmarked vehicle following them, the newspaper reported.

As Salgado Araujo began to accelerate at a green light, the other vehicle got onto the shoulder, accelerated and cut in front of the van, the men said, according to Balderas-Ibarra’s account.

Salgado Araujo then made a U-turn and that’s when agents turned on the police lights on their unmarked vehicle, the Post reported. At that point Salgado Araujo, according to the newspaper, was not driving more than 5 miles per hour when agents rammed their vehicles into his work van.

“Lorenzo thought we had lost them but suddenly they surrounded us,” Rojas wrote by hand on a legal pad viewed by The Post.

That’s when an ICE agent got out of the unmarked vehicle and yelled “Stop.” He then fired his weapon from the van’s passenger side, hitting Salgado Araujo in the abdomen, according to the newspaper.

Salgado Araujo stopped and put the van in park when officers fired repeatedly into the van, the Washington Post reported.

“When he shot my brother, the gun was in front of my face,” wrote Victor Salgado, the driver’s brother, according to Balderas-Ibarra readout of his notes to the Washington Post.

Rojas described the ICE agents violently pulling Salgado Araujo out of the van and throwing him to the ground, the Post reported. They put handcuffs on the other men’s wrists and feet and put them on the ground as Salgado Araujo yelled for help as he bled out.

“It just happened so fast,” Salgado told the attorney, according to the Washington Post.

“They’re good people who didn’t deserve this,” Balderas-Ibarra told the Washington Post. “They were cooperating and not resisting.”

“I will not sign the Housing Bill, which has been fully approved by Congress and sent to the White House, in PROTEST over the fact that the United States Senate is not capable of passing THE SAVE AMERICA ACT,” Trump posted on social media.

Trump had 10 days until the Friday deadline to sign the bill, issue a veto, or allow the measure to take effect without his signature. He has chosen to let the measure become law without his express approval, undercutting his administration's claims that he considers it a priority to combat inflation.

Trump’s rejection of the bipartisan housing legislation exacerbates tensions with his own party in a midterm election year and cuts short their efforts to address a key voter concern about rising costs. His post comes more than a week after he canceled plans to sign the bipartisan legislation, announcing he was using it as leverage in his push for a strict voter ID bill.

The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act aims to lower the cost of housing and spur more home construction. It’s the broadest federal effort in decades to address America’s housing affordability problems, as state and local regulations have made it difficult to build in many of the communities that are also sources of job growth and economic opportunity. White House economists estimated earlier this year a national shortage of 10 million homes and the bill could help to close a portion of that gap.

But Trump called the bill “a yawn” and “so unimportant” compared to legislation that would require proof of citizenship for all voters.

He surprised Republican lawmakers on June 24, when, shortly before a planned signing ceremony at the Capitol, he announced he would not approve the bill until lawmakers first passed the voting legislation.

That bill, the SAVE America Act, doesn’t have enough Republican support to pass.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said after submitting the housing bill to the White House that he told Trump he should get the “fattest black marker you have, and sign your name really big on that.”

“I hope he does sign it,” Johnson told reporters at the time. “If he doesn’t, it’s still law. We’ll still celebrate it.”

He said he also understood Trump was trying to make a point that the elections bill is the top priority. “And I think he’s making it very effectively,” Johnson said.

Still, Trump’s decision not to sign the bill gave Democrats an opening to criticize him on the issue of affordability.

“His priorities couldn’t be clearer: higher cost for families and more power for himself,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on X.

The housing bill passed the Senate on an 85-5 vote and the House approved it with an 358-32 vote.

That legislation seeks to cut federal housing rules, slim-down environmental reviews, make it faster to build homes and limit the ability of corporations to buy single-family homes.

The bill does not address all of the causes of the country’s housing woes, including a shortage of construction workers, climbing insurance costs and wages that have not risen fast enough for renters and buyers.

But the bill has drawn support from the real estate industry and housing advocates.

The U.S. housing market has been a driver of recent affordability challenges as skyrocketing prices have kept aspiring buyers out of the market. The National Association of Realtors said Thursday that the median sales price increased 1.8% in June from a year earlier to $440,600, an all-time high on data going back to 1999.

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Associated Press reporter Kevin Freking contributed to this report.

The survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research points to how Jewish adults’ attitudes toward their own personal safety have changed over a relatively short period as more Americans became critical of the United States' close alliance with Israel. The war in Gaza sparked U.S. protests over Israel’s military actions against the Palestinians in Gaza, and coincided with an increase in violent attacks against U.S. Jewish communities.

The findings highlight the vulnerability that many Jewish adults in the U.S. feel as bipartisan support for Israel erodes and significant divides emerge within the Jewish community about what constitutes antisemitism — particularly when it comes to protesting Israel.

A significant share of Jewish adults, about 3 in 10, say they or someone in their household has experienced physical assault, verbal abuse, online harassment or damaged property because of their Jewish background over the last year, according to the survey.

Hal Guberman, a 30-year-old in New Jersey, wears a kippah with some trepidation ever since a stranger in a passing car yelled a slur at him when he was walking down the street last year.

“That person, they don’t know anything about me. They don’t know my politics. They don’t know my beliefs. They don’t know my viewpoints,” Guberman said. “But they saw me being visibly Jewish, and they made an opinion about me.”

Jewish adults see prejudice against Jews as a serious problem, and many feel unsafe

About 6 in 10 Jewish adults say that prejudice against Jewish people is an “extremely” or “very” serious problem in the United States today, a view that is heightened among Jewish adults who say they are “extremely” or “very” emotionally attached to Israel.

About one-third of Jewish adults say they feel “very” or “somewhat” safe as a Jewish person in the U.S. today, while about one-third feel “very” or “somewhat” unsafe. The remaining roughly 3 in 10 say they feel neither safe nor unsafe. Those with a close connection to Israel or who identify as Jewish by religion — instead of saying they are religiously unaffiliated with a cultural, ethnic or family connection to Judaism — are more likely to feel threatened in the current environment.

About 6 in 10 Jewish adults say they feel “less safe” as a Jewish person in the U.S. than they did before Hamas' 2023 attack, including about 7 in 10 of those who are religiously Jewish. About one-third of Jewish adults say they feel “about as safe” and very few feel safer.

Erin Baskin, a 36-year-old in Pennsylvania, said the Oct. 7 attacks didn't change how safe she feels because she had her own experiences with prejudice before then.

“I’ve always grown up with antisemitism,” she said. “Among the rural community I’m in, they conflate Judaism with Zionism all the time. Unfortunately, that’s kind of been my experience. It’s nothing new.”

Some Jewish adults have grown wary of outwardly identifying themselves as Jewish following the Oct. 7 attacks, the survey found.

About 4 in 10 Jewish adults say they are “less likely” to wear, carry or display things that might identify them as a Jewish person than they were before Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. About half say they are “about as likely” and about 1 in 10 say they are “more likely.”

Caitlin Rosendorn, a 24-year-old in Illinois, said they used to wear a Star of David necklace, but now worries that wearing it could give people the incorrect impression that they support Israel's attacks against the Palestinian people.

“I don't want to wear a Star of David to work if that's going to alienate somebody who sees the Star of David as a symbol of Israel as opposed to a symbol of Judaism,” Rosendorn said. “I don't want people to get the wrong idea about my views.”

Many Jews report physical assault, property damage or harassment

About 1 in 10 Jewish adults say that in the past year, they or someone in their household has been physically assaulted. A similar share had property damaged or destroyed specifically because of their Jewish background.

About 2 in 10 Jewish adults say they or someone in their household has been called a slur, threatened, verbally harassed or verbally abused. Similarly, about 2 in 10 say they experienced online harassment or cyberbullying. Overall, about 3 in 10 of Jewish adults say that they or someone in their household has experienced at least one of these incidents because of their Jewish background.

Jewish adults who attend religious services at least once a month are much likelier than Jewish adults overall to say they or someone in their household has experienced attacks or harassment over their Jewish background — a finding that comes as there have been several targeted attacks on Jewish religious spaces in recent years.

Slightly less than half of Jewish adults who frequently attend religious services say they or someone in their household has faced verbal harassment. A similar share experienced online harassment, and about one-quarter have dealt with physical attacks or property damage.

Jon Kessler, 38, of California, who grew up in the Conservative tradition of Judaism, believes non-Jews might be surprised at the extent to which Jewish adults have to consider security at community events.

“Most people when they go to church don’t have armed security, but every synagogue has an armed security guard," Kessler said. "My son’s Jewish daycare has an armed security guard.”

Jews are divided over whether protesting Israel is a form of antisemitism

Protests surrounding speakers tied to Israel — whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanahyu’s address to Congress or college speakers seen as either too supportive or too critical of the country — became more common following the backlash over Israel’s war in Gaza.

Jewish adults, in particular, are divided over whether protesting an event related to Israel is an act of prejudice against Jewish people generally. About half of Jewish adults say anti-Israel protests are not a form of antisemitism, but roughly 4 in 10 say they are.

Many anti-Israel protests have been tied to criticism of Israel’s military action in Gaza. More than 73,000 Palestinians have died in Gaza since Israel retaliated against Hamas’ attack in 2023, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilian and militant deaths.

About two-thirds of Jewish adults say criticizing Israel for its military actions is not a form of antisemitism, but Jewish adults with a close emotional connection to Israel are more likely to say that criticism of Israel’s military actions is antisemitic. That said, relatively few Jewish adults say it’s antisemitic just to criticize Israel for “any reason.”

Americans overall are less likely to say it’s antisemitic to protest an event that is supportive of Israel, or to criticize Israel’s military actions — but they are also much less likely to have an opinion.

Jewish adults are more unified in deeming some actions as definitively antisemitic. The overwhelming majority say vandalizing synagogues or Jewish-owned businesses because of Israel’s actions is antisemitism. The same goes for denying the reality or scope of the Holocaust, putting responsibility for Israel’s actions on Jewish people in the United States, saying Israel shouldn’t exist as a Jewish state or claiming American Jews are more loyal to Israel than to the U.S.

There is less consensus among non-Jewish U.S. adults on whether some of these actions constitute antisemitism, with many saying they’re not sure.

Amanda Goldsmith, 53, who lives in Chicago, believes people have become too comfortable expressing antisemitic views online — something that she previously thought only existed in extremist spaces.

“Now, it seems like there was an undercurrent, and it’s a free-for-all, and everyone is free to say what they want,” she said. “The freedom with which people say horrible things about Jewish people is appalling.”

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This story has been corrected to show that Caitlin Rosendorn uses they/them pronouns.

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Associated Press writers Giovanna Dell’Orto in Minneapolis and Peter Smith in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.

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

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The AP-NORC poll of 3,040 adults was conducted June 11-17 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The poll included interviews with 1,022 Jewish adults. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 2.8 percentage points and the margin of sampling error for Jewish adults is plus or minus 5.0 percentage points.

The man has since been charged with aggravated assault of a family member.

• Harris County Medical Examiner rules death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo a homicide following ICE-involved shooting

According to investigators, officers were initially called to a home located in the 7700 block of Hornwood for a reported family disturbance. Police said the suspect, a man in his late 30s, got into an argument with family members before pulling out two knives and cutting his brother, who is in his late 40s, in the throat.

Authorities said the brother’s injuries were not considered life-threatening. Family members called 911, and the brother was treated for his injuries. Police said he is not believed to have been taken to a hospital

When patrol officers arrived, they found the suspect outside the home armed with a knife. Officers said he refused repeated commands to surrender before running back inside the residence.

• New video, expert analysis raise new questions in deadly ICE shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo

The Patrol Support Team responded and secured the scene before SWAT and the Hostage Negotiation Team were called in.

Negotiators spent hours attempting to convince the suspect to come outside peacefully, but police said he repeatedly refused.

During the standoff, officers breached a window and deployed a drone inside the home to locate the suspect and confirm he was alive. A robotic dog was also sent into the house, but police said the suspect still refused to surrender.

Authorities eventually deployed CS gas into the home. The suspect then exited the residence without injuries and was taken into custody by SWAT officers.

Police recovered one knife from the scene.

Investigators said no hostages were inside the home during the standoff. The suspect lived at the residence with his brother, his brother’s wife and two children, including a teenager and a child younger than 10.

The investigation remains ongoing.

A 19-year-old man was shot and killed while driving on the Grand Parkway in west Harris County Friday morning, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.

• Mexico to request criminal charges over deaths following fatal shooting of Houston man by ICE agents

Deputies responded to the intersection of FM 529 and the Grand Parkway after receiving a 911 call reporting a person who had been shot.

When deputies arrived, they found the 19-year-old inside a vehicle who’d been shot multiple times. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Investigators said the teen’s family had a GPS tracking device installed on his vehicle and received an alert after the car unexpectedly stopped. The family located the vehicle and called 911.

• Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was not the intended target in Houston ICE shooting, U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia says

According to the preliminary investigation, the victim was driving in the area of the Grand Parkway when a gray sedan pulled alongside the passenger side of his vehicle. Investigators said multiple shots were fired into the victim’s car before the suspect vehicle fled northbound on the Grand Parkway.

Detectives have not determined whether the shooting was random or targeted. They are investigating whether the victim and the suspect knew each other or if an earlier incident may have led to the gunfire.

Authorities have not released any suspect information.

• 2 young adults shot during parking lot takeover in NE Harris County

Investigators are reviewing surveillance video from nearby businesses and along the roadway as they work to identify the vehicle involved.

The sheriff’s office has not released any information about whether a weapon was found inside the victim’s vehicle.

The scene was expected to reopen later today.

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to contact the Harris County Sheriff’s Office Homicide Unit or Crime Stoppers.

The unconventional gift from the host of this week's NATO summit, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was meant to showcase his country's growing defense industry.

But it left officials across the alliance scratching their heads. Some were forced to leave their gifts behind due to gun laws in their countries, while others donated theirs to museums.

“It struck me that ⁠my gift of maple syrup kind of undermatched,” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters, adding that the firearm was now in police possession. “I would like to reassure Canadians, they keep guns away from me.”

The revolvers were engraved with leaders' names

“An unusual gift from President @RTErdogan at the NATO Summit: a Magnum revolver with ammunition, engraved with my name,” Hungary’s new Prime Minister Péter Magyar said on X, posting a photograph of a display box containing the revolver and six cartridges.

It was not immediately clear what he did with the gift.

Ursula von der Leyen, the European Union commission president, thanked Erdogan for the gift, which will be decommissioned and donated to a military museum, her spokesperson said.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters that the gift bag included a note waiving export controls. Still, he left his behind to be decommissioned, because it would be illegal to import it into Britain.

Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever handed his revolver to airport police upon arrival. The revolvers gifted to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten were left at their countries’ embassies in Ankara and would also be taken out of service, officials said.

“My first reaction was, this is something a bit different to the box of syrup waffles that we gave out at the NATO summit in The Hague,” Jetten said Friday. “I think the Turkish president wanted to underscore what we saw during the NATO summit, namely that the Turkish defense industry is among the best in the world.”

Croatian President Zoran Milanović said he only found out after his return from the summit that Erdogan had given him a gun. His office said it would probably be handed over to a police museum.

“I didn’t take it. I shoot from different weapons,” Milanovic said, referring to his political style.

The White House did not immediately respond to questions about Erdogan's gifts.

On a visit to New Zealand last year, FBI Director Kash Patel gave the country’s police and spy bosses gifts of inoperable pistols that were illegal to possess under local gun laws and had to be destroyed.

The gift was aimed at highlighting Turkey's growing defense prowess

Erdogan's office has not commented on the gift. Turkish media reports identified the revolvers as the Gumusay .357 Magnum, a vintage six‑shot revolver produced by the Turkish state arms manufacturer, MKE.

Reports said the gun aimed to highlight Turkey's defense industry, which in recent decades has transformed from a major importer into an increasingly self‑reliant producer of advanced military systems, including drones and warships. It is in the process of developing its own next‑generation fighter jet.

Gun culture is deeply rooted in Turkey, and the gift hardly triggered any reaction in the country. Umut Vakfi, a foundation campaigning for gun control, says incidents of armed violence have reached alarming levels, reporting more than 2,700 last year in the country of 86 million people.

Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency said participants at the summit were also given a more conventional gift: a copy of Erdogan's biography, titled: “The politics of courage: Erdogan and the rise of Türkiye.”

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Associated Press writers Jill Lawless in London, Jovana Gec in Belgrade, Stefania Dazio in Berlin, Mike Corder in The Hague, Sylvain Plazy in Brussels and Elena Becatoros in Athens contributed.

The latest happened on July 7 in Houston, where 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was shot and killed during what the government called an ICE enforcement operation.

• Hundreds march in Houston demanding justice after ICE shoots, kills Lorenzo Salgado Araujo

His death has renewed scrutiny of the agency’s use of force and prompted calls from elected officials and civil rights organizations for an independent investigation.

According to The Associated Press, Salgado Araujo is at least the eighth person known to have died during ICE enforcement actions since January 2025.

Texas ICE shootings

March 2025: Ruben Ray Martinez, South Padre Island

Date: March 2025

Location: South Padre Island, Texas

Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, was driving with his friend, Joshua Orta, on South Padre Island. Martinez was trying to drive around an accident when an officer told him to stop.

Officers said he bumped the leg of one of the officers with his car and then was repeatedly shot and killed.

July 7, 2026: Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Houston

Date: July 7, 2026

Location: Houston

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was shot and killed by an ICE agent during a targeted enforcement operation in Houston’s Magnolia Park neighborhood.

According to ICE, Salgado Araujo ignored verbal commands and attempted to drive his van toward an officer, prompting the agent to fire in self-defense.

His family disputes that version of events, saying he was on his way to work and may not have realized the unmarked vehicles surrounding him were federal agents. His relatives, community leaders and elected officials have called for an independent, transparent investigation. The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General are investigating the shooting.

• RELATED: ‘A hardworking Mexican man’: Son of man killed by ICE in Houston demands investigation

According to ICE, agents said Salgado Araujo attempted to run over an officer and the shooting was in self-defense.

Related: Deadly immigration-related shooting happened in Texas

Although this timeline focuses on ICE shootings, another fatal shooting involving a different federal immigration agency occurred in Texas on the same day as the Houston incident.

On July 7, authorities said Ryan Louis Mosqueda, 27, opened fire outside a U.S. Border Patrol facility in McAllen, injuring a Border Patrol employee and a McAllen police officer before Border Patrol agents and local officers returned fire, killing him.

• RELATED: Harris County DA investigators return to east Houston scene of ICE agent shooting that killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo

The FBI is investigating the incident.

While both ICE and the U.S. Border Patrol fall under the Department of Homeland Security, they are separate agencies with different missions.

The McAllen shooting is not included in the ICE timeline above, but it has become part of the broader discussion in Texas about federal immigration enforcement and the use of force.

Other fatal ICE shootings

Sept. 12, 2025: Silverio Villegas González, Chicago

ICE agents conducting what they described as a targeted enforcement operation stopped Silverio Villegas González’s vehicle.

According to ICE, Villegas González resisted arrest and attempted to drive over officers before an agent fatally shot him.

• RELATED: ICE agent shoots, kills Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during attempted arrest in east Houston

ICE said the officer acted in self-defense after the vehicle allegedly threatened agents.

Dec. 31, 2025: Keith Porter Jr., Los Angeles

Keith Porter Jr., 43, was shot and killed by an off-duty ICE agent outside an apartment complex after the agent responded to reports of gunfire.

The agent said Porter was armed and posed a threat. Family members have disputed that account, saying Porter was likely firing celebratory gunshots for New Year’s Eve.

ICE said the off-duty agent acted in self-defense.

• RELATED: Mexico’s president vows legal action against US after ICE’s shooting death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo

Jan. 7, 2026: Renee Good, Minneapolis

Authorities said Renee Good was ordered out of her vehicle before reversing her vehicle as an ICE officer approached.

The officer fired three shots, killing her.

Department of Homeland Security said the officer believed Good posed an immediate threat and acted in self-defense.

Jan. 24, 2026: Alex Pretti, Minneapolis

The Department of Homeland Security said ICE officers shot Alex Pretti after he refused to disarm himself.

Video later circulated showing an officer removing a handgun from Pretti’s waistband before firing while Pretti was on the ground, prompting questions about the government’s initial account.

Department of Homeland Security said officers said they acted in self-defense after Pretti refused to surrender his weapon.

It also highlighted the complex engineering behind adaptive reuse projects, which have become increasingly popular as officials try to tackle a nationwide housing shortage by transforming offices that have sat underused since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The plans call for turning two office buildings — one built in 1909, the other in the 1960s — into about 1,600 apartments by adding more than a dozen stories atop the older structure and redesigning and expanding the other. The buckling occurred on the 21st floor of the newer structure, and crews have installed temporary supports as officials investigate.

Engineering experts said the conversion project is complex and poses many challenges, which include making sure older buildings can safely support new loads and carving up office floors to accommodate residential living.

But none said the high-profile setback should make people doubt the ability of engineers to complete such projects.

“I don’t think it really brings into question our understanding of how to do something like this,” said Ben Schafer, a structural engineering professor at Johns Hopkins University.

How do you build a new tower on top of an old one?

On its website highlighting the midtown project, adaptive reuse firm Collaborative Construction Management says the nine-story building from 1909 will be “threaded through” with a new addition of about 30 stories of poured concrete.

Schafer, who is not involved with the undertaking, said the likely approach is to have the century-old building continue to carry its own weight while building a new structural system to support additions.

“My interpretation would be that they’re going to leave that building carrying its own load, and they’re just going to poke holes in it so that they can take the load from the building that they’ve put above it and bring it all the way down to the foundation,” Schafer said.

Schafer said construction on the other tower presents a different challenge: punching holes in the existing floor plate to bring light into apartments, while also ensuring that the steel frame can support the newly added loads.

City officials have not determined what caused the columns to buckle. But both Schafer and Emily Guglielmo, a San Francisco-based structural engineer, believe the failure likely resulted from the added load.

Spokespersons for MetroLoft, the project developer, didn’t respond to requests for comment Thursday. But Nathan Berman, the firm’s founder, acknowledged in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that the added weight from widening the top 15 or so floors of the building likely caused the damage.

Guglielmo thinks that either the original design assumptions were misunderstood, something went wrong during the design or construction process, or construction crews overloaded or weakened the structure.

Adding stories to existing buildings is common in dense urban areas where land is scarce, she said, but it requires reviewing original construction documents and inspecting the building before determining how additional floors will affect the structure.

“In cities and towns that don’t have that available geography, you’re going to see a lot more of this type of a design where there’s an adaptive reuse to an existing building,” Guglielmo said.

Why not just create a new building from scratch?

To many structural engineers, demolition should occur only as a last resort.

“Tearing buildings down is a terrible waste,” Schafer said, pointing out that buildings and the construction sector are responsible for about 40% of the world’s energy-related carbon emissions. “From a sustainability standpoint, that’s a disaster.”

Beyond the environmental costs, demolishing and hauling away the remnants of huge buildings is especially expensive in dense cities such as New York.

If an existing structure can safely be reused, engineers generally prefer that.

James LaFave, a structural engineering professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, said a steel-framed building from the 1960s, like the former Pfizer structure, would typically be a “very good” starting point for a conversion.

Does the scare in New York call into question other adaptive reuse projects?

In recent years, officials across the country have embraced office-to-housing conversions as a potential lifeline for downtown business districts that have struggled since the pandemic.

New York, especially, has embraced this push, as officials have made zoning changes and enacted tax incentives to spur housing production. A report from the New York City comptroller's office last year noted there are 44 adaptive reuse projects in the city that, as of early 2025, had either been completed, were underway or could move forward.

Pfizer moved out of the building in 2023 after opening a new office near Penn Station, leaving the property vacant. Construction on the property began in 2024.

Joshua Harris, director of Fordham University’s Real Estate Institute, said office-to-residential conversions are a key part of solving the housing shortages in New York and other cities, even if they come with risk.

“In a certain sense, it’s not terribly surprising that this happened, and we should have a little bit of grace,” he said. “These are very, very complicated surgical procedures being done to very old buildings.”

“This is part of the reality of fixing the housing crisis,” Harris continued. “Things like this can happen. It doesn’t look as complex as putting a rocket into space, but, in a real estate sense, construction in an environment like Manhattan on 42nd Street and Second Avenue is very complex.”

Guglielmo, the California engineer, said a combination of building codes, inspections and experienced construction crews makes failures like this rare.

“We’re very fortunate here in the United States that we are not seeing these types of failures on a day-to-day basis,” she said. “We’re privileged to have really robust building codes that explain to us as engineers how to do our designs in a way that’s safe.”

Still, Harris said it is likely a gut check for the industry, as office conversions transform once sleepy business districts across the city into 24/7 neighborhoods, like parts of Wall Street in recent years.

“If this building has a problem, all the other projects that have been sort of greenlit, they’re going to want to review to make sure that it’s not something similar,” Harris said.

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Rico reported from Atlanta and Hill reported from Las Vegas.