U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee in Washington, late Wednesday rejected the request by Democrats and civil rights groups that had argued Trump’s order would likely be found unconstitutional because the states and Congress, not the president, have the power to set election rules. Nichols agreed with the Republican Trump administration's contention that it was too early to block the order because it has yet to be implemented.

Nichols' ruling leaves the door open for further challenges when the Trump administration moves to implement the president's directive. A separate lawsuit seeking to block the executive order is underway in Boston. No matter how rapidly the administration acts, no voting changes are expected during primary elections, which continue into next month.

“The Court recognizes that the Postal Service may ultimately issue a final rule that directly affects Plaintiffs or their members, or that the Government may develop State Citizenship Lists that omit specific individuals due to particularized flaws,” Nichols wrote. “Plaintiffs may, of course, renew their motions if and when those future actions occur. Until then, however, Plaintiffs cannot show that preliminary injunctive relief is warranted.”

The Trump administration has yet to formally issue lists of eligible voters, and those who filed the initial request for a temporary halt said they'd be back if the administration moves in that direction.

“We are ready to resume the fight if and when the administration takes those next steps,” said Juan Proaño, chief executive officer of the League of United Latin American Citizens, one of the organizations that sought the stay from Nichols.

Democratic party organizations that sought the order issued a joint statement with similar promises. “We are confident we will prevail in the end when this illegal and completely unworkable executive order is fully adjudicated,” the statement said.

Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said: “Today’s ruling is a decisive victory for the rule of law and deals a blow against the Democrat strategy of suing first and finding legal arguments later."

Trump issued the order in March after a bill he supported to overhaul voting stalled in Congress. The order would have had the federal government create a list of eligible voters and then directed the U.S. Postal Service to deliver mail ballots only to those on the list. Election officials argued it was ripe for abuse and could cause chaos, and the postal union has objected to the idea of mail carriers policing ballots.

Since his 2020 presidential election loss to Democrat Joe Biden, Trump has groundlessly claimed mail voting is rife with fraud and has launched a federal investigation into that year's vote, even though repeated audits and investigations, including ones run by Republicans, found it was free of widespread fraud. Trump also has said he wants to “take over” election administration in Democratic areas.

Democrats and civil rights groups argued it was urgent that Nichols issue a restraining order amid the primary season, with states already gearing up for the fall midterm elections.

This was Trump's second executive order aimed at overhauling elections and voting. His initial election executive order, issued just months after he took office in his second term, has been blocked by multiplefederal judges. That order sought to require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote, among other changes.

For her walk-on before a second-round win at the French Open, the tennis star wore a metallic gold bomber jacket over her sequined gold playing dress, offset by an ivory train in a look that mixes sportswear with couture.

“The inspo was, I don’t want to say Victorian, but you know the ladies that have the dresses with the poof in the background?" Osaka said. “(It's) so terrible of me to not know the correct term of that.”

The term Osaka was looking for is likely bustles, which were padded undergarments used to add fullness to dresses in the mid to late 19th century.

After the walk-on, Osaka took off the train and jacket and handed the garments to a ball kid to remove them before the match against Donna Vekic on Court Simonne-Mathieu on Thursday.

“I like to keep people on their toes and I think it’s really fun,” Osaka said in her post-match interview on court, refusing to reveal if she has a new outfit for every possible match of the tournament. “There’s a community I feel like that’s been built over my on-court outfits. So I just like to just keep you guys guessing.”

Osaka won 7-6 (1), 6-4 to reach the third round at Roland Garros for the first time since 2019.

“It means a lot,” she said. “I just feel so grateful. It’s another milestone.”

For her opening match two days earlier, Osaka walked on in a ceremonial black skirt and sleeveless beaded bodice before revealing her gold dress, which she said reminded her of the Eiffel Tower sparkling at night.

“Athletes are in show business,” Osaka said after beating Laura Siegemund in her opener. “Grand Slam walk-ons are the only time that I possibly feel like I’m an entertainer.”

Osaka's opponent says walk-ons ‘problematic’

Siegemund said Osaka’s walk-ons were “yet another example of big names being treated differently” in tennis.

Siegemund told Eurosport Germany she didn’t mind the outfits but found it “a bit problematic” that it took Osaka so long to get ready and lesser-known players were under pressure to unpack their gear as fast as possible to avoid time violations.

“I came here to play tennis, not to put on a fashion show," Siegemund added after losing to Osaka. "If other people want to do a fashion show, they can do that. It’s fine for me.”

Vekic had no issues.

“It’s just something different,” Vekic said. "Some people take tennis way too seriously. Just relax. It’s just an outfit. It’s no big deal. She has an opportunity to do that so why not.”

___

AP Fashion Writer Colleen Barry in Milan contributed to this report.

___

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

By a 5-4 vote, the justices sided with Terry Pitchford, who was sentenced to death for his role in the killing of a grocery store owner.

“In this case, whether due to confusion, oversight, an overly hurried jury selection process, or some other cause, things broke down,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote for the court. Chief Justice John Roberts and the court’s three liberal justices joined with Kavanaugh.

There were 11 white jurors and one Black juror in a trial with similarities to that of another Black man on Mississippi’s death row, whose conviction the high court overturned seven years ago.

It’s unclear what happens next in Pitchford's case. Justice Neil Gorsuch, who dissented, suggested the state still could argue Pitchford’s conviction should be sustained. If his conviction is overturned, the state could seek to retry him.

“Mr. Pitchford is now entitled to a fair trial in the state court,” Joseph Perkovich, who argued the case for Pitchford at the Supreme Court, wrote in an email.

Doug Evans, a now-retired prosecutor with a history of dismissing Black jurors for discriminatory reasons, had excused four other Black people at Pitchford's trial. Black people make up more than 37% of Mississippi’s population.

The Supreme Court ruled 40 years ago in Batson v. Kentucky that jurors could not be excused from service because of their race and set up a system by which trial judges could evaluate claims of discrimination and the race-neutral explanations by prosecutors.

Pitchford’s case focused on whether his lawyers did enough to object to Judge Joseph Loper’s rulings and whether the state Supreme Court acted reasonably in ruling they had not.

Pitchford’s lawyers made the necessary arguments and the state high court acted unreasonably, Kavanaugh wrote.

In dissent, Gorsuch wrote that Pitchford had to show that no fair-minded judge could rule as the Mississippi court did and that the record in the case was crystal-clear in his favor.

“As I see things, Mr. Pitchford has failed to satisfy either of these standards,” Gorsuch wrote, joined by Justices Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett and Clarence Thomas.

In 2019, the Supreme Court overturned the death sentence and conviction of Curtis Flowers, because of what Kavanaugh then described as a “relentless, determined effort to rid the jury of Black individuals.” Evans was the prosecutor in that case, and Loper presided over the final two of Flowers’ six trials.

Pitchford, now 40, was 18 when he and a friend decided to rob the Crossroads Grocery, just outside Grenada in northern Mississippi. The friend shot store owner Reuben Britt three times, fatally wounding him, but was ineligible for the death penalty because he was younger than 18. Pitchford was tried for capital murder and was sentenced to death.

The case has been making its way through the court system for 20 years. In 2023, U.S District Judge Michael P. Mills overturned Pitchford’s conviction, holding that the trial judge did not give Pitchford’s lawyers enough of a chance to argue that the prosecution was improperly dismissing Black jurors.

Mills wrote that his ruling was partially motivated by Evans’ actions in prior cases. A unanimous panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the ruling.

Evans did not respond to The Associated Press' attempt to reach him for comment when he retired.

___

Follow the AP's coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.

A white cargo plane with aid donated by the European Union delivered masks, gloves, boots and medications — all of which are in short supply — to the northeastern town of Bunia at the heart of the outbreak in Congo's Ituri province. U.N.-branded forklifts lifted several cases into trucks.

Health workers with scant supplies have been struggling to contain an outbreak of the Bundibugyo virus, a kind of Ebola that has no approved treatment or vaccine. In some areas, doctors have resorted to wearing expired medical masks while treating suspected patients.

Dangers faced by health workers have been heightened by anger among residents over the stringent medical protocols for dealing with the bodies of victims, which clash with local burial rites. Residents have launched at least three attacks against health centers in Ituri province.

Congolese Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba said that during outbreaks people in remote communities can feel overwhelmed by an incoming flood of information and people.

“We’ve seen in every epidemic that there’s always resistance,” Kamba said. "Communities always ask themselves, ‘What’s going on?’ And in epidemics like this one, it is really risk communication and community engagement that ultimately change perceptions.”

Aid donated by the EU is expected to arrive in batches over the next eight days, Jérôme Kouachi, head of emergency operations at UNICEF in Congo, told The Associated Press.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was on his way to Congo to see the efforts first-hand efforts. The WHO has declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, in the hope of ramping up aid.

The United States on Thursday said it is increasing its aid to Congo and Uganda by $80 million, bringing its commitment to more than $112 million since the outbreak.

The additional money would pay for personal protective equipment for health care workers, Ebola test kits, support for health screening at airports and contact tracing, the U.S. State Department said.

Africa Centres for Disease Control director-general Dr Jean Kaseya said that the organization on Monday believed it had secured funding pledges of nearly $500 million toward Africa’s emergency response, but that as of Thursday afternoon the amount had dwindled to $290 million as partners withdrew or reduced pledges.

He also said that the Africa CDC hoped to have treatments and a vaccine for the Bundibugyo virus by the end of the year, and that there were some vaccine candidates already in the works.

The Congolese government has confirmed more than 1,000 suspected cases, with at least 220 deaths, since it declared an outbreak on May 15. But the virus had been spreading undetected for weeks, and the WHO suspects it is much larger than what has been reported.

The virus has also reached neighboring Uganda, which has confirmed seven cases and one death.

On Wednesday, the Congolese government said the first survivor to recover from the virus had left a health center.

“We are trying to catch up,” Congo Foreign Minister Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner said earlier this week. “It is a race against the clock.”

The response on the ground has been hampered by multiple challenges, including customs' red tape, insufficient storage facilities, bad roads and weak telecommunications, humanitarian agencies said in a report on Thursday.

Tedros on Wednesday called for a ceasefire in a region where armed groups have staged violent attacks for decades. “We cannot build community trust or isolate the sick while bombs are falling,” he said.

Tucked in the northeastern part of Congo close to the Ugandan border, Ituri province has been reeling from attacks by the Allied Democratic Force, a rebel group allied with the Islamic State group, and a coalition of ethnic militias. In early May, the ADF killed at least 40 people and burned several homes in Ituri.

The illness has also been reported in two Congolese provinces south of Ituri — North Kivu and South Kivu, where the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group controls many key cities, including Goma and Bukavu. The rebels have reported two cases. The region’s main airport in Goma, which doubles as a staging ground for humanitarian efforts into the region, has been closed since January 2025, when M23 seized the city.

The conflict has precipitated one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with at least 7 million people displaced in eastern Congo.

—-

Ope Adetayo reported from Lagos, Nigeria. Mathew Lee contributed from Washington and Mogomotsi Magome contributed from Johannesburg, South Africa.

The S&P 500 added 0.5% to its all-time high set the day before after drifting between small gains and losses earlier in the morning. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 10 points, or less than 0.1%, as of 1:26 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.8% higher after both indexes also set records the day before.

Even with worries about expensive oil and high inflation, the U.S. stock market has run to records largely because U.S. companies keep making more money. Stock prices tend to follow the path of corporate profits over the long term, and companies have been routinely topping analysts' expectations for the first three months of 2026.

Dollar Tree’s stock soared 19% after it became the latest to report fatter profit than analysts expected. CEO Mike Creedon said improved store conditions helped the retailer make more profit off each $1 in sales during the latest quarter despite tariffs adding to its costs. The company also gave a forecast for profit over the full year that topped analysts’ expectations.

Kohl’s rallied 18.9% after the retailer reported better results for the latest quarter than analysts had feared, while Best Buy climbed 18% following its own better-than-expected profit report. Hormel Foods climbed 13.1% after a strong performance for its Jennie-O ground turkey and exports of its Spam luncheon meat helped it report a better profit than analysts expected.

Snowflake rose 38.8% after saying artificial intelligence continues to be a strong driver of its business, and profit and revenue for the latest quarter exceeded expectations.

They helped offset a dip for Marvell Technology, which fell 3.1% after its profit for the latest quarter only matched analysts' expectations. It also said AI is driving big revenue growth for it, particularly its data center business.

In the oil market, prices ticked higher following their latest U-turns. The price for a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude oil rose 0.4% to $89.04, but only after bouncing between $87 and $92. It's been swinging as hopes rise and fall that the United States and Iran may reach a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and get oil flowing again from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide.

The latest threat to the ceasefire in the war came after U.S. Central Command said Kuwait had intercepted missiles launched by Iran late Wednesday night. That followed earlier “defensive” strikes by the U.S. military on missile launch sites and minelaying boats in southern Iran.

In the bond market, Treasury yields eased after a report said the measure of inflation that the Federal Reserve likes to use accelerated last month but was roughly within economists’ expectations.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.46% from 4.48% late Wednesday after giving up an earlier gain.

Data also showed how U.S. households are less able to save money, with the personal savings rate down to a four-year low of 2.6%, “pointing up the financial pressure on lower- and middle-income families,” according to Gary Schlossberg, global strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.

U.S. households have been saying they’re feeling discouraged about the economy and inflation, even as the stock market keeps chugging along.

High yields in bond markets worldwide recently have threatened to slow economies and undercut prices for stocks and all kinds of other investments. High yields have already forced the average long-term U.S. mortgage rate to its most expensive level since last summer, and they could curtail companies’ borrowing to build the AI data centers that have supported the U.S. economy’s growth recently.

A report on Thursday said the pace of sales of new U.S. homes unexpectedly slowed last month, as the weight of higher mortgage rates hurts the market.

In stock markets abroad, indexes dipped across much of Europe and Asia. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.3% for one of the world’s larger losses.

___

AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.

Court records show prosecutors dismissed all three abuse of a corpse charges against Michael Richardson, co-owner of Richardson Mortuary in southwest Houston.

According to filings from the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, prosecutors determined they “cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt at this time,” though the records note the charges are “subject to refile.”

The dismissal comes weeks after charges were also dropped against the funeral home’s other co-owner, Gayle Bell. Prosecutors similarly stated at the time they could not prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt, while leaving open the possibility of refiling charges in the future.

Richardson’s attorney, Rick DeToto, said his client was hospitalized during the time the alleged incidents occurred and was not overseeing the business’s daily operations.

“Mr. Richardson was in the hospital suffering from an extremely serious medical condition during the time of these allegations,” DeToto said. “He was not in the day to day control of the funeral home. He is very thankful for the dismissal of these cases.”

The criminal case stems from an investigation launched last year after grieving families arrived at Richardson Mortuary on Brookfield Drive and reported seeing their loved ones’ remains in what they described as deplorable conditions.

Several families told KPRC 2 News they found bodies stored in non-refrigerated rooms, some partially covered, while construction debris was scattered throughout the building. One woman said she discovered her mother’s body with gnats already present.

“I raised the casket up and I looked in it and it was my mom. Had gnats already on her, she was sweating,” Tamara McGruber Crooks previously told KPRC 2 News.

Disturbing video shared with KPRC 2 News appeared to show multiple bodies inside the mortuary. Houston police later confirmed officers observed at least 10 bodies visible when they responded to the funeral home.

The situation escalated during a confrontation at the facility when a man recording video was stabbed by a funeral home employee. Police said the victim suffered minor injuries and drove himself to a hospital for treatment.

Following complaints from families, the Texas Funeral Service Commission launched an investigation into the funeral home’s operations. State inspectors later confirmed they found bodies in “disturbing conditions” inside the building.

The agency suspended the mortuary’s license and issued a cease-and-desist order, citing alleged violations of health, safety, and building codes, as well as accusations of unprofessional and deceptive conduct.

Houston police also opened an investigation into whether the remains were improperly stored or mishandled.

After the funeral home was shut down, several bodies were transferred to another funeral home so families could continue funeral services for their loved ones.

Court records indicate the charges were dismissed without prejudice, meaning prosecutors could potentially refile them at a later date.

Iran did not immediately confirm any deal, and the official noted that President Donald Trump has yet to sign off on it.

The emerging memorandum of understanding came as the fragile ceasefire in the war between the U.S. and Iran appeared to be wavering. The latest flare-up in fighting happened less than a day earlier, when Kuwait intercepted missiles fired from Iran, according to U.S. Central Command.

The official who described the tentative agreement was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Another U.S. official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private diplomacy, said the broad outlines of an agreement have been reached but stressed that until Trump signs off on it, there is no deal. The official said there still are questions about whether Trump will accept the proposal.

Details of the tentative pact were first reported by the news outlet Axios.

Kuwait had earlier announced an attack on its territory, and Iran said it had retaliated for strikes earlier in the week by firing on a U.S. base in an Gulf state it did not name. The Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry condemned Iran for what it called “blatant aggression," and U.S. Central Command called the attack on one of America’s top allies in the Persian Gulf an “egregious ceasefire violation.”

The exchange unfolded after U.S. officials said late Wednesday in Washington that American forces launched more strikes on Iran, shooting down four one-way attack drones that posed a threat around the Strait of Hormuz and hitting an Iranian ground-control station in Bandar Abbas that was about to launch a fifth drone.

Washington and Tehran have repeatedly accused each other of violating the seven-week ceasefire and have traded strikes throughout the week. But they have not returned to full-scale hostilities and have kept negotiating. Trump has insisted he’s confident that his administration is making headway in the talks.

On Monday, the U.S. said it conducted what the Pentagon called “self-defense” strikes on missile launch sites and minelaying boats in southern Iran.

After the latest American strikes, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard acknowledged the attack around Bandar Abbas International Airport. The Iranian force said via the state-run IRNA news agency that it launched a retaliatory attack on the air base that launched the assaults, without specifying whether the retaliation targeted Kuwait, which is home to U.S. Army Central’s forward headquarters, air bases and a naval base.

Kuwait’s military announced that its air-defense systems intercepted incoming missiles and drones on Thursday, without detailing what had been targeted. Kuwait repeatedly came under fire from Iran and Iranian-backed Shiite militias in Iraq before the April ceasefire began.

The announcement comes as the Middle East is on the edge and talks to end the war remain in flux.

Trump is looking for an agreement that will reopen the strait, through which about a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas once passed. He also is seeking to get Iran to give up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium. The war has been unpopular in the U.S., and Iran’s closure of the strait has sent oil prices skyrocketing, driving up fuel prices around the world.

The Islamic Republic wants economic sanctions to be lifted and frozen assets to be released to aid its shattered economy. Iran also insists that any deal must include an end to Israel’s military operations in Lebanon against the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah.

A U.S.-brokered ceasefire went into effect in Lebanon in mid-April, and Lebanese and Israeli military officials are set to hold their first security talks Friday in Washington. But the ceasefire has been tested, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Monday that his country was stepping up attacks after Hezbollah fired fiber-optic exploding drones that struck Israeli troops in Lebanon and reached some of Israel’s northern border towns.

Tensions deepened Thursday as Israel conducted an airstrike on a southern suburb of the capital, Beirut, and other strikes in the southern coastal city of Tyre. At least 14 people were killed across the country's south.

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Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank. Associated Press Writer Konstantin Toropin in Washington contributed to this report.

O’Hara was an outsider brought in with a mandate to reform the police department after the 2020 killing of George Floyd, which led to federal and state investigative findings of excessive force and racist policing practices. O’Hara had spent most of his career in Newark, New Jersey, where he instituted changes after that department was put under a federal consent decree for patterns of excessive force and unconstitutional stops and searches.

The challenges in Minneapolis were clear before O'Hara arrived in late 2022. For a time, it had seemed the department itself might not survive. In 2021, more than 43% of voters supported disbanding the department as the city reeled from Floyd’s killing and the massive protests and widespread rioting that followed.

O'Hara was faced with a daunting challenge

Policing experts had noted the monumental task that faced the city’s next police chief, who would have to rebuild community trust and a department whose morale had dipped so low that it was hemorrhaging officers.

“I don’t think there was a bigger challenge to any American city than what Minneapolis faced when he arrived,” said Chuck Wexler, executive director of a Washington think tank, the Police Executive Research Forum. “They had gone from 850 to 500 officers, violent crime was significantly up, trust with the community was broken, a police station had burned down and a federal consent decree would face the next chief. Then you had the politics of Minneapolis.”

Coming in as an outsider to lead a large department is daunting, even without being asked to reform and rebuild, said Renée Hall, president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives who moved from Detroit to lead the Dallas Police Department from 2017 to 2020.

“It’s extremely challenging to walk into an organization, where you don’t even know where the light switches are, where the bathrooms are. And that’s just the basics,” Hall said. “You have to learn the officers, the community, the politics of that particular city, and try to learn and navigate the existing relationships, like unions or officer associations and who is tied to whom and who is fighting for whom.”

Hall said outside hires can face resentment from those within an organization who supported internal candidates. They also have to earn the trust of the community, which she said takes time.

Local politics muddy the chief's departure

After the police disbandment measure failed, O'Hara joined the bureaucracy of a deeply progressive city that is regularly buffeted by political battles between the mayor and the City Council, and among council members.

Those battles were on full display Wednesday, when a City Council news conference about O'Hara's resignation quickly turned into an opportunity for the council's resolute progressives to attack Mayor Jacob Frey, who has long portrayed himself as a “pragmatic progressive.”

The resignation “is a symptom of a much larger problem, which is simply that Mayor Frey continues to be unable to effectively manage the Minneapolis Police Department,” said Council member Robin Wonsley, a cornerstone of the council's progressive bloc.

Frey, who just weeks ago pushed to have O'Hara reappointed as chief, fired back at criticism that he didn’t move aggressively enough when allegations of the chief's potential misconduct emerged.

“I don’t make decisions based on rumors and anonymous complaints,” he said in a statement, adding that he would work with the council to find a replacement. “I took action promptly after receiving the investigative report. … Decisions this serious have to be grounded in facts, evidence and completed investigations. Anything less would be irresponsible.”

O'Hara did not return a message seeking comment Wednesday. His attorney, Doug Kelley, released a statement touting successes during O'Hara's tenure, including diversifying and increasing the department's ranks, the decreasing violent crime rate and mitigating violent clashes during the immigration crackdown.

“The circumstances of Chief O’Hara’s departure should not define his service," Kelley wrote. "He was proud to serve Minneapolis, remains grateful to the officers and community partners who did difficult work under extraordinary pressure, and hopes the city continues moving forward. He understandably looks forward to returning to his young family in New Jersey.”

O'Hara's tenure was tumultuous

The resignation came just months after Minneapolis was plunged into the national spotlight amid a federal immigration surge that left three civilians shot, two fatally. O'Hara faced criticism he hadn't done enough to stop the crackdown.

Violence plagued the city in 2025, including deadly attacks on state politicians in the Minneapolis suburbs; gunfire that erupted at a popular city picnic spot; and a shooting during Mass at the Church of the Annunciation that left two children dead and more than a dozen people injured. O’Hara called the church attack a “ truly unthinkable tragedy. ”

Critics say dozens of complaints were filed against O'Hara, from accusations that he was rude to the public to the recent investigation into an ultimately unproven allegation he had a sexual relationship with a city employee. Most of the complaints have not been made public, and 17 complaints are still being investigated. Investigators closed 17 more without any disciplinary actions.

An independent investigator did not find evidence to substantiate the alleged sexual relationship with a city employee, but a second report released this week said O'Hara likely deleted the employee's contact from his phone during the investigation and that he talked to another employee about the probe despite being told it was not to be discussed.

That recent report led to a written reprimand; Frey told O'Hara he would be disciplined and that he could be terminated. Frey said O'Hara chose to resign instead.

Frey appointed an interim chief Tuesday from inside the department, and he has 30 days to nominate a successor under the city's charter. ___

Lauer reported from Philadelphia.

The Justice Department has opened an investigation into whether E. Jean Carroll, the longtime advice columnist who has said President Donald Trump sexually assaulted her in a Manhattan department store 30 years ago, lied during the course of civil litigation against the Republican president, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Also, a federal judge has declined to halt Trump’s executive order, creating a federal voter list and limiting mail voting, clearing the way for potential sweeping changes in how American elections are run shortly before this year’s midterm elections.

Here's the latest:

Tentative Iran deal reached, but Trump approval still pending, US official says

Another U.S. official said the broad outlines of a tentative deal have been reached but stressed that until the president signs off on it, there is no deal.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private diplomacy, said there are still questions about whether Trump will ultimately accept the agreement.

US and Iranian negotiators reach tentative deal to extend ceasefire and launch nuclear talks

U.S. and Iranian negotiators have reached a tentative agreement to extend the ceasefire by 60 days and launch talks on Iran’s nuclear program, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter.

The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said Trump still needs to sign off on the emerging memorandum of understanding.

The tentative agreement worked out by the two sides comes at a moment when the fragile ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran appeared to be wavering.

The U.S. military earlier on Thursday accused Iran of violating the ceasefire after Kuwait reported coming under attack following an American strike against the Islamic Republic. It was the latest flare-up of fighting to threaten ongoing negotiations to end the war.

Details of the tentative agreement were first reported by the news outlet Axios.

▶ Read more

Vance tells Air Force graduates to use AI but ‘never submit to it’

In his commencement speech at the U.S. Air Force Academy, Vance said technology is evolving faster than military institutions have been accustomed to. He endorsed Pope Leo XIV’s recent message warning against outsourcing moral decisions to technology.

“If the warfare of the future is to live up to the moral values of our ancestors, decisions over life and death must be made by humans and not machines,” Vance told graduates Thursday at a ceremony in Colorado Springs.

Vance said he was confident in the class of 2026, saying they will follow in the footsteps of service members who pulled off a daring rescue of two aviators whose fighter jet was downed by Iran in April.

“Your Air Force, your future force, went in there and did the impossible,” he said.

Iran’s UN envoy calls US action against Venezuela, Iran and now Cuba `dangerous’

Iran’s U.N. ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani, told the U.N. Security Council on Thursday that the U.S. actions reflect a pattern “of coercion, intimidation and interference” which violates the U.N. Charter, threatens the countries’ sovereignty and independence, and endangers international peace and security.

U.S. forces arrested Venezuela’s president and the Trump administration now oversees the country, and it’s pressuring Cuba by blocking the delivery of oil.

Iravani defended Iran’s right to respond to the U.S. and Israeli attacks against Iran on Feb. 28 and to close the Strait of Hormuz, accusing unnamed countries of ignoring the root causes of the current situation in the region and unfairly shifting the blame to Iran.

“Iran’s actions are lawful and consistent with international law,” Iravani said. “Iran could not allow such a critical waterway to be used as a corridor for hostile action and military aggression against its sovereignty, territory and vital interests.”

Trump’s DOJ sues 4 Democratic-run states over denying undercover license plates for federal agents

It’s the latest front in the wider struggle between the White House and Democratic-led states over the Republican president’s immigration crackdown.

The Department of Justice alleges in separate lawsuits filed Wednesday that Maine, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Washington state are imposing unconstitutional restrictions it says impede law enforcement and threaten agents’ safety.

“By denying undercover license plates to DHS components, including ICE, while issuing them to their own state agencies, these governors are pursuing discriminatory and obstructionist policies against federal law enforcement,” said acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in a statement.

“These actions undermine federal immigration enforcement, allow dangerous criminals to escape justice, and terrorize American communities,” Blanche added.

The Justice Department filed individual suits in U.S. district courts in the respective states. The four state governments are accused of trying “to obstruct the Federal Government’s immigration enforcement efforts, even though control over immigration and the nation’s borders is an exclusive federal power.”

▶ Read more

US boosts Ebola response aid to Congo and Uganda by $80M

The Trump administration says it’s boosting its Ebola response assistance to Congo and Uganda by $80 million, bringing the U.S. contribution to those efforts to more than $112 million over the past two weeks.

The State Department said Thursday the additional money would pay for personal protective equipment for health care workers, Ebola test kits, supporting health screening at airports and other points of entry into Central and East Africa, and contact tracing of potential virus victims in the Congo and Uganda.

The U.S. has been criticized for massive reductions in assistance since Trump began his second term, including dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development. But current officials say the new aid procedures are more effective and less costly.

In addition to the bilateral assistance it has pledged, the State Department said it also committed $50 million to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs to fund up to 50 Ebola clinics and has earmarked $300 million through the agency for regional humanitarian initiatives.

Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says she won’t run for president in 2028

She put to rest speculation about a potential 2028 presidential bid, saying Thursday that she won’t join what’s expected to be a crowded primary field after leaving office at the end of this year.

Whitmer has long been viewed by some Democrats as a possible White House contender after her decisive election victories in the closely contested state Trump has carried twice in presidential votes. For months, however, Whitmer had offered only cautious answers about her political future.

But she delivered her clearest response yet in an interview Thursday with Fox 2 Detroit.

“I think there will be a robust group of people running for president. I will not be one of them in 2028,” Whitmer said.

Her comments came during Michigan’s annual Mackinac policy conference, where Whitmer is set to be honored and deliver remarks later Thursday.

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Justice Department scrutinizing statement Carroll made that no one else was paying her legal fees

It later became public that a Chicago-based organization backed by Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, had helped fund Carroll’s case.

Trump’s lawyers in the civil case accused Carroll of concealing that information, which they said called into question whether the case was politically motivated.

Oil prices climb, but US stocks hold near their records

Oil prices are clawing back some of their sharp drops from earlier in the week Thursday, but U.S. stocks are remaining near their records as companies like Dollar Tree, Snowflake and Hormel Foods keep piling up profits.

The S&P 500 edged down by 0.1% from its all-time high set the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 219 points, or 0.4%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.2% lower after both indexes also set records the day before.

Stocks appear to be less beholden to swings in the oil market, where prices climbed Thursday following the latest threat to the ceasefire in the United States’ war with Iran. U.S. Central Command said Kuwait had intercepted missiles launched by Iran late Wednesday night, following earlier “defensive” strikes by the U.S. military on missile launch sites and minelaying boats in southern Iran.

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Trump says he’s been invited to watch the Knicks play in the NBA Finals

Trump told reporters Wednesday that New York Knicks owner James Dolan has invited him to the NBA Finals, when the Eastern Conference champion Knicks host either the Oklahoma City Thunder or the San Antonio Spurs next month at Madison Square Garden.

New York, which is riding an 11-game postseason winning streak after sweeping the Cleveland Cavaliers in the conference finals, is scheduled to host Game 3 on June 8 and Game 4 on June 10.

Trump, a New York native, said he initially planned to attend Game 5 of the conference finals at MSG before the Knicks finished off the Cavaliers in four games. The president called Dolan a “great guy” and marveled at New York’s run.

Trump called the club’s return to the finals for the first time since 1999 “great to see.”

Trump has routinely dropped in on prominent sporting events during his time in politics. He’s taken in the College Football Playoff championship and caught a prime-time NFL game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New York Jets just days before the 2024 election.

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Zelenskyy says he’s pressing US for more Patriot missiles for Ukraine to counter Russian strikes

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that he’s being “very persistent” in pressing the United States to provide his country with more Patriot air defense missiles that can counter devastating Russian ballistic missile attacks.

Zelenskyy said he hasn’t yet received a reply to a letter he sent earlier this week to President Trump and Congress asking for more of the American-made ammunition. He warned that deliveries to Ukraine are falling dangerously short as the Iran war diverts and depletes U.S. stocks.

“I believe (the U.S.) must act quicker. We are being very persistent,” Zelenskyy told reporters during a visit to Sweden.

Zelenskyy is keen to secure more deliveries of foreign weaponry that it can’t produce itself as it battles Russia’s full-scale invasion, which began on Feb. 24, 2022. In exchange, he’s offering to share the cutting-edge drone expertise Ukraine has built up during the war.

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Carroll has said a flirtatious, chance encounter with Trump in 1996 ended violently

She said Trump slammed her against a dressing room wall at Bergdorf Goodman’s Fifth Avenue store, pulled down her tights and forced himself on her. Trump has called the allegations a “made-up scam.”

A jury in 2023 found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll, awarding her $5 million. The following year, another jury awarded Carroll $83.3 million in a defamation case related to Trump’s social media attacks on her.

A court entry earlier this month said Trump won’t have to pay the award until the U.S. Supreme Court gets a chance to review the case or reject an appeal. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to a request by one of Trump’s lawyers that it let the president delay the payment to Carroll, though it required that he post a $7.4 million bond to cover any additional interest costs, a request Carroll’s attorney had made.

Justice Department opens investigation into E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of assault: AP source

The Justice Department has opened an investigation into whether E. Jean Carroll, the longtime advice columnist who’s said Trump sexually assaulted her in a Manhattan department store 30 years ago, lied during the course of civil litigation against the Republican president, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The person who confirmed the existence of the investigation wasn’t authorized to publicly discuss an ongoing inquiry and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The perjury investigation is being led by the federal prosecutors’ office in Chicago, and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has had no involvement because of his prior work as Trump’s personal attorney, the person said.

Lawyers for Carroll did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press on Thursday.

It’s the latest in a series of investigations the Trump administration Justice Department has opened into perceived adversaries of the president.

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— Alanna Durkin Richer and Eric Tucker

Key inflation gauge worsens as Americans shell out more for gasoline

Inflation jumped to 3.8% in April compared with a year ago, the Commerce Department said Thursday, up from 3.5% in March and the highest since May 2023. On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.4%, down from the 0.7% jump in March.

The report showed prices have risen for many items in addition to gas, indicating inflation could persist and pose problems for congressional Republicans in this year’s midterm elections. Inflation is also notably above the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%, which means Fed policymakers may decide to forego any cuts to their key short-term interest rate this year. Some officials have signaled their next move could be a hike rather than a cut.

Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core inflation rose to 3.3% in April from 3.2% the previous month. It’s the highest core figure since November 2023. One positive sign in the report: Core prices rose just 0.2% in April from March.

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The Minneapolis immigration crackdown ended months ago. For these little kids, trauma remains

The little girl approached the therapy dog outside the school library, reaching out to touch her fluffy blond coat. Social worker Nicole Herje leaned in.

“How does it feel when you pet Sage?” Herje said.

“I like it,” the girl said. “In Ecuador, I had a dog.”

A few months earlier, this girl and many of her classmates at Valley View Elementary were staying off the streets to avoid the immigration officers flooding their suburban Minneapolis community. Attendance plummeted as families kept their kids from school during the Trump administration’s enforcement surge.

Sage the goldendoodle is not just a cute diversion. She’s part of a broader strategy to address the psychological wounds of children who witnessed arrests, lost relatives to deportation or endured anxious weeks indoors.

Immigration officers made more than 4,000 arrests and shot multiple people, two fatally, before “Operation Metro Surge” wound down in February, leaving an imprint on the psyches of young children that could haunt them for years, mental health providers say.

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Republicans’ recent stumbles in Congress highlight the difficult road ahead for their agenda

A roughly $70 billion bill to fund immigration enforcement through the remainder of President Trump’s term was supposed to be an easy lift for Republicans.

But progress stalled over concerns about the inclusion of White House ballroom security funding in the package and the creation of a $1.8 billion fund to finance claims of government mistreatment. The stumble hasn’t only delayed action on a top GOP priority but also is raising questions about other parts of the party’s legislative agenda, including whether Republicans can enact another catchall, party-line bill referred to in Washington parlance as “Reconciliation 3.0.”

Republicans have spent recent weeks laying the groundwork for such a bill, which they hope will serve as a final sales pitch to voters going into the midterms.

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Federal judge refuses to block Trump order to create federal voter list and limit mail voting

A federal judge has declined to halt Trump’s executive order, creating a federal voter list and limiting mail voting, clearing the way for potential sweeping changes in how American elections are run shortly before this year’s midterm elections.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington, D.C., a Trump appointee, late Wednesday rejected the request by Democrats and civil rights groups who had argued that Trump’s order would likely be found unconstitutional because the states and Congress, not the president, have the power to set election rules. Nichols agreed with the Trump administration’s contention it was too early to issue the order because it has yet to be implemented.

The legal battle against the provision now shifts to Boston, where voting rights groups have a separate lawsuit against the executive order in federal court.

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US military says Iran fired missiles at Kuwait in the latest challenge to the fragile ceasefire

The U.S. military said that Kuwait had intercepted missiles launched by Iran late Wednesday night, calling the Iranian attack on one of the U.S. top allies in the Persian Gulf an “egregious ceasefire violation.”

The attack on Kuwait was the latest flare-up to shake the fragile ceasefire reached last month between the U.S. and Iran.

Kuwait had earlier announced an attack on its territory, and Iran announced it had retaliated after strikes earlier in the week on a U.S. base in a Gulf state it did not name.

The Iranian strike came after, earlier in the week, the U.S. said it had struck Iranian missile launch sites, minelaying boats and attack drones it said posed threats near the blockaded Strait of Hormuz.

US military strikes another alleged drug boat in the eastern Pacific, killing 2

The U.S. military on Wednesday struck another vessel suspected of transporting drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing two men.

U.S. Southern Command posted video on social media showing a boat resting on the water before being struck by an explosion. The last few seconds of the video show smoke and fire rising from the boat.

A day earlier, U.S. forces had launched a strike on an alleged drug vessel in the eastern Pacific, killing one man and leaving two survivors. Southern Command said it “immediately notified the U.S. Coast Guard to activate the Search and Rescue system for the survivors.”

The Trump administration’s campaign of blowing up alleged drug-trafficking vessels in Latin American waters, including the eastern Pacific and the Caribbean Sea, has gone on since early September and killed at least 196 people in total. The military has not provided evidence that any of the vessels were carrying drugs.

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AP Exclusive: Trump administration tells prosecutors to stand down on Venezuela leader, sources say

The Trump administration has quietly instructed federal prosecutors in Miami to avoid pursuing criminal investigations into Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez, a longtime target of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, according to current and former U.S. law enforcement officials, in the latest sign of warming relations between the White House and the oil-rich nation.

It’s unclear whether prosecutors had implicated Rodríguez in any crimes or whether investigators were moving toward an indictment. A Justice Department spokesperson said in an email, “There was never an investigation into her to shut down.”

But DEA records obtained by The Associated Press earlier this year show she consistently surfaced on the radar of federal law enforcement dating to at least 2018, though she has never been criminally charged in the U.S. like several other senior Venezuelan officials.

The directive to pause scrutiny into Rodríguez was meant to avoid upsetting the administration’s efforts to stabilize Venezuela after the capture of her predecessor, Nicolás Maduro, among other reasons, the official said. It was not clear whether the White House, which deferred comment to the Justice Department, was involved in the decision.

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World shares decline and oil prices gain more than $2 after US strikes on Iran

World shares declined Thursday following more of what the U.S. military said were defensive strikes against Iran.

Oil prices gained more than $2 a barrel after having dropped sharply a day before.

In early European trading, Germany’s DAX was nearly unchanged at 25,175.63 and the CAC 40 in Paris lost 0.4% to 8,172.84. Britain’s FTSE 100 slumped 0.9% to 10,416.62.

The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged 0.1% lower.

On Wednesday, U.S. stocks inched to more records after oil prices declined more than 4%, easing pressure on consumers and businesses worldwide.

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US military conducts another strike against Iran after Trump says Iran is ‘negotiating on fumes’

U.S. forces carried out new defensive strikes on Iran on Wednesday after Trump asserted that Iran is “negotiating on fumes” and insisted that November’s midterm elections in the United States won’t make him rush into a deal to end the nearly three-month-old conflict.

U.S. Central Command forces shot down four Iranian one-way attack drones that posed a threat around the Strait of Hormuz, according to U.S. officials who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The U.S. military also struck an Iranian ground control station in Bandar Abbas that was about to launch a fifth drone, the officials said.

Details about the strikes emerged after Trump, at a Cabinet meeting earlier Wednesday, expressed confidence that his administration was making headway on settling the war, even though the talks still remain very much in flux.

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Though voting began in early May ahead of the June 2 primary, Democrats have been returning their ballots at a slower pace than normal after a chaotic campaign full of surprises. Unlike recent races for governor, there's been no clear front-runner or political superstar (think Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger or Democrat Jerry Brown).

“I’m kind of pinching my nose and voting this go-around rather than being excited,” said Colin Culver, a 21-year-old San Diego resident who ultimately voted for Tom Steyer, a billionaire former hedge fund manager turned climate activist.

Democrats have been particularly perplexed given the state's top-two primary system, which places all candidates on a single ballot regardless of party. There are roughly 60 candidates vying to succeed termed-out Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. They include six major Democrats and just two prominent Republicans.

With the large number of Democrats running, party leaders feared months ago that the two leading Republicans, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and conservative commentator Steve Hilton, could advance, locking out Democrats. That scenario has grown less likely after former Rep. Eric Swalwell dropped out of the race after being accused of sexual assault, but the scandal further rattled anxious Democrats. President Donald Trump endorsed Hilton in April, which may have coalesced GOP support behind him and decreased the odds of a Republican upset in a state that hasn’t had a Republican governor since 2011.

But the fear among voters remains. Some Democrats are waiting to cast their ballots to see if one candidate breaks away from the pack in the final days, relying on polling to help make their decision. Others have struggled to make up their minds, reluctantly choosing a candidate after being unimpressed with the field.

Voters are returning their ballots later than normal

Even Democrats who typically have a high turnout in primary elections — often older, white voters — have been slow to drop off their ballots, said Paul Mitchell, a Democratic strategist tracking ballot returns.

“My joke is: Call your Democratic parents and tell them to turn in their ballot,” he said. “They are holding onto the ballot because they have seen this kind of topsy-turvy governor’s race. They’re waiting to make sure they’re making the right choice.”

About 11% of the state's roughly 23 million voters had voted as of Wednesday night, according to Mitchell's tracker. That includes about 15% of Republicans, 11% of Democrats and 8% of voters registered with no or another party. That breakdown is unusual because Democrats in recent years have tended to vote early while many Republicans wait until Election Day.

Democrats toggle between candidates

Former state attorney general and federal Health Secretary Xavier Becerra and Steyer are among the top Democrats voters are weighing.

A poll conducted in mid-May by the Public Policy Institute of California found that Becerra and Hilton each have the support of about 2 in 10 likely California primary voters. Steyer, Bianco and former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter each drew the support of between 10% and 15% of likely voters in the survey. No other candidates were polling in double digits.

Support for Becerra has increased from only 5% in a PPIC poll conducted in late March and early April, when Swalwell was still in the race.

Some voters aren't relying on the polls to make their choice. That includes San Francisco native Mary O’Neal, who voted for former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa because she liked his record leading the city from 2005 to 2013. Although he's been on the debate stages, he's failed to generate significant support.

Fresno native Alexa Duran, 22, a recent graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, said she’s leaning toward Becerra, despite her concerns about his refusal as attorney general to investigate the killing of a Latino man by an officer in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2020.

“I know he has tons of political experience, but I’m just not sure if he’s the right candidate,” Duran said.

David Murayama, a 29-year-old attorney in Los Angeles, said that although Steyer was an appealing candidate at first, he felt like he couldn’t trust a billionaire to follow through on his promises. He ended up voting for Becerra, the candidate he considered the “lesser evil,” he said.

Amber Larson, 41, a judicial analyst for the state living in Chico, likes Ramsey Robinson, a socialist candidate. But casting her ballot for him would be a “waste” because of his slim odds, she said.

She doesn't want to support a longtime politician — Becerra — and she's skeptical of billionaires — Steyer.

“Are we at a point where only a billionaire can beat an establishment, career politician?” Larson said, referencing Steyer spending millions to largely self-fund his campaign.

She planned to go with Steyer anyway because she likes his energy affordability plans and since he's one of the leading candidates.

“I don’t want to throw my vote away,” she said.

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Associated Press journalists Jaimie Ding in Los Angeles and Terry Chea in San Francisco contributed to this report.

It’s unclear whether prosecutors had implicated Rodríguez in any crimes or whether investigators were moving toward an indictment. A Justice Department spokesperson said in an email “there was never an investigation into her to shut down.”

But DEA records obtained by The Associated Press earlier this year show she consistently surfaced on the radar of federal law enforcement dating to at least 2018, though she has never been criminally charged in the U.S. like several other senior Venezuelan officials.

The directive to pause scrutiny into Rodríguez was meant to avoid upsetting the administration’s efforts to stabilize Venezuela after the capture of her predecessor, Nicolás Maduro, among other reasons, a current official said. It was not clear whether the White House, which deferred comment to the Justice Department, was involved in the decision.

“Everybody has been told to stand down,” one of the former officials said.

The former officials, who had been briefed on the development, as well as the current official all spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss internal deliberations.

Rodríguez, a U.S. attorney representing her, and the Venezuelan Communications Ministry didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The move eases pressure on Rodriguez

Removing the threat of potential indictment, even temporarily, eases pressure on Rodríguez as the Trump administration seeks to work with the acting leader to stabilize Venezuela after Maduro’s ouster and open the country to U.S. investment.

President Donald Trump praised Rodríguez as a “terrific person” shortly after the U.S. military took Maduro and his wife to New York to face federal narcotics charges. Both have pleaded not guilty.

In recent months, the U.S. has lifted sanctions against Rodríguez and recognized her as Venezuela's sole head of state, allowing her to re-establish ties with western banks and more freely work with U.S. investors seeking to tap into the world's largest petroleum reserves. As ties between the two governments have deepened, some have held out the Venezuelan playbook — characterized by oil blockades, indictments of top leaders, and threats of military intervention — as a model to drive regime change from within as the U.S. pressures other longtime adversaries in Iran and Cuba.

Rodríguez and her brother, Jorge Rodríguez, the head of the National Assembly, were hit with U.S. sanctions during Trump’s first term for their role in undermining Venezuelan democracy and cementing Maduro's authoritarian rule.

Rodríguez “is doing a great job,” Trump wrote on social media in early March. "The Oil is beginning to flow, and the professionalism and dedication between both Countries is a very nice thing to see!”

In recent months, Rodríguez has hosted ceremonies with a steady stream of American oilmen, some of them partaking in high-profile delegations led by U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum.

Election talk deferred amid Trump's praise

Missing in all the mutual backslapping is any talk of elections, even as Rodríguez last month blew through a 90-day limit set by Venezuela's high court to fill Maduro's position on a temporary basis.

“I don’t know,” she responded in English when a visiting U.S. journalist earlier this month shouted out a question about her time frame for holding elections. “Some time.”

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has demanded the administration explain its favorable treatment of Rodríguez, calling her a “central figure in Nicolás Maduro's repressive regime.”

“Sanctions have been lifted on Ms. Rodríguez without any indication that she has taken concrete and meaningful actions to restore democratic order,” Sheehan, joined by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent last week.

Rick de la Torre, a former CIA chief of station in Caracas, said that the decision to shield Rodríguez fits well with the Trump administration’s foreign policy goals in Venezuela.

“She’s a lifelong Marxist and was a senior leader of one of the world’s most corrupt regimes but the U.S. is providing her with breathing space and carrots to lay the foundation for democracy and U.S. investment,” said de la Torre, the CEO of Tower Strategy, which advises companies on Venezuela.

“There’s a shelf life to her utility, however. At some point she will face justice.," he added.

Rodríguez has been on DEA's radar since 2018

The DEA had amassed a detailed intelligence file on Rodríguez dating to at least 2018, and has received allegations about her ranging from drug trafficking to gold smuggling, the AP reported earlier this year. One confidential informant told DEA in early 2021 that Rodríguez was using hotels in the Caribbean resort of Isla Margarita “as a front to launder money,” the records show.

Her name has surfaced in nearly a dozen DEA investigations — several of which remained ongoing as recently as this year — involving field offices from Paraguay and Ecuador to Phoenix and New York. She had even been linked to Maduro’s alleged bag man, Alex Saab, whom U.S. authorities first arrested in 2020 on money-laundering charges, the records show.

Rodríguez deported Saab this month as part of a purge of insider businessmen who are accused of having enriched themselves through corrupt dealings with Maduro.

It's unclear in which Miami investigations Rodríguez's name surfaced. Two of the former officials said Rodríguez has also come up in meetings with investigators in Tampa tasked last year by former Attorney General Pam Bondi with looking into financial crimes in Venezuela.

At the time, Rodríguez was serving as Maduro's vice president. Justice Department policy requires the attorney general to personally approve the charging of any foreign head of state, who are normally immune from prosecution under international and U.S. law.

Halting high-profile criminal probes of foreign leaders

The pausing of the investigations into Rodríguez comes as the Trump administration has similarly tapped the brakes on ongoing federal investigations into another prominent Latin American leftist, Colombian President Gustavo Petro.

The DEA had also designated Petro a “priority target” over alleged ties to drug traffickers that had been probed for months by federal prosecutors. The New York Times reported in March that U.S. officials recently assured the Colombian government Petro does not face charges in those cases.

Duncan Levin, a former prosecutor who worked for the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn, said it would be “deeply troubling” for law enforcement to be “told to stand down from a legitimate investigation for political or transactional reasons.”

“The White House cannot use criminal enforcement as a diplomatic light switch,” Levin told AP. “DOJ decisions are supposed to be based on law, evidence, policy and public safety — not on whether a foreign official is useful to the administration at a given moment.”

___

This story was first published on May. 27, 2026. It was updated on May. 28, 2026 to make clear that the details attributed in the original story to an unspecified official were shared by a current official.

___ Durkin Richer reported from Washington and Mustian from New York. AP Writer Regina Garcia Cano in Mexico City contributed to this report.

___

This story is part of an investigation that includes the FRONTLINE documentary “Crisis in Venezuela,” which aired Feb. 10, 2026, on PBS. Watch the documentary at pbs.org/frontline, in the PBS App and on FRONTLINE’s YouTube channel.

The top three candidates competing for the nomination in the Aug. 4 primary are debating on Thursday at the state party’s annual policy conference. It is one of their first big opportunities to sharpen contrasts before a statewide audience.

With the primary season wrapping up across the country, the contentious race in Michigan is increasingly seen as a test case for where the party and its base are headed into the November election and beyond.

Set to appear on the Mackinac Island stage are U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and former public health official Abdul El-Sayed. The Republican nominee is Mike Rogers, a former congressman who lost the 2024 Senate race to Democrat Elissa Slotkin. Democrat Gary Peters is not seeking a third Senate term this year. No Michigan Republican has been elected to the U.S. Senate since 1994.

Here’s where things stand in the race:

Messy primary or clarifying vision?

A bruising primary in a must-win Senate seat was hardly Democrats’ preferred scenario.

The debate will also put on full display the ideological divisions Democrats have struggled with since presidential nominee Kamala Harris and the party saw sweeping losses in 2024.

“I think primaries can be good. As long as folks aren't too chippy. Unfortunately, people are getting a little chippy in the race,” Peters said. “But as long as you have a primary that's civil, you get a stronger candidate coming out of the primary that's ready to take on the general election."

Stevens, a fourth-term congresswoman representing a district just outside Detroit, is seen as the more moderate, establishment-aligned candidate. She has endorsements from senators in battleground states, including Ruben Gallego of Arizona and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada. Stevens has described herself as a “staunchly pro-Israel Democrat.”

El-Sayed has taken the progressive lane, earning early backing from U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. El-Sayed has called for “Medicare for All” and higher taxes on the wealthy and has described Israel’s actions in Gaza as a “genocide.” He has drawn criticism, including from within the party, for campaigning with controversial streamer Hasan Piker.

McMorrow was first elected to the Michigan Senate in 2018 and gained national attention for speeches rebuking Republicans She has carved out a position somewhere between her two main rivals. She has criticized the Democratic establishment and said she would not support New York's Chuck Schumer to be Democratic leader in the U.S. Senate again.

Peters and Slotkin both told The Associated Press on Thursday that they were not planning to make an endorsement in the primary. They said had become more contentious than they had hoped.

“It is messy. Messier than I would have liked. I think it's important in any primary that the candidates focus more on what they want to do and their positive affirmative plan,” Slotkin said.

Winner will face Rogers

Rogers lost to then-U.S. Rep. Slotkin by fewer than 20,000 votes in a state that Republican Donald Trump carried on his way to a second term.

This time, Rogers will not benefit from having Trump atop the ballot. But Rogers heads into the general election with advantages of his own, including an uncontested primary.

In a telephone interview Wednesday, Rogers acknowledged the difficulties in the last campaign, saying the financial disadvantage he faced after a tough primary “made it really difficult” to win the general election.

But he said this year is different.

“This is a change election. People want to talk about Washington. This is about Michigan,” Rogers said.

It may prove difficult to localize a race shaped by national issues such as tariffs and gas prices, both of which are hitting Michigan hard. Outside spending is expected to climb into the nine figures. The Republicans’ U.S. Senate campaign organization has reserved $45 million in ads, compared with $20 million by Democrats.

“They're going to spend a lot of money trying to make you not like me. We're going to spend our money trying to tell people what we're going to do for them and make their lives in our state better," Rogers said.

According to charging documents, prosecutors allege that Therm-All Insulation LLC. and branch manager Cierra Cano knowingly allowed and participated in the unlawful disposal of commercial solid waste at an unapproved dumping site in violation of Chapter 365 of the Texas Health and Safety Code.

The case stems from a March 19, 2026, investigation conducted by the Harris County Constable Precinct 1 Environmental Crimes Unit at a known illegal dumping hotspot in the 200 block of East 36th Street.

According to documents, investigators said footage showed multiple people unloading large quantities of insulation material, pallets, packaging debris, and other refuse from a truck onto the side of the road.

Authorities allege one person used a forklift to remove debris from the truck while another person used an electric scooter acting as a lookout.

Records show that, days later, investigators documented the debris pile and estimated the waste volume at approximately 1,512 cubic feet, well above the threshold required for a state jail felony charge under Texas law.

Investigators were able to connect the truck to the company after seeing the same truck and forklift when they visited the property, records show.

On April 1, 2026, investigators interviewed people at the company. During that meeting, Cano allegedly acknowledged that the people involved in the dumping incident were employees acting on behalf of Therm-All Insulation.

According to documents, Cano told investigators the company had been struggling with excessive waste buildup, insufficient dumpster space, and complaints from property management regarding trash accumulation.

Investigators say Cano admitted she instructed employees to remove the waste and place it behind the business because the company lacked adequate disposal capacity at the time.

Authorities concluded that surveillance footage, employee admissions, management statements, and physical evidence established probable cause that Therm-All Insulation LLC and Cano knowingly authorized or permitted the unlawful disposal of commercial solid waste.

KPRC 2 News reached out to Therm-All Insulation for comment, but has not yet heard back.

The person who confirmed the existence of the investigation was not authorized to publicly discuss an ongoing inquiry and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The perjury investigation is being led by the federal prosecutors’ office in Chicago, and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has had no involvement because of his prior work as Trump’s personal attorney, the person said.

Lawyers for Carroll did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press on Thursday.

It’s the latest in a series of investigations that Trump's Justice Department has opened into perceived adversaries of the Republican president. The actions, including securing an indictment last month against former FBI Director James Comey, have raised alarm from Democrats and former officials that an institution meant to make prosecutorial decisions independent of the White House is being weaponized.

Carroll has said a flirtatious, chance encounter with Trump in 1996 at Bergdorf Goodman’s Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan ended violently. She said Trump slammed her against a dressing room wall, pulled down her tights and forced himself on her. Trump has called the allegations a “made-up scam," and he has attacked her motivations, saying they were politically driven or arose from a desire to promote her memoir.

A jury in 2023 found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll and defaming her, and she was awarded $5 million. The following year, another jury awarded Carroll $83.3 million in a defamation case related to Trump's social media posts about her.

The Justice Department is scrutinizing a statement Carroll made in the course of the civil litigation that no one else was paying her legal fees. It later became public that a Chicago-based organization backed by Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, had helped fund Carroll's case. Trump's lawyers in the civil case accused Carroll of concealing that information, which they said called into question whether the case was politically motivated.

A month before the first trial in 2023, then-Trump lawyer Alina Habba sought to delay it, saying in court papers that new revelations about Hoffman partially funding Carroll’s case “raises significant questions as to Plaintiff’s credibility, as well as her motive for commencing and/or continuing the instant action.”

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a Dec. 30, 2024, ruling, upheld the $5 million jury award from 2023. The court addressed Carroll’s credibility after Trump accused her of lying, during a deposition, about how her case was funded.

The court cited Carroll’s explanation that when the question about Hoffman's contributions was first posed to her in 2022, she had forgotten about “the limited outside funding” received in September 2020.

“It showed that Ms. Carroll simply was not involved in the matter of who was or was not funding her litigation costs,” the appeals court said.

Hoffman has defended the financial assistance, saying in a social media post that “supporting women fight for progress and justice in philanthropy, politics and business has been a longstanding priority of mine, as is supporting America against the threat of Trump.”

A court entry earlier this month said Trump will not have to pay the award until the U.S. Supreme Court gets a chance to review the case or reject an appeal. The appeals court agreed to a request by one of Trump’s lawyers that it let Trump delay the payment to Carroll, though he was required to post a $7.4 million bond to cover any additional interest costs, a request Carroll’s attorney had made.

The Carroll investigation was first reported by CNN.

____

Associated Press reporter Larry Neumeister in New York contributed to this report

Check The Radar Here:

Quieter weather pattern on the way:

Finally, Houston gets a break from the widespread heavy rain and organized storm threats. Thursday and Friday rain chances are lower, with Saturday looking completely dry. There is more rain possible next week as we start the month of June.

With more sunshine and less gloom through the weekend, temperatures will heat back to the upper 80s and low 90s.

And speaking of June, hurricane season officially begins next week on June 1st.

To help you get prepared before the season ramps up, be sure to catch our KPRC Hurricane & Flood Survival Guide live next Wednesday at 8 p.m., where we’ll cover what you need to know heading into the 2026 season.

In the meantime, check out this list for 2026 Hurricane Names: The history of how hurricanes get named

10-DAY FORECAST:

We’re looking at a hot and dry forecast going into the weekend. If you had to cancel plans because of the rain, you should be just fine for this coming weekend!

PREVIOUS REPORT: Fort Bend County voting centers restored after hours long delay due to bug in check-in systems

County election officials said the issue lasted about two hours and affected polling locations across the county.

During the outage, some voters were incorrectly told they were ineligible to vote — despite already participating in the primary election and qualifying for the runoff.

Rice University political science professor Mark Jones said the issue was not typical.

“For a couple of hours across Fort Bend County, voters were unable to cast the ballot,” Jones said.

What caused the problem?

According to Jones, the issue appears to have stemmed from a clerical mistake involving voter data files used in the countywide voting system.

“From what I understand, there was a clerical error made in terms of uploading the wrong file which caused this issue,” Jones said.

Jones explained that because Fort Bend County uses countywide vote centers — allowing voters to cast ballots at any polling location — the system relies on interconnected voter data being updated correctly across all machines.

Fort Bend County Democratic Party General Counsel Dylan Russell described the problem as an issue involving voter roll updates that required machines to be manually corrected across the county.

“Apparently there was some software that needed to be updated with the voter rolls,” Russell said.

“They had to go to every single voter location in Fort Bend County and update all of the machines that have that voter roll data,” Russell said.

Some close races could still be impacted

While most races were decided by comfortable margins, Jones said a few close local contests could still be affected depending on the number of provisional ballots cast during the outage.

He specifically pointed to:

• The Democratic primary for Precinct 4 County Commissioner
• The Democratic primary for County Clerk

“For the precinct four county commissioner primary on the Democratic side, and for the county clerk primary on the Democratic side, this in theory could have had an effect,” Jones said.

Voters who were unable to check in normally were often instructed to cast provisional ballots instead.

Why voting hours were not extended

At one point during the outage, Democratic and Republican party leaders discussed asking a judge to extend voting hours beyond the 7 p.m. deadline.

However, they ultimately decided against it due to concerns that votes cast during an extended period could later be invalidated through court action.

Russell said the decision was influenced by a recent case in Dallas County, where a judge extended voting hours but those ballots were later challenged and segregated during legal proceedings initiated at the state level.

“We decided, rather than make people believe that they were going to cast valid votes after the 7 p.m. cutoff, that we would not do that,” Russell said.

He said the goal was to avoid creating confusion for voters or encouraging people to vote under an extension that might later be overturned.

Questions about accountability and election safeguards

The incident has now raised broader concerns about voter confidence and whether enough safeguards were in place to prevent a countywide disruption.

Jones said the problem appears to have been caused by human error.

“Clearly one person made an error and as a result, the system shut down for a period of a couple of hours,” Jones said.

He also warned that a similar issue during November’s general election could have far greater consequences.

“This definitely undermines voter confidence in the overall electoral process,” Jones said.

Jones said another failure during a high-turnout partisan election could quickly become politicized and trigger legal disputes.

Election administrator has not responded

KPRC 2 News reporter Joy Addison repeatedly attempted to contact Fort Bend County Elections Administrator Chase Wilson throughout the day.

Calls and emails seeking clarification went unanswered. KPRC 2 also went in person to the Fort Bend County Elections Administration office and was told Wilson “wasn’t here” and “hasn’t had time” to speak.

Specific questions sent included:

• What caused the issue?
• How many voters may have been affected?
• When election officials became aware of the problem?
• What steps were taken to correct it?
• Whether officials are concerned about impacts on voter participation or election results?
• What safeguards will be implemented before November’s election?

As of Tuesday evening, no response had been provided.

Concerns ahead of November

Election experts warn the implications of Tuesday’s disruption extend beyond a single runoff election.

Jones said that while this issue occurred during a lower-turnout primary runoff, a similar breakdown during November’s general election could carry much larger consequences for both election outcomes and public trust.

“If it happens in November in a partisan election, it’s almost destined to result in some type of legal conflict, as well as become politicized,” Jones said.

Jannik Sinner had won everything there was to win in tennis over the past three months: five straight Masters 1000 titles — three of them on clay — and 30 straight matches.

And with Carlos Alcaraz, his biggest rival, out due to an injured right wrist, it seemed almost a foregone conclusion that Sinner would raise the Coupe des Mousquetaires trophy and complete a career Grand Slam.

That’s why Sinner’s meltdown amid the Paris heat wave was so stunning Thursday — especially after he came within just one game of concluding his second-round match in straight sets when he led 5-1 in the third.

The top-ranked Sinner struggled with dizziness and was beaten by 56th-ranked Juan Manuel Cerundolo 3-6, 2-6, 7-5, 6-1, 6-1 after wasting two chances to serve for the match.

“I didn’t feel very well on court,” Sinner said. “I struggled, starting to feel very dizzy, very low on energy. ... In the beginning, I was hitting very clean, very good, and then I just kind of hit the wall.

"I didn’t have energy, really. I was very, very flat. The whole body. I don’t remember last time I felt this weak,” Sinner added.

Sinner said that when he woke up on Thursday he “didn’t feel very well.”

Sinner bent over on the clay court in apparent exhaustion multiple times and was hardly even running for shots as the match wore on, resorting to drop shots and serve-and-volley tactics to try and shorten the points.

He attempted to cool himself with a hand-held fan on changeovers and put bags of ice around his neck.

The temperature at the start of the match was 29 degrees C (84 F) and rose to 32 C (90 F).

“It was warm but not crazy warm,” Sinner said. “I feel like it was quite OK to play. Really it was nothing against the heat, nothing against the weather. It was just me today, but it happens.”

Cerundolo didn’t celebrate too much when it was over, just producing a little wave to the crowd.

“It’s tough for him,” Cerundolo said. “I couldn’t win more than three games by set. So I think I was a little bit lucky. … He was deserving to win in this match. But then I don’t know what happened. … I feel sorry for him and hope he recovers.”

When Sinner served for the match a second time at 5-4 in the third set, he bent over at 0-40 and then walked to his chair. He asked for assistance and left the court. His entire light blue outfit was soaked through with sweat.

After losing the set 7-5, Sinner received medical attention and left the court. Minerals were added to his drink when he returned but Sinner wasn't able to recuperate.

Sinner lost 18 of the last 20 games. Asked if he considered retiring before the match ended, Sinner said that in the “fifth set we all know everything can happen. I was in a tough spot."

Sinner's previous loss came Feb. 19 in the Qatar Open quarterfinals. He had won five straight Masters titles while dropping just three sets.

“We’ll definitely do some tests to be sure of what happened today," he said.

“Let’s hope we’re ready for Wimbledon,” Sinner added. “To be ready there, we need to recuperate well and do things right now.”

But Sinner has a history of struggling in the heat. He admitted he was lucky at the Australian Open in January against Eliot Spizzirri when the roof was closed and the third-round match swung his way. And he had to retire from a match in Shanghai in October that was contested amid extreme humidity.

“Shanghai was very tough. Humidity very high. Australia was very, very warm,” Sinner said. “Here, I mean it was warm, but it was OK. It was not like I was dying because of the heat. I think today was completely different scenario.

“It’s tough to accept, of course, because of the position where I’ve been in and everything considered,” added Sinner, who sportsbooks had listed at around -300 to win the tournament.

On the same Court Philippe Chatrier last year, Sinner wasted three match points against Alcaraz and lost an epic final.

17-year-old advances

In other matches, 17-year-old Frenchman Moise Kouame became the youngest man to reach the third round of a Grand Slam since Rafael Nadal was also 17 at 2003 Wimbledon. Kouame beat Adolfo Daniel Vallejo 6-3, 7-5, 3-6, 2-6, 7-6 (8).

Frances Tiafoe required nearly five hours to overcome Hubert Hurkacz 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5), 6-4, 6-7 (1), 6-4.

And Cerundolo’s older brother, Francisco, beat Hugo Gaston 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-1.

In women’s action, Naomi Osaka put on another fashion show for her walk-on before beating Donna Vekic 7-6 (1), 6-4.

___

AP Sports Writers Samuel Petrequin and Jerome Pugmire contributed to this report.

___

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

Springsteen and Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello announced the festival Wednesday while performing together at Nationals Park in Washington as Springsteen winds down his Land of Hope and Dreams American tour.

At the concert Wednesday, Springsteen played many of his most political songs, including “American Skin (41 Shots)” about a fatal police shooting and “Streets of Minneapolis,” in response to the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents. “The Gestapo tactics of this president and this administration will not stand here,” Springsteen said.

“This American tragedy can only be stopped by the American people: you. There is no one coming to save us. We’ve got to do it ourselves,” he said. “So join us and let’s fight for the America that we love. Do you hear me, Washington?”

The one-day, two-stage Power to the People festival is set for Oct. 3 at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland, and is being billed as about "freedom, justice, equality and rock ’n’ roll.” A portion of the proceeds from all ticket sales will benefit the organizations VoteRiders and HeadCount.

“It’s about the power everyday human beings have when they come together through music, art, community and action," Morello said in a statement. "We’re honored to bring this incredible lineup to the DC area for a day that celebrates the spirit of activism, creativity, and hope.”

The festival will also include Dropkick Murphys, Jack Black, Serj Tankian, Killer Mike, Taylor Momsen and the Linda Lindas, among others.

Springsteen has long criticized President Donald Trump, who in turn has called for a boycott of Springsteen’s shows, calling him a “total loser who spews hate.”

On Wednesday, Springsteen led the crowd in an “ICE out!” chant, encouraging the audience to make their voices heard all the way to the White House.

“Our democracy, our constitution, our rule of law are being challenged right now as never before by a reckless, racist, incompetent, treasonous president and his ship of fools administration,” said Springsteen.

“God bless Alex Pretti, God bless Renée Good, God bless you and God bless America,” he said before launching into the final song of the night, “Chimes of Freedom.”

___ This story has been corrected to show that Springsteen mentioned Alex Pretti before Renée Good.

Day and Young MC issued statements on social media disputing Wednesday's announcement from Freedom 250, while Milli Vanilli singer Jodie Rocco told The Associated Press that neither she, her sister Linda Rocco nor any of the other group members had been asked to come.

“My sister and I were shocked to see our name, ‘Milli Vanilli’, as one of the performers,” Jodie Rocco wrote in an email.

A Freedom 250 spokesperson did not immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment. Freedom 250, which Trump launched late last year, describes itself as a “national, non-partisan organization leading the celebration of our Nation’s 250th birthday.” Trump appointed Keith Krach, who served as an under secretary of state during his first term, as the organization’s CEO.

Trump and his supporters have long had a contentious relationship with the music community; Celine Dion, Elton John and Guns ’N Roses are among the many artists who have objected to their music being played at Trump rallies.

In an Instagram post, Young MC questioned whether the National Mall shows would be nonpartisan. “The artists were never told about any political involvement with the event,” he wrote, adding that he hoped to “perform in D.C. in the near future at an event that is not so politically charged.” Day posted on Instagram that “Contrary to rumor, Morris Day & The Time will not be performing at the 'GREAT AMERICAN STATE FAIR.”

Milli Vanilli and Young MC were to have appeared at an “I Love the 90s” concert on June 26. Day was listed for June 27. Other performers announced include the Commodores, Flo Rida and Martina McBride. The Great American State Fair is scheduled to run June 25-July 10.

At least one “I Love the 90s” act will be there: Vanilla Ice.

“He is proud to help celebrate America’s 250th Anniversary!” a representative for the “Ice Ice Baby” rapper wrote in an email to the AP. “Everyone is welcome to attend and celebrate USA’s Birthday and our Freedom!”

Lunches of Love in Rosenberg feeds thousands of children in need across the Lamar Consolidated School District every day during the school year.

And during summer break, the need continues, where 2,000 meals are given out every single day.

Volunteers pack up sandwiches and snacks every week to deliver to families.

This summer, Lunches of Love needs your help.

“For $85.00, you can sponsor one child for the entire summer. They’ll get 54 nutritious sack lunches, 22 breakfasts over 11 weeks of summer. Thank you for supporting our mission and being the positive change in a child’s life,” says Lunches of Love Director, Elizabeth Fairfield.

You can also help by volunteering. Students who need volunteer hours will also get credit.

For more info, go to Lunches of Love.

Whitmer has long been viewed by some Democrats as a possible White House contender after her decisive election victories in the closely contested state that Republican Donald Trump has carried twice in presidential votes. For months, however, Whitmer had offered only cautious answers about her political future.

But she delivered her clearest response yet in an interview Thursday with Fox 2 Detroit.

“I think there will be a robust group of people running for president. I will not be one of them in 2028,” Whitmer said.

Her comments came during Michigan’s annual Mackinac policy conference, where Whitmer is set to be honored and deliver remarks later Thursday. The news rippled through the bipartisan gathering of lawmakers, with many Democrats expressing disappointment.

“I certainly think we need more Midwestern voices. So I'm sorry to see that the governor is excluding this option,” said Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich.

Whitmer has previously said she plans to take time before deciding on her next move politically.

“I don’t know that I’ll put my name on the ballot again. I’m just not sure,” Whitmer said at an April breakfast in Detroit. “But I also am 54 years old. I got a lot of gas in the tank.”

The Mackinac conference has become a hub of presidential speculation, with former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Slotkin — both considered possible 2028 contenders — also in attendance.

“If there was someone I believed in, I'd be all in,” Slotkin told The Associated Press. “But I'm not taking it off the table because I want to be a part of that next generation of leaders.”

The fire happened at the Utumishi Girls School, which has more than 800 students, in the Gilgil area of central Kenya, Education Minister Julius Ogamba said, adding that 79 students were injured in the disaster.

Detectives were questioning students to determine whether any wrongdoing triggered the fire, and Ogamba said authorities were trying to find out whether the school's fire safety manual had been adhered to.

The victims were not yet been identified, a source of anger and frustration for parents who gathered outside the ruined dormitory. Some of them angrily confronted police guarding the site, demanding to see the remains of still-uncollected victims.

Bernard Omwandho, a representative of the parents’ association, urged calm as the police investigation continued.

“Most of the parents who are still here are those whose daughters are being questioned,” he said, adding that he hoped that those being questioned will be “able to at least shed some light or give us a hint on what really transpired.”

The school is located about 120 kilometers (75 miles) northwest of the capital, Nairobi. The government-owned secondary school is managed and sponsored by the Kenya Police Service. Many of the students are the daughters of police officers.

Elizabeth Rioba, a mother of two girls at the school, said she was relieved to see her daughters but expressed concern because one of the girls saw her friend get stuck while trying to jump out of a window.

“She’s very traumatized, but I’m relieved she’s OK and I’m sad for all these children who have died,” she told The Associated Press.

The Kenya Red Cross said several students were evacuated and are receiving treatment in various hospitals. The group said it sent psychological support teams for students and their families.

Kenyan President William Ruto expressed his condolences in a statement. “No words can truly ease the pain of losing young lives filled with promise, hope, and dreams for the future,” Ruto said. “As a nation, we mourn with the parents, guardians, teachers, and fellow students who are enduring this unimaginable tragedy.”

Fires at schools have been a cause of concern for education officials in East Africa, where classrooms and dormitories are often crowded, and there’s usually no firefighting equipment in place. Officials sometimes cite poor electrical connections as sparking blazes.

In 2024, 21 students burned to death in a school fire in central Kenya. Ruto declared three days of mourning.

Kenya’s deadliest school fire in recent history occurred in 2001 when 67 students died in a dormitory fire in Machakos County.

In 2017, 10 students died in a school fire in Nairobi. A student was charged with murder.

The new nonprofit, Stop AAPI Hate Action, will be a political and advocacy arm dedicated to getting more Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders registered to vote — and to mobilize current voters, ensuring they make it to the polls. The initiative was sparked in part by President Donald Trump's pressure — and moves by Republican lawmakers — to redraw voting maps and strip parts of the Voting Rights Act.

The organization announced Thursday that this initiative will build on Stop AAPI Hate's name recognition and reputation for elevating conversations about racism, discrimination and allyship. It's a major step for the group, which has also done policy work and advocacy over the past six years, Manjusha Kulkarni, the organization's co-founder, exclusively told The Associated Press.

“Those pieces — alongside what we're seeing from our community in terms of data — really motivated and inspired us to make this move," Kulkarni said. "Because we see how our communities are being harmed and exactly what needs to be done to address the harm, and prevent it in the future.”

Stop AAPI Hate Action will be established as a social welfare organization that can get involved in political campaigns.

Trump's immigration policies fuel more anti-Asian racism since COVID-19

A majority of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders believe President Donald Trump has done more harm than good on immigration and border security in his second term, according to an AAPI Data/AP-NORC poll.

Stop AAPI Hate's annual report — released in May, AAPI Heritage Month — found roughly half of AAPI adults said they or someone they personally know were negatively impacted by immigration policies or anti-immigrant attitudes in 2025. Last year, Trump signed an order restricting H-1B visa holders — thousands of whom come from Asian countries — and added a $100,000 annual fee for highly skilled foreign workers.

Plus, Chinese nationals face a plethora of anti-China laws in various states.

Navia Gutta, 28, was rattled by an encounter last summer at a Chipotle restaurant in Atlanta, where a woman approached her and a friend, calling the two — who are Indian American — “murderers” and “rapists." It escalated and she threatened to call U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport them “back” to India, which the woman called a “dirty country.” Both of them were born in the U.S.

“Our hands were shaking and we full-on cried in the car,” Gutta said. “It made me realize that I grew up still very privileged, and I felt like I lived in a bubble up until then, because nothing like that had ever happened to me."

She later shared the experience with Stop AAPI Hate, and after talking at great length with a staff member was emboldened to volunteer with the group.

“It made me realize I would love to be a part of this solution,” Gutta said. “I would love to educate people. I would look at these issues and continue educating myself further because I think politics can be really scary.”

Reaching AAPI voters in red states, too

Stop AAPI Hate Action is ready to dive head first into the November midterms. That does not mean blindly advocating for all Democratic candidates, Kulkarni said. The group's main goal is to support candidates who share core values on immigration policies and civil rights.

“It is really, at its core, about harnessing the pain felt at an individual level and turning it into a collective power,” Kulkarni said. “This really has been an existential threat to our community."

The nonprofit is also not trying to compete or duplicate other AAPI-focused civic engagement organizations. The group is looking beyond blue states and swing states. A primary goal is to flip red districts with a significant presence of Asian American voters and turn them blue. There are areas in Republican-run states “that deserve to be reached out to,” said Andy Wong, Stop AAPI Hate Action managing director of advocacy.

“The ones in Iowa and Nebraska and Alaska and other places where there are competitive purple districts — many of them with GOP incumbents," Wong said. “We are going to reach voters in those places,” by enlisting phone bank volunteers who speak Korean, Vietnamese, Cantonese and Mandarin.

That effort starts in July, and they plan to focus on reaching people who only turn out to vote in big general elections. To help build rapport, they also plan to match volunteers with voters of the same ethnicity.

Building longevity as a voting bloc

This new political entity is not a one-and-done operation, Stop AAPI Hate staffers say. The Asian American and Pacific Islander community is one of the fastest growing populations in the U.S., which means with each election year, there's potential for new voters.

But the political parties have overlooked this fact, and failed to invest in voter outreach and other civic engagement, Kulkarni said. “We’ve really been an afterthought. We're 24 million people."

Stop AAPI Hate sees the next few years not just as an opportunity to win over voters but also to increase AAPI power as an entire voting bloc. Kulkarni says some data indicates Latino, Black and Asian Americans who moved somewhat to the right during the 2024 election are edging back to the left.

“Where you see that especially is the South Asian or Indian American community specifically. You've seen that in some of the other (Asian American communities)," she said. "How do we harness that?”

The group needs to build an infrastructure to get people involved not just when there's a major election, Wong said. They also hope to empower Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders who are already doing the work to become leaders in their patches.

“They're putting in the phone calls. They're showing up at public hearings, delivering comments,” Wong said. “It’s about building long-term civic and political power.”

Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis and the nonprofit Houston Parks Board (HPB) have completed Hill at Sims Park, a 100-acre regional greenspace in south Houston that transforms a stormwater detention basin into a vibrant destination for outdoor recreation, community connection and flood resilience. The nearly $30 million project opens to the public Saturday, May 30, at 9 a.m.

“For too long, communities like Sunnyside — where I grew up — have gone without the parks and greenspaces they deserve. Hill at Sims changes that,” said Commissioner Ellis. “At a time when working families face rising costs and shrinking public resources, investments like this matter. Safe, beautiful places to gather and enjoy time outdoors should not be luxuries reserved for the wealthiest neighborhoods.”

A park built for people and the planet

Situated within an existing Harris County Flood Control District stormwater detention basin, Hill at Sims is designed to do double duty — holding nearly 325 million gallons of stormwater along Sims Bayou while giving residents a stunning place to spend time outdoors.

The park’s centerpiece is The Brown Foundation Hilltop Pavilion, perched atop a 60-foot hill offering sweeping views of Downtown Houston, Uptown and the Texas Medical Center. Nearly 5 miles of paved and dirt hike-and-bike trails wind through the park, connecting to roughly 20 miles of trails along Sims Bayou Greenway and the broader Bayou Greenways network — more than 170 miles of trails spanning the Houston region.

Other highlights include the Dr. Alma Allen Bridge, linking Sims Bayou Greenway to the park; the Hildebrand Foundation Overlook, a glass viewing platform with panoramic park vistas; the Anthony W. Hall, Jr. Pier for recreational fishing, funded by Texas Parks and Wildlife; the Congressman Al Green Pavilion with an outdoor classroom; and six large-scale murals by local and international artists, created in partnership with Street Art for Mankind.

The park also features the Beth White Overlook, named in honor of HPB’s former president and CEO, and six total overlook areas throughout the grounds.

“Hill at Sims reflects the kind of forward-thinking design Houston needs as we adapt to a changing climate,” said Justin Schultz, president and CEO of HPB. “Through strong public-private partnership and the leadership of Commissioner Ellis, we’ve transformed essential flood infrastructure into a resilient, nature-based park that expands access to greenspace, strengthens community connectivity, and turns a regional challenge into a lasting public benefit.”

A model for flood-resilient parks

Hill at Sims is more than a park — it’s a blueprint.

The project demonstrates how flood mitigation infrastructure can be reimagined as a community asset, a concept Harris County Flood Control District Executive Director Dr. Tina Petersen says has value well beyond Sunnyside.

“Hill at Sims reflects how strategic partnerships can elevate infrastructure projects beyond their primary purpose,” Petersen said. “While the Harris County Flood Control District’s mission is centered on delivering flood mitigation infrastructure, we welcome opportunities to collaborate with partners who bring expertise in parks, trails and recreation to create added value for the communities we serve.”

The park is expected to serve nearly 50,000 residents and strengthen connections to 12 nearby schools and community anchors — including religious institutions, a public library, a hospital, a community college and multi-service centers.

Public-private partnership fuels $30 million investment

The nearly $30 million project was made possible through a combination of public and private funding. Public investment totaling nearly $22 million came from the Office of Commissioner Rodney Ellis, along with federal and state funding secured through the advocacy of State Rep. Dr. Alma Allen and Congressman Al Green. HPB raised nearly $8 million in private investment, led by a major contribution from The Brown Foundation, Inc.

“The Brown Foundation is proud to have invested in the transformative Hill at Sims park project for the Sunnyside and south Houston communities to help enhance quality of life,” said Nancy O’Connor, president of The Brown Foundation, Inc. “Access to quality greenspace brings families and individuals closer to healthier lives and stronger communities. The hilltop pavilion’s panoramic views of Houston’s skyline serve as a powerful reminder of the connection between great public spaces and thriving neighborhoods.”

Texas Parks and Wildlife and Trees for Houston also contributed in-kind support, with Trees for Houston supplying more than 670 native trees to the park.

Built with the community in mind

The vision for Hill at Sims didn’t happen in a boardroom. It was shaped by more than 20 community meetings and input from over 700 Sunnyside residents.

The public grand opening celebration is Saturday, May 30, at 9 a.m.

The National Assembly voted 254-0 — a rare show of unanimity — to adopt a bill repealing Code Noir, or Black Code, the 1685 decree King Louis XIV signed to govern slaves across France’s colonies.

The law turned human beings into chattel, allowing them to be worked, beaten, sold, raped and murdered.

And the realization that France never formally did away with it left many aghast. Debate in the chamber turned raw on Thursday.

Steevy Gustave — a lawmaker descended from enslaved people on the Caribbean island of Martinique, now a French overseas department — told colleagues that the repeal was necessary, “but no vote alone can repair centuries of shattered lives.”

“We are not descendants of slaves,” he said, bursting into tears. “We are descendants of human beings born free, then reduced to the worst — reduced to slavery.”

The code’s reach was total. Article 44 declared the enslaved “movable property” — assets a master could acquire like real estate. Those who fled faced branding, the amputation of their ears, and even death. The word of an enslaved person counted for nothing.

Code Noir’s 60 articles “should never have survived the abolition of slavery” in the 19th century, President Emmanuel Macron said last week.

“The silence, even the indifference, that we have maintained for nearly two centuries toward this Black Code is no longer an oversight,” Macron said. “It has become a form of offense.”

Like French presidents before him, Macron stopped short of an apology.

France ran the third-largest slave trade, shipping about 1.4 million Africans to plantations whose sugar wealth built the French cities of Nantes and Bordeaux. The French empire later spanned four continents.

Others see the repeal as something more telling — a symptom, they argue, of a country that has yet to reckon fully with that past, one of many slow steps along the way.

Calls for France to face its past

In law, officially eliminating it is the easy part, observers say. Code Noir lost all authority in 1848, when France abolished slavery.

France didn't relinquish its slave colonies: the four oldest — Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana and Réunion — were made full French overseas departments in 1946. That means they're governed from Paris like any other.

Their roughly 1.9 million people, most descended from the enslaved, are French citizens.

Despite being fully part of France, the overseas departments remain among its poorest territories. Unemployment runs roughly double the mainland rate, and more than three-quarters of households in the Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte live below the national poverty line.

Shocked to find the law wasn't annulled

Before he discovered the truth, the French lawmaker who put forward the proposal to repeal the law didn't know it still existed.

Max Mathiasin, from Guadeloupe, had bought copies of the text over the years and left them on his shelf.

“As the great-great-grandson of people who were enslaved, I had never been able to read it in full,” he said. “This was made by human beings — against human beings.”

For him, the vote is “a way of restoring our ancestors, restoring our humanity” before a France whose motto is liberty, equality, fraternity. “It means living up to the Republican promise.”

That promise, he says, is still unkept at home.

“In Guadeloupe,” Mathiasin said, “in the most important positions, in the structures of the state, they are white.”

A colonial exception that never ended

The Foundation for the Memory of Slavery is chaired by a former prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, and its deputy director is Pierre-Yves Bocquet — both white men.

Bocquet calls Code Noir the birthplace of France’s “colonial exception” — the principle that the French Republic’s founding rights could be suspended for those under its rule.

The principle outlived the empire, he said: “Even today, we accept that people in the overseas territories can have fewer rights than in mainland France.”

France is hardly the only country still holding fragments of empire — the United Kingdom, the United States and the Netherlands still have overseas territories.

But what sets France apart, observers say, is that it made its slave colonies equal departments of the Republic, not dependencies it governs from afar.

The state insists that the overseas departments are France like anywhere else, even as the people who live there say they are treated as less.

Most major colonial powers, including Britain, Spain and Portugal, had laws governing slavery in their colonies. In each case, those laws fell away when slavery itself was abolished, leaving no single text to repeal.

France’s Code Noir was different, experts say: a single, named royal law that no one ever formally erased, even after France abolished slavery.

France is 'still in a form of apartheid’

For Max Relouzat, 81, president of the Association for the Memory of Slaveries, the repeal matters, because so little else has.

His African ancestor had no name under the law, only a number and a registration code — the family that lived in Martinique was given the name Relouzat at emancipation, likely after Nelouzat, a village in the Auvergne region of central France.

What galls him, he said, is what the symbolism leaves untouched: systemic racism in France.

“Under the cover of departmentalization, a colonial system was maintained,” Relouzat said. “If the overseas departments are part of France, why is there a ministry for the overseas?”

In France, he said, “we are still today in a form of apartheid … a form of colonial continuity.”

‘Racism is the legacy of slavery itself’

For some who have fought longest, Thursday isn't the milestone it appears.

For Florence Alexis, a slavery expert and daughter of the Haitian writer Jacques Stephen Alexis, the real turning point came 25 years ago. In 2001, the Taubira law made France the first country to call the slave trade, and slavery, crimes against humanity.

“That is what changed my life,” Alexis said.

For her, racism is the legacy of slavery itself, not of one edict.

“When I was a child at school, they called me the little monkey,” she said. “People made animal cries when I walked past — as they still do in football stadiums today.”

Paris-born Élodie Léon, 29, whose family is from French Guiana, welcomes the repeal, but resents the delay.

“Symbolic neglect is also neglect,” she said.

“It shocks me,” said Muriel Jean-Baptiste, a Paris-born nurse whose parents are from Martinique. “A law that treated Black people as property was left sitting there.”

The history of reparations

At the Taubira law’s 25th anniversary on May 21, Macron floated the idea of reparations — something that France has long stayed away from addressing.

He called it “a question we must not refuse,” but one on which “we must not make false promises.”

He committed no money, instead defining repair first as truth-telling, education and historical work.

The wealthiest of France's plantations were in Saint-Domingue, in the Caribbean, where the enslaved rose up and won independence in 1804 as Haiti. France then forced the freed to pay reparations for the loss of their masters — a debt cleared only in 1947.

France isn't alone. In the United States, federal reparations legislation has stalled for decades. California approved an apology, but no cash.

But the timing of Macron's latest speech was awkward. Two months earlier, France abstained when the U.N. General Assembly voted 123-3, with 52 abstentions, to call the trans-Atlantic slave trade the gravest crime against humanity.

And this month at the Africa Forward Summit in Kenya, days after declaring himself a “pan-Africanist,” Macron seized a microphone and ordered the room to quiet down.

“As soon as he sets foot on the African continent,” French opposition lawmaker Danièle Obono said, “he can’t help but behave like a colonizer.”

The repeal of the nCode Noir, said Bocquet, “will have no direct effect.” Whether it helps France fight racism and inequality in its overseas territories, he said, “remains to be seen.”

“It is easy for the French authorities, and for Macron, to do this,” Alexis added. “Because it commits them to nothing.”

Northeast Texas could provide the U.S. Army with part of its critical lithium supply if a proposed federal bill is passed under the National Defense Authorization Act.

East Texas Congressman Nathaniel Moran and U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn proposed a bill that would allow private-sector companies to mine for lithium beneath military depots. The goal of this bill, called The Army Organic Industrial Base Mineral Partnerships Act of 2026, is to provide the military with a steady supply of U.S.-based lithium, rather than rely on foreign countries.

The bill could also be a boon for East Texas, a region long dependent on timber, agriculture and oil.

The Army uses lithium to power equipment, like drones or night vision goggles, and support submarines, wheeled vehicles and airplanes. Lithium, a metal that is used medically to treat mood disorders, also has applications in batteries and technology. Most notably, lithium powers the batteries used in electric cars.

For the most part, the U.S. relies on other countries, such as China, to provide critical minerals like lithium for military operations.

Bowie County, which is the furthest northeast county in Texas and is within the Texarkana metropolitan area, resides on one of the largest deposits of lithium brine in the U.S. It is also home to the Red River Army Depot, a roughly 15,000-acre U.S. military base, which already has existing lithium mining projects in the surrounding area.

If approved, the legislation could create new jobs and tax revenues for Bowie County, Moran said. It would establish Texarkana as the army’s premier hub for lithium battery production, Cruz said in a statement.

“Anything that creates investment in jobs is good for our community,” said Bowie County Judge Bobby Howell.

Lithium is often found in salty water aquifers thousands of feet below the ground. The Smackover Formation, which spans from Central Texas to the Florida Panhandle, provides lithium in levels comparable to Chile, one of the leading countries in lithium production.

Most of the production on the Smackover Formation has been in southern Arkansas, but those operations are expanding into East Texas.

Bringing private sector into military mining

EnergyX, an Austin-based lithium mining company, set up shop on former army depot land to get an idea of how best to extract the mineral from the brine in the region.

Milda Saenz, chief of staff for EnergyX, sees the potential for military connections as a positive thing for the industry. But she’s skeptical on this bill’s impact on the entire industry. Plus, there are several unanswered questions, including which federal agency would oversee mineral leasing on military land and how companies would gain access to those rights.

“We’re glad to hear that the politicians realize that the United States needs to open their resources if they want to become competitive globally, especially securing our national security, national resources and supply chains,” Saenz said.

There is no mechanism currently in place for commercial organizations to access the lithium beneath military installations on the Smackover Formation, said Scott Norton, executive director and CEO of TexAmericas Center. TexAmericas is an industrial real estate developer and manager based in Texarkana. The state named the company a local redevelopment authority to create jobs by redeveloping former Department of Defense property into functional space for commercial and industrial businesses.

Norton said EnergyX will have the option to expand into a full-scale mining operation in the acres that surround the military depot. Saenz said the company is working through its plans, with hopes of growing in phases over the next few years.

Weighing lithium’s environmental risks

East Texans have had a hard battle over the last two years to protect their water supply from overconsumption and pollution. Lately, AI data centers, because of their use of water and impact on the environment, have led to major pushback by the populace.

Lithium extraction, which requires companies to pump brine water from thousands of feet below the surface, could cause alarm. However, the process currently puts the water – minus the minerals – back where it was found.

Moran believes there is a way to mine for lithium that doesn’t harm the environment or water supply.

“We want to do this in a responsible way, a thoughtful way, a reasonable, prudent way,” Moran said. “One that is as a good steward to our natural resources, but also one that understands the significant national security interests wrapped up into becoming independent from China and our adversaries when it comes to critical minerals.”

Howell said he hasn’t heard any pushback from his constituents. Largely, he said, the community sees these projects as a benefit because they bring in well-paying jobs and support the local economy.

EnergyX’s process, for example, is a little different from the processes seen in other countries, such as Chile and Australia. It aims to have little to no environmental impact. It extracts the brine that has lithium in it, which sits thousands of feet below the surface, pumps it through an extraction process and sends the unused brine back to the Smackover Formation the same day.

“We are super clean,” Saenz said. “We are super clean while extracting. We use very little water and get lithium in the cleanest way possible and the fastest way without making any impact on the land or water.”

East Texas’ next big boom?

Lithium mining operations have been cropping up across East Texas over the last five years. Local economists have called it East Texas’ “next big boom.”

“Texas has a lot of potential,” said Brent Elliott, an economic geologist and mineral resource specialist with the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin. “We have some of the highest lithium values from brines anywhere in the United States, and it just makes sense because we’re already mining it. There’s been a legacy and historical development of those brines in the past as part of oil and gas production, so it just seems like a no-brainer.”

And the possibilities for communities like those in Bowie County are exciting to the economic development leaders trying to expand the regional economy. Norton, with the TexAmericas Center, said lithium production projects create jobs not just within the industry, but in those that support it, such as education, truck driving, retail and healthcare.

“It’s a great opportunity for not just the Department of War and Red River Army Depot, but also the entire region when it comes to capital investment and job creation,” he said.

But as with any relatively new industry, there are some kinks to work out, said Elliott.

Arkansas has been the hub for lithium mining in the region and has built out rules and regulations that support companies, landowners and those who own mineral rights. Texas is a little behind in the sense that it doesn’t have as extensive rules and regulations as more established lithium mining regions, Elliott said.

“Texas is probably a much friendlier state as far as developing businesses and industry with the oil and gas as the precedent,” Elliott said. “We could probably catch up to Arkansas production pretty quickly. But it is the Wild West until we get some things in place.”

Disclosure: The University of Texas at Austin has been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

“It’s been so eye-opening to see who my people are,” Adler said. “I feel the love, I feel the compassion, the care — it’s nice to have a family again.”

Adopted by an American family when he was 9 months old, the 36-year-old is one of thousands of children who were stolen from Chilean families during the 17-year dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet and among hundreds who have been reunited with their birth families thanks to DNA tracing and organizations that are helping Chilean adoptees investigate their pasts. Others are also working toward justice for the families ripped apart.

The American family that adopted Adler in 1990 raised him in an affluent Chicago suburb.

“My parents didn’t steal me; they didn’t name me Kyle out of malice. They saw me as who they wanted me to become, and there’s a lot of love that was put into that,” Adler said of his adoptive parents Mike and Connie Adler. Adler believes neither of them knew the circumstances surrounding his adoption. He said neither were initially supportive of his decision to find his birth mother before they died in 2022.

He grew up to be an overachiever who in adulthood wanted more meaning to his life, he said.

“Suddenly now I found myself where I didn’t know what to do. I knew I was adopted and at that point, I was just like, I need to find my mom.”

The day he was taken

Adler’s biological mother, Ana Maria Navarrete, was a 19-year-old single parent working nights at a fish shop in the seaside city of Coronel, some 533 kilometers (331 miles) south of the capital. She had named him Marcos Antonio Navarrete.

She could only afford a room for herself, so she hired a woman who took Adler into her home as a baby and looked after him. Navarrete told The Associated Press she visited him whenever she was not working.

One day, the caregiver told her he was taken by an American couple after a local priest made arrangements for a baby “in need of a family.”

“And she let them have him,” Navarrete told AP, furious and ashamed. The AP could not independently verify all the details of what occurred.

A police investigator told her the baby had likely been taken as part of a wide-reaching counterfeit adoption network that involved adoption agencies, immigration officials, judges, nurses and even doctors.

No one was held accountable, Navarrete said, and “those years afterward were some of the worst years of my life.”

Lacking family support, she said she eventually surrendered the idea she would get her son back.

No justice

“Justice for the poor did not exist in Chile and it still does not,” said Constanza Del Rio, founder and executive director of Nos Buscamos, a nonprofit organization with online data for thousands of cases. The government estimates more than 20,000 children were stolen from families.

Children of the poor and Indigenous populations were targeted during the Pinochet regime from 1973 to 1990, said Jimmy Lippert Thyden González, who was also illegally adopted and became a human rights lawyer.

“It was an effort to eliminate and eradicate the poor class. It was a way of eradicating the Indigenous population, the uneducated population,” he said.

Uncovering the past

In early 2017, Adler came across the Nos Buscamos Facebook group while Googling the term “Chilean birth mom search” online, he said. And that’s when he messaged Del Rio.

Within three months, Del Rio had confirmed Adler's origin story and organized a virtual reunion.

Initially, Adler felt crushed to find out he was adopted illegally, sending him into an identity crisis that led to years of therapy.

Then last year, Adler finally felt ready for answers.

A DNA test provided by genealogy platform MyHeritage, a global family history company based in Israel, confirmed a match between Adler and 56-year-old Navarrete of Santiago and “made it official,” he said.

MyHeritage partners with both Nos Buscamos and Connecting Roots, and other nonprofits doing similar work, to provide free at-home DNA testing kits for distribution to Chilean adoptees and suspected victims of child trafficking.

Tyler Graf, the founder and CEO of Connecting Roots, traveled with Adler.

Graf had also reunited with his birth mother Hilda Quezada Godoy decades after he was taken from her, and said it is now his mission to track others taken from families in Chile.

“Now it’s time to mend these families and bring everyone back home so they can see where they came from,” Graf told the AP.

Fighting for justice for the families that were separated

Lippert Thyden González sued the Chilean government two years ago and hopes to lead the fight all the way to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. He also founded the organization Grafting Hope, a nonprofit focused on educating U.S. lawmakers and fighting for the rights of survivors of counterfeit adoptions.

The Chilean government didn’t immediately respond to several messages seeking comment from AP.

“I want justice. Not just for me, but also for him because I don’t know the type of life he had,” Navarrete told AP days after reuniting with her son.

Navarrete is working with a law firm and hopes those involved will get jail-time.

The reunion

“My birth mom’s just been wanting me to be alive,” Adler said ahead of boarding the flight from Miami in February.

The two were reunited two days after her 56th birthday on Valentine’s Day and an AP team was with them in Miami and Chile.

Tears flowed as Adler exited the international arrivals gate in Chile. Both mother and son were wearing white as Navarrete ran to embrace him. The tall, dark-haired son bent over to bury his face in his mother's hair.

“I’m so happy to be finally meeting him, my dream has finally come true,” Navarrete said.

The emotional reunion led to a fruitful week together visiting the beach in Coronel, the hospital where Adler was born and the house where he was taken from. They recovered a copy of his original birth certificate, and he met one of his four siblings. In Miami, he had previously met another sister and her daughter.

Back in Santiago, the two enjoyed keepsakes Adler brought with him as gifts: A framed graduation diploma, childhood photographs and a pair of baby shoes his adoptive parents had kept.

Adler is not a Spanish speaker so Connecting Roots provided a translator. These days, translation apps help them continue the conversation.

Navarrete said the time spent with her son was joyful but it also made her relive much of the pain of the past 35 years.

“It took me so long to find him. And then to spend a week together only to have him leave,” Navarrete said amid tears, “it's like I found him but I've now lost him all over again.”

She said she's hopeful the family will reunite in December. For Adler, the road to forgiveness continues but he hopes Navarrete is able to let go of the trauma.

“I’m not just the son that you lost, I’m the son that you found. I’m back to being your son,” he said.

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The story has been updated to correct that Lippert Thyden González sued two years ago, not three years ago.

A new study from Bovada Sportsbook found that Houston ranks as the third most expensive city in the United States for takeout chicken wings, with fans paying an average of $18.03 for an eight-wing order, or about $2.25 per wing.

Only New York City and San Francisco were more expensive.

The findings come as millions of Americans are expected to gather at sports bars, restaurants, and home watch parties throughout the tournament, driving up demand for popular takeout foods like wings, pizza, and burgers.

Houston among most expensive cities for wings

According to the report, these are the 10 most expensive cities in America for chicken wings:

• New York City: $19.14 per eight wings
• San Francisco: $18.66
• Houston: $18.03
• Denver: $17.66
• Miami: $17.25
• Colorado Springs: $17.11
• Virginia Beach: $17.00
• San Antonio: $16.43
• Los Angeles: $16.32
• Seattle: $16.20

Houston’s prices were significantly higher than the national bargain cities. In Atlanta, the cheapest city for wings in the study, customers paid just $11.53 for eight wings, nearly $6.50 less than Houston.

San Antonio also landed in the top 10 most expensive cities for wings, ranking eighth nationwide with an average cost of $16.43 per order.

Meanwhile, El Paso stood out as one of the country’s most affordable cities for takeout wings, averaging just $12.95 for eight wings.

Houston burger prices also rank among the nation’s highest

The study also revealed Houston residents are paying premium prices for burgers.

Houston ranked eighth most expensive in the nation for cheeseburgers, with an average price of $14.73.

New York City topped the burger rankings at $17.27, while Oklahoma City had the cheapest burgers at just $8.99.

Texas cities split between pricey and affordable takeout

While Houston and San Antonio ranked high for wing prices, Texas cities performed much better in the pizza category.

El Paso was named the cheapest city in America for takeout pizza, with large cheese pizzas averaging just $14.54.

Fort Worth and Dallas also landed among the 10 most affordable pizza cities nationwide.

The study suggests Texas diners are seeing sharp price differences depending on the type of takeout food they order.

Why are wings so expensive?

Chicken wing prices have remained volatile in recent years due to inflation, labor costs, food supply challenges, and high demand during sporting events.

Wings are especially popular during major sports tournaments, including the FIFA World Cup, Super Bowl, NBA Finals, and March Madness, often causing prices to spike at restaurants and delivery services.

The study analyzed menu prices from DoorDash listings at five takeout restaurants in each of the 50 most populated U.S. cities during April 2026. Prices did not include taxes, delivery fees, or tips.

The strike hit an apartment building but it was not immediately clear who might have been targeted. Videos from the suburb of Choueifat, close to Beirut's international airport, showed white smoke billowing from a residential neighborhood.

Tensions have been increasing in southern Lebanon, where Israeli troops in recent days have crossed the strategic Litani River, which the Israeli military has used as a de facto boundary. Large areas to the south are under Israeli military control despite the Washington-brokered ceasefire that’s been in place since April 17.

This was the first attack close to the Lebanese capital since May 6, where an Israeli strike killed a military official with Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Forces in another southern Beirut suburb.

Overnight, Israeli forces pounded the coastal city of Tyre, Lebanon's fourth-largest city, killing at least 14 people across the south of the country in its ongoing military escalation against the Hezbollah group ahead of the Washington talks.

Among those killed in the flurry of strikes were five women and children and a Lebanese soldier. Dozens of others were wounded, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry and the state-run National News Agency.

The Israeli military said meanwhile that one of its soldiers was killed in a Hezbollah drone attack in northern Israel.

Lebanese minister seeks end to attacks on Tyre

On Thursday afternoon, the Israeli military issued another evacuation warning for Tyre and its suburbs.

Considered one of the oldest metropolises of the world, Tyre has several archeological sites, some of them submerged, including Roman baths, a colonnaded road, a Roman residential quarter, the remains of a cathedral built in 1127, a hippodrome built in the 2nd century and the remains of El-Bass necropolis.

The city was officially declared a UNESCO World heritage site in 1984.

Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi said in a statement Thursday that he has been following “with deep pain and profound concern” the ongoing Israeli attacks on Tyre.

“I have begun a series of intensive diplomatic contacts to demand an immediate halt to these attacks and to raise the voice in defense of a civilizational heritage” that should matter not only to Lebanon, but to the conscience of the entire world, he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday announced an expansion in the Israeli military's attacks in Lebanon, apparently sparked by Hezbollah's use of fiber-optic exploding drones that have struck Israeli troops in Lebanon and reached some of Israel's northern border towns. The Israeli military said it has launched hundreds of attacks targeting what they said were Hezbollah military assets.

Lebanese and Israeli military officials are set to hold their first security talks on Friday in the U.S. capital. Despite the nominal ceasefire, Israeli attacks have recently intensified, while largely sparing Beirut.

Hezbollah has dismissed the talks and instead endorsed its key ally Iran, which has made ending the war in Lebanon a condition for its own talks with Washington brokered by Pakistan.

Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said Netanyahu instructed the military “to deepen our operation in Lebanon,” describing it as involving “a large number of our forces on the ground," seizing the dominant terrain and fortifying the security zone to protect the communities of Israel’s north.

Despite the escalation, Mencer said Israel would continue U.S.-mediated negotiations with Lebanon in Washington, saying the talks aim to disarm Hezbollah and reach “a peace agreement that will strengthen security and stability in our region and promote prosperity and peace."

Further north in the city of Sidon, an Israeli drone struck an apartment building where some displaced families lived, killing five people and wounding 21 others, among them five children. Among the dead was Hossan Zeidan, who once was a correspondent for Iran's Arabic-language al-Aalam television.

Mohammad Al-Gharbi, who lived across the street from the building in Sidon, woke to the sound of the explosion.

“I was in my room when part of the wall and shattered glass fell on me, and everything was thrown into chaos,” he said. “This building that was hit had six apartments occupied by poor families who had fled from the south to escape the attacks there, only to be hit here.”

In the nearby coastal town of Adloun, an Israeli drone struck a car with a family that was fleeing, killing six people, of which four were two children and their parents, the Lebanese Health Ministry said. Another drone strike that came without warning killed two people on a motorcycle near Tyre. The target of the attack was not immediately clear, NNA reported.

Elsewhere near the city of Nabatiyeh, the Lebanese military said a soldier was killed in an Israeli drone strike while he was riding his motorcycle.

Hezbollah attacks targets Israeli forces that have crossed the Litani River

The Israeli military said Thursday that a soldier in northern Israel was killed in a Hezbollah drone attack and two reservists were wounded.

Hezbollah has claimed dozens of drone and rocket attacks that it says targeted Israeli troops in southern Lebanon and northern Israel. The group said Thursday it has launched several attacks on Israeli troops and tanks that have crossed the Litani River into the town of Zawtar al-Sharqieh near Nabatiyeh, as close-range fighting continues.

Over 1 million people in Lebanon have been displaced by the war between Israel and Hezbollah, which was sparked when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel on March 2 in solidarity with Iran, two days after the Iran war began.

At least 3,269 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since the start of the war, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, with over 9,800 wounded.

According to Netanyahu’s office, at least 23 Israeli soldiers and a defense contractor have been killed in or near southern Lebanon and two civilians have been killed in northern Israel, the vast majority by drones.

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Associated Press journalists Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Koral Saeed in Abu Snan, Israel and Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel, contributed to this report.

• These are the most dangerous intersections in Houston

The research, conducted by Florida-based personal injury firm Blakeley Law Firm using federal crash data from 2020 through 2024, found that Texas cities appeared on both ends of the rankings.

For Houston drivers, the numbers paint a concerning, but complicated, picture.

Houston recorded some of the highest raw totals of fatal intersection crashes in the study, averaging dozens of deadly crashes each year. However, unlike several other major cities, Houston’s numbers remained relatively stable over the five-year period.

• This Houston road ranks highest in pedestrian deaths in America between 2021 and 2023

According to the study, Houston recorded:

• 76 fatal intersection crashes in 2020
• 88 in 2021
• 76 in 2022
• 62 in 2023
• 78 in 2024

That represents a net increase of just two crashes over five years.

Researchers say the data suggests Houston’s issue is not necessarily a rapid worsening trend, but rather consistently high crash totals tied to heavy traffic, sprawling development, and high-speed roadways.

Meanwhile, Dallas stood out nationwide for the wrong reasons.

The study found Dallas experienced the largest increase in fatal intersection crashes of any city analyzed, jumping from 42 deadly crashes in 2020 to 74 in 2024, a staggering increase of 32 crashes.

Researchers described the trend as evidence that intersection safety may be “quietly worsening over time” in some rapidly growing cities.

Plano also saw fatal intersection crashes more than double during the study period, rising from four crashes in 2020 to 10 in 2024.

But while some Texas cities are trending upward, others ranked among the safest in the nation.

• Navigating Danger: Houston’s top 10 most dangerous intersections

Frisco ranked as the second-safest city in America for fatal intersection crashes, recording just 1.00 fatal crashes per 100,000 residents and averaging only two deadly crashes annually.

Irving also ranked among the country’s safest cities.

The report points to newer suburban infrastructure, modern road design, and more controlled traffic patterns as possible reasons why cities like Frisco continue outperforming much larger metro areas.

Researchers say the findings challenge the idea that population size alone determines roadway safety.

New York City, the nation’s largest city with nearly 8 million residents, ranked safer per capita than many smaller U.S. cities.

Instead, the study argues roadway design, speed management, and infrastructure planning play a much larger role in whether intersections become deadly.

Nationally, Kansas City, Missouri ranked as the most dangerous city for fatal intersection crashes, followed by Columbus, Ohio and Memphis, Tennessee.

The study analyzed fatal intersection crash data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration from 2020 through 2024 and adjusted crash rates per 100,000 residents to compare cities of different sizes.

The proposal is widely popular in Brazil ahead of presidential elections in October, and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva sponsored the move and has repeatedly promoted it. The amendment approved late Wednesday, which must now also pass the Senate, is part of a push within the region that has been lauded by labor rights groups but highly criticized by the business sector.

Currently, Brazilians work five eight-hour days and four hours on a sixth day for 44 hours total. The amendment would end the six-day workweek without reducing pay for at least 37 million people and establishes a 40-hour weekly work limit. It would guarantee two consecutive 24-hour rest days each week, preferably Saturdays and Sundays.

“People who have this workweek from Monday to Saturday are the ones that have to work the hardest and are paid the least,” lawmaker Paulo Pimenta, Brazil’s government whip in the lower house, told his peers as they voted. “We need to be brave and do justice.”

Many opposition lawmakers voted for it after months of pressure from their constituents, but some continued to criticize the initiative.

“I don't care if this is an election year. I think we need to be responsible. This will be a problem for many companies," lawmaker Kim Kataguiri said. “We are doing this in a rush and workers should know they might end up worse than they are now if business leaders stop hiring.”

The amendment would give businesses 14 months to adapt, which was a key point in negotiations. Many business leaders and lawmakers wanted the changes to be made gradually over 10 years.

“This was built with a lot of responsibility, thinking about workers and families in Brazil,” said lawmaker Leo Prates, who drafted the amendment in the lower house. “We need to accomplish this for the Brazilian people.”

The lower house votes late Wednesday sent the amendment to the upper house. Brazil’s Senate has not set a date for its vote and could make changes before Lula’s approval for the constitution to be amended.

Lula's main rival in the election, Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, wants to replace the current workweek system with a more flexible payment-by-the-hour strategy, which so far seems to be popular only among some business leaders.

Other Latin American nations have also recently shortened the workweek.

In February, Mexican lawmakers approved a proposal by President Claudia Sheinbaum to trim the 48-hour workweek. Working hours will be shortened gradually to a 40-hour workweek by 2030.

Chile in 2023 passed the so-called 40-Hour Law, which reduced its workweek to 40 hours as of last year. It applies to all workers under Chile’s Labor Code, without reducing pay.

But Argentina has bucked that trend under libertarian President Javier Milei and may extend its 48-hour workweek. A labor overhaul package passed earlier this year extends the maximum workday from eight to 12 hours and scraps overtime pay, among other measures that Argentine labor unions say favor companies over employees.

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AP journalists Megan Janetsky, Isabel DeBre and Nayara Batschke contributed to this report from Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Santiago, Chile.

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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Dong Guangping, 68, was aboard a 3.3-meter (10.8-foot) rubber boat in the waters off a western South Korean island on Monday night when he was detained by South Korea's coast guard for allegedly violating the country’s immigration law.

The coast guard sought a warrant to formally arrest him, but a local court on Thursday refused, saying it's “difficult to recognize sufficient grounds and necessity” for his arrest. The coast guard said later Thursday it will hand him over to an immigration office but will continue to investigate him.

Dong's prospects are unclear. Investigative authorities could pursue his arrest again or indict him without his physical detention. If Dong applies for refugee status, South Korea’s Justice Ministry said it will review it.

While Dong's possible submission of evidence of his political oppression in China could increase his chances for getting refugee status, observers still note that South Korea's acceptance rate for refugee status applications has been less than 2% in recent years.

Dong, a former police officer in China, had previously been detained in China several times for his activism. He was imprisoned for three years in 2001 for “inciting subversion of state power” and spent more than eight months behind bars after being arrested in 2014 for participating in a memorial for victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, according to past statements from Amnesty International.

It is his fourth known attempt to flee China. Appearing at the court hearing Thursday, he told reporters that he hopes to go to Canada via South Korea to reunite with his wife and daughters, who already resettled there, according to South Korean media.

He previously escaped to Thailand and Vietnam, but authorities there deported him back to China. Dong also unsuccessfully tried to swim to a Taiwanese island.

In a post Wednesday on X, Sheng Xue, a Chinese Canadian activist, praised Dong's braveness. She said Dong had discussed fleeing by boat with her, though she felt it was too dangerous. She said she talked again to Dong through Messenger, after he arrived in South Korea.

“Dong Guangping said that when he reached Korean waters, he was already in a state of unconsciousness. He hadn’t slept for over 50 hours and had been blown by sea winds for over 30 hours,” she said.

A local coast guard office handling Dong's case said he had no major health issues when he was detained. The office said Dong told investigators that he came from Weihai city in China’s eastern Shandong province though he’s refused to respond to most other questions.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning, asked about Dong's case at a regular briefing Wednesday, answered that she was “not familiar with that.”

South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson Park Il told reporters Thursday that Dong's case would likely be handled in line with the local law, though he referred questions to immigration authorities at the Justice Ministry.

Danielle Hickey, a spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, told The Associated Press in an emailed statement that the department could not comment on individual cases but that the country has a “proud tradition of protecting refugees and supporting their resettlement with compassion, respect, and dignity.”

Dong is not the first Chinese dissident to flee to South Korea by boat, though such an incident is highly unusual. In 2023, Kwon Pyong, another Chinese dissident, reached South Korea on a jet ski, saying he was trying to escape persecution in China for mocking its communist leadership. He was initially detained in South Korea but later reportedly moved to the U.S. to seek asylum.

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Associated Press writers Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul and Kanis Leung in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

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This version corrects the pronoun referring to the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson to “she.”

O’Brien graduated from Harvard in 1985, where he studied history and served as president of The Harvard Lampoon, the university’s famed humor publication that has launched generations of comedy writers.

He returns to campus during one of the most fraught periods in Harvard's recent history, as the school faces mounting legal and financial pressure from President Donald Trump. The administration sued the school in March, accusing its leadership of failing to address antisemitism on campus, months after a judge sided with Harvard in another lawsuit and ordered the administration to reverse billions of dollars in funding cuts.

The administration had slashed more than $2.6 billion in Harvard’s research funding, ended federal contracts and attempted to block the college from hosting international students. Harvard had argued it was being illegally penalized for refusing to adopt the Trump administration’s views.

Harvard commencements in recent years have become much more political, partly because of the ongoing battles with the federal government.

Last year, students cheered speakers who emphasized maintaining a diverse and international student body and standing up for truth in the face of attacks by the Trump administration. A year before that, graduates walked out of the commencement chanting “Free, free Palestine” after weeks of protests on campus over the war in Gaza. Others chanted “Let them walk, let them walk,” after the school announced some students who were part of a protest encampment would not get their diplomas alongside other graduates.

This year, striking graduate students at Harvard announced that they would be picketing commencement over a lack of progress in their contract negotiations with the university. The over 4,000 graduate student workers want better pay, an independent process for dealing with harassment and discrimination complaints and contractual protection for noncitizen and disabled workers, among other issues.

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Associated Press reporter Leah Willingham contributed from Boston.

Inflation jumped to 3.8% in April compared with a year ago, the Commerce Department said Thursday, up from 3.5% in March and the highest since May 2023. On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.4%, down from the 0.7% jump in March but still higher than the inflation-fighters at the Federal Reserve would prefer.

Thursday’s inflation report also showed that in addition to gasoline, prices for groceries, clothing and electricity are also on the rise, indicating that inflation may be growing more entrenched. Inflation is notably above the Federal Reserve's target of 2%, which means Fed policymakers may decide to forego any cuts to their key short-term interest rate this year. Some officials have signaled that the central bank's most substantial move under new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh could be a rate hike, rather than a cut.

Yet Trump and some his top officials are showing little concern about higher prices and the impact of the Iran war on Americans' financial health. Consumers have a dim view of the economy and have soured on the Trump administration's economic policies. Thursday's report showed that Americans' after-tax, inflation-adjusted incomes fell for the third straight month, while spending, adjusted for inflation, barely rose.

Trump has said that increases in gas prices — up more than 50% since the U.S. and Israel launched attacks on Iran — amount to “peanuts.” He previously said he does not consider Americans’ personal finances “even a little bit” when mulling his options on the war.

And on Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said higher prices would be “transitory,” reviving an ill-fated term used by former Fed Chair Jerome Powell to describe the 2021-22 inflation spike that became a forceful political tailwind for Trump in his campaign for a second presidential term.

Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core inflation rose to 3.3% in April from 3.2% the previous month. It is the highest core figure since October 2023. One positive sign in the report: Core prices rose just 0.2% in April from March, down from 0.3% the previous month.

Dan North, senior economist at Allianz Trade North America, acknowledged the core price increase isn't “huge,” but added, “it’s the wrong way, and we think it will continue in the wrong way because there are so many inflation pressures in the pipeline.”

Americans' incomes were unchanged in April from March, in part because farm incomes fell after a large government aid package ended last month. Adjusted for inflation, personal income actually slipped 0.1% last month.

Spending rose 0.5% in April from March, though most of that reflected price increases. Adjusted for inflation, spending rose just 0.1% in April, down from 0.3% the previous month.

“Signs of stress are building inside the American household across the economy,” Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM, a tax advisory firm, said. “Inflation-adjusted spending, disposable income ... point to a slowing in May spending as inflation approaches a peak on the back of a historic supply shock."

The U.S. economy grew at a modest 1.6% annual pace from January through March, according to a separate report from the Commerce Department Thursday. The country’s gross domestic product — the nation’s output of goods and services — rebounded from a lackluster 0.5% expansion the last quarter of 2025 when growth was hobbled by the 43-day federal government shutdown.

The first-quarter growth, which covered the first month of the Iran war, was a downgrade from the 2% expansion Commerce initially reported.

Resilient consumer spending — mostly by upper-income households — and ongoing investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure are helping propel modest growth.

Growth in consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, slowed to 1.4% in the first quarter from 1.9% at the end of 2025 and was down from the 1.6% preliminary first-quarter estimate. But business investment, likely driven by spending on artificial intelligence, rose at a 7% pace.

Gas prices averaged of about $4.50 a gallon nationwide for three weeks this month before slipping to $4.43 on Thursday, according to the AAA motor club. Gas averaged $2.98 a gallon the day before the Iran war began.

Yet the cost of many other goods and services have picked up in recent months, raising concerns among many Fed officials that inflation is being pushed higher by tariffs and other factors in addition to the war. The cost of services such as dental visits, car repairs and veterinarian visits have been rising sharply, and clothes, toys, and groceries are also seeing outsize price gains.

Rapid investment in artificial intelligence centers also appears to be driving up the cost of computer equipment and software, adding to inflationary pressures. Electricity prices have also spiked from a year ago.

She practices yoga. She performs free flow dance. And while she works, she frequently listens to house music tuned to 432 hertz, a frequency lower than typical concert pitch.

“Music is medicine. Sound is medicine,” said Sanchez, who provides telehealth services for a healthcare management organization in California. “It helps me focus and be engaged with the patient I’m assisting, and it also helps me relax."

Music recorded in 432 hertz (cycles per second) is taking off on social media platforms and music streaming services, where users can find an increasing number of tracks and playlists employing the alternate tuning, everything from meditation soundscapes to reggae songs recorded by Ziggy Marley.

Many proponents assert that 432 hertz is aligned with nature. Others assign the frequency healing properties or the power to reduce blood pressure. So far, there's no robust scientific evidence to support those claims.

“There are frequencies going on right now that are higher than what we can hear and lower than what can hear. And they’re not special because they’re one of the billions and billions of frequencies that we’re receiving right now,” said Susan Rogers, a Berklee College of Music professor emeritus who worked as Prince's sound engineer during the 1980s. “To set one aside and say that it is the frequency of the universe is, as far as the science community is concerned, nonsense.”

To Sanchez, it doesn't matter if the pain relief and emotional benefits she ascribes to 432 hertz music have a scientific explanation.

“When it comes to music, it could activate different feelings in people, the vibrations of it. It’s not like a one-size-fits-all,” she said.

The story behind 440 and 432 hertz

Throughout history, as people sang or played music together, they tuned their instruments to the same pitch to create a harmonious sound. Singers and musicians often chose a musical note — typically the A above middle C on a piano — as a reference point.

The music genre known as “432 Hz” is characterized by its tuning, in which the A above middle C is pitch-adjusted to vibrate at 432 hertz instead of the standard 440 hertz. The lower frequency is noticeable to the naked ear, sounding like slightly lower notes. Some people feel the alteration produces a warmer, more harmonious sound that resonates with the human body and the natural world.

Many orchestras and musicians now tune their instruments to 440 hertz. But that wasn't always the case.

Until the 19th century, musicians tuned instruments according to local standards, which varied from one country to the next, said Fanny Gribenski, a music historian at New York University. “For most of music history, people are just singing within their own vocal range,” she added.

Eventually, there were orchestras and musical groups tuning to higher frequencies, and some composers became concerned that singers would be unable to perform music from the past, Gribenski said.

“The idea that it should be mainly a lower frequency than the ones that were in use at the time is really the cultural concern for protecting music from the past, protecting the voices of singers,” she said.

At the same time, as international travel became more widespread, the desire for a common tuning frequency grew. In 1939, representatives from multiple European countries and the U.S. agreed to accept 440 hertz as the international standard.

Artists continued to experiment with pitch over the decades that followed. In the 1980s and ’90s, sound engineers sometimes took a recorded song and sped it up or slowed it down to achieve a brighter or slower sound, moving away from the frequency of 440 hertz, Rogers said.

But Rogers doubts that retuning a whole band or orchestra to 432 hertz would improve its sound since many modern instruments were designed sound prettiest while tuned to 440 hertz.

“Some of those instruments might sound a little sweeter, but it’s likely that most won’t,” she said.

Higher pitch generally means more brilliance, or perhaps a little more power in some instruments, Gribenski said. For those listeners who appreciate the lower 432 hertz music, “I wonder if there is a sense of deceleration, slowing down slightly, and also taking one step down from the bright sounds of modernity,” she said.

Working and 432 hertz music

Fans of working while accompanied by a 432 hertz soundtrack cite a variety of reasons.

Amelia Beamer, who handles marketing at the North Carolina pharmacy her parents own, Andrews Apothecary, says she thinks taking work breaks to listen to music tuned to 432 hertz helps with her attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. She's noticed that she feels more focused if she listens before she starts a project.

Beamer works for 25 minutes, takes a five-minute listening break and then returns to the task at hand. She also listens to other frequencies, such as music tuned to 528 hertz.

“It definitely helps me feel more grounded and more centered,” Beamer said of 432 hertz music. “It helps me slow down and to take some intentional space and time for myself.”

Diana Wolf Torres, who creates videos and writes a newsletter about robots, frequently gets migraines and is sensitive to noises. If a gardener is using a leaf blower next door, she has difficulty ignoring it. Listening to music tuned to 432 hertz or other sounds such as white noise while wearing noise-canceling headphones helps.

“I just want to be there and get it done and feel like I’m doing my best writing possible, and anything that keeps me in the zone is a fantastic tool,” Torres said.

Torres doesn't think there's any science or special properties behind 432 hertz music but that “maybe some people find this lower tuning more soothing.” She noted that most listeners won't know if music labeled 432 hertz on social media is labeled accurately.

“What does it matter? If you're getting an effect, are you really going to check the resonance? Do you care?” Torres asked.

Sanchez, the telehealth worker, also enjoys listening to tunes fixed to other alternative frequencies, such as 528 hertz and 963 hertz.

“It’s something worth exploring and finding out for yourself whether it has any benefits or not,” Sanchez said. “For me, I find that grounding is beneficial to my overall wellbeing, so I see how it helps my livelihood."

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Share your stories and questions about workplace wellness at cbussewitz@ap.org. Follow AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health at https://apnews.com/hub/be-well

Zelenskyy said he hasn’t yet received a reply to a letter he sent earlier this week to U.S. President Donald Trump and Congress asking for more of the American-made ammunition. He warned that deliveries to Ukraine are falling dangerously short as the Iran war diverts and depletes U.S. stocks.

“I believe (the U.S.) must act quicker. We are being very persistent,” Zelenskyy told reporters during a visit to Sweden.

Zelenskyy is keen to secure more deliveries of foreign weaponry that it can’t produce itself as it battles Russia’s full-scale invasion, which began on Feb. 24, 2022. In exchange, he's offering to share the cutting-edge drone expertise that Ukraine has built up during the war.

Russia has used its long-range ballistic missiles to damage Ukraine’s power grid and hammer cities.

The Ukrainian capital is bracing for further heavy bombardments. But no foreign diplomats are known to have heeded Moscow’s recommendation to leave Kyiv before what the Russian Foreign Ministry said earlier this week would be upcoming “systemic strikes” on Kyiv.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said Thursday that all diplomatic missions in the capital have continued operations.

Sweden's advanced fighter jets

Ukraine plans to buy 20 advanced Gripen fighter jets from Sweden for 2.5 billion euros ($2.9 billion), with Sweden also donating 16 older Gripen models once the purchase goes through, Zelenskyy announced on his trip to Sweden.

The money for the jets will come out of a 90 billion-euro ($105 billion) loan to Ukraine that the European Union recently approved, Zelenskyy said during a trip to Sweden.

The combat aircraft will be especially helpful in stopping Russian planes that launch powerful glide bombs at Ukraine, he said at an aircraft hangar standing in front of Gripen jets alongside Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.

Ukraine will get the older models early next year and the new models from 2030, Kristersson said. The planes will be equipped with weaponry, and Sweden will provide maintenance and training, he said.

Ukraine eventually wants 150 Gripen jets, Zelenskyy said.

Meanwhile, Sweden is “extremely eager” to learn from Ukraine’s drone warfare experience, Kristersson said.

Ukrainian drones limiting Russian advances, analysts say

Zelenskyy says Ukrainian specialists have helped countries in the Middle East — specifically the Gulf Arab region — strengthen their air defenses during the Iran war. They have helped at American military bases in the Middle East as well, he says.

Ukraine has also entered into joint drone production agreements with countries in the European Union, which fears that Russian President Vladimir Putin has military ambitions beyond Ukraine.

Ukrainian drones that patrol the 1,250-kilometer (780-mile) front line and strike deeper at supply routes have pinned back Russia's bigger army.

“Ukraine’s successful midrange and front-line drone strike campaigns are limiting Russia’s ability to transport personnel to the front line and to supply and sustain front-line positions,” the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said in an assessment late Wednesday.

Russia has occupied about 20% of Ukraine so far. That includes the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized in 2014. The cost of capturing that land has been huge, with the head of the U.K. intelligence agency GCHQ saying Wednesday that almost 500,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in the conflict.

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

About 14,000 customers were affected for roughly 45 minutes beginning around 6:30 a.m., Inframark said. The sudden drop in pressure also triggered a surge of emergency calls that overwhelmed and crashed the utility provider’s phone lines, the company said.

• Texas is getting a massive new state park, and it will be the second largest in the state

Todd Burrer, President of Utility Districts, told KPRC 2 the issue started when the power anomaly knocked out electricity at one of Inframark’s booster stations in Cinco Ranch. Burrer said water pressure has since been restored, and crews are working throughout the day to determine what caused the anomaly.

KPRC 2 also heard directly from residents during the disruption.

Multiple viewers contacted our newsroom to report the low pressure and shutoffs, and KPRC 2 reached back out to those viewers to confirm their water pressure had been restored.

In two international studies, about 1 in 5 patients given the experimental drug saw their virus reduced to levels low enough for the immune system to keep in check.

“We have not had a treatment which has come to this level of cure,” Dr. Seng Gee Lim of the National University Health System of Singapore, who helped lead the GSK-funded studies, told reporters before presenting the findings at a scientific meeting in Barcelona, Spain.

The data also was published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Chronic hepatitis B can cause liver cancer or liver failure, and kills about 1.1 million people around the world each year. Improvements to today’s lifelong therapy, which can be hard to stick with or to access in some countries, have been sought for decades.

The new findings “represent a major step,” Dr. Anna Lok, a hepatitis expert at the University of Michigan who wasn’t involved in the research, wrote in the journal. But she cautioned that more study is needed to see how long that remission-like state lasts.

The drug is bepirovirsen, nicknamed “bepi” and developed by GSK and Ionis Pharmaceuticals. It is under fast-track review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, with a decision expected in October. Regulators in Japan, China and Europe also are considering the drug.

Hepatitis B is a serious liver infection spread through contact with blood or other bodily fluids, including childbirth. A highly effective vaccine can prevent it. For people who are infected, many have an “acute” illness that lasts several months. But for some — about 1.7 million people in the U.S. and more than 250 million worldwide — it becomes a chronic form that gradually damages the liver.

Standard treatments, including daily pills, reduce levels of the virus and prevent liver damage. But a true cure is elusive because hepatitis B has an unusual ability to hide in the body, ready to rebound if therapy stops.

The new drug attacks hepatitis B by binding to its genetic components, suppressing viral replication as well as a key protein, the “S” or surface protein, and stimulates the immune system, said GSK vice president Melanie Paff.

The trials included 1,838 patients assigned to get either a bepi shot or a dummy shot weekly for six months, in addition to their regular pills. If the virus was undetectable for six months after stopping the shots, they could stop their regular pills, too. In about 20% of the bepi recipients, the virus remained undetectable for six more months after they stopped all treatment — that “functional cure” — something no patients given the dummy shots achieved, the researchers reported.

Bepi recipients who started the study with lower levels of that S protein were slightly more likely to achieve a functional cure, Lim said. He is doing additional research to try to determine why only some people respond.

As for how long the functional cure lasts, GSK has tracked a small number of patients from earlier-stage studies and found most still faring well up to three years later, Paff said.

Lim said side effects included mild injection-site redness or pain and a temporary rise in enzymes that can indicate liver stress.

Lok, the Michigan hepatitis expert, noted the trials didn’t include patients with cirrhosis, high S protein levels or other complicating factors.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

The World Meteorological Organization also forecasts an overheating Arctic that warms nearly 3 degrees Fahrenheit (1.66 degrees Celsius) between now and 2030 and a dangerous drought with potential wildfires for the Amazon, a crucial part of Earth's natural defenses to lessen human-caused climate change. A hotter globe from the burning of coal, oil and gas means more extreme weather including floods, droughts and heat waves, scientists said.

The projections by the U.N. climate agency and the United Kingdom's Meteorological Office said there's a 75% chance that the average global temperature between 2026 and 2030 will be more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) higher compared to pre-industrial times. That threshold is the agreed-upon limit of warming — averaged over 20 years — set in 2015 by the Paris climate agreement.

A U.N. science report a few years later detailed how exceeding that 1.5 mark means more likely death, danger and species loss. Even though it's only a few tenths of a degree, some of the planet's ecosystems, such as coral and glaciers, can't handle the strain.

Passing warming limit has consequences, but no cliff

There’s a 91% chance that at least one of the next five years will shoot past the 1.5 degree threshold and an 86% chance that one of those years will smash the record for Earth’s hottest year set in 2024, the WMO report said. The WMO projects each year between now and 2030 to be between 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.3 degrees Fahrenheit) and 1.9 degrees Celsius (3.4 degrees Fahrenheit) since the late 1800s.

“It’s important to note that (1.5) is not kind of a cliff edge that we’re going to fall off,” said report co-author Melissa Seabrook, a climate scientist at the U.K. Meteorological Office. “Every kind of 0.1 of a degree has more and more severe impact.”

She pointed to unprecedented May heat in Europe this week.

An entire year or more above the 1.5 degree mark “means a whole range of extreme weather events, probably many so hot/wet/dry that it exceeds anything we’ve experienced in the past and thus crucially, anything our city planning, agriculture etc. has anticipated,” Imperial College of London climate scientist Friederike Otto, who wasn’t part of the report, said in an email. “This will mean many people will lose their lives, we are in for a lot of food price shocks, and more intense wildfires.”

Nearly all the shorter-term forecasts call for a strong El Nino — a natural warming of parts of the central Pacific that alters weather worldwide and spikes global temperatures — to form soon. The WMO report said it could stretch all the way to 2028. Because of that, Seabrook said 2027 will likely break the 2024 heat record.

And if the next five years do average more than 1.5 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times, that means Earth will have warmed a quarter of a degree Celsius (0.45 degrees Fahrenheit) in a decade, which is faster than the previous rates of warming. Those were closer to two-tenths of a degree Celsius per decade.

Climate scientists are debating whether global warming is accelerating, “which obviously is quite scary,” and if these projections come true it would give additional evidence to those who see a speeded up rate of change, Seabrook said.

Accelerating warmth forecast in the Arctic

The projections, based on the averaging of about 200 runs of computer simulations using 13 different climate models from various countries, show warming in the Arctic rising 3.5 times faster than the rest of the globe, because there's less ice and snow that had been reflecting solar radiation to space, Seabrook said. It becomes a vicious cycle.

“As the temperature warms, more sea ice melts, the worse this makes it,” Seabrook said.

Winters in the Arctic from 2020 to 2025 on average were 2.1 degrees Fahrenheit (1.2 degrees Celsius) warmer than the 1991-2020 average. The WMO projects the next five winters will average 5.1 degrees Fahrenheit (2.8 degrees Celsius) warmer than that recent normal, Seabrook said.

The report also forecasts Arctic sea ice to continue to shrink in the summer.

Amazon may get drier, sparking fire worries

The report calls for even warmer and unusually dry conditions in the Amazon basin, and that could be devastating for both local residents and the planet as a whole, Seabrook said.

People rely on the Amazon for water and the hotter, drier conditions should increase wildfire risk, Seabrook said, threatening to turn the Amazon, which now sucks heat-trapping carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, into a region that worsens the problem.

Africa's Sahel area, which has been extra dry, is likely to get more than normal rain and that could lead to flooding, Seabrook said.

United Nations officials said efforts to curb climate change haven't been enough.

“Despite the progress of recent years, it’s clear that global heating is still outpacing global efforts to contain it, and the baking temperatures in Europe, India and elsewhere show yet again the brutal human and economic impacts of humanity still burning colossal amounts of coal, oil and gas,” U.N. climate chief Simon Stiell said about the WMO report.

“Whether it’s extreme heat, mega-storms, floods, massive wildfires or droughts hitting food supply and prices,” he said, “every nation is already paying a huge price from this global climate crisis.”

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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.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that jobless claims were up to 215,000, up from 210,000 the week before. The four-week moving average of claims, which smooths out week-to-week volatility, rose by nearly 6,300 to 209,000.

“Initial claims are still impressively low, near historic lows,” Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics, wrote in a commentary. “The uptick from last week to this week is trivial in a labor market of 159 million workers.″

The number of Americans signing up for unemployment benefits — a proxy for layoffs — has stabilized in a low range of mostly 200,000 to 250,000 a week since the U.S. economy emerged from a brief but nasty pandemic recession in 2020.

The total number of people collecting jobless aid rose by 15,000 to 1.79 million the week that ended May 16.

The persistently low number of claims suggests that most U.S. companies have not resorted to layoffs. But even if they’re not cutting jobs, employers haven’t been adding many either. Last year, companies, nonprofits and government agencies added fewer than 10,000 jobs a month, weakest hiring outside recession years since 2002.

Job creation has picked up a bit so far this year — to an average of 76,000 a month from January through April. By contrast, employers added 122,000 a month in 2024 and averaged nearly 400,000 a month from 2021 through 2023 as the economy roared back from COVID-19 lockdowns.

But the United States now needs fewer jobs to keep the unemployment rate from rising. President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and ongoing Baby Boomer retirements means that the monthly “break-even rate″ of monthly hiring may be as low as zero. And the unemployment rate — 4.3% in April — has, in fact, remained low by historic standards.

The Iran war has clouded the economic outlook as higher energy prices squeeze consumers and businesses. Iran responded to U.S. and Israeli attacks by turning to economic warfare — closing the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes, and causing the biggest disruption of global oil supplies in history. In response, U.S. gasoline prices have surged to an average of $4.43 a gallon from an average $2.98 a gallon on the eve of the conflict, according to AAA.

A day before Major League Baseball is expected to make a salary cap proposal, the union outlined its initial economic proposals during a bargaining session at the players' association office in Manhattan. It included what it called a “competitive integrity tax” that would penalize teams dropping below a payroll floor and called for the luxury tax threshold to rise to $300 million next year.

Baseball’s labor contract expires Dec. 1 and MLB is expected to institute a lockout, management’s equivalent of a strike under federal labor law. Players have vowed they never will accept a salary cap.

“Attendance, viewership, interest — by any measure you want to use, our game is moving in a positive direction,” Baltimore pitcher Chris Bassitt, a member of the union's eight-man executive subcommittee, said in a statement. “We’ve put forward proposals designed to continue that trend. Support, incentivize, and reward clubs who are committed to competing, especially small-market clubs. Compensate players fairly for the work they are doing.”

MLB clearly is not in favor of what the union presented and maintains the players' plan would decrease revenue sharing.

“We understand their proposals are designed to benefit players. Unfortunately, they do not address and in fact exacerbate the competitive balance problem our fans are telling us we must address,” MLB spokesman Glen Caplin said in a statement. "The MLBPA’s proposal would reduce the amount transferred to lower-revenue clubs, weaken the competitive balance tax and lead to even more payroll disparity than exists today. For example, under the union’s proposal, the Dodgers would pay less in luxury tax payments, giving them an additional $70 million to spend on payroll.”

Marcus Semien and Sean Manaea of the Mets and Eugenio Suárez of Cincinnati attended the session while other players participated online.

“The players’ proposals provide increased revenue sharing initially guaranteeing every small-market club a minimum of $240 million in revenue every season,” interim union head Bruce Meyer, who replaced Tony Clark in February, said in a statement. “This enhanced revenue sharing includes added protections to ensure clubs prioritize winning over profiteering.”

According to details obtained by The Associated Press:

— The luxury tax threshold, which starts at $244 million this season, would rise to $300 million in 2027 and then increase by $15 million annually. Penalties such as moving back a team’s pick in the amateur draft would be eliminated. Surcharge levels, currently as much as 110%, would drop to 10% above the preceding level.

— Free agent eligibility, which has been six seasons of major league service since the 1976 agreement would drop to five for players who have reached age 30 by Nov. 1. A team could retain the player by making a qualifying offer. If a player in that group refuses the qualifying offer, he would become arbitration eligible.

— The minimum salary would rise from $780,000 this year to $1.5 million next season, $1.65 million in 2028, $1,825,000 in 2029, $2 million in 2030 and $2.2 million in 2031.

— Salary arbitration eligibility would expand and teams would have to offer at least $3 million to eligible players. The threshold increased from two years to three years in 1986 and the so-called super 2 class with those of two to three years began in 1991 at 17% and it increased to 22% in 2013. The union proposed it be expanded to 44%. In addition, salaries in cases decided by arbitration panels would be guaranteed and the union asked that some salaries used for comparisons be given 120% of their value.

— The pre-arbitration bonus pool, established at $50 million in the 2022-26 deal, would increase to $180 million next year and then rise by $15 million annually. Players coming up to the major leagues for the first time who sign multiyear deals either before opening day or during the first 21 days of the season would become ineligible.

— The qualifying offer for players with six years of service would be eliminated. It has diminished the markets of some free agents since it began after the 2012 season because of penalties on signing teams.

— The amateur draft lottery would expand from six teams to eight.

— Rules instituted in 2022 designed to decrease service time manipulation would be expanded, such as ensuring a full year of service to eligible prospects who finish among the top five in MVP voting.

— Lower-revenue teams who lose players as free agents would get increased benefits and low-revenue teams would get more draft selections.

— A competitive integrity tax would be imposed on teams who do not reach 50% of the lowest tax threshold and teams further below would face surcharges. Teams would be penalized for not spending revenue-sharing money they receive on payrolls.

— Each small-market team would be guaranteed at least $240 million in revenue annually and teams would keep more ballpark-related revenue.

— Low-revenue teams with winning records or reaching the playoffs would get more revenue sharing money and local media revenue would be shared among teams more extensively.

A five-year deal was reached on March 10, 2022, the 99th day of a lockout, preserving a 162-game regular-season schedule. That was the sport’s ninth work stoppage and first since a 7 1/2-month strike in 1994-95 caused cancellation of the World Series for the first time since 1904.

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

Trump told reporters on Wednesday that New York Knicks owner James Dolan has invited him to the NBA Finals, when the Eastern Conference champion Knicks host either the Oklahoma City Thunder or the San Antonio Spurs next month at Madison Square Garden.

New York, which is riding an 11-game postseason winning streak after sweeping the Cleveland Cavaliers in the conference finals, is scheduled to host Game 3 on June 8 and Game 4 on June 10.

Trump, a New York native, said he initially planned to attend Game 5 of the conference finals at MSG before the Knicks finished off the Cavaliers in four games. The president called Dolan a “great guy” and marveled at New York's run.

“Boy, what a team,” Trump said. “They have some really great players.”

Trump called the club's return to the finals for the first time since 1999 “great to see.”

“The Knicks have really suffered for years," Trump said to laughter. “They're doing (well) right now.”

Trump has routinely dropped in on prominent sporting events during his time in politics. He's taken in the College Football Playoff championship and caught a prime-time NFL game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New York Jets just days before the 2024 election.

The Knicks have a history of having high-profile celebrities sit courtside at MSG, including filmmaker Spike Lee, who has clashed with Trump in the past.

___

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

Sinner was serving for the match at 5-4, 0-40 in the third set when he bent over on the court and then walked to his chair. He asked for assistance and left the court. Hs entire light blue outfit appeared soaked through with sweat.

When he came back with an ice pack around his neck, he proceeded to lose the next point with a poorly sliced backhand wide and lost the third set 7-5. Sinner left the court again.

He won the first two sets 6-3, 6-2.

The temperature at the start of the match was 29 degrees C (84 F), and was forecast to rise to 33 C (91 F).

Sinner is on a 30-match winning streak stretching back to February.

Sinner also struggled in the heat at the Australian Open against Eliot Spizzirri in January. The roof was closed and the third-round match swung his way.

Sinner is attempting to complete a career Grand Slam by winning his first French Open title.

___

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

According to new economic reporting from Yahoo Finance, grocery prices surged in April at the fastest pace seen in four years, and experts warn prices could continue climbing into the fall.

Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that food prices overall have increased 3.2% over the last 12 months.

Economists say several factors are driving the spike, including severe weather across the country, international conflict, and ongoing supply chain issues.

Farmers have been dealing with record-breaking heat, historic cold snaps, and wildfires that have damaged crops and disrupted food production. At the same time, concerns tied to the Strait of Hormuz have created challenges for fertilizer supplies, adding even more pressure to farming operations and food costs.

Other issues, including tariffs and shrinking cattle herds, are also contributing to higher prices for consumers.

As families prepare for rising grocery bills, experts say there are still a few ways shoppers can save money at the store.

One of the biggest recommendations is buying store-brand products instead of name-brand items whenever possible. Grocery chains like H-E-B and Kroger often offer lower-priced alternatives on everyday staples such as bread, pasta, soup, sauces, and ice cream.

Consumers are also encouraged to buy larger portions or bulk-sized products when possible, since larger quantities are often cheaper per serving.

Another money-saving strategy is shopping around weekly “loss leader” sales, heavily discounted items stores use to attract shoppers, and planning meals around what is currently on sale.

With inflation continuing to affect everything from fuel to food, economists say consumers may need to adjust shopping habits as grocery prices remain elevated through the rest of the year.

Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston is delivering emergency meals to thousands of seniors across the area through its annual “Operation IMpact” initiative.

Know someone in need of the Meals on Wheels service? If so, sign them up here.

In the coming days, trucks loaded with emergency meal kits will head out across Greater Houston and Galveston County to deliver shelf-stable food supplies to more than 4,300 homebound seniors before severe weather arrives.

The nonprofit says the emergency kits are designed to help seniors stay fed if flooding, power outages, or dangerous road conditions interrupt regular Meals on Wheels deliveries during a storm.

For many seniors, daily meal deliveries are their primary source of food. Interfaith Ministries says the program is especially important for residents who are unable to leave their homes or stock up on groceries themselves ahead of hurricanes or tropical storms.

“We are providing shelf-stable meals for five days to our seniors,” said Ali Al Sudani, chief programs officer for IM Houston. “Our volunteers and drivers are delivering these emergency meals to the seniors, and we follow up with instructions to make sure they understand these are for rainy days, for inclement weather, in case we can’t reach them.”

Volunteers spent the week loading trucks and preparing deliveries as hurricane season officially begins next week.

While the organization continues distributing emergency meals, IM Houston says it is also working to close a $55,000 funding gap before peak hurricane season arrives.

The nonprofit says donations help cover both the purchase and delivery of emergency meal kits for seniors who may otherwise go without food during prolonged storms or outages.

IM Houston leaders say preparing early can make a major difference when hurricanes impact the Houston area, especially for older adults living alone or with limited mobility.

To donate or volunteer for Meals on Wheels, click here.

The 27-nation EU's fine follows preliminary findings last year that Temu was exposing consumers to a high risk of products sold on its platform like baby toys and small electronics that didn't comply with EU consumer safety rules.

The bloc's executive arm issued the penalty under the Digital Services Act, or DSA, a wide-ranging rulebook that requires online platforms to do more to keep internet users safe from harmful content or dodgy goods, under the threat of hefty fines.

It's the second time Brussels has issued a fine under three-year-old DSA, following a $120 million penalty last year for Elon Musk's social media site X.

Temu said it disagreed with the decision and considered the fine “disproportionate.”

The decision relates to the commission's first DSA evaluation of Temu in 2024 “and does not reflect the current state of our systems,” the company said.

“Temu engaged constructively with the Commission throughout the process and has since taken further steps to strengthen risk assessment, platform governance, and user protection," it said in a statement.

The company is popular because it offers cheap goods - from clothing to home products — shipped from sellers in China. The platform has 92 million users in the EU and is owned by PDD Holdings Inc., which also owns the popular Chinese e-commerce site Pinduoduo.

The European Commission said Temu failed to identify, analyze and assess the systemic risks of illegal goods for sale on the platform and the resulting harm to European consumers.

Investigators had carried out a “mystery shopping exercise” that turned up a number of "non-compliant" products, including many electronic device chargers that failed basic safety tests. They also found a very high percentage of baby toys that posed safety risks, either because they contained chemicals at levels that exceeded safety limits or because they had parts that came off and could be a suffocation risk.

The commission said failing to do proper risk assessments is a particularly serious breach of the bloc's digital rules.

Risk assessments are “not box‐ticking exercises," European Commission Executive Vice-President Henna Virkunnen said.

“Temu’s risk assessment underestimates concrete risks, lacks specificity, is not grounded in solid evidence, and is not comprehensive,” she said in a prepared statement. "It leaves regulators, users, and the public in the dark about the true scale of potential harm posed by illegal products sold on Temu. Now it is time for Temu to comply with the law.”

Temu has until the end of August to submit an “action plan” to remedy the problem. It could be hit with additional daily, weekly or monthly fines if it fails to comply.

___

AP writer Sam McNeil in Brussels contributed to this report.

A bonus: The brilliant star Antares will photobomb Sunday's spectacle for a celestial three-for-one.

A blue moon occurs every two to three years when a second full moon squeezes into a single month. May 1 saw this month’s first full moon.

Since the moon's orbit isn't a perfect circle, the upcoming full moon will be farther from Earth than usual at a distance of 252,360 miles (406,135 kilometers), making it seem a bit smaller and dimmer. It's the opposite of a supermoon when a full moon comes closer to us than normal. The most recent supermoon, for instance, was just 225,130 miles (362,312 kilometers) away.

The Virtual Telescope Project’s Gianluca Masi, who will provide a live webcast from Italy, said Sunday’s micromoon will appear about 6% smaller and 10% dimmer than that of an average full moon — “differences that are subtle enough to likely go unnoticed by most observers.”

The scene will be especially thrilling south of the equator across the Pacific.

For stargazers in Argentina, Chile, New Zealand, eastern Australia, parts of Antarctica and a smattering of other islands, Antares will vanish temporarily as the blue micromoon passes in front of it.

The red supergiant star, 550 light-years away, is known as the “heart of scorpion” in the constellation Scorpius. A light-year is almost 6 trillion miles (9.7 trillion kilometers).

There won't be any disappearing act for those looking up elsewhere in the world, with Antares constantly visible alongside the full moon.

And despite the name, this blue moon won’t appear turquoise, sapphire or any other shade. The term simply refers to the uncommon occurrence of two full moons in one month.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Caesars became an iconic name after the opening of Caesar's Palace on the Las Vegas Strip in 1966. However, its roots date back to the 1930s in Reno, Nevada.

Fertitta Entertainment will pay $5.7 billion and take on close to $12 billion in debt from Caesars, putting the total value of the deal at about $17.6 billion.

As part of the agreement, Caesars can seek competing bids through July 11.

Caesars investors will get $31 in cash for each share they own, a 49% premium over the share price before chatter about a possible tie-up between the two entertainment companies began in February.

Shares of Caesars Entertainment Inc., which are up 15% since merger rumors emerged, rose almost 2% before the opening bell Thursday.

According to research by CNN, more than half of U.S. teenagers spend at least one hour on their phones overnight during school nights.

• Black girls and depression: Signs, support, and mental health tips for parents

The findings come as health experts continue warning about the importance of sleep for adolescent development. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommend that teenagers get between eight and 10 hours of sleep every night.

Researchers analyzed data tracking teen phone-use patterns and found that many adolescents are staying connected late into the night, reducing the amount of uninterrupted sleep they get during the school week.

While the study did not directly link nighttime phone use to harmful outcomes, previous research has connected poor sleep habits to negative effects on cognitive function, emotional regulation, mental health and academic performance.

Experts say parents can play a major role in helping teens build healthier screen habits.

• How Houston teens can volunteer, make a difference this summer

One recommendation from the American Academy of Pediatrics is creating a family media plan that establishes screen-free zones in the home and designated times when devices are not allowed.

Experts also recommend keeping phones and other devices out of bedrooms at night and encouraging activities that do not involve screens.

Another strategy experts suggest is creating a “family media lockbox,” where everyone in the household physically separates from their devices before bedtime.

Health experts say small changes in nighttime routines can help teens improve sleep quality and reduce dependence on screens before bed.

Yet the eerily empty Bamy Hotel is not a refuge for adventure-seeking tourists or international business travelers these days. Since late last year, only a small number of people have been staying there, and they aren't on vacation. They are being held against their will.

Under an opaque $7.5 million deal with the Trump administration, Equatorial Guinea's all-powerful president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, has turned this hotel owned by his family into a prison for asylum seekers deported from the United States.

The hotel is just a way station, though. Of the at least 32 people imprisoned there since November — all of whom had previously been granted protection from U.S. judges, their lawyers said — 25 have been forced to go back to home countries across Africa where their lives might be in danger. The rest face pressure from authorities to leave.

“Government people would come all the time and say: Where is your passport? You need to go back to your own country,” said a 26-year-old man from an East African country imprisoned at the hotel. Out of fear of retaliation, he spoke on condition of anonymity, as did two other deportees interviewed by The Associated Press.

The Trump administration uses deportations to third countries as a legal loophole, immigration lawyers say, to indirectly force asylum seekers back to their home countries.

Because Equatorial Guinea is run by an authoritarian government — as are some other countries that have signed similar deals — it is difficult for foreign journalists to visit and report directly on conditions there. AP traveled to the island of Bioko as part of a recent visit by the first American pope, and is the only international news organization to visit the hotel detaining migrants.

Pressured to return to countries they fear

Trapped for now in a country many had never heard of before arriving, men and women from Angola, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Mauritania wander the hotel’s long corridors and gaze out the windows at the shimmering pool they are not allowed to use.

They haven’t faced any physical abuse, but they feel intense psychological pressure knowing they are likely headed back to home countries they fear.

“I am scared and depressed,” said the East African man.

Because of his ethnicity and the fact he fled his home country, he said he would be imprisoned or killed if forced to return. All of the asylum seekers at the hotel face a high risk of persecution back home, human rights experts say.

Under a series of murky and often-secret agreements, the Trump administration has deported thousands of people to nearly two dozen countries that are not their own, advocates say, all part of the broad U.S. crackdown on immigration. The countries with agreements are mostly in the developing world, according to the group Third Country Deportation Watch, including roughly a dozen in Africa. Experts say countries accepting the deportees may be doing so to earn goodwill in negotiations with the U.S. over trade, migration or aid.

The Trump administration declined to comment on the details of its deal with Equatorial Guinea. A State Department spokesperson said, “we remain unwavering in our commitment to end illegal and mass immigration.”

The Obiang administration did not respond to a request seeking comment.

Trapped in the surreal and the mundane

As the man from East Africa at the Bamy Hotel recounted his journey, a government minder who spoke little English sat nearby, scrolling on his phone in an otherwise empty conference room.

After traveling from Africa to Brazil, the man said, he arrived in August 2024 at the U.S. border, where he was detained. He then was shuffled between immigration centers in California, Arizona and Louisiana — before landing in Equatorial Guinea almost six months ago.

The deportees' daily routines at the hotel are mundane, though the setting makes it all seem surreal, he said.

They sleep in fancy rooms that rarely get cleaned, he said, and they are served rice and meat at white cloth tables set up inside the hotel's restaurant. After being sickened by the food several times, the East African man said he eats the bare minimum.

A local lawyer brings new toothbrushes, cellphone SIM cards, and, for women, sanitary products.

Medical care has been uneven. The East African man was driven to the hospital right away after complaining of an eye problem. But when he came down with malaria and typhoid, he was not taken to a hospital until his condition had greatly deteriorated, requiring an IV. Other detainees have had similar experiences, he said.

Recently, the East African man complained to a police officer about his situation. The officer responded by saying his problems would go away if he went to the hotel’s fourth floor and jumped out the window.

“What can I do now? It’s become worse,” he said, his frail body shaking. “I started losing my mind.”

The US has strong ties to, and criticisms of, Equatorial Guinea

Equatorial Guinea is one of the richest countries in Africa thanks to its oil resources. It is also rife with corruption and human rights abuses, according to U.S. officials.

A former Spanish colony, the country fell into economic despair after gaining independence in 1968. Its fate shifted in the 1990s when U.S. companies started drilling for oil along its vast coastline. The subsequent boom transformed the economy, yet over half the population still lives in poverty.

The country's oil-fueled wealth has been largely pocketed by Obiang and his family, according to rights groups. Obiang’s 57-year-old son and heir apparent, Teodoro “Teodorin” Obiang Nguema, chronicles his lavish lifestyle on TikTok — soaking in infinity pools, feasting on lobster, traveling on private jets — even as citizens of Equatorial Guinea are banned from the platform.

The younger Obiang, who serves as vice president, has faced international sanctions because of corruption across his father’s administration. But the U.S. lifted sanctions, allowing the younger Obiang to travel to a high-level U.N. meeting in New York last September, just weeks before the deportations to Equatorial Guinea began.

There are virtually no critical voices in Equatorial Guinea, where the government has been accused by rights groups and the U.S. State Department of detaining, torturing and even killing those that dare to speak out.

Despite that, its largest foreign investors are U.S. businesses, and its military receives funding for training from the U.S. government.

East African migrant awaits his fate

The deportees still at the Bamy Hotel know they can be sent home any day.

Representatives of the U.N.'s International Organization for Migration, and its refugee agency, visited the hotel in November, and promised the deportees they would come back. They never did.

The East African man is the only one among them that has been allowed to see a lawyer, though it's not clear why.

While Equatorial Guinea has no asylum policy, his lawyer made a formal request with the prime minister's office — a long shot worth taking if there was any chance of being released from the hotel.

He was told to plead for mercy with the country's vice president, but his asylum claim was rejected.

The next morning, authorities deported five other people, leaving him anguished as he awaits his fate. He was told he would be next.

___

Associated Press writer Tim Sullivan in Minneapolis contributed to this report.

The concert plot was thwarted, but Austrian authorities still canceled Swift’s three performances in August 2024.

The defendant, a 21-year-old Austrian citizen known only as Beran A. in line with Austrian privacy rules, faces charges including terrorist offenses and membership in a terrorist organization.

His defense attorney said he pleaded guilty to the charges related to the concert plot during the opening day of the trial last month. He could face up to 20 years in prison.

Beran A. allegedly planned to target people outside the Ernst Happel Stadium with knives or homemade explosives. Tens of thousands of Taylor Swift fans, known as Swifties, had traveled to Austria to attend the performances of the American singer’s record-setting Eras Tour. Devastated by the cancellations, many gathered in central Vienna to trade friendship bracelets and commiserate about the cancellations.

Beran A. also allegedly networked with other members of the Islamic State group ahead of the planned attack. Prosecutors have said they discussed purchasing weapons and making bombs, and that the defendant also sought to illegally buy weapons in the days ahead of the performance, as well as swearing allegiance to the militant group.

He is on trial alongside Arda K., whose full name also has not been made public. They, along with a third man who was arrested and remains in pretrial detention in Saudi Arabia, allegedly planned to carry out simultaneous attacks in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates during Ramadan 2024 in the name of IS.

Only Beran A. was charged in connection with the concert plot. He pleaded not guilty to the charges related to the plot for simultaneous attacks.

In closing arguments Thursday at the state court in Wiener Neustadt, south of Vienna, prosecutors called for the men's conviction, the Austria Press Agency reported.

Beran A.'s defense lawyer, Anna Mair, told the court that her client was “not an ideological mastermind.”

In short final words to the court before it adjourned to consider a verdict, Beran A. said: “I would just like to say that I am sorry.”

Houston is set to host seven World Cup matches at NRG Stadium, with hundreds of thousands of visitors expected to travel to the city during the tournament.

As Harris County commissioners discuss approval of an agreement tied to FIFA security funding, officials are also revealing new details about how they plan to keep fans safe during the global event.

• Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) designated for Ebola screening as Houston prepares for World Cup travel surge

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo compared the scale of the World Cup to hosting several Super Bowls at the same time.

“Orders of magnitude, multiple Super Bowls at once,” Hidalgo said. “You have to think that billions of people around the world watch the World Cup.”

Officials say security measures for the tournament will be stricter than what fans typically experience at Texans or Astros games.

“It’s going to be tighter than anything we’ve seen,” one official said. “If you’ve been to a Texans game, an Astros game, this is going to be more stringent than that.”

The agreement being discussed by commissioners would help public safety agencies receive reimbursement through a FEMA grant program for security-related costs, including officer overtime and other operational expenses tied to the World Cup.

• Houston officials outline Ebola screening measures at Bush Airport, stress low risk to public ahead of FIFA World Cup

Hidalgo says Houston-area agencies have been running emergency drills for months to prepare for a variety of scenarios, including severe weather, fires, health emergencies and potential security threats.

“So the question I asked the leaders of the law enforcement agencies and the security teams… if something were to happen… could we have prevented this?” Hidalgo said. “I want you to be able to say, ‘We did everything we could.’”

Officials say plans include barriers around fan festival areas to help prevent vehicle attacks, anti-drone technology and an increased law enforcement presence throughout the city, including private security.

Hidalgo also addressed concerns about possible health-related emergencies, including the unlikely scenario of someone traveling to Houston with Ebola. She says health officials have plans in place if a situation like that were to happen.

While leaders acknowledge there could be temporary traffic headaches and congestion during the tournament, county officials say they are confident Houston is prepared to host visitors from around the world and safely handle the spotlight during one of the biggest sporting events on the planet.

Board-certified dermatologist Dr. Sherry Ingraham joins “Houston Life” to share simple ways fans can keep their skin healthy and protected during long game days outside.

Watch her live at 1 p.m. today on KPRC 2 or in the video player above.

Sunscreen should be part of every game plan

Long hours in direct sunlight can quickly lead to sunburn and skin damage. Dr. Ingraham recommends wearing a broad-spectrum sunscreen with SPF 30 or higher and reapplying throughout the day, especially during Houston’s summer heat. Don’t forget to apply sunscreen to ears, neck, scalp lines and lips too.

Hydration helps your skin, too

Outdoor matches, salty snacks and summer temperatures can leave your body dehydrated. Drinking plenty of water can help keep skin looking refreshed while reducing dryness and irritation.

Don’t let sweat stay on your skin

Sweat mixed with sunscreen, dirt and makeup can clog pores and lead to breakouts. Cleansing your skin after outdoor events or using facial wipes can help keep skin feeling clean and balanced.

Protect more than just your face

Spending hours standing outdoors or sitting in grassy areas can also irritate skin. Comfortable shoes and breathable socks may help prevent blisters, while bug spray and a towel or blanket can help protect against mosquito bites and skin irritation.

Give your skin time to recover

After a long day outdoors, moisturizing and cooling products can help calm skin after sun exposure. Hydrating overnight can also help restore moisture and reduce irritation.

Dress for protection

Lightweight long sleeves, hats, sunglasses and UV-protective clothing can help shield skin from harmful rays while keeping you cooler outdoors. Longer clothing can also help minimize bug bites during evening matches.

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But progress stalled over concerns about the inclusion of White House ballroom security funding in the package and the creation of a $1.8 billion fund to finance claims of government mistreatment. The stumble has not only delayed action on a top GOP priority but also is raising questions about other parts of the party's legislative agenda, including whether Republicans can enact another catchall, party-line bill referred to in Washington parlance as “Reconciliation 3.0.”

Republicans have spent recent weeks laying the groundwork for such a bill, which they hope will serve as a final sales pitch to voters going into the midterms.

Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise, both of Louisiana, have been meeting with committee and caucus chairs to screen for proposals that have strong buy-in from the rank and file. They are aiming to follow up on last summer's big tax and spending cuts bill with a measure that would increase Pentagon spending by hundreds of billions of dollars and would include cuts elsewhere to help pay for it, which they are couching as tackling government waste and fraud.

It's a high-stakes gambit in an election year. Success will reinforce the GOP's message of being able to deliver on legislative priorities. Failure will underscore some of the Republican fractures under Trump that could leave voters seeking an alternative.

Here's a look at the coming debate as Republicans hope to pass a bill before leaving for their August recess.

House Republicans sound confident

Johnson navigated the House GOP's slim majority in passing Trump's tax and spending cuts bill last summer. The vote was 218-214. At the time, Republicans could afford to lose three votes from within their ranks. They lost just two.

They'll have a thin margin of error again, but Johnson said he's even more confident of success this time around.

“It will be just as beautiful, but not as big, so it’ll have less provisions and less things to get everybody to yes on," he said.

Rep. Jodey Arrington, chairman of the House Budget Committee, said Republicans are just as motivated as they were last year on the tax cuts bill.

“This one, I think you’ll have potentially money to support our troops in conflict," said Arrington, of Texas. "I can’t imagine a Republican not wanting to support our troops and military community in a time of conflict.”

The Trump administration has called on Republicans to provide $350 billion to defense through a reconciliation bill.

But Rep. Brendan Boyle, the lead Democrat on the House Budget Committee, said Republicans will have a more difficult path than they did with Trump's big tax and spending cuts bill.

“I think it will be for a couple of reasons. First is the president’s approval rating. He was at a much higher level a year ago than he is right now,” said Boyle, of Pennsylvania. "Number 2, we are much closer to the November midterm elections. So, if you’re one of a dozen or a couple dozen House Republicans who are really vulnerable in a swing district, you have to think even more carefully about voting for something that has even more health care cuts in it.”

The tax cuts bill that passed last summer reduced spending on Medicaid by more than $900 billion over a decade. It also reduced spending on nutrition assistance by about $187 billion over a decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Caution in the Senate

Senate Majority Leader John Thune called a third reconciliation bill to get around the filibuster a “potential option,” hardly a ringing endorsement.

“We haven’t made any commitments on that, but we’re hearing people out,” said Thune, of South Dakota.

Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said lawmakers should know what will be in the bill before the legislative process begins. That way, it's less likely to unravel.

“If it just becomes another exercise where you’re not really sure what’s going to be the end product, then I think it’s a mistake even to pursue it,” Tillis said. "We ought to be smart about it if we do a third one, but it is kind of a moonshot.”

Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said she worried about the strategy.

“A third reconciliation may or may not happen. I’m just being direct," she said.

Little time and fractured relations

The House is expected to be in session for about 24 more days before it breaks for its August recess. That leaves little time to pass a budget blueprint in both chambers, which is the first hurdle for pursuing party-line tax and spending bills. Committees would also have to wrap up their work advancing their portions of the legislation.

Another hurdle could be Trump's treatment of current senators whose votes he will need for any package to become law. Trump endorsed opponents of two senators who faced stiff primary challenges and eventually lost — Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and John Cornyn of Texas.

Cassidy has already shown more willingness to buck the president. Fresh off his primary loss, he voted last week to advance a bill that seeks to force Trump to withdraw from hostilities with Iran.

What could make it into the bill

Lawmakers said they could tweak and resurrect some proposals that did not pass muster with the Senate parliamentarian for inclusion in last year's reconciliation bill. For example, Republicans tried to prevent states from providing Medicaid coverage for immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally.

Rep. August Pfluger of Texas, chairman of the Republican Study Committee, said the bill should rest on three pillars, making the country more affordable and secure while reducing fraud.

Among the group's recommendations is a proposal to eliminate the capital gains tax on the sale of homes to first-time homebuyers, which they say would incentivize the market, and a proposal to impose a 5% tax on funds sent by noncitizens back to their home countries.

Arrington said he would also like to tighten the rules for the earned income tax credit, a program that increases the financial reward for working but that also has a high rate of improper payments. He also called for prohibiting immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally from living in housing units financed by a housing tax credit paid to developers who construct and rehab affordable housing for renters.

“There's a lot more work to be done to build on what we did in the first one with Medicaid and SNAP (nutrition assistance), with respect to fraud,” Arrington said.

___

Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Stephen Groves contributed to this report.

Six programs, multiple locations

Precinct 4’s summer food assistance initiative includes six distinct programs operating at community centers throughout the area:

Community Food Distribution with Common Market offers free, farm-fresh produce boxes at Bayland, Burnett Bayland, Freed, Hockley, Radack and Tracy Gee Community Centers. Residents can register to reserve a box, with supplies available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Kids Cafe with Houston Food Bank provides free meals and snacks to children 18 and younger all summer long at Bayland, Burnett Bayland, Freed, Hockley, Radack, Tracy Gee and Weekley Community Centers. There is no cost to families.

• Ebola screenings at IAH

Pop-Up Grocery Store with Second Servings of Houston gives community members the chance to shop free surplus grocery store food — including fresh salads, fruits, vegetables, meals, sandwiches, meat, dairy and baked goods — at Burnett Bayland Community Center.

Community Fridge with Feed the Fridge at Freed Community Center allows visitors to pick up free donated meals from local restaurants on a first-come, first-served basis. Center staff are available to assist.

La Tiendita Gulfton with Tejano Center, located at the Bayland Community Center complex, connects community members with food assistance, nutrition education and additional resources. Registration is by appointment only. Families can call 346-260-3059 to schedule.

• Texas new state park

Produce Distribution with Brighter Bites delivers free, seasonal produce to families during the summer months at Burnett Bayland and Tracy Gee Community Centers.

Let’s jump straight into the news of the morning.

A lot has been happening in Houston lately, from elections to rain nearly every day. We’ve been keeping you updated on all fronts, so let’s continue. If you haven’t heard and may be traveling soon, you may be subject to Ebola testing, but only if you’re traveling from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, or South Sudan.

George Bush Intercontinental Airport has been designated as one of three U.S. entry points for travelers arriving from countries affected by an Ebola outbreak.

Under the order, certain non-U.S. citizens who have recently been in those countries are temporarily barred from entering the United States. In contrast, U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents must enter through designated airports, including Houston.

To read more, click here.

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YOUR MORNING FORECAST ☀️

TODAY: 89° TONIGHT: 72°

KPRC 2 Meteorologist says:

“We can finally say goodbye to widespread rain! Today will be the start of a new pattern! There will be less rain and fewer storm chances until next week. With more sunshine and less gloom through the weekend, temperatures will heat back to the upper 80s and low 90s.”

Get your forecast details here.

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A Montgomery County Precinct 5 deputy has been suspended after allegations surfaced that he shared pictures of an arrestee, including a photo of her driver’s license, on Snapchat following a traffic stop and arrest.

In a press release released Wednesday, Precinct 5 officials said the administration became aware of allegations involving a deputy “sharing pictures of an arrestee and a picture of their driver’s license on social media for unknown reasons.”

Texas is getting a massive new state park, and it will be the second largest in the state

A massive stretch of Texas Hill Country is officially becoming a new state park, and it’s set to be one of the biggest outdoor destinations in the entire state.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department announced Wednesday that nearly 54,000 acres in Edwards and Kinney counties have been acquired to create Silver Lake State Park, which will become the second-largest state park in Texas behind only Big Bend Ranch State Park.

Houston man charged with murder after allegedly shooting ex-girlfriend’s husband during child custody exchange

A man has been charged with murder after authorities say he shot and killed another man during a child custody exchange in northeast Houston on Tuesday, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said the shooting happened in the 12700 block of Blue Timbers Court.

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. In contrast,

Three months on, he still has no force to lead as none of the five countries that pledged troops have come through with any significant contributions.

Efforts to shore up the fragile ceasefire have stalled as Hamas has refused to disarm and Israel has seized more territory while continuing to strike what it says are militant targets, often killing civilians.

The Iran war has meanwhile made it more difficult for Arab and Muslim leaders to openly cooperate with the United States and Israel, which many in the region view as aggressors, and the resulting global energy crisis has sapped their resources.

Indonesian commitment of 8,000 troops is on indefinite hold

The biggest blow to the planned force came about a week after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, when Indonesia put its commitment of 8,000 troops on indefinite hold. Some 1,000 were to have been sent in April, followed by the remainder in June.

Indonesia's pledge was by far the largest of the group, which also includes Morocco, Kazakhstan, Kosovo and Albania. U.S. Maj. Gen. Jasper Jeffers, who spoke at the Board of Peace event, was to command the force.

Indonesia suspended its plans over what Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin said last week seemed to be a lack of commitment from a distracted Washington, saying “we have not yet received any implementation guidelines.”

“New dynamics have emerged,” he told parliament. “Because the intensity of the conflict between U.S. and Iranian forces remains very high, the BoP has tended to be left behind. Since the BoP has been left behind, the ISF has also been left behind.”

US attack on Iran influenced Indonesia's decision

Domestic issues may have factored into Indonesia's decision, said Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat, director of the Indonesia-Middle East/North Africa desk at Jakarta's Center for Economic and Law Studies.

The Iran war is extremely unpopular in Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country. The economy is suffering from soaring prices as a result of the conflict, and there is widespread skepticism of the Board of Peace.

“If you talk to the people on the street, I don’t think they believe that the Board of Peace will actually help the people of Gaza,” Rakhmat said. There are also concerns about sending troops to the Middle East when the economy is faltering, he added.

Indonesia lost four peacekeepers who were part of the United Nations mission in Lebanon during fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah. That has further soured public opinion on such international commitments, he said.

Board of Peace blames stalled ceasefire on Hamas

The U.S. military’s Central Command declined to comment or make Jeffers available for an interview, referring all queries to the Board of Peace.

Board of Peace spokesman Brad Klapper also declined to comment on Indonesia's decision or the future of the stabilization force, pointing instead to May 21 remarks made at the U.N. by Nickolay Mladenov, a former Bulgarian defense minister who Trump appointed director of the Board of Peace.

Mladenov said the international force would not be able to begin operations until there was agreement and implementation of a second phase of the ceasefire, which would see Hamas disarm and Israel begin to withdraw. Israeli troops control some 60% of Gaza.

Mladenov has blamed the deadlock on Hamas, saying its disarmament is “non-negotiable” and is holding up progress on other fronts, including Israel's withdrawal and reconstruction.

“You cannot build a future with armed groups running the streets, hiding in tunnels and stockpiling weapons,” Mladenov said in Jerusalem this month. “You cannot deliver reconstruction with militias on every corner.”

Hamas blames delays on Israel

Hamas says Israel has repeatedly violated the ceasefire, holding up its further implementation, and has accused Mladenov of siding with Israel.

Israeli strikes have killed more than 880 Palestinians since the ceasefire, according to local health officials. Israel says it was responding to violations of the truce.

Hamas is also demanding Israel withdraw from areas seized since the start of the ceasefire, according to an Egyptian official with knowledge of the discussions, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door talks. Egypt has long served as a mediator with Hamas.

Many of the countries that have pledged forces have refused to send troops without a deal on Hamas disarming, the official said.

Token forces committed and none yet known to be on the ground

Kazakhstan has said its support for the stabilization force would be limited to “the humanitarian component,” including sending medical units with a field hospital. Its Foreign Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

Albania's Defense Ministry also declined to comment on its troop commitment, saying it was a “dynamic and ongoing process.”

Earlier this month, its chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Arben Kingji, told reporters that while the military had “participated in reconnaissance activities,” no troops had yet been sent. He said only a few would be dispatched as part of the stabilization force headquarters, without giving numbers, adding that further contributions would be considered.

Kosovo, which is expected to send 20 troops, said in April that it was in the “final phase of preparations.” The Defense Ministry did not reply to a request for an update.

Morocco's Foreign Ministry also did not reply. At the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace, Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said it would deploy “high-level military officers to the joint military command of the ISF.”

Indonesian turnaround can't be ruled out

Despite the delays from Indonesia, Rakhmat said it was too early to rule out eventual participation in the stabilization force.

President Prabowo Subianto is a former army general who has been keen to raise Indonesia’s profile on the world stage and wants to avoid jeopardizing economic ties with the U.S., Rakhmat said.

“Prabowo wants to strengthen ties to Washington and sign different agreements with the U.S., so to completely withdraw and completely cancel the plan, I don't think it's on the table,” he said.

___

Associated Press reporters Samy Magdy in Cairo, Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Yuras Karmanau in Tallinn, Estonia, Akram Oubachir in Casablanca, Morocco, and Zana Cimili in Pristina, Kosovo, contributed.

Let’s jump straight into the news of the morning.

Election Day is over, Houston, and the results are in.

What you need to know now: Attorney General Ken Paxton defeated longtime incumbent U.S. Senator John Cornyn in Texas’ GOP runoff. Now, Paxton will face Democratic state Rep. James Talarico in the general election.

State Senator Mayes Middleton beat U.S. Rep. Chip Roy for the Texas attorney general GOP nomination.

Christian Menefee won against longtime Houston U.S. Rep. Al Green in the Democratic runoff for Texas’ 18th Congressional District in Houston.

To read more, click here.

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TOP STORIES

Christian Menefee defeats longtime Houston Rep. Al Green in Texas’ new 18th Congressional District

Democratic U.S. Rep. Christian Menefee defeated U.S. Rep. Al Green to represent a newly drawn congressional district that encompasses both of their current Houston-area districts, effectively ending the tenure of one of the state’s longest-serving congressmen and a veteran Democrat in Washington.

Mayes Middleton defeats Chip Roy for Texas attorney general GOP nomination

Galveston state Sen. Mayes Middleton is the GOP nominee for attorney general, after defeating U.S. Rep. Chip Roy. Middleton, one of the most conservative state legislators and an oil and gas executive, put almost $17 million of his own money into the race.

Ken Paxton defeats John Cornyn for U.S. Senate GOP nomination

Attorney General Ken Paxton won the Republican primary runoff for U.S. Senate Tuesday, ending over three decades of Sen.John Cornyn’s electoral dominance in what amounts to a watershed moment for GOP politics in Texas.

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“My concern is that they are restricting access to really, really important things, information, ideas to prisoners as a way to say they’re doing something,” said Laney Hawes, co-founder of Texas Freedom to Read Project.

TDCJ is no longer accepting any donated books, instead funneling donations through Windham school district hardback books, which provides educational services to prisoners. Additionally, inmates can no longer receive hardback or used books sent directly to them unless they are first reviewed and distributed by the district, which book and criminal justice advocates say will result in fewer material reaching inmates.

“Windham School District’s book donation process includes review of hardcover, softback and used books,” district spokesperson Danielle Nicholes said. “Windham reviews books for quality and suitability.”

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice implemented the policy in April after 385 books that entered prisons tested positive for synthetic drugs last year. Those drugs included meth, fentanyl, marijuana, and PCP, which can be turned into liquid and sprayed on books and sniffed.

The agency is banning hardback books because they are harder to scan for contraband and in used books, officials sometimes can’t detect the difference between a coffee stain and tampered pages with the testing kits and software they use. TDCJ received 450,000 books last year — many of them are donated or sent in by family members.

“This is literally a matter of life and death for us here at the agency, we had to look at every single step that we could take to prevent that dangerous contraband from coming in, taking more lives and hurting more folks, and that’s both staff and incarcerated individuals,” said Timothy Fitzpatrick, director of classification and records at TDCJ.

In 2025, there were 129 overdoses of inmates; it’s not clear how many of those overdoses involved drugs found in books.

Book and prison advocates say such a blanket measure is unnecessary because nonprofits, such as Austin-based Inside Book Project, inspect their books closely for contraband before they donate them or send them directly to inmates. The inmates they work with say the policy unfairly punishes them because TDCJ staff also are responsible for bringing in contraband. TDCJ officials said none of the 385 books flagged last year were brought in by staff.

Advocates say the latest policy is a book ban cloaked as a safety measure.

“But one of the biggest concerns we had is, did they bring in all the solutions they could, or did they just say, let’s just make the easiest solution we can and just say this and this,” Hawes said.

Texas bans 10,827 book titles from prisoners, including The Color Purple, Alex Cross, and ‘Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky. Banned categories include books that facilitate an escape and criminal schemes; demonstrate how to manufacture weapons, explosives, or drugs; incite violence; and contain nudity or sex.

Fitzpatrick said banning those titles as well as curbing hardback books and used books is to ensure that incarcerated individuals aren’t exposed to dangerous information or substances.

TDCJ developed the list “through literally decades of review and discussion and consideration,” Fitzpatrick said.

Inside Book Project sends between 30,000 and 40,000 books per year to TDCJ and about 80% of them are donated from the public. Most of the books the organization sends to inmates are used and about 15% of them are hardcover. The organization has already turned away hundreds of donated books because of the new policy.

“It’s going to mean we’re going to be spending a lot more money purchasing books, and also going to be forced to restrict what we’re sending people like a lot of trade books are hardcover, a lot of legal books are hardcover and textbooks,” said Scott Odierno, the organization’s coordinator.

He said his organization checks books twice before sending them to TDCJ and his group rarely finds contraband hidden in the pages. But, TDCJ destroys many of Inside Book Project’s donated books over discolored pages and “unknown substances” without the agency saying if it ever verified that the books contained illicit chemicals, Odierno said.

“We have a very rigid policy of checking all of our books for any contraband and things like that. So, we’ve gone above and beyond what they’ve required for years, but it feels like they take advantage of the resources we provide,” Odierno said.

According to TDCJ, in addition to inspections by mailroom staff and K9s, books sent to inmates are also placed in a machine that looks for abnormalities within the cover and pages, such as a stain or items hidden inside the book, according to TDCJ. Books with abnormalities are then further inspected and tested for illegal substances.

Some of the letters that Odierno have received from inmates and reviewed by The Texas Tribune include complaints about how under the new measure, prisoners with more money can afford to buy new books while indigent inmates will not, creating inequities. Inmates can buy digital books that they can read on tablets.

Another complained that the measure punishes inmates for the actions of “a few,” including TDCJ staff who inmates accuse of smuggling in contraband as well.

Contraband can enter facilities from being tossed over the perimeter fencing, smuggled in by visitors and through the mail. In the past, they have often come from TDCJ staff, although none were caught sneaking in contraband with books last year, according to agency spokesperson Amanda Hernandez.

“We know that some [contraband is] coming in through our staff, and when we find them doing it, they are walked off a unit, arrested for all of those things,” she said.

Under the new policy, if inmates receive a hardback or used book, they will have 90 days to send the books elsewhere or the books will be destroyed.

Any book donations will now need to be sent to Windham where they have a process in place to accept, deny, and distribute donated books.

Although TDCJ says it’s been collaborating more with advocacy groups in recent years, Texas Freedom to Read and Inside Books Project, which has worked with the state for 27 years, want more conversations with the agency before it implements more policies that reduce literature and learning materials to inmates.

“If books really are changing lives, then this prevents some of that rehabilitation. This prevents some of that growth,” Hawes said. “This prevents some of the solace and the safety and the peace. In a place that may not have a whole lot of that, and we want to find ways to give more of that and not less.”

Her son, Jordan, an honors student in Garland, Texas, got in trouble with school officials this February for distributing flyers on campus about a protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Students all over North Texas were planning a walkout, and the teen was eager to participate.

Instead, administrators suspended him and warned further punishment was possible.

“I didn’t even let him go near the school” the day of the protest, Comfort said. “No new behavior could have been seen to warrant any kind of new discipline.”

Still, that afternoon, an email came from the school: Jordan was being assigned to the district’s Disciplinary Alternative Education Program. An administrator later said Jordan was facing a six-week placement for being disruptive, according to Comfort. If he behaved well and took behavior and anger management classes, he could be out in five weeks, she recalled.

These programs, known as DAEPs, were designed as punishments for serious misbehavior. Over the last three decades, though, they have become a central part of Texas’ school discipline system, with more than 100,000 students attending them each year not only for offenses such as bringing a weapon to campus but also violations like insubordination and failure to follow dress codes.

Now, with House Bill 6, passed last year, Texas lawmakers made it easier to send disruptive students to these alternative schools. They said the legislation was prompted by complaints from administrators that more children were misbehaving and struggling with structured school environments after the pandemic.

Before COVID-19, educators were moving away from using DAEPs as a punishment, state data shows. Then the number of students sent to them jumped up again after schools fully reopened. 

School districts have a lot of leeway over when students are assigned to DAEPs and how the programs are run. Local educators almost never have to answer to any other entity, including the justice system, and parents often have limited recourse to get placements overturned. 

Although the Texas Education Agency has oversight of DAEPs, it only requires that such campuses provide an “academic and self discipline program that leads to graduation” and does limited monitoring. Yet, the agency acknowledges their shortcomings: As soon as a student enters a DAEP, the agency considers them at risk of dropping out. Indeed, research shows less than half of ninth graders who are placed in one of the programs graduate from high school on time. 

TEA officials did not respond to interview requests or a list of emailed questions, including about the role agency officials play in monitoring DAEPs. 

Garland Independent School District spokesperson Typhani Braziel said in an email that district administrators could not comment on Jordan’s situation due to federal privacy laws but that it was “addressing it in accordance with established policies and procedures.”

Critics warn of the many ways in which DAEPs mirror the criminal justice system. They are largely full of Black and Latino students — and mostly boys. Kids in these schools must follow far stricter rules than on regular campuses; a few districts even require them to wear jumpsuits. They can get early release for good behavior. 

It’s “jail-like,” said Paige Duggins-Clay, chief legal analyst of the Intercultural Development Research Association, an education policy and legal advocacy group in central Texas. She’s noticed a change this year in how educators are approaching discipline and DAEP placements. It seems like, she said, “school districts feel like House Bill 6 gave them full license to do whatever they want to get rid of kids they don’t want to deal with.”

Texas’ zero-tolerance discipline

When Comfort got pregnant at 18 in 1997, a Garland school administrator tried to send her to the district’s alternative program. She refused, telling them, “I’m not a bad student.”

At the time, DAEPs were brand-new, created as part of zero-tolerance discipline reforms sweeping the nation. The 1995 Texas Safe Schools Act required school districts to remove students who had committed a serious infraction, such as assault or a drug-related offense, and provide them with an alternative setting. 

Other states crafted similar laws to remove students deemed to be safety threats from their campuses, often using alternative schools for discipline. In Texas, though, such schools are a particularly integral piece of the system. 

Texas lawmakers created a list of behaviors that require a mandatory DAEP placement, which has grown over time. Still, educators must consider factors such as a student’s disciplinary history and disability status when assigning the punishment. 

District administrators also can, and do, send students to DAEPs at their discretion. 

The number one reason students are placed in alternative schools is for “violation of local code of conduct,” according to state data. Nearly 36,000 DAEP placements were assigned under that catchall in 2024-25, compared to fewer than 12,000 for assault. Just 208 were related to a student possessing a weapon. (That year, about 5.5 million students were enrolled in Texas public schools.) 

“DAEPs were designed originally to be for more serious offenses and more serious behaviors,” said Renuka Rege, a senior staff attorney at Texas Appleseed, a nonprofit advocacy group. “But unfortunately, they’ve been expanded.”

Comfort, though, still assumed DAEPs were for only the worst behavior problems. “These are the kids that bring knives to school or the kids that make it impossible for other kids to learn,” she said. “That’s what I thought it was.”

That all changed when Jordan got punished.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott had threatened to withhold state funding from school districts whose students participated in ICE protests. Teens across the state, including in Garland, still took part. Comfort said that as far as she knows, no one else at Jordan’s school was subsequently assigned to a DAEP, including friends who helped him with the flyers.

In 2025, Texas Appleseed promoted a bill that would have prohibited DAEP placements for minor infractions, such as attendance violations and rude language. At the same time, a coalition of superintendents urged the legislature to significantly overhaul Texas’s discipline code to give educators more flexibility in how they punished students.

Texas Appleseed didn’t get traction. The superintendents did.

It was the third time in six years that state lawmakers expanded the list of reasons why a student can be sent to alternative schools. In 2019, they’d passed a law requiring DAEP placements for teacher harassment. Four years later, they passed another one requiring that any student caught with an e-cigarette be sent to the alternative program.

House Bill 6, passed last June, allowed districts to send students to DAEPs for being disruptive and mandated they be sent for harassing school employees or disorderly conduct with a firearm. It also eliminated time limits on in-school suspensions and reinstated out-of-school suspensions for young students. However, lawmakers did rollback some mandatory placements for those caught vaping that had sent hundreds of students to the alternative schools.

State Senator Charles Perry, the bill’s co-sponsor, said at a May 2025 hearing that he anticipated students would be deterred from misbehaving if their peers were punished for being disruptive. “I hope there’s not many kids that end up in that situation,” he said, “but at the same time, the benefit of the whole in this area has to be dealt with.”

David Vinson, superintendent of Conroe Independent School District near Houston who was among the educators pushing for the law, said administrators want to make schools safer for teachers and other students.

“There were so many situations where this repetitive behavior wasn’t getting solved,” Vinson said.

“I do not want to put a kid in a DAEP,” he added. “But I’ve got to think about the other 21 kids I have in a class.”

Families often can’t appeal DAEP placement

Laura Wickwire pulled into the parking lot of North East Independent School District’s administrative building in San Antonio in May 2025 armed with documents. Her son, Kevin Jenkins, was facing a 75-day DAEP placement after someone hacked his email account and used it to send threats to educators earlier that month, she said. 

Wickwire was hopeful district officials would reconsider. Kevin, 15 at the time, had been the victim of cyberbullying for over a year. He was the subject of dozens of false reports made to school tip lines that alleged he had a weapon or was suicidal, she said. His school email account was hacked repeatedly, including one time when Wickwire and Kevin himself received a death threat from the address. 

The district was well aware of the problem. It had given him a new username and reset his account three times. He couldn’t even log in at the time some of the emails in question were sent, Wickwire and Kevin said. 

In the end, none of the materials Wickwire prepared mattered to the single district employee to whom the family made their case. The staffer stressed that she could only consider the May threats. “I literally was so mad,” Kevin said. “She was like, ‘I don’t care.’”

North East ISD spokesperson Aubrey Chancellor said in an email that the district uses impartial hearing officers, who consider mitigating factors including a student’s intent and disciplinary history. “All allegations of bullying are taken seriously and investigated,” she said. “Decisions made by the Hearing Officer are determined by evaluating the evidence provided against a preponderance of the evidence standard.”

No more than 90 minutes into Kevin’s hearing, Wickwire said, the official issued her decision: The 75-day placement was upheld.

“She made her decision before we even entered that building,” Wickwire said. The family had no option to appeal — North East’s policy is that a hearing officer’s decision is final.

State law does not require that school districts offer families the chance to appeal most DAEP placements. Texas also doesn’t lay out how such a process should work if offered nor how families should be informed of the option. Nor does the state track the outcomes of meetings about DAEP placements, but advocates say it’s uncommon for punishments to be changed at any point.

For parents who have the resources to find other options, it’s common to withdraw a student facing a DAEP placement and instead enroll them in private school. Students assigned to DAEPs typically cannot enroll in a different public school before completing the punishment.

Comfort pulled her son out of the Garland district to homeschool him with a virtual program for the rest of the year. She’s still figuring out where he will go for his senior year. Wickwire also pulled Kevin out of school and started paying for him to attend an online private school.

No fresh starts as punishments follow students

Sharenda Claros thought she was giving her son, Brandyn, a fresh start when she moved her family from San Antonio an hour away to Seguin in the summer of 2025. 

For two weeks, he attended the regular middle school. He started making friends and planned on joining the soccer and basketball teams. But then, the records from his old charter school arrived. (Officials from that school declined to comment, citing privacy laws.)

Seguin assigned him to a DAEP for a year as a result of an accusation that he had physically threatened students at his old school, something he denies. Police investigated and the district attorney declined to pursue charges — information that was shared with Seguin officials, Claros said. 

It didn’t matter. Almost every day of this past school year, Brandyn’s eighth grade year, he dressed in the required all-black clothing and took a bus from his subdivision into the heart of town. At 8 a.m. sharp, when his school opened, he entered and stood still as a guard waved a metal detector wand over his body.

He spent almost all of the next seven hours in silence, clicking through computer programs in most of his classes. He said there were only a couple teachers he felt comfortable asking for help if he got stuck; most just redirected him to the videos on his screen. 

Brandyn learned little, Claros says, and became completely disinterested in school. 

“It’s like setting him up for failure,” she said. “I feel like they know that.” 

Seguin officials said they could not comment on specific students and referred all questions about how their DAEP operates to the district’s Student Code of Conduct.

Brandyn’s experience in Seguin is not unusual. Statewide, students at DAEPs most often work individually, generally on computer programs, and have to follow strict rules. Typically, students are forbidden from speaking in class, unless granted permission, according to an analysis of handbooks from 75 districts. 

The students often must walk single file, with their hands behind their back. Dress codes ban facial hair, jewelry, even sandals or hair dye, according to the analysis. If students don’t follow the rules, extra days can be added to placements.

For example, in the White Settlement school district near Fort Worth, the handbook notes students spend their first week of DAEP doing school work while sitting on stools in a cubicle facing a wall. Only if students behave well enough during those five days are they allowed the right to sit on a chair. 

In the far west Texas district of Andrews, jumpsuit-clad students who misbehave may be forced to do “physical conditioning.” And in the Commerce school district about 70 miles northeast of Dallas, students must even eat lunch in cubicles in silence.  

Andrews did not respond to requests for comment. Commerce spokesperson Heather Kilgore said the district’s DAEP was a “structured disciplinary setting.” 

White Settlement DAEP principal Charlie Etheridge said the stool and cubicles are designed “to provide safety and limit student interaction” and that students who behave well gradually see a lessening of restrictions. 

On the Texas Education Agency’s website regarding discipline, officials note that “state regulations are intended to ensure that all students are treated with dignity and respect, as well as educated in a safe environment. Behavior management techniques or discipline management practices must be implemented in such a way as to protect the health and safety of the students and others.”

In Seguin, district officials worked with Claros to reduce Brandyn’s placement. If he had 30 consecutive days in which he did all his work and broke no rules, he could return to his regular campus.

Between the number of rules he had to follow and a disruptive mood disorder and ADHD diagnosis that can make it hard for him to sit still, there was little chance of that happening, Claros said.

“It’s kind of annoying, because they see me as somebody I’m not,” Brandyn said. “I feel like they see me as a dangerous person, and I’m not a dangerous person.”

Students with disabilities are more likely to end up in DAEPs, and when they do they are unlikely to get the services and accommodations they are owed under federal law, advocates said.

“They’re placed more often. A lot of times we find that they struggle more, and we find that they stay longer,” said Colleen Potts of Disability Rights Texas, a nonprofit legal group. “Not every kid learns the same, and the DAEP does not have the ability to be individualized like the main campus would.”

Claros worries constantly about what messages her son is internalizing about himself in these crucial years and how he’ll handle it when he goes from such a restrictive environment to a regular high school next year.

“This is the stage I believe is a make-or-break stage,” Claros said. “He may think this is okay in the future. He may feel like, ‘Oh, I have to be locked up.’”

This story about DAEPs was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education.

Harris County Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia joined the Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA), Rice University, ExxonMobil, elected officials, and community members at the Bridge Plaza Building at 1515 East Sam Houston Pkwy N. for the ceremony, which began at 10 a.m.

• Texas Primary runoff results

A Life Worth Celebrating

To understand why hundreds gathered to watch a sign go up, you have to understand who Dr. Tapia was.

Internationally recognized for his research in computational and mathematical sciences, Dr. Tapia spent decades at Rice University in Houston, where he held the title of University Professor — one of only 10 people in the university’s 100-year history to receive that distinction. He also served as the Maxfield and Oshman Chair in Engineering, a professor in the Department of Computational Applied Mathematics and Operations Research, and Faculty Director of the Tapia Center.

• Pasadena ISD school closures

In 2011, President Barack Obama awarded him the National Medal of Science — the highest honor the U.S. government can bestow upon a scientist or engineer. Beyond his research, Dr. Tapia was a nationally renowned leader in education and outreach, dedicating much of his career to opening doors in STEM for students who had historically been shut out.

The seven villagers entered the cave in Xaisomboun province on May 19, but heavy rain triggered flash flooding that blocked the exit, according to Lao and Thai rescue teams involved in the operation.

Thai rescuer Chakkit Taengtang posted video of himself in the cave saying divers were delivering food and water to the five and planning to extract them as soon as possible.

All of the villagers are men, according to a Facebook post by the Lao group Rescue Volunteer for People.

“I’m still shaking. Our team made it happen,” Bounkham Luanglath, a member of the Lao rescue team, said in a voice message to The Associated Press. He said the search for the missing would continue.

A video posted by the rescue group appeared to show the moment divers emerged from the water and discovered the trapped men. In the footage, the men are wearing headlamps and sitting on a rock surrounded by floodwater.

Other videos showed rescuers inside and outside the cave cheering, jumping and hugging each other in joy after the discovery.

Another villager who went into the cave with the seven was able to escape when the flooding began, and he raised the alarm about the trapped men.

Rescue workers from neighboring Thailand arrived at the site over the weekend. Those helping out included several divers who took part in the complicated 2018 rescue in northern Thailand of 12 schoolboys and their soccer coach who were trapped for more than two weeks in a cave.

Miiko Paasi, a Thai-based Finnish diving instructor who participated in the rescue of the schoolboys and joined the search effort in Laos, said in a social media post that the men were “healthy and in good spirits,” but he warned that the extraction would not be easy.

The cave is in a rugged, remote area in Xaisomboun province’s Longcheng district, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of the capital, Vientiane. Rescuers have detailed on social media the challenging mountainous terrain and heavy rain that has hampered their work.

Videos shared online by Thai rescuers showed that reaching the cave’s entrance requires a steep hike of roughly 4 kilometers (2.5 miles). The entrance is also steep and rocky and barely wide enough for a single person.

It's not clear why the villagers went into the cave. Bounkham has said that the cave was frequented by local residents looking for gold, despite repeated warnings about safety.

___

Associated Press journalists Tian Macleod Ji and Haruka Nuga in Bangkok contributed to this report.

The Asian elephant was put to sleep Tuesday at the zoo where she lived for almost a half-century. Zoo officials said some age-related conditions accelerated in recent weeks, and she showed signs of a falloff in kidney or liver function. A necropsy revealed arthritis and large, inoperable uterine tumors that are impossible to diagnose in elephants through exams or imaging, the zoo said.

“She was a wonderful elephant,” interim zoo director Craig Piper said in an interview Wednesday, as heavy-hearted staffers absorbed the loss of an animal some had tended for over 30 years. “She served as a tremendous ambassador for elephants and for elephant conservation.”

Since Happy’s death, the zoo's 57-year-old Patty is the last elephant on exhibit in the United States’ largest city. The zoo’s parent institution, the Wildlife Conservation Society, decided 20 years ago to stop acquiring pachyderms.

Born in the wild in Asia, Happy was brought to the U.S. as a 1-year-old. She was named for a character from “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” before arriving at the zoo in 1977.

Happy keenly engaged with her keepers and was easy to motivate with favorite treats, such as watermelon or strawberries, said Keith Lovett, the zoo’s director of animal programs. Piper said she sometimes stashed treats in her ear to save for later.

In 2005, she showed researchers that elephants can recognize themselves in a mirror — a sign of self-awareness seen in only a few other species. During the experiment, Happy faced her reflection and repeatedly used her trunk to touch an "X" painted above her eye, a mark she could see only in the mirror.

She was paired with other elephants until her last partner died in 2006. Happy then lived separately from Patty and a third elephant out of concern that they wouldn't get along, though Lovett said the animals could see, smell and touch each other over a divider. The third elephant, called Maxine, died in 2018.

Zoo officials said the median life expectancy for Asian elephants in U.S. zoos is about 45 years. Their life expectancy in the wild is more difficult to pinpoint.

During Happy’s lifetime, zoo elephant exhibits came under increased scrutiny. Some experts said urban animal parks were too small for creatures that roam extensive distances in the wild. Animal rights activists argued that zoo enclosures were no place for big-brained, social pachyderms.

Some zoos phased out their exhibits and sent elephants to sanctuaries, though some other zoos remain committed to keeping and breeding the creatures, arguing that they help keep people interested in saving wildlife.

One activist group, the Nonhuman Rights Project, sued the Bronx Zoo in 2018, seeking to have Happy declared a “person” for legal purposes and moved to a large animal sanctuary. It was the first such case about an elephant, according to the group.

Citing a principle that’s used to challenge the legality of a person’s imprisonment, the activist group said Happy was “an extraordinarily cognitively complex and autonomous nonhuman being” who was unlawfully deprived of her liberty and suffered from being pent up in a exhibit without other elephants.

Zoo officials said Happy was assiduously cared for and had space for swimming, foraging and other natural behavior. Uprooting her from her longtime home could harm her, the zoo said.

New York’s top court ultimately rejected the activists’ claim, by a 5-2 majority. Colorado's highest court later issued a similar ruling about five elephants in a zoo there.

Still, two of the New York high court judges wrote pointed dissents. One called Happy’s captivity “inherently unjust and inhumane” and “an affront to a civilized society.”

The Nonhuman Rights Project has continued pursuing cases about elephants in various other states.

The group's executive director, Christopher Berry, said in an statement Wednesday night that Happy “will always be remembered as the elephant who opened the courtroom doors to consideration of nonhuman animals’ legal rights.”

Happy spent her final weeks, by her choice, in an off-exhibit barn and yard within her enclosure, Piper said. In a zoo version of hospice care, staffers provided hydration, nutrition and pain management, he said.

Meanwhile, Patty is doing well, the zoo said.

The Wildlife Conservation Society said in 2006 that once there was only one elephant, the animal might be moved to another zoo if circumstances were right. Piper said the zoo will be “really thoughtful and careful” in contemplating whether to move Patty from her home of 53 years.

One day might not seem like much in the grand scheme, but it was a seismic delay in plans for the unprecedented and daring invasion, which would deploy nearly 160,000 Allied troops in Normandy. Ultimately it came down to a recommendation from a shrewd Scottish meteorologist, Group Capt. James Stagg, who had to tell everyone, including Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Allied leadership, something they didn’t want to hear: The weather was going to be catastrophically bad. And no, he wasn’t certain about it.

The tense 72 hours before the invasion are brought to life in “Pressure,” in theaters May 29, on the eve of the operation’s 82nd anniversary. An adaptation of David Haig’s acclaimed stage play, the film sheds light on this bit of history that would effectively change the course of the second World War.

The very different styles of Brendan Fraser and Andrew Scott

Filmmaker Anthony Maras assembled a unique group of actors for the task at hand, calling on Brendan Fraser to play Eisenhower and Andrew Scott to play Stagg.

“I didn’t think I was an Ike Eisenhower when Anthony Maras sent me the script,” Fraser said. “I got on a Zoom call and he said, ‘You gotta do this man.’ Me? Why? ‘It’s because he’s you, he’s like you. He’s just a regular guy.’ Really? I mean, I thought Eisenhower was this, you know, stern, staunch, something on coin.”

Fraser went deep in his preparation, reading and listening to everything he could get his hands on to help him understand the man who would ultimately have to make the decision. The research even continued on set. Maras laughed that right before they shot Eisenhower’s famous “soldiers, sailors and airmen” speech, something that they’d rehearsed many, many times, he looked up and saw Fraser reading yet another biography. But he appreciated that the Oscar-winner was passionate about knowing everything he possibly could to get it right.

“He cared intensely for his troops,” Fraser said. “It was my responsibility to honor their memory and to comport myself in a way that puts a human face on the seemingly academic decisions that go into an operation as massive as this.”

Scott was the opposite in terms of how he approached his role. Yes, he read Stagg’s book and wanted to have a working understanding of the metrological jargon he’d have to be spouting. While history was important, for him, character was king. And he liked that Stagg is not the most immediately likable person, but he has integrity.

“The thing with Stagg is that he’s just not interested in charm … or being liked at all,” Scott said. “I think that’s to be admired actually, because he’s just there to do a job. So I like the fact that at the beginning of the movie, you’re like, whoa, this guy is not pleasant.”

Maras said that for Scott, it was all about the inner, emotional life of the character — which was essential for a part that would require so much internal conflict.

“With Andrew, he has a quality to him where he can seemingly be doing very little — he’s sitting down, rearranging his tie, he can be reading a phone book — and you can’t look away,” Maras said.

In the shadow of ‘Saving Private Ryan’

The actors weren’t the only ones feeling pressure of the assignment: Maras also had a behemoth looming in attempting to stage, however briefly, the D-Day invasion.

“You’ve kind of got to be crazy maybe to attempt it, given that Spielberg did it so masterfully,” Maras said.

But unlike “Saving Private Ryan,” which focused on the men storming the beach, “Pressure” is about the ones making the decisions. It’s a different perspective. Still, once they make the call to go, there would have to be at least some of the operation shown to juxtapose with the “bloody tense, wire-type atmosphere of the control room,” Maras said.

Inspired by Peter Jackson’s World War I documentary “They Shall Not Grow Old,” and the existence of dozens of hours of pristine 35 mm black and white film from the event, Maras decided that perhaps archival footage, colorized, would be the way to go. It was a different way to present D-Day that gave it immediacy, he said, as opposed to looking like history.

‘Pressure’s’ relevance to today

Ultimately, “Pressure” isn’t just a history lesson, or even a character drama with big personalities and even bigger stakes: It’s a portrait of leadership and ego clashing with facts and science. And its relevance to the present day is the reason Maras wanted to make the film in the first place.

“How do you bring your best self to the table to make the decision? How do you have the humility to acknowledge when you don’t know something? And how do you have the wisdom to determine who to trust? … Eisenhower in the end showed that he was a maestro at that,” Maras said. “What I love about the Stagg character is he’s someone who feels compelled to tell someone something that they don’t want to hear, that they violently don’t want to but they need to hear. The world needs more of that.”

Years later, John F. Kennedy, on the way to his own inauguration, asked Eisenhower what gave them the edge on D-Day. His response? “We had better meteorologists than the Germans.”

“When life or death depends on you understanding the facts, it probably has a way of like cutting up the BS and getting to it,” Maras said. “It’s a very clear example of a time where the Allied worlds’ future was at stake and they listened to someone who knew what he was talking about and they did all right.”

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For more coverage of summer films, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/movies

The government’s largest-ever claim for compensation relates to contamination with per- and polyfluoroaklyl substances, known as PFAS, at 28 bases. Human-made PFAS are commonly referred to as “forever chemicals” because they don't break down naturally.

Australia filed the suit in the Federal Court of Australia against Minnesota-based 3M Company and its subsidiary 3M Australia.

3M said it would fight Australia’s claim.

“3M has never manufactured PFAS in Australia and ceased sales of the products at issue in Australia around two decades ago,” 3M said in a statement. “Despite this, the (Australian) Department of Defense continued to use PFAS-containing firefighting foams for nearly two decades longer.”

PFAS has been used since the 1950s in household and industrial products that resist heat, stains, grease and water. The firefighting foam containing PFAS was effective against fuel fires.

The Australian Defense Department warned residents near its Richmond Air Base outside Sydney in 2018 to reduce their consumption of locally produced fish and eggs, after PFAS was found in nearby groundwater.

Attorney-General Michelle Rowland on Thursday accused 3M of withholding information about environmental risks the foam posed.

“The Commonwealth (of Australia) is seeking more than AU$2 billion ($1.4 billion) in damages to recover significant past and future expenses incurred in investigating and managing contamination resulting from the historic storage and use of this foam,” Rowland told reporters.

Assistant Defense Minister Peter Khalil said his department had already spent AU$1.3 billion ($920 million) on managing and mitigating environmental impacts of the foam. The department had removed 200,000 metric tons (220,000 U.S. tons) of contaminated earth from bases and treated 13 billion liters (3.4 billion gallons) of contaminated water, Khalil said.

“We are prepared to take on powerful corporations when Australians and Australian communities have been impacted,” Khalil said.

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This story has been corrected to show the lawsuit has been lodged in an Australian court.

U.S. Southern Command posted video on social media showing a boat resting on the water before being struck by an explosion. The last few seconds of the video show smoke and fire rising from the boat.

A day earlier, U.S. forces had launched a strike on an alleged drug vessel in the eastern Pacific, killing one man and leaving two survivors. Southern Command said it “immediately notified the U.S. Coast Guard to activate the Search and Rescue system for the survivors.”

The Trump administration’s campaign of blowing up alleged drug-trafficking vessels in Latin American waters, including the eastern Pacific and the Caribbean Sea, has gone on since early September and killed at least 196 people in total. The military has not provided evidence that any of the vessels were carrying drugs.

The Pentagon watchdog said last week that it will evaluate whether the U.S. military followed an established targeting framework when carrying out the attacks on alleged drug-smuggling boats. The six-phase Joint Targeting Cycle include a military commander’s intent, target development, analysis, decision, execution and assessment.

The Pentagon inspector general’s office said the review was “self-initiated.” It will not probe the legality of the strikes, which have drawn intense scrutiny from some Democratic lawmakers and military legal scholars.

The Trump administration says the U.S. is at war against the Latin American drug cartels, which it says are responsible for the scourge of fatal drug overdoses plaguing many American communities.

Apart from social media and messaging, Tencent’s WeChat offers payment services called WeChat Pay, or Weixin Pay, in mainland China. Tencent said in a statement that the feature will be available to U.S.-based PayPal users first, with more markets to follow.

Since cashless payments have become increasingly common in China, the move is likely to provide greater convenience to foreign visitors.

WeChat Pay and Ant Group’s Alipay, part of the Alibaba e-commerce empire, are widely available across China including in taxis and restaurants.

Making cashless payments easier for tourists aligns with China’s efforts to bring in more foreign tourists, said Gary Ng, a senior economist for Asia Pacific at French bank Natixis.

Tourism contributed more than 4% of China’s economy in 2024, official data show.

China has been expanding visa free access to travelers from dozens of countries including the U.K., Spain and Australia. That change has not yet been extended to U.S. travelers, who still need a visa to enter China, except for brief transits for those heading on to third countries.

The number of foreign visitors, excluding those from Hong Kong and Taiwan, plunged during the COVID-19 pandemic, when China closed its doors to most foreign arrivals and imposed stringent quarantines in many places.

But it has since surged past the nearly 32 million visitors recorded in 2019, to over 35 million last year.

Ng said the PayPal move also aligns with a global trend of integration of payment platforms through mutually recognized cross-border QR codes.

Ivan Su, a senior equity analyst at Morningstar, said the impact of the QR code option with PayPal initially may be limited in terms of its overall benefit for Tencent given the current low volume of U.S. travelers to China.

WeChat Pay has allowed users to link their foreign bank cards since 2019. Tencent also said it will also be offering a transaction fee waiver for first time users linking their international bank cards to WeChat to encourage wider use of that option.

Tencent said such transactions by foreign travelers in China jumped nearly 80% year-on-year in January-April.

The 2 1/2-year investigation and prosecution that followed came to a close Wednesday with the sentencing of his personal assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, who bought him the drugs, gave him injections, and found him dead in the hot tub of the house they shared on Oct. 23, 2023. The 54-year-old “Friends” star had told Iwamasa to shoot him up “with a big one.”

Here’s a chronological look at the end of Perry’s life, drawn from federal court documents, a medical examiner’s investigation and law enforcement reports.

The final month

Sometime in September of 2023 — Perry asks Iwamasa to help him get illegal ketamine. Working with his regular doctor, Perry had been receiving legal ketamine treatments for depression — an increasingly common off-label use of the surgical anesthetic. But he wanted more. Perry’s family members would later say they had known Iwamasa for decades, and trusted him to help keep the actor sober.

Sept. 30, 2023 — Told by a patient that he knew a prominent person willing to pay big money for ketamine, Dr. Salvador Plasencia meets with Perry and Iwamasa at their home in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles. Plasencia texts a doctor friend, Mark Chavez, who agrees to obtain ketamine for him. “I wonder how much this moron will pay,” Plasencia texts Chavez. Later the same day, Plasencia returns to Perry’s house, where Iwamasa pays him $4,500 in cash for four vials. Plasencia gives Perry two injections, and teaches Iwamasa how to do it.

Oct. 2, 2023 — Iwamasa texts Plasencia seeking more ketamine, referring to it in code as “dr pepper.” Plasencia appears, gives Perry the injections, and leaves behind more vials.

Oct. 4. 2023 — Iwamasa injects Perry without help for the first time. He texts the doctor that he had found “the sweet spot” to put the needle into his boss, but that trying different spots on Perry had led to them running out of ketamine and says they need more. Plasencia texts Chavez asking if he can keep supplying the drug so they can become Perry’s “go-to.”

Oct. 8, 2023 — In a late night meetup at a Santa Monica shopping plaza, Plasencia sells Iwamasa four vials of ketamine for $6,000 in cash.

Oct. 10, 2023 — Iwamasa drives Perry to a public parking lot in Long Beach to meet with Plasencia. The doctor sells them more ketamine and gives an injection to Perry as he sits in a car. The same day, Perry asks a friend about other sources. She sends him to Erik Fleming, a licensed drug counselor she knows who has relapsed into addiction.

Oct. 11, 2023 — Fleming messages Iwamasa that he can get ketamine from a dealer he knows, Jasveen Sangha, who prosecutors dub “The Ketamine Queen.” Fleming says she only deals “with high end and celebs.”

Oct. 12, 2023 — Plasencia goes to Perry’s house, where he is paid $21,000 in cash, some of it owed to him for previous ketamine buys. While there, he injects Perry. The actor immediately freezes up and his blood pressure spikes. The assistant said the doctor told him, “let’s not do that again.”

Oct. 13, 2023 — Perry gets a sample of Sangha’s ketamine and tries it. He and Iwamasa ask for 25 vials of it, for which they pay $5,500 to Sangha and another $500 to Fleming. Fleming drops it off at Perry’s house a day later.

Around Oct. 20, 2023 — Perry receives his last legal ketamine treatment from his regular physician.

The final week

Oct. 23, 2023 — Iwamasa pays $6,000 to Fleming and Sangha for 25 more vials of ketamine.

Oct. 24, 2023 — Iwamasa gives Perry six to eight injections, a daily dosage that would continue until the actor’s death.

Oct. 25, 2023 — Fleming makes a third and final delivery of another 25 vials of ketamine for another $6,000. This batch includes the fatal dose.

Oct. 27, 2023 — With the supply coming from Sangha, Perry and Iwamasa had been out of touch with Plasencia for about two weeks. Plasencia texts Iwamasa, saying he had more to offer: “I know you mentioned taking a break. I have been stocking up.”

The final day

Oct. 28, 2023, about 8:30 a.m. — Using syringes from Plasencia and ketamine from Sangha, Iwamasa gives Perry an injection.

About 11 a.m. — Perry plays pickleball.

About 12:45 p.m. — Iwamasa gives Perry his second shot of the day, and the actor begins watching a movie.

About 1:30 p.m. — Iwamasa gives Perry his third and final injection of the day while Perry sits in or near his backyard Jacuzzi. “Shoot me up with a big one,” Iwamasa remembers Perry telling him. Iwamasa leaves to run errands.

About 4 p.m. — Iwamasa returns home to find Perry face down in the Jacuzzi. Paramedics arrive minutes later and declare Perry dead. When Iwamasa talks to police, he does not mention Perry’s illegal ketamine consumption, or his role in it, and hides evidence of it. Sangha and Fleming learn of Perry’s death and delete their message history.

The aftermath

Dec. 15 — An autopsy report is released, saying the acute effects of ketamine were the primary cause of Perry’s death, with drowning as a secondary cause.

January 2024 — A search warrant is served at Perry and Iwamasa’s home. Over the course of several interviews, the assistant admits to his role in Perry's illegal drug use. He points investigators to Fleming and gives them information on Plasencia, whom they have already identified.

March 2024 — A search warrant is served on Fleming's sister's home, where he was staying. He gave up Sangha to prosecutors and became an essential witness along with Iwamasa.

Aug. 7, 2024 — Iwamasa pleads guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death. He will be sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison.

Aug. 8, 2024 — Fleming pleads guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death. He will be sentenced to two years in prison.

Oct. 2, 2024 — Chavez pleads guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine. He will get eight months of home detention.

July 23, 2025 — Plasencia pleads guilty to four counts of distribution of ketamine. He will get 2 1/2 years in prison.

Sept. 3, 2025 — Sangha pleads guilty to three counts of distribution of ketamine, one count of using her home for a drug operation and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death. She will get 15 years in prison.

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A version of this story first moved on Aug. 16, 2024.

The national survey results, released Thursday, show the all-ages uninsured rate has stayed significantly down from where it was several years ago, but the ranks of the uninsured could soon expand as the Trump administration’s sweeping changes to the health landscape begin to take hold.

Massive changes to Medicaid, the government’s safety-net health program for low-income Americans, passed into law last year could result in 10 million more uninsured individuals over a decade, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates.

And the expiration this year of certain Affordable Care Act subsidies — which had offset premium costs — is also contributing to reduced participation in marketplace health programs. Around 5 million fewer people are expected to enroll in those plans in 2026 compared with 2025, according to the healthcare research nonprofit KFF.

The government has multiple programs for tracking Americans’ insurance status, which can give different numbers depending on factors like timing and question wording. Many researchers consider the U.S. Census Bureau to be “the official scorekeeper,” said David Howard, an Emory University health policy and management professor.

But the CDC survey results tracks closely with that, and they offer the first complete data for all of 2025 — the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term in office.

The Trump administration has sought to expand access to low-premium catastrophic health insurance plans and lower drug prices for Americans who don’t have health insurance. It has also suggested that projected insurance enrollment declines indicate a drop-off of fraudulent and ineligible enrollees, rather than eligible Americans.

Although the share of insured and uninsured stayed roughly the same in 2025 as the year before, the number of uninsured grew by about 800,000 — 300,000 of them children. The growth of the overall U.S. population helps explain that.

The survey results also suggest a possible increased insured rate among Hispanic Americans. But that may in part reflect the effects of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, if uninsured members of that group left the country, Howard said.

Most Americans 65 and older have health insurance through the federal Medicare program. It's different for younger Americans, many of whom are covered through a patchwork of public and private insurance programs.

The percentage of Americans under 65 who were uninsured rose in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s — from 12% in 1980 to more than 18% in 2010. It fell following passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, which expanded Medicaid programs and enacted measures to make affordable health insurance available to more people.

By 2016 it dropped nearly to 10%, before rising to 11 to 12% during Trump’s first administration, according to historical survey data from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.

The COVID-19 pandemic saw the rate of uninsured fall again, as a result of government policies put in place to preserve coverage as people faced disruptions related to the pandemic. The rate hit an all-time low in 2023, falling below 9%.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Those processes can require significant amounts of water, energy and chemicals — part of the reason denim has become a growing target for sustainability efforts across the fashion industry, which is among the world’s biggest producers of greenhouse gas emissions.

Brands are responding to wider awareness by marketing their jeans as “sustainable,” touting regenerative cotton, recycled fibers and low-water manufacturing techniques. But figuring out if that's true is far more complicated. For one, sustainability is difficult to define — and there isn't a universal set of standards.

Last week, Chinese fast-fashion giant Shein acquired Everlane, a brand known for transparency and sustainability efforts, highlighting broader tensions over scale and affordability. Improvements in sustainable processes typically cost more, making it difficult for companies with fast production cycles and low prices to adopt them widely. Consumers are left to navigate a complicated web of tradeoffs involving farming practices, chemical processes, labor ethics and a wide range of prices.

Experts say people can find sustainable denim by learning how jeans are actually made.

It all starts with cotton farming

Most jeans are made from cotton, a crop that can require large amounts of water, fertilizer and pesticides.

Beth Jensen, chief impact officer at the nonprofit Textile Exchange, said many brands still lack full visibility into where their cotton comes from. Because denim production often spans multiple countries and suppliers, it can also be difficult to track labor conditions.

“We as an industry, collectively, have a long way to go on this,” she said.

As concern grows over fashion’s environmental impact, some brands have looked to solutions like regenerative cotton, which focuses on soil health, biodiversity and reducing synthetic chemical use. But as Jensen said, what’s feasible on a farm in California might not be in a place like India or Australia because of their different climates.

Why producing denim is labor and energy-intensive

After cotton is harvested, it is spun into yarn and dyed — typically with indigo, a process that can involve significant water use and chemical treatments. It's then woven into denim fabric, and cut and sewn into jeans.

Jeans then usually go through finishing treatments to create different shades, fades and distressed textures. Bill Curtin, owner of New Jersey-based BPD Washhouse, said denim-finishing is divided into “wet” and “dry” processes.

The wet process involves washing jeans with water, chemicals and treatments that lighten or tint the denim. Historically, brands have used pumice stones to achieve a worn, stonewashed look — with stones often shipped from Mexico, adding transport emissions and cost to the process. Many facilities are now switching to enzyme-based alternatives and ozone technologies that use less water.

The dry process creates abrasions, whiskers and ripped details either by hand or with laser technology, which Curtin said is more efficient and less labor-intensive.

Many stretchy jeans also contain fabrics like polyester or elastane — fossil fuel-derived synthetics that can shed microplastics over time.

But making sustainable denim is challenging

Fashion designer Maria McManus spent years wanting to add denim to her low-impact line but couldn’t find a way to do it that aligned with her values. The culprit, she said, was always the washing process.

“From a water and chemical perspective, it’s very invasive,” she said.

So instead she sourced dark, raw denim from Japan — indigo, minimal processing — and skipped the wash stage altogether, avoiding the faded and distressed look that define most commercial jeans. It was a deliberate constraint, and it held for years.

A breakthrough came when she collaborated on a collection with Agolde, a larger denim brand. Along with its parent company Citizens of Humanity, it's respected in the fashion industry for its focus on regenerative cotton farming.

Working with the company gave McManus access to infrastructure her small brand couldn’t build alone — a consulting agency that connected her with regenerative cotton farmers, a vetted indigo-dyeing process using biochemical rather than petrochemical dyes, and rigorous supply chain traceability.

But even that process, she said, isn’t simple. Organic and regenerative cotton crops can fail. Supply chains are hard to verify. “You know when they tell you their harvest failed” that they're honest, she said of one supplier. “I know I can trust them because really, what they should have done as business people or capitalists was just get regular cotton — because nobody is testing this stuff.”

But that often leads to higher prices. A pair of jeans from McManus’ brand is nearly $700 — a function of small production runs, she said. “It’s truly a units game.”

Finding the most sustainable pair of jeans

Experts say consumers should be wary of vague sustainability claims and instead look for brands that provide detailed information about their sourcing and manufacturing processes.

Dana Davis, a strategic fashion adviser who led sustainability efforts for the label Mara Hoffman, encouraged shoppers to look beyond a single product page and examine whether brands discuss labor rights, textiles and manufacturing sites across their entire business — not just in a capsule collection.

“If a brand really explains the whys behind why they’re doing these things, then you can get a sense of, ‘OK, this feels authentic,’” Davis said. But she added that “greenwashing” — overstating sustainability claims — can make it difficult for consumers to figure out what's legitimate.

Certifications can help, though Davis cautioned there is no single label that guarantees sustainability. One worth seeking out is the B Corp certification, which evaluates companies’ social and environmental performance. Some tree-based fibers like lyocell, a material commonly blended into jeans, may come from sources vetted by Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), indicating the wood pulp was sourced from responsibly managed forests.

But one of the simplest ways to reduce denim’s environmental footprint is also the least glamorous: To buy fewer jeans, wear them longer, wash them less and shop secondhand.

According to a life cycle assessment by Levi Strauss & Co., if 34.2 million people — or the equivalent of 1 in 10 Americans — bought a pair of secondhand jeans this year instead of new ones, it would avoid roughly 1.5 billion pounds (roughly 0.7 million metric tons) of carbon dioxide, equivalent to the emissions of about 150,000 gasoline cars.

“The most sustainable thing you can do,” Jensen said, “is use a product that’s already been made.”

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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.

Talarico has given Democrats their best chance in years of winning a Senate race in Texas and has boosted their still-uphill chances of retaking the majority in the U.S. Senate in November. Talarico, a former middle school teacher and a state lawmaker from Austin, laid out a clear strategy for the months ahead: Litigating Paxton’s scandals to a weary electorate.

“Ken Paxton is the most corrupt politician in America,” Talarico told a crowd of about 1,000 supporters who packed a dance club in downtown Houston. “He has failed the character test. He has put his own interests above the laws of Texas. Those are not my words, those are the words of Ken Paxton’s fellow Republicans.”

He also sought to tie what he called the “rot” at the heart of the nation's political system to the everyday problems faced by many voters, driving home the concerns over rising costs that have been part of Democrats' wider messaging strategy for this year's midterm elections.

"In America, we have an affordability crisis because we have a corruption crisis," Talarico told the crowd.

Talarico's messaging is tougher than in the primary

It was a stark pivot from the more sunny, spiritual theme of Talarico's Democratic primary campaign. Now, he's leaning into the same arguments against Paxton that Republican Senate leaders feared would make the attorney general a weaker candidate than Sen. John Cornyn, who Paxton beat in Tuesday's Republican runoff.

The diverse crowd in Houston held signs emblazoned with “Talarico,” but with a new twist. On the flipside was the campaign's new theme: “THE PEOPLE vs. KEN PAXTON.”

Phrased like a court case aimed at the state's chief law enforcement officer, the theme was launched on the day that also marked the third anniversary of Paxton's impeachment on allegations he used his office to benefit a wealthy political donor.

Paxton was acquitted on all 20 articles of impeachment, which has emboldened him and fueled his supporters. Many of them have long held that he and President Donald Trump, who endorsed him, have been victims of political persecution.

But the message seemed to resonate with many at Talarico's rally.

Monique Green, a retired elementary school teacher from Houston, said the most important part of the “The People vs. Ken Paxton” sign she clutched to her chest while standing in line to meet Talarico were its first two words.

“It’s a declaration that it’s about us," she said. "We are the ones, all of us, what we can definitely do together. And he inspires us to act. He doesn’t just talk — he believes.”

Campaign aides said Talarico had raised $600,000 in small, on-line donations within two hours of Paxton’s win in the Republican Texas runoff Tuesday, the most lucrative two hours for his campaign since he announced he was running in September 2025.

Turning personal attacks into campaign slogans

One of the first speakers at the rally was the Democratic state representative who co-led Paxton’s impeachment, Ann Johnson, alongside a Republican lawmaker.

Talarico emphasized that the impeachment over corruption allegations was brought by the Republican majority in the Texas statehouse, Paxton's own party. After his rally, he said he is making the campaign about Paxton’s record because “he has escaped accountability for years.”

Paxton's campaign declined to comment. But after Talarico finished speaking, Paxton posted a link to his campaign's donation page on the social platform X with a personal attack on his opponent: “James Talarico and his big vegan allies have raised a fortune trying to stop the America First agenda. I need your help!” he wrote.

It echoed a line from Paxton after his runoff victory on Tuesday, and Talarico had a response ready for his supporters at the Houston rally: "I’ve been eating barbecue since before Ken Paxton’s first indictment,” he said.

The vegan jab is part of Paxton’s attempt to seek out what he considers weak points in Talarico’s campaign, including past statements in which Talarico said God is nonbinary and that there were six biological sexes. And in a strategy reminiscent of Trump, Paxton also has been testing nicknames for his opponent.

They included “TalaFreako," which Talarico turned to his advantage Wednesday night. He told his supporters they could go to his campaign website and buy T-shirts stamped with the new nickname.

In an interview with CBS News ahead of Wednesday's rally, Talarico responded to the claims about his beliefs on gender, saying that what he means is that “God cannot be defined by human categories" and there were “two sexes, men and women."

“I also know there’s a very small percentage of people who have these chromosomal abnormalities, and I believe that they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect,” he said.

The raid targeted the Lucky J Social Club, located at a strip center on Richmond Avenue and Ocee Street. KPRC 2 News reporter Corley Peel was at the scene as officers continued collecting evidence inside the business.

• Montgomery Co. Pct. 5 deputy suspended after allegations of posting arrestee photos on Snapchat

According to Houston Police, several residents in the area had called to report potential illegal gambling at the location over the past several months. HPD’s Vice Division responded by sending undercover detectives inside, who confirmed illegal gambling was taking place.

Wednesday evening, SWAT officers served a search warrant at the business while 80 to 90 people were inside. Investigators say the social club contains gambling tables and card games.

• Houston man charged with murder after allegedly shooting ex-girlfriend’s husband during child custody exchange

Houston Police say four to five people are currently in custody. It remains unclear who was detained and their specific roles in the alleged operation.

Officers were still on the scene collecting evidence as the investigation continued Wednesday night.

In a press release released Wednesday, Precinct 5 officials said the administration became aware of allegations involving a deputy “sharing pictures of an arrestee and a picture of their driver’s license on social media for unknown reasons.”

Department officials said their policies prohibit deputies from sharing images obtained while performing official duties and confirmed the deputy has been placed on suspension pending the outcome of an investigation.

The allegations stem from the arrest of 22-year-old Raven Walker, who said she was pulled over Wednesday night for an expired registration before being arrested on a controlled substance charge involving a THC vape pen.

• Houston man charged with murder after allegedly shooting ex-girlfriend’s husband during child custody exchange

Walker said after being handcuffed and placed in the back of the patrol car, she noticed the deputy using social media while driving her to jail.

“He was opening up Snapchat and responding back to them while he was driving,” Walker said.

According to Walker and her sister, Haley Walker, they later learned screenshots allegedly from the deputy’s private Snapchat story included a picture of Raven Walker’s driver’s license and booking-related images.

Haley Walker said a coworker alerted her after recognizing Raven in a Snapchat post allegedly shared by the deputy.

“She got a Snapchat from him the night before,” Haley Walker said. “It stated, ‘Do you know this chick?’ and it had a picture of her identification card and all of her personal information. None of it was blurred out.”

The sisters said they filed a complaint with the constable’s office Wednesday morning.

KPRC 2 also obtained the department’s social media policy through a public information request. The policy states employees are prohibited from posting or sharing recordings or images obtained while engaged in law enforcement activities without authorization.

• Houston-area families warned about moving scams as peak moving season begins

The policy also warns employees against posting material that could negatively reflect on the department or violate professional standards.

Haley Walker said the situation has raised concerns about whether similar images involving other arrestees may have also been shared privately.

“Who knows how many other people he’s done this to?” she said.

The Precinct 5 Constable’s Office said the investigation remains in its early stages and additional information is limited while investigators gather evidence.

The moment the Republican runoff was called Tuesday night, state Rep. James Talarico, the Democratic nominee and a Presbyterian seminarian, released his attack in a video titled: “The People vs. Ken Paxton,” tying the scandal-plagued attorney general directly to the Austin Democrat’s broader campaign message against “the billionaire megadonors and their corrupt political system.”

“The most corrupt politician in America just became the Republican nominee for the United States Senate,” Talarico said in a video posted to social media. “For 50 years, megadonors and their puppet politicians like Ken Paxton have stolen from us, with their bribes, bailouts and billionaire tax breaks. Ken Paxton has gotten away with it — they’ve all gotten away with it. But that ends this year, in this state, in this race.”

Talarico launched a five-stop “The People vs. Ken Paxton Tour” of Texas this week, starting with Houston on Wednesday — the first full day of the general election, and the third anniversary of Paxton’s impeachment by the GOP-dominated Texas House on charges of corruption and abuse of office. Paxton was later acquitted by the state Senate.

Talarico’s general election stump speech, auditioned first on Wednesday, was heavy on themes of service — drawing a direct contrast to what he cast as Paxton’s self-dealing and corruption on behalf of his billionaire donors. He opened his remarks with a story about his great-grandfather, whose favorite Bible verse came from the Gospel of Matthew and features Jesus telling his disciples, “The greatest among you will be a servant.”

“I ran for office not to be served, but to serve. And then there’s Ken Paxton.” Talarico said. “I have a legislative record — Ken Paxton has a criminal record.”

Republicans, meanwhile, quickly united against their common enemy, taking aim at Talarico for what they describe as outlandishly progressive positions on issues ranging from gender and race to climate change, veganism and Christianity.

“Texas is Trump country and won’t break a 32-year streak for a woke freak like James Talarico, who thinks there are six genders,” Republican National Committee Chair Joe Gruters said in a statement. “Talarico will regret running for Senate by the time Republicans are done with him.”

Both sides will fuel what is likely to be a staggeringly expensive general election ad war that will bombard Texans for months. The primary and runoff elections already established themselves as the highest-spend on record across the country, according to media tracking firm AdImpact, with over $168 million dropped on airtime across both rounds.

Paxton and his allies are activating around several key moments from Talarico’s archives in an attempt to define him early in the race as an out-of-touch liberal.

Examples include when he said “God is nonbinary,” during a House debate over legislation requiring students to play on K-12 sports teams matching their biological sex; when he said there were six biological sexes, referring to people with chromosomal variations, during a committee debate over a similar bill; and when he said in during his 2022 House reelection bid that he was running a “non-meat” campaign because it was “existential that we try to reduce our meat consumption.”

Paxton’s first ad of the general election Wednesday also featured those moments and cast Talarico as antithetical to Texas values.

“This is Texas,” the ad’s narrator says as a photo of Paxton with President Donald Trump flashes on the screen. “This is not,” the ad continues, dubbing Talarico “radical” and “too low-T for Texas.”

Club for Growth, a deep-pocketed and influential conservative group, also launched an ad Tuesday clipping together those moments and labeling him a “crazy person.”

In his victory speech Tuesday, Paxton declared Talarico the “most extreme radical the Democrats have ever nominated.” After workshopping nicknames for Talarico on the campaign trail over the last week, Paxton rolled them out again in his remarks, referring to his opponent as “Tofu Talarico,” “Six-Gender Jimmy,” “James Tala-freak-o,” and “Low-T Talarico.”

Trump derided Talarico on Truth Social Tuesday as possibly “the worst TEXAS candidate I have ever seen.”

“A strong Open Borders advocate, he is WEAK ON CRIME, believes there are 6 genders, is insulting to Jesus Christ, will never support the Military, was a big Mask Wearer until recently, and is a Vegan who dislikes meat, not exactly a good way to be if you’re wanting to win an Election in Texas,” Trump wrote.

Talarico, who is not vegan and has rebutted the claim by releasing photos of himself on the campaign trail eating a turkey leg and grabbing tacos with former President Barack Obama, pointed to his record in the Legislature of supporting additional funding for law enforcement and emphasized his support for immigration policies that secure the border and, in a biblical reference, also “welcome the stranger.”

On CBS News, Talarico said that some of his previous comments “missed the mark.”

“There are some statements that I’ve made that I certainly regret,” he said. “But Ken Paxton is intentionally clipping my cringey comments to distract from his career of corruption. Ken Paxton has a criminal record — I have a legislative record.”

“If all they have is lying about me being a vegan,” Talarico added, “I feel pretty good about our chances this November.”

His first digital ad of the general election, titled “Meet Ken Paxton,” sought to reintroduce voters to Paxton’s long list of since-resolved civil and criminal accusations, including his impeachment and felony fraud charges the Justice Department later declined to prosecute. At one point in the ad, Paxton’s mug shot fills the frame.

“Paxton is a repugnant character,” former U.S. Rep. Denver Riggleman, R-Virginia, is shown saying during a CNN interview in the ad. “Ken Paxton is an extremely flawed candidate and I sense the worst is yet to come about his background,” Fox News presenter Brian Kilmeade adds in the next clip.

The subject line attached to pro-Talarico Lone Star Rising PAC’s election night statement captured how the group plans to prosecute the case: “Faith vs. Fraud.”

“The matchup is now locked in: James Talarico, a leader grounded in faith and service, against Ken Paxton, an immoral politician shadowed by fraud, corruption, theft and years of infidelity,” the group said in a statement just minutes after the race was called, adding that it “will make sure Texans know exactly what’s at stake.”

Garry Jones, Lone Star Rising’s director, added in a memo distributed Wednesday that “Paxton’s vulnerabilities from the primary will continue to haunt him in the general election, notably that he is corrupt and can’t be trusted to do the job or hold public office.”

Jones pointed to Paxton’s personal enrichment while in office, his impeachment and the sum his scandals have cost taxpayers: $6.6 million to his former senior staff who reported his conduct to the FBI and later argued he improperly fired them in violation of state whistleblower law, and $5.1 million for the trial itself.

The Democratic attacks on Paxton echoed those that U.S. Sen. John Cornyn buried the attorney general under during the runoff with a roughly $100 million ad campaign. Despite that spend and after nearly two decades in Washington, Cornyn lost the GOP nomination to Paxton by nearly 28 percentage points.

“Ken Paxton is morally unfit for office,” Talarico said on MS NOW on Tuesday. “He’ll lie to you with a straight face. He’s failed the character test. He’s the most corrupt attorney general of our lifetime, and he puts the interests of himself over the laws of Texas. Those aren’t my words. Those are the words of Ken Paxton’s fellow Republicans.”

As Cornyn did before him, Talarico seized on a plea deal Paxton’s office offered to Adam Hoffman, a Waco man charged with repeatedly sexually abusing a young boy, that would have let Hoffman plead guilty to two misdemeanors, serve a total of just one day in jail and avoid registering as a sex offender.

“If Ken Paxton is worried about freaks, he should stop giving Epstein-style sweetheart deals to pedophiles,” Talarico said on CBS. “Ken Paxton is the most corrupt politician in America, and it is costing Texans, it’s endangering our children and it must end. The Epstein class has no place in Texas.”

Talarico told reporters in Houston on Wednesday that he believed Paxton’s scandals would matter more to a general electorate, despite voters electing the attorney general in statewide elections before, even with some of his legal troubles hanging over him.

“Especially in this moment, when people are really fed up with the corruption and the extremism in our government, I think this contrast between a career criminal and a servant leader is going to be particularly stark,” Talarico said.

U.S. Central Command forces shot down four Iranian one-way attack drones that posed a threat around the Strait of Hormuz, according to U.S. officials who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The U.S. military also struck an Iranian ground control station in Bandar Abbas that was about to launch a fifth drone, the officials said.

Details about the strikes emerged after Trump, at a Cabinet meeting earlier Wednesday, expressed confidence that his administration was making headway on settling the war, even though the talks still remain very much in flux.

The president is looking for a settlement that will reopen the Strait of Hormuz and provide him with a credible argument that Iran’s nuclear capability has been diminished enough to declare victory, winding down a conflict that's been politically unpopular for Republicans.

But as things stand, Trump also risks finding that closure to his war of choice comes with an unsatisfactory ending.

The emerging deal puts off many critical issues to be resolved later and has already exposed the Republican president to fierce criticism — even from some of his own supporters — that Iran's hardline leaders will emerge from the conflict battered but emboldened. It all comes to a head just as the midterm elections to determine control of Congress come into focus and as Republicans worry that rising costs and fuel prices are darkening the American electorate's mood.

But Trump on Wednesday dismissed the idea that the upcoming elections would shape his Iran strategy.

“They thought they were gonna outwait me. You know, 'We’ll outwait him. He’s got the midterms,'” Trump said. “I don’t care about the midterms.”

Trump acknowledged there's still work to do, but he spoke with a measure of certainty that the two sides would get there.

“They want very much to make a deal,” Trump said. “So far, they haven’t gotten there. We’re not satisfied with it, but we will be — either that or we’ll have to just finish the job.”

The new strikes came after U.S. forces carried out what the Pentagon called “defensive” strikes on missile launch sites and minelaying boats in southern Iran on Monday. The U.S. has said it has acted with restraint with both of this week's military actions in light of the fragile, weekslong ceasefire that continues to hold.

Some Trump backers are skeptical

While Trump insists a deal is within reach, there appears to be daylight between the U.S. and Iran on several key issues. The president is also facing scrutiny from Republican allies, including Sens. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Ted Cruz of Texas, who have said the terms seem too favorable to Tehran.

They're balking at aspects of the deal that have emerged publicly that they say too closely resemble the nuclear agreement reached with Iran by Democratic President Barack Obama, which Trump scrapped during his first term.

Under the potential deal, Tehran would agree to give up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium — a key Trump demand — in return for sanctions relief. That's according to two regional officials and one senior Trump administration official, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations.

One regional official, with direct knowledge of the negotiations, said how Iran would give up the uranium would be subject to further talks during a 60-day period. Some would likely be diluted, while the rest would be transferred to a third country, the official said.

But Trump said Wednesday that he “wouldn’t be comfortable” with either Russia or China taking Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium. The two countries have the closest relations with Tehran, and nuclear analysts have said they could be a potential acceptable third party to the Iranian Republic to take possession of the enriched uranium as part of a potential deal.

Iran has 440.9 kilograms (972 pounds) of uranium that is enriched up to 60% purity, a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90%, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Iran has not publicly committed to giving up its uranium.

How Trump's plan affects Israel's war in Lebanon

Another key issue unresolved is whether the ceasefire will also cover Israel’s operations against Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group in Lebanon. Iran has insisted that Lebanon must be covered by any ceasefire agreement negotiated with the United States.

The administration appears to leave some wiggle room on the Lebanon question. The emerging memorandum of understanding calls for a ceasefire between the U.S. and its allies against Iran and its proxies, such as Hezbollah, but also underscores Israel's right to act against imminent threats and in self-defense.

Israel's military and Iran-backed militant Hezbollah group continue to clash along a strategic river in southern Lebanon as Israeli troops pushed farther north.

Jonathan Conricus, a former spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces, said Israel expects that Iran would quickly move to direct any sanctions relief to restore its military capability and boost proxy groups, including Hezbollah and Hamas in Gaza.

“We’re not done fighting, because the Iranian regime isn’t done,” said Conricus, who is a senior fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish Washington think tank.

‘Stunned silence’ as Trump ties Abraham Accords to Iran deal

Trump on Wednesday also reinforced his call that the deal should include a requirement for several additional countries, including Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Pakistan, to join the Abraham Accords, the U.S.-brokered agreements from Trump’s first term aimed at normalizing diplomatic and economic relations with Israel.

“We’re, you know, requesting strongly that they join,” Trump said.

Trump’s optimism that the other Middle Eastern and majority-Muslim countries could soon sign on to the accords might be overly ambitious.

For example, Saudi Arabia, the most significant power in the Arab world and long seen as the biggest prize for the normalization effort, has insisted that establishing a guaranteed path to a Palestinian state remains a precondition. It's something that Israel vehemently opposes.

Trump pushed for the Abraham Accords during a call with leaders of Mideast allies over the weekend.

Barbara Leaf, a retired U.S. ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and senior State Department official during President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration, said officials from Gulf countries who were on the call told her that Trump’s pitch was greeted by “stunned silence.”

A person familiar with the call disputed that characterization and said that some regional allies responded positively to the president’s call to join the accords. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity about the private conversation.

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AP writers Matthew Lee, Michelle L. Price and Darlene Superville in Washington, Bill Barrow in Atlanta, Meg Kinnard in Columbia, S.C., Samy Magdy in Cairo and Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

The sanctions were announced late Wednesday after U.S. forces carried out strikes on an Iran military facility after downing Iranian attack drones, according to U.S. officials who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The sanctions move, first reported by The Associated Press, is the latest U.S. effort to use economic leverage on top of military action to push Iran’s leadership into an agreement to end the war and open the waterway where a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas normally passes. President Donald Trump has said a deal is imminent, but talks are ongoing.

Rising energy prices and other costs stemming from Iran’s effective closure of the strait have heaped political pressure on Trump and other Republicans ahead of the midterm congressional elections.

“The Iranian military’s latest attempt to extort global maritime trade is proof that Economic Fury has left the regime desperate for cash,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.

The sanctions target Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority and any person or entity cooperating with the agency, announced earlier this month, that approves transit in the strait and charges tolls that could reach as high as $2 million per vessel.

Iran’s powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has defended this oversight effort, saying the only safe route for transit through the critical waterway is through the corridor it has designated and saying any ships that deviate from that path face a series of attacks and risks.

Iran’s chokehold on the strait has caused worldwide energy shocks and followed the U.S. and Israel launching the war on Feb. 28. Prices have spiked for oil, gas and related products, and experts say it would take several weeks or even months for shipping and prices to recover once the waterway reopens.

In turn, the U.S. has blockaded Iranian ports for over a month, and Trump said it “will remain in full force and effect until an agreement is reached, certified, and signed.”

The latest economic penalties come as Washington and Tehran have been engaged in some of the most intense diplomacy and negotiations in years, aimed at bringing an end to the war and a pathway for a longer-term solution to issues between the longtime adversaries.

Trump said Wednesday that Iran is “negotiating on fumes” and said the sides are closing in on a deal even after the U.S. military said Monday that it had carried out “self-defense” strikes on missile launch sites and boats placing mines. Wednesday’s strikes are likely to cause more complications.

“They want very much to make a deal,” Trump said at a Cabinet meeting Wednesday. “So far, they haven’t gotten there. We’re not satisfied with it, but we will be — either that or we’ll have to just finish the job.”

The Republican president also has reiterated his warning that fighting would resume if no deal is reached but has pulled back from those threats several times now in the last few months.

Coventry’s reassurance to the annual meeting of Summer Games sports bodies came after she warned in February of “uncomfortable” talks ahead to make future Olympic hosting more efficient.

The International Olympic Committee aims to finalize within months the list of sports on the Brisbane program that Coventry previously told their leaders will be fewer than the 36 being played at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

“There is a path (back), it’s not just an end,” the IOC president told The Associated Press on Wednesday on the sidelines of the assembly of the summer sports group known as ASOIF.

Brisbane also could have fewer than the 353 medal events being competed for at Los Angeles.

“I know that not everyone will be happy,” Coventry acknowledged to ASOIF members Wednesday, adding "the goal is not to destroy any sport.”

Coventry also met Tuesday with ASOIF members and assured them “we don’t have specific numbers” as targets for the sports and events program for Brisbane.

The most important metric shapes to be the number of venues needed as the IOC looks to manage costs for hosts.

“The cost and complexity comes when you start adding additional venues for single purpose events,” Coventry told the AP. “That’s where we need to look and say: ‘How could we change that?’”

A major step toward streamlining the program for Brisbane and beyond is a June 24 meeting of the full IOC membership in Lausanne that should agree on a process for evaluating sports and events.

A list of sports at Brisbane could be confirmed in December, with a longer timeline into 2029 to confirm the detailed program of medal events.

The 36 sports in Los Angeles is up from just 26 at the 2012 London Olympics, and ASOIF President Ingmar De Vos later acknowledged, “It has grown too much and needs to be brought back into proportion.”

Sports at risk?

Modern pentathlon has long been seen as vulnerable to losing its historic Olympic status, while canoe slalom has a very specific venue demand. Sports added to the LA program — including flag football, lacrosse and squash — will be competing for their place in Brisbane before having their showcase in 2028.

The 2036 Olympics hosting contest was paused by Coventry last year in the first big decision of her new presidency. Qatar is widely seen as a strong contender for a project likely to be spread in the Middle East region, which has been targeted during the conflict between the United States and Israel against Iran.

Los Angeles update

Organizing committee officials overseeing sports and venues came to Lausanne to update federation leaders ahead of a big week in Los Angeles.

Incumbent LA Mayor Karen Bass is trying to secure another term until beyond the Olympics, and there is the annual in-person visit by the IOC panel — known as “cocom” for coordination commission — overseeing games preparations.

“Certainly we are paying attention to it,” Shana Ferguson, LA 2028’s head of sport and games delivery, told the AP about Tuesday's primary election.

One big reveal will be announcing where cycling road races will finish — always a key Olympic event to showcase the city. Paris set a high bar with finish lines framed beneath the Eiffel Tower.

“We are ready — buckle up,” Ferguson said.

Shares of LA revenues

ASOIF members are anxious to learn what the IOC will give them as a collective share of Los Angeles Olympics revenues worth several billions of dollars.

With IOC President Coventry sitting in the front row, ASOIF President De Vos called for “fair and sustainable models” to recognize his members’ work and value at the Summer Games.

The IOC paid $590 million from Paris Olympics revenues which was a 9% collective rise on $540 million from the Tokyo Olympics held in 2021.

ASOIF members agree their formula to distribute it, with track and field’s World Athletics typically paid the most. That was $39.6 million for Paris, a slight raise from Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

“We are increasingly being asked to do more with the same resources,” De Vos cautioned, later noting ASOIF has “three more mouths to feed,” with the governing bodies of skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing now eligible for a revenue share.

De Vos, the International Equestrian Federation president, suggested each Olympic sport could make cost efficiencies and it was "for the IOC also to look into its own operations.”

___

More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Tsering, 58, has led the exile government based in Dharamshala, India, since 2021. He secured another five-year term in elections held in February among Tibetans living in India and overseas. Tsering was first elected to the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile in 1996 and served as speaker from 2008 until he rose to the top executive post.

Formed in 1959, Tibet’s government-in-exile, now called the Central Tibetan Administration, has executive, judicial and legislative branches.

Tsering said Wednesday that the Central Tibetan Administration “remains firmly committed to the ‘Middle Way Policy’ envisioned by His Holiness the Dalai Lama,” adding that the policy seeks resolution through nonviolence, dialogue and lasting mutual benefit.

“Until a resolution is achieved, we will continue the back-channel communications with caution and steadiness with the Chinese government,” he said.

Tsering's swearing-in ceremony took place in the presence of the Dalai Lama, who was escorted to the venue by red-robed monks among the sounds of beating drums and chanted prayers. The audience included hundreds of monks and Tibetans who looked on as the Chief Justice Commissioner Yeshi Wangmo of the Tibetan Supreme Justice Commission administered the oath of office.

The February vote marked the fourth direct election of the Tibetan exile leadership since the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, formally ended his role in the administration’s governance in 2011.

China says Tibet has been part of its territory since the mid-13th century and its Communist Party has governed the Himalayan region since 1951. But many Tibetans say they were effectively independent for most of their history and the Chinese government wants to exploit the resource-rich region while crushing its cultural identity.

China does not recognize the Central Tibetan Administration and hasn’t held dialogue with the Dalai Lama's representatives since 2010. India considers Tibet as part of China, but hosts the Tibetan exile government.

Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama of seeking to separate Tibet from China, which he denies. Some Tibetan groups advocate independence for Tibet, since little progress has been made in talks with China.

Yu Jing, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in India, on Sunday dismissed the legitimacy of the exile administration, saying it was “not recognized by any sovereign country” and had no authority to represent Tibetans or oversee the reincarnation process of the Dalai Lama.

On his 90th birthday last year, the Dalai Lama insisted Chinese authorities would have no role in identifying his successor and the institution of the Dalai Lama would continue after his death.

The search of the office in central Madrid is another blow to the party of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, whose Socialists have been hammered by a series of corruption scandals to his some of its leader's closest confidants, his wife and brother and the previous Socialist to hold his office.

“We respect the justice system, we will collaborate with the courts and there is the commitment in the Socialist Party that if there are new episodes of improper behavior, we will act with the same firmness we always have,” Sánchez told a news conference in Rome.

Sánchez, who has been Spain's leader since 2018 and is a major critic of U.S. President Donald Trump, has not been directly named in any investigation.

A court statement issued on Wednesday said that judge Santiago Pedraz ordered the Civil Guard to “confiscate diverse documentation and electronic archives in an investigation of a ring designed to destabilize judicial processes that were affecting the ruling party.”

The searches were strictly limited to that case, and not a wholesale raid of the offices, the police said.

The case against started in 2025 when audio recordings appeared in Spanish media of then party member Leire Díez apparently involved in attempts to discredit a member of the Civil Guard’s anti-corruption unit. Further reports linked Díez to alleged attempts to influence the work of state prosecutors. The judge's probe is targeted on seeing if she received payments to allegedly carry out these efforts.

The Socialist party said she was acting on her own. Diez, who has left the party, has denied wrongdoing.

The judge said that in addition to Díez, he is now also probing the alleged involvement of former Socialist heavyweight Santos Cerdán — who is already under investigation in a separate corruption case — as well as a former member of the regional government of Andalusia, a police officer, a business owner and two lawyers. The judge is investigating them on suspicions of bribery, making false testimony, forging commercial documents, influence peddling, and corruption.

Legal woes mount

The searches add to a growing list of legal cases that are hounding Spain's Socialists.

A separate court said last week it was investigating former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in connection with a government airline bailout. Zapatero, who was in power from 2004-2011 and is a major backer of Sánchez, has denied any wrongdoing.

Cerdán and José Luis Ábalos, who held two ministerial posts under Sánchez, were placed under investigation in 2025 on allegations they played a part in a kickback ring that started during the COVID-19 pandemic, which they have denied.

Ábalos has been tried for one case of alleged corruption along with two other cohorts. A verdict is expected to come soon.

Ábalos and Cerdán were early Sánchez supporters inside the party and both rose to be the party’s No. 3 ranked official before they were forced out of the party when their scandals broke.

Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gómez, has been charged by an investigative judge for inappropriately using her position to be named to an academic post at a university, while his brother, David Sánchez, and other local officials in Badajoz have been charged with having created a civil service post for him to occupy unrightfully. Gómez and David Sánchez, whose trial starts on Thursday, deny any wrongdoing.

Cases ‘do nothing to stain the work of government ’

Sánchez has called the cases against his family a “smear campaign.” But the corruption case against his former cohorts led him to ask the nation for “forgiveness.”

His minority government depends on the support of a junior coalition partner, which for now has stuck with it despite the judicial actions.

The search of his party's offices came while Sánchez was in the Vatican for an audience with Pope Leo XIV, who is set to visit Spain from June 6-12. The prime minister said he delayed his news conference so that he could be informed of the searches before speaking to reporters.

The leader of Spain’s leading opposition party, conservative Alberto Núñez Feijóo called for snap elections. “There is no other solution other than immediately letting the Spanish people voice their opinion,” the Popular Party leader said.

Sánchez brushed off calling early elections, which will have to take place next year at the latest.

While acknowledging the “seriousness” of the events in Madrid, Sánchez insisted that the cases of corruption “do nothing to stain the work of this government that, with progressive parties, is working for a social and economic transformation.”

Authorities justified the outage as a military imperative after the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. Their decision to lift some restrictions this week came as negotiators appeared to be closing in on a more permanent truce. But many Iranians feared access could be cut off again at a moment's notice.

Internet tracking company Netblocks said Iran’s connectivity, which measures the ability of devices to connect to the internet, is at around 86% of capacity from before the cutoff. Internet analysis firm Kentik said internet traffic, which measures the amount of data transferred and is a good illustration of usage, was at around 40%.

Amir Rashidi, an Iranian cybersecurity analyst, said there were still widespread disruptions. “It's too early to say the shutdown is over,” he wrote on X.

An unprecedented shutdown

Iran’s roughly 90 million people have been cut off from the internet for most of 2026, one of the world’s longest and strictest national shutdowns. Young people with online careers saw their incomes evaporate. Job losses and the closure of online businesses added to the war's steep economic costs.

The cutoff made it difficult for Iranian families to communicate through months of unrest and war. At some points, phone lines were also cut off, though they were later restored.

A woman living in Tehran said that for months she was barely able to speak to her sons living abroad. She couldn't believe authorities had restored access, saying she had assumed they would find some justification to prolong the outage.

A taxi driver said service was restored but weak. He expressed hope it would improve so he could use messaging apps with family and friends. Both spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

Prices spiked during the shutdown, with residents in Tehran at times paying around $7.50 per gigabyte. Prices are back down to around $2.25 for 30 gigabytes, roughly where they were before the protests.

Even then, Iran tightly controlled access to popular social media sites, leading many to rely on virtual private networks, or VPNs. The cost of those workarounds soared during the shutdown, making them unaffordable for many as the economy was battered.

A slow return to service

Businesses have started reappearing online, announcing their return with posts on sites like Instagram and Telegram.

A gamer and tech influencer in the central city of Isfahan said the shutdown had caused him to lose a lot of his audience on YouTube and Instagram, where he had spent years building up a large following.

“All my views and interactions are way down. I’ve been erased from the algorithm,” he said in a voice note sent by WhatsApp, adding that his internet connection was still slower than before the shutdown.

“The situation is such that many content producers have had their income reduced to zero, have moved on to other jobs, or have been forced to sell their equipment to survive,” he said. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

Iran claimed the shutdown was a wartime necessity

Iranian authorities first shut down the internet in January during mass anti-government protests that were eventually stamped out in a violent crackdown. Thousands of people were killed and tens of thousands detained.

That cutoff was just starting to ease when the government imposed a complete internet blackout after the start of the war, when U.S. and Israeli strikes killed Iran's supreme leader and other top officials.

The government faced criticism for the prolonged shutdown, which caused even more harm to an economy devastated by inflation, strikes on key industries and a U.S. blockade on Iranian ports.

The internet cutoff cost an estimated $30-40 million daily, with indirect losses likely twice that much, a member of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, Afshin Kolahi, told a local newspaper last month. About 10 million people have jobs that depend on internet connectivity, according to Communications Minister Sattar Hashemi.

Iranians still had access to a national net, but that has a far narrower reach, and users complained of poor service and heavy censorship. Senior government officials are given SIM cards granting them access to the global internet. Under pressure, the government expanded access to the SIM cards to some professions during the shutdown.

In a letter sent Wednesday to public college and university presidents, Abbott noted that his previous directive remains “fully in effect” and that no undergraduate tuition and fees should increase for the 2026-27 school year.

The letter comes as university systems and colleges are finalizing budgets for the coming academic year.

Last week, the University of Texas System regents approved non-academic mandatory fee increases for several campuses, including athletics, student services, medical services and advising fees. At UT Rio Grande Valley, for example, the university services fee would rise from $38.10 per semester credit hour to $70 per semester credit hour beginning in 2027.

Archie L. Holmes Jr., UT System’s executive vice chancellor for academic affairs, recommended regents approve the fees, saying they were “non-academic in nature” and had been “really well thought out” by institutions. The increases would not raise the average cost of attendance at any affected campus by more than 3.7%, the 2025 Higher Education Price Index, according to system documents.

The freeze applies to all public two- and four-year schools, including health-related institutions, according to Abbott’s letter. The governor, who is facing reelection in November, told the leaders he wants to work with state lawmakers next session to extend the freeze beyond next year.

Texas lawmakers froze undergraduate tuition and fees for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years. As that freeze was set to expire, Abbott issued the current freeze directive in November 2024 telling colleges to keep tuition flat.

In Wednesday’s letter, he pointed to recent state spending on higher education to justify keeping the freeze in place. Texas legislators approved more than $680 million in 2023 to overhaul community college funding and $328 million in increased financial aid funding in the 2025-27 budget cycle, he noted.

Still, the UT System wasn’t alone in seeking fee increases.

Texas A&M University System regents considered changing Tarleton State University’s health and wellness fee from $4.91 per semester credit hour to a flat $75 per semester. Leaders said the money would help expand student medical and mental health services after the university cited eight student suicides in the past three years, rising hospitalizations and growing demand for crisis care.

Regents also considered raising its recreational and facilities fee from $100 to $125 per semester. Students voted on both proposed Tarleton fee changes, according to school documents. About 59% of participating students supported the health and wellness fee change, while 51% supported the recreational activities and facilities fee increase.

Abbott’s letter does not distinguish between academic and non-academic fees.

Spokespeople for the UT and Texas A&M systems did not respond before publication Wednesday to questions about whether they believe the fee changes are allowed under Abbott’s directive.

Later, UT System spokesman Ben Wright said system leaders are “committed to affordability.” He pointed to regents’ efforts to cover tuition and fees for eligible undergraduates from families with annual gross incomes below $100,000. He said UT institutions graduate more than 68,000 students annually, half of whom graduate with no tuition or fee debt.

The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.

Disclosure: Texas A&M University System and University of Texas System have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

Tuesday’s agreement placing restrictions on Mary Liz Eastland’s license states that she failed to maintain emergency plans before a July 4 flood killed 25 campers and two teenage counselors at the all-girls Christian camp. The agreed order also states Eastland did not contact 911 or emergency officials during the flood, did not report their deaths according to state administrative code and allowed staff nurses at the camp to improperly administer medication.

In April, Eastland testified at a court hearing in Austin that she still had not officially reported the deaths to state health regulators. An order a week before that temporarily suspended her license called Eastland’s failure to report the deaths “deceptive.”

The restrictions on Eastland’s license forbid her from working directly with patients, including “teaching, counseling, assessing the client’s needs and strengths, and providing skilled nursing care,” according to the order. She is also required to undergo six hours of training and must inform future employers of the restrictions.

Eastland waived her right to a hearing on the allegations, and she “neither admit[s] nor deny the violation(s) alleged,” according to the order. She has served as Camp Mystic’s chief health officer since 2010, according to the order.

In a statement, Camp Mystic attorney Joshua Fiveson said they were grateful to the nursing board for allowing Eastland to continue to practice with the restrictions, and that “she has no intention of again serving as a camp nurse.”

“The families of all those lost to the July 4, 2025 flood will forever remain in Mrs. Eastland’s heart and prayers,” Fiveson said.

Eastland can petition the board to end the restrictions on her license after she completes the training, during which the board can require additional training, supervision or other restrictions on her practice.

Eastland’s family owns and has operated Camp Mystic for decades. Her husband, Edward Eastland, ran the portion of the camp that was housing the girls who died in the flood. His father, Dick Eastland, also died while trying to rescue some of the campers.

After initially announcing plans to reopen one of its sites less affected by the July 4 flooding, Camp Mystic ultimately abandoned its efforts to reopen in late April. Its efforts to reopen were met with backlash from Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and the parents of campers who died during the disaster.

Federal and local officials say the risk to the general public remains low.

The designation, announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and federal partners, requires travelers who have been in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, or South Sudan within the past 21 days to undergo enhanced screening.

Under the order, certain non-U.S. citizens who have recently been in those countries are temporarily barred from entering the United States, while U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents must enter through designated airports, including Houston.

“Through this challenge, I’ve learned it is actually the federal government’s responsibility — until they leave the airport — then it is our responsibility,” Houston Mayor John Whitmire said.

Passengers arriving at Bush Intercontinental are met by Customs and CDC officials and screened for symptoms, travel history, and possible exposure to the virus.

Houston officials say the city was selected in part because of its public health infrastructure and experience responding to past infectious disease threats, including the 2014 Ebola outbreak.

Dr. Theresa Tran, director of the Houston Health Department, said residents and visitors should feel comfortable continuing normal activities.

“When it comes to the public health concern of travel to enjoy the games, we should all feel very, very comfortable with enjoying any activities we would this summer,” Tran said.

Health leaders emphasized that Ebola spreads through direct contact with infected bodily fluids — not through casual contact — and said the risk to residents remains low.

When asked why Houstonians should feel confident in the city’s preparedness, Houston City Councilmember Alejandra Salinas pointed to past federal response efforts.

“This is not the first time the United States has interacted with Ebola,” Salinas said. “Under President Obama, there were extensive measures taken to ensure we would have the tools to respond, and now we have those tools in place.”

Travelers cleared through screening are still monitored for 21 days, and anyone showing symptoms may be referred for further medical evaluation.

Instead of trying to copy symmetrical shapes from nature by building robots that look like people, dogs or insects, engineering professor Boyuan Chen and his team focused on uniformity in action, or what he calls “dynamic symmetry.”

The result was Argus. The roly-poly robot named after a mythological many-eyed giant has depth-sensing cameras attached to 20 telescoping legs that radiate from a central core. With no front, back, top or bottom, it can see and move in any direction instantly.

“Instead of measuring how your legs are arranged around a different part of your body, we’re measuring how fast you can move in any direction,” Chen said. “Who said, you know, if you have a robot to help us in a most effective way, it has to look like us?”

In experiments, Argus has navigated sandy beaches and forest undergrowth, rolling over obstacles and stabilizing itself after being pushed. It can climb between parallel brick walls by alternating bracing and thrusting motions with its legs. If one or more motor dies or a leg breaks, it continues to function.

“Watching Argus move is unlike watching any other robot we’ve worked with,” said Jiaxun Liu, a graduate student and co-author of a study about Argus published online Wednesday in the journal Science Robotics. “The first time we saw it navigate among trees and rough terrain, even under heavy collisions, we knew this was something different.”

As part of their work, researchers developed a new design principle called dynamic isotropy that rates robots on a scale of 0 to 1 based on how uniformly they can accelerate in every direction. Most robots in use today, including humanoids and drones, score below 0.6. Argus scores 0.91.

“When a robot can accelerate equally well in every direction, it stops needing to face the world in any particular way,” said Chen, who hopes the same principle could guide the development of search and rescue robots, underwater or aerial vehicles or robots with the ability to grip objects.

“Instead of building a robot hand that looks like a human hand … one idea is to think about having Argus be the hand itself, and it can manipulate objects in any direction,” he said. “The knowledge we can transfer to the rest of the world is much more deeper than building an existing robot or copying an existing species.”

____

Ramer reported from Concord, New Hampshire.

Isabel Tristan contacted 2 Helps You after she said repeated attempts to resolve the issue with the City of Brookshire went nowhere.

“I’ve exhausted everything I could do,” said Tristan, 68.

Tristan said she purchased a $75 commemorative brick intended to honor her grandfather. According to her, the brick was supposed to be engraved with his name and installed near a recently built amphitheater in Brookshire.

But three years later, Tristan said there is still no sign of the brick.

“There has been a lot of miscommunication with the city about these bricks,” Tristan said.

She provided KPRC 2 with copies of two letters she said were sent to the city via registered mail regarding the issue with her purchase.

After learning about her concerns, KPRC 2 also reached out to the mayor through emails and a phone message seeking comment.

On Wednesday, KPRC 2 visited Brookshire City Hall, where employees said the mayor was out of the office.

For Tristan, the situation is about more than just the money.

“I think it’s the principle,” she said. “You sold this brick for $75, it’s never been laid, and I don’t even know if it exists.”

After waiting years for a resolution, Tristan said she is now simply asking for a refund.

“At this point, because I’ve waited three years, just give me my money back,” she said.

As part of this “2 Helps You” report, research identified several steps consumers should take before purchasing commemorative bricks or similar memorial items:

• Verify in writing that the city or organization has properly authorized the donation program in accordance with applicable laws.
• Review all content and style guidelines to ensure the engraving terms are clearly outlined before purchase.
• Confirm exactly where the brick will be placed, how long it will remain there, and whether the area is protected from future development.
• Request installation timelines in writing before making payment.
• Carefully review refund and error policies, including whether buyers will receive an engraving proof for approval before production and whether purchases are considered non-refundable.

The likely death toll rose to 11, including the missing, after another person who was injured died, authorities said Wednesday.

Authorities said there was no hope of finding more survivors following Tuesday's tank failure at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging Co. in Longview, which also injured another eight people, including a firefighter who was treated and released by a hospital.

If the 11 deaths are confirmed, it would be one of the deadliest industrial accidents in the U.S. in recent decades — alongside a series of blasts that killed 16 people at an explosives plant in Tennessee last fall; a fire and detonation that killed 14 people at a fertilizer plant in Texas in 2013; the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion that killed 11 people in 2010; and an explosion at a West Virginia coal mine that killed 29 people in 2010.

Officials said Wednesday that the paper mill tank spilled more than 500,000 gallons (1.9 million liters) of “white liquor,” a highly destructive chemical mixture used in paper manufacturing.

After delaying the search over concerns that the tank might collapse further, crews determined it contained less liquid than initially thought and that the tank was stable enough to resume efforts to find the missing. Fire officials said the search will be slow and methodical.

“We do not know where all nine are," said Scott Goldstein, a Cowlitz County fire chief.

Authorities said the rupture hasn't affected the safety of the air and drinking water in Longview, a Columbia River city of about 40,000 people with long ties to the Washington and Oregon paper and lumber industries.

Some contamination had reached the Columbia River, one of North America’s largest waterways, but the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported that no effects on the river had been observed. Officials warned residents to keep away from ditches and dikes.

It was the second notable issue with a chemical tank in days on the West Coast, following the evacuation of thousands of Southern California residents due to an overheated tank at an aerospace plant before those orders were lifted Tuesday night.

The paper mill tank could hold about 900,000 gallons (3.4 million liters) and was more than half full when it ruptured, Goldstein said. White liquor, which is made mostly of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfide, is used with heat to break down wood to make kraft paper, a durable material used in packaging, shopping bags and other products.

The sprawling plant, which employs about 1,000 people, makes material for tissues, printing paper, cups, plates, and cartons. It sits along the river next to other timber, paper and chemical businesses.

Paper mill worker was always there to help, friend says

The rupture happened at shift change Tuesday morning, causing the huge circular tank to buckle on one side. The cause remained unclear.

Authorities haven't released the names of the dead or missing, but some have begun to trickle out.

Todd Cornwell said his friend, Gilbert Bernal, was an electrician at the plant and was the first confirmed death. They knew each other through church and were in the same Bible study group, he said.

“We actually had our group last night and instead of doing Bible study, we talked about him,” Cornwell said. “He was always there willing to help in whatever needed to be done. When the local church school started flooding, he was one of the people there.”

Brian Williquette, a chemical supplier for the region’s mills, was at the plant Tuesday morning when he heard an alarm over the intercom and first wondered if it was drill. He was able to get out safely and didn’t see any of the damage.

“It’s just unfathomable,” he said at a community vigil Tuesday. “There’s not anybody that lives here that doesn’t know somebody at a paper mill.”

Crystal Moldenhauer, a Longview resident, said she has friends at the plant who remained unaccounted for. She said people called and texted each other all day trying to figure out what happened.

“We’re all still waiting for answers,” she said. “There’s families that have been torn apart, and we don’t know why.”

Authorities press for answers about the rupture

Nippon Paper Group in a statement said Wednesday that it was offering its “deepest condolences and heartfelt sympathies to the bereaved families.”

Some of those who were injured suffered burns or inhalation injuries, authorities said.

Following the tank's rupture, the liquid spilled into a drainage ditch, said Brittny Goodsell, a state Ecology Department spokesperson.

Almost every industry uses chemical tanks like this and they are generally quite safe, said Stephen Kmiotek, a chemical engineering professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. But it’s important that companies keep up proper maintenance and inspections, particularly after the tanks get older, he said.

The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board on Wednesday announced an investigation. Its chairperson, Steve Owens, said the goal was to “determine how it happened and what can be done to prevent something like this from happening again.”

___

Associated Press reporters Gene Johnson and Hallie Golden in Seattle, Kathy McCormack in Concord New Hampshire, Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho, John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, and Christopher L. Keller in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed.

The anticipation is building fast.

And that goes beyond his usual routine as the Pro Bowl corner gets ready for organized team activities that launched Wednesday.

Lassiter is also fired up about the crack of the bat and the fun of giving back with his inaugural celebrity softball game June 20 in Sugar Land at Constellation Field.

“I’m extremely excited, extremely blessed,” Lassiter told KPRC 2 on Tuesday. “We’ve got a great group of guys coming out, a couple guests, celebrity stars. It’s gonna be a really fun day.”

The list of scheduled participants is dotted with several of Lassiter’s teammates as well as NFL players across the league. Tickets and details are available at www.k3softball.com

The game includes Texans players Jalen Pitre, Nico Collins, Azeez Al-Shaair, Calen Bullock, Tank Dell, Henry To’oTo’o, Jaylin Smity, Jaylen Reed and Jamal Kill. Several NFL players are set to attend, including Baltimore Ravens safety and former University of Georgia standout Malaki Starks along with Kamren Kinchens, Dallas Turner, Javon Bulard, Tykee Smith, Jarrian Jones and Jamal Shead along with former NBA all-star Nate Robinson.

“I just want everyone to come out and just see us, be us,” Lassiter said. “A lot of times people see us whenever we’re on the field and they very rarely get to see us off the field. We’re just normal people.

“We like to laugh and joke. We like to play. So, it’s just gonna be a time for us to just be ourselves and have a little fun while doing it.

The game, presented by Clear Vision, will include giveaways, a home run derby and community involvement.

Who’s the best softball player?

No contest, according to Lassiter.

“Me, you’re looking at him,” Lassiter said. “I’m all-around. I’m a home run hitter. I’m a defensive guru.”

Lassiter intercepted a career-high four passes last season for the NFL’s top-ranked defense.

Since being drafted in the second round out of Georgia two seasons ago, Lassiter has intercepted seven passes and established himself as one of the top corners in the league.

On and off the field, Lassiter is dedicated. And he’s inspired by the example of his parents, Kammie and Kenneth.

“It comes a lot for my family, just being raised by two hard-working, God-fearing people,” Lassiter said. “That’s instilled in me, but I feel like this event is really just something to put my name on as a staple to be in the city Houston.

“Something that I could do year in and year out. Just have people come out and just enjoy a day where we can all just be together.”

Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com

Check Radar Here:

Quieter weather pattern on the way:

Finally Houston gets a break from the widespread heavy rain and organized storm threats. Thursday and Friday rain chances are lower with Saturday looking completely dry. There is more rain possible next week as we start the month of June.

With more sunshine and less gloom through the weekend, temperatures will heat back to the upper 80s and low 90s.

And speaking of June, hurricane season officially begins next week on June 1st.

To help you get prepared before the season ramps up, be sure to catch our KPRC Hurricane & Flood Survival Guide live next Wednesday at 8 p.m., where we’ll cover what you need to know heading into the 2026 season.

In the meantime check out this list for 2026 Hurricane Names: The history of how hurricanes get named

Mauricio Arcos spent nearly $900 on two Category 2 tickets for the June 20 match, only to discover his tickets were in what he calls the “nosebleed” section.

“You don’t really know which seats you are buying,” Arcos said.

• Houston officials outline Ebola screening measures at Bush Airport, stress low risk to public ahead of FIFA World Cup

During a 10-minute purchase window, he was given four options — Category 1 through 4 — with Category 1 being the best. He could see the game, the price and the category, but not his exact seats.

He chose Category 2, expecting a great view. Weeks later, he discovered he was placed at the very top of the stadium in Section 611.

“It’s a nosebleed section on row R, which is literally like three rows below the very top. So then my question, ok? Where are people sitting in category 3 and 4?” Arcos said.

Arcos isn’t alone. According to a crowdsourced survey called the Seat Transparency Project, 74% of Houstonians who received tickets through the lottery system ended up in the corners or top end rows — arguably some of the worst seats in the stadium.

“It’s not fair,” Arcos said.

• New website aims to help Houstonians navigate traffic during FIFA World Cup

Ticket broker Kayla Ramsey — known as “The Ticket Queen” — says the category system can be misleading for fans. While FIFA does provide a stadium map showing possible category areas, Ramsey says even she was surprised by where Category 2 seats can end up.

“I am very surprised. He should have at least gotten right here,” Ramsey said pointing to seats in a much lower section.

Ramsey says FIFA does note that categories can change by match. She even found language confirming that category 2 seats can include upper-tier sections — though she says buyers could easily miss that fine print.

“Those [hist] tickets should be category four tickets,” Ramsey said. “It’s a bummer.”

KPRC 2 reached out to FIFA asking how ticket categories are assigned and why so many Category 2 seats fall into the upper areas of the stadium, and didn’t hear back.

“What happened to all of the good seats?” Ramsey asked.

Despite his frustration, Arcos says he still plans to attend. He wants others to know to do their research and understand what they’re buying before spending the money. Ramsey says the same.

“My best advice is probably wait it out a little bit, look for a couple days, don’t jump right into a website and say I want these category two tickets,” Ramsey said.

“It's all so funny,” she says. “When I tell them I run the trade association for independent stores, they'll say, 'It's just so sad that they're disappearing.' I don't think they're really keeping track, or they just know about a store that closed or heard about one closing.”

The decline of physical bookstores remains so embedded in popular culture that the man dating Anne Hathaway's character in “ The Devil Wears Prada 2 ” laments that bookstores are “getting downsized and consolidated.” But the decline actually ended years ago, and the latest numbers from the American Booksellers Association show independent stores expanding at a pace not seen this century.

Membership in the ABA grew by more than 500 over the past year, to a total of 3,417 (at 3,783 locations), nearly triple what it was a decade ago and the highest level since the late 1990s. The surge included stores of various kinds — general interest shops like Hey Books! in San Diego; mobile stores like the Wandering Quills Bookshop in Westerville, Ohio; pop-up stores like Banyan Books in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Many of the new members reflect the current boom in romance, fantasy and their hybrid, romantasy, whether the Spicy Librarian in Denver or the Flutter Romance Bookstore in Austin, Texas: “Where butterflies begin. And every story ends in happily-ever-after,” according to its website.

Both a business and a calling

Independent bookselling, rarely a way to get rich, is a meeting ground for idealists — for young people with a sense of mission, retirees embarking on a new life or middle-aged people no longer satisfied with their careers. “I think people want to realign their lives with their values,” Hill says.

In Wentzville, Missouri, 55-year-old Kelley Hartnett is a marketing consultant and copywriter who had always wanted to run a bookstore. Her husband's concerns included competing against Amazon, but Hartnett went ahead and opened Double Dog Bookshop in 2025 as a mobile store. She rode about the area in a converted cargo trailer, joined by two Australian Cattle Dog mutts, and has since opened a storefront downtown.

“For me, Double Dog is about maybe 50% books and 50% community,” says Hartnett, who hopes to find a larger space that would make it easier for customers to gather and “just be.”

“People are craving connection, especially in-person connection,” she said. “People are over the internet and virtual meetings and algorithms. They're not the same as having a human to human connection. It feels really healing.”

Hill can joke about the mistaken elegies for bookselling, while expressing concern that the state of independent stores is healthy but “precarious.” Costs are high, and schools and libraries face budget cuts that limit their purchases from local stores.

Is there room for indies and giants?

Independent owners also find themselves worrying about a onetime competitor which itself had seemed endangered, Barnes & Noble.

The superstore chain was the dominant seller in the 1980s and 1990s, and was widely seen as the leading cause for hundreds — maybe thousands — of independent stores shutting down. But by the 2010s, Barnes & Noble had been surpassed by Amazon. It began shutting down stores instead of opening new ones and struggled for years to find a new owner before the hedge fund Elliott Management Corp. bought it in 2019.

Under the leadership of CEO James Daunt, Barnes & Noble is expanding again, adding more than 100 stores over the past two years. In Chicago, the owner of the decade-old Volume Books has blamed a new Barnes & Noble for putting her out of business, while Hill added that “even a small decrease in sales can make or break a bookstore’s year in an industry with paper-thin margins.”

Daunt denies any intent to take business from independent sellers, saying it's not in his “DNA.”

“I'm an independent seller myself,” he says, noting that he founded Daunt Books in London. Daunt says he has customers who shop at his store and the British chain Waterstones (where he's also managing director). “I never thought of the market as finite.”

The owners of The Book Loft Oak Park, another Chicago-area store that opened last summer, acknowledge some nerves about a nearby Barnes & Noble coming soon. But Heather Nelson and Sophie Schauer Eldred hope the stores ultimately complement each other.

“We’re hoping people whose curiosity is piqued by the new Barnes and Noble will walk down the street,” Schauer Eldred said, “and pop into our bookstore.”

The federal lawsuit, filed in Washington, D.C., takes aim at a change made earlier this year by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, which bars lenders from discriminating against credit applicants. Among the changes being challenged is that lenders will no longer have to consider “disparate impact” — policies that appear neutral but tend to cause disproportionate harm to certain groups.

Plaintiffs also argue the rule would make it easier for lenders to market loans to predominantly white neighborhoods, forcing minority communities to rely on risky, high-cost lenders that offer predatory loans with exorbitant interest rates.

“This is the deliberate dismantling of 50 years of legal jurisprudence, regulatory guidance, and bipartisan consensus that lending discrimination has no place in America,” Lisa Rice, the CEO and president of the National Fair Housing Alliance, one of the plaintiffs that filed the lawsuit, said in a statement.

“This reversal by the CFPB is a continuation of this Administration’s efforts to gut fair housing and lending protections,” she said. “Eviscerating these guardrails will ultimately result in less credit access for many people, make our markets less sound, and cause our economy to be less productive.”

Paulina Gonzalez-Brito, the CEO of another plaintiff, Rise Economy, a California nonprofit that advocates for economic justice, accused the CFPB of ignoring “public comments, common sense, and decades of precedent in its misguided attempt to turn anti-discrimination law on its head.”

“The CFPB was created to protect consumers and small businesses from financial abuse and discrimination, and this final Reg B rule would do real harm, setting us back in our collective efforts to ensure that all families and small businesses have a fair chance to achieve the American Dream,” Gonzalez-Brito said.

The CFPB did not respond to a request for comment.

Plaintiffs argue that the rule change is part of a broader campaign by the Trump administration to dismantle regulations related to fair housing and lending protections.

The administration, the National Fair Housing Alliance said, has proposed eliminating the budget for the Fair Housing Initiatives Program, which funds nonprofits to ensure access to housing for seniors, disabled veterans, families with children and other groups. It also has cut staffing in half at the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity.

Several high-profile settlements in recent years indicate housing discrimination remains a significant problem.

In 2023, the Justice Department accused Los Angeles-based City National Bank of discrimination by refusing to underwrite mortgages in predominately Black and Latino communities, requiring the bank to pay more than $31 million in the largest redlining settlement in department history. In 2016. the Justice Department and the CFPB fined Mississippi-based BancorpSouth $10.6 million, alleging the bank deliberately discriminated against minorities in its lending practices.

Plaintiffs are asking court to vacate the rule, which they contend is arbitrary and capricious, in excess of statutory authority, and issued outside the procedures required by Congress.

“The Final Rule does not reflect reasoned decision-making or an expert, good-faith effort to implement our nation’s foundational credit antidiscrimination statute,” plaintiffs wrote. “Quite the opposite: The Final Rule is a drastic turn, without justification, from the CFPB’s (and its Federal Reserve Board predecessor’s) longstanding interpretation and enforcement of key ECOA provisions.”

Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., the chair and ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee that oversees college sports, briefed The Associated Press on details of the bill they crafted in hopes it can get the 60 votes needed to clear the Senate.

“This is a stability bill, not just an NIL bill,” Cruz said, referencing the name, image and likeness payments that have led to football rosters with $30 million payrolls and reshaped the industry.

Cantwell said she and Cruz teamed up on the legislation "because he and I really do believe the college sports system is in a bit of chaos.”

The bill looks very much like the “best of” from a pair of legislative proposals — one called SCORE, another called SAFE — that have gone nowhere over the past several months. It contains two elements the NCAA has supported: a limited antitrust exemption and a clause that would preempt much of the patchwork of state laws currently regulating NIL.

Meredith Page, the chair of the NCAA Division I Student Athlete Advocacy Committee and a former volleyball player at Radford, called the bill “a phenomenal step,” especially after the latest setback for the SCORE Act, which the SAAC also supported.

“I think this has lots of great protections and gives the ability for us to stablize the field that is so, so unstable right now,” Page said.

NCAA President Charlie Baker said the association was reviewing the bill and looked forward to “further productive dialogue with members of Congress.”

Antitrust help

College sports has been looking to Washington for help as it grapples with rising costs of paying players and an out-of-control transfer portal that have threatened smaller sports, many involving women, that make up the backbone of the U.S. Olympic pipeline.

This bill, called the Protect College Sports Act, would offer what Cruz and Cantwell said was targeted antitrust protection for the likes of the NCAA and the College Sports Commission, which was part of the largely Republican-backed SCORE Act that many Democrats opposed. That would be in exchange for what Cruz said would be “public-facing protections" for athletes in several areas, including guarantees for health insurance and scholarships, more stringent regulations for NIL deals from third parties and agents who broker their deals.

“I think it's better predictability,” Cantwell said. “Why did we do it? Because when you've got thousands of athletes being cut, hundreds of programs being cut, the risk to the whole infrastructure was too high to not try to get better predictability.”

Rules for players and coaches

The bill would limit players to one unrestricted transfer over the course of their college careers — a widely supported idea across the country — and would adopt something close to the five-year eligibility period that the NCAA appears ready to enact next month.

The bill also tries to regulate coaching movement. Kiffin's sudden move to LSU from rival Mississippi while the Rebels were preparing for the College Football Playoff last season put a fine point on an issue that has only gotten worse in an era where teams spend millions to fill out rapidly shifting football rosters: Schools have less patience (and more money) to devote to hiring coaches for a quick fix.

Under terms of the bill, midseason coaching changes would be prohibited.

“It's not fair or right to poach a coach in the middle of the season while the team is still competing," Cruz said. "There’s a reason the NFL has a rule that you can’t do that. Obviously, NFL teams hire coaches away from each other but they don’t do so in the middle of the season.”

Media rights money

The bill would rework the Sports Broadcasting Act to allow conferences to pool their TV rights — a move proponents have said could add billions of dollars to the ecosystem in a conclusion the Southeastern and Big Ten Conferences believe is inaccurate.

The senators said leagues wouldn't be required to join the media pooling but those that do would have to use a percentage of any increase from that to support women's and Olympic sports. That alone could be a dealbreaker for the SEC, which has reportedly been discussing topics including breaking away from the NCAA and allowing collective bargaining for athletes at its league meetings in Florida this week.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, along with Jim Phillips of the Atlantic Coast and Brett Yormark of the Big 12 all said they were reviewing the bill, with Sankey saying “bipartisan engagement in Washington on these issues is critical.”

Can the measure pass?

The SCORE Act, which garnered little support from Democrats, was on the House schedule last week but was abruptly pulled off when the Congressional Black Caucus and NAACP came out against it. Even if it had squeaked by in the razor-tight House, it had virtually no chance of passing as written in the Senate, where it would need 60 votes to break a possible filibuster.

“The Congressional Black Caucus and I have the same objective: stop the ‘SEC SCORE Act,’” said Cantwell, referencing the SEC as one of dozens of conferences who have supported that bill.

Some Democrats were reluctant to support a bill, like SCORE, that prohibited college athletes from being classified as employees of their schools. The new bill takes what Cantwell said was a neutral stance on the issue of employment.

But it does not resolve all of Democrats' complaints, as Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., explained in a news release shortly after news of the bill hit.

“It gives the NCAA an antitrust exemption that no other industry gets just so they can keep underpaying the athletes,” he said. "Sure, there are some good things for players in this bill, but this seems like a great deal for the NCAA and the rich guys who run college sports, and a bad deal for athletes.”

Mit Winter, a Missouri attorney who specializes in sports law, said the proposal was so sprawling he was skeptical it will pass as is.

“When you start getting into the stuff about giving the CSC and NCAA antitrust exemptions and liability protection from enforcing rules on athlete denial of compensation, I think that’s where things get a little more dicey,” he said.

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AP College Sports Writer Eric Olson contributed.

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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

On Wednesday, May 27, some of the region’s most promising future electricians put their training to the test during the Independent Electrical Contractors (IEC) Texas Gulf Coast Wire-Off Competition and Trade Show in South Houston.

The annual event brings together apprentices from IEC’s four-year Department of Labor-approved electrical apprenticeship program to compete in a hands-on skills challenge that showcases the knowledge and technical expertise they’ve developed throughout their training.

For many competitors, the Wire-Off represents the culmination of years of hard work, classroom instruction, and on-the-job experience.

The winner will earn the opportunity to represent the Texas Gulf Coast chapter at the IEC National Apprentice of the Year Competition, where top apprentices from across the country compete for national honors.

A career path with opportunity

While the competition highlights exceptional talent, organizers say the event is also an opportunity to showcase the growing demand for skilled trades professionals.

As construction, infrastructure, and energy projects continue to expand across Texas, electricians remain among the most sought-after workers in the industry. Apprenticeship programs offer participants the chance to learn a trade while gaining valuable real-world experience and building a long-term career.

Unlike many traditional educational pathways, apprentices can earn income while they learn, developing specialized skills that can lead to rewarding careers in residential, commercial, and industrial electrical work.

Investing in Houston’s future workforce

The IEC Texas Gulf Coast apprenticeship program combines classroom education with hands-on training, helping prepare students for careers that play a critical role in everyday life.

Whether restoring power after severe weather, wiring new construction projects or maintaining essential infrastructure, electricians help keep communities running safely and efficiently.

Organizers say events like the Wire-Off Competition not only recognize excellence but also inspire the next generation of skilled trades professionals.

For more information about the IEC Texas Gulf Coast apprenticeship program, visit iectxgulfcoast.org or call 713-869-1976.

Officials say congestion may affect some of Houston’s busiest roadways, especially near NRG Stadium and the major routes connecting downtown and the southwest side of the city.

“We’re already the fifth most congested city in the United States during peak rush hour traffic,” said Robyn Egbert of the Houston-Galveston Area Council.

Some travel times could double on match days

Transportation planners say the heaviest backups are expected around the Southwest 610 Loop and roadways feeding traffic between downtown Houston and NRG Stadium.

Officials warn travel times could increase dramatically on match days.

“If it already takes you, let’s say, an hour to go from NRG to the Galleria, it could potentially take you two hours,” Egbert said.

Morning and afternoon commutes could be affected

Most Houston World Cup matches are scheduled for noon kickoffs. But transportation planners say fans are expected to begin arriving roughly three hours before games begin — putting large crowds on the roads during the morning commute.

“That’s going to be your morning commute,” Egbert said.

Officials also expect another surge of traffic after matches conclude around 2 p.m., which could overlap with afternoon travel patterns.

Some of the busiest days are expected to include match days and holiday travel periods, including July 4.

METRO plans expanded service during tournament

Transportation leaders are encouraging commuters to consider alternatives to driving, including METRO park-and-ride services and rail options.

Kurt Luhrsen with METRO said the agency plans to expand service during the tournament.

“More frequent midday service on our park and ride routes and later evening service all the way till midnight,” Luhrsen said.

He added that METRO will also increase service on rail lines, including more frequent trains on the Red, Green and Purple lines.

Officials urge drivers to use real-time traffic tools

Transportation officials are urging drivers to monitor real-time traffic conditions through TranStar traffic maps, which can provide updates on congestion, crashes and road closures.

Officials say additional tow trucks and emergency response crews will be stationed near high-traffic areas during the tournament to help clear incidents quickly and reduce delays.

“I was frightened, because I had never ever seen Joe like that before or since. Never,” Jill Biden told CBS News in an interview scheduled to air Sunday.

Joe Biden's shaky, mumbling and sometimes confused delivery against Donald Trump in June 2024 gave fuel to questions voters already had about his fitness for a second term. His attempts to explain away his performance and offer reassurance that he could handle four more years of the demanding job did little to assuage voters. Under mounting pressure from within his party, he stepped aside, and Democrats nominated Vice President Kamala Harris.

“I don’t know what happened,” Jill Biden said in the interview. “As I watched it, I thought, ‘Oh, my God, he’s having a stroke.’ And it scared me to death.”

The former first lady is promoting a book due out next week, “View from the East Wing: A Memoir.”

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department announced Wednesday that nearly 54,000 acres in Edwards and Kinney counties have been acquired to create Silver Lake State Park, which will become the second largest state park in Texas behind only Big Bend Ranch State Park.

The future park is located about 150 miles west of San Antonio between Rocksprings and Uvalde and features rugged canyons, rolling hills, river frontage along the West Nueces River, and a rare 30-acre spring-fed lake known as Silver Lake.

Why this is a big deal for Texans

Texas has seen growing demand for outdoor recreation and state park access in recent years, with many parks regularly reaching capacity during weekends and holidays. Officials say this acquisition will dramatically expand public access to protected land in the Hill Country.

Governor Greg Abbott called the project another example of how “the opportunities to explore nature’s wonders are truly bigger in Texas.”

The land was largely donated through the Moody Foundation, which gifted 87.5% ownership of the property to the state. Texas Parks and Wildlife purchased the remaining portion for $11.85 million using money from the Centennial Parks Conservation Fund and Sporting Goods Sales Tax revenue.

What visitors can expect

According to Texas Parks and Wildlife, the property includes:

• Steep limestone cliffs and deep canyons
• Miles of river frontage
• Creeks and natural swimming holes
• Oak-covered hillsides
• Caves and ancient pictographs
• Wildlife including deer, turkey, dove and javelina
• Habitat for endangered species like the golden-cheeked warbler

The park will be developed in phases. Early access may include guided tours and limited day-use opportunities before larger recreational amenities are added. Future plans could include camping, hiking trails, paddling access and visitor facilities.

When will it open?

There is currently no official opening date for Silver Lake State Park. Texas Parks and Wildlife says planners will first conduct environmental and cultural surveys before finalizing recreational plans and infrastructure improvements. Public input will also help shape the park’s future.

Officials say the process could take months, but once complete, the park is expected to become a major outdoor attraction for Texans and visitors alike.

The 14-year-old from Rancho Cucamonga, California, works with three coaches. He pays for word lists and study guides. He tries to learn every Greek and Latin root, every language pattern, every spelling bee-worthy word he can find. And he competes throughout the year in online bees that pit him against the country's other top spellers.

Shrey's approach has proven effective for spellers seeking to hold the trophy, and on Wednesday he became one of nine spellers who got through the semifinals and will compete in the finals Thursday night.

But at least one other finalist has gone old-school, shunning outside help and using the dictionary as his guide.

Their opposing strategies have revived a long-running if good-natured debate in spelling circles: Which is more important, mastery of languages or rote memorization?

“At the end of finals, most of the words aren’t going to have a really clean-cut language pattern or rule that you can pull from. So I think memorization is really important,” said Sam Evans, who coached each of the past two champions. “Sometimes it gets a bad reputation, but you have to do it.”

Every word is in the dictionary, if you can find it

It’s all but impossible to reach the finals without knowing the components that make up words absorbed into English: roots and languages of origin. But some champions have stood out for their incredible recall, the ability to instantly visualize any word they’ve run across or even recite dictionary definitions verbatim: Nihar Janga in 2016, Zaila Avant-garde in 2021 and Bruhat Soma in 2024.

Sarv Dharavane might be the next of that group.

Sarv finished third in 2025 as a relative unknown in the spelling community. There’s a reason for that. The 12-year-old sixth-grader from Dunwoody, Georgia, has no coach. He doesn’t participate in online bees. And his only study guide is the source for every word in the competition: Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged dictionary.

“The book is my coach,” Sarv said.

Given his past success, he saw no reason to change it up. And he's back in the finals.

“I didn't really change anything because my strategy got me far last year, but I did more of what I did before,” Sarv said.

“I used to read the dictionary and set aside difficult words to study later,” he explained. “I did it a lot, so I got a lot of words and it was really easy just to go through them. I've always been able to remember pretty well, and I can read through long lists without getting tired, so this strategy works pretty well for me.”

Simple, right?

Many spellers think there's a better way.

Master the roots, and you don't need to memorize as much

Dev Shah, the 2023 champion, advocates an artistic approach to spelling — the one also championed by his coach, Scott Remer. Master roots, master language patterns, and learn how to spot the exceptions, and you can spell a word that you’ve never seen or don’t remember.

Shah accepted that he could never memorize the dictionary — “No one can,” he said — and he believed if he got a word he didn't know, he could figure it out.

“The skill of guessing is everything,” he wrote in a Washington Post op-ed after his victory.

In an interview Wednesday, Shah said memorization was important, especially for quirky words with obscure origins. He said the best spellers, including Avant-garde, found a balance between memorization and mastery.

Having a conceptual understanding of how words are spelled can also help spellers perform under pressure when their memory fails them, said Shah, who admitted he finds it daunting to memorize a huge volume of words.

Former champion Sohum Sukhatankar, who coaches Shrey, said spellers need to fill their brains with the most useful information.

“When you’re at the highest level, you have to be prepared for hundreds of thousands of words,” he said. “You want to do as little memorization as possible to avoid the chance that you just forget it, so it’s all about efficiency.”

After a catastrophic school bee, one speller seeks every edge

Shrey knows he might have to guess when he's at the microphone, but he wants to eliminate variables. That makes sense, given that a year ago, he wasn't even the top speller at his school.

“I had a fever at my school bee last year, and I just blanked on the word ‘calipers’ ... and I missed it,” he said. “I was really devastated.”

It took a few months before Shrey was motivated to start studying again. Once he did, he added Sukhatankar to his coaching team. He's learned how to slow down when he's at the microphone because of a bad experience in 2023, when he rushed through a word, didn't enunciate it clearly and judges determined he got it wrong.

He's also a believer in study guides. Shrey said an interactive, AI-assisted platform called Onyma that offers personalized learning and competition with other spellers — launched this month by Sukhatankar and Evans — has helped with his preparation.

He also uses SpellPundit, an online resource created by two former spellers and their parents that made a splash at the 2019 bee when the majority of that year’s eight co-champions used it. The company claims every champion since as a customer.

Shrey won the annual SpellPundit bee, the South Asian Spelling Bee and several other online bees, which he doesn't necessarily see as an advantage.

“I feel like it (creates) more pressure to perform,” he said.

Evans believes spellers who want to win should use their study time efficiently, but there's no barrier to learning every possible word.

“There's a common joke among spellers that says everything's in the dictionary, so it's all ‘on-list,’” he said. “The dictionary is the most basic thing that spellers need to know.”

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Ben Nuckols has covered the Scripps National Spelling Bee since 2012. Follow his work here.

Meanwhile, Russian lawmakers have backed a draft bill to have bank employees join the fight against Ukraine’s long-range drones that strike deep inside Russia — with trained bank staff shooting down the unmanned aircraft.

The steps came after a recent escalation in aerial attacks by both sides in the more than four-year war that followed Russia’s all-out invasion of its neighbor. Neither side has been able to make much progress on the 1,250-kilometer (780-mile) front line.

Also on Wednesday, Anne Keast-Butler, head of U.K.’s intelligence agency GCHQ, asserted that Russian President Vladimir “Putin is going backwards on the battlefield." New data shows that "almost half a million Russian soldiers have now been killed since the conflict began,” she added.

Ukraine has pounded Russian targets, especially oil facilities and manufacturing plants, with its domestically produced drones. At the same time, the Russian military has intensified its aerial attacks, firing almost 90 missiles as well as hundreds of drones at Kyiv last weekend in an effort to overwhelm air defenses.

Zelenskyy seeks more Patriot defense systems

The Ukrainian leader urged Trump and Congress in a letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press, to supply more Patriot PAC-3 missiles and other air defense systems, warning that deliveries to Ukraine are falling dangerously short as the Iran war diverts U.S. stocks.

Ukraine has raised its drone interception rate to more than 90%, the letter says, and Ukrainian specialists have helped countries in the Middle East — specifically the Gulf Arab region — strengthen air defenses. They have also helped at American military bases in the Mideast, the letter says.

But Ukraine cannot yet produce its own anti-missile defense systems, Zelenskyy said, and for that relies “almost exclusively on the United States.”

“For us — for a nation fighting for its survival — there is hardly anything more painful to see than Patriot batteries with no missiles loaded,” Zelenskyy wrote.

Deliveries, he says, are “no longer keeping up with the reality of the threat we face.”

Washington did not immediately comment on the letter.

The U.S. weapons that European nations and Canada buy to donate to Ukraine are a vital component of the country’s air defenses, but only a few NATO allies are investing significant sums in the arrangement, alliance officials say.

Russia wants bank employees to join the fight against Ukrainian drones

In Russia, an ambitious plan approved by the country’s lower house of parliament on Tuesday envisages banks installing electronic jamming systems on their premises while selected employees would be trained to shoot down incoming drones.

And with banks in almost every town, their incorporation into Russia's air defenses could help expand its cover.

The bill, which state news agency Interfax said was first presented last August and later expanded in scope, must still be approved by the upper house Federation Council and signed by Putin before coming into force.

Russia is finding it hard to protect its large land mass from a growing number of attacks by increasingly sophisticated Ukrainian long-range drones. Smaller drones are also holding back Russian troops along the front line, Western analysts and officials say.

As the intensity and depth of Ukrainian drone attacks have increased, Russian authorities have encouraged businesses to contribute to protective measures against aerial strikes.

Russian banks are not known to have been a prime target for Ukrainian drones in the war that followed Moscow’s 2022 invasion. The plan encompasses Russia’s central bank and other top institutions, including majority state-owned Sberbank.

With little details included in the bill, it has raised questions about how such a project would work. The widespread installation of equipment and training of staff in how to use it would require a huge organizational effort.

With Putin keen to shield Russians from the war, the plan could work against his efforts by involving regular citizens in it and making the consequences of the invasion more visible.

Russia's need for drone help suggests its defense are failing, analyst says

The proposed measure reflects growing problems for Russia against Ukraine’s increasingly sophisticated drones, according to Thomas Withington, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London.

The draft bill “seems to indicate that … military-level drone defense capabilities in Russia are failing, because if they were working you wouldn’t need to do that,” Withington told The Associated Press.

“This situation is not improving for Russia,” he said, noting that Moscow is battling to keep up with Ukrainian drone innovations.

The measure seeks to “try and offload some of the burden of drone protection to the non-military, non-law enforcement sectors,” which are under strain, he said.

The bill says bank employees may jam or intercept drone control signals, and damage or destroy uncrewed aerial, underwater and ground vehicles threatening their facilities, without waiting for a response from security services.

“Jamming will be used to make it more difficult for (the drones) to target and attack the relevant targets,” Anatoly Aksakov, chairman of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets, told Russian media outlet RBK. “Plus, we’ll also use means to shoot down these drones, thereby protecting the relevant targets.”

Each organization would determine which employees would be trained to deploy the measures.

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

The first bee was held in 1925, when the Louisville Courier-Journal invited other newspapers to host spelling bees and send their champions to Washington. After a long run at a convention center in suburban Maryland, the bee returns to the nation's capital this year at Constitution Hall, a few blocks from the White House.

Another change for this year: ESPN NFL analyst and recent “Celebrity Jeopardy!” champion Mina Kimes joined the bee as its television host.

This is the 98th bee; it was canceled from 1943 to 1945 because of World War II and again in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year’s champion will be the 111th, because the bee ended in a two-way tie several times and an eight-way tie in 2019.

Thirty of the past 36 champions have been of Indian heritage, including last year’s winner, Faizan Zaki.

How can I watch the Scripps National Spelling Bee?

The bee is broadcast and streamed on channels and platforms owned by Scripps, a Cincinnati-based media company.

Wednesday's semifinals were streamed live on Scripps Sports Network and spellingbee.com, and a tape-delayed broadcast was set to air on ION from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. EDT.

The finals will be broadcast Thursday on ION from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. They will also air or be streamed on these Scripps-owned channels or services: ION Plus, Bounce, Grit, Laff, The Spot, Bounce XL, Grit Xtra, Laff More, Scripps News and Scripps Sports Network.

What are the rules of the Scripps National Spelling Bee?

Spellers qualify by advancing through regional bees hosted by sponsors around the country. In order to compete, spellers must not have advanced beyond the eighth grade or be older than 15.

Competitors must get through two preliminary rounds, where they are quizzed on words from a list provided in advance. There is one spelling round and one multiple-choice vocabulary round.

Those who make it through the preliminaries sit for a written spelling and vocabulary test, with the top 100 or so finishers advancing to the quarterfinals. The words for the test, and for all subsequent rounds, are taken from the Merriam-Webster Unabridged dictionary.

Throughout the quarterfinals and semifinals, spellers are eliminated at the microphone through oral spelling or vocabulary questions.

About a dozen spellers typically make it to the finals, although this year only nine made it. When only two remain, Scripps has the option to use a lightning-round tiebreaker known as a “spell-off” to determine the champion.

Who is competing in the Scripps National Spelling Bee?

This year's bee had 247 spellers representing all 50 states, the District of Columbia, three U.S. territories and five other countries: The Bahamas, Canada, Ghana, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates. After the preliminary rounds, 167 were left, and that field was cut to 95 quarterfinalists after a written spelling and vocabulary test.

The top returning finisher from 2025 is Sarv Dharavane of Dunwoody, Georgia, who finished third last year as an 11-year-old fifth-grader. This year, he got a perfect score on the written test, and he's one of the spellers to qualify for Thursday's finals.

Here are the other finalists:

— Shrey Parikh, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Rancho Cucamonga, California, who finished third in 2024. He lost at the school level in 2025 but has dominated the bee circuit since, winning the South Asian Spelling Bee, the SpellPundit National Spelling Bee and the Words of Wisdom Spelling Bee.

— Oliver Halkett, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Los Angeles who finished in a tie for seventh last year.

— Zwe Spacetime, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Fort Washington, Maryland, and the younger brother of 2021 champion Zaila Avant-garde.

— Aiden Meng, a 13-year-old seventh-grader from Orinda, California, who bowed out in the quarterfinals last year.

— Ishaan Gupta, a 12-year-old seventh-grader from Jersey City, New Jersey, who was a semifinalist last year.

— Kushi Gottimukkala, a 13-year-old seventh-grader from Morrisville, North Carolina, a semifinalist last year.

— Avishka Dudala, a 13-year-old eighth-grader from Prosper, Texas, a semifinalist last year.

— Logan Bailey, a 12-year-old sixth-grader from Houston. The winner of the North South Foundation spelling bee, he is making his debut on the national stage.

What are the prizes for the Scripps National Spelling Bee champion?

The winner receives a custom trophy and more than $50,000 in cash and prizes. Here are the prize payouts:

— First place: $52,500 in cash, reference works from Encyclopaedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster, a custom trophy and commemorative medal, and $1,000 in flight credits from Delta Air Lines.

— Second place: $25,000.

— Third place: $15,000.

— Fourth place: $10,000.

— Fifth place: $5,000.

— Sixth place: $2,500.

— All other finalists: $2,000.

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Ben Nuckols has covered the Scripps National Spelling Bee since 2012. Follow his work here.

The measure, which goes against the guidance by the World Health Organization, underscores growing fears of contagion in East Africa from Bundibugyo, a rare type of the Ebola virus that is behind this outbreak and that has no approved medicines or vaccines.

Like Congo, Uganda has faced Ebola outbreaks in the past. A local Ugandan task force made the decision on the border closure. The Ugandan health workers were exposed to the virus by Congolese patients who had crossed the border before the outbreak was declared in eastern Congo on May 15.

The border closure was temporary, with “immediate effect,” Dr. Diana Atwine of the Ugandan Ministry of Health, told journalists. Border crossings will be authorized only in emergency cases, including for the outbreak response, humanitarian, cargo or security reasons, she added.

Anyone entering from Congo under emergency circumstances will be taken into mandatory isolation for 21 days.

Congo says over 100 cases have been confirmed

Tracing and isolating Ebola contacts is seen as key to stopping the spread of the disease, which usually manifests as hemorrhagic fever. The virus is spread through close contact with sick or deceased patients’ bodily fluids. Experts say healthcare workers and family members caring for patients face the highest risk.

The number of suspected cases in eastern Congo is nearing 1,000, with at least 220 suspected deaths. Congo’s health ministry on Tuesday said 101 cases have been confirmed, and they are looking into over 3,000 possible contacts.

On Wednesday, Congolese authorities said that the first person who recovered from the Bundibugyo virus has been released home from a treatment center in Rwampara, one of the towns in eastern Congo at the heart of the outbreak.

WHO has discouraged border closures with Congo while acknowledging that neighboring countries are at high risk of contagion. The U.N. health agency has declared this outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.

Closures "push the movement of people and goods to informal border crossings that are not monitored, thus increasing the chances of the spread of disease," the agency said.

The Uganda-Congo border is several hundred miles long and crossed by numerous footpaths beyond formal border posts. Many people come and go in the course of a day to visit families or to trade.

Congolese health authorities are struggling to contain the outbreak, which WHO says is outpacing them. The rare type of Ebola was confirmed weeks late as tests were carried out for a more common type. Challenges also include the threat from armed groups in eastern Congo, a large number of displaced people and poor infrastructure.

WHO's Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on Wednesday for a ceasefire in eastern Congo to allow safe access for responders and others, saying on social media that “attacks on health facilities make tracking cases and their contacts nearly impossible.”

Responders in Congo have said they are underprepared and under-protected for this outbreak, while conflict-traumatized residents, long wary of outsiders, have attacked a number of clinics and hurled stones and abuse at volunteers trying to make people aware of the virus and its risks.

Infected people or those have been in contact should not undertake international travel unless it’s a medical evacuation, WHO has said. On Wednesday, the Trump administration said it is planning to send Americans who are exposed to Ebola to a new facility in Kenya instead of flying them to the United States.

Uganda is concerned about exposed health workers

Uganda has reported seven cases of Ebola, including the first case of a 59-year-old man who died in Kampala, the country's capital, on May 14. While the Ebola case load is not spiking, the number of locals exposed to infection via health workers has been rising.

“They have families, and so the number has been increasing,” Atwine, the Ugandan health official, said of the health workers.

She also said she was dismayed to see some Ugandans forming crowds to celebrate Arsenal as British Premier League champions. The team has a large following in Uganda. Atwine urged people to be vigilant, avoid shaking hands and use sanitizer.

Congo has had 17 Ebola outbreaks. Health experts say aid cuts last year by the U.S. and other rich nations are devastating for eastern Congo, in part because of the region’s unique problems.

Aid groups fighting this outbreak say they don’t have the equipment they need, including face shields and suits to protect health workers from infection, testing kits and body bags needed to safely bury victims.

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Associated Press writer Jean-Yves Kamale in Kinshasa, Congo, contributed to this report.

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

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