The Irish Air Corps plane carrying Daniel Kinahan, 49, landed at an airport on the outskirts of Dublin on Sunday evening after courts in Dubai refused to block his extradition.

Kinahan was taken to the Special Criminal Court in Dublin where he was charged with directing the activities of a criminal organization. He was ordered to remain in custody at the high-security Portlaoise Prison about 90 miles (145 kilometers) southwest of the capital. His next court appearance is scheduled for Oct. 5.

Ireland’s Special Criminal Court handles all organized crime and terrorism cases, as well as others where prosecutors believe the ordinary courts are inadequate to ensure the “effective administration of justice.” Cases are heard by a panel of three judges without a jury.

Large security operation for Kinahan's transfer to Dublin

Irish media reported that a huge security operation was underway to ensure Kinahan faces justice. It included armed police, members of the armed forces and the prison service — which recently acquired a bombproof escort van to transport organized crime suspects, terrorists and other high-risk prisoners, Irish broadcaster RTE reported.

The security precautions came after Kinahan's family members were linked to a bloody gang war with another Irish organized crime group. U.S. authorities said in 2022 that the feud had resulted in 18 murders as they announced a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the disruption of the Kinahan organization or the arrest and conviction of Daniel Kinahan.

“Since February 2016, the (Kinahan Organized Crime Group) has been involved in a gang war with another group in Ireland and Spain, resulting in numerous murders, including of two innocent bystanders,” the U.S. Treasury Department said when it sanctioned six members of the Kinahan gang and three businesses linked to it.

Irish police, with the help of authorities in Britain, Spain and the U.S., have been pursuing members of the Kinahan gang since at least 2016, when the feud led to a daytime shooting during the weigh-in for a boxing match at a Dublin hotel. Kinahan was a boxing promoter at the time.

The authorities allege the gang smuggled tens of millions of dollars in illegal drugs, including cocaine and cannabis, as well as guns into Europe, then used a network of apparently legitimate enterprises to launder the profits.

‘Large quantities of cocaine’ from South America

Kinahan is believed to have run the day-to-day operations of the gang from his base in Dubai, the U.S. Treasury said. That includes buying “large quantities of cocaine” from South America, organizing its distribution in Ireland and attempting to smuggle drugs into the U.K., Treasury said.

Kinahan has also instructed gang members to deliver money to a number of people in prison, including one who was convicted of attempting to murder someone on behalf of the organization, the agency said.

He was detained by Dubai authorities in April on an Irish arrest warrant.

During a phone interview with Scottish podcaster James English last week, Kinahan denied being an organized crime boss and described himself as the victim of a conspiracy to tarnish his reputation. While he said the extradition proceedings were expedited due to a deal between the Irish and Dubai governments, he said he hoped his trial in Dublin would help clear his name.

“I believe, in a way, I am a scapegoat,” he said in the interview posted on TikTok. "And anyone that looks into this so-called feud that they say they have created, then you will see, you will see things yourself if someone has the time to look into it.”

In March 2022, the head of the Kinahan organization in Britain, Thomas “Bomber” Kavanagh, was sentenced to 21 years in prison after he was convicted of orchestrating drug shipments into the U.K. Two other men were sentenced to 20 years and 19 1/2 years for their part in the crimes.

In the course of their investigation, police found 15 kilograms of cocaine and 220 kilograms of cannabis inside asphalt removal equipment fitted with a tracking device at the port of Dover on the English Channel, Britain’s National Crime Agency said when Kavanagh was sentenced.

Kavanagh lived in a mansion equipped with bulletproof glass and reinforced doors in Tamworth, northeast of Birmingham. When police raided the property in 2019 they seized numerous weapons and 35,000 pounds of cash in various currencies, including Emirati dirhams and euros, as well as British pounds, the crime agency said.

Scores of firefighters, backed by 43 helicopters, have been deployed to battle wildfires that have burned more than 107,000 hectares (264,000 acres) of forests and other land across the Southeast Asian nation as of Monday, Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Djamari Chaniago said.

East Java authorities said the largest blaze is burning in Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park in East Java province, where about 743 hectares (1,836 acres) have been scorched. Authorities have closed the park to visitors until further notice.

It said the fire has burned large areas of dry grassland, vegetation and protected edelweiss flowers as flames have spread to the Penanjakan area, a popular viewpoint for tourists visiting Mount Bromo, one of Indonesia’s best-known attractions. No injuries or evacuations have been reported.

Chaniago said weather-modification, or cloud-seeding, operations are considered one of the most effective ways to help firefighters combat wildfires by inducing rainfall through the dispersal of salt particles into suitable clouds. Strengthening El Nino conditions have raised the risk of more forest and land fires during the peak dry season.

However, the effort would be difficult to carry out because scientific monitoring “found no rain-bearing clouds suitable for weather-modification operations through Aug. 18,” Chaniago told a news conference Monday. He spoke after a meeting with related ministers and agency chiefs dealing with wildfires in the capital, Jakarta.

With cloud-seeding ruled out because of unfavorable weather conditions, "we are relying solely on water bombing and ground firefighting teams,” said Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni while visiting Mount Bromo on Sunday. He urged the public to avoid activities that could spark new blazes, including discarding cigarette butts and clearing land by burning.

Wildfires have been reported in several of Indonesia’s most fire-prone regions, including the provinces of Riau, Jambi and South Sumatra on Sumatra island, and Central Kalimantan and South Kalimantan on Borneo island, Chaniago said.

In Jambi, more than 50 hectares (124 acres) of peatland have burned, causing choking haze in some areas and raising concerns about worsening air quality. The largest fire has been reported in the village of Sungai Gelam in the Muaro Jambi district, where dozens of hectares of palm oil plantations owned by local residents have been destroyed. The blaze has burned since Wednesday.

About 300 firefighters and disaster personnel have been deployed to battle the fire. Officials said deep peat soil, limited water supplies, difficult access and strong winds have complicated efforts, even with three helicopters conducting aerial firefighting operations.

Forest and peat fires are an annual problem in Indonesia that strain relations with neighboring countries.

Malaysia has reported unhealthy air-quality levels in parts of Sarawak state on Borneo island, with officials saying winds were carrying smoke from hot spots in neighboring areas. In Singapore, authorities have warned that prevailing southeasterly winds could carry smoke toward the city-state, with dry conditions expected to prevail.

“We must uphold the nation’s credibility by showing that we can bring these fires under control,” Chaniago said.

Indonesia’s Meteorological, Climatological and Geophysical Agency said August and September are expected to be the most critical months as dry vegetation and strong winds create favorable conditions for fires to spread rapidly.

Wildfires in Indonesia, an archipelago nation of more than 17,000 islands, are often started illegally by plantation owners or traditional farmers to clear land for planting.

___

Karmini reported from Jakarta. Associated Press writers Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Indonesia and Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed to this report.

In a letter sent Sunday evening to the Department of Homeland Security, the Defense Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Democrats said they will investigate whether the Pentagon and DHS are coordinating to deport military service members and their families.

“These efforts imperil military readiness, weaken service members’ morale, and betray America’s promises to the people who put their lives on the line for our nation,” according to the letter, which was signed by more than 60 lawmakers and provided to the AP.

The Pentagon declined to comment, stating it would “reply directly to the authors of the letter.”

DHS told the AP that it values service members' contributions and “U.S. military service alone does not automatically grant lawful immigration status, or exempt aliens from the consequences of violating U.S. immigration laws.”

The VA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In their letter, the Democrats provided an extensive list of questions to the agencies. They said the apparent collaboration between DHS and the military to deport troops’ families “raises both ethical and legal concerns.”

“Donald Trump is breaking our country’s promises to service members by tearing apart dozens of military families who were promised immigration protections,” Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said. “That’s just plain cruel, and it’s hurting our military readiness and morale.”

Warren's office is leading the probe alongside Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth and several House Democrats.

The AP investigation found President Donald Trump's administration has rolled back protections for military families and departed from longstanding bipartisan consensus to carry out its mass deportation agenda. Service members have been forced to take leave of their duties, including delaying deployment, to care for their children after their spouses were detained.

The lawmakers pressed the administration on why military recruiters are still promoting immigration protections.

Citing the AP's reporting, the lawmakers urged the Trump administration to restore policies that had previously shielded military service members' families from immigration enforcement while allowing them to adjust their legal status.

“This report is appalling and shows the unbelievable cruelty at the center of the Trump immigration agenda,” said Blumenthal, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs. “We will be demanding answers and accountability.”

The Republican chairs of the armed services and veterans’ affairs committees, Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker and Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran, did not respond to requests for comment.

Last week, Trump established the Military Spouse Commission, chaired by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s wife, Jennifer Rauchet, to develop policies and recommendations for improving life for troops' spouses.

“Military spouses are intrinsically linked to the good order, readiness, and retention of our military,” Trump stated in a letter published in the Federal Register on Aug. 6. “Their support and contributions to our Armed Forces are crucial to mission success.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

The Defense Department said in a December letter to Democratic lawmakers, obtained by the AP, that it had not implemented any recent policy changes for noncitizen family members in the military and has not conducted analysis on how deportations impact troop readiness and morale.

Danitza James, president of Repatriate Our Patriots, an organization providing support to military families and veterans facing deportation, said troops are being betrayed.

“Our military service members are the ones that sign on the dotted line to go and defend our country and maybe not come back,” James said. “They trust our government to take care of their families, and they’re not doing that.”

___

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

Investigators said the incident began around 2:15 a.m. in the 3700 block of Liles Lane when the teen and two women got into an argument with another woman.

The teen allegedly fired several shots, striking the woman he was arguing with in the leg or foot.

The 49-year-old woman suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to a hospital, according to investigators.

The teen and the two women who were with him initially fled the scene, authorities said. The suspected shooter was later taken into custody.

• Drive-by shooting on I-45 leaves 19-year-old in critical condition

The teen has been charged with aggravated assault.

The investigation remains ongoing.

Last year, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, ended its decades-long armed campaign against the Turkish state, declaring a decision to disarm and disband as part of the peace effort. The move came in response to a call from its imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan.

The PKK then staged a symbolic disarmament ceremony in northern Iraq, where it is based, and announced that it was withdrawing fighters from key locations in Turkey to Iraq.

The measure, which is a step toward ending a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people, could have implications beyond Turkey's borders, leading to closer Turkish-Iraqi ties. It could also support the Syrian government's efforts to integrate areas that were under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, affiliated with the PKK.

It also offers Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan the opportunity to court the support of the pro-Kurdish DEM party to help him remain in office beyond the presidential two-term limit. Erdogan could run again if parliament calls an early election during his current term.

The 12-article draft legislation outlines the procedures for the disarmament of the group — which still retains the bulk of its weapons — and the rehabilitation of thousands of PKK members.

The legislation would suspend some prison sentences for convicted PKK members and postpone ongoing investigations and trials for five or 10 years, depending on the severity of the alleged offenses. If no terror-related crime is committed within the time frame, the cases would be dropped.

Militants convicted of intentional killings and those sentenced to life terms before 2005 are excluded from the bill’s provisions. This applies to Ocalan and other senior PKK figures.

The proposal also sets up ministerial and parliamentary committees to monitor the disarmament process. The measures would come into effect only after Turkey’s National Security Council confirms that the group has disbanded and surrendered all weapons.

Those wanting to benefit from the law would have six months to apply after the National Security Council’s decision is published in the official gazette.

Media reports have said exiled PKK members and those in Iraq and Syria are expected to benefit.

“The people of Turkey, who have paid a heavy price for many years, now have an opportunity to consolidate peace and build democracy,” Gulistan Kilic Kocyigit, of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party, or DEM, told parliament.

“Of course, the proposal has shortcomings, and we now have a responsibility to address these shortcomings,” she added, in an apparent reference to demands for greater rights for Kurds and for democratic reforms.

Musavat Dervisoglu, the leader of the center-right nationalist Good Party which opposes the bill, said it “would pave the way” for Erdogan to stay in power.

The measures were expected to easily pass with the votes of Erdogan's ruling party, its nationalist allies and DEM.

DEM has lobbied for Ocalan, who has been imprisoned since 1999, to be granted official status to coordinate the transition process, leading to his release.

The current proposal, however, makes no mention of Ocalan’s status or possible release.

Media reports have suggested however, that Ocalan’s conditions in his island prison off Istanbul will likely be improved, giving him broader visiting conditions and communication with the outside world.

The PKK has waged an armed insurgency since 1984 that has claimed tens of thousands of lives and spilled into Iraq and Syria. It has been designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

The group initially sought an independent Kurdish state but later shifted to demands for autonomy and expanded rights in Turkey.

Previous peace efforts between Turkey and the PKK have failed, most recently in 2015.

National weather agency Météo-France is warning about temperatures approaching 40 C (104 F) from Tuesday onward in southeastern France. And in the U.K., an amber heat health alert for most of England will be in place beginning Tuesday as temperatures are forecast to climb to 36 C (96.8 F) later this week.

Across Europe, the extreme heat began in May and has contributed to major wildfires, prolonged drought and new national temperature records, as well as thousands of projected heat-related deaths.

Globally, so far this is the third-hottest year, behind 2024 and 2025, climate statistics show. But 2026 still has time to catch up. Thanks to the one-two punch of accelerated human-caused global warming and a supersized El Niño — a periodic warming of parts of the Pacific that leads to temperature variations around the globe — there’s an increasing chance that by the end of the year, 2026 could become the hottest year on record, scientists said.

Last month saw the highest average sea surface temperature ever recorded for July across the extrapolar oceans, or the oceans free of seasonal sea ice, according to the European climate agency Copernicus.

That was partially fueled by developing El Niño conditions in the equatorial Pacific, the service said. The new average record for July is 20.96 degrees Celsius (69.73 degrees Fahrenheit), which beat the 2023 record of 20.89 C (69.60 F).

But last month’s average surface air temperature globally was 16.90 C (62.42 F), making it only the joint second warmest July on record, tied with July 2024, Copernicus reported.

In Western Europe, meanwhile, the average temperature record for the June-July period hit 21.62 C (70.92 F), Copernicus said, toppling the 2022 record.

“Persistent high-pressure systems trapped heat over western Europe, the extreme temperatures also amplified widespread drought. As soils dry out, they lose their ability to provide natural cooling, allowing heat to build more readily,” said Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.

“This is a clear example of how climate change is intensifying heat extremes, with heat and drought increasingly reinforcing one another.”

In France alone, heat wave alerts were issued for the first time on record in May, when more than half the country recorded new monthly temperature highs. The heat intensified in June, a period during which at least 5,700 more deaths than usual were recorded, according to France’s public health agency.

Météo-France said June 23 was the hottest day ever recorded in the country. Temperatures climbed as high as 44.3 C (111.7 F) in the southwest.

Two other heat wave episodes were recorded in July, amplifying a historic wildfire in southwestern France that forced 220,000 people to flee their homes in one of the continent’s biggest evacuation efforts since World War II.

Temperatures were slightly cooler in the U.K. on Monday but the country readied for its fifth heat wave in an exceptionally hot and dry summer, with half of England and all of Wales plunged into drought.

The heat alert warns that significant impacts on health services, including a rise in deaths among older and vulnerable people, are likely.

Two record-breaking heat waves in May and June led to more than 2,800 excess deaths linked to extreme temperatures.

___

Dazio reported from Berlin. Sylvia Hui in London contributed to this report.

Back to school forecast:

Be prepared to pack the umbrella in the kiddos’ backpack. The first day of school brings a chance for more widespread showers and storms. The increase in rain is due to a slug of thicker moisture from the Gulf swinging westward toward Texas.

The downpours may lead to street flooding and ponding Monday.

Showers start in the morning as early as 7 am south of I-10 and continue to build inland through the afternoon and evening. By 5 pm, shower and storm intensity begins to fall apart.

Tracking the tropics:

August is the “real” start of the hurricane season. 93% of hurricanes form after August 3rd. However, this is not your typical hurricane season. With an incredibly strong El Nino the numbers will be kept way down this season. No storms are expected in the next 10 days and probably a little further than that. Wind shear in the Caribbean is the strongest it’s been since 1979. Oh, and there is some thick Saharan dust over the Atlantic.

The National Hurricane Center marking a tropical wave that will move off the coast of Africa early week, has two tropical waves that could develop over the next 7 days. One has a low chance of 20% and other has a 50% chance. The disturbances will have to overcome high levels of wind shear that is currently in the Atlantic.

10 Day Forecast:

Rain chances gradually decrease after Monday. Expect pop-up showers and storms through Wednesday, and then rain chances return over the weekend.

The City of Galveston is sharing information about the program ahead of an outreach event where homeowners can learn more about available assistance and whether they may qualify.

• Back to school! Send us your first-day photos on Click2Pins

The Texas General Land Office will host an outreach event from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 29, at the Moore Memorial Public Library in Texas City.

Homeowners who experienced property damage during eligible 2024 disasters can attend to learn whether they may qualify for:

• Assistance to rebuild their homes
• Reimbursement for certain eligible repairs
• Other disaster recovery assistance available through the program

The program is intended to help eligible homeowners recover from damage caused by 2024 disasters, including Hurricane Beryl.

• When does school start? Here’s when Houston-area districts return for the 2026-27 school year

Homeowners do not have to wait until the outreach event to learn more or apply.

For more information or to apply, visit recovery.texas.gov/apply.

Homeowners can also call 1-844-893-8937 with questions about the program and eligibility.

In an “open letter to the football family” revealed on Monday, UEFA, CONCACAF and the AFC also said that “when trust is broken through deception, when an individual places himself above the collective that entrusted him with authority, that duty has been abandoned.”

UEFA runs soccer in Europe, CONCACAF does the same for North, Central America and the Caribbean, while the AFC governs the sport in Asia.

The letter was co-signed by UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin, AFC president Salman Bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa, CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani and three general secretaries.

“Football is the world’s greatest shared passion. It belongs to no individual and no institution. It belongs to the players, the fans, the clubs, the member associations and every institution entrusted with safeguarding its future,” the open letter said. “It is in that spirit, as confederations representing its members, that we speak collectively today.”

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

“It is not the conduct of a custodian of the game, but of one who believes the game is answerable to him,” the letter said. “These are not the qualities football deserves in its leadership. That is why we have taken this stance: not lightly and not alone, but together, and out of duty to the game we serve.”

UEFA previously issued a threat to boycott the World Cup and other FIFA competitions despite the governing body abandoning and apologizing for its failed plan.

Norway’s soccer federation called for Infantino to step down, while the English Football Association has also withdrawn its support for Infantino’s re-election next March.

“Football’s strength has always been its unity. We call for that unity to be honoured now,” the letter said. “For leadership that serves football, not seeks to command it.”

Last Wednesday, FIFA said it had apologized for errors made over the failed plan but that senior staff at a crisis meeting in Morocco “reaffirmed their full support” for his presidency.

However, the nature of the meeting was also met with criticism.

“FIFA’s own letter also confirms that only one elected official was present at the leadership meeting in Morocco,” the open letter said. “No FIFA Council members or Member Associations were invited to participate. Only the management committee, composed of FIFA-employed senior staff, was present.”

FIFA was also urged to go further than just acknowledging mistakes were made.

“It treats this as a failure of communication, when what football witnessed was a failure of judgment,” the letter said. “There remains no recognition that attempting to sell an interest in the FIFA World Cup was a profound failure of judgment — not just a procedural misstep, but a fundamental breach of trust with the very institutions FIFA exists to serve.”

In a statement Saturday, FIFA defended Infantino against what it called a “concerted and ongoing effort” to undermine his leadership of the organization.

That statement followed a report by British newspaper The Daily Telegraph raising questions about an exit package paid by UEFA to a female staffer who worked with Infantino when he was general secretary of European soccer's ruling body.

UEFA confirmed that a “departure payment” was made to the employee and said it was “in line” with regulations at the time.

Infantino worked at UEFA for 16 years before being elected FIFA president.

___

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

Can you believe it? It’s time to send our kids back to school. It seems like summer just started, and for some, it probably did. But, students across Houston are headed back to school this week, and we here at KPRC 2 are doing everything to make sure not only the students are prepared, but so are parents. Keep reading to get all the news you need to know on back-to-school.

As always, follow us for the latest on Click2Houston.com and watch us live on KPRC 2+.

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Weather ⛅

TODAY: 91° TONIGHT: 83°

KPRC Meteorologist says:

“Be prepared to pack the umbrella in the kiddos’ backpack. The first day of school brings a chance for more widespread showers and storms. The increase in rain is due to a slug of thicker moisture from the Gulf swinging westward toward Texas.”

➡️ More weather headlines? Check them out here

Get your forecast details here.

Houston’s Top Headlines 📰

Parents warned about dangerous fake squishy toys that can cause serious burns

Parents are being warned about potentially dangerous fake and counterfeit squishy toys that could pose serious risks to children.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issued the warning Aug. 5, also reiterating its concerns about a viral social media trend encouraging children and teens to microwave or heat squishy toys.

Teen charged after shooting woman in Atascocita after argument

A teenage boy is accused of shooting a woman after an argument Monday morning in Humble, according to Precinct 4 Constables.

Investigators said the incident began around 2:15 a.m. in the 3700 block of Liles Lane when the teen and two women got into an argument with another woman.

15 states now linked to iceberg lettuce cyclospora outbreak, CDC says

Parasitic illness cases in 15 states have been linked to iceberg lettuce, U.S. health officials said Wednesday.

Cyclospora cases have been reported in at least 47 states this year, and investigators have continued to probe how many could be linked to a common contaminated source.

Drive-by shooting on I-45 leaves 19-year-old in critical condition

A 19-year-old is in critical condition after a drive-by shooting late Sunday night in Houston.

North Belt patrol units spotted a truck parked on the feeder road near I-45 and Glenborough Drive around 11:40 p.m. When officers approached the vehicle, they found it had been struck by multiple gunshots.

Remains found in search for missing New Caney woman

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office says investigators have recovered human remains believed to be those of Maria Ortiz, a New Caney resident reported missing last month.

Maria Veronica Ortiz Estrada was reported missing by family members in July, after she left her residence in the Oak Knoll area of New Caney on foot. Relatives told investigators Ortiz had been experiencing memory and confusion issues.

Back 2 School

Back-to-school anxiety? Houston area experts share ways parents can help kids adjust to a new grade

As students prepare to head back to the classroom, parents are checking off school supply lists, buying new clothes and getting back into routines. But experts say preparing children emotionally for a new school year is just as important.

Whether your child is starting kindergarten, moving to middle school or simply entering a new grade, it’s normal for them to feel nervous about the transition.

Back to school! Send us your first-day photos on Click2Pins

Friendswood ISD says the start of the school year at Westwood Elementary School will be delayed as the district works to deal with moisture and mold inside the building.

In a letter posted by the district on Facebook, the district said it hired a third-party environmental consultant to conduct air and surface testing in July after campus administration reported increased moisture and additional visible surface mold in portions of the building.

Back-to-School schemes are on the rise: What parents need to know before clicking

The backpacks are packed, the alarms are set and for thousands of Houston-area students, it’s time to head back to class!

Whether you’re snapping that traditional front-door photo before heading to the bus stop, documenting the morning drop-off or catching some interesting weather along the way, share your photos and videos with KPRC 2 through Click2Pins.

When does school start? Here’s when Houston-area districts return for the 2026-27 school year

Summer break is winding down, and students across the Houston area will soon be heading back to the classroom.

Several school districts begin classes during the second week of August, while others won’t welcome students back until later in the month.

Our Inters Produced a newscast - Check it out

On Sunday, our interns streamed a self-produced newscast. Check ot out and let us know what you think.

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Terry Black’s BBQ is finally coming to Houston, so you can skip the drive to Austin

Healthy eating on a budget: Dietitian shares grocery shopping tips as food prices rise

New study ranks the most and least safest big cities in the country; Where does Houston land on the list?

In case you missed it... 👀

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We’re tracking your forecast, bringing you traffic solutions, and covering important news LIVE from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. on KPRC 2 and the KPRC 2+ livestream. Join us today!

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issued the warning Aug. 5, also reiterating its concerns about a viral social media trend encouraging children and teens to microwave or heat squishy toys.

Squishy toys, including animal-, food- and character-shaped squeeze toys, are widely sold online, through social media, discount stores and other retailers.

• When does school start? Here’s when Houston-area districts return for the 2026-27 school year

According to the CPSC, counterfeit versions may not meet federal safety requirements for children’s products. Some may contain water beads, small parts, lead, phthalates or other potentially hazardous substances.

Why are squishy toys dangerous?

Some squishy toys contain water beads, gels, liquids, powders or sand. If the toy’s outer covering tears or bursts, children could be exposed to the filling.

Water beads can expand after being swallowed and potentially cause intestinal blockages, choking or aspiration. They can also cause injuries if inserted into a child’s nose or ear.

The CPSC also warned that some fake toys may:

• Break or tear easily, releasing small parts or hazardous materials
• Contain excessive levels of lead, prohibited phthalates or other chemicals
• Fail to meet federal requirements for water beads
• Lack required safety warnings, age information or manufacturer details
• Be sold without required testing and certification

The agency said it has identified 55 shipments of violative squishy toys at U.S. ports and worked with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to prevent 355,683 units from entering the country.

Don’t microwave or heat squishy toys

The CPSC is also warning consumers about videos circulating online that show squishy toys expanding, changing texture or bursting when heated.

The agency said these demonstrations are dangerous and should not be copied.

Squishy toys can become dangerously hot when left in direct sunlight, inside a hot vehicle, near a heater or on another hot surface. If heated, the toys can burst and release material that can cause severe burns. The filling can stick to skin and continue transferring heat, potentially making an injury worse.

The CPSC says never microwave or intentionally heat a squishy toy.

How to spot a potentially dangerous toy

The CPSC recommends that parents and caregivers:

• Buy toys from reputable retailers and verified sellers.
• Be cautious of unusually low prices, which could indicate a counterfeit or substandard product.
• Check packaging for misspellings, poor-quality printing and missing manufacturer information or safety warnings.
• Stop using toys that are torn, punctured, leaking, sticky, unusually soft, discolored or deteriorating.
• Keep damaged toys away from children.
• Follow age restrictions and safety warnings.
• Keep squishy toys away from heat, including hot cars and prolonged direct sunlight.

Parents should also avoid toys with an unknown manufacturer, missing safety information, strong chemical odors, an oily or unusually sticky texture or toys that can be easily torn apart.

What to do if a burn occurs

The CPSC recommends immediately placing burned skin under cool running water for at least 20 minutes.

Gently wash the area with mild soap to remove any remaining material. Do not use ice.

After cooling and cleaning the injury, cover the burn with a nonstick sterile dressing. Seek medical attention for a severe burn, a burn involving a young child or signs of infection.

Russian officials didn't say what the drones targeted, but the city is an important oil refining hub, home to two refineries and a petrochemical plant. Ukraine has targeted Russian oil facilities with long-range drones almost daily in recent months. The barrage has caused fuel shortages in Russia, eaten into Russian refining capacity and unsettled the Russian public.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says it is a campaign to force Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table and stop his more than 4-year-old invasion.

Nizhnekamsk came under a “massive” drone attack targeting industrial and civilian facilities on Monday morning, according to the press service of Tatarstan’s head, Rustam Minnikhanov. No further details were immediately available.

Ukraine's General Staff said its forces struck a Taneco oil refinery in Nizhnekamsk, starting a fire.

It was not possible to independently verify either side's claims.

Nizhnekamsk is roughly 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) east of the Ukrainian border and has a population of about 240,000.

Ukraine’s domestically developed long-range drones have flown increasing distances deep inside Russia, with some now reaching Siberia, around 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) from the border.

“We do deliver entirely justified responses, and every Russian strike will be met with our response. Russia’s war will be felt more and more at their own home – in Russia,” Zelenskyy said late Sunday on social media.

“The only reason this is still continuing is Russia’s unwillingness to end this war.”

Russia has also regularly battered Ukraine from the air using missiles, powerful glide bombs and drones, hitting civilian areas and causing thousands of civilian casualties, according to the United Nations.

The World Health Organization’s European office said Monday that one of its warehouses in the central Dnipro region of Ukraine had been struck twice in less than 24 hours.

The attacks destroyed emergency supplies worth an estimated $500,000 that were intended for front-line health facilities, it said in a statement. No casualties were reported.

___

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

The district participates in the Community Eligibility Program (CEP) through the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program. This is the final year of Spring ISD’s current CEP cycle.

• Back to school! Send us your first-day photos on Click2Pins

Because of the program, all students will be offered breakfast and lunch at no cost every school day. The district will not collect meal applications to determine whether students qualify for free, reduced-price or paid meals.

However, Spring ISD will continue collecting household income information through its annual online student update process. Families who have not yet completed the annual update are encouraged to do so as soon as possible through the district’s returning student portal.

• When does school start? Here’s when Houston-area districts return for the 2026-27 school year

Families who believe they qualify for free or reduced-price meals can complete an application through SchoolCafe.

While all Spring ISD students will receive free breakfast and lunch, families who qualify based on household income may also be eligible for additional benefits, including discounts on testing and college application fees.

SchoolCafe also allows parents to view school menus and add money to their student’s meal account for a la carte purchases.

Parents can visit SchoolCafe for more information about meal programs and student meal accounts.

Oil prices rose as the status of efforts to end the conflict in the Middle East remained uncertain.

In early European trading, Germany's DAX rose 0.3% to 26,411.01, while the CAC 40 in Paris edged 0.1% lower, to 8,703.73. Britain's FTSE 100 lost 0.3% to 10,869.35.

The future for the S&P 500 was up 0.1%, while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.1%.

In Tokyo, the benchmark Nikkei 225 jumped 2.1% to 66,970.22, pulled higher by strong gains for technology companies.

Computer chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron climbed 4.1%, while chip testing device maker Advantest rose 6.4%.

In South Korea, the gains were more modest, as the Kospi added 0.7% to 6,299.66 as shares in major chipmakers slipped. Samsung Electronics lost 0.4%, while its smaller rival, memory chipmaker SK Hynix, lost 0.1%.

Analysts said foreign investors were selling shares in the Big Tech companies to lock in profits from recent gains and rebalance holdings into other industries, such as defense contractors.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 1.1% to 25,937.49, while the Shanghai Composite index picked up 0.7% to 3,966.59.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.3% to 9,232.60.

Taiwan's Taiex surged 1.6% and the Sensex in India was nearly unchanged.

Oil prices rose after Israel rejected a deal announced by U.S. President Donald Trump for Gaza. Details emerged on the potential deal between Iran and Oman on managing the Strait of Hormuz as Tehran suggested that vessels linked to “hostile countries” would be barred.

Meanwhile, Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels struck a government-held port on the country’s Red Sea coast, deepening fears over threats to strategic shipping routes and a potential return to civil war.

Brent crude, the international standard, gained 0.8% to $84.23 per barrel. U.S. benchmark crude advanced 0.7% to $78.72 per barrel.

“Negotiators said that a deal to establish a safe shipping route was close, but Iran may now be exploring just how much it can extract from the U.S. in return,” Bas van Geffen, senior macro strategist for Rabobank, said in a commentary.

This week, investors will get several important inflation updates for the U.S. The most closely watched will be the consumer price index, or CPI, which measures costs for consumers. Inflation in July is forecast to have risen at a 3.4% rate, easing slightly from 3.5% in June. Inflation has held stubbornly above 3% for most of the year.

On Friday, U.S. stocks rose and Treasury yields fell after the government reported that employers unexpectedly cut 23,000 jobs last month.

A weaker jobs market raised hopes the Federal Reserve might wait longer before raising interest rates to fight inflation. That buoyed share prices, pushing every major index to a second straight week of gains and several fresh records.

The S&P 500 rose 0.6% to 7,757.64, topping an all-time high. The Dow industrials rose 0.3% to 54,036.93, just short of the record it set on Wednesday. The Nasdaq composite rose 1.3% to 26,690.62.

Overall, the jobs report dimmed one of the brighter areas of the economy, adding to worries about household spending at a time of high inflation. It included a revision to the figures for June and May that involved slashing a combined 103,000 jobs from payrolls for those months.

Slowing employment complicates the Fed's effort to balance job growth with fighting inflation. Higher interest rates can help tame inflation by slowing economic growth, but businesses will find it more difficult to expand under increased borrowing rates.

As usual, technology stocks did much of the heavy lifting for the broader market. Nvidia jumped 2.3% and Broadcom rose 1.7%.

In other dealings early Monday, the U.S. dollar rose to 158.72 Japanese yen from 157.71 yen. The euro fell to $1.15617 from $1.1568.

BELLS — Last year, Mason McCallister saw survey markers on a property near his home in a rural community about an hour north of Dallas. He suspected it might be for a new data center he’d heard about from a neighbor.

But information hasn’t come easy. He found no project announcements and saw nothing on county agendas. Several local officials told him they knew nothing of the project.

The 34-year-old realtor searched property records. He knocked on neighbors’ doors to ask what they knew. His wife, also a realtor, asked the surveyors who was buying the land, and his grandma chased a neighbor down at church to ask if he sold his property.

Eventually, McCallister mapped companies contracting with landowners all around him including Black Mountain, an energy and digital infrastructure group based in Fort Worth. He dug up a permit for a power plant from a company with the same address as Black Mountain, indicating the data center could build its own power source.

Then in March, after months of searching for answers, McCallister drove 100 miles to a town hall in the Fort Worth area where he learned Black Mountain’s CEO, Rhett Bennett, would be speaking about a different project.

After the presentation, McCallister confronted the CEO and got his confirmation: Yes, Black Mountain was exploring a data center near his home.

“Deep down I was always hoping that I was wrong,” said McCallister, after getting his answer.

As data center proposals are popping up across Texas, local residents have grown increasingly frustrated by how difficult it can be to get information about the projects that they say threaten to disrupt their communities. Armies of concerned neighbors, such as McCallister, have become their own private detectives in search of signs or confirmation about data center plans in lieu of public disclosures, pestering local officials at meetings or in the grocery store and sharing their findings across Facebook groups with thousands of members.

“Knowledge is power, right?” said McCallister, whose family has owned the property in Bells for roughly 150 years. “Everyone’s being so quiet about it, and everyone’s being so secret about it. If it was so good for the community, they would be screaming it from the rooftops.”

Black Mountain officials declined comment.

Homeowners aren’t the only ones operating in the dark. Local officials say they’ve been blindsided by data center projects or asked to consider approval without adequate information. For example, The Texas Tribune reported that Hood County was sued by a data center developer after they rejected a concept plan, citing lack of information about where the facility would draw its water from.

In other cases, nondisclosure agreements prevent local officials who are negotiating deals with companies from sharing what they know. In other cases, tech giants use shell companies to shield their identity in public filings.

Oftentimes, locals and even county officials say they don’t learn of the project until it’s too late to try to stop it. Indeed, officials with Crusoe, a developer building a massive data center in Abilene, shared in a presentation to state electric grid officials this year that local outreach typically begins after securing land, contractor selection and financing begin.

At least 34 Texas counties have formally called on the state to make more information available, including Grayson County where McCallister lives, according to a tracker kept by Public Citizen, an advocacy organization which has worked with grassroots data center opposition groups.

“Nothing in no way, shape, form or fashion has ever been presented to the government of Grayson County,” said county Commissioner Art Arthur. “I don’t know that there has to be. That’s the scary part.”

Meanwhile, state leaders are calling for tougher laws in the coming legislative session to make data centers report more information.

Last week, Gov. Greg Abbott called to halt approvals for data centers seeking to connect to the state’s grid until state regulators and the grid operator can audit them.

In an Aug. 3 letter that reinforced how even the state is struggling to get information from data centers, Abbott said proposals should be denied unless they provide details on tax breaks the data center companies will receive, power use and generation, water use and cooling operations, efforts to reduce impacts on local communities and ownership of the facility.

This comes as Texas is rivaling Virginia as the new national leader in data centers fueling an artificial intelligence boom. The Texas Tribune reported there are at least 248 data center projects planned in the state. Those projects were identified in part by combining databases compiled by companies that track the industry, as the state does not publicly track data center development.

Data center companies say they are sharing information and trying to make it easier for the public to see their environmental impact. Google publishes site-specific water consumption for its data centers annually. Microsoft has a Texas fact sheet touting its creation of more than 500 jobs, commitment to renewable energy and efforts to lower light pollution. Crusoe in a statement said it was investing in “earlier and more consistent community engagement,” such as through blog posts, local liaisons and open houses.

Dan Diorio, vice president of state policy at the Data Center Coalition, the largest industry trade group, said their main concern when it comes to transparency measures is market rivalry.

“This is a very competitive industry, and the technology moves very fast,” Diorio said. “Your technology, related to cooling, related to electricity use and efficiency, is going to be your competitive edge in the marketplace.”

Tracy Hester, an environmental law professor at the University of Houston, said data centers don’t appear to be more secretive than any other major private industry. But transparency has become a heightened issue because of the nature of how new the industry feels and how widely the resource-intensive facilities are proliferating all at once.

He compared it to the fracking boom in the 2010s, when the industry faced heavy blowback from environmental activists and local residents over water usage and pollution concerns. The industry ultimately made concessions such as agreeing to disclose what chemicals they use but not the exact concentrations.

“The velocity and the scale is what’s the issue; it’s not the nature of the operation,” Hester said. “That does make the seams show, but that’s not just because it’s a data center, because they have a special ticket, it’s just they’re moving really fast, and the system’s straining to keep up.”

NDAs and Shell Companies

Julie Waters, a Dallas attorney, felt alarmed to learn of a data center planned in her hometown of Crowell, a 600-person town in North Texas where her parents still live. The local utility is already at Stage Four water restrictions for her area, meaning each resident must decrease their daily use by 40% and refrain from using sprinklers, washing cars and filling pools.

“We need to know how they are going to affect our water, how they’re going to affect our electricity, how they’re going to affect our health, and what’s going to happen to our agricultural land,” said Waters, who created a Facebook group called “Texans United Against Data Centers” that boasts more than 35,000 members. “You know, what’s going to happen to the cattle, what’s going to happen to the crops. So that’s why transparency is so key.”

Data centers can consume millions of gallons of water per year, necessary to cool their equipment. But publicly available information about their water consumption is often difficult to find.

There is no uniform reporting system for data center water usage in Texas, so a resident in search of information about a data center’s water use would have to know which entity has oversight. That could be a local utility, river authority, groundwater district or city.

Even then, entities might not disclose what they have. Municipal water providers have declined requests in some instances, citing a section of the Texas Utilities Code that allows it to shield an individual customer’s account.

In Crowell, Waters learned that the water agency called the Red River Authority in February signed a nondisclosure agreement with one potential developer, a copy of which was reviewed by the Tribune. The agency’s general manager, Fabian Heaney, said it’s rare that he’s asked to sign those, but the company had argued it was necessary because their proposal contained “proprietary technical information,” so he agreed.

Heaney said the authority denied the developer’s application in May because it did not have enough water available, but if the proposal had moved forward, it would have gone before the board in a public meeting.

“They’re trying to see if we have water available, and we’re just trying to see if we can provide it,” Heaney said. “But we’re not trying to hide anything.”

Diorio, the data center coalition official, said NDAs are “very common practice in economic development,” especially during initial phases like site selection.

“You have that NDA on the front end to say, ‘Hey, let’s protect this information now, because we’re not even sure if we’re going to develop here,’” he said, adding that local officials have reported to them that NDAs allow them to have more information in their decision-making process without compromising a company’s proprietary information.

In Hood County, county commissioners in 2025 approved a letter of support for waiving property taxes for a company whose identity and project details had not been publicly disclosed. An economic development official for the city of Granbury told commissioners that she was under a nondisclosure agreement and could not answer their questions about the company, according to county meeting minutes. The letter was unanimously rescinded in January after public outcry.

Similarly, the local incentive agreement for the enormous Meta data center in Fort Worth was approved before the tech giant’s identity was publicly known, as city and economic leaders said they were barred by a nondisclosure agreement from discussing any details.

“There’s now an incentive to conceal the fact that a project is a data center as long as that is practically possible because the sooner it’s known as a data center project, the likelier organized local opposition becomes,” said Adrian Shelley, director of the Texas office for Public Citizen.

Brandon Shelby, an economic development lawyer who frequently consults for cities, said officials need to be able to negotiate in private with companies to get the best deal for taxpayers.

“Every single economic development project in the state of Texas has some level of confidentiality,” Shelby said, adding that NDAs are common practice. “Nothing would get done without it.”

This spring, Microsoft, one of the largest data center operators in the U.S., facing a backlash, announced it would cease the use of the agreements “to allow for greater transparency moving forward.”

Shelby added that while Texas law allows local governments to negotiate economic development and real property deals in private, they must put them on public meeting agendas and vote on them in public.

But sometimes those companies shield their identities on those public votes, and on state records, by registering under shell companies.

For example, Meta negotiated multimillion-dollar tax abatements for their massive data centers in both Fort Worth and El Paso under shell companies called Winner, LLC and Wurldwide, LLC. Both are registered in Delaware where companies are not required to disclose their owners.

Meta declined to comment on the reason for its use of such companies.

County leaders have said they feel pressure to sign tax agreements because they feel it’s the only way they can get leverage to force companies to divulge specifics.

“I don’t believe that counties or our taxpayers – I don’t believe that they should have to use … tax abatement agreements to get that information,” said Delta County Judge Tanner Crutcher, whose commissioners court passed a resolution in March opposing abatements for data centers. “That is information that we need to look at in the Legislature to understand how we can address that without having to offer financial incentives.”

State information gaps

State agencies are also facing gaps in what they know about data centers.

The Texas Water Development Board, the state agency that oversees the state’s water planning, since 2020 has asked for monthly water use information from data centers that use at least 10 million gallons annually. Although reporting is required by law, compliance has been low – less than one-fifth of 341 data centers responded in 2025, according to records.

The Public Utility Commission, the agency that oversees the state’s power grid operator, as well as its water utilities, this year conducted a separate, voluntary water use survey. The commission contacted 377 facilities but only heard from a fraction of them. The commission reopened the survey for 10 days in July. It is seeking to withhold the results from the Tribune and has requested an attorney general opinion on the matter.

Abbott said that the limited response from the industry prompted him to initiate the pause on data center approvals, writing in his letter that the lack of information “hinders your ability to make fully informed decisions.”

After previously celebrating Texas becoming a destination for AI infrastructure, Abbott in June started cracking down on the industry, calling for increased regulation, a repeal of a state sales tax break for data centers and new requirements that data centers report electricity and water usage data annually to regulators.

Texas lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have expressed frustration at the lack of data available to them.

“If you want to do business in Texas, you say you want to be a good actor, that’s great, we invite that,” state Rep. Mary González, a Democrat from Clint, said at a panel discussion hosted by the Tribune. “But you need to be able to at least tell us how much water and how much electricity you’re going to use. Because we need to be able to plan as a state. And without that information, you just leave us with a huge gap.”

But not all information collected by the state and operators of the power grid is available to the public.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state grid operator, has a lot of information that residents want, including how much power a project could use, where it’s being built and who is building it. But ERCOT considers project-level data private. Instead, ERCOT only shares aggregate power consumption data with the public.

The state also doesn’t share data about the value of state sales tax exemptions offered to individual data centers, citing state law that allows proprietary information to be withheld. In total, the tax break will cost Texas more than $3.2 billion over the next two years.

The governor did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the Tribune about whether the reporting he called for from data centers would be available to the public or just state government.

The search goes on

Back in North Texas, McCallister is still checking records every other day to monitor new developments on the properties around his home. He receives notifications of every environmental permit approved in his and the neighboring county. He pesters politicians.

McCallister feels desperate to find the one piece of information that will reveal some way to slow the project. He wakes every day thinking, “Today’s the day I’m going to find it.”

Concern for his family’s legacy and the community’s future motivates him.

Here, on Legacy Farms, McCallister’s wife keeps her beloved horses, his young daughters ride a miniature off-road vehicle and the whole family visits mamaw next door. They fear the noise, lights and health impacts from air pollution that living by a data center could bring.

McCallister’s advocacy galvanized others. Last month, roughly 100 people went to a local Republican rally. Many wore bright red shirts emblazoned with “SAVE RURAL TEXAS” and “PAUSE AI DATA CENTERS.” Abbott recognized them from the stage, McCallister said.

“Them doing it in secret for so long, they control the narrative,” McCallister said of data center operators. “They can get all their ducks in a row before anarchy happens.”

“I’m taking that away from them.”

Alejandra Martinez and Paul Cobler contributed to this reporting.

Disclosure: Facebook, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Public Citizen and University of Houston 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 Texas Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

His parents decided not to send him to the majority-Black, F-rated campus closer to their home in Fort Bend ISD. Still, they fear their sixth grader may lose out on the community and support that come with receiving an education alongside kids in his neighborhood.

“This is a very difficult thing,” Mikole Montgomery, Jaleel’s mother, said of the choice to bypass Missouri City Middle School. “I don’t take the decision lightly.”

Black children attend schools labeled as failing by the Texas Education Agency at a far higher rate than any other racial or ethnic group. Majority-Black schools are the least likely to achieve the state’s highest academic rating.

Of the roughly 300 such campuses last year, 20 received an A. By contrast, 105 scored a D or an F.

On Aug. 14, Texas releases the next round of school accountability ratings, largely based on how well students perform on the STAAR exam. Those ratings, promoted as a tool to identify and hold underperforming schools accountable, also serve as an annual reminder of Texas’ struggles to provide Black students a high-quality education, parents say.

That leaves families like Montgomery’s weighing whether to enroll their children in schools where they may benefit from rigorous academic opportunities but see fewer kids and teachers from their communities — or keep them on high-need campuses lacking in resources but abundant in love and understanding.

About 60% of majority-Black schools scored a C or better last year, which Texas defines as acceptable performance. By comparison, nearly all majority-Asian schools met that threshold, as did 91% of majority-white schools and 79% of majority-Hispanic schools.

Texas public schools educate north of 700,000 Black children — more than any other state in the country. And negative outcomes among a disproportionate share of majority-Black schools means thousands of kids could leave without the knowledge they need to thrive, even as state leaders often say that “demographics do not equal destiny” and have passed laws restricting the consideration of race in education policy.

Education Commissioner Mike Morath acknowledges that academic gaps between Black children and their peers have long existed in the state. However, he points to the preeminent national exam showing Black students in Texas scoring higher than those in most of the country.

“That being said,” he added, “the results are still unacceptable.”

Texas must improve the quality of schools and support for all children — not just some children, Morath said.

“This is where the A-F indicators are important,” he said. “The state’s investment in this is to make sure that our local school districts are changing practices as rapidly as possible to improve these learning outcomes.”

Meredith Anderson, a native Texan who researches K-12 education for the United Negro College Fund, sees the racial disparities in the state’s accountability ratings as “alarming.”

Majority-Black schools tend to suffer from inadequate local and state funding, as well as from limited access to rigorous courses that help raise student expectations and learning, Anderson said. Schools broadly also do not employ enough Black teachers, which research shows can improve learning for all children, she added.

“We often think about it as more so academic gaps when we just look at the accountability ratings, without looking at some of the underlying causes that contribute to them and widen those gaps,” Anderson said. “Even if we have these bright spots, overwhelmingly the state isn’t serving our Black students well.”

When Black parents choose not to enroll their kids in neighborhood campuses as a result, that could also mean the students who remain end up worse off.

Texas funds schools based on attendance, which means they lose money to pay for academic supports as families leave. That also often means the loss of involved parents and students who otherwise could help usher in improvements. Meanwhile, negative perceptions of majority-Black schools can contribute to a broader narrative that students at such campuses do not deserve positive attention or investment, parents and advocates say.

“I certainly recognize the value in these kids,” Montgomery said. “I recognize me sending my son to the other side, it says something about how I feel about the kids as well — whether it’s intentional or not.”

Pressure to improve

The Texas Education Agency evaluated more than 9,000 campuses last year, with roughly 15% of schools receiving the lowest grades.

Of the 302 majority-Black schools in Texas, 35% scored a D or an F, by far the largest share of any racial or ethnic group. No majority-Asian schools received such ratings, while 8% of majority-white schools and 19% of majority-Hispanic schools did.

Texas grades schools based on three primary measures, including how well the campuses perform compared to those with similar percentages of low-income students. Schools typically receive a D or an F if only about a third of students or worse meet grade level on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR.

Alongside the reality that Black students in Texas are those most likely to face discipline and drop out and the least likely to graduate from high school, many parents see the ratings as further evidence that the education system is failing their children.

“I don’t think it takes rocket science for folks to figure out,” said Tyrone Howard, a UCLA professor who studies race and education. “It’s the fact that the original sin of this country has always been around race — structural racism — and all its remnants still remain in place.”

When a school receives five consecutive F ratings, Texas’ education commissioner must either replace the school district’s elected trustees and superintendent or close the campus. Schools that predominantly educate low-income, Hispanic and Black students trigger takeovers most often.

Morath, the state’s education chief, believes that schools consistently receiving unacceptable ratings reflects a failure by local district leaders to sufficiently focus on student learning. The A-F rating system allows his agency to identify those districts and initiate reforms where necessary, he said.

Morath views Houston ISD as evidence that it matters who runs local schools, as Black students have posted large test score gains since he intervened in 2023. Critics of the takeover often accuse HISD’s commissioner-appointed superintendent of overemphasizing test scores. The critics question the sustainability of the gains given unusually high numbers of teachers and students leaving the district, especially Black children.

Eight of Texas’ A-rated, majority-Black campuses serve children in the state’s largest district.

Morath sees the academic gains as signals that state intervention works.

“In many cases, our schools are doing very well,” he said of Texas public education. “But our schools need to get better, and they need to get better as fast as possible.”

The Texas Tribune interviewed two Black former principals of D- and F-rated schools who shared details of their challenges on the job. The administrators asked to remain anonymous because they still work in Texas education and feared retaliation for speaking candidly.

The leaders acknowledge they sometimes failed to focus enough on student instruction and helping teachers improve. But that’s because they often had to extinguish other fires, such as abrupt staff departures, funding cuts and depleted morale.

Compared with predominantly white, Asian and more affluent campuses, the Black school leaders felt they lacked autonomy to make decisions that would improve learning. They say they missed out on community business partnerships, wealthy parent-teacher groups and instructional materials that reflected their students’ interests. They also dealt with students enrolling and leaving at high rates throughout the school year, making it difficult to maintain consistent standards.

There’s also pressure to improve ratings, not necessarily to ensure learning growth but to avoid state penalties, they assert. The Black campus leaders say their schools focused heavily on students most likely to improve their test scores, which meant little time to prioritize the academic growth of children who came to school hungry or without a jacket when it was cold.

“Externally, it looks like you’re a poor leader,” said the former principal of an F-rated, majority-Black elementary school. “All you’re trying to do is serve your kids.”

School officials can make a difference by listening to their local communities and, more importantly, fostering spaces where Black parents feel they can engage, education researchers say. That includes scheduling events at times when most families can participate.

Still, even the best school systems cannot overcome unsupported teachers or a lack of money to fund the initiatives students need, the experts note. Texas leaders must also recognize that addressing racial inequality cannot happen without honest conversations about race, the researchers say.

Legislators recently passed laws targeting diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in education. Republicans approved such measures out of a belief that schools focused more on gender and race than merit and instruction.

But some who study education contend that the unwillingness to address historical racism hurts Black students the most. Research repeatedly shows they benefit from having teachers who look like them, while many Black families place high importance on their children seeing themselves reflected in the books they read.

“That’s where I think the frustration is for a lot of parents, like, ‘OK, how can I not name what I might believe to be the primary factor in why some kids don’t get opportunity?’” said Howard, the UCLA professor. “It’s just, to me, outright tragic that that’s where we are.”

More than ratings

Having raised three children and volunteered in the community for more than two decades, Stephanie Brown considers Missouri City Middle School “the best-kept secret” in Fort Bend ISD.

What it lacks in resources, it makes up for in dedicated teachers and administrators, she said. Brown believes that if district leaders granted students access to benefits such as commercial drone classes or before- and after-school programs that other children in the district receive, Missouri City Middle School would see similar results.

Brown wants students to know that they are more than standardized tests and accountability ratings.

For the last two years, she has helped organize summer trips to a free engineering camp at Prairie View A&M University, where high school students and middle schoolers stay in dorms and learn about robotics and computer science. She wants to show Black families that they do not need to leave to find a quality education. And the community needs to realize that sometimes, it is not “better on the other side,” Brown added.

“Whatever the data is showing that we’re lacking, it needs to be on our campuses,” Brown said. “We should not have to seek outside resources in order to get it if this data has been showing this all over the country. Because think about it: God didn’t make one race smarter than the other. So what is really going on here? Where does it start?”

In a statement to the Tribune, Fort Bend ISD officials said students at all of their campuses deserve access to a high-quality education, as well as the opportunities and support necessary to succeed, regardless of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status or ZIP code.

“The district continually evaluates student needs, academic performance and campus resources to identify where additional support and intervention may be needed,” district officials said. “Fort Bend ISD remains committed to providing equitable educational opportunities for all students and will continue working alongside our educators, families and community to strengthen student achievement across the district.”

The district, located southwest of Houston, educates about 78,000 students — 28% of whom are Black. In 2025, Fort Bend ISD moved up one letter grade to a B and had fewer D- and F-rated schools than in the previous year. Missouri City Middle School was 1 point shy of a D.

When state lawmakers debated the A-F system more than a decade ago, Sen. Royce West worried that it would disproportionately penalize schools that lacked sufficient resources to achieve an acceptable rating. That aspect of the system continues to bother him, West said.

Given that Texas has fewer than two dozen A-rated, majority-Black campuses, the Dallas Democrat agrees with families who say the education system is failing Black children. But he disagrees with those who say Black parents should keep their children in schools that do not serve them.

“If they believe the best thing is to take them across the street, then fine. Let them take them across the street,” West said. “Unfortunately, the downside is that a lot of kids’ parents can’t take their kid across the street, and they’re left in a desperate situation.”

Local school leaders and teachers must do everything they can to provide a quality education for those kids, West added.

As for the failures of Texas public education, Montgomery said, “I think the goal is to keep our kids uneducated.”

That belief fueled her family’s decision for Jaleel to attend the new Amy Coleman Middle School farther away from their home. She believes Missouri City Middle School employs passionate educators who care about children, but she is concerned about how Fort Bend ISD officials distribute resources.

For example, Coleman has an aviation and aerospace program while Missouri City has one focused on first responders. Those are admirable professions, Montgomery notes, but kids already interact with police officers and firefighters. The disparity in offerings communicates to Black kids at Missouri City that they should not dream bigger, she said.

Montgomery witnessed a fight and misbehaving children while volunteering at the F-rated middle school last year, which she admits factored into her decision to enroll Jaleel elsewhere. But she also recognizes that Jaleel benefits from tutoring, summer programs and field trips that his parents can afford and have time to provide. Not all children in the community experience the same privileges, she noted.

And while Jaleel leaving his neighborhood causes her significant concern, her decision centered on providing him what she is convinced state leaders do not want him to have.

“When we think about our son’s education, we think about moving out of Texas,” Montgomery said. “I don’t think that these people have my son’s best interests.”

Disclosure: Prairie View A&M University has been a financial supporter 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 Texas Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

The Sony-Marvel release has accrued $1.67 billion worldwide in just 10 days of release, putting it on a trajectory to be among the biggest blockbusters ever. Domestically, no movie has wracked up a higher total faster. In U.S. and Canadian cinemas, “Brand New Day” has grossed $655.1 million thus far. Overseas, it’s already surpassed $1 billion.

It took only seven days for “Brand New Day” to become the highest grossing movie of the year, easily displacing “Toy Story 5” ($1.07 billion worldwide). No Sony film has ever cleared $100 million in its second weekend before. It came close to toppling the best sophomore frame on record: “The Force Awakens,” with $149.2 million in 2015.

Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” also crossed $1 billion. In its fourth weekend, the Universal Pictures release added $31.5 million domestically to bring its global total to $1.1 billion.

Nolan’s Homeric epic is the director’s first movie to reach that threshold since 2012’s “The Dark Knight Rises.” It now ranks as Nolan’s biggest box-office hit ever, not accounting for inflation, eclipsing both “The Dark Knight Rises” ($1.08 billion) and 2009’s “The Dark Knight” ($1 billion). Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” ($975 million) ended just shy of the milestone.

A big part of that success, of course, has been on IMAX. With $147.3 million domestically on the company’s large-format screens, “The Odyssey” now ranks as IMAX’s highest grossing domestic release of all time.

“The Odyssey” still has one major market left. It opens in China on Friday.

“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and “The Odyssey” have helped drive Hollywood to its best box-office year since the pandemic. Ticket sales are running 18.5% ahead of last year, according to Rentrak. There have already been five $1 billion movies — more than any year since 2019. The other two were “Michael” and “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.”

Rentrak forecasts that the overall summer theatrical revenue will reach $4 billion on Monday. That seasonal mark has long been a sign of thriving business for Hollywood. Since the pandemic, the only summer to surpass $4 billion was 2023, when “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” drove ticket sales.

According to Rentrak, summer revenue is just $14.8 million shy of $4 billion through Sunday.

A pair of comedies tried to provide some counterprogramming to the blockbusters but made little impact.

“One Night Only,” a Will Gluck-directed romantic comedy where premarital sex is outlawed except for one night a year, opened with $5.7 million. The Universal release, starring Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner, cost about $25 million to make. Reviews weren’t good (46% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) but audience scores (a “B+” CinemaScore) were better.

Coming in fourth was Fox Searchlight’s “Super Troopers 3,” the third in the long-running comedy series from the comedy troupe Broken Lizard. It debuted with $4 million.

Two new limited releases packed theaters. A24's “Tony,” starring Dominic Sessa as a young Anthony Bourdain, grossed $348,955, good for one of the best screen-average openings of the year: $58,159 per theater. Mubi's “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma,” from “I Saw the TV Glow” filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun, debuted with a per-location average of $50,300 across five screens.

Top 10 movies by domestic box office

With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Rentrak:

1. “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” $145 million.

2. “The Odyssey,” $31.5 million.

3. “One Night Only,” $5.7 million.

4. “Super Troopers 3,” $4 million.

5. “Toy Story 5,” $3.9 million.

6. “Minions & Monsters,” $3.5 million.

7. “Moana,” $2.8 million.

8. “Ice Cream Man,” $2 million.

9. “The Invite,” $717,568.

10. CatVideoFest 2026, $568,414.

North Belt patrol units spotted a truck parked on the feeder road near I-45 and Glenborough Drive around 11:40 p.m. When officers approached the vehicle, they found it had been struck by multiple gunshots.

Officers found the teen — a back-seat passenger — had been shot once. Houston Fire Department crews rushed to the scene, and the victim was transported to an area hospital in critical condition.

• Houston Weather: First day of school rain and storm timeline

Witnesses told officers the shooting happened somewhere along I-45 near Airline Drive. According to those witnesses, an unknown vehicle pulled alongside the truck and fired several rounds into it while both vehicles were traveling on the freeway.

Houston Police Department is handling the investigation.

Maj. Robert “Magyar” Brovdi, one of Ukraine’s most prominent commanders among a new generation of soldiers, said his forces could strike seven times more military targets in Crimea if the money pledged by Western allies came faster.

“Crimea falls within the key conceptual pillars on the path to ending the war,” Brovdi told The Associated Press in an interview.

Despite that shortfall, Ukraine’s summer campaign in Crimea has already inflicted significant damage: striking rail bridges, oil depots and power infrastructure to disrupt supply lines and blind Russian air defenses as drones fly in.

Brovdi said his forces are equipped at just 14% of what they would need to carry out the Crimea campaign at full capacity.

A firm believer in numbers since his past life running an international grain trading business, Brovdi joined Ukraine’s territorial defense as a volunteer in the war’s opening days. He rose quickly, commanding one of the country’s most effective drone brigades before being tapped to lead a force with no precedent before this war — Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces.

“It’s not that the production capacity of Ukrainian manufacturers doesn’t allow us to make the necessary quantities” of drones, Brovdi said. “It’s the banal problem of untimely financing, which our partners do allocate, but which moves significantly slower than our plans.”

A lover of the arts

A devoted patron of the arts, Brovdi's underground command post resembles a museum, with pieces of Ukrainian art on display, including by renowned painter Maria Prymachenko — each with small placards noting their titles and a QR code linking to more information. “Please don’t touch the sculpture,” reads a sign beneath one piece.

The artwork sits against a backdrop of dozens of screens streaming live footage from the front, along with real-time data that drives decisions on the battlefield. Soldiers can grab good coffee, pick a book, work out or rest in sleeping pods — a culture that feels closer to a Silicon Valley office than a war room.

They work around the clock to try to prevent Crimea from functioning as a staging ground for the Russian military, said Brovdi, whose call sign, Magyar, nods to his ethnic Hungarian roots in Zakarpattia, the western Ukrainian region bordering Hungary.

He pointed to one sign of progress — in four recent large-scale Russian missile barrages from the peninsula, only five missiles were launched in total, a drop he credited to the systematic destruction of Russian air defenses there. The AP couldn’t independently verify the claim.

To open that “window” for drones to strike the peninsula without being shot down en masse, his forces destroyed more than 300 air defense assets over recent months — surface-to-air systems, radar stations, electronic warfare equipment.

The window metaphor sends him into a sidetrack about something personal — he loves sleeping with one open, a pleasure he rarely gets anymore as one of Russia’s most hunted men, who spends most of his time in underground bunkers.

Forcing Russia out of Crimea

Much of Russia's Soviet-era air defense hardware runs on the power grid, which is one of the reasons Crimea's electrical infrastructure has become a recurring target. Russian soldiers become “blind,” left with just machine guns and rifles, he said. The tactic has also impacted access to power for civilians, and Brovdi said he has twice publicly apologized to Ukrainians living in Crimea for the disruptions.

Wherever Starlink connectivity reaches across Crimea, his forces can now destroy even the most heavily defended target using an average of just three drones, mixing munitions with different characteristics and warheads depending on what’s being hit. He described the strikes as deliberately calibrated — different munitions for a bridge pier than for a fuel truck or a moving train — and said his forces avoid hitting civilian infrastructure.

“Creating conditions that make it impossible for any kind of military capability … to remain there will make Crimea uninteresting ... as a military staging ground,” he said.

Ukraine is also working to dismantle Crimea’s role as a naval base — a blow to Russia’s presence near NATO’s borders, he added.

The campaign’s early results have not been made public, Brovdi said. But roughly two weeks into the offensive that began in late June, he said Ukrainian intelligence indicated Russian authorities had ordered all military commands and security services to relocate off the peninsula, along with a covert order to remove secret archives and artworks. The AP could not independently verify the account.

Threats from Russia

Meanwhile, Russia is working to counter Ukraine’s edge. It is installing jamming systems at a scale that will, to some degree, degrade Starlink connectivity, Brovdi said.

Russia is also building its own satellite communications system to rival Starlink, he said. “This is a risk for the entire planet,” Brovdi said, “because a dictatorship will gain access to information across the whole globe.”

He also pointed to other threats facing Ukraine. The concentration of jet-powered Shahed drones, which are much harder for Ukraine to shoot down, has increased two and a half times in recent weeks, he said.

Russia's military can currently fire a simultaneous salvo of 77 ballistic missiles, he said, and plans to increase that to 200. That is one of Ukraine’s most vulnerable points, since the country is running short of interceptors for the U.S.-made Patriot — the only system Ukraine has in its arsenal against ballistic missiles — meaning dozens fired by Russia during mass barrages get through and hit their targets.

“Even if they only manage half of that, it will all be flying at us,” Brovdi said. The only way to bring the number down, he said, is by striking every facility involved in producing those missiles — underscoring the importance of Ukraine’s long-range strikes deep inside Russian territory.

Ukraine's plan for Russia's Wildberries

Ukraine has increasingly targeted Wildberries, Russia’s largest online marketplace sometimes described as the country’s answer to Amazon, and Brovdi named it as a target.

“Wildberries is, first of all, a supply platform — it’s the war’s quartermaster,” he said, noting the company runs a dedicated section selling goods for Russia’s military.

At the same time, he said, the strikes on the retail chain are meant to make ordinary Russians feel the war directly, in hopes the resulting desire to end it could weigh on Russia’s ability to keep fighting.

Brovdi declined to give a timeline for the Wildberries campaign, saying only that the strikes will continue “until it becomes impossible for it to recover quickly.”

“Ultimately, Wildberries is, forgive the expression, a consumer gambling addiction,” he said, arguing that losing access to it — like restrictions on social media — creates an intrusion on one's personal life that most Russians feel.

“It turned out to be a sensitive sensor of the comfort of Russia’s massive population — people who consider themselves completely untouched by the actions of the aggressor country," he said.

___

AP reporters Vasilisa Stepanenko in eastern Ukraine and Volodymyr Yurchuk in Kyiv contributed.

The primaries come a week after Abdul El-Sayed narrowly defeated Rep. Haley Stevens in Michigan’s divisive and costly U.S. Senate primary. El-Sayed's victory has energized the left while stoking fears among Democratic Party leaders that the shift to the left, particularly in battleground states like Michigan and Wisconsin, will make it more difficult to win in November.

Wisconsin's chaotic primary pits progressive against governor's pick

In Wisconsin, democratic socialist Francesca Hong is trying to win a four-way Democratic primary for governor where her top opponent has been endorsed by popular Gov. Tony Evers, who isn't seeking a third term.

Evers got behind Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley on July 18, the same day Crowley reentered the race after dropping out 10 days earlier. Crowley rejoined after the candidate he backed, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, ended her candidacy amid a campaign finance scandal.

Evers and Crowley were crisscrossing the state together in the last days before final ballots are cast Tuesday.

Evers and more establishment Democrats were hoping to finally coalesce around Crowley in the final days of the chaotic primary that saw two other candidates drop out, most notably former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes on July 29.

Barnes and Rodriguez, who were both seen as potential front-runners, remain on the ballot and absentee votes already cast for them can’t be undone.

Republicans are spending to influence the Democratic primary

Republicans are putting money behind Hong, thinking she will be the better matchup for Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany in November. The Republican Governors Association has spent nearly $3.6 million through its Right Direction Wisconsin PAC on ads contrasting Hong with President Donald Trump and playing up her liberal policies.

Crowley and other Democrats argue the ads are meant to bolster Hong's standing in the primary because Republicans see her as the easier opponent.

Evers projected confidence at a rally that attracted hundreds of people in Hong’s hometown of Madison on Sunday night, saying Crowley was the best chance Democrats had to defeat Tiffany.

“We’re going to win this thing,” Evers said, telling the Crowley supporters that Tiffany would be “the worst governor in the history of Wisconsin.”

“If Tom Tiffany wins in November that will be like electing Donald Trump as governor of the state of Wisconsin,” he said.

Crowley urged Democrats to come together after the primary to beat Tiffany.

“Our ultimate goal is to make sure we don’t have a MAGA extremist occupying the governor’s office,” Crowley said.

Tiffany, one of the most conservative members of Congress, is endorsed by Trump.

The president called Hong a communist in remarks on Wednesday, where he mentioned a 2020 social media post by Hong calling for Thanksgiving to be canceled. Asked about the post this week, Hong reversed herself and said that Thanksgiving was her favorite holiday.

Trump won Wisconsin in 2016 and 2024, and Republicans have held majorities in both chambers of the Legislature since 2011. Holding onto the governor's office is key to Wisconsin Democrats' effort to gain full control of state government for the first time in 16 years.

In the race to replace Tiffany, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy's son-in-law Michael Alfonso is in a five-person Republican primary. Alfonso, who is trying to represent Duffy's old congressional district, has Trump's endorsement.

Minnesota primary comes in wake of immigration enforcement surge

In neighboring Minnesota, voters are choosing between moderate U.S. Rep. Angie Craig and progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan in a Democratic U.S. Senate primary that’s playing out in the aftermath of Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement surge in the state.

The race has been shaped by the killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis, confrontations that were caught on camera and fueled a backlash to Trump’s immigration policies.

Both Craig and Flanagan spent the weekend traversing the Twin Cities metro area.

In a driveway in suburban Eagan on Sunday, Craig spoke to the angst among Democratic primary voters who feel that Washington isn’t working for them. Members of Congress need to stop trading stocks and becoming lobbyists when they leave office, she said, and the U.S. needs to restrict the flood of corporate campaign spending.

“But the only way we pass any of the progressive policies that all of us here support is by winning elections and taking damn majorities,” she said.

Unlike in Wisconsin, where the incumbent governor has endorsed a candidate in the race to succeed him, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has not gotten involved in the Senate primary. But his wife, Gwen Walz, has endorsed Craig and campaigned with her on Sunday.

Flanagan campaigned Saturday with U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, who helped her make the case that Washington needs a shakeup to root out the deep-pocketed forces propping up a broken status quo.

“It is big corporations, it’s special interests who are putting their thumb on the scale in our elections across the country,” Flanagan said. “And it’s not just Republicans. It’s Democrats, too.”

The race has been one of the most expensive Minnesota has seen, with millions of dollars backing both candidates, but disproportionately falling in Craig’s favor.

Whoever wins the primary will be the frontrunner to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Tina Smith in November. Minnesota voters haven’t elected a Republican to a statewide office since 2006.

Mike Lindell, the founder of MyPillow, is a top Republican candidate in the governor's race. He's endorsed by Trump, and he was a prominent promoter of falsehoods about election fraud. U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar is in a six-person primary on the Democratic side.

Democratic struggles also on display in other states' primaries Tuesday

Two veteran Democratic incumbents in Connecticut face challenges from the left.

Moderate Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont is running for a third term but faces progressive state Rep. Josh Elliott. The Democratic nominee will face Republican state Sen. Ryan Fazio in November.

Longtime Democratic U.S. Rep. John Larson, 78, is running for a 15th term and his age and health have been major issues in the four-person race.

Former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin narrowly won the party's endorsement at its state convention in May. Other candidates are Hartford Board of Education member Ruth Fortune and state Rep. Jillian Gilchrest.

In Vermont, two Democrats are running in for a chance to take on Republican Gov. Phil Scott.

Former child advocacy organization CEO Aly Richards boasts endorsements from former Democratic Govs. Howard Dean and Madeleine Kunin. She faces economist Amanda Janoo.

President Min Aung Hlaing, the former army chief who had originally seized power in 2021 from Suu Kyi’s civilian government, has been trying to win political legitimacy since the takeover and resume relations with ASEAN.

ASEAN came up with a peace plan for the Southeast Asian country in April 2021 to end hostilities and initiate dialogue among contending parties, to be facilitated by the special envoy. Min Aung Hlaing has since been barred from attending top-level meetings for failing to comply with the plan.

In an apparent effort to placate critics, the government allowed a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit 81-year-old Suu Kyi last week, the first known contact with an outside international independent humanitarian organization since her detention five years ago.

Suu Kyi is serving her sentence under house arrest at an undisclosed location in the capital, Naypyitaw, on charges that her supporters and rights groups have said are politically motivated.

The current ASEAN chair, the Philippines, welcomed the meeting as a step toward dialogue and reconciliation Friday, while urging greater access to political detainees and reiterating its call for Suu Kyi’s “complete and unconditional release.”

Myanmar’s foreign ministry's statement late Saturday criticized the call.

“Although the government has commuted her sentences based on humanitarian considerations, the matter of a full and unconditional release shall only be carried out in accordance with the law,” it said.

The statement also said the government will continue working with ASEAN’s current special envoy, Philippine Foreign Minister Maria Theresa Lazaro, but doesn’t see the need to continue down that path when Singapore takes over on Jan. 1, 2027.

“At present, the government, which emerged from the multiparty democratic elections reflecting the genuine will of the people, has assumed state responsibility,” the statement said.

In a speech more than three months after being sworn in as president following the elections, Min Aung Hlaing dismissed ASEAN’s peace plan, saying some member states have discriminated against Myanmar and it would respond on a case-by-case basis.

Critics dismissed the elections, which were held in December and January, as a sham designed to consolidate the military’s grip on power while ostensibly restoring civilian rule.

Pelaez’s husband, Raul Uribe, was also stabbed and remains in recovery, according to loved ones.

League City police identified the couple’s 33-year-old son, Juan Uribe Pelaez, as the suspect. He is charged with murder and aggravated assault, and police say his bond was set at a total of $500,000.

A life defined by service

Sunday’s candlelight vigil was held at Oaks of Clear Creek, where friends say Uribe regularly gives tennis lessons.

As attendees prayed for his recovery, they remembered Mary as a selfless woman who devoted much of her life to caring for others.

Her first name, Luz, means “light” in Spanish. Those who knew her said the name reflected the kindness and warmth she brought into their lives.

“She was just a beautiful person from the inside out,” Tara Hardy said.

Hardy said Mary worked as her family’s nanny for three years but quickly became part of the family.

“She never demanded anything back from anybody,” Hardy said. “It was just pure, genuine love and just devotion to children, to giving back.”

Hardy said Mary was a longtime educator who worked with children with special needs. She said Mary also volunteered extensively through her church and community.

Pastor Rudy Molina of Lifeway Church told those gathered that the church was there to support them through their grief.

“We’re here to just be here for the community,” Molina said. “We’re here to love on you all.”

Police say couple’s son attacked them

League City police responded at about 7 p.m. Friday to a home near Highway 3 and Washington Street.

Officers said they found a husband and wife suffering from multiple stab wounds. Mary later died from her injuries, while Raul survived.

Police identified the couple’s son, Juan Uribe Pelaez, as the person accused of attacking them.

He remains charged with murder in connection with his mother’s death and aggravated assault in connection with his father’s injuries.

Hardy said Mary’s impact could be seen in the number of people who attended the vigil, including strangers who never met her.

“She was part of our family,” Hardy said. “We really just want her to be remembered and not forgotten for her kindness and her love.”

Those days are over. Long over.

The wide-eyed newcomer is gone, replaced by a poised and professional 18-year-old who is embracing her role as the leader of the sport's next wave as the 2028 Olympics approach.

The proof was on display during the final round of the U.S. gymnastics championships on Sunday, when Rivera — still not quite 100% while recovering from a hamstring injury sustained at the Pan Am Games in June — won her second straight national title with a poised and polished performance that solidified her status as the current face of a women's program two years out from the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.

Rivera’s two-day total of 111.950 was more than a point clear of runner-up Claire Pease, making Rivera the first American woman not named Simone Biles to go back-to-back since former world and Olympic champion Jordyn Wieber did it in 2011 and 2012.

Heady company to be sure, but company in which Rivera increasingly feels like she belongs. It might not have seemed like it in the summer of 2024 when she ceded the spotlight to her more accomplished teammates, but the relentlessly upbeat Texan has no problem admitting these days she wants to lead from the front.

“I am comfortable with it,” she said. “And I just love kind of being a leader in a way."

Anna Liukin, who coaches Rivera alongside her husband Valeri, called Rivera “motherly." Rivera laughed when the description was passed along because well, it's strange to hear as a teenager. Yet in many ways, it's applicable.

Lee and Jade Carey helped Rivera navigate her way through the sport's biggest stage and come out with a gold medal on the other side. She feels it's her duty to do the same to the generation of gymnasts just starting to find their way as the lure of a potentially life-changing hometown Games in Los Angeles looms.

“I think it’s just really important to give pep talks because when you’re young, you’re still learning a lot,” she said. “So I just think it's good to get positive vibes.”

Even if producing them takes a little practice. Rivera relied on that practice Thursday when a fall on uneven bars — perhaps her strongest event — sent her tumbling down the leaderboard. She shook the miscue off and found herself in fourth heading into Sunday.

A comeback still seemed somewhat unlikely when Rivera began Sunday with a gritty bars set that included her fighting through a mini-stall just before her dismount and ended with her and giving Valeri Liukin a “what are you gonna do?” shrug after a dismount that included a small step.

Yet twenty minutes later, it was long forgotten during a graceful balance beam routine that brought her to within striking distance of the lead.

“It took a few years to learn that, but I’m at a point now where it’s just like there already,” she said. “I don’t really have to think about it too much.”

Her black-and-white bedazzled leotard glittering under the lights, Rivera put on a performance that made her look every bit the star she has become.

Rivera never glanced at the scoreboard to mark her progress, too intent on trying to stay warm and focused during sometimes lengthy delays. If she was bothered, it didn't show. Every time she saluted the judges, Rivera was all business.

Now she heads into the fall hoping to make her first world championship team. Rivera was practically a lock last year before rolling her ankle during selection camp, something Liukin called “heartbreaking.”

Provided she can stay healthy, Rivera is eager to make up for lost time in the first major international team meet since Paris. Yes, her hamstring still isn't quite there, but she found her way to the top of the podium anyway.

“I think it just shows how strong I am mentally,” she said. “Because physically everything’s there. But the mental aspect of things is definitely where it’s at. You can’t really do this without having a strong mentality.”

Pease and fellow first-day co-leader Skye Blakely couldn't quite keep up. Pease led with two rotations to go, but her floor routine included one tumbling pass that ended with her stepping out of bounds and another in which she opted to keep her right foot hovering above the floor rather than set it down for a penalty.

Still, Pease's second-place finish was a marked improvement from a year ago, when she came to nationals fresh off a victory at U.S. Classic and stumbled to 10th. This time around, she finds herself in a solid position to join good friend and teammate Rivera in the Netherlands.

Blakely's bid to build off a promising opening night stalled quickly. She sat at the end of her first tumbling pass and bounced out of bounds on her final one, her score of 11.900 dropping her from contention for the top of the podium on her way to a seventh-place finish. The 21-year-old called it “irritating” but stressed she's pleased with her progress in her first elite meet competing the all-around since 2024.

Charleigh Bullock, who turned 16 last month, was third. Reese Esponda, who trains at the Houston-area gym owned by Biles' family, was fourth.

Carey, who is methodically building difficulty into her routines as she eyes a third trip to the Games, won the vault title and finished fifth in the all-around in a meet that doubled as a homecoming for the Phoenix native. The two-time Olympic gold medalist also marveled at Rivera's growth both on and off the floor since that memorable trip to Paris.

“I think Hezly did a fantastic job tonight and kind of rebounding from night one and just proving to herself and everybody else that that was just a little fluke and she’s capable of so much,” Carey said. “Back-to-back national champion is something that she should be really proud of.”

___

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

Meanwhile, Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels struck a government-held port on the country’s Red Sea coast, deepening fears over threats to strategic shipping routes and a potential return to civil war.

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

Netanyahu insists no Gaza withdrawal until Hamas disarms

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the deal on Gaza announced by Trump last month, saying Israel’s military “will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed.”

Netanyahu told a Cabinet meeting that “Israel rejects the 15-point document” but is still discussing plans for Gaza with Washington, after making similar comments last week. Trump had said Israeli forces would withdraw as the Hamas militant group’s disarmament is completed. Israeli forces control over half the Palestinian enclave of about 2 million people that's been largely destroyed.

There was no immediate White House comment on Netanyahu's statement.

“We remain committed to the road map,” said a member of the Hamas political bureau, Bassem Naim, adding that the group expects mediators and the U.S. to pressure Netanyahu — who also faces domestic tensions as he struggles to hold onto power ahead of the next elections scheduled for Oct. 27.

The Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, sparked the war in Gaza. A fragile ceasefire continues.

Houthis target Aramco refinery and Red Sea port

Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen attacked the government-held port city of Mocha late Sunday night. It was the second attack on the Red Sea coast city in less than 24 hours.

A Houthi military source told the Houthi-controlled Al-Masirah TV that the attack targeted weapons depots and Saudi troop concentrations.

A statement from the Yemeni Armed Forces posted on X said residential neighborhoods were targeted by ballistic missiles and drones in the attack, and that air defense systems managed to intercept some of the drones.

Drones and missiles were also used during the earlier attack on Sunday. The Yemeni government-allied National Resistance Forces said at least seven people — four troops and three civilians — were killed and 15 civilians were injured in that strike.

Fayed al-Noman, the information ministry’s assistant undersecretary, said the attack severely damaged port buildings and piers as well as commercial goods and food supplies. The military later said missiles landed in several areas, including near a television station.

Mocha is a main port under Yemen’s internationally recognized government and has been renovated to handle shipping that avoids the Houthi-held port of Hodeida.

The Houthis said they targeted military forces and warehouses.

Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesperson, said they also targeted an Aramco refinery in the Saudi city of Jazan with a drone in response to Saudi drones breaching Yemen’s airspace over Hajjah and Saada provinces.

The Saudi Energy Ministry reported a fire at a facility belonging to the Aramco refinery, with no casualties. The ministry did not say the cause. The attacks threaten to reignite Yemen’s civil war after a 2022 truce.

— Samy Magdy in Cairo

Iran's top security post changes again

Iran named a new head of its powerful Supreme National Security Council, state media reported. Mohsen Rezaei had been a military adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei and a former Revolutionary Guard commander.

It was the latest shuffle at the top for the politburo-like body, which has a range of political opinions and rivalries and is adapting to the loss of several senior officials in the war.

Rezaei replaces Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who took up the role after Ali Larijani was killed by an Israeli strike in March. Zolghadr will become a political adviser to Khamenei.

Rezaei earlier this month said Iran will never allow an unauthorized route through the Strait of Hormuz, which was considered an international waterway before the war and Tehran's assertion of control.

Iran says negotiations ‘cannot resume’ until conditions met

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters that negotiations with Oman about “new maritime routes” on the Strait of Hormuz were in the final stages but “this, however, does not mean that the Strait of Hormuz will reopen.” That step requires conditions that “have been conveyed through intermediaries.”

The Supreme National Security Council on Saturday said the strait will not reopen until the U.S. “corrects its behavior.” It demanded that the U.S. never threaten Iran again, a permanent end to the war with Iran and its armed allies, a lifting of the naval blockade of Iranian ports and a withdrawal of the U.S. military from the area. The U.S. also must “completely compensate” Iran for war damage, lift sanctions and “unconditionally” release frozen assets.

The United States did not comment on the demands. Trump on Sunday asserted to Axios that “we are only semi-negotiating” with Iran and letting economic pressures take their toll.

Araghchi said an “exchange of messages through intermediaries” continues with the U.S. but that doesn’t constitute negotiations, which he said can’t resume until violations of the interim deal end and the U.S. “has remedied” provisions it violated.

Details emerge about a potential Iran-Oman deal

Iran and Oman, located on the other side of the Strait of Hormuz, are working to finalize a temporary deal that would reopen it, with ships entering near Iran and exiting near Oman, according to two people familiar with the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Ships would transit without paying fees or tolls during the interim period.

The agreement is designed to restore the separate interim deal between the U.S. and Iran. The two people said the agreement is endorsed by Gulf Cooperation Council members and is expected to be jointly announced by Iran, Oman, the U.S. and the U.N.’s International Maritime Organization. But they stressed the terms still could change.

The Iranian parliament’s National Security Committee approved “general outlines” of a plan to manage the strait, the state broadcaster reported, but a lawmaker said transits by vessels belonging to “hostile countries” would be prohibited. The member of parliament’s presiding board said countries that have “caused damage” to Iran cannot transit until they compensate for it. There were no further details.

— Michelle Price in Washington and Aamer Madhani in New York

The district says legal e-bikes are allowed on campus if they have functional pedals and meet state speed limits ,generally 20–28 mph, depending on the class. The district also noted that riders of Class 3 e-bikes — which can reach 28 mph and have a speedometer, must be at least 15 years old.

Police warned that many products marketed as “e-bikes” do not meet the legal definition under Texas law. These vehicles are not allowed on public roadways or school property.

The district says the following types of vehicles are prohibited.

• • ATVs - All-Terrain Vehicles
  • OHVs - Off-highway Vehicles
  • Electric motorcycles
  • Electric mini-bikes
  • Pocket bikes
  • Similar high-powered motorized devices

Lamar CISD Police added all students are also expected to follow traffic laws on school grounds, including any requirements involving helmets, licensing, permits, registration, and insurance.

If a student rides a prohibited motorized vehicle to campus, Lamar CISD police said they will notify administrators and contact a parent or guardian to pick it up.

Families with questions about whether a specific vehicle is allowed are asked to contact their school’s administration before sending it to campus.

The first day of school for Lamar CISD is Tuesday, August 11th.

“I can’t do anything about it, so you just run with it,” Gibbs said.

Gibbs used late pit strategy and held off Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell over the final 20 laps to win the NASCAR Cup Series race Sunday at Iowa Speedway.

Gibbs — the 23-year-old grandson of former NFL coaching great and NASCAR team owner Joe Gibbs — won by 0.253 seconds over Bell for his second victory of the season and his career.

Gibbs and Bell each pitted with 60 laps remaining in the 350-lap race, but while Bell took four tires, Gibbs just went with two right-side tires, and came out ahead. And when leader Ross Chastain pitted on Lap 330, Gibbs took over the top spot and fought off a late charge by Bell.

Tyler Allen, Gibbs’ crew chief, thought taking two tires was the only chance to get ahead of Bell in that final pit cycle.

“We knew after practice the left sides weren’t wearing much and they tended to refire OK,” Allen said. “So in terms of coming into the race, it was definitely a viable option.”

Gibbs liked the aggressive call.

“I think in the position with our points situation, for sure,” he said.

Gibbs, who picked up his first career win April 12 at Bristol, came into the race ranked fourth in the season standings, and moved into second — 103 points behind JGR teammate Denny Hamlin.

Gibbs, who had an issue in the pits on his first stop of the day when his jack fell too early during the tire change, fell back to 28th before charging back.

“You’re kind of hosed after that deal,” Gibbs said. “So you’ve got to stay locked in and keep working.”

It was the seventh second-place finish of the season for Bell, who led 108 laps.

“Ty did a really good job,” Bell said. “He did a great job of managing the race.”

Pole-sitter Ryan Blaney, who won the inaugural 2024 Cup Series race at the 0.875-mile oval, was third after leading a race-high 129 laps.

Josh Berry finished fourth. It was Berry’s best finish of the season, and only his third top-10 finish. Hamlin finished fifth.

Chase Briscoe was sixth. Chastain recovered to finish seventh. AJ Allmendinger was eighth, followed by defending race winner William Byron. Austin Dillon was 10th.

Reddick’s struggles

Tyler Reddick’s summer struggles continued when he crashed into Erik Jones four laps into the race.

The rear end of Reddick’s car slid entering Turn 1, and Reddick ran into Jones before hitting the wall. Reddick finished last in the 36-car field.

“A 100% that was on me,” Reddick said. “It’s something I don’t normally do, make those kinds of mistakes. Just gut-wrenching on a lot of levels. I thought we kind of figured out what we needed to do for the race today, and made a killer mistake earlier.”

Reddick won the first three races of the season, and four of the first six, and has five wins overall. But he has had four finishes of 30th place or worse in the last six races.

No brakes, all gas for Hamlin

Hamlin had brake issues during practice Saturday, which led to the team changing brake rotors and a cooling unit. Hamlin had to go to the rear of the field, but surged back to finish fifth despite having more brake issues during the race.

“I just had white knuckles every lap, not knowing where my car was going to land when I got in the corner,” Hamlin said. “That was a crazy race to have to do it the whole time without (brakes), but you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do, and the team did an amazing job. I would take that day a hundred out of a hundred times.”

“I’ve never seen Denny that exhausted,” Joe Gibbs said. “I think he drove his heart out.”

Up next

The Cup Series moves to Richmond Raceway on Saturday night.

AP NASCAR: https://apnews.com/hub/nascar-racing

Trump said that, beginning Sept. 1, Scharf will be replacing David Warrington, who will be leaving the administration to join the private sector. Trump noted that Scharf previously served as a federal prosecutor and represented him in a number of cases, including at the Supreme Court.

“Will is Tough, Strong, and Smart! He also loves our Country, and respects the Law,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Will Scharf will do a great job as White House Counsel!”

The shakeup in the White House counsel's office comes at a critical juncture — just months ahead of the midterm elections, where Trump's Republican Party will be fighting to hold on to control of Congress. Democrats have vowed to pursue investigations into Trump and his administration if they are successful in November.

The White House counsel’s job is to advise on legal and policy questions related to the presidency. The office is the primary White House contact for the Justice Department, and it handles presidential pardons, works on judicial appointments and reviews legislation. The office also helps investigate and manage congressional investigations into the administration and lawsuits against the president when he is sued in his official capacity.

During Trump's first term, Scharf worked to get judges and justices confirmed for him. They included U.S. Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh — who himself served as White House staff secretary for President George W. Bush — and Amy Coney Barrett.

In the period when Trump was out of office, Scharf joined his legal team in October 2023 and was one of his lawyers in the election interference case brought by special counsel Jack Smith. The case went before the Supreme Court, which ruled that presidents enjoy sweeping immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts.

Scharf is among several of Trump’s lawyers who have been rewarded with spots in his second administration. Todd Blanche, who represented Trump during the Republican’s hush money trial in New York. was confirmed last week as attorney general.

As White House staff secretary, Scharf was responsible for managing the papers that cross the president’s desk. He is at Trump's side when the president signs executive orders and often provides running narration on what Trump is signing.

Trump in July 2025 named Scharf as chair of the National Capital Planning Commission, the executive branch agency with jurisdiction over construction and major renovations to government buildings in the region.

Trump's ballroom won final approval from the NCPC in April, though a divided federal appeals court ruled Friday that construction on the project must stop because Congress had not approved it. Trump has vowed to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The project is already well on its way and has begun to rise above ground on the east side of the White House.

Maria Veronica Ortiz Estrada was reported missing by family members in July, after she left her residence in the Oak Knoll area of New Caney on foot. Relatives told investigators Ortiz had been experiencing memory and confusion issues.

Carla Ortiz said her mother has shown significant signs of dementia for approximately six years. Her condition appeared to worsen after she lost her job and her daily routine during the COVID-19 pandemic, around the same time her own mother died.

“She wants to go to her mom’s house,” Carla said. “Sometimes she doesn’t remember us.”

MCSO Recovers Remains Believed To Be Those of Missing New Caney Woman Maria Ortiz
The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, working with Texas Search and Rescue, recovered human remains believed to be those of missing New Caney resident Maria Ortiz. pic.twitter.com/11HR6voFUH

— MCTXSheriff (@MCTXSheriff) August 9, 2026

According to MCSO, the agency worked with Texas Search and Rescue to locate the remains in a wooded area near Ortiz’s home, close to where she was last seen. Officials said definitive identification is expected later this week through dental records, but preliminary investigative findings are consistent with the remains being Ortiz.

MCSO deputies and detectives have conducted an ongoing search, following up on multiple leads and coordinating with Texas Search and Rescue, Montgomery County Search and Rescue, Texas EquuSearch, The Call Service, and volunteers, friends, and family.

At this time, officials said no foul play is suspected. The cause and manner of death are still under investigation, but investigators said early information indicates Ortiz may have died of natural causes in the wooded area.

According to a picture posted by Constable Mark Herman’s Office, a pickup crashed into the U Wash laundromat.

The pickup did not go into the building but there is significant damage.

No injuries have been reported but Precinct 4 asks everyone to use caution in the area while deputies continue their investigation into what happened.

D

As umpires took the field and walked by the Braves' dugout on the third base side, Sale began barking. Merzel tossed him and Sale said something to crew chief Dan Bellino as the two talked near the dugout rail.

“I was by the bat rack because the game was about to start and I was getting my helmet,” center fielder Michael Harris II said after his 10th-inning single gave Atlanta a 2-1 win. “I didn’t see him talking to him, but I actually seen the motion of him throwing him out. I was kind of confused but then I saw Sale and remember what happened yesterday and I put two and two together."

Sale was called for his third career balk by Merzel during the fifth inning of Saturday’s 5-4 loss. Rookie Spencer Jones scored on the balk after getting an RBI triple and Sale began fiercely yelling at Merzel before manager Walt Weiss continued the argument and was ejected.

“I think he had some words for the umpire from yesterday, but you know what, it’s behind us," Weiss said. “Everyone had their say and we move on.”

Bellino told a pool reporter after Saturday's game that Sale was called for the balk because he did not declare he was going to pitch from the windup. Bellino said Sale declared he was pitching from the windup when he struck out José Caballero but did not do so ahead of the at-bat to Austin Wells.

It was Sale’s fourth career ejection. It was his first since Aug. 3, 2019, when he pitched for Boston and was tossed by Mike Estabrook for arguing balls and strikes during the fourth inning of a 9-2 loss at Yankee Stadium.

Sale allowed three runs and five hits in six innings Saturday for his first loss since June 28. In his third season with the Braves, the veteran left-hander is 12-7 with a 2.20 ERA in 21 starts.

___

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

Nelson’s family confirmed the death in a statement that did not say where he died or provide a cause.

“On Sunday morning our beloved husband, dad, grandfather and great-grandfather Don Nelson peacefully went to be with the Lord, surrounded by his loving family,” the statement said. “Throughout his last week, friends and family encircled him with love, sharing the blessing of his friendship and revisiting treasured memories.”

Nelson is one of two coaches in NBA history to have at least 250 wins with three different franchises — Milwaukee, Dallas and Golden State — also serving as general manager for all three franchises. He was a three-time coach of the year and made the playoffs 18 times in 31 seasons. He went to the conference finals three times with the Bucks and once with the Mavericks, never winning a title.

Nelson introduced what is now known as the point forward, and his up-tempo style of offense created a buzz. He said the idea of shifting from the dominant big men of the 1970s to an offense focused on speed and the fast break came from his playing days under Celtics Hall of Fame coach Red Auerbach.

“The league really hadn’t seen an offense like the one we were running, and the results were undeniable,” Nelson wrote in 2016 in The Players’ Tribune.

Nelson said that “without Red Auerbach teaching me the mechanics of running the fast break, none of it would have been possible. He deserves all the credit for Nellie Ball, and for how fast the game of basketball is played today.”

Nelson played 11 of his 14 seasons in Boston and was on five Celtics championship teams under four different coaches. He became an assistant coach in Milwaukee after retiring as a player, then took over after coach Larry Costello resigned 18 games into the 1976-77 season. Nelson coached the Bucks for 11 seasons starting in 1976 and won seven straight division titles.

In Nelson’s second season, Milwaukee overcame a 29-point fourth quarter deficit to beat Atlanta 117-115 in regulation.

“I coached the team as though I was still playing for the Celtics, while implementing a few of my own strategies,” Nelson wrote. “I knew I wanted to play unconventional basketball and use speed to my advantage.”

His fast-paced offenses were probably best on display with Golden State in the “Run TMC” era featuring future Hall of Famers Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond and Chris Mullin. Nelson said he wanted them on the court at the same time.

Nelson spent 11 seasons over two stints with Golden State. The first one was punctuated by a rift with rookie star Chris Webber, who was traded away a month into his second season. Nelson, demoralized by the trade, missed nine games that season due to illness and resigned under pressure three months later in February 1995.

In between, Nelson was fired after less than one season in New York in 1995-96, then coached in Dallas for eight seasons, missing 21 games with the Mavericks starting in December 2000 to recuperate from prostate cancer surgery.

Nelson’s son, Donnie, joined his father as an assistant coach with the Mavericks in 1998, later became general manager and remained with the organization until 2021. Together they persuaded 20-year-old German star Dirk Nowitzki to pass up European basketball and join the Mavericks. Don Nelson also developed Steve Nash into one of the NBA’s top point guards before Nash went on to win back-to-back MVPs with the Phoenix Suns in 2005 and 2006.

“Don Nelson was a true innovator whose influence on the game of basketball is still felt today,” current Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “He consistently challenged conventional thinking, experimented with different lineups and styles of play and saw possibilities in the game that others often did not. So much of what is now commonplace in the modern NBA can be traced back to the way Nellie approached the game."

At Golden State, Nelson’s “We Believe” Warriors led by Baron Davis upset Nowitzki and the top-seeded Mavericks in the first round of the 2007 playoffs in one of the biggest shockers in NBA history. In his final season as a coach, Nelson mentored rookie Stephen Curry in 2009-10.

“One of the big reasons I was drafted by the Warriors was because of Don Nelson. The story is he never liked rookies, but from Day 1 he challenged me and gave me an opportunity to be my best self on the court,” Curry said in a statement released by the Warriors. “He taught me a lot during our one season together and I’ll never forget the night he became the winningest coach in NBA history in Minnesota. We were so happy for him. He had an immeasurable impact on the sport and will go down as one of the greatest minds in the history of the game.”

Davis added: “When I think of Nellie, I’ll always think of the ‘We Believe’ team and our incredible run in 2007. He understood what made us go and made us believe we could beat anybody, ultimately helping us make history as the first No. 8 seed to defeat a No. 1 seed in a seven-game series. That time in my life and career was truly special, and Nellie was a huge part of making it possible.”

Nelson retired as the NBA’s career coaching wins leader with 1,335, just ahead of Lenny Wilkens’ 1,332. Nelson kept that top spot for nearly 12 years before close friend and now-retired San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich passed him in March 2022.

Nelson was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012. In 2025, he received the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by the National Basketball Coaches Association. Miffed that the Mavericks sent Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in a blockbuster trade, Nelson wore a pair of Doncic’s signature Jordan Brand sneakers to the awards ceremony. He called the trade a “tremendous mistake.”

Born in Muskegon, Michigan, Nelson attended high school in Rock Island, Illinois, and averaged a double-double in college at Iowa. He spent his retirement years living on the Hawaiian island of Maui and owned several short-term rentals on the island.

___

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

The 22-foot Bayliner speedboat overturned around 10:25 p.m. Saturday near Liberty Island, home to the Statue of Liberty, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

Twelve people were rescued from the water before police arrived, and police divers later located the 27-year-old woman and 5-month-old girl in the water. Both were taken to a hospital where they were pronounced dead. According to the Coast Guard, the others were in stable condition.

“We are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life last night, and our thoughts are with the victims’ family and loved ones during this incredibly difficult time,” said Capt. Doreen McCarthy, the Coast Guard Sector New York commander. “We are extremely grateful for the heroic, swift actions of our partner agencies and Good Samaritan vessel who assisted in rescuing survivors from the water.”

Manuel Hernandez, 46, of New York, has been charged with 13 counts of reckless endangerment, police said. No phone number for him could be found Sunday, and the case has not yet been entered into online court records.

The victims' identities have not been released pending notification of family, police said Sunday.

Adam Schwartz said his sightseeing company's hot tub boat, Sea the City II, was out on a cruise when the accident occurred and took the 12 survivors onboard.

“Our captain and both crew members immediately assisted, called in to the Coast Guard and ... then coordinated with the Coast Guard and NYPD Harbor units to bring them to land in Brooklyn,” Schwartz told The Associated Press on Sunday.

McCarthy said Coast Guard investigators are working with police to investigate and are committed to holding lawbreakers accountable. According to the Coast Guard, an illegal charter is any passenger-for-hire vessel operation that lacks Coast Guard credentials, safety equipment and inspection certificates.

Interns Ava Popovits and Zion Webb will be anchoring the newscast with their own content.

Ava has accumulated over 245,000 views on her community reporter Instagram (@avapopreports), covering the Spring Branch area.

Zion appeared on NBC Nightly News after covering breaking news where a car flew off an overpass onto the Southwest Freeway. He also covers sports and the Cypress community on Instagram (@zionwebbtv).

Intern Meteorologist Alex Alexander will be giving his forecast for the back-to-school week.

Alex has been working hard with KPRC 2’s meteorologists. He posts his weather content on Instagram (@wxalexalexander)

The newscast is co-produced by Juliana Russell and Fatima Valdez.

Juliana Russell has been working hard behind the screens by helping the producers with the dayside shows. She has also accumulated a following on social media for her community reporting in the Fort Bend and Katy area.

Fatima Valdez has helped co-produce the 5 p.m. show and written stories for the dayside newscast shows.

Some stories in the Intern Newscast will be outdated and should not be taken as the latest information.

It was her toughest moment of the day after an ultra-dominant performance on the bike from the 2023 champion.

She secured an impressive stage win, and in doing so extended her overall lead over Polish rider Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney to 1 minute, 18 seconds clear of the 2024 champion.

Vollering raised her bike in the air moments after crossing the finish line in Nice. Niewiadoma-Phinney had started Sunday’s ninth and final stage only eight seconds behind Vollering, who got a time bonus for winning it.

Finally, as the Dutch anthem ended, a lone tear trickled down the side of Vollering's face. A few more soon followed as her achievement hit home.

“It’s not only the dream of winning the Tour de France. It’s also the dream of living this life, of working hard along with passionate people," the 29-year-old Vollering said. “It all starts with dreaming. Go chase the dreams and don’t let anyone stop you."

Nobody could on Sunday.

Knowing that she was well clear, Vollering began to celebrate as the line approached, raising her arm in triumph and then tapping her head with her finger to show her mental strength.

“I was thinking about a lot of things as I was approaching the finish line. I thought that I had never won in the yellow jersey before,” Vollering said. “I thought about how much work has gone into this victory. I thought about the people who have been behind me.”

She finished the stage 1 minute, 4 seconds ahead of Spaniard Paula Blasi Cairol and Niewiadoma-Phinney, who looked tired but was all smiles later on the podium.

Former Giro d’Italia champion Elisa Longo Borghini of Italy was third overall in the Tour — 4:29 behind — after Marlen Reusser lost valuable time after crashing going downhill after the second of the day’s four climbs.

Reusser ended up 14th overall at nearly 26 minutes behind.

Vollering attacks

Niewiadoma-Phinney had it all to do on the final climb, especially with her rival sitting on her wheel, and was unable to pressure Vollering.

Vollering attacked about 800 meters from the top and dropped Niewiadoma-Phinney — as she did when winning Saturday’s eighth stage to take the overall lead from her rival.

Two years ago, Vollering missed out on Tour victory after finishing an agonizing four seconds behind Niewiadoma-Phinney on the last stage.

She made full amends this time.

Vollering has now won five Grand Tours, including two Spanish Vuelta titles and the Giro d’Italia secured in June to join countrywoman Annemiek van Vleuten as the only other female cyclist to have won all three Grand Tours.

“I still have a lot of dreams," Vollering said. "On and off the bike.”

Four climbs

Each of the first three climbs on Sunday was 7.7 kilometers long with a 5.9% average gradient. But the final ascent branched off onto a slightly different route which, even though it was shorter at 6 kilometers, had a steeper average gradient of 7.6% with one portion stretching to a grueling 12%.

It made little difference.

After winning Friday’s seventh stage with an impressive solo attack of her own up the iconic Mont Ventoux, Niewiadoma-Phinney seemed short of energy and Vollering’s lead was never under threat.

___

AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

Police identified the deceased as 14-year-old D’Antwon Miles.

Investigators said the gunfire broke out in the 1200 block of W. 17th Street when two groups began shooting at each other. Four people were hit, police said, including Miles, who later died at St. Joseph Hospital.

Police said a 14-year-old girl was treated and released the hospital, and a 42-year-old woman remains at St. Joseph in stable condition. A 17-year-old boy was treated and released from Baylor Scott & White Hospital.

Authorities said the shooting also caused damage beyond the victims. Two vehicles in the 1200 block of W. 17th Street and another vehicle in the 900 block of Harlem Lane were struck by bullets during the exchange.

• Houston police shoot and kill armed suspect standing over unresponsive man at Westheimer parking garage

Police have not released a motive and said detectives are still working to identify those involved.

“A 14-year old lost his life and several others were injured as a result of this senseless act of violence. The Bryan Police Department extends its deepest condolences to the family, friends and loved ones of D’Antwon Miles during this incredibly difficult time. Our thoughts are also with those who were injured, their families, and everyone affected by this tragedy,” said Bryan Police Chief Dean Swartzlander.

The investigation remains active.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Bryan Police Department at (979) 209-5300.

The meteor shower's peak Wednesday night into Thursday morning coincides with a total solar eclipse across Spain, Iceland and Greenland and a six-planet parade — though the best time to view the fireballs will come after totality.

As many as 50 to 100 meteors per hour may be visible under ideal conditions, according to NASA. The American Meteor Society estimates 30 to 50 meteors per hour could be seen from rural regions.

Random meteors are visible in dark skies on any given night. Meteor showers tend to put on dazzling celestial shows and happen at predictable times every year when the Earth plows through trails of debris left behind by comets and, sometimes, asteroids. Those remnants collide with Earth’s atmosphere at extremely high speeds, producing streaks of light known as shooting stars.

“Comets typically have orbits that cross the orbit of the Earth. So as they get near the sun and the sun evaporates the ice, a lot of the dirt and crap that’s frozen into the comet gets released, and continues in orbit around the sun," astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson told The Associated Press on Sunday.

The Perseids are debris from comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, an icy ball that orbits the sun every 133 years and isn't scheduled for a return visit until 2125. Observations of this meteor shower date back over 2,000 years.

The Perseids are a perennial favorite because they tend to produce brilliant fireballs. Summer temperatures also make this shower popular.

“We don't have to suffer through a cold winter night to get a good view of meteors,” said astronomer Zach Vanderbosch with McDonald Observatory in Texas.

The moon will be in its new moon phase during the Perseids' peak, making viewing conditions even better.

“The moon is beautiful, but it’s such a diva,” said astronomer Aparna Venkatesan with the University of San Francisco. “New moon means we don’t have moonlight flooding the sky, and you tend to see way more meteors as a result.”

To spot the meteors, go outside after dark, away from clouds and city lights. Venkatesan plans to drive to the Sierra Nevada.

The best views will be between midnight and dawn when the constellation Perseus is high in the northern sky. The meteors will appear to radiate from that constellation.

Look up and give your eyes a half hour to adjust to the darkness. Vanderbosch recommends picking a patch of sky to focus on until a quick, bright streak passes by — even in your peripheral vision — and to avoid looking at your phone.

“There's just something magical about it,” Vanderbosch said.

___

Associated Press journalist Julie Walker contributed to this story from New York. 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.

Museum leaders said the partnership — which runs through Jan. 7, 2029 — is designed to expand hands-on learning opportunities for families across the Gulf Coast while the organization continues working toward its long-term goal of a permanent home.

• New Heritage Society exhibit spotlights Spanish Texas’ role in the American Revolution

“This is much more than a new location,” Zahrah M. Ektefaei, executive director of the Galveston Children’s Museum, said in the announcement. “We’re entering our next chapter.”

A shift after more than a decade at the Moody Mansion

The museum has operated since 2014, growing into what it calls a regional destination for play-based learning, with programs ranging from interactive exhibits and camps to field trips, homeschool offerings, special events and partnerships.

The organization also acknowledged its current home at the Moody Mansion, crediting the Mary Moody Northen Endowment and the historic site with providing space for the museum’s first decade of growth.

What families can expect at Moody Gardens

The reimagined museum experience is being designed specifically for the Discovery Museum space and will keep some familiar elements while adding new offerings, according to museum.

Plans include:

• Expanded STEM activities
• New interactive exhibits and imaginative play areas
• Maker-focused experiences and hands-on building opportunities
• Exhibits inspired by Galveston’s coastal heritage, maritime history, arts community and innovation

Ektefaei said the residency creates room to build something rooted in the island’s identity while widening the museum’s reach.

“We want every child to leave inspired by what they discover and by the community that made it possible,” she said.

• A new mural on Bellaire Boulevard is meant to feel like a seat at the table for everyone in Houston

Moody Gardens President and CEO John Zendt said the collaboration aligns with the attraction’s educational focus.

“Education has always been at the heart of Moody Gardens’ mission, and we’re pleased to welcome the Galveston Children’s Museum to the Discovery Museum,” Zendt said.

Community invited to help shape the next chapter

As work gets underway, the museum is asking artists, educators, makers, engineers, businesses, volunteers and philanthropic partners to get involved through exhibit design, sponsorships, in-kind support and other collaborations.

“The Galveston Children’s Museum has always been built by the community,” Ektefaei said. “As we begin this next chapter, we’re inviting our community to help us create a children’s museum that could only exist in Galveston.”

Additional details — including memberships, sponsorship opportunities, volunteer information and opening celebrations — will be announced in the months ahead.

For more information, the museum directs the public to galvestoncm.org and its social media channels.

One resident, Michael, said he was headed out for work when the scene erupted. “I heard pops. I was trying to leave for work. I don’t know what the f--- happened here,” he said.

Police said officers ordered the armed suspect to drop the weapon, but he did not comply. Multiple officers then fired, striking the suspect, according to HPD.

• League City man faces murder charge after police say he stabbed parents, killing mother and injuring father

“Officers gave commands to put down a weapon. The suspect was armed. The suspect did not comply. Multiple officers discharged. The suspect was struck. HFD responded. Suspect was pronounced deceased. Once HFD pronounced the suspect deceased, the unresponsive male was also pronounced deceased,” Assistant Chief Patricia Cantu said at the scene.

The Houston Fire Department pronounced both men dead, officials said. Investigators had not released information early Sunday about what led up to the shooting, or whether the suspect had a criminal history.

Another resident, Melissa, said the violence didn’t feel isolated. “It’s not the first time this has happened here, sadly. The area is not the safest,” she said. “I really wish it was more safe, but it really comes down to the people behaving better.”

The incident remains under investigation by the Houston Police Department. HPD said police bodycam video will be released within 30 days of the incident.

As U.S. immigration agents staged at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building for a monthslong deportation campaign, protesters with whistles and cellphone cameras assembled to oppose them. Two were shot and killed in the city's streets before Trump pulled back under pressure.

Months later, those confrontations remain the backdrop to Minnesota's Democratic primary for U.S. Senate on Tuesday, which features establishment-backed U.S. Rep. Angie Craig and the more progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan. The immigration debate is an added schism in a race that otherwise echoes many of the other left versus center divides that have played out across the United States this year.

Craig voted for tighter enforcement soon after Trump returned to office last year, only to later express regret for her decision after the Republican president sent a surge of agents into Minneapolis. She backed a resolution that condemned antisemitism after a 2025 firebombing in Boulder, Colorado, and expressed thanks for law enforcement, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

Those votes may turn out to be some of the most fraught of Craig's eight-year career in Congress, decisions that Flanagan has highlighted while trying to portray her rival as unwilling to fight an unpopular administration in Washington.

“I think that’s when she lost my vote permanently and that’s why I will not vote for her no matter what," said Bryce Bohne, 40, of Minneapolis. The teacher and owner of an educational tourism company is supporting Flanagan.

Around the Whipple federal building, the fences and barriers are down. The ambient soundtrack is no longer the whistles and chants of protesters, just the rumble of departing jets and passing buses.

But the signs of what happened remain. A few volunteers in bright orange vests keep vigil across the street for 12-plus hours a day, ready to help people getting released from immigration detention or leaving hearings at the immigration court inside.

A few miles away, visitors still bring fresh flowers and handwritten notes to memorials marking the spots where Renee Good and Alex Pretti were killed.

Craig is no stranger to tough races, but until now the heat was from the right

Craig flipped a Republican-held seat in 2018, and every two years she overcame millions of dollars of attack ads to win tough reelection campaigns.

Until Craig's Senate run, the heat came from the right. Newly under fire from the other side, the decisions she made as a swing-seat congresswoman have become a liability as a statewide Senate candidate. At one recent event, she adopted the language of the insurgent left, though it did not always seem to come naturally.

“The working class keeps getting screwed,” she told volunteers preparing to knock on doors for her Saturday in Brooklyn Park, a Minneapolis suburb. “Folks, I don’t know about you, but it is time that we had a working folks reno— reso— renovation—"

Here, she took a breath.

"—revolution in this country.”

In Craig's view, she is well suited to the antiestablishment fervor gaining a foothold in the Democratic Party. Raised by a single mother in an Arkansas trailer park, she has known economic hardship. The lesbian mother of four grown children, she is not the archetype of a traditional member of Congress.

She was one of the House Democrats to call for President Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 race after his disastrous debate performance against Trump. As a relatively junior member of Congress, she pushed successfully to become the top Democrat on the Agriculture Committee, jumping ahead of long-tenured colleagues.

“I consider myself a progressive” she told reporters after her event Saturday. “Every race that I run, Republicans run ads against me saying I vote with Democrats 96, 97% of the time.”

“Of course, in the primary,” she added, “people want to point out the few votes I’ve taken against Democrats.”

‘I regret my vote,’ Craig wrote in a mea culpa

Chief among them was the Laken Riley Act, the first bill passed by Congress after Trump started his second term. It requires federal authorities to detain migrants accused of theft and violent crimes.

Craig and nearly 60 other Democrats in the House and Senate voted for the bill early in 2025.

But at the end of the year, as immigration officers descended on Minneapolis, that vote became a liability. Weeks after Good and Pretti were killed, Craig published a mea culpa in a Minnesota Star Tribune column.

Craig explained that although she had qualms with parts of the law, it had the support of Democrats she respected, and many of her constituents were unhappy with the situation on the border under Biden.

But the “outright occupation by aggressive, unaccountable federal forces” made clear to her “that supporting any bill that gives ICE new authority in this administration was the wrong decision. And I regret my vote."

Trump's immigration operation, she says, was not enabled by her vote on the Laken Riley Act.

“Before that, people had a little bit more sensibility about the fact she was in a tough district and had to take tough votes,” said Corey Day, former executive director of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.

Craig has since presented herself as a strong defender of Minnesotans against Trump. She says her record of winning tough races positions her to ensure the seat stays in Democratic hands.

“Angie has experience working across demographics that we need to win over statewide, including in rural Minnesota,” said Kevin Anderson, a Hennepin County commissioner who is supporting Craig and went to one of her weekend events. “I love Peggy, I really do, she’s a great politician. But I don’t think she’s ever had to work across Minnesota.”

Democratic Gov. Tim Walz has declined to endorse either candidate for the seat held by Democrat Tina Smith, who is not running again. Late last month his wife, Gwen Walz, endorsed Craig over Flanagan, his governing partner for two terms.

The Republican field includes Michele Tafoya, a former NFL sideline reporter.

Flanagan supporters are suspicious of Craig

To Flanagan and her supporters, Craig’s vote for the immigration bill was not a pragmatic overture to swing voters but a betrayal.

“My primary opponent voted for Donald Trump’s immigration bill and was the only Minnesota Democrat to do so,” Flanagan told volunteers in St. Paul on Saturday. “She since then has said that she regrets that vote, and I’m glad. But it shouldn’t have taken 14 months.”

“We can stand with the immigrant community and not just when it’s politically expedient for us,” Flanagan added.

Like Abdul El-Sayed, who won last week’s Democratic Senate primary in Michigan, Flanagan supports Medicare for All and wants to curtail U.S. military support for Israel. She is running as much against the donors who have spent millions of dollars backing Craig as she is against Craig herself.

“The fact that the money is coming from us and only us makes such a huge difference, because she’s beholden to us, not some billionaire with some business or crypto interest,” said 43-year-old Flanagan supporter Justin Ropella, a customer service manager from Woodbury.

Through July 22, Craig's campaign had spent $9 million and Flanagan's $5.5 million. The disparity was even higher among outside groups, with Craig backers spending considerably more, though both have benefited from an influx of outside spending.

To help make up the difference, Flanagan has called on the support of progressive champions such as Sen. Bernie Sanders the Vermont independent who campaigned with her last month.

“If the people of Minnesota can stand up -- and I’m confident that they can -- and tell these billionaires and their lies and their 30-second ads and their super PACs to go to hell, democracy is going to reign,” Sanders said.

Louisiana has confirmed nine cases of Vibrio vulnificus infections this year, the state's health department said last week in a news release. All were hospitalized, and five died. During the same period over the previous decade, Louisiana reported an average of seven cases and one death.

“Seek medical care immediately if a wound exposed to brackish or salt water becomes red, swollen, painful, warm or discolored," officials said in the release. "Tell the health care provider about the water exposure.”

The Gulf is an ideal environment

Vibrio bacteria thrive in seawater and in the brackish mix of fresh and saltwater found in estuaries and lagoons. Most infections are reported from May to October, and most happen in states along the Gulf Coast. Doctors say the Gulf is an ideal environment with the right amounts of salt and heat to let this organism proliferate.

The mostly deadly type is Vibrio vulnificus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As many as one in five of those infections are fatal, a much higher rate than other types of Vibrio bacteria.

Florida, which tends to have more infections than other states, has reported 14 Vibrio vulnificus cases and two deaths so far this year, compared with 33 cases and five deaths for all of last year. Records show more cases in years when Florida is hit by tropical storms and hurricanes.

Bacteria enters through breaks in the skin

Some people become infected by eating raw or undercooked shellfish — particularly oysters. But a large percentage fall ill when the person is in ocean or brackish water and the bacteria enter the body through small breaks in the skin.

Doctors say severe cases are seen more often in elderly patients, people with weakened immune systems, and those with liver disease, diabetes and certain chronic illnesses.

Scientists say climate change is helping the germs proliferate and spread northward. A 2023 study found that the northernmost case has been shifting by about 30 miles each year, and that cases overall have been rising.

Beachgoers can protect themselves

Vibrio vulnificus can enter the body through unhealed cuts and scrapes, recent piercings and tattoos, and recent surgical incisions. People should immediately wash cuts and scrapes thoroughly with soap and clean running water after coming in contact with coastal waters or raw seafood, the CDC said. They should see a doctor if they start to develop symptoms such as fever, chills, and hot red areas on the skin that start to turn dark and blister.

Oysters are a particular risk, and there is no way to tell if an oyster is contaminated just by looking at it. People should wash hands with soap and water after handing raw shellfish and wear protective gloves if they have a weakened immune system and are at a higher risk of infection.

Health officials also offer cooking instructions for clams, mussels and other shellfish. They recommend throwing away any with open shells before boiling or steaming.

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Last week, Moody’s upgraded Houston’s general credit rating to Aa2 from Aa3, the city’s first ratings upgrade from the agency in about 12 years. Moody’s also kept a stable outlook, meaning it expects Houston’s finances to stay on a steady track for now.

Houston’s credit rating matters because the city borrows money to pay for big, long-term projects — and a better rating can help Houston borrow at lower interest rates, saving money over time.

Why Moody’s says Houston is in better shape

Moody’s said the upgrade is tied to budget decisions the city made for fiscal year 2027.

The rating agency said Houston made changes that bring in more ongoing revenue and shift certain costs — steps it says narrowed a projected budget gap.

Moody’s said the city reduced its projected fiscal 2027 budget gap to about $26 million (about 0.83% of revenues) from an earlier estimate of $209 million.

Among the moves Moody’s cited:

• A new right-of-way fee equal to 5% of combined utility system gross revenues
• Moving solid waste (trash) costs into the city’s combined utility system

Moody’s also pointed to Houston’s improving long-term cost picture, including declining pension-related liabilities, as a sign the city has more breathing room than it did a few years ago.

• Spring ISD to offer free breakfast, lunch to all students for 2026-27 school year

Houston’s massive economy also works in its favor. Moody’s estimates the city’s economy at about $760 billion — roughly a quarter of Texas’ economic output — and said Houston has become more resilient as industries such as health care, transportation, logistics and tourism have grown alongside energy.

City controller has warned Houston isn’t out of the woods

The Moody’s upgrade comes after months of public debate over Houston’s budget and financial stability.

City Controller Chris Hollins has repeatedly warned that Houston’s finances are under strain and has criticized the city’s approach as relying too much on fees and assumptions that could fall short.

In June, Houston City Council passed a $7.5 billion budget that included a new $5 monthly solid waste administrative fee and a proposed utility-related right-of-way charge. Hollins criticized the plan, arguing it lacked transparency and relied on what he called “gimmicks” and “hidden costs.”

• Houston City Council passes $7.5 billion budget amid debate over fees and financial stability

Hollins also certified the mayor’s budget proposal ahead of the council vote, fulfilling one of the controller’s duties under the City Charter. He stressed that certification was a legal determination, not an endorsement of the spending plan. Hollins previously said the administration’s plan to raise more than $100 million annually through a combined utility system right-of-way fee could be uncertain and unsustainable over time.

Earlier this year, Hollins warned the city could be facing a large shortfall — a claim Mayor John Whitmire disputed.

• Houston Controller Chris Hollins certifies Mayor Whitmire’s $7.5 Billion budget proposal ahead of council vote

The upgrade does not mean Houston’s budget challenges have disappeared. Credit ratings primarily measure a government’s ability to repay debt, and Moody’s noted that the city still faces financial pressures. Hollins’ criticism has focused more heavily on whether the city’s new budget strategies are sustainable over the long term.

Moody’s also cautioned that the city could face a future downgrade if its projected budget improvements fail to materialize and Houston returns to persistent structural budget gaps.

Another ratings firm recently moved Houston’s outlook to stable

Moody’s isn’t the only ratings agency following Houston.

In June, S&P Global Ratings revised Houston’s financial outlook from negative to stable, a change Whitmire said reflected progress. In prior reports, S&P cited pressure from rising debt costs, salary obligations and Houston’s limited ability to raise revenue under the city’s property tax cap.

• Houston’s financial outlook revised to ‘stable’ by S&P Global Ratings, Mayor Whitmire says

What Moody’s said about reserves

Moody’s also pointed to Houston’s sizable financial cushion. The agency said the city ended fiscal 2025 with an available fund balance equal to about 44% of annual operating revenue. Moody’s expects that cushion to remain around 40% through fiscal 2027, even as Houston uses some reserves to cover higher public safety costs and slower revenue growth.

A separate upgrade tied to hotel tax money and the convention center

In a separate action, Moody’s also upgraded Houston’s Convention and Entertainment debt backed mainly by hotel occupancy tax revenue — money connected to tourism and convention business — to A1 from A2.

Moody’s said the rating reflects improved debt-payment coverage following a $1.1 billion debt issuance and restructuring earlier this year to fund improvements to the George R. Brown Convention Center.

Moody’s expects hotel-tax collections to decline about 5% in fiscal 2026 before rebounding 6.4% in fiscal 2027, supported in part by Houston’s seven FIFA World Cup matches this summer.

Large-scale Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian cities have become almost routine in recent weeks, with Moscow exploiting Ukraine’s critical shortage of interceptors for the U.S.-made Patriot systems — the sole air defense weapon in its arsenal able to shoot down ballistic missiles.

In the latest attacks, Ukrainian drones killed five people and injured two dozen others, including a 4-year-old boy, in Russia’s border region of Belgorod, according to the regional administration.

In Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, Russian missiles struck a high-rise apartment block in the Saltivskyi district, killing two people and injuring 13, according to regional head Oleh Syniehubov. Eight more people were injured in Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa after “dozens of missiles and drones” struck the city and surrounding region, according to local administration head Oleh Kiper.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has for months lobbied other countries, especially the U.S., to send Ukraine more Patriot systems made scarcer by the Iran war, arguing they are crucial for defending civilians.

Failing that, Zelenskyy wants to make Patriot ammunition in Ukraine or get approval from Elon Musk to use his Starlink satellite communications system to guide strikes inside Russia that can hit its missile launchers.

Meanwhile, Kyiv has kept up long-range drone strikes against Russian energy infrastructure, as well as the country’s largest online retailer, Wildberries, and other targets deep inside Russia, sparking a fuel crisis.

Russia’s defense ministry on Sunday claimed its overnight strikes hit drone warehouses in the Kharkiv region, as well as fuel depots and stores of other materiel belonging to Ukraine’s armed forces at the port of Odesa.

It said its forces had shot down 153 Ukrainian drones during the night, including over Russian-occupied Crimea and the Black and Azov seas.

In Russia's Belgorod region, authorities said Ukrainian drone strikes damaged 29 apartment blocks and five private houses, as well as administrative buildings and unspecified “commercial facilities.”

Debris from Ukrainian drones also fell on two enterprises and a private home in the Russian city of Novorossiysk, mayor Andrey Kravchenko said on Sunday. He did not specify what the commercial sites were. Regional authorities later said falling debris had injured one person, damaged two private houses, and blew out a window in an apartment block.

A major fuel terminal is located at Novorossiysk that links Kazakhstan's oil fields to markets around the world, and which has previously been a target for Ukrainian strikes.

Moldova says blast near Ukraine border caused by drone

A “powerful explosion” believed to be from a combat drone was reported in the village of Crocmaz, in southeast Moldova near the border with Ukraine, local police said Sunday.

No one was injured by the impact, which caused a vegetation fire in the Stefan Voda district, police said, adding that “fragments of a combat drone were found at the scene” and would be examined by specialists. Police did not specify the origin of the drone.

Multiple drones have violated Moldovan airspace since Russia launched its full-scale war in neighboring Ukraine.

Bulgaria summons Ukrainian ambassador over drone incident

Bulgaria has summoned Ukraine's ambassador after a drone entered Bulgarian airspace, the country's public broadcaster BNT reported on Sunday.

The drone exploded on Saturday close to an international gas pipeline shortly after crossing the border from Romania. No casualties or damage were reported.

Bulgaria's defense ministry said the drone appeared to be the type used by Ukrainian armed forces, and that the incident was likely accidental.

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi said the incident was being examined, but that it did not deliberately target Bulgaria. Ukraine and Bulgaria were in “close contact” to clarify what had happened, he added.

——

AP writer Stephen McGrath contributed from Leamington Spa, England.

In the Philippines, five people were rescued and seven remained missing after a landslide that hit three houses in the northern mountain resort city of Baguio on Sunday. The landslide was set off by days of heavy monsoon rains, which had been intensified by Dolphin, officials said.

Dolphin hit the Chinese city of Taizhou in Zhejiang province and the northern parts of neighboring Fujian province, bringing strong winds, estimated at 151 kph (93 mph) when it made landfall, and massive waves to the city's coastline. Heavy rains have created a risk of severe flooding in Zhejiang, and authorities have warned of severe landslide risks.

Shanghai's Hongqiao and Pudong airports canceled about 60% of Sunday's expected flights, according to the Paper, the city's state media.

Forecasters in China predicted that areas could see 200-400 millimeters (7.9–15.7 inches) of rainfall over the next few days.

The outer bands of the storm on Saturday hit northern Taiwan, including the capital of Taipei, bringing rain. Some Taiwanese airlines also canceled their flights to China on Sunday.

On Saturday evening, authorities in Zhejiang evacuated some 390,000 people in the city of Taizhou. Authorities in Shanghai evacuated more than 30,000 people from riskier areas.

Zhejiang authorities also suspended ferries and cruises.

Earlier in the Philippines, Dolphin helped intensify seasonal monsoon rains, which set off floods and landslides, including one that hit three houses on Sunday in Baguio.

Many areas of the main northern Luzon region, including the densely populated capital region of metropolitan Manila were flooded, displacing more than 12,000 people and forcing several northern cities and towns to shut down schools on Friday and Saturday, disaster officials said Sunday.

The monsoon rains were preceded by a tropical storm, which left at least six people dead last week, including four villagers. They died in a landslide and a rockslide in the provinces of Benguet and Rizal in Luzon, Philippine officials said.

El-Sayed said his Friday conversation with Obama was “really warm and inspiring." The candidate did not provide details.

“I was grateful for his advice. It was very warm, very inviting, and I know that he knows the critical role that Michigan is going to play,” El-Sayed told NBC’s “Meet the Press."

Asked if he would like to see Obama come to Michigan to drum up support for Democrats before the midterm elections in November, El-Sayed said he “really” hoped so and that Obama “knows a lot about winning Michigan” after carrying the state in the 2008 and 2012 presidential races.

An Obama spokesperson confirmed the call.

The discussion came the same day that a group of Michigan nominees and other notable national Democrats tried to present a united front at a rally in Detroit. The crowd cheered loudest for El-Sayed, a former public health official who last week narrowly beat establishment-backed U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens in a contentious and closely watched primary. A Democratic victory in the fall is crucial to the party's chances of regaining a Senate majority.

Democratic Sen. Gary Peters is not seeking reelection in the perennial swing state, which Republican Donald Trump won in 2016 and 2024, while Democrat Joe Biden carried in 2020.

El-Sayed faces Republican Mike Rogers, a former congressman who narrowly lost the Senate race to Democrat Elissa Slotkin in 2024 and has tried to capitalize on lingering tensions within the Democratic Party.

Rogers has released a video message attempting to appeal to Democrats who feel their party may be moving too far to the left with El-Sayed. “You have a home with us," Rogers says in the video.

During an interview Sunday with CNN's “State of the Union,” El-Sayed acknowledged that "we aired our differences” in the heated primary. But he said the internal divisions are "so much smaller than the similarities that we share.”

“You’re seeing folks come together,” El-Sayed said, before adding of moderate Democrats, “We might see the world differently. But we also recognize the responsibility to come together.”

“We couldn’t let them in because we were so full,” Chairman Jacob Keyes said. “That’s a direct impact from the Harrah’s name.”

But a vacancy in Washington is preventing the tribe’s partnership with the gambling giant from moving beyond branding. Plans for Harrah’s parent company to take over day-to-day management of the casino in Chandler, Oklahoma, stalled after it opened in April, because no one is at the helm of the federal commission that oversees tribal gambling.

The last chairperson of the National Indian Gaming Commission stepped down from the role in January. President Donald Trump has not nominated anyone to fill the vacancy. Absent a chair, the commission is unable to perform some key responsibilities, like enforcing legal and safety violations, approving new tribal gambling laws and certifying management agreements between tribes and casino operators.

Industry leaders say the agency's inertia risks delaying business deals, weakening oversight and leaving tribes without a key advocate in Washington as they grapple with an emerging threat posed by online prediction markets.

“At this crucial time, the (National Indian Gaming Commission) is operating with one arm tied behind its back,” said Jonodev Chaudhuri, a former NIGC chair from 2013 to 2019 and a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. “That’s a very precarious position for tribes and Indian gaming."

There’s a lot at stake for tribes that rely heavily on casino revenue to fund healthcare, housing, education and other vital services. Tribal gambling brought in a record $46 billion in 2025, nearly triple the annual casino revenue of gambling powerhouse Nevada.

The commission's core powers are vested in its chair

With its Harrah’s contract stuck in limbo, the Iowa Tribe’s small government staff finds itself managing the 175,000-square-foot (16,258 square-meter) casino, a mammoth task it had intended to outsource.

“It’s discouraging. We’re paying a fee and not getting the full value,” Keyes said.

The decision to outsource management was strategic: Harrah's branding would bring in more business than existing staff could accommodate. Instead, staff has to balance management with other priorities like preparing tribal budgets and overseeing social programs, Keyes said.

The three-member gaming commission was formed in 1988 to regulate casino-style gambling and promote economic development on tribal lands. Some 250 tribal governments across 29 states now operate 545 gambling facilities, the commission said.

Under federal law, its enforcement powers are vested solely in the chairperson. Industry leaders say its inability to cite casinos for violating federal law or force the emergency closure of unsafe facilities is particularly troubling.

In a typical year, the commission issues several citations to tribes for operating casinos on unauthorized lands, failing to submit required financial statements, misusing revenues and other violations. The commission's last enforcement action was issued on Jan. 12 — the same day acting chairperson Sharon Avery's term expired. She remains on the commission.

The commission declined an interview request and said in an emailed statement that tribal officials and its field staff provide “excellent regulation" amid the leadership gap. But Steven Light, an expert in tribal gambling law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said the lack of enforcement power could discourage investment in tribal gambling and slow business growth.

“Markets function best when there's stability and certainty around processes and rules,” Light said.

Prediction markets have emerged as a new threat to tribal gaming

The commission vacancy comes as the popularity of online prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket explodes. Tribal leaders fear those platforms, which allow users to wager on the outcome of virtually any event, could violate their sovereignty and take a bite out of gambling revenue.

“Every dollar generated by Indian gaming goes to fund healthcare for our people, education for our children, housing for our elders,” said David Bean, chairman of the Indian Gaming Association and a citizen of the Puyallup Tribe.

At least eight tribes have sued prediction market platforms, alleging they accept bets from tribal lands and in states where tribes have exclusive gambling rights in violation of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which the gaming commission is tasked with enforcing.

Prediction markets argue their users are engaging in futures trading, not gambling, and dispute claims that they are circumventing regulation.

The commission chairperson typically serves as an advocate for the tribal gambling industry in Washington, according to former commissioners and staffers. Yet it's been conspicuously silent while the federal government weighs how to regulate prediction markets, said Joe Valandra, the commission’s chief of staff from 2005 to 2007 and a citizen of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe.

James Siva, who leads the California Nations Indian Gaming Association and is vice chairman of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, said the Trump administration's support of and business ties to the prediction markets industry could explain why it hasn't filled the vacancy.

“These things are happening in conjunction with each other,” Siva said in April at a news conference with the Indian Gaming Association. “It is not a coincidence by any means.”

The leadership gap spans two administrations

The commission's last Senate-confirmed chairperson termed out under former President Joe Biden without a successor in place.

A White House spokesperson called the commission a “valued board” but did not say when a new nomination will be made.

In April, Trump appointed Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Billy Kirkland, a citizen of the Navajo Nation, to the commission. That's raised questions about potential executive branch influence over an agency designed to be independent.

“This crosses that threshold in an uncomfortable way,” said Shannon O’Loughlin, the commission’s chief of staff from 2015 to 2017 and a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.

Keyes said a crucial opportunity to develop his tribe's economy hangs in the balance. He doesn't see the commission vacancy as partisan play.

“I don’t want to sound like sour grapes, but when have Native American issues ever been prioritized by the federal government?” he said.

The Friendswood Police Department said 32-year-old Lewis Stott was taken into custody around 6:16 p.m. Aug. 7 on a Harris County warrant charging him with continuous sexual abuse of a young child.

Police said the warrant stems from an ongoing investigation into allegations of sexual abuse that reportedly occurred between 2020 and 2026 while Stott was employed at The Galloway School, located at 3200 W. Bay Area Blvd. in Friendswood.

According to police, Stott held several positions at the school during that time, including:

• Physical education teacher
• Substitute teacher
• Second-grade teacher
• Soccer club coach

In a Sunday statement to KPRC 2, The Galloway School said:

The Galloway School became aware of the arrest of Lewis Stott today, Mr. Stott was separated from the school last May. 

The Galloway School has cooperated with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, the Friendswood Police Department, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, and the Texas Education Agency in each of their respective investigations. 

The Galloway School’s first priority is the safety, security, education of children entrusted to our care,

The Galloway School

Because of Stott’s former position as an educator and his access to children, investigators believe there may be additional victims who have not yet come forward, police said.

Parents and guardians whose children may have had contact with Stott are encouraged to speak with them. Anyone whose child discloses information or anyone with information that could assist investigators is asked to contact the Friendswood Police Department at 281-996-3300.

Police said the investigation remains active and that they are focused on protecting the safety, privacy and well-being of children and families.

• Mother’s boyfriend arrested after bringing unconscious 2-year-old to Spring gas station

Following his arrest, Stott was transported to the Harris County Jail, where he is being processed. Police said he is currently being held with no bond.

Because the investigation is ongoing, police said they will not release additional information at this time that could compromise the investigation or the privacy of potential victims.

The installation, called EarthRise, is slated to be dedicated Sunday, Aug. 16 at 11 a.m. on the grounds of St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church in Nassau Bay. Organizers say it will be the first permanent public monument in the Houston area focused on honoring African American pioneers connected to the nation’s space efforts. The piece will remain free and open to the public year-round.

Church and diocesan leaders say the monument is intended to serve as both a work of public art and a statement about who gets remembered in civic spaces—especially in a community long associated with the Space Age.

• How to spot the Perseid meteor shower, a summer light show that promises to dazzle

“EarthRise reminds us that history is strongest when every story is told,” said The Rt. Rev. Andrew Doyle, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas. “The discoveries, leadership, advocacy and service of these pioneers helped transform America’s space program, and recognizing their legacy reflects our commitment to truth, justice and the inherent dignity of every human being.”

EarthRise Monument Dedication

• When: Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026 — 11 a.m.
• Where: St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, 18300 Upper Bay Road, Nassau Bay, TX 77058
• Cost: Free; open to the public year-round

Eight honorees, spanning spaceflight, science and leadership

According to project organizers, EarthRise will honor eight individuals and groups whose work influenced NASA and broader American life. Those being recognized are:

• Ed Dwight
• Robert Henry Lawrence Jr.
• George Robert Carruthers
• Ruth Bates Harris
• NASA Astronaut Group 8
• Dr. Bernard Harris Jr.
• Sunita Williams
• Charles Bolden Jr.

The list includes former NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Jr., who has longstanding ties to the church where the monument will be located. Organizers describe him as a longtime member of St. Thomas’, where he served in leadership roles and participated in church ministries.

“To be honored alongside these pioneers, in a community that has meant so much to my family, is deeply humbling,” Bolden said. “I hope every young person who visits EarthRise sees that there are many paths into science, service and exploration.”

Why Nassau Bay — and why this church

Nassau Bay was developed in the early 1960s as a planned community for people moving to the region to work at what was then the Manned Spacecraft Center. Over the decades, the city became known for its close relationship to the space program—earning the nickname “the city NASA built.”

St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church was founded in 1964 as the community grew. The church says its congregation over the years has included astronauts and prominent NASA figures, and its parish school has served families tied to the space industry for decades.

• NASA awards $300 million contract to modernize Johnson Space Center in Houston

Project leaders say placing EarthRise there is intentional: it situates the monument inside a community built around space exploration, while widening the narrative of who helped make that history.

Funding and design process

Organizers say the project represents an investment of more than $125,000, funded through the Talbot Foundation of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas. An international design competition drew 23 submissions, and Genesis Art Collaborative was selected in 2023 to design the installation.

Research commissioned for the project found that fewer than 5% of Nassau Bay homeowners are African American, while more than 30% of the city’s apartment residents are Black. Organizers say the monument is meant to encourage reflection on representation—both in local history and in the public art that communities choose to display.

• New Heritage Society exhibit spotlights Spanish Texas’ role in the American Revolution

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The League City Police Department said officers were dispatched shortly after 7 p.m. to a home in the 1300 block of Deer Ridge Drive after the husband called 911 to report that he and his wife had been attacked.

When officers arrived minutes later, police said they found the husband outside with multiple injuries and began rendering aid. He told officers his wife was still inside the house with the suspect, police said.

Officers then forced their way into the home and were able to pull the woman out, according to police. Paramedics with the League City Fire Department took over care and rushed both victims to a hospital.

• Man in custody after road rage shooting near Houston’s Northwest Freeway

Police said the suspect, identified as 33-year-old Juan Jose Uribe Pelaez, did not come out when officers tried to call him out of the home. Investigators said the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office drone team assisted by helping officers determine where the suspect was inside the residence. Police said Pelaez was eventually taken into custody after officers used a taser.

The woman later died at the hospital, police said. The husband remained hospitalized in stable condition as of Saturday morning.

Pelaez was booked into the League City Jail and charged with murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in a family violence case, police said. Bond was set at $250,000 for each charge.

The investigation remains ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to contact League City police at 281-332-2566.

DPS said a trooper spotted a motorcycle traveling at a high rate of speed without a license plate around 7:30 p.m. Troopers attempted to pull the rider over for the plate violation, but the motorcycle took off instead, DPS said.

• League City man faces murder charge after police say he stabbed parents, killing mother and injuring father

According to DPS, the rider exited the freeway, turned around and re-entered I-45, then continued weaving through traffic while attempting to get away from the trooper. The pursuit ended near Exit 41A, where DPS said the motorcycle hit a metal barrier at more than 100 mph.

The rider suffered serious injuries and was taken to the hospital in critical condition, DPS said. Investigators also noted the motorcyclist has a history of warrants related to evading police and other misdemeanor arrests.

The DPS trooper was not injured in the crash.

DPS is handling the investigation.

The landmark Mecca Joint Defense Agreement was signed on Friday by the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif as the three countries seek to deepen security cooperation amid heightened tensions between the United States and Iran.

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said Sunday the agreement was “purely defensive in nature” and that other countries could join if they were willing to uphold its principles and resolve differences through peaceful means, adding the deal reflected a shared desire to strengthen strategic security cooperation.

His post on X came a day after Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan similarly said the agreement was not aimed at Iran or any other country.

The agreement stipulates "that any armed attack against any one of the three states shall be regarded as an attack against them all,” according to statements released by the three sides. Dar said in his post the stipulation was consistent with the right of individual and collective self-defense under Article 51 of the U.N. Charter.

Pakistan, he said, would continue working with countries across the region toward lasting peace and stability.

“The Makkah Accord does not abrogate or replace any existing bilateral or multilateral agreements between these countries, or with other countries or organizations,” he wrote.

His comments followed overnight public celebrations of the agreement. Landmarks in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad and Saudi cities were illuminated in the colors of the Saudi, Turkish and Pakistani flags.

The three countries bring significant but differing capabilities to the arrangement. Pakistan has extensive military experience and is the Muslim world’s only nuclear-armed country; Saudi Arabia brings substantial economic resources and regional influence; and NATO member Turkey has a large military and an increasingly sophisticated domestic defense industry.

In Islamabad, defense analysts cautioned against viewing the agreement as the equivalent of NATO, despite its collective-defense provision. Abdullah Khan, an Islamabad-based defense analyst, said that although the agreement was signed during a period of heightened regional tensions, it should not be interpreted as being directed against Iran or another country.

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have maintained close military ties for decades and signed a separate mutual-defense agreement in September 2025. Pakistan and Turkey also have expanded military and defense-industrial cooperation in recent years

The confirmation announced on Saturday eased concerns that the rare Bundibugyo virus might spread to the Congolese capital.

More than 200 boat passengers were placed in quarantine on Thursday in the port of Maluku, 65 kilometers (40 miles) from Kinshasa, after one traveler who was previously aboard the boat died with symptoms matching the Ebola virus.

Specialist teams from the Ministry of Health were deployed to Maluku to examine all of those on board. Those exhibiting suspicious symptoms had samples taken and sent to a laboratory for analysis, the ministry said on Saturday, adding that the vessel was also decontaminated.

The National Institute of Biomedical Research, which is responsible for testing, said that all suspected cases tested negative for Bundibugyo. It urged the population of Kinshasa to remain calm.

Congo has been battling an Ebola outbreak that has been deemed the fastest in history in terms of transmission, with confirmed cases since it started in May reaching 4,200, including over 1,900 deaths.

The river boat passenger had become sick and disembarked nearly three weeks ago in Pimu, in the province of Mongala, more than 1,000 kilometers from Kinshasa along the Congo River, Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya said on Thursday. The capital has no confirmed Ebola case, he added.

News of the passenger’s death caused panic in Kinshasa, which is far from the eastern region hit by the outbreak, the second-largest outbreak on record, behind the 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak that recorded more than 28,000 cases, including over 11,000 deaths.

Ebola is highly contagious and spreads through contact with bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen, and with contaminated surfaces and materials such as bedding and clothing.

Health authorities say between 60% and 70% of new cases in the current outbreak are recorded outside of contacts being monitored, and that the outbreak is spreading at an “alarming” rate faster than efforts to track it.

The medical charity Doctors Without Borders said this week that the outbreak is still “spreading at an alarming and unprecedented rate” and that the response, which has been expanding, “is still not reaching communities quickly enough to break transmission chains.”

“None of these folks are represented,” she said.

Chohan is the coordinator of a program that sends volunteer lawyers to immigration courts to assist people without representation and help them navigate the complicated legal system where the stakes are a future in America or deportation.

Appearing without a lawyer opens up even greater risk under the second Trump administration, with the courts playing a key role in its mass deportation agenda. Courts are increasingly denying asylum, deportation officers have arrested immigrants in court hallways, the administration has packed courtrooms to cut backlogs and reduced lead time on hearings, prompting people to miss them.

Data shows that legal representation can be vital to winning in court but many immigrants, unable to pay for a private lawyer or find a pro bono one, navigate the system without an attorney at their side.

“Folks go into immigration court not knowing what’s happening. They come out not knowing what's happening. And when there’s an attorney present," Chohan said, “it’s just so helpful.”

Immigrants aren’t provided an attorney but legal help makes a difference

Unlike criminal court, there is no guaranteed lawyer in immigration courts.

Immigrants have to hire one at a cost of thousands of dollars or hope to get represented by one of the nonprofit organizations assisting low-income immigrants. But waitlists with those organizations are long, and many parts of the country just do not have that many immigration attorneys.

Of the roughly 3.2 million pending deportation cases currently in U.S. immigration courts, people in 52% of those cases do not have a lawyer, according to an analysis of immigration court data by the Vera Institute of Justice, a think tank.

A Congressional Research Service study from 2024 found that only 19% of people who did not have a lawyer won asylum or another avenue to stay in the United States. Among those who did have a lawyer, 47% were successful.

“Having an attorney is just super critical to be able to navigate the system successfully,” said Adriel Orozco of the advocacy group American Immigration Council.

Chohan said she frequently runs into people who have been scammed by lawyers or people posing as lawyers who take their money but do nothing for their case.

“I will give him a list of attorneys who are free and we have vetted,” she told one man who said he was scammed. “They have long waitlists but he should still ask.”

Speaking later to The Associated Press, the man described how he left Guatemala after being threatened by gangs and came to the U.S. in 2024 seeking asylum. Ever since, he said he has done everything that has been asked of him while he tries to make ends meet, occasionally painting houses. He spent $4,500 on a lawyer who in the end did nothing to help him, he said.

“He turned out to be a scammer,” said the man, who did not want to be identified for fear of endangering his case. He is worried about what comes next in court after being warned by the judge that he could be deported. “I don’t know what I’m going to do,” he said.

A nonstop day of consulting with clients, shuttling back and forth into court

Outside the Sacramento building where the court is housed is a long line of immigrants waiting for appointments with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is in the same building. Volunteers with a local anti-ICE resistance group stand ready to help.

Upstairs, two immigration judges are on the bench. One hears the in-depth individual cases of immigrants who are pursuing their claim of asylum.

The other judge has the master calendar docket, where dozens of immigrants will appear in brief hearings geared at making sure their case is ready to go to the next step.

Signs taped to the wall remind people not to videotape or record inside the court complex. A security guard makes sure no one loiters in the hallways. Most people clutch stacks of papers documenting their cases.

After immigrants file into the courtroom for their hearings, Judge Susan Phan introduces Chohan and describes the services her organization offers.

“You are not required to meet with her but it is a rare opportunity that we have someone volunteering their time,” Phan said before launching into the day's work.

The need for a detailed asylum application

Chohan, who works with the California Immigration Project, starts each hearing in the courtroom. She has a clipboard to take notes, extra copies of forms and a crate of books for restless children attending court with their parents. She spends the bulk of her time in the waiting room, talking to immigrants after their hearings and scanning their documents to flesh out what else they need.

Speaking to one young man from Mexico, she asks to see his asylum application, noting that the judge had pointed out that it was not that detailed.

“Sometimes judges can deny a claim if there isn’t enough detail,” she said through one of the organization's volunteer translators.

The organization frequently has clinics to help immigrants fill out their asylum application. Chohan said she will alert him to the next one.

Another woman holding a stack of documents is there with her son and wanted to make sure her children could come with her if she is deported. Chohan also briefed her on what to expect at her upcoming asylum hearing and said the organization will send her an asylum filing guide.

Chohan highlighted places on forms where people need to give answers or answer in more detail. It’s OK to write “none” but she advises them to not leave boxes blank.

Everything submitted in Spanish must be accompanied by a translation into English that must be done by a person, not an automatic online translator. Copies of every single page of a passport must be submitted. Documents must be sent in two weeks before the applicant’s hearing so the judge can review them.

Over and over, Chohan reminds immigrants to download their receipt showing they paid the $102 asylum application fee so they can submit it to the court.

Chohan said a lot of these procedures and forms are discussed in court but it is happening so fast and immigrants are listening through a translator that they do not always understand what is happening.

“A lot of times when they go into court, they’re just happy that they’re out of court and they’re not being arrested,” she said.

A changing immigration court system

Chohan has witnessed the upheaval in the immigration courts during Republican President Donald Trump's second term.

She was in the court hallways last summer when ICE officers waited to arrest immigrants after their hearings. Earlier this summer she watched as the administration started holding “mega masters,” hearings with dozens of respondents at a time that are meant to clear a backlog but have created chaos.

Chohan said there are not enough pro bono lawyers in the Sacramento area to help everyone who needs one so the “Attorney of the Day” program is often the next best thing. She believes everyone should have access to a lawyer.

Until that day, she said, the program "helps bridge that gap.”

It’s not about the triumph of returning heroes, but the suffering they left behind.

“The Trojan Women,” with a cast of 22, was staged at Epidaurus, the ancient open-air stone arena in southern Greece. It marked what organizers called the first fully accessible performance in the ancient theater’s 2,300-year history.

While Homer followed warriors sailing home from Troy, the playwright Euripides — writing some three centuries later — turned to the city’s ruins and its women, forced into exile and enslavement.

The ancient theater offered a full range of accessibility services for the Aug. 2 performance. Blind audience members received Braille programs, tactile models and live audio description, while deaf spectators followed overhead titles. Physical adaptations also improved access throughout the site.

“It’s the first time a performance at Ancient Epidaurus has been made accessible to everyone,” said Greg Polychronidis, a Paralympic gold medalist who attended the event. “Today was a celebration of equality and it should serve as an example for everyone, forever.”

For many of the performers, standing on the ancient stage was itself part of the message: a voice for those often overlooked. Eirini Kourouvani, a 58-year-old cast member who uses a wheelchair, had never set foot inside the theater before.

“It is just grand,” she said. “I feel my heart opening up as wide as this theater is.”

Ioanna-Maria Gertsou, a blind psychologist, attended with Babu, her guide dog.

“We too have the right to attend performances on an equal footing,” she said, relieved that her dog remained quiet during the play.

The National Theater of Greece produced the performance, and accessibility services were designed by the nonprofit Liminal with financial support from Greece’s Alpha Bank.

Argyro Chioti, the National Theater’s artistic director, said the production should become the norm rather than the exception.

“This was complex, not simple. It required months of planning. It cost money. And it required very specific organizational expertise,” she said. “But that’s the standard and venues we need to reach — the major stages and the major theaters.”

—— Gatopoulos reported from Athens

The pilots were killed when their Sikorsky Skycrane helicopter went down Friday morning, according to the Sevier County Sheriff.

The helicopter was among those fighting a fire in the Fishlake National Forest. The crash ignited a new fire that spread to connect with the existing blaze, which has now scorched nearly 174 square miles (nearly 451 square kilometers).

Officials did not identify the pilots but said they were employed by Helicopter Transport Services, which was contracted by the U.S. Forest Service.

Initially officials said they were unable to reach the crash site because of the fire. Then, on Saturday, crews were able to enter the area and confirmed the deaths, according to the Sevier County sheriff and coroner.

The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate once its team can examine the wreckage. It will likely take the NTSB a year or more to determine the cause.

Numerous fires also were burning in other parts of the West, including one that closed part of Mount Rainier National Park in Washington.

The National Park Service shut down access to the Sunrise and White River areas of the park after a new wildfire burned less than a third of a square mile (less than a square kilometer). Firefighters were working to gain control of it.

Larger fires near Spokane, Washington, have now burned more than 15.63 square miles (over 40 square kilometers), but firefighters constructed more than 75 miles (over 120 kilometers) of containment line to help control those flames.

Meanwhile in Oregon, hot and dry conditions helped an uncontrolled fire spread beyond 30 square miles (77.7 square kilometers).

Firefighters were still trying to identify the best places to set up containment lines around the Wrights Spring fire as they mourned the death of 47-year-old Jason Ensign, who was killed while operating a bulldozer for a timber company. The blaze grew rapidly Thursday and cut off Ensign’s escape route.

And north of the border in British Columbia, more than 20,000 people had to evacuate ahead of another fast-moving wildfire.

Houston Police Department homicide investigators are at the scene near the 8000 block of Mesa Drive. Police confirmed one male was found dead at the scene, while another person was transported to a hospital.

The call came in at approximately 5:23 p.m. Homicide investigators remained at the scene as of 8 p.m.

No additional details about what led to the shooting or the identities of those involved have been released.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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

Iran says the strait won't open until the US ‘corrects’ its behavior

Iran's politburo-like body known as the Supreme National Security Council said the Strait of Hormuz will not open until the United States “corrects its behavior," issuing new demands that could shake up talks on a deal to manage the waterway.

Iran's state broadcaster published the statement by the council’s secretary, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who is also a commander in the powerful Revolutionary Guard.

The United States must never threaten Iran again, the statement said, and must permanently end the war with Iran and its armed allies in the region. The U.S. must lift the naval blockade of Iranian ports and withdraw its military from the area. It must “completely compensate” Iran for war damage, lift sanctions and “unconditionally” release frozen assets.

The U.S., which has wanted an acceptable deal first on the strait before ending the blockade, had no immediate comment. According to the interim deal signed in June, a schedule to end sanctions and plan on compensation would be part of the final deal, and negotiations would address frozen assets.

Iran has said it was close to reaching a separate deal with Oman to manage the strait, which runs between the two countries.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi earlier Saturday said they were close to reaching an agreement on navigation. But the waterway’s reopening is contingent on other conditions, he said in remarks shared on social media, and blamed the situation on what he called the U.S. violation of the interim deal.

Oman, a mediator Gulf Arab country which has said relatively little on the talks, said in a statement discussions were ongoing “in a positive and constructive atmosphere,” and condemned attacks on ships on the strait.

Details emerge about potential Iran-Oman deal

The strait, crucial to global supplies of oil and natural gas, was considered an international waterway before the war.

The deal Iran and Oman are working to finalize would be temporary, but it would reopen the strait with ships entering the strait through a route close to Iran and exiting through a route close to Oman, according to two people familiar with the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Ships would cross the strait without paying fees or tolls during the interim period.

The agreement is designed to restore an earlier, separate agreement between the U.S. and Iran and restart a 60-day clock for the two countries to negotiate over Iran's nuclear program.

During that time, Iran is expected to be able to sell oil. The current 60-day deadline to negotiate a final deal is due to end in just over a week.

According to the two people who spoke about the talks, the deal is endorsed by members of the Gulf Cooperation Council and expected when finalized to be jointly announced by Iran, Oman, the U.S., and the International Maritime Organization of the United Nations. But the people stressed the terms could still change before the deal is final.

— by Michelle Price in Washington and Aamer Madhani in New York.

Iran attacks a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, the UAE says

A vessel owned by Abu Dhabi’s state-owned ADNOC oil and gas company was attacked while transiting the strait, Emirati authorities said. The Foreign Ministry said Iran fired the missile as part of attacks on commercial shipping.

ADNOC in a statement said there were no casualties following the early Saturday attack. The company said over a dozen of its vessels have been attacked by missiles and drones while transiting the strait since the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Iran in February. One crew member has been killed and 20 others wounded, it said.

ADNOC didn’t elaborate on the attack's location or any damage.

Later, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center said a vessel east of the town of Khasab, Oman, had been struck by a projectile that caused a fire that was put out, with the vessel and crew safe. It was not clear whether this was the ADNOC incident.

A defense deal is not aimed at any third country, Turkey says

A defense agreement that Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey signed Friday is not aimed against any third country, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said. It says an attack on one would be considered an attack on all three.

Fidan told Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency on Saturday the countries do not view any state as an adversary unless it takes hostile action against them: “We don’t have anything written down — nothing we’ve signed — that defines a common threat."

Asked how the mutual defense mechanism would work, Fidan said a member would formally request help and the two countries’ assistance could range from intelligence-sharing to logistics support or the deployment of military units. The mechanism would establish a secretariat to be based in Saudi Arabia, Fidan said.

He said other nations, which he did not identify, have expressed interest in joining the agreement, adding that he expects Egypt, which he described as a “natural partner,” to participate “at the next stage.”

Yemen's military attacks Iran-backed Houthis

The attacks were in response to the Houthis’ recent strikes in central and eastern Yemen. Col. Majed al-Nazili, spokesperson for Yemen’s military, said the attacks targeted the rebels’ “sites and capabilities” on multiple front lines, without elaborating.

The escalation between the Houthis and Yemen's internationally recognized government and its backer, a Saudi-supported coalition, threatens to reignite Yemen’s civil war following a 2022 truce.

Turkey’s Kurdish peace bill wins approval in parliament

A Turkish draft law aimed at advancing a peace effort with the country's Kurdish insurgents passed its first hurdle in parliament on Saturday. A committee approved the measure. It is expected to be approved in the general assembly next week.

Last year, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, declared its decision to disarm and disband as part of the peace initiative aimed at ending the decades-long conflict with the Turkish state.

The draft legislation defines the procedures for the group’s disarmament and rehabilitation of some PKK members. The measures would come into effect once Turkey’s National Security Council confirms that the group has disbanded and surrendered all weapons.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people since it began in the 1980s. Turkey and its Western allies consider the group a terrorist organization.

Cunningham, who is white, was shooting a fast-break layup in the first quarter when Carrington, who is Black, came from behind and hit her in the head and neck, knocking her to the court as the shot went in.

Cunningham said she thought the foul in the 90-86 Indiana win was “absolutely” intentional.

“Clearly I think it was unnecessary,” Cunningham said. “I’ve never really spoken to her and I have no beef with her, but I guess she has some pent up stuff.”

Fever coach Stephanie White had a different view of the play.

“It was a hard foul,” White said. “I don’t think that DiJonai intentionally came out to get her across the neck like she did, but it did happen, and I thought it was the right call.”

Cunningham got up immediately, charged toward Carrington and pushed her as she was held back by a teammate.

“I popped up,” Cunningham said. “I’m not going to let anyone just do that to me. I think everyone knows that. I think that’s why she did it because she wants attention.”

The play was reviewed and upgraded to a Flagrant 2 after the referee said there was windup, impact and follow-through on the foul.

Sky coach Tyler Marsh said he hadn't seen a replay of the play, but that seeing it live, he thought Carrington was making a play on the ball and that he didn't believe it warranted a Flagrant 2 foul.

“I haven’t looked at that play since, so I really don’t know if it was justified or not,” he said. “But, that’s what I thought in the moment.”

Marsh was then asked about Carrington's social media post.

“I have to get back to you on that because I’m just now hearing about that,” he said. “So yeah, we’ll handle that.”

But Cunningham had plenty to say about the post.

“I think the league is taking care of that,” she said. "This has nothing to do with race. Last year, I did the same thing and I got kicked out. And I deserved to be kicked out. There’s no reason even to play that card.”

In the third quarter, Fever star Caitlin Clark was assessed a technical foul after she made contact with a referee when she was forced out of bounds. The technical was Clark's eighth of the season, triggering a one-game suspension for Indiana's next game if not rescinded by the league.

“She said I ran into her,” Clark said in a postgame television interview. “I’ve already watched it on the tape, so we’ll let the league decide. But it wasn’t intentional or anything, so I’m hoping it’s getting rescinded,”

A few hours after the game Clark got her way. The WNBA rescinded the technical foul.

Cunningham has frequently come to Clark's defense after physical play by opponents and has become one of the higher-profile players in the league this season. In an ESPN article published last month, she voiced support for barring transgender girls and women from girls’ and women’s sports, which led to small protests and rallies outside Fever games in Seattle and Portland.

In a memo to teams on Friday, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said the league would have ongoing discussions about the issue of transgender participation in women's basketball.

Marsh said that the controversy surrounding Cunningham didn't add anything extra to the game.

“We didn’t come into this one with any more or less juice than we’ve had in the last four since the All-Star break," he said. "Our mindset is trying to win games.”

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

Boston recorded a franchise record-tying 15-game winning stretch, matching a mark from 1946, before it was stopped on July 22. The team's attempt for a second streak of 10 or more games for the first time in the franchise's 126-year history fell short against the A's.

Gage Jump worked six strong innings, Tyler Soderstrom and Henry Bolte hit solo homers, and Jonah Heim and Donovan Walton added two-run doubles for the Athletics, who snapped a nine-game skid. The A's hadn’t won since beating the Red Sox at home on July 28.

Jump (5-7) struck out a season-high 11 and allowed two runs and six hits.

Andruw Monasterio had a two-run single in the first inning for the Red Sox, whose nine-game run started the day after Jump earned a victory by pitching six scoreless innings.

Red Sox first baseman Willson Contreras returned after missing two games with an illness, went 0 for 4 and was booed for jogging lightly on a ground out.

The Athletics' bullpen, which entered with the majors’ highest ERA (5.64), allowed one run in the last three innings. Hogan Harris got the last four outs for his 10th save.

The Athletics erased a two-run deficit with a run in the fourth, two in the fifth and two in sixth.

Boston's Jake Bennett (7-5) breezed through the first three innings, allowing only a walk. He was pulled with one out in the sixth and charged with four runs.

Brian Serven’s RBI single cut the Athletics' deficit in half before Heim’s two-run single in the fifth put them ahead. Walton’s pinch-hit ground-rule double off reliever Justin Slaten into Boston’s bullpen added two more runs in the sixth.

Athletics shortstop Jacob Wilson matched the MLB record of 110 straight games without committing an error at the position. He is tied with the Baltimore Orioles' Mike Bordick (2002).

Up next

Athletics RHP J.T. Ginn (8-6, 3.51 ERA) will start Sunday. The Red Sox haven’t announced a starter.

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

The technical would have been Clark's eighth of the season, triggering a one-game suspension for the Fever star. She would have had to miss Tuesday's game against New York.

But, a WNBA spokesman said the technical had been rescinded a few hours after the game ended.

In the third quarter of the Fever's 90-86 win over the Sky, Clark made contact with a referee when she was forced out of bounds and was called for a technical foul.

After the game, Clark said the contact was inadvertent and that no words were exchanged. She was hopeful the WNBA would rescind the foul.

“She said I ran into her,” Clark said of the referee. “I have already watched it on the tape. So, we’ll let the league decide. But, it wasn’t anything intentional or anything. So, I hope it gets rescinded. And, nothing was said.”

Clark got her wish.

“That's a bad call, incidental contact when you're flying out of control,” Fever coach Stephanie White said. “I thought her teammates should have come up and talked to her about that as well. I think that’s really bad. that (expletive) happens all the time in the game. you know, officials have to have some awareness in those moments, and it didn’t happen.”

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

Shanahan has been working his way back to full speed since the car crash on July 14 that left him with a concussion, broken ribs, a broken nose, a broken hand and more than 40 stitches to close a cut over his eye. In his first news conference of training camp, he said he has just a few remaining symptoms from the concussion.

“I’m doing real good,” he said. “My body feels good. Just got to get this annoying cast off. My ribs feel good, except when I sneeze, and my head feels so much better. Concussions do linger a little bit. The only things I really deal with now is just headaches and fatigue. That’s why I’m not always exactly on the same routine, but pretty damn close.”

Shanahan has been at practice every day this summer and said that the loud music that bothered him at the beginning of camp is no longer an issue. He has only addressed the full team at meetings a few times and didn't feel ready to hold a news conference until after practice on Saturday.

But he said he has been doing the most important parts of his job and that he will be on the sideline for the exhibition opener against Tennessee.

“One thing I haven’t missed anything of is film,” he said. “I watch every single play with the coaches after with the players. I have had a few team meetings. Normally I do it every day. But I do lose a little when I do stuff, so I’ve just had to pick and choose a little bit more. But as far as the film and everything, being out there for all the practice periods of going against each other, those are to me the most important things in my job. I’ve been able to do those every day.”

The 49ers are entering a crucial part of the summer with a joint practice on Tuesday with the Titans ahead of the exhibition opener. The Niners are scheduled to have another joint practice the following week with the Chargers before their second exhibition game and then wrap up the preseason on Aug. 27 against Las Vegas. The team the leaves the following week for Australia, where the 49ers will open the season on Sept. 11 against the Los Angeles Rams.

Shanahan said he thought he would have been back at full strength sooner but is glad he has taken the extra time. He said being patient was easier because of the confidence he had in acting coach Chris Foerster, along with coordinators Klay Kubiak, Raheem Morris and Brant Boyer.

“It made it really easy for me not to worry about me having to do something,” he said. “Our guys are awesome. We have a pretty well-oiled machine. We’ve been here for, this is our 10th year. Those guys made it very easy for me to not do anything stupid.”

Shanahan took the blame for the crash into a car driven by a 21-year-old woman in Palo Alto last month, saying it happened when he reached for his phone. Shanahan was the only person who needed to be hospitalized and police didn't issue him a ticket for the cellphone use.

“Any time you cause an accident that can be avoided, you’d feel pretty stupid, especially when you have a chance to hurt someone else,” he said. I think you get mad when you get a ticket at yourself. So it was kind of the same."

Shanahan said he was driving about 20 mph and his Tesla was in autopilot mode when the crash happened but said he still shouldn't have taken his eyes off the road when he reached behind his seat for his phone.

“I’ve had autopilot for nine years, so I’m pretty comfortable with it,” he said. “Who knows what happened when I turned around, whether it malfunctioned or whether I knocked it off. That’s something that I don’t know yet. But regardless, that is always your fault, whether you’re in autopilot or not. You can’t take your eyes off the road. It’s a partnership driving. You don’t just turn it over to a computer. It’s a good lesson, no matter how comfortable I am with that, that I believe someday could save my life or someone else’s.”

Bosa sits with soreness

Star defensive end Nick Bosa missed his third straight practice with what the team described as “soreness.” Bosa is coming back from a torn ACL that ended his season in Week 3 last year.

He had only taken part in individual drills early in camp but hasn't been able to practice at all since Monday. Shanahan said he wasn't overly concerned.

“You wish that didn’t happen, but no, there’s no concern to where something’s happened that is a big setback or anything,” he said. "We’ll wait until the soreness goes away and evaluate why the soreness has happened, but I still feel pretty good about that.”

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

The team helping the cat says they are aware of the situation and are actively working to trap her and bring her into their care so she can receive the medical attention and support she needs.

In the meantime, residents are being asked not to attempt to catch the cat or leave food out for her. While those efforts may come from a place of concern, rescuers say approaching the cat or providing additional food could make it more difficult to successfully trap her.

If you spot the cat, there is no need to contact Animal Protection. Officials are already aware of the situation and are working to bring her to safety.

Anyone with a recent sighting or information that could help rescuers is asked to send a direct message with the location and time of the sighting.

The rescue team thanked the community for its patience and compassion as they work to safely get the cat into their care.

“I think Darline’s wonderful,” said Kathy Bustos of Mount Pleasant, after attending a Republican forum last week.

But that doesn't mean Bustos wants to vote for her in the state's special primary on Tuesday.

“I think it’s a very nice gesture for her to have the rest of his term to complete, but I’m not sure that she’s really qualified or ready to be elected to the Senate,” she said.

It's a common sentiment among Republican voters pondering an unexpected decision about replacing Lindsey Graham, who was nominated for a fifth term before he died from a tear in his aorta. Darline Graham was often by his side throughout his career, but she remains largely unknown in South Carolina's clubby political circles.

President Donald Trump has endorsed her, and she's backed by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which is running television advertising to support her candidacy.

However, Graham has been largely absent from the campaign trail, spending most of her time in Washington as an interim senator. Her appointment to the role, instead of giving her a leg up over the competition, may ultimately hold her back by preventing her from getting to know voters during a weeks-long sprint to Tuesday.

A crowded field of contenders

She is up against several well-known Republicans, including Representatives Russell Fry and Ralph Norman, as well as former Gov. Mark Sanford. The crowded field makes a runoff more likely, and it would be held on Aug. 25.

All of them spoke at a Friday meeting of the Fourth District Republican Club in Greenville, but Graham sent a video message, saying she was “in Washington working hard for you." She promised to be "a great friend and ally” to Trump and that she wanted to “earn your vote.”

And at a candidate event in Florence on Saturday, where Graham spoke, some of her supporters said they backed the interim senator’s decision to stay in Washington, even if it meant not campaigning.

“She committed to not missing votes or not being there to push forward with those bills,” said Teresa Castrinos, who made the hours-long drive from Bluffton to see Graham. “I feel like she’s putting South Carolina first. She’s wanting to fulfill her time as a senator right now, so I really admire her for that.”

A low profile in Washington — and on the trail

While Lindsey Graham was single and well-known around the world, his sister lived a relatively quiet life with her husband and daughters in Lexington, South Carolina. She spent years in state government, working with people with disabilities and as an agency head of the South Carolina Commission for the Blind.

Before participating in a candidate forum Saturday in Florence, her only public campaign event had been a candidate forum in Lexington. Charles Brentnell of Greenville County, who was still considering his options, said he liked her decision to stay in Washington when the Senate was in session.

“Let’s keep the Senate at the Senate instead of taking a month off for no good reason,” he said.

Appearing alongside other contenders Saturday, Graham apologized for reading from notes from a lectern, pointing to the Senate votes that kept her in Washington until just hours before she headed to meet voters in South Carolina.

“Yes, I have some notes. You know why? Because I haven’t slept in two days, so I’m going to keep my thoughts straight,” Graham said, adding that she opposed Senate recess but lost out to others who wanted to end votes and go home. "I wanted to stay there, and I wanted to get things done."

Graham also participated in one of two televised debates, where she backed Trump's plan to change filibuster rules to make it easier to pass strict proof-of-citizenship voting legislation.

While other candidates came to speak to the media gathered afterward, Graham skipped the session and merely gave a thumbs-up outside when asked how she felt the debate had gone.

In contrast to her loquacious late brother, Graham has not spoken with reporters in Capitol Hill hallways or fielded questions on the stump.

She's spoken at length to Fox News personalities Sean Hannity and Trey Gowdy, both of whom eulogized Lindsey Graham at memorial services last month, and granted two interviews to local news outlets.

On Saturday, in her first gaggle with reporters, Graham addressed some of voters' concerns, reiterating her commitment to do Senate work when the chamber is in session.

“I feel like my job is to be in D.C. working for everyone right now. I hate that I can't be here. I want to be here," she said. "That's why I left and didn't sleep at all last night, so I could attend today's event.”

As to the skepticism in sending Graham to Washington for six years, Graham cited her state government experience, plus the past several weeks she's had serving as interim.

“Trust me, I have learned a lot already, so I think I have experience,” she said.

A second debate took place while Graham was in Washington on Tuesday, a date her campaign pointed out had been scheduled despite the senator’s conflict.

Gigi Bray of Charleston said the idea of Darline Graham serving in the interim makes sense, but electing her to a full term does not.

“I think it’s a great honor for her to hold her brother’s spot till November, but it’s time for a change,” said Bray, who backs Sanford. “I don’t think she has a lot of government experience, and I think right now, with the state of our country, I think it’s very important that somebody has experience.”

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

Water levels at the reservoir, which straddles the Arizona-Nevada border outside Las Vegas, hit 1,040.4 feet (317.1 meters) above sea level on Friday, according to federal data. That’s just below the record set on July 28, 2022, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

“It's extremely significant and extremely concerning. You have three-quarters of the population of the Colorado River Basin, some 30 million people, who are directly impacted by risks to Lake Mead,” said J.B. Hamby, chairman of the Colorado River Board of California and a board member of the Imperial Irrigation District, the largest user of the river’s water.

Hamby said it is vital for states that use Colorado River water to reduce water use.

Drought and dry conditions have stretched along the length of the Colorado and are particularly intense at its source in the Rocky Mountains.

Melting snow provides important water for the river. This past winter, however, saw the worst snowpack on record for the Colorado River Basin, adding more stress on farmers, industry, wildlife and hydropower producers, as well as the 40 million people across seven U.S. states, tribal nations and Mexico who rely on the waterway.

Years of overuse combined with drought and rising temperatures have been depleting Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the country’s second-largest reservoir. Both are the lowest they have been in nearly seven decades.

To protect the strained system's ability to produce hydropower, federal officials said Thursday that they will not release cool Lake Powell water from Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona to protect a threatened native fish, the humpback chub, whose habitat is between the reservoirs.

Federal officials recently announced a short-term proposal to stave off a crisis in the beleaguered waterway, after states that rely on it — California, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Wyoming and Utah — failed to reach an agreement on how to share the dwindling resource in the long term.

The federal proposal called for the Lower Basin states of Arizona, California and Nevada to take less water. The Bureau of Reclamation, which released the plan, said it was flexible: Deeper cuts could happen in drier times, while states would have more time to collectively agree on how to manage the scarce resources.

Severe drought in 2022 on Lake Mead, which is held back by Hoover Dam, exposed human remains and forced water officials in Las Vegas to pump water from deeper within the reservoir to continue to supply water to millions of people.

Levels at Lake Powell have dropped so much that it has become difficult to descend far enough to reach the water. Boat ramps have had to move, shut down or be built anew.

Lake Mead and Lake Powell are not alone. Of the 54 Western reservoirs tracked by the Bureau of Reclamation, nine recently recorded their lowest levels in the last three decades.

Federal officials do not believe the record will stay where it is. According to modeling done in July, Lake Mead is forecast to continue dropping through much of the rest of the year.

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Associated Press writer Michael Phillis in Washington contributed.

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The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

High on the Texans wish list was improving their running game and they believe they found their missing piece.

Standing on the Texans’ practice field after finishing a day of powerful touchdown runs and smooth catches out of the backfield, David Montgomery walked over to give his mom a big hug.

Roberta Mitchell raised the Texans running back in Cincinnati, Ohio by herself as a single mother, instilling love and discipline in Montgomery and his siblings while dealing with difficult financial and life situations as they dealt with adversity in a rough neighborhood.

Montgomery’s arrival has already made an impact and his work ethic has impressed many who closely cover the team.

Texans Insider Aaron Wilson, who regularly appears on KPRC 2’s Sports Sunday, has covered Montgomery since signing with the Texans and spoke with the new running back after a camp practice.

“David Montgomery is already making an impact on the Texans locker room and on the field with his tackle-breaking presence. This trade should provide a boost to a running game that struggled last season. While Woody Marks will still have a good role, including catching passes, some carries and on kickoff returns, Montgomery is the primary running back and the centerpiece of a revamped running game.”

It was his mother who inspired Montgomery to get involved in Boy Scouts. Montgomery eventually became an Eagle Scout, the highest honor in scouting. His project: collecting toiletries to help the homeless.

He’s now a proud, official Scouting America recruiting ambassador as a national spokesman.

Now, he’s the Texans’ featured running back as the centerpiece of a rebuilt running game after an offseason trade from the Detroit Lions and is playing under a two-year, $16.5 million contract extension.

Montgomery has a punishing running style, but he’s also versatile and elusive and has rushed for 6,115 career rushing yards.

The way that Montgomery has fit into the Texans’ locker room and the offense as a key chess piece has been through an organic, authentic approach. He has become good friends with his backfield teammate, second-year running back Woody Marks. And he has provided leadership through both his words and actions. The Texans are thrilled that Montgomery is a part of their vibrant, team-first culture.

“What I like best about David is his approach,” Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said. ”You talk about a true professional. He shows up every day, prepared and ready to go. He’s very attentive in meetings. Seeing his demeanor in on the field, it’s a business-like approach.

Montgomery has earned his rugged reputation as a hard-nosed, blue-collar runner who thrives on breaking tackles and trucking defenders.

With the Lions, Montgomery was nicknamed ‘Knuckles’ as part of a stellar backfield tandem with star Jahmyr Gibbs, who’s known as ‘Sonic.’

When the Texans acquired Montgomery, Texans nickel Jalen Pitre, one of the hardest hitters in the game, was already aware of his credentials going back to his college days at Iowa State when Pitre was at Baylor.

“David, he’s different,” Pitre said. “I remember, going way back, I’m talking about before when we played at the Lions, when I was a freshman in college and we were playing Iowa State. It was the first time I ever saw somebody just get completely ran over as a true freshman. I’m like, ‘Is this for me?’ I know he’s going to elevate the offense and do a great job for the team this year.

When Pitre’s comments were relayed to Montgomery, he broke into a big smile.

The respect of your peers in football is priceless. It means everything.

“I’m grateful,” Montgomery told Wilson in a post-practice interview. “I’m blessed to be in a place to where I can kind of come in, and these guys already see me as a leader. It’s a testament to the amount of work and kind of the role that I came from being in the league as long as I have.

“I’m still out to prove myself, and for somebody like JP to see me that way, and me seeing him how I see him, it’s let me turn it up some more because I want to be able to reach the standard that everybody else has set. I’m trying to reset it too so that I can be the best version of myself.”

As the Texans’ new RB1 after joining a returning playoff squad, Montgomery is slated for a heavy workload that includes pass-catching duties as he works in tandem with Marks.

Montgomery rushed for 4.5 yards per carry last season and has averaged 4.1 yards per run for his career. The Texans’ running game ranked 22nd overall, 3.9 yards per carry, 29th in the NFL, and 31st with nine touchdown runs. They badly needed reinforcements. Montgomery provides that anchor for their running game.

If healthy, the tandem of Montgomery and Marks could provide the the backfield production needed to take this offense to a new level in 2026.

The Texans season opens September 13th at home against Buffalo.

But whether the public will get to see that footage remains largely up to ICE.

The agency defended its body-worn camera policy amid questions about provisions allowing ICE leadership to withhold or indefinitely delay footage after serious injuries or deaths in custody. Acting Director David J. Venturella said the restrictions are intended to protect investigations and privacy and are consistent with federal law and policies at other federal law enforcement agencies.

Venturella’s statement came in response to an Associated Press report on ICE policy, including a provision calling for the expedited release of footage after a serious injury or death in custody when doing so is determined to be in the “best interests of the agency.”

Venturella said the AP “mischaracterized” the policy by conflating that provision with ICE’s broader authority to release body-camera footage. He said the policy clarifies that footage should not be released when doing so could compromise investigations or privacy.

The AP report did not say the provision governs every release of body-camera footage. It focused on ICE’s policy for releasing footage after some of the most consequential encounters with the public: those involving serious injury or death.

The AP sought comment from ICE before its initial story on Friday. The agency provided partial responses, without addressing the provision that footage would be released when in its “best interests.”

ICE has been under heightened scrutiny since the fatal shooting in July of a 25-year-old motorist in Maine by an ICE officer with a history of violent behavior. Days earlier, another ICE officer shot and killed a Houston homebuilder driving to work. Neither shooting was recorded with body cameras.

Venturella said ICE was “committed to transparency and accountability” and was “on track to equip every officer and agent in the field with body-worn cameras by the end of August.”

The AP quoted Christopher Schneider, a sociology professor at Brandon University in Canada, who said that selective releases are routine in some law enforcement agencies but usually not so clearly contemplated in policy. “In some ways, ICE is saying the quiet part out loud,” he said.

The story noted that ICE’s sister agency, Customs and Border Protection, has not released footage of the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in January. CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott told lawmakers that it was part of an investigation and would be made public “when it’s appropriate."

The Rosario-based Club Atlético Newell’s Old Boys announced his death in a social media post that said he had undergone treatment in recent months for an unspecified illness. The post described him as “the pillar and the person who, with vision, rigor and affection, supported the career of the best player of all time, alongside his wife, Celia Cuccittini.”

The South American Football Confederation, CONMEBOL, in a statement also offered its condolences “with respect and affection for Lionel.”

Lionel Messi led Argentina to a runner-up finish in this year's World Cup. In the team's first match, against Algeria, he was visibly emotional after scoring the first of his three goals. He said later that he wept for “a reason unrelated to sports.”

“I went through some difficult, complicated days,” he said. “I am grateful to the delegation, to all my teammates, because they were always by my side wishing me strength so that I would be OK.”

Media reports at the time outraged the Messi family, which days later released a statement confirming that “Jorge is experiencing a health issue,” without specifying the nature of his condition.

“A person’s health and the peace of mind of their loved ones should not be the subject of speculation or irresponsible media interest,” according to the statement, which also expressed “discomfort at the lack of sensitivity, respect and scruples with which some people have treated a strictly private and family matter.”

Jorge Messi was a chemical technician and worked as a steelworker. He played soccer as a midfielder and reached the youth ranks of Newell’s Old Boys but had to abandon the sport to complete his mandatory military service in Argentina.

He played a fundamental role in his third son’s career, serving as his agent and managing his business affairs. He was the one who traveled with a young Messi to Barcelona in the early 2000s for the trial that would open the doors to La Masia, the club’s youth academy. Lionel Messi made his professional debut in 2005 and went on to win eight Ballon d’Or awards. He led Argentina to the 2022 World Cup title.

“My dad was always by my side,” Lionel Messi said in a 2007 interview with Radio del Plata. “Sometimes I would lock myself in my room to cry when we arrived in Barcelona, or my dad would do the same without me seeing him, or thinking I didn’t see him. We pretended we were both OK, but we weren’t. My dad even asked me what I wanted to do when we were feeling down, if I wanted to stay or go back, and I wanted to stay, and he stayed with me.”

His father negotiated the contracts with Barça and later his transfers to Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Miami, while also managing the use of his famous son’s image rights and his numerous investments in real estate, hotels, and restaurants.

In 2013, father and son were accused by a Spanish prosecutor of trying to conceal earnings from the player's image rights. Jorge Messi paid more than than 5 million euros ($6.6 million) on Aug. 14 to cover alleged back taxes and interest.

In Rosario, a sign at the VIP Rosario restaurant, one of the Messi family’s gastronomic ventures, indicated that it was closed for the day.

The president of Argentina's soccer federation, Claudio Tapia, on Saturday issued a lengthy statement in which he recognized Jorge Messi “for having raised a person of values: humble, respectful, and deeply committed to others.”

The organization ordered a moment of silence to be observed at all matches across all categories of Argentine soccer and mandated that players, referees and coaching staff wear black armbands.

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Barreiro reported from Montevideo, Uruguay.

With former teammate Jorge Posada catching him, Rivera threw 11 pitches to four batters. The 56-year-old faced Mickey Rivers, Johnny Damon, Nick Swisher and Shane Spencer in the exhibition game, which returned last season for the first time since 2019.

“They’re still moving,” Rivera said about his pitches on the YES Network broadcast. “That’s good and the reaction is good.”

Rivera, who hit an inside-the-park homer in his 2019 appearance, also took an at-bat against Mike Stanton and jogged to first when he flew out to center field.

Rivera was introduced last, just as Joe DiMaggio used to be. To the strains of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman,” the Hall of Fame closer doffed his cap and waved to the fans.

Rivera, baseball’s career leader in saves, underwent surgery after getting hurt playing center field last year. During an at-bat by Willie Randolph, Rivera took a step and fell to the ground in shallow center field behind second base.

“It was tough, but I still have to do it,” Rivera said. “We continue going and moving better. I’m here. I’m good enough to be here.”

Rivera tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in May 2012 while shagging fly balls in batting practice in Kansas City. He returned for his final season in 2013 and finished with 652 saves in the regular season and 42 in the postseason, including 11 in the World Series.

He was a setup man for John Wetteland in 1996 and took over the closer’s role the following year, helping the Yankees win three straight titles from 1998 to 2000 and another title in 2009.

The Yankees were outscored 12-1 in the first two games against the Braves at Yankee Stadium in 1996 before winning three straight in Atlanta and taking the series at home in Game 6.

“We never gave up,” Rivera said about the 1996 team. “We were a team that never gave up literally. As a matter of fact in the World Series, we were down 2-0 going into Atlanta with those big monsters on the mound and we were able to overcome that and seal the deal here in New York. It sounds easy, but it wasn’t easy."

Rivera also threw the last pitch of New York’s most recent World Series title against the Phillies in Game 6. Since then, New York’s lone World Series was a five-game loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2024.

The ceremony featured 11 players from New York’s 1996 World Series title team, including Bernie Williams, Posada, and Paul O’Neill along with manager Joe Torre. Derek Jeter did not attend for the second straight year after appearing in 2023 and 2024, when the format was a question and answer session with WFAN broadcaster Suzyn Waldman.

There were four first-time attendees, including David Weathers, whose son Ryan is 5-7 with a 3.79 ERA in 22 starts in his first season with the Yankees. Also in attendance for the first time were current YES Network broadcasters Dellin Betances, Todd Frazier and Adam Ottavino.

“For your kid to be a part of it is way better than when I played,” David Weathers said.

The event began with a tribute to longtime radio announcer John Sterling, who died in May. The widows of five-time manager Billy Martin, captain Thurman Munson and Bobby Murcer were also introduced as part of an event that began in 1947 when Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth first appeared.

Tommy John not in attendance, posts message about health on social media

Tommy John, who won 91 games in two separate stints for the Yankees, did not attend and shared a vague message about his health.

In a lengthy social media post that did not detail an exact health issue, the 83-year-old John wrote that he wanted to say goodbye to everyone, along with all the friends and fans who followed him throughout his 26-year career.

John was 288-231 with a 3.34 ERA in 760 appearances. Besides eight seasons with the Yankees, John pitched for the White Sox, Dodgers, Angels, Guardians and Athletics.

He also underwent elbow ligament replacement surgery in 1974 that was named after him and has been performed on numerous pitchers.

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

Officers were called to the area of 7500 Westover Street at Telephone Road around 10:05 p.m.

Investigators said the man, believed to be about 71 years old, was crossing when a vehicle traveling southbound on Telephone hit him. The driver continued on without stopping to help.

Police described the suspect vehicle as a small white sedan.

• Woman killed in high-speed crash after running red lights in southeast Houston, police say

HPD Sgt. D. Griffiths said the man was taken to a hospital, where he was later pronounced deceased.

Anyone with information on this incident is asked to contact the HPD Vehicular Crime Division at 713-247-4072 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.

According to preliminary information, a car was traveling south on Reveille at a high rate of speed when it went through two red lights and struck another vehicle in the intersection. Officers and medics tried lifesaving measures, but the driver of the speeding vehicle — a woman in her 20s — was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

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The other driver suffered injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening. Police said each vehicle had a single occupant.

Lashanda Simmons, who lives in the area, said she heard the crash and went outside to check the area.

“It looked bad, it looked really bad. And come to find out it’s a young lady who’s deceased. It’s sad the way things are happening these days,” she said. “And I pray for the family, to put God in their life to get through this situation.”

Simmons said she’s seen multiple dangerous incidents happen in the area of the crash and urged caution for drivers. Only a few hours before this incident, a separate fatal crash happened nearby on Westover Street. HPD said a man in a wheelchair was fatally struck by a vehicle who fled the scene.

• Man in wheelchair killed in crosswalk; Houston police searching for hit-and-run driver

“Around this area, you have to drive for yourself and drive for others,” she said. “It’s real dangerous around here, especially in the middle of the night. Its always something happening as far as wrecks, and everything.”

The Houston Police Department is handling the investigation.

The traveling exhibition, “Spanish Texas During the American Revolution: Life and Legacy, 1775–1783,” opened Tuesday at the museum’s gallery at Sam Houston Park in downtown Houston. Produced by the Mexican American Museum of Texas in partnership with historian and author Dr. Tim Seiter, the exhibit explores how Tejanos and Spanish settlers experienced the Revolutionary era — and how their labor, resources and support campaigns reverberated far beyond Texas.

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Organizers say the goal is to broaden public understanding of the Revolution as more than an East Coast fight. The exhibition covers Spanish Texas communities stretching from the Sabine to the Nueces Rivers — including San Antonio, La Bahía, Los Adaes and Nacogdoches — framing the war as a wider conflict shaped by diverse communities across the continent.

Executive Director Alison Bell said the exhibit builds directly on The Heritage Society’s recent America250 programming. “This exhibition is a natural continuum of our America250 work,” Bell said.

Bell said the museum’s summer presentation of The American Revolution Experience introduced visitors to communities that shaped the fight for independence — and the new display adds another layer to that story by spotlighting Spanish Texas and New Spain’s role in supporting the revolutionary cause.

“The American Revolution Experience introduced visitors to the many communities who shaped the fight for independence, and Spanish Texas During the American Revolution: Life and Legacy, 1775–1783 shows how the territories of New Spain helped sustain that effort 250 years ago,” Bell said. “It gives us a deeper, more accurate understanding of how global alliances — including the people of Spanish Texas — aided a soon‑to‑be‑freed America.”

• A new mural on Bellaire Boulevard is meant to feel like a seat at the table for everyone in Houston

The exhibit includes bilingual panels, replica objects, primary sources and descendant stories connecting historical figures to present-day families. One focus looks at support for Spanish military campaigns against the British, including the donativos — donations residents made to help Spanish Col. Bernardo de Gálvez. Organizers cite research showing Spanish Texans contributed nearly 1,700 pesos, an amount they equate to about 340 head of cattle.

That cattle economy also shows up in what Bell expects will be a crowd favorite: a life-sized bull displayed as a teaching tool about the cattle drives that supplied Spanish forces.

“We may have to gently remind children that it’s not a super-sized pinata or mechanical bull,” Bell said with a laugh. “It’s a teaching tool that shows how vital cattle were to the Revolution, but I can already tell it’s going to be a fan favorite.”

The Heritage Society is pairing the exhibition with public events and educational programming this fall.

• The museum will host a Grand Opening Reception on Sept. 16, launching Hispanic Heritage Month and open to the public.
• Beginning in September, the site will also offer a Lunch & Learn speaker series every third Thursday, featuring scholars discussing daily life in Spanish Texas — including foodways, medicine, courtship, leisure and frontier justice, along with the region’s relationships with Native nations.

To expand access, the museum will also hold free family days tied to major cultural celebrations, including after the Fiestas Patrias Parade on Saturday, Sept. 19, and during the Día de los Muertos parade and festival on Saturday, Nov. 7. Organizers said those days will include bilingual interpretation, genealogical tracing sessions and children’s activities at the Duncan General Store and around Sam Houston Park.

The Heritage Society’s museum gallery is open Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m. Admission is $5, with free entry on designated community days. Free parking is available at 212 Dallas Street.

“We have very clear expectations about how we want to practice, how you go about our business,” coach Klint Kubiak said. “We violated that yesterday, so we held those guys out. That's all I'm going to say about it. We addressed it with the team and we're moving on.”

Cousins and Crosby had to be separated by teammates after the fight. The 37-year-old quarterback appeared upset that Crosby tipped his pass, forcing an incompletion, and then charged the 6-foot-5, 256-pound defensive end, who is three inches taller and 42 pounds heavier.

The Raiders are off Sunday before returning Monday morning, so their starting quarterback and star pass rusher will compete against each other again, though, Kubiak hopes, without any punches.

Mendoza has ups and downs against first-team defense

With Cousins watching Saturday, Mendoza — the Heisman Trophy winner at Indiana who was taken first overall in the NFL draft — threw touchdown passes to tight ends Brock Bowers and Michael Mayer and wide receiver Tre Tucker.

He also had some misfires while facing the starting defense for the first time, but showed agility in eluding pressure to find open receivers.

“Fernando continues to improve, and the thing I think we're very pleased about is from spring to the start of camp, there were some parts of this game we wanted him to improve upon and he has as we've added different layers and dimensions,” quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan said. “He's not repeating mistakes, which is always a good thing. It's a long process. We're pleased with how he's developing.”

Kubiak has said Mendoza, brought to Las Vegas to be the franchise quarterback, would be able to run the first-team offense at some point in camp.

The timing of getting that chance Saturday probably doesn't hurt, given that the Raiders open their preseason schedule Thursday night when they host the Arizona Cardinals. Kubiak hasn't made any announcements on how he plans to use his quarterbacks, but Mendoza probably will at least see the field early and possibly start.

Cousins likely will be the starter when the season begins, but even then, Kubiak has made no promises. The Raiders are expected to turn to Mendoza at some point this season.

“The visual and verbal communication he's made, certainly the ability to take snaps under center, those are things we've seen him improve upon,” Sullivan said. “He's going to continue to work on and we want him to still want him to be even better. But we're pleased with where that's at right now.”

Injury updates

Wide receiver Jalen Nailor returned to practice after sitting out Friday with an unspecified injury, but defensive ends Kwity Paye and Keyron Crawford as well as wide receiver Dont’e Thornton Jr. remained out.

Caleb Rogers, who is competing with Jackson Powers-Johnson at right guard, appeared to injure his left arm or elbow, but wound up returning.

“I feel great,” Rogers said, without going into specifics.

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

Gabriel Lahijani and Karendeep “Karina” Bath allege the front seats of certain Mercedes AMG vehicles have a design defect where the raised metallic AMG logo is “reasonably expected to contact an occupant’s upper back, neck, or shoulder,” according to the court document filed earlier this week in the U.S. District Court of California’s Western division.

The plaintiffs want Mercedes to compensate them for any medical expenses, as well as any pain, suffering and emotional distress they can prove at trial. They also want Mercedes to pay for other owners to have the logo removed from their cars.

Mercedes-Benz couldn’t be reached immediately for comment.

Lahigani, a Los Angeles resident, had leased a new 2026 Mercedes-AMG E-Class vehicle from an authorized Mercedes-Benz dealership in Los Angeles, according to the suit. He reported receiving second-degree burns on his back on May 31, after entering his vehicle wearing a tank top. A board-certified dermatologist subsequently documented first- and second-degree burns, describing the injury as “AMG inscribed."

Roughly six weeks later, Bath, a Chatsworth, California resident, received similar burns allegedly from the logo design while wearing a sleeveless top. After parking her Mercedes-AMG vehicle in Los Angeles, Bath returned to the vehicle and entered the driver’s seat, the suit said. Her shoulder immediately touched the logo, causing a burning sensation. In the following days, a mark in the shape of the AMG logo “darkened and became visible on her skin, consistent with a thermal contact burn," the lawsuit said.

In December, Mercedes-Benz USA and parent company Daimer AG agreed to pay $149.6 million to settle allegations that the automaker secretly installed devices in hundreds of thousands of vehicles to pass emission tests, according to an announcement by a coalition of attorneys general.

According to the coalition, between 2008 and 2016 the German automaker equipped more than 211,000 diesel passenger cars and vans with software devices that optimized emission controls during tests but reduced the controls during normal operations.

The former San Francisco 49ers star running back spoke in a prerecorded video message while he sat on stage wearing his gold jacket at Tom Benson Stadium on Saturday. Presented by former teammate Jamie Williams, he received a standing ovation from the crowd and hugs from the many Hall of Famers on stage.

Nearly eight minutes into a nine-minute speech, Craig announced his diagnosis, saying his doctors believe “it may be related, at least in part, to the concussions” he experienced during his playing career.

“The changes were gradual,” Craig said. “At first, they were easy to dismiss as normal aging. Over time, my family noticed, too.”

Symptoms of vascular dementia, according to the Mayo Clinic, include: confusion; trouble finding the right words; difficulty paying attention; trouble organizing thoughts or actions; difficulty planning and following through with plans; slowed thinking; uncertainty about what to do next; and memory issues.

“Two things could be true,” Craig said. “Football gave me opportunities beyond anything I can imagine. It helped shape the man I became. At the same time, we know more today about brain health than when I played. I hope sharing my story encourages people to pay attention to their health and seek help when something doesn’t feel right.

“I want people to know that this diagnosis doesn’t define me. I am still Roger Craig. I am still a father, still a husband, a teammate, a friend and someone who loves this game and the people who brought it to my life. If sharing my story helps even one family or one former player, then it’s worth it. Football gave me everything: opportunity, discipline, lifelong friends and the platform to grow as a man. This honor belongs to my parents who started it all.”

Selected by the 49ers in the second round of the 1983 draft as a fullback out of Nebraska, Craig become one of the most versatile players in league history.

He excelled as a runner, receiver and blocker, helping the 49ers win three of their five Super Bowls.

In 1985, Craig became the first player in NFL history to have 1,000 yards rushing and 1,000 yards receiving in a season. He was the AP NFL Offensive Player of the Year in 1988.

“When I learned that Bill Walsh wanted me, that meant something because he saw something in me that others didn’t,” Craig said. “He didn’t just want a running back, he wanted a complete football player. He trusted me to do whatever the team needed. That’s why a 1,000-yard rushing, 1,000-yard receiving season means so much to me. We weren’t chasing numbers. We were chasing wins. I didn’t realize I was making history. It just felt like we were doing something special as a team. Looking back, I can appreciate how difficult it is and how few players have done it since.

“What means the most is knowing we helped expand what people thought a running back could be. None of that happens without great teammates. What made those 49ers teams special: We weren’t selfish. We didn’t care who got the credit. We cared about winning.”

Craig was selected from the seniors category and entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2026 with Drew Brees, Larry Fitzgerald, Luke Kuechly and Adam Vinatieri.

___

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

The reports help give investors and economists a better sense of where prices are moving on a wide range of goods and services, while also providing a clearer picture on the impact to businesses and households.

On Wednesday, the U.S. will release its consumer price index, or CPI, for July. It is a detailed report on prices for a wide range of goods and services. Economists expect it to show that the rate of inflation remains above 3%.

On Thursday, the U.S. will release its producer price index, or PPI, for July. It shows costs for businesses before they’ve passed them along to consumers. That helps give a more detailed view of some of the inflation pressures facing companies.

On Friday, the U.S. will release its retail sales report for July. It gives details on monthly sales for a wide range of businesses. The data in the report can also give clues as to how much people are spending and where they are focusing their spending.

Inflation remains a key focus for Wall Street and the Federal Reserve. Stubborn inflation could hurt consumer spending, and in turn, the broader economy. The Fed has been closely watching inflation’s direction and is expected to raise interest rates in order to help tame rising costs before the end of the year.

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Naila lives in Katy and this past summer, her parents, Ben and Irma, started taking her to soccer classes after hearing how much Naila’s cousin enjoyed the facility and the coaches. Naila and Coach Eric Diaz instantly connected on their love of kicking the soccer ball around, and Coach Eric has been extremely patient when working with her.

“It’s one thing for an organization to let you in, but it’s different for them to accept her, if that makes sense,” said Irma Crow.

“And be patient and get the level of communication that she needs,” said Ben Crow.

“And genuinely care, right?” Irma said. “I think it’s a beautiful facility, but at the end of the day, having a human being who’s so genuine and he’s so mindful, and he genuinely wants to learn, he’ll be like asking me all these questions about how her brain kind of works and how he can help her and what he should and shouldn’t do and genuinely takes the time.”

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“It’s a beautiful thing, I think I’ve been put on her to, on this earth to bless people through the sport of soccer,” said Coach Eric. “It’s been an amazing journey; we’ve had the whole summer, we’ve been working, and just to see the progress, for me, that’s what’s most important with all our athletes that we work with.”

Coach Eric and Naila plan to continue weekly soccer classes to improve her skills and help her score more goals.

In a wide-ranging interview with the BBC broadcast late on Friday, Hunter Biden grew emotional as he discussed his father’s condition, describing it as very sad to watch.

“The cancer has spread, metastasized into his bones and further," he said. "It’s very painful and it's very debilitating in many respects.”

Joe Biden, 83, was the oldest man to serve as U.S. president and his age was a source of concern for much of his four years in office. He and his White House advisers have faced intense criticism for allegedly concealing the extent of his problems, especially after he was forced to abandon his bid for re-election after a disastrous debate with his eventual successor, Donald Trump.

The former president revealed his cancer diagnosis in May of last year, less than four months after he left the White House.

Hunter Biden said the diagnosis had been tough on the family.

“It's really sad to watch," Biden said. “The only thing that I'd say about my dad, about his health right now, is I wish he would complain more, because it’s not good.”

But Biden said his father remains “out there," speaking publicly about the issues that are important to him.

“He’s still doing his thing," he said. “He so believes in this country."

The former president will publish a memoir, “Promise Me, America,” after the mid-term elections.

The company urged customers who purchased the recalled items not to eat them.

On Saturday, Albertsons said the products were pulled after a supplier-initiated recall involving Taylor Farms. Albertsons said the jalapeños in the items were recalled through Taylor Farms’ distributor Direct Roots because the ingredient was connected through the supply chain to an ongoing federal investigation involving jalapeños distributed by Coast Citrus Distributors.

Which products were sold in Texas

Albertsons said these two ready-to-eat items were sold in Texas (including at Randalls) and are part of the recall:

• Roasted Corn Maque Choux Salad (Ready-to-eat) — UPC 29479400000 — sell-thru dates Aug. 3–Aug. 10, 2026
• ReadyMeals Roasted Corn Maque Choux Salad (Ready-to-eat) — UPC 29479500000 — sell-thru dates Aug. 3–Aug. 10, 2026

The company said shoppers should dispose of the products or return them to the store for a full refund.

Two additional salsa items were also recalled, but Albertsons said those were sold at Jewel-Osco stores in Iowa, Illinois and Indiana.

The FDA says it is investigating a multistate outbreak of Salmonella Javiana infections linked to recalled fresh jalapeños that were traced back to a grower in Sinaloa, Mexico, and distributed in the U.S. by Coast Citrus Distributors.

• Jalapeños linked to a US salmonella outbreak are tracked to a Mexican farm and a distributor

As of early August, the FDA said 345 illnesses across 27 states — including Texas — had been reported, with 36 people hospitalized and no deaths reported. The FDA says most interviewed patients reported eating at Mexican-style restaurants during the time period investigators are reviewing, and the agency has advised consumers and food-service businesses not to eat, serve or sell recalled peppers.

Albertsons’ notice points to Taylor Farms as the supplier for the jalapeño-containing products being recalled at its stores. The recall also comes as customers nationwide have been paying closer attention to produce-related outbreaks this summer. The Associated Press reported that Sweetgreen recently removed jalapeños from its menu and saw sales drop amid broader concerns about fresh produce, following a separate cyclospora outbreak linked to iceberg lettuce.

Symptoms to watch for

Health officials said salmonella can cause symptoms including fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. The FDA says illness often begins 12 to 72 hours after exposure and typically lasts four to seven days. Young children, older adults and people with weakened immune systems face a higher risk of severe illness.

Anyone who believes they may be sick should contact a health care provider.

“I know many of you have received questions in recent weeks regarding transgender athlete participation in women’s basketball, and I expect this topic will continue to receive significant attention,” Engelbert wrote in the memo, which was sent Friday afternoon and obtained by The Associated Press. “I wanted to reach out to share how we are approaching these conversations at the league office and to thank those of you who have responded to questions from the media with thoughtfulness and professionalism.”

The memo said the topic will be discussed further by a task force of team presidents and general managers at a previously scheduled meeting next week.

In an ESPN article published last month, Indiana Fever player Sophie Cunningham voiced support for barring transgender girls and women from girls’ and women’s sports. Cunningham's comments sparked small rallies and protests in Seattle and Portland when the Fever were on the road last week.

There was a lone protester at the Fever's home game against Las Vegas on Thursday night. Indiana visits Chicago on Saturday. Members of two conservative groups are planning a rally in support of Cunningham ahead of that game.

The league hasn’t made any public comments on the issue.

Engelbert wrote that the league will “always approach this topic thoughtfully, respectfully, and in alignment with the longstanding values of our league. Second, our player eligibility rules, unlike the eligibility rules of some other leagues and governing bodies, are collectively bargained. Lastly, preserving the integrity of our game and ensuring fair competition will always remain among the league’s highest priorities.”

The league's collective bargaining agreement states that “only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA,” but it does not include any more specific language about gender identity or sex assigned at birth. On Friday, two former NBA players, Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White, declared themselves eligible for the WNBA draft, saying they identify as women.

“We recognize that this is a complex and nuanced topic, and we will continue to have important conversations with all of you and the Players Association in the weeks and months ahead,” Engelbert said in the memo. “We also plan to convene additional discussions and offer listening sessions for any team leaders who would like to participate. Your perspectives and feedback are invaluable, and I appreciate those who have already reached out to share their thoughts.”

The WNBA players' association released a statement on social media Friday that emphasized diversity and inclusion while saying the group “will not be used as political pawns.”

“We embrace justice equity, diversity, and inclusion,” the statement read. “Those are the values that unite this Union and allow it to protect women’s sports while creating transformational change. Hate, abuse, and demonization of any person or group of people, including transgender people, only fuel fear, division, and harm. We will continue to have hard conversations. But we will not be used as political pawns.”

Some WNBA players and coaches have come out in support of transgender athletes, including Seattle Storm center Stefanie Dolson and Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve.

“We need to protect trans kids,” Reeve said on Aug. 1. “To me, it’s a human rights issue. Every kid has a right to sports.”

___

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

“I don’t think I could have asked for a better birthday gift than the completion of this mural with these six amazing artists from Taiwan,” GONZO247 said at the Friday unveiling.

The finished work sits at 9750 Bellaire Boulevard next to Trung Nguyen E-Coffee, in the Southwest Management District—a location speakers repeatedly described as a natural home for a project built around cultural exchange.

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“Houston is one of the most diverse cities in America, and the Southwest Management District is truly a reflection of that diversity,” said Stephen Le with the Southwest Management District and Greatland Living. “People from different countries, cultures, and backgrounds work and build our lives here.”

‘Strangers’ who arrived together, built something together

GONZO247 said the artists—many on their first trip to the United States—didn’t even know each other before arriving.

“They all came to Houston for the very first time—strangers, they didn’t even know each other,” he said. “They all met here in Houston, I met them, we all met at the same time.”

He described the program as a crash course that mixed creative mentorship with the realities of sustaining an art career. “Carolyn, my partner, was showing them the business side of the arts, and I was mentoring them on the practical side of the art,” he said, calling it “a three-week deep dive mentorship program.”

Taiwanese artist Hsin Hwang said the experience pushed her into new techniques and new ways of working.

“I learned collaboration with other people, and I learned how to use spray paint,” she said. “It’s my first time to use paint.”

A circular table, a shared meal, and an open chair

The mural’s central image is a circular feast table, chosen intentionally, GONZO247 said, because it reflects a familiar gathering style across Asia and a sense of wholeness.

“Everyone wanted to choose a circular table because that type of table is very common, and it’s really what you’ll see in Asia around many tables. The circle is a completion. It’s everything coming together,” he said. “Everyone’s coming and they’re all bringing something special to share.”

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To build the scene, each artist created a character—an “avatar”—meant to represent how they would show up in a shared community space. “What better way to show diversity, inclusivity, by having each person design their own avatar character,” he said.

At the center is a detail the artists described as the emotional core: an open seat.

“In the center, we have an open seat,” GONZO247 said. “Partly as a pay of respect to all of our ancestors and family members who have passed away because they’re always there in spirit. But also there’s always a seat for everyone.”

A message about home—especially now

Speakers at the gathering framed the mural not only as art, but as a statement about identity and belonging in Houston.

“We are here to share our culture, our food, our love with everyone. Everyone is welcome,” said state Rep. Gene Wu, who spoke at the event. “But another important thing that this says is: this is our home.”

City and county officials also used the moment to highlight cultural exchange and recognition. Gigi Lee, Chief of International Affairs for the Houston Mayor’s Office, told the crowd, “Now today we’re celebrating more than the unveiling of a mural. We are celebrating friendship, cultural exchange, and the spirit that makes Houston.”

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A proclamation read during the event declared Aug. 7, 2026 as “Painted Bridges Houston Mural Program Day” in Harris County.

Why the location matters

The mural’s placement along Bellaire—an area known for global food, immigrant-owned businesses and everyday multilingual life—was repeatedly credited as part of its meaning.

“We are very proud to welcome this beautiful mural to our community,” one representative said. “But what makes this project so special is not what you see on this wall, but the people and the collaboration behind it.”

And for the visiting artists, it’s now a permanent marker of a first encounter with Houston. Hwang said the trip left a lasting impression.

“It was really good—amazing,” she said, mentioning stops like NASA and local museums. “It really inspired me.”

Four people, including a child, were killed in the overnight strikes on Kyiv and the surrounding region. Ukrainian forces hit Russian oil facilities.

Zelenskyy arrived in Belgrade on Friday for his first official visit to Serbia.

Speaking at a news conference in Belgrade with Zelenskyy, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic described Ukraine as a “friendly nation” and said he was honored to welcome the Ukrainian leader — the first visit by a Ukrainian president in eight years.

The two leaders discussed their countries’ efforts toward joining the European Union, bilateral ties and ways to expand cooperation.

Kyiv’s residents face regular drone and missile barrages that Ukraine’s depleted air defenses are struggling to counter amid Moscow’s 4-year-old full-scale invasion, while repeated Ukrainian strikes on oil facilities have caused fuel shortages and rattled Russians.

Paperwork holds up missile production licenses

Vucic, who has maintained close ties with Moscow and refused to sanction Russia over the invasion — drawing pressure from the EU to change course — reiterated that Serbia respects Ukraine’s territorial integrity and said that position would not change.

“The situation in Ukraine is difficult,” Zelenskyy said at the press conference. “There was another missile strike last night — ballistic missiles targeting our infrastructure. There were also attack drones.”

Zelenskyy said that deliveries of Patriot air defense interceptors — the sole air defense weapon in Ukraine’s arsenal able to shoot down ballistic missiles — have slowed compared with a year ago.

“There are fewer of these missiles in 2026. In 2025 there were more, I’ll tell you honestly, in terms of monthly supplies,” he said.

Zelenskyy said Washington has agreed to let Ukraine manufacture its own Patriot air defense interceptors, but that they are “stuck dealing with paperwork.”

“The process for some of these licenses is also taking a long time,” he said.

Boy killed with grandparents in Kyiv region

The talks in Belgrade came after multiple Russian drones destroyed the home of a family in the Brovary district, northeast of Kyiv, killing a 3-year-old child and his grandparents, local officials said.

Three other members of the same family and a neighbor who came to their aid were hospitalized, local authorities said. The attack reduced the house to rubble and wrecked outbuildings and cars.

Zelenskyy said at least one other person died in a “strike involving six ballistic missiles against civilian infrastructure” in the capital.

In its daily report, Ukraine’s air force said it had downed or intercepted 135 of 151 drones launched by Russia overnight. The attack also involved six ballistic missiles and other guided missiles.

Russia has relentlessly pounded civilian areas of Ukraine, even though Moscow insists its forces target only military facilities.

Ukraine’s air defenses shot down around 5,300 drones and missiles last month, Ukraine’s defense ministry said Friday, just under 60% of the around 9,000 attack drones and missiles Russia fired in the same period.

Moscow is exploiting Ukraine’s critical shortage of interceptors for the U.S.-made Patriot systems, the sole air defense weapon in its arsenal able to shoot down ballistic missiles.

Zelenskyy has pleaded with other countries, especially the U.S., to send more of the ammunition made scarcer by the Iran war. Failing that, he wants to make Patriot ammunition in Ukraine or win permission from Elon Musk to use his Starlink satellite communications system to guide strikes inside Russia that can hit its missile launchers.

Following the latest attacks, Zelenskyy appealed on X for more sanctions to “prevent the production of these ballistic missiles,” along with “anti-ballistic capabilities” and “interceptor missiles.”

Ukraine strikes Russian oil facilities

In Russia, six people were wounded when a fire broke out at the Ilsky Oil Refinery, in the southern Krasnodar region, due to debris from a falling drone, local officials said.

Ukraine's General Staff said Ukrainian forces struck the refinery in Krasnodar, along with the Syzran Oil Refinery in the Samara region, more than 800 kilometers (500 miles) inside Russia.

Vyacheslav Fedorishchev, governor of Russia’s Samara region, said drones hit an “industrial enterprise,” but he did not mention the refinery.

Ukraine’s almost daily long-range drone and missile strikes using domestically developed weapons have battered Russian oil facilities for months. The operation has brought a fuel crisis that is embarrassing the Kremlin.

___

Yurchuk reported from Kyiv, Ukraine. Associated Press writer Elise Morton in London contributed to this report.

The 14-year-old opened fire at around 10 a.m. Friday at Debsirin Nonthaburi School in Nonthaburi province northwest of the Thai capital before apparently taking his own life. He also appeared to have killed his two grandparents at his family home earlier in the morning, officials said.

The girl, 12, died after hospitalization, the Health Ministry said. The school had posted a message on Facebook Friday seeking blood donations for two students, including the girl, who was in seventh grade.

Fourteen people remain hospitalized, of whom seven remain in critical condition Saturday, according to Thailand’s Health Ministry. Most of those wounded were between 12 and 14 years old.

Relatives claimed the bodies of eight people from Bangkok’s Institute of Forensic Medicine: five school staff, the accused shooter, and his grandparents. Emergency workers brought out a coffin and loaded it onto an ambulance, which will transport the bodies to their hometowns for funeral rites.

The young girl’s body is still to be released.

Wiroon Supasingsiripreecha, head of the institute, said most of the victims suffered a single fatal gunshot wound to a vital area, including the chest or head.

He said the gunshot wound found on the alleged shooter was consistent with the weapon he had used. More detailed forensic findings, including toxicology results, are expected later, he said.

Officials said the gun, described as small and compact, was legally registered to the boy’s grandfather.

There were reports that the boy, who lived with his grandparents, had shown signs of stress connected to school, although some of his relatives told Thai media that they were unaware of any troubles he might have been facing.

The co-educational state school, which has about 3,000 students enrolled aged 12 to 18, said all classes would be suspended between Aug. 10-14 and school staff were instructed to work from home during that time.

A few mourners laid flowers Saturday morning at the school's gate, where a few police officers could be seen.

Charin Siriananchai brought his two sons, ages 9 and 6, to pay their respects. He said while his sons do not study here, he lives in the neighborhood and drives past this school almost every day, often stopping to allow students to cross the road.

“Everyone was saddened and shocked, because it was unexpected that this would happen in Thailand, and also it’s quite a great loss,” he said.

Some parents also came with their children to collect their belongings left behind after the shooting. A father, who declined to identify himself, said his son, who was at the school during the shooting, was still in shock and could not sleep alone.

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

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

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

While shootings involving indiscriminate killings are not common, the country has seen an uptick in high-profile shooting deaths in recent years.

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

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

The Republican-led Senate voted 50-49 to make Blanche the second confirmed attorney general since Trump returned to the White House last year with a stated desire to use the law enforcement agency to investigate his political enemies. While Blanche has already been leading the department in an acting capacity, his confirmation could free him to pursue the administration’s agenda even more aggressively.

Blanche said on social media that he was “deeply honored by the trust and confidence President Trump has placed in me,” adding that he was “grateful” to senators for working late to confirm him.

The vote followed a tumultuous confirmation fight that exposed deep concerns — from some Republicans as well as Democrats — about installing Trump’s close ally atop a Justice Department that historically prided itself on its independence from the White House.

In the end, Blanche was confirmed by the narrowest of margins, opposed by two Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — and by every Democrat.

The path to confirmation for Blanche was unusually rocky, due in large part to Republican concerns about a controversial settlement of Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS.

Under pressure, Blanche publicly promised in writing that the department would abandon Trump’s proposed $1.8 billion compensation fund for the president’s allies, including those who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and rein in another piece of the settlement designed to shield Trump and his family from IRS tax audits.

His appeals were enough to win over Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, the decisive vote who threw his support behind Blanche on Friday morning. Cassidy said no other nominee may be able to run the department better under Trump and suggested Blanche’s role as Trump’s former criminal defense lawyer can make him more effective at pushing back on the Republican president’s demands.

“This is not a referendum on President Trump. It is a decision regarding Mr. Blanche in very specific circumstances,” said Cassidy, who lost his primary this year to a Trump-backed challenger.

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said confirming Blanche would be a “serious mistake.” He begged his colleagues not to be on the “wrong side” of history.

“If there is ever a moment in history when we need an Attorney General above reproach, who is clearly dedicated to ending corruption, even at the highest level of our government, it’s right now,” Durbin said.

Blanche’s loyalty to Trump left senators skeptical

The vote capped off a bruising confirmation fight, with Blanche’s loyalty to Trump at the center of the stalemate.

Blanche was elevated to the top Justice Department post in an acting capacity after Trump fired Pam Bondi in April. Blanche moved swiftly to advance the president’s interests, accelerating investigations into Trump’s perceived foes and announcing the settlement that created the $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” to compensate people who feel mistreated by the criminal justice system and provided Trump and family members with immunity from tax audits.

The controversial settlement threatened to torpedo Blanche’s nomination until he formally rescinded the fund in writing under pressure from Republican Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina. The deal reached between the senators and the department unlocked a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee, which advanced Blanche’s nomination earlier this week

Even after the deal, Blanche faced opposition from some Republican senators concerned with the settlement fund and the tax audit immunity.

Murkowski announced early Friday that she would join Collins in opposing Blanche’s nomination, saying the country needs an attorney general “who will check the worst impulses of this administration.”

Former prosecutor rises as Trump’s defender

A former federal prosecutor in New York, Blanche rose to public prominence as a lead attorney on Trump’s defense team, including during the Republican’s hush money trial in New York. He also defended Trump against criminal charges in the two federal cases brought by the Biden administration’s Department of Justice — an experience Blanche has said provided him a firsthand look at what he contends was the weaponization of the criminal justice system against Trump.

Blanche entered the Justice Department last year as deputy attorney general under Bondi, overseeing the agency’s day-to-day operations and serving as the public face for high-profile and controversial matters, like the release of millions of investigative files related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Democrats have accused Blanche of prioritizing his loyalty to Trump above all else through investigations against Trump foes such as former FBI Director James Comey and a radical reshaping of the department. Under Bondi and Blanche’s leadership, the department has lost thousands of employees through firings, resignations or voluntary departures.

Blanche’s supporters say his experience as a federal prosecutor and the trust he earned from Trump in the courtroom make him better equipped than Bondi to explain to the White House the legal constraints of its demands. Republicans have also touted his efforts to bring down violent crime, tackle illegal immigration and combat violent cartels and drug trafficking.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Judiciary Committee chairman, gave a full-throated endorsement of Blanche ahead of voting, saying he’s led the Justice Department with distinction. “Mr. Blanche is the right choice,” said Grassley, R-Iowa.

It is unclear whether Blanche will fare any better in delivering on Trump’s desire for retribution than Bondi, whom Trump fired amid resistance from judges, grand jurors and the department’s own workforce as prosecutors sought to establish criminal conduct by one Trump foe after another.

Shortly after Blanche took the top post, the Justice Department moved to indict Comey on charges of threatening the 47th president by posting a social media photograph of seashells in the numerical arrangement of “86 47.” Comey’s lawyers are pressing to have the case dismissed, accusing the department of misleading judges, submitting documents containing false statements and withholding key facts.

Blanche has also appointed Joseph diGenova, a former Justice Department prosecutor from the Reagan administration, to oversee a Florida-based investigation into whether former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired over the last decade to undermine Trump. But it remains uncertain whether that probe will result in any criminal charges.

__

Associated Press writers Bill Barrow in Atlanta and Kevin Freking and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

So did Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. The three ex-presidents joined a roster of historians and authors in contributing to the In Pursuit project, a 250th-anniversary series that had each writer produce an essay about a president or first lady.

Though the project was explicitly designed to transcend today’s politics, some of its essays nevertheless reflect anxieties that are flaring in the era of President Donald Trump over the use of power, the health of the democracy and the integrity of the presidency.

The project is being curated by Colleen Shogan, the U.S. archivist who was fired without explanation by Trump last year. She instructed contributors not to be partisan or ideological. “Everybody took those instructions and that guidance very seriously,” she told The Associated Press. The goal was for all Americans to “feel welcome to be able to read these lessons and essays and learn something from them.”

The mission, Shogan said, “is to surface the lessons from the past 250 years of American history, so that we can learn from those lessons, from both our successes and our failures, so we can plan for the present and the future. It’s what has been described as debriefing the American story.”

The essays cover 43 presidents — all but Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Trump — and 30 first ladies. They are being published chronologically and weekly into December.

Trump and Biden were judged too fresh to be appraised by history, a call that may have also set aside passions of the moment.

Without naming Trump, Bush’s essay is difficult to read without thinking of Trump’s reluctance to cede power after his 2020 election defeat and his musings about a third term in defiance of the Constitution’s two-term limit.

Bush hails the heroism of humility

Bush's essay celebrates George Washington, the original “No Kings” guy. Bush, a Republican, hails a man whose legacy only grew larger because he modeled the limits of the presidency for centuries to come.

“Our first president could have remained all-powerful,” Bush writes, “but twice he chose not to. In so doing, he set a standard for all presidents to live up to.” First, Washington resigned as commander in chief of the Continental Army, then set the precedent of serving only two presidential terms before that limit was enshrined in the Constitution.

Bush went on: "George Washington’s humility in giving up power willingly remains among the most consequential decisions and important examples in American politics.” Bush's essay, released Presidents Day as the first in the series on Substack, drove heavy engagement.

Retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who led U.S. and international forces in the Afghanistan War, sized up a fellow general, Ulysses S. Grant, in another essay that drew much attention for its parallels with today.

History offers lessons on ‘law over loyalty’

McChrystal presents the Union general and post-Civil War president as a leader who displayed “an absolute commitment to principles larger than personal ambition" and who, before his presidency, resisted pressure on military leaders to “align with political factions and be loyal to a person rather than the Constitution.”

The emphasis on personal loyalty resonates in a time when Trump has repeatedly demanded fealty from officials in his administration.

The “temptation to bend institutions toward personal power is not unique to Grant’s era,” McChrystal writes. “Our future still depends on whether our leaders choose law over loyalty.”

This month, in the latest In Pursuit installment, Democrat Clinton writes about Theodore Roosevelt, focusing on that president's drive to expand the universe of “we the people” at the expense of powerful corporate interests, while also emphasizing Roosevelt's exclusionary views on Black and Indigenous people.

The essays frequently address presidents’ failures alongside their accomplishments, a contrast with Trump’s calls for federal cultural institutions to stick to patriotic interpretations of American history.

Presidents, the chief justice and first ladies contribute

Among the In Pursuit contributors are Chief Justice John Roberts (writing about William Howard Taft, the only president who also served on the Supreme Court); Hillary Clinton ( Eleanor Roosevelt ); Michelle Obama ( Jacqueline Kennedy ); GOP operative Karl Rove ( William McKinley ); documentarian Ken Burns ( Franklin D. Roosevelt ); and historian Michael Beschloss ( Lyndon Johnson ). Democrat Barack Obama presents Abraham Lincoln.

The project is being staged by More Perfect, a nonpartisan alliance of dozens of presidential centers along with academics and organizations dedicated to advancing democracy. It is where Shogan now practices her archivist craft that Trump shut down by firing her in February 2025.

She still has not been told why. Nor has Congress apparently been notified of the reason. The law requires Congress to be told but does not specify a deadline. The National Archives is the central repository of federal documents both precious and routine, and its leader has discretion over which records to preserve and display, and how.

“That is a position that used to be a nonpartisan position, much like the Librarian of Congress, the secretary of the Smithsonian,” she said. “And I took that very seriously and acted the entire time when I was archivist in a nonpartisan way.”

The White House did not respond when asked why Trump fired the archivist and whether the administration will tell Congress the reason.

Trump has long begrudged the archives for notifying the Department of Justice of his alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left office following his first term, though Shogan was not working for the agency then.

Shogan sees hunger for history without a slant

Shogan said she has been overwhelmed with the public response to the series so far and figures that speaks to a hunger for history shorn of partisanship. The essays have received more than 1 million cumulative views on Substack and her podcast of the same name registered 160,000 audio downloads and nearly 64,000 YouTube views at last count. A documentary about the series is scheduled to air on PBS in October.

In the essays, readers learn something new not just about the giants, but about presidents such as Millard Fillmore — “a historic punchline — best remembered, ironically, for being so forgotten,” in the words of his essayist, former New York congressman Steve Israel.

Then there was Franklin Pierce, presented by his essayist as a pro-slavery president and “permanent victim” of Washington's alcohol-soaked culture.

Yale history professor David W. Blight recounts how Pierce won the presidency for the Democrats in 1852 despite vicious trolling by the Whigs. Fielding Mexican War veteran Gen. Winfield Scott in that election, they labeled Pierce, who also served in the war, the “hero of many a well-fought bottle.”

The conglomerate that legendary investor Warren Buffett built reported its second-quarter earnings Saturday morning and disclosed that its cash holdings had shrunk to $365.5 billion from nearly $400 billion at the end of March.

Berkshire's report suggested that it had added more than $21 billion worth of commercial, industrial and other stocks to its portfolio, but the earnings report doesn't name the stocks it bought. That won't be revealed until a separate filing later this month.

Abel took over as CEO in January when Buffett retired after six decades leading the company. But Buffett remains chairman.

CFRA Research analyst Cathy Seifert said investors should be encouraged by the amount of shares Berkshire's repurchased although Geico's performance was a concern because its underwriting profits fell 45% and lagged far behind other big auto insurers.

“I think there are two key takeaways that should encourage investors: The fact that they bought back shares after not having done things of this magnitude for several years now. And the other positive thing is the ability to produce the 10% operating revenue growth in the quarter,” Seifert said.

Abel announced in March that Berkshire had resumed buying back its own shares for the first time in more than two years, but investors were underwhelmed when the company only repurchased about $234 million worth of Berkshire stock in the first quarter.

The purchases in the second quarter that were disclosed Saturday demonstrate that Berkshire is serious about buybacks, but it is on the low end of the range that investors were expecting. Buffett watchers had been predicting repurchases somewhere between $5 billion and $11 billion based on a filing Buffett made when he announced his annual charitably donations in July.

The company’s standard is that it only repurchases shares when Abel and Buffett believes they are selling for less than they are worth. They do not plan to spend a specific amount like many companies do. Most of Berkshire's repurchases were made in June. They may not be buying much now as the stock just hit a new 52-week high on Thursday.

Berkshire previously repurchased $78 billion worth of its own stock between 2018 and 2024.

In addition to the Google stock Berkshire bought this spring, the Omaha, Nebraska-based company also completed a $6.8 billion acquisition of homebuilder Taylor Morrison but that didn't close until July so it's not reflected in these quarterly figures.

Berkshire's bottom line profit more than doubled to $25.667 billion, or $17,868.44 per Class A share, on a big paper gain in the value of its investments as the company lapped last year's $3.8 billion writedown in the value of its Kraft Foods stake. A year ago Berkshire reported earning $12.37 billion, or $8,600.89 per Class A share,

But Buffett has long urged investors to pay more attention to Berkshire's operating earnings to get a better sense of how its dozens of companies are performing because those numbers exclude investments. By that measure, Berkshire's operating profit grew to $12.983 billion, or $9,038.30 per A share, from $11.16 billion, or $7,759.58 per Class A share.

Berkshire owns several major insurers, including Geico, a collection of big utilities, BNSF railroad and a varied assortment of manufacturing and retail companies, including Precision Castparts and See's Candy.

Investigators said the man, about 22, and his sister, about 25, were arguing at a residence in the 5500 block of Bingle Road around 8:25 p.m. Police said the sister had been allowing her brother to stay at the home but was trying to make him leave.

According to police, the man took his sister’s car keys and attempted to drive off in her vehicle. Another argument followed and the two became involved in a physical struggle.

• Woman killed in high-speed crash after running red lights in southeast Houston, police say

The man had a gun, and detectives believe he may have accidentally shot himself in the stomach during the confrontation, police said.

Houston firefighters responded, performed CPR and took the man to a nearby hospital, where he was later pronounced dead, authorities said.

The sister was detained at the scene and was cooperating with investigators, police said.

The incident remains under investigation by HPD.

Pink Phurree is Texas’ first all-women breast cancer survivor dragon boat team nonprofit, founded in 2007 to help survivors rebuild strength, resilience and confidence through the power of teamwork. The team brings together women at every stage of survivorship, creating a support system both on and off the water.

This month, 10 Houston breast cancer survivors will represent the city at the International Breast Cancer Paddlers’ Commission (IBCPC) Participatory Dragon Boat Festival in France. The event brings together breast cancer survivor paddlers from around the world every four years to celebrate survivorship, advocacy and community.

For team members like Gaile Stiteler, Susan McGee, Dora Lipper and Maria Buenabad, dragon boating has become a reminder that life after cancer can be full of strength, connection and new challenges.

As they prepare to compete internationally, the women of Pink Phurree are honoring those still fighting, those who have survived and those they have lost — while showing that survivors are more than their diagnosis.

Watch their full conversation above to learn more about Pink Phurree’s journey.

To support Pink Phurree, visit pinkphurree.org.

For more information about the 2026 IBCPC Participatory Dragon Boat Festival, visit ibcpcfrance2026.com.

• New lawsuit uses Texas religious-freedom law to challenge Ten Commandments mandate

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Supporters of the mandate immediately hailed the ruling as a win. One backer said they were “grateful for the court’s decision today declining to block the Texas 10 Commandment Law,” arguing the display is about “acknowledging our nation’s history” and “legal heritage,” not forcing students to adopt religious beliefs.

But the plaintiffs, who sued under the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act, said the court’s refusal to grant a temporary restraining order does not resolve the central legal question: whether Texas Education Code § 1.0041 unlawfully burdens religious exercise and violates a voter-approved parental rights amendment.

“We asked for emergency relief. We did not get it,” said Meagan Hassan, lead counsel for the plaintiffs. “That ruling does not resolve the legal question at the heart of this case.”

The lawsuit — Emily Roth, et al. v. The State of Texas, et al. — was filed July 30 by Emily Roth, Dr. Audrey Rosa Nath, and Sanjam Kaur Sohal against the State of Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton, Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath, Houston ISD, Cypress-Fairbanks ISD and Spring Branch ISD. The plaintiffs say they are not bringing a federal claim, focusing instead on state law protections.

• Mapping SB 10: How Houston school districts plan to implement the Ten Commandments

As the case proceeds, both sides are emphasizing what the mandate means for students returning to school next week across the Houston area.

Roth, the lead plaintiff, said the issue is not religion itself but the state choosing a religious text for public classrooms. “This case is not against religion,” Roth said. “It is against the state deciding whose religion belongs in a public school classroom, and deciding it without asking one parent in Texas.”

Supporters counter that students are not being asked to participate in any religious practice. “No student is required to pray. No student required to profess faith. No student to agree with the Ten Commandments,” the supporter said, insisting that “seeing something is not the same as being coerced to believe something” and that “exposure is not coercion.”

Hassan argued the plaintiffs’ legal challenge is straightforward and rooted in state statutes and promises to voters. She said the state has told Texans “the government would not come between them and their faith,” but that the mandate places a state-selected religious message into every classroom.

Backers of the law, however, said the Ten Commandments’ influence extends beyond religious doctrine and into the foundations of Western legal tradition. In remarks after the ruling, a supporter argued the display is meant to recognize history, describing the Ten Commandments as part of the background of American law and saying the state should not have to “erase history because it also has a religious flavor to it.”

• When does school start? Here’s when Houston-area districts return for the 2026-27 school year

The plaintiffs say the postings carry a different message for children — particularly those who do not share the underlying religious tradition. Roth said that even if some people view the Ten Commandments as universal moral concepts, the posters raise questions for students about identity and belonging in a state-run classroom. “While she’s working out what the poster means, she’s also working out something else: whose text this is, and that it is not ours,” Roth said.

Supporters reject the idea that the postings substantially burden anyone’s religious exercise, which is the legal standard at issue under the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The supporter criticized what they described as the lawsuit’s theory that the mere presence of the display creates an unlawful burden, arguing instead that religious liberty protections are designed to prevent government coercion — not remove all religious references from public spaces.

The two sides also clash over how the recently approved parental rights amendment applies in public schools. The plaintiffs argue the mandate undermines parents’ authority over religious upbringing and imposes a state decision without parental input. Supporters respond that parental rights do not amount to “a constitutional veto over what every other child may encounter in a public school classroom,” and said those rights belong to all parents — including families who support the displays.

For now, the denial of the temporary restraining order leaves the Ten Commandments mandate in effect while the case continues. Supporters said the next major step will be a preliminary injunction hearing, expected later in August, where a judge could decide whether the law should be blocked while litigation plays out.

The plaintiffs’ children attend three different Houston-area districts. The children are not identified by name, and the plaintiffs have asked that the children and their schools not be sought or published.

The measure has been touted as one that would put guardrails around an escalating spending spree in college sports as the industry struggles to adapt to a new model in which teams can pay players.

“College sports is something that needs to be fixed, they have a good solution,” said Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. “We got it teed up for next month."

The bill has been on a roller coaster since it was introduced in late May but quickly failed to gain support of the two biggest conferences: the Big Ten and SEC.

Those conferences signed on and saved it from near death late last month after a flurry of negotiations. But as quickly as it was revived, it faced a reality check in the Senate, where lawmakers from SEC states, including Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., were among its biggest skeptics.

Then, as the bill neared closer to a vote, the Congressional Black Caucus and AFL-CIO also came out against it. Amendments dealing with issues that were never part of the bill also started coming up.

All that, combined with a packed list of votes including on a short-term funding bill and the narrow confirmation of Todd Blanche for Attorney General, pushed the PCSA toward the back of the Senate's agenda.

Bill co-sponsor Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said “my colleagues and I have worked hard to end the chaos” that surrounds college sports and predicted the bill would receive support of 60 or more Senators to keep it on path to becoming law.

Co-sponsor, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said she was grateful Thune put it on the calendar.

“This bipartisan bill is how we protect women's and Olympic sports,” she said. “I look forward to its passage in September.”

If it passes the Senate, the bill still figures to face a steep climb in the House, which is more narrowly divided and tried for months to bring the less athlete-friendly SCORE Act to a vote and failed repeatedly.

A rethinking of third-party NIL

Among the bill's biggest features would be a redefinition of “third-party” NIL — the name, image, likeness sponsorship deals that most blame for spiraling costs. Under current rules, schools can share revenue of up to $21.3 million among all players across their athletic program.

But there’s an uncapped amount of extra money to be made via these third-party deals, which are often brokered through multimedia rights companies labeled “associated entities” that sell a school’s promotional assets and move some of that cash to the players in exchange for their NIL.

The law would presumably shift some of those arrangements under a newly expanded revenue share of up to $48.8 million while leaving open the possibility of “organic” third-party deals that don’t come from an existing arrangement with the school. A good example: Caitlin Clark got her sponsorship deal with State Farm because she was Caitlin Clark, not because she played for Iowa, which happened to have a deal with State Farm. (The Hawkeyes don't have such a deal.)

Sports leaders hope this new “retention pool” of money curtails runaway costs. The MMR groups aren’t promising it will.

“It’s going to continue to grow,” Christy Hedgpeth, the president Playfly Sports Properties, said in an interview this week with The Associated Press. “We have a lot of data that proves that they don’t have to be nationally recognizable. On an average roster, you’re going to have far more than 20 (players) who are going to have several NIL deals.”

___

AP Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro contributed from Washington.

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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

Note: Availability is typically first-come, first-served and may be limited while supplies last. Some events require kids to be present to receive items.

19th Annual Back to School Drive, Health Fair & Business Expo

• When: Saturday, July 25 | 8:30 a.m.-2 p.m.
• Where: PlazAmericas Mall 2nd Floor, 201 Sharpstown Center, Houston
• What to know: This is a free, family event giving out 5,000 backpacks and school supplies; free immunizations and medical screenings; health and wellness resources; business expo exhibitors; and family activities.

Operation Backpack (Attorney Brian White) — 3,000 filled backpacks + free entertainment

• When: Saturday, July 25 | 10 a.m.–12 p.m.
• Where: Launch Family Entertainment, 13331 Westheimer Road, Houston, TX 77077
• What to know: Organizers say the event will distribute 3,000 backpacks filled with essential school supplies. Families will also get free admission to Launch during the event, with access to attractions (including trampolines and other activities).
• Details: Backpacks are available while supplies last; children must be present to receive a backpack.

Vida City Church Back 2 School Bash

• When: Saturday, July 25 | 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
• Where: Vida City Church Houston, 1300 W Mount Houston Road, Houston
• What to know: Organizers are offering free backpacks and school supplies in addition to community resources.

Verizon retailer Round Room “School Rocks” Backpack Giveaway (Houston-area locations)

• When: Sunday, July 26 | Starts at 1 p.m. (lines expected before start)
• Where (Houston area):
• • 3420 7th Street, Bay City
  • 1140 North FM 3083 West Road, Suite 300, Conroe
  • 27117 Fulshear Bend Dr., Ste 200, Fulshear
  • 3351 Clear Lake City Blvd., Ste 600, Houston
• What to know: Round Room, a Verizon authorized retailer, says it is giving away $3 million worth of free backpacks nationwide during its annual “School Rocks” event.

Pasadena to Fill the Bus for Local Students

• When: Monday, July 27 | 8 a.m.-4 p.m.
• Where: Pasadena Convention Center, 7902 Fairmont Parkway, Pasadena
• What to know: The City of Pasadena is collecting donated school supplies for students. Community members will then deliver the supplies throughout the day. Volunteers will receive and organize the donations.

Back to School Community Giveaway (Attorney Kristopher A. Alvarez) - school supplies giveaways + free food

• When: Wednesday, July 29 | 4:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m.
• Where: 6841 Avenue I, Houston
• What to know: Organizers said the event will offer free backpacks with school supplies. There will also be food and drinks, games, activities, free haircuts and live entertainment. More than 200 children are registered for the event, organizers say.

Buckner Family Hope Center Back-to-School Health Fair & Backpack Distribution

• When: Friday, July 31 | 12 p.m.-3 p.m.
• Where: Buckner Children and Family Services of Houston, 8600 Sweetwater Lane, Houston
• What to know: The Buckner Family Hope Center will be distributing backpacks with school supplies to 1,000 kids in Houston’s northside in addition to shoes. Organizers said there will also be community and health resources. Families can also enjoy activities like arts and crafts.

Houston Rockets annual Back-to-School Bash powered by Reliant

• When: Friday, July 31 | 4 p.m.-7 p.m.
• Where: Sunnyside Community Center, 3502 West Bellfort Avenue, Houston
• What to know: The Houston Rockets and Reliant, in partnership with the Houston Parks and Recreation Department, are hosting their annual back-to-school event, offering free backpacks and school supplies. Organizers say each backpack will also include vouchers for Chick-fil-A and Pizza Hut locations. Hall of Famer and Comets legend Cynthia Cooper, Rockets legend Rafer Alston, and more prominent figures will be making appearances. Organizers say there will also be free health screenings and family activities.

The Mayor’s Back 2 School & Health Fair presented by Shell

• When: Saturday, Aug. 1 | 8 a.m.-2 p.m.
• Where: George R. Brown Convention Center, 1001 Avenida de las Americas, Houston
• What to know: The Houston Mayor’s Office will be holding its 16th annual back-to-school fair with backpack and school supply giveaways in addition to free health/dental screenings and routine immunizations. Make sure to register your student beforehand.

HISD “Ready, Set, School!” Back-to-School Resource Fair & School Supply Giveaway

• When: Saturday, Aug. 1 | 9 a.m.–12 p.m.
• Where: Delmar Fieldhouse, 2020 Mangum Road, Houston, TX 77092
• What to know: Houston ISD says families can receive free backpacks and school supplies, plus free routine health screenings.
• Extras: District teams including enrollment, transportation and nutrition will be available to help families get ready for the school year.

YES Prep Public Schools Backpack Giveaway & Back-to-School Fair

• When: Saturday, Aug. 1 | 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
• Where: YES Prep West Elementary, 9910 Sharpcrest Street, Houston
• What to know: YES Prep Public Schools is giving away 300 backpacks full of school supplies to students ahead of the 2026-27 academic year. Organizers said there will also be free vaccines and free/low-cost haircuts. The event is open to the public and will also feature family activities, community resources, and special appearances from local leaders.

Fellowship of Love Church Operation Backpack Drop

• When: Saturday, Aug. 1 | 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
• Where: Missing Bend Boys & Girls Club, 8709 Addicks Clodine Road, Houston
• What to know: Love Works is holding their annual school supplies giveaway and health fair. Organizers say the first 300 school-aged children will receive free sneakers. There will also be family activities at the event.

IDEA Public Schools Backpacks for Bright Futures

• When: Saturday, Aug. 1 | 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
• Where: IDEA Hardy Academy and College Preparatory, 1930 Little York Road, Houston
• What to know: IDEA Public Schools is hosting a free back-to-school backpack giveaway for the first 600 students at the event. Parents and guardians must be present with their children in order to receive the supplies. More community resources, giveaways, games and vendors will be at the event, organizers said.

Revive Fest 2026 - Christian Hip Hop performances + school supply drive

• When: Saturday, Aug. 1 | 12 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Where: Life Community Baptist Church, 2626 Avenue N, Rosenberg
• What to know: A back-to-school drive will be taking place at Life Community Baptist Church’s Revive Fest for students. Organizers say this is part of the larger community event, which includes family activities, live Christian hip-hop performances, food, giveaways and a basketball tournament.

Harris County Precinct 4 Free Snow Cones

• When: Monday, Aug. 3 | 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
• Where: 6817 Cypresswood Drive, Spring
• What to know: Harris County Precinct 4 leaders are holding a free snow cone event for community members to kick off the new school year. Note: This event is not a school supplies drive or giveaway.

Free Back-to-School Immunization Clinic (State Rep. Suleman Lalani, M.D.)

• When: Tuesday, Aug. 4 | 4 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Where: Office of Rep. Suleman Lalani, 12550 Emily Ct, Suite 300, Sugar Land
• What to know: State Representative Suleman Lalani in partnership with the Texas Children’s Hospital is holding a free immunization clinic for Medicaid-eligible and uninsured children. Organizers said walk-ins are okay, but appointments are recommended and can be scheduled by calling 832-824-6355. Organizers said parents and guardians should bring their child’s immunization records. Note: This event is not offering school supplies.

Boykins Youth Foundations 12th annual Back-2-School Drive & Free Haircuts

• When: Wednesday, Aug. 5 | 8 a.m.-12 p.m.
• Where: Evan E. Worthing High School, 9215 Scott Street, Houston
• What to know: Boykins Youth Foundations and community partners are holding their annual back-to-school event offering free school supplies, backpacks and uniforms. Organizers say there will also be free haircuts and hairstyles on offer, in addition to free physicals and eye exams.

Harris Health Back-to-School Health & Wellness Fair + free school supplies

• When: Saturday, Aug. 8 | 9 a.m.-12 p.m.
• Where: Strawberry Health Center, 927 Shaw Ave, Pasadena
• What to know: Harris Health is offering back-to-school vaccines and health screenings. Organizers said the first 225 school-ages children will get free backpacks with school supplies. The Houston Food Bank will also provide free food to families, while supplies last. Harris Health is also offering mammogram screenings for attendees, but they must be scheduled in advance by calling 281-454-0913.

Judge Bob Wolfe Back to School Supply Giveaway

• When: Saturday, Aug. 8 | 10 a.m.
• Where: 16715 Clay Road, Houston
• What to know: Precinct 5, Place 2 Justice of the Peace Bob Wolfe is holding a back-to-school supply giveaway until supplies last. Organizers say there will be free food and drinks, too. Children must be present in order to receive supplies, according to the judge.

Back to School Energy Savings Bash

• When: Saturday, Aug. 8 | 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
• Where: Harris County Department of Education Admin Building, 5th Floor Conference Center (on top of Caplin Street parking garage), 6300 Irvington Boulevard, Houston
• What to know: CenterPoint Energy, the Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter, the Coalition for Environment, Equity and Resilience (CEER), and other local partners will be holding a resource and school supplies event for families. Organizers said the event aims to connect homeowners and renters to energy programs and resources. Food and refreshments are provided. Organizers said the first 100 attendees will get free school supplies and energy efficiency kits.

Community Back-to-School Bash for Families (Attorney Cherika Edwards)

• When: Saturday, Aug. 15 | 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
• Where: 3310 West Fuqua Drive, Houston
• What to know: The Law Office of Cherika Edwards is holding its annual back-to-school event, offering free school supplies (while supplies last), free food, free family activities, and community resources.

Terry Bryant Accident & Injury Law — $200 gift card giveaway (Texas residents)

This is a statewide drawing (not an in-person Houston backpack event), but it may still help some families.

• What: The firm says it will award 15 Texas residents a $200 gift card through a random drawing.
• Deadline: Runs through 10 a.m. CT on Aug. 19 (per the announcement).

Have a giveaway to add?

Send details (date, time, address, what’s being given away, and any registration requirements) to Desk@kprc.com and we can update this list.

“Traveling with kids is a whole new world," said Dr. Shannon Thompson, a pediatrician at Cleveland Clinic Children's, adding that it's important to “enjoy your kiddo on your trip” as much as you can.

Here are some tips and tricks for parents to travel safely with young children — and have fun with them, too.

Look for amenities like cribs and high chairs before you book

Before you decide where to stay, consider your options for baby-proofing.

Check whether items like portable playpens, cribs and high chairs are offered to guests. If you are staying somewhere with stairs, a balcony or a pool, inquire about baby gates; if they are not provided, see if they are available for rent nearby or consider bringing travel-friendly foldable mesh gates. Pack electrical outlet covers and wipes to clean any dirty surfaces your kiddo might touch.

For babies, safe sleeping is still essential on vacation. Children younger than 1 should sleep on their back on a flat, firm surface such as a mattress in a bassinet, crib or playpen with nothing more than a fitted sheet, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. The organization also recommends babies sleep in the parents' room — but not in the parents' bed — for at least the first six months.

You should also consider how you will get to your lodging: Will you fly in and rent a car or take a taxi, or take public transit from the airport? Will you mostly be driving or walking? For parents, these factors can determine whether you want to bring a stroller and a car seat, both of which you can gate check for free when you fly, or rely on using a sling or baby carrier.

Plan for snacks and diaper changes on the plane

“Flying with kids is one of those big, intimidating things,” said Thompson, the pediatrician. “I think the biggest thing to think about is always safety and then of course their comfort.”

While children under two can fly in their parents’ lap, the Federal Aviation Administration recommends securing them in their own safety seat, such as a car seat certified for use on planes. This requires buying a seat for your child.

For long-haul or international flights, ask the airline if they have bassinets available.

Food and drink for babies and toddlers, including breast milk, formula and puree pouches, are considered medically necessary liquids by the Transportation Security Administration. That means they are not subject to the standard 3.4-ounce (100-milliliter) limit for carry-on liquids. The same goes for ice packs used to keep such liquids cool. Let the TSA officer know if you have these in your carry on when you go through security screening.

In addition to snacks, don't forget to carry on diapers, wipes, a portable changing pad and sealable plastic bags for disposal. Bring extra clothes to layer or change in case of accidents or messy spills.

Swallowing and chewing can help with ear pressure, so nursing little ones or giving them a bottle or pacifier can ease discomfort during take-off and landing.

Speak with your pediatrician beforehand if your kiddo is prone to ear infections, and before traveling abroad, ask them what vaccines may be recommended.

Keep kids entertained on and off the plane

For flights with young kids, Christy Slavik, owner of the travel agency Mom Approved Travel, recommends “having little surprises that you can distract them with” — such as sticky mats for travel-sized play doh, suction cup toys and other games that are small and light to pack.

If sightseeing once at your destination, think about ways to make activities more fun and interactive. For art museums, bring notebooks that kids can draw in, or ask them what types of animals they can find in the paintings, Slavik said.

“Kids need a mission. They need games,” she said. “You have to get creative sometimes when you're traveling."

Exposing children to other cultures, foods and languages can also be fun. Some may enjoy picking out snacks at markets, for example, or learning foreign words for their favorite dishes and activities.

There are options for places to stay that are family friendly, with amenities such as pools or games. For those traveling abroad on a budget, many hostels offer private rooms for families so they don’t have to share a dorm-style room with bunk beds. Hotels and hostels provide the opportunity to meet other travelers, including fellow children who can become playmates.

The perks of traveling with extended family

Helping moms actually enjoy their vacation — and relax amid the stress that can come with planning and traveling — is a core goal of Slavik's travel agency.

One way parents can get a break is by planning trips with grandparents or other family members. This helps with babysitting duties, while also allowing loved ones to have special bonding time with kiddos. Just make sure they also have their own down time and aren't wearing themselves out, Slavik said.

“When you bring grandparents to a vacation, you're giving them the opportunity to experience those moments together,” she said.

The late-summer action on a funding fix is unusual. Normally, Congress waits until the final days or hours of a funding deadline to pass short-term patches, but this time senators acted nearly two months before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.

The 90-6 vote showed lawmakers are still smarting from the two historic shutdowns that occurred this past year and want to avoid another before voters go to the polls.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune wanted the funding dealt with before senators went home for the next five weeks to focus on their reelection campaigns and other matters. It got caught up with other issues that pushed votes into the night, but the bill had broad bipartisan support. The House will also have to approve the measure when members return from their August recess before it can go to President Donald Trump's desk for his signature.

The bill generally funds the federal government at current levels though Dec. 11, but includes a variety of exceptions that senators negotiated with the White House.

Democrats secured language to ensure no money could be transferred to the Border Patrol. They also rejected the White House's request of $1 billion for early work on a new “Trump-class” battleship that the administration announced on Dec. 22.

“The only person who wants these golden ships is Donald Trump so he can slap his name on them,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said.

Hemp provision became a point of contention

The bill also includes language delaying a national ban on most intoxicating hemp products. That one-month delay prompted outrage from some Senate Republicans who say that too many such products are falling into the hands of often unsuspecting children. The packaging of the products often relies on bright colors and intentionally mimics popular snack brands to attract consumers.

Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., said that since 2017 there has been nearly a 10-fold increase in cannabis-related emergency room visits by minors in his home state.

“This is a public health crisis that deserves this Senate’s immediate attention,” Budd said. “Our children should never be the testing ground for an industry willing to exploit a loophole in federal law for profit.”

But the hemp industry said the delay buys time for Congress to craft legislation that protects hemp farmers and businesses while also putting in place safeguards to protect children.

Trump himself has called Budd to discuss the issue, though the president did not specifically ask the senator to drop his effort, Budd’s spokesman said.

“Senator Budd had a friendly phone call with President Trump discussing the legislative efforts regarding THC,” said spokesman Christian McMullen. He said the senator outlined his concerns about “any delay to closing the hemp loophole.”

Budd tried to strip the hemp delay from the bill, but the Senate turned aside his effort.

The bill delays a Trump administration rule on grants

Democratic lawmakers, along with Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, also got language in the bill that would block, for the duration of the funding patch, new regulations on federal grants. The regulations would require a senior political appointee to review grants before they are awarded to ensure, among other things, that they advance the president's policy priorities. Democrats worry it's an effort to kill grants destined for Democratic-leaning states.

“They are not interested in making our tax dollars work better — they just want them to work for Donald Trump,” said Sen. Patty Murray, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The White House Office of Management and Budget says its effort is about improving accountability to ensure taxpayer dollars aren’t wasted or misused. The issue is sure to be a topic of future negotiations on a full-year spending measure.

But Collins said the vast majority of the nearly 500,000 people and groups weighing in on the rule are opposed to it.

“I don't think in my time that I've been privileged to serve in the Senate that I have ever seen a proposed rule generate that many negative comments," Collins said.