Trump said in a social media post that the exercises slated to begin this week are costly and “send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile” to North Korea, which he said “has been unthreatening and respectful” while Trump has been in the White House.

“Therefore, and based on the fact that it is too late to cancel, I have instructed Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to substantially reduce the Joint Military Exercises!” Trump wrote. Trump added that he recently asked South Korea’s president to join the U.S. in its efforts to denuclearize Iran, “and they said, ‘No thanks!’”

The 11 days of exercises involving 18,000 South Korean soldiers were designed to beef up readiness against North Korean threats.

North Korea on Friday threatened unspecified stern steps against the U.S. and South Korea, describing their military drills as a “a rehearsal for an aggressive war” that are triggering greater instability in the region.

The warning was typical of the harsh rhetoric that North Korea often deploys ahead of major U.S.-South Korean military exercises. Experts say North Korea has often used its rivals’ drills as a pretext to ramp up testing activities to expand its weapons arsenals and promote public support for leader Kim Jong Un.

U.S. and South Korean forces were expected to practice joint operations in complex scenarios, including a live-fire exercise to test joint precision targeting and maneuver, a wet gap crossing, and distribution of prepositioned military equipment, according to the U.S. military.

The U.S. military has said the exercise “reinforces the role of the alliance as the linchpin for regional peace and security” and reaffirms "the ironclad commitment between the United States and the Republic of Korea to defend their homelands.”

Trump met with the reclusive North Korean leader three times during his first term to discuss the country’s nuclear program, most recently in 2019. Since returning to office, Trump has expressed interest in continuing those discussions.

Trump's announcement came a day after he posted a photo of himself standing next to North Korea's Kim, writing that the two leaders get along great “despite the unfriendly look on this particular picture.”

This is not the first time that Trump has sought to end the exercises. During his first term he also issued a surprise announcement that called the wargames “provocative.”

“We will be stopping the war games, which will save us a tremendous amount of money, unless and until we see the future negotiation is not going along like it should,” Trump told reporters after his 2018 meeting with Kim Jong Un in Singapore.

High pressure continues to bringing a hot, humid and dry weather pattern that looks to stick around beyond Monday.

Houston won’t get an opportunity at rain until late week, and the chance is only around 20%.

Temperatures will climb into the upper 90s, with the potential to hit 100° on a few days this week. With the humidity, it will feel even hotter.

Lala and Hawaii:

Lala did not make landfall, but it did bring a foot of rain across parts of the Big Island, as it passed just to the south of the Island. The storm continues to move NW and its rainbands are now impacting Maui and Honolulu. Still watching for the potential for mudslides as the torrential rainfall continues.

Hurricane force winds hit parts of the big island lashing trees and knocking out power.

Waves as high as twenty feet will lash the southern parts of Hawaii.

The storm continues to pull away from Hawaii Sunday night and by Monday morning looking at improvements.

Atlantic Ocean:

While the Pacific Ocean has Lala, the Atlantic basin has dry air and strong wind shear. This is preventing the disturbances from strengthening. No activity is expected over the next 7 days.

10 Day Forecast:

I don’t have a chance of rain in the forecast until Friday and it is far from a wash out.

Cameroon finally won the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations on Sunday with a 3-0 victory over tournament debutant Malawi.

Marie Ngah Manga headed two goals and Naomi Eto scored the other while Cameroon kept Malawi’s Chawinga sisters in check to claim its first win in the final at the fourth attempt.

The Indomitable Lionesses, who failed to qualify for the previous edition of the tournament, had lost on their last three appearances in the final – all to 10-time winner Nigeria.

“I feel like it’s a dream because you know Cameroon have been working hard to have this moment and today for us to be champion of Africa is a very, very wonderful thing,” Ngah Manga said.

FIFA's under-fire president, Gianni Infantino, attended the game along with CAF President Patrice Motsepe.

Infantino later helped Motsepe hand out medals to the top three teams. Algeria defeated Morocco in the third-place decider on Saturday.

Infantino also posed with Motsepe and Samuel Eto’o, the president of the Cameroon Football Federation, for a photo with Cameroon forward Monique Ngock after she received the player of the tournament trophy.

Cameroon too strong

Malawi made the better start but suffered a double blow when Ngah Manga headed the opener from close range in the 21st minute, shortly before Eto – who had her back to goal – turned brilliantly to send the ball inside the right post.

Eto was also involved in the first goal, forcing a save from Malawi goalkeeper Mercy Sikelo before Ngah Manga scored.

Malawi failed to muster a response and Ngah Manga effectively sealed the result on a break when Eto got to the ball before Sikelo and produced a perfect cross for her teammate to head her second goal of the game and fifth overall in the tournament.

Cameroon substitutes ran onto the field to celebrate with their teammates.

The Chawinga sisters had pushed Malawi after the break. Tabitha Chawinga felt she should have had a penalty, but a VAR check deemed otherwise. Then she drew a good save from Michaely Bihina, and her sister Temwa went close from the rebound.

Cameroon veteran Gabrielle Aboudi Onguéné went on in stoppage time and duly scored, only to have the goal ruled out for offside. The 37-year-old Onguéné was part of the Cameroon team that lost the final at home to Nigeria in 2016. Despite her disallowed goal, this time she could celebrate.

___

See AP’s full soccer coverage here

A search-and-rescue mission including Civil Defense, the National Guard and a Coast Guard helicopter was launched after flash floods apparently swept several occupied homes off their foundations in the coastal communities of Na’alehu and Wai’ohinu, near the Big Island's southern tip, authorities said.

“What makes this very challenging is that there’s rushing water, there’s debris, and there’s boulders on the road and it’s dark,” Hawaii County Mayor Kimo Alameda said early Sunday.

At least one person died in a vehicle wreck in the South Point area of the Big Island, Gov. Josh Green said Saturday.

Storm hits islands with flooding, power outages and downed trees

Honolulu was bearing the brunt of Sunday morning’s weather as tropical storm conditions spread westward across the island chain. The Honolulu Fire Department had launched dozens of weather-related responses by 2 a.m. local time Sunday, including 58 reports of downed trees, 39 blown roofs, 12 downed power lines, 12 arcing-wire situations and one swimmer rescue, according to a statement from the city.

Much of the state remained under a flash flood warning, though the National Hurricane Center downgraded the Big Island to a flood advisory lSunday. Heavy rain, mudslides, downed trees, active flooding and downed power lines were among the biggest threats, weather service meteorologist Stephen Parker said.

“Basically, the best thing to do right now is just stay home for a bit longer,” he said. “The storm won’t last forever and once those kind of threats get cleaned up, it will be safe to be out and about again.”

More than 200,000 homes and businesses were without power by 10:30 a.m. local time, according to the utility tracker poweroutage.us. That included nearly two-thirds of the power customers on the Big Island. At least three hospitals were operating on generator power, the governor said.

Powerful waves pounded the Big Island’s coast as Lala slowly brushed by. Just missing landfall, the eyewall didn't weaken, and its winds pounded the mountainsides. Waterways swelled with fast-moving runoff as bands of rain blew nearly sideways. The storm struck three years to the month after the state experienced the deadliest wildfire in the U.S. in more than a century.

Lala isn't losing strength as wind and rains lash Hawaii

Tropical storm warnings were in effect for the islands of Maui, Molokai, Lanai, Kahoolawe, Oahu, Kauai and Niihau, raising the possibility of destructive flooding and even wildfires kicked up by strong winds on the drier sides of the islands.

The heaviest rain Sunday morning was falling on Lanai, Moloka’i and Oahu, while the highest winds were gusts over 100 mph (161 kph) at the towering Mauna Kea volcano on the Big Island, Parker said.

As of 11 a.m. in Hawaii, Lala was centered about 140 miles (220 kilometers) west of Honolulu with top sustained winds of 65 mph (100 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in its latest advisory. The storm was moving west-northwest at about 16 mph (28 kph).

The advisory said little change in storm intensity is expected through Monday and forecasters expect Lala could become a hurricane again on Tuesday or Wednesday well west of the island chain.

Some higher-altitude places on the Big Island, dominated by Mauna Kea, have been hit with as much as 35 inches (89 centimeters) of rain. That's enough to loosen steep slopes where some of the 210,000 islanders live off the grid in improvised housing.

As the hurricane approached, shelters were opened, events were canceled and ranchers were urged to leave their cattle in pastures rather than structures that might collapse. Many residents are still dealing with the aftermath of devastating floods in March and were taking precautions.

A beloved bakery is damaged

The beloved Punalu’u Bake Shop on in Naalehu, Big Island, a tourist hotspot and major local employer, was severely damaged. Zachary Kennedy, the manager of the Hawaiian sweet bread bakery, said water rushed through their factories and retail store, leaving behind around three feet (1 meter) of mud.

“This is a different level of damage, it’s literally catastrophic,” Kennedy said.

Kate McLellan, a resident on Oahu’s North Shore, was still waiting for the worst of the storm to strike after her power went out Sunday morning. She was glued to the weather network, monitoring Lala's progress.

In March and April, her community was hit by back-to-back storms moving so slowly that weeks of heavy rain and high winds kept residents on high alert. Memories of that storm were "giving that same uncertainty and hesitation and panic and anxiety,” McLellan said.

The state’s preparation and communication during the storm has been better than in the past, she said. Before the storm hit, she spotted crews trimming trees near power lines and digging out passages for streams leading to the ocean.

___

Associated Press writers Jennifer Sinco Kelleher, Alexa St. John and Ed White contributed.

___

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

Rescuers dug through debris looking for anyone buried beneath landslides triggered by the quake across six regencies on Flores, a predominantly Catholic island in the Muslim-majority country. They focused on three regencies that remained inaccessible: hardest-hit Manggarai, East Manggarai and Nagekeo.

“We have cleared most landslides and reopened roads to previously isolated villages, although communication disruptions and power outages continue to hamper search efforts,” said Fathur Rahman, head of the search-and-rescue office in Maumere, the capital of Sikka regency.

More than 900 homes were destroyed and 450 more damaged in East Nusa Tenggara province, forcing about 5,000 people into temporary shelters. At least 241 homes were damaged in the Flores region alone, said Abdul Muhari, the National Disaster Management Agency’s chief for disaster prevention.

The quake occurred at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles) shortly before 6 a.m. Saturday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. Residents fled in panic as tsunami warnings were issued and later lifted.

Authorities have since recorded at least 995 aftershocks, but only 46 were felt by residents, Muhari said, adding that 135 people were injured.

Many residents at Labuan Bajo, the gateway to Komodo National Park, one of Indonesia’s best-known tourist destinations, spent the night outside because of the aftershocks.

“The shaking was terrifying, so intense that my house nearly collapsed,” said farmer Anastasia Imad, speaking from a makeshift green tent beside her damaged home. “We feared the aftershocks would bring it down on us while we slept.”

Landslides blocked sections of the Trans-Flores Highway, a roughly 700-kilometer (435-mile) road linking communities across the mountainous island.

Meanwhile, relief workers distributed rice, ready-to-eat meals, drinking water, blankets and medicine, while emergency shelters were set up for displaced residents. Authorities said restoring electricity and communications, as well as delivering aid to remote villages isolated by landslides, were among the biggest challenges.

Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions because of its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped arc of seismic faults and volcanoes.

Flores has experienced some of the country’s deadliest disasters. A powerful earthquake and tsunami in 1992 killed about 2,500 people on the island.

In 2018, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake triggered a tsunami on the island of Sulawesi that killed more than 4,400 people. In 2004, a magnitude 9.1 quake off Sumatra unleashed a tsunami that killed about 230,000 people in a dozen countries.

___

Associated Press writers Niniek Karmini and Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

Frank Gounder was among the Indianapolis residents assessing the damage Sunday, which also happened to be his 37th birthday.

The furniture maker, who lives on the city’s hard-hit northside, less than a mile from the White River, had been at home as floodwaters crept up his driveway until they were about 2 feet deep (0.61 meters) in the house and his workshop.

Now Gounder is left to pick through waterlogged materials and handmade furniture in various stages of completion to see what, if anything, could be salvaged.

“It’s a lot. Before the water had actually gotten into my house and I saw that it was going to happen, I started freaking out, getting mad,” he said. “But after you realize you can’t do anything about it, you kind of just have to let go and just continue, or else you’re just going to be miserable.”

Storm victims mourned

A 4-year-old boy, three men and three women were among those who had died since the storms began Aug. 11, said Liz Woods, a spokesperson for the state Department of Homeland Security.

Among the latest confirmed victims was a 31-year-old cyclist found dead early Sunday in a hole that opened up on a washed-out road in Henry County, east of Indianapolis.

Henry County Coroner Brian Clark said the man, James Briar, appears to have gone around a barricade and fallen into the collapsed road.

Officials in Jennings County, in the southern end of the state, said the youngest victim reported so far was killed Tuesday when a tree crashed through his bedroom during strong winds.

“This is obviously unexpected,” Cody Low, chief deputy at the Jennings County Sheriff’s office, told the local ABC affiliate. “There’s nothing we can say that is going to make it any better. We’re going to push through this as a community.”

The other victims included a 19-year-old man whose body was recovered Saturday. Officials in Delaware County, located east of Indianapolis, said Matthew Morey had jumped off a bridge into the rushing waters of the Mississinewa River with friends three days earlier.

Family and friends gathered earlier in the week at the bridge to remember the recent high school graduate, who was headed to Purdue University, and warn of the dangers of swollen rivers.

“There are no words that can ease the pain of losing a child,” Delaware County Sheriff Tony Skinner said in a statement on Sunday. “Our hearts are with Matthew’s family, friends, classmates, and everyone who knew and loved him.”

Skinner's office also confirmed Stephanie Sallee and her dog were found dead in a cornfield Friday, not far from Sallee's car. They believe the 58-year-old had been driving on a flooded road when the vehicle was swept away.

In social media posts, Sallee's family remembered her as a sweet, kind and “spunky lady” who adored her grandchildren and other young relatives.

Recovery efforts are underway

In Indianapolis, flooding from the White River peaked early Sunday morning before receding, the city Department of Public Works said.

The agency reopened city floodgates Sunday, though they urged residents to be cautious as they returned to flood-damaged neighborhoods. Emergency shelters remained open after hundreds of homes along the river and its canals were evacuated. First responders used boats to rescue people stranded by rapidly rising floodwaters.

Recovery efforts were also underway elsewhere in the state.

“I must admit it is a good morning,” Christine Altman, president of the Hamilton County board of commissioners, said during a Sunday briefing. “It’s not raining, and the water is receding.”

She said the county, located just north of Indianapolis, escaped without any loss of life, though officials were assessing whether a significant bridge damaged in the flooding could be repaired or if it needed to be completely replaced.

While northern parts of Indiana dried out, a cluster of storms was expected to pass through the central and southern regions later Sunday, bringing the potential for heavy rain, flash flooding and damaging winds, the National Weather Service warned.

Nearly 130,000 utility customers statewide remained without power as of late Sunday, down from a peak of around 300,000, according to the online utility tracker PowerOutage.us.

Storms brought historic flooding to Indiana

Heavy rains hammered Indiana over the past week, causing rivers to crest and setting records as roads and bridges were seriously damaged or washed out entirely by the rushing waters.

The White River crested at more than 24 feet (7.32 meters) in the communities of Anderson and Noblesville, surpassing records set in 1913.

Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett said the flooding was the worst the city has seen in more than 30 years.

Gov. Mike Braun’s office said more than 350 evacuations and scores of rescue and welfare checks have occurred elsewhere in the state, including at a senior mobile home community north of Indianapolis.

President Donald Trump on Saturday approved Braun’s request for federal disaster assistance to help with flooding response and recovery efforts.

The drenching rains and destructive flooding were among the impacts of severe storms that have wreaked havoc across the Midwest and beyond in recent days.

Tornadoes, heavy rains and flash flooding brought serious damage to communities from Illinois to western Pennsylvania.

___

Marcelo reported from New York.

The alarming milestone at Lake Powell, reached Saturday, comes about a week after the river’s other major reservoir, Lake Mead, also hit a historic low. Plummeting water levels pose a major threat to the Colorado River Basin, which is a key resource for wildlife, hydropower and more than 40 million people in seven U.S. states.

The historic lows come as the federal government and states that rely on the river — California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming and Colorado — struggle to reach agreement on a long-term management plan for the dwindling resource. Persistent overuse combined with a record-dry winter and rising temperatures have been depleting both Lake Powell and Lake Mead.

Lake Powell’s elevation dropped to 3,519.91 feet (1072.9 meters) above sea level on Saturday, dropping just slightly below a previous record set in April 2023, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The lake is more than 20 feet (6.10 meters) lower than it was at the start of the year, USBR data shows.

The reservoir is now about 30 feet (9.1 meters) away from the point at which turbines would stop producing hydroelectric power. Federal officials warned in April that a “major intervention” would be necessary to avoid reaching that threshold by the end of this year.

USBR in July proposed a 10-year plan that includes major potential water cuts for Arizona, California and Nevada.

The crisis has been in the making for years. Both reservoirs are at the lowest they have been in nearly seven decades, and levels may continue to drop, USBR data shows.

The last time their combined storage was this small was in May 1957 when Glen Canyon Dam that holds back Powell was being built, according to a recent paper published by a group of academics and retired water officials. Powell began to fill in 1963.

The depletion has also impacted Lake Powell’s substantial tourism industry, forcing marinas in the reservoir to adapt. Boat ramps have closed or moved, new ones are being added and marinas have been temporarily relocated to deeper waters.

Hunt had already won two individual titles — the 100 and 200 — and added a third gold Saturday in the women’s 4x100 relay at Alexander Stadium.

The team of Jeremiah Azu, Dina Asher-Smith, Zharnel Hughes and Hunt won Sunday in a time of 39.97 seconds. Germany was second in 40.11 and Spain third in 40.42.

On the anchor leg, Hunt pulled away from Gina Lückenkemper to cross the line for gold.

“Oh my gosh, I'm over the moon,” Hunt told the BBC. “To finish it off with some of my best friends in the sport ... to do it all together is incredible.”

Asher-Smith won her career eighth European championships gold and became the competition's most decorated athlete.

This was the debut of the mixed 4x100 relay in the European championships.

“It’s good to get to try something new,” Asher-Smith told the BBC, although she added, “I was absolutely terrified.”

Memorable marathons

Amanal Petros made sure there was no photo finish this time.

The German won the men’s marathon at the European championships on Sunday morning by a whopping 7 seconds, less than a year after missing out on gold in a photo finish at the world championships in Tokyo.

Petros crossed the finish line in Birmingham in 2 hours, 9 minutes, 11 seconds — breaking the championships record in the process. Italy’s Pietro Riva took silver with his 2:09:18, three seconds better than Israel’s Gashau Ayale.

Last September, the Eritrean-born Petros settled for silver behind Tanzania’s Alphonce Simbu in the closest marathon in world championships history. Both men were officially clocked at 2:09:48, but it was determined that Simbu crossed the line a fraction sooner.

In the women’s marathon Sunday, Finland’s Alisa Vainio dominated the field to finish in 2:22:26, nearly five minutes ahead of silver medalist Lili Anna Vindics-Toth of Hungary. Britain’s Abbie Donnelly took bronze. Vainio broke Christelle Daunay’s championship record from 2014 by almost three minutes.

___

See full AP coverage of European sports here

The Houston Dynamo’s Director of Sports Turf & Grounds, Dan Bergstrom, was part of a team that planned every aspect of having grass at the stadium seven years before the first match.

• Houston Dynamo FC celebrates 20 years of its 2006 MLS Cup Championship

His match-day schedule started around 2 a.m., and his team had to turn the field over to FIFA at 6 a.m. to begin rehearsals before the match later that day at Noon.

Dan believes it’s possible to have grass year-round at now-named Reliant Stadium but is aware of the cost it will have on the team and the NFL overall.

The talks aim to salvage the plan for Hamas to disarm and Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territory shattered by war.

At stake are the lives of some 2 million people in Gaza and reconstruction of the crowded enclave now largely controlled by Israeli forces, more than 10 months since the ceasefire ended major military operations. A meeting between Kushner, fellow envoy Steve Witkoff and Hamas leaders in Egypt last year helped clinch the ceasefire, whose progress until now had been stalled over the key issue of Hamas’ disarmament.

The more than two-hour meeting in Egypt with Hamas' Khalil al-Hayya was confirmed by a regional official and a Hamas official, both speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters. Kushner was one of a trio of envoys meeting with al-Hayya, with officials from mediating countries Egypt, Qatar and Turkey also there.

Hamas in a statement later called on mediators and the U.S.-created Board of Peace overseeing the ceasefire to “compel” Israel to approve the road map for next steps.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week rejected the 15-point plan in a rare public show of defiance against the Trump administration, Israel’s closest ally.

Kushner, former British prime minister Tony Blair and the Board of Peace director, Nickolay Mladenov, are to meet with Netanyahu on Monday, according to a source familiar with the plans and a diplomatic source. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a closed-door meeting.

Regional powers accuse Israel of obstructing peace efforts

Several regional powers including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates issued a statement condemning Israel’s rejection of the road map, saying that “Israel now bears responsibility for obstructing the efforts to bring peace in Gaza.” Other signers included Jordan, Pakistan, Indonesia and the ceasefire mediators.

The foreign ministers' statement called on the Board of Peace and the U.S. to take “immediate and concrete measures” to keep any party from obstructing the plan’s implementation.

Kushner’s meeting with the Hamas leader aimed at ensuring the militant group’s commitment to the road map, particularly disarmament, before his meeting with Netanyahu, the regional official said.

The Hamas official said the group is committed and waiting for mediators to start the 14-day negotiation period to work out a timetable for implementation. That period requires all parties' approval of the road map to begin.

The Hamas official also said the Hamas leader demanded that Israel halt its attacks on Gaza and withdraw to the so-called “yellow line” dividing the territory before beginning implementation. The yellow line was never precisely defined. Israeli forces have moved beyond it and now control about 60% of Gaza.

In May, Netanyahu said the next step was to move to 70% control, with Israel “tightening the grip” on Hamas “from every direction.”

The White House had no comment on the talks

The White House referred questions about Kushner's meetings to the Board of Peace, which did not immediately comment. The Tony Blair Institute did not comment.

Under the road map, Hamas would hand over weapons to the Palestinian technocratic committee meant to oversee daily operations in the territory. The committee has not yet entered Gaza. But Hamas has linked the surrender of its heaviest weapons to the creation of a Palestinian state, something Israel’s current government rejects.

The road map involves Hamas gradually giving up its weapons while Israeli forces halt attacks and begin withdrawing from Gaza. But Netanyahu says Israel will not retreat from any position in Gaza until Hamas has been completely disarmed.

That stance leaves other elements of the ceasefire, including reconstruction and the deployment of international forces to separate Israeli forces from committee-controlled areas, on hold.

Netanyahu faces a challenging election on Oct. 27 as he tries to hold on to power with a coalition that includes ministers taking a harsh line on Gaza, and it's not clear whether he will take decisive steps on the ceasefire before then. Also coming up is the anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that sparked the war.

Netanyahu's Likud party on Sunday responded to the statement by regional powers by claiming that “Arab states want to topple” Netanyahu so that centrist challenger Gadi Eisenkot and center-left party leader Yair Golan "will give them everything they want. That will not happen.”

___

Frankel reported from Jerusalem and Anna from Lowville, New York. Collin Binkley in Washington and Sylvia Hui in London contributed.

The clubs have agreed to a deal for Rodri worth 76.5 million euros ($88.5 million), a person with knowledge of the transaction confirmed to The Associated Press on Sunday.

The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the details of the deal have not been made public.

Neither City nor Barcelona have made any official comment about the transfer.

The 30-year-old Rodri has played for City since joining from Atletico Madrid in 2019. He scored the winning goal in the Champions League final victory over Inter Milan in 2023 and won the Ballon d'Or as the world's best player the following year after being part of Spain's European Championship-winning team.

He was an integral member of Spain's team that won the World Cup last month and won the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player.

Rodri had one year left on his contract with City.

His departure would further weaken City's midfield, with Bernardo Silva having left and joined Real Madrid this summer.

Rodri did not play Sunday in City’s 3-0 defeat to Arsenal in the Community Shield. He is currently recovering from minor back surgery that he underwent after the World Cup.

___

See AP’s full soccer coverage here

The Houston Fire Department responded around 11 a.m. to reports of a restaurant fire. Arriving firefighters found heavy smoke coming from the building and began an offensive attack, HFD District Chief Darrin Nielsen said.

Management evacuated all employees and confirmed they were accounted for. The restaurant had not yet opened, so no customers were inside. No injuries or fatalities were reported among employees, firefighters or civilians.

Nielsen said the fire was handled as a one-alarm response, bringing roughly five to seven fire trucks to the scene. Utilities were shut off, and HFD deployed additional support resources, including a cascade truck to refill firefighters’ breathing-air bottles and a rehabilitation truck stocked with water, sports drinks and snacks.

The fire appears to have started near the restaurant’s deep fryers before spreading into the ductwork, officials said. The cause remains under investigation, and HFD’s arson investigators are working to determine what sparked the fire.

• Heights family says mail dispute with carrier has led to months of missing mail

Owner Johnny Carrabba said he was visiting his parents when he received a call about the fire. He said his first concern was making sure his employees were safe.

“You can always fix a building,” Carrabba said. “But the main thing that comes back is, are my children okay? And when I say my children, my family — my employees are really my family.”

Carrabba said Mia’s Table, named after his daughter, is part of his family-owned restaurant business. He hopes to reopen after the building is cleaned and repaired.

“As long as everybody’s okay, I’m okay,” he said.

Houston police responded around 4 a.m. to the 13300 block of Cullen Boulevard.

Investigators said the incident followed a gathering at a shopping center, where people had been playing pool and smoking hookah. Someone had rented out the Chevron Center, as locals call it, though there’s no signage out front.

“It’s very weird it’s unlabeled,” Houston Police Department Detective Alex Vinogradov said.

He tells KPRC 2 News, as attendees were leaving, an altercation began. A suspect then allegedly opened fire into the crowd, prompting return fire from multiple people.

Detective Vinogradov said an SUV was leaving the area and made a U-turn on Cullen Boulevard, passing the shopping center on the opposite side of the street. Someone inside the vehicle then fired into the crowd, prompting people nearby to shoot back at the SUV.

• Accused child sex abuse suspect arrested after fleeing Texas twice, using multiple aliases

In HPD’s preliminary reports, officers said they found two men suffering from gunshot wounds. Houston Fire Department crews transported both to a hospital, where one was pronounced dead.

HPD identified three other victims who transported themselves to the hospital. Two were shot, and one was beaten.

Detectives said they expect the four surviving victims to recover.

“There was a private security guard that used to be here to prevent private gatherings like this from happening” said Vinogradov. “Since the guard hasn’t been working, gatherings like this has been happening more often.”

• Woman killed, 3 others wounded in Sunnyside shooting; family says she was helping a friend

HPD said they are still searching for a suspect.

Anyone with information should contact HPD Homicide at 713-308-3600 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS, where you can report anonymously.

De la Espriella took office earlier this month just days before the 7.4 magnitude quake struck. He was backed by Trump in Colombia's closely contested presidential election, which was decided in a runoff on June 21, and has sought to emphasize his connections with the U.S. leader.

On Saturday night, de la Espriella wrote on X that he spoke with Trump and thanked him for aid sent by the U.S. in response to the earthquake. He added that he “asked him to consider the temporary suspension of the high tariffs that affect Colombian products, in order to provide relief to our businesspeople, who are facing very difficult times due to the effects of the earthquake.”

There has been no immediate response from the Trump administration to de la Espriella's request. The U.S. has offered a total of $26.5 million in earthquake aid, including food, shelters and health supplies, according to the U.S. State Department.

The earthquake that struck Monday morning devastated parts of western Colombia, hitting cities including Pereira, Cali and Quibdo. Cities along the country's Pacific coast were hit particularly hard. The president declared the quake a natural disaster.

The government has said that 143 people are missing, while other civilian-run databases put the number in the thousands.

The natural disaster, whose epicenter was in one of the poorest regions of the country, Choco, has so far left 3,937 people injured, according to the government. In addition, it destroyed 14,705 homes and damaged another 81,536.

In Cali, Colombia's third biggest city, workers searched for the more than 70 people reported missing in that city. Hope remained alive even after the key 48 to 72 hour window to find survivors beneath the rubble has long passed.

“Miracles do happen” even though more than 120 hours have passed since the earthquake struck, said Cali Mayor Alejandro Eder from the unified command post. "We are working where we know there are still victims; we are working in the hope of rescuing people alive.”

A blaze in eastern Belgium burned about 30 square kilometers (12 square miles) in the High Fens, a large nature reserve, in one of the country’s worst wildfires in recent history.

About 600 residents in the nearby municipalities of Waimes and Bütgenbach, in Liège province near the German border, were told to evacuate on Saturday as winds shifted and smoke spread through the area. Authorities also advised tourists to leave, while a nearby gymnasium was opened to receive evacuees.

Liège provincial governor Hervé Jamar said in a statement Sunday that more than 250 emergency personnel have been deployed, including over 100 Belgian and German firefighters, as well as police and military officers and civil protection staff. Firefighting helicopters operated by Belgium’s federal police and the Netherlands also helped.

Two killed as fires break out on a Greek island

In Greece, two people were killed in a wildfire Sunday on the island of Salamina, west of Athens, Greek firefighters said.

The bodies were recovered in the village of Peristeria, where strong winds fueled the rapidly spreading blaze. A second blaze was reported in the Selini area. Firefighting and coast guard vessels evacuated some 500 beachgoers in the area.

Some 260 firefighters were responding to the blazes, including 15 ground teams, 10 aircraft and eight helicopters.

The island had been placed at high wildfire risk on Sunday, with near gale-force winds. “These conditions enabled the fire to quickly reach dangerous proportions and spread rapidly within seven minutes toward nearby residential areas,” said Fire Brigadier General Vasileios Vathrakogiannis.

Dry conditions fuel record-breaking Belgium wildfire

The blaze now torching Belgium has far surpassed a 2011 fire that burned nearly 14 square kilometers (5.4 square miles) in the same area and was previously the country's largest wildfire on record, according to data from the European Forest Fire Information System.

Nicolas Yernaux, a spokesperson for the Public Service of Wallonia, said conditions were much worse this time. “We’re dealing with something much deeper because we have very dry soil,” he said.

René Dahmen, chief engineer at the Department of Nature and Forest, said the fire was still spreading Sunday in an area that was difficult for crews to reach.

“On the eastern flank, there’s a line at least a kilometer long where the fire is slowly advancing toward a municipal forest,” Dahmen said. “That’s the first priority now.”

Interior Minister Bernard Quintin said on X firefighters managed to keep the fire from spreading towards the west and toward the German town of Monschau.

In Germany, local authorities warned Sunday that the fire was about 1.5 kilometers (just under a mile) from the border.

Some farmers from both Belgium and Germany filled up tanker trucks, pumping water from a nearby lake before heading toward the fire area to help firefighters.

European countries send firefighting aircraft

Belgium activated the European Union’s civil protection mechanism to receive assistance from other countries, EU Commissioner Hadja Lahbib, who is in charge of crisis management, said on X.

“The High Fens are burning. Belgium is not facing it alone,” Lahbib said. Sweden sent two water-bombing aircraft, while three helicopters — two from the Netherlands and one from the Czech Republic — were also being deployed.

The fire follows weeks of unusually hot and dry weather. The High Fens’ mix of heathland and peat bogs has complicated efforts to contain the flames.

Belgium was hit by another spell of intense heat this week, with temperatures reaching about 37 C (98.6 F) in parts of the country Friday.

Wildfires burn in France and the UK

In France, firefighters battling a wildfire in a pine forest in the southwestern Landes region faced no major flare-ups overnight, Landes Prefect Gilles Clavreul said. Authorities estimated the total area burned at 17 square kilometers (6.6 square miles), while about 650 people had been evacuated from their homes.

It was the third major wildfire in the vast pine forests of southwestern France this summer, following two others in late July. A massive wildfire in the neighboring Gironde department burned about 420 square kilometers (162 square miles) and forced the evacuation of about 220,000 people as it spread toward the Atlantic coast and the Bordeaux area.

In the U.K., emergency crews were fighting 14 wildfires in South Wales with the support of military personnel. Authorities warned that although the heat wave is easing, drought conditions mean the risk of wildfires remains high.

Fires gutted more than a dozen homes in the West Midlands in central England this week as officials recorded the hottest day of the year on Thursday, when temperatures reached 38.1 C (100.6 F).

In Germany, firefighters made significant progress against a wildfire in the Hürtgen Forest, allowing about 2,000 evacuated residents of Gey to return home Saturday. Officials said Sunday there were no open flames and crews had established a cleared cordon around the affected area to prevent the fire from spreading.

___

Corbet reported from Paris. Associated Press writers Sylvia Hui in London, Geir Moulson in Berlin and Colleen Barry in Milan, Italy, contributed to this report.

The Houston Police Department said the shooting happened at 14109 South Post Oak Road.

HPD said the call was dropped at 11:19 a.m. A nearby resident reported hearing gunfire near the church, and officers responded minutes later. Officers said the area was under control.

No injuries were reported, and no one was transported to a hospital. HPD has not released information about a suspect.

• Fire breaks out at original Mia’s Table restaurant in Montrose

A churchgoer told KPRC 2 that the church was fired at during the service, rattling about 70 people in attendance. She said the service was abruptly cut short.

U.S. negotiator Jared Kushner had a rare meeting with the Hamas leader on the Gaza ceasefire. And the 60-day negotiating period that began with the June 17 signing of an interim agreement between the U.S. and Iran is set to end with no word of an extension.

Here’s a look at the latest developments on Sunday in the Iran war and the wider Middle East. Full coverage can be found here.

US Central Command chief visits aircraft carrier

Adm. Brad Cooper visited the USS Lincoln as reports have emerged of mental health and supply issues. The Lincoln arrived in the Middle East in January and has been supporting the U.S. war against Iran, including the blockade on Iranian ports. It has spent a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea of more than 240 days.

“History will record this deployment as one of the most operationally intense and consequential of the modern era,” Cooper said of the Lincoln strike group in a statement released Saturday. Extended deployments of carriers — which can have more than 5,000 sailors and Marines on board — have raised concerns.

In a statement Sunday, Cooper praised the leadership on the carrier for making mental health and resilience a priority.

Cooper also went to Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to meet with civilian and military leaders, according to the Central Command statement.

The U.S. Navy's blockade is in response to Iran asserting control over the Strait of Hormuz after the war started on Feb. 28 with U.S. and Israeli strikes. Before then, about one-fifth of the world’s traded oil and natural gas passed through what had been considered an international waterway.

Talks between the U.S. and Iran have stalled while Iran talks with Oman about how to manage the strait that runs between them.

US negotiator meets with the Hamas chief

U.S. negotiator and President Donald Trump ’s son-in-law Jared Kushner held a rare meeting with the Hamas chief in a new diplomatic effort to make progress in the stalled Gaza ceasefire. Kushner will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.

The meeting in Egypt with Hamas’ Khalil al-Hayya was confirmed by a regional official and a Hamas official, both speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters. Kushner was one of a trio of envoys meeting with al-Hayya, with officials from mediating countries Egypt, Qatar and Turkey also attending.

Mediators are pushing for the implementation of a road map that calls for the disarmament of Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups in Gaza, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the handing over of power to Palestinian technocrats.

Netanyahu has rejected Trump’s latest plan to advance the stalled ceasefire, saying Israel will not withdraw from any of the roughly 60% of the territory it controls until Hamas has been completely disarmed — something the militant group controlling the rest has resisted.

Kushner, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the director of the U.S.-created Board of Peace overseeing the ceasefire, Nickolay Mladenov, are to meet with Netanyahu on Monday, according to a person familiar with the plans and a diplomat who both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a closed-door meeting.

Separately, Kushner met with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. The president’s office said the meeting called for Israel and Hamas to “fulfill their obligations under the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip,” without elaborating.

Israel targets two Hezbollah commanders in Saturday’s strikes

Israel’s military said it targeted two Hezbollah commanders in Saturday's strikes in southern Lebanon, the deadliest attacks since a truce between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah went into effect in June.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry and state news agency said at least 11 people were killed.

Israel’s military said early Sunday one strike killed Abu Hassan Alaa, whom it described as a senior Hezbollah commander who had taken part in attacks against Israel’s soldiers in southern Lebanon. Earlier, the military said a strike killed Ali Samir Al-Haj Hassan, also described as a Hezbollah commander, adding that his family was with him.

Israel and the Lebanese government announced a “framework agreement” in June, laying out a plan for Israeli forces to withdraw from southern Lebanon in exchange for Hezbollah’s disarmament. Hezbollah has refused direct talks and wasn’t party to the U.S.-mediated deal.

Iran insists Qatar is holding 3 of its pilots

Iran again on Sunday alleged that Qatar was holding three Iranian pilots who went missing in March when their jets were downed, which Qatar has denied.

Iran’s state TV reported Sunday that the commander of the Missing Persons Committee of Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff has urged Qatar to allow Iranian Air Force experts to conduct a field investigation.

This is the first known case in the war where Iran has said a regional country is holding its fighters. Tehran has repeatedly targeted regional countries that are hosting U.S. military bases.

An Israeli strike in Gaza wounds five

An Israeli strike hit Khan Younis in southern Gaza and wounded five people, including a child who was seriously injured, according to the Kuwaiti and Nasser hospitals, where the casualties were taken.

Israel's military said it struck a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

While the heaviest fighting has subsided since a ceasefire took hold in October between Israel and Hamas, Israeli forces have carried out repeated airstrikes, killing at least 1,262 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.

The ministry, part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. It does not give a breakdown of civilians and militants.

He died at his home in Bradenton, Florida, on Saturday night, agent Mike Maguire said Sunday. He had been in hospice care.

On Aug. 8, the New York Yankees released a social media post in which John wrote that he wanted to say goodbye to everyone, including friends and fans who followed him throughout his career, saying, “I will never forget you.”

The Yankees called John “a bedrock of our rotation during his time in pinstripes and a longtime favorite of Yankees fans.”

John was a four-time All-Star with a record of 288-231 and a 3.34 ERA during a career that stretched from 1963 to 1989. He pitched for Cleveland, the Chicago White Sox, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Yankees, the California Angels and the Oakland Athletics.

“Tommy was an exceptional pitcher throughout his career in Major League Baseball, and his courageous role in becoming the first to have surgery that would go on to bear his name can’t be overstated,” Stan Kasten, Dodgers president and CEO, said in a statement. "His impact both on and off the field has been felt by ballplayers of all ages and will be for generations to come.”

The left-hander was 31 years old when he tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching elbow in 1974, a death knell for pitchers' careers to that point.

John allowed Dr. Frank Jobe, the Dodgers’ team physician, to replace the ligament with a tendon from his right forearm. Jobe gave the surgery 100-to-1 odds of being successful.

John was a great pitcher, but his elbow surgery made him a baseball legend

The procedure had been done on others before, although it was usually performed on wrists and hands. John was the first pitcher to have it done on his elbow.

More than 2,600 big leaguers and thousands more amateurs have since had UCL reconstructions, better known as Tommy John surgery. It’s been a godsend for many of baseball’s greatest stars, including two-way sensation Shohei Ohtani, three-time Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander and even Philadelphia Phillies slugger Bryce Harper.

“If you put it in dollars and cents, I think there’s no question that Tommy John is the most valuable reconstructive procedure there is,” Dodgers team physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache told The Associated Press in 2024.

Born Thomas Edward John Jr. on May 22, 1943, in Terre Haute, Indiana, he was a top baseball and basketball player at the city’s Gerstmeyer High. He graduated in 1961 as valedictorian but did not give the commencement speech because of a stutter. Despite being recruited by the University of Kentucky to play basketball, John chose baseball and signed with Cleveland.

“The day I left for my first job as a pitcher, my father looked at me & said, ‘Good luck, Tommy. Just remember one thing: whether you make it big in the big leagues or you don’t, you’ll always just be Tommy John from Terre Haute, Indiana.’ I’ve never forgotten those words,” John wrote in his Aug. 8 post.

John recorded 2,245 strikeouts but never led either league in wins or strikeouts. He had the second-most wins of any pitcher since 1900 not to be elected to the Hall of Fame. From 1995 through 2009, John was on the Hall of Fame ballot, but he never received more than 31.7% of the votes, falling well short of the 75% required for election.

“Tommy was a wonderful person who competed to the utmost and did what no player had ever done to save his career, in conjunction with the esteemed Dr. Frank Jobe,” former Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti posted on X. “The HOF is missing Tommy John.”

John won more games after his eponymous surgery

Known for his longevity, John was the opening day starter for both the 1966 Chicago White Sox and the 1989 New York Yankees. He won 124 games before his UCL repair and 164 after. His final appearance came days after his 46th birthday.

“While his incredible longevity and post-surgery achievements changed the fortunes and trajectory of countless athletes around the world, it also overshadowed his excellence as a pitcher,” the Yankees said in a statement. “We pause to remember the totality of his legacy — his competitiveness and skill, his penchant for conversation, his kind and gracious nature, and his stature as an athletic and medical pioneer.”

John made his major league debut on Sept. 6, 1963, pitching one inning in relief for Cleveland.

He was traded to the White Sox in 1965 and worked his way into the starting rotation. The following year, he tied for the American League lead with five shutouts and in 1967, his six shutouts led the AL.

In 1971, he was traded to the Dodgers.

In 1974, John had a 13-3 record and led the National League in victories going into the All-Star break. He was pitching against the Montreal Expos when he permanently damaged the UCL in his left arm. After a month, the injury had not improved.

During the four-hour surgery on Sept. 25, 1974, Jobe made holes in the humerus and ulna bones of John’s left arm and used anchors to insert the tendon in a figure-eight pattern.

At first, John’s left hand was shriveled and he lacked feeling in several of his fingers because of damage to the ulnar nerve. Jobe performed a second procedure to reroute the nerve that was necessary to John’s full recovery.

John’s arm was in a cast for four months. He had recovered the full range of motion in his left arm by spring training of 1975 and spent that season resting, healing and rebuilding strength in his arm. John worked with fellow Dodgers pitcher Mike Marshall, who had a doctorate in kinesiology, on learning a different grip.

That September he made five appearances during an offseason instructional league, working his way up to seven innings by his final game.

John resumed pitching for the Dodgers in 1976 as the fourth starter in their rotation. He allowed three runs in five innings and took the loss in his first start against Atlanta, the first time any pitcher had started a game following UCL reconstructive surgery.

John donated the original cast from his surgery to the Smithsonian Institution in June 2022. His teammates on the 1974 Dodgers signed it, as well as Jobe and the team’s Hall of Fame announcer Vin Scully.

The procedure has become so widely known that in 2019, Merriam-Webster added the term to its dictionary.

John made 31 starts for the Dodgers in 1976, posting a 10-10 record, a 3.09 ERA, 91 strikeouts, 61 walks and 207 hits allowed in 207 innings.

In 1977, he won 20 games for the first time in his career, finishing with a 20-7 record. He finished second behind Philadelphia’s Steve Carlton in voting for the NL Cy Young Award.

John and his family had mixed feelings about the legacy of his operation

Over 50 years later, Tommy John surgery is as much a part of baseball as peanuts and hot dogs. Advanced training methods are helping pitchers of all ages throw harder than ever. They take comfort knowing a torn UCL won’t necessarily end their careers.

“I am sick my name is attached to a surgery happening in kids more than pros,” John tweeted in July 2018.

John’s oldest son, Tommy III, became a chiropractor who wrote a book suggesting ways to prevent young athletes from having to undergo major sports-related surgery similar to what his father endured.

After his pitching career ended, John worked as a broadcaster for the Minnesota Twins and Yankees in the 1990s. He managed the Bridgeport (Connecticut) Bluefish from 2007-09.

John was hospitalized in December 2020 because of COVID-19 and later had Guillain-Barré syndrome, in which a person’s immune system attacks their nerves. John told the New York Post in May 2022 that he was paralyzed in his lower extremities for several months.

John and his wife Sally Simmons had four children: Tamara, Tommy III, Travis and Taylor, who died of a prescription drug overdose at 28 in 2010. The couple divorced in 2013.

Besides his children, he is survived by his second wife, Cheryl, and son-in-law Patrick Mannelly, a retired NFL long snapper who played 16 years for the Chicago Bears.

___

See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Mariota, 32, will miss the remainder of the preseason, but Quinn is "optimistic that he’ll be ready for the start of the regular season.”

Mariota was injured during Washington's preseason opener against Miami on Friday night. Starter Jayden Daniels did not play against the Dolphins.

Quinn said the Commanders don't plan on bringing in another quarterback at this time. The only other QBs on the roster are Sam Hartman and rookie Athan Kaliakmanis.

“It will allow more reps over the next couple of weeks with Sam (Hartman) and Athan (Kaliakmanis) in that spot," Quinn said.

Quinn said Mariota's injury has impacted his thinking for how much Daniels and other starters will play for the remainder of the preseason, but he has yet to make any decisions. He plans to re-evaluate after two straight days of padded practice on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“I’ve got a bunch of situations that I’m trying to work through — two minutes, four minutes, some goal-line stuff,” Quinn said.

"This is our most heightened training camp block coming up, so I’m excited to see that. We haven’t gotten to the planning of the game yet.”

The Commanders' next preseason game is on Saturday against the Lions before concluding the preseason on Friday, Aug. 28 against the Ravens.

Washington did receive promising news elsewhere on the injury front, as starting center Nick Allegretti and tight end John Bates are expected to return to practice on Tuesday. Cornerback Trey Amos remains out with an ankle injury, while running back Jeremy McNichols will miss a few weeks with a quad injury, according to Quinn.

___

AP Sports Writer Stephen Whyno contributed to this report.

___

See AP’s full NFL coverage here

The thieves bypassed alarm and security systems on Saturday evening at the MuMe museum, making off with three of the five surviving panels of the San Gregorio Polyptych, dated to 1473, as well as the double-sided panel depicting the Virgin Mary and the dead Christ in Pietà, which was removed from an armored display case, the news agency LaPresse reported.

They removed all five panels of the San Gregorio Polyptych from their frame, but abandoned two behind a wall while fleeing.

Art expert Alberto Fiz estimated the value of the stolen works at 70 million euros ($81 million) to 80 million euros ($92 million).

“We are devastated by what happened. They were two of Antonello da Messina’s most important and best-known works. It is a tremendous loss for the museum, the city, the community and the art world,” MuMe director Marisa Mercurio told the ANSA news agency.

Mercurio said the theft occurred just before 10 p.m., and that the alarms were working and the guards were on site. She described the works as central to the region's heritage.

“These are not merely works by Antonello da Messina,” she told Sky TG24. “They are works that hold considerable significance in terms of our identity, as well as, of course, their artistic and cultural value, because they are works by our very own Antonello da Messina.”

Messina’s top culture official, Enzo Caruso, called the theft “more than a loss” and “a disaster.”

“Messina without Antonello is deprived of the very essence of the greatest artist of the European Renaissance,” Caruso told Sky, calling for the swift recovery of the stolen works.

Caruso noted that international interest in the artist had intensified since Italy’s Culture Ministry acquired Antonello’s devotional painting “Ecce Homo” for $14.9 million through negotiations with Sotheby’s in New York earlier this year.

Lynda Albertson, an art-crime analyst, said the works are instantly recognizable, impeding any effort to sell them through reputable channels.

“Stealing an Antonello may be far easier than selling one. If these are ordinary thieves, they will soon discover that — to their cost,” Albertson, who is the chief executive of the ARCA art crimes research association, told the Italian daily La Repubblica. She said such famous artworks often pass from one criminal to another, serving as collateral for other illicit activity.

The museum was closed Sunday while investigators gathered evidence. Neither museum officials nor the Carabinieri could immediately be reached for comment.

The Ferragosto holiday, which marks the feast of the Assumption of Mary, marks the height of the Italian summer holiday season, and was being celebrated in Messina with a procession that culminated in prayers and a blessing in the main Piazza Duomo around the time of the heist.

The theft comes just days after police in the northern Italian city of Parma announced that they had recovered three stolen artworks by Renoir, Cézanne and Matisse worth about 10 million euros ($11.5 million). Five people have been detained in the March 22-23 theft from the Magnani Rocca Foundation located in the Parma province.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva spoke with nostalgia to more than 10,000 supporters at the Vila Euclides Stadium outside Sao Paulo — a city where he rose to political fame 47 years ago as a metalworkers union leader during the country's 1964-1985 military dictatorship.

The 80-year-old, wearing a hat after a skin cancer diagnosis, insisted Brazil needs more of his policies.

Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, one of the sons of former President Jair Bolsonaro, gathered with thousands of voters on the Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro. His father, under house arrest following his conviction for an attempted coup, did not attend the rally.

Lula echoed his own earlier comments denouncing foreign interference in Brazil's politics. His allies have accused the U.S. government of seeking to boost Flávio Bolsonaro's bid with measures such as raising tariffs on Brazilian exports and revoking the visa of Brazil's ambassador to Washington.

Speaking about Brazil's vast reserves of rare minerals, Lula said “no one (abroad) will tap our minerals. We are going to tap them for the benefit of the Brazilian people.”

Bolsonaro argued that he is “the only one who can sit with the United States, with China, with Israel, with the Middle East, with India and with Argentina to make the best and biggest trade deals for our nation.”

His party's convention was attended by Argentina's President Javier Milei. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and several members of the Trump administration have expressed support for him.

Voters' attention is expected to perk up after TV ads start

Sunday was the first campaign day the 13 candidates in the running but many voters are expected to pay more attention once campaign ads start airing on TV and radio at the end of the month.

“It looks like we are starting slow this time,” said 68-year-old Flávio Alves, a Lula supporter who lives on the same street where the rally was underway. “We all expect a narrow election, but now Lula is in government, things are different.”

Four years ago, Lula beat incumbent Jair Bolsonaro with 50.9% of the vote.

Another presidential candidate, Ronaldo Caiado, a former state governor and an agribusiness leader, toured the surroundings of Brazil’s capital Brasilia and reinforced his anti-Lula credentials.

Another Lula opponent, Romeu Zema, met voters and attended a Catholic ceremony in the countryside of Minas Gerais, considered a bellwether state for the elections — a state he had governed until recently.

Both top candidates appeal to women voters

Lula, who is seeking his fourth nonconsecutive term, and Bolsonaro each reached out to women voters, who account for nearly 53% of Brazil’s 158 million eligible voters, according to the country’s electoral court.

“Men need to learn from childhood that they are no better than women. We need to be equal,” said Lula, as first lady Rosângela da Silva stood by his side, nodding. She was one of the event’s main speakers in Sao Bernardo do Campo, where Lula lived a large part of his life.

Lula said he will launch his platform within 10 days, with more details to come about his policies to benefit women, including education initiatives and policies to prevent and punish violence against women.

Sen. Bolsonaro, with his mother and wife by his side, told supporters he would work to fight violence against women.

Flávio Bolsonaro seeks to distinguish himself from his father

In his speech, the younger Bolsonaro vowed to fight crime and to remove what he described as left-wing “ideology” from Brazilian schools. Every student “has the right to dream of being Elon Musk someday," he said.

Before his appearance on Copacabana beach, 45-year-old Bolsonaro said during a live broadcast that he has received 1,800 death threats, without offering evidence. The lawmaker noted that he was wearing a bulletproof vest.

His father was attacked by a man with a knife as he campaigned for the presidency in 2018, suffering internal bleeding and intestinal injuries.

Jair Bolsonaro chose his son to stand against Lula as the Liberal Party’s candidate. The younger Bolsonaro's campaign has faced headwinds since its start, with moderate political parties keeping their distance, a public rift with his stepmother and difficulties in finding a running mate.

The 45-year-old lawmaker, who bears a physical resemblance to his father, clearly sought to establish his own identity.

“I know I look like him. But it is hard to compare Pelé’s son with Pelé,” he said, referring to the three-time World Cup-winning soccer player who died in 2022.

___

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

Kyiv has stepped up its attacks on Russia this year, with long-range missiles and swarms of drones targeting military industries and energy facilities. It has also increasingly pummeled giant Wildberries depots, burning billions of dollars’ worth of merchandise belonging to the Russian online retail giant. Those attacks have brought the war home to the Russian public nearly 4½ years into Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Ukraine also came under Russian attack, with drone strikes destroying homes and torching Kyiv's landmark book market.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said it had destroyed 822 Ukrainian drones overnight. Some 600 drones were detected headed toward the Russian capital, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said, with a third of those destroyed over the Moscow region itself.

An 83-year-old man was killed after a Ukrainian drone hit a private home in the Moscow region, local Gov. Andrey Vorobyov said. He also confirmed that a Ukrainian attack had sparked a blaze at a Wildberries warehouse in the town of Podolsk.

A drone attack targeted three towns in Russia’s southwestern Rostov region, killing five people, local Gov. Yury Slyusar said. The attack, with more than 150 drones, damaged several homes and a railway station and sparked a forest fire.

Russian strikes kill 5 in Ukraine

A Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s Kryvyi Rih killed two people and wounded 14 others, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on social media Sunday. He also said that one more person had been killed in the city of Sumy.

ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine’s largest steel producer, confirmed that one of its sites had been hit in a missile attack and that operations had been partially suspended.

Elsewhere, a man and a woman died when their home was hit by a Russian strike in Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region, said Ivan Fedorov, the head of the local military administration.

Russian attacks also sparked fires throughout the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, wounding six people. A blaze took hold at one of the city's largest book markets, tearing through kiosks huddled close to the Pochaina metro station. Firefighters fought back the flames, which sent plumes of black smoke across the capital, and picked their way through rubble where the market's crowded pavilions once stood.

“Wherever the Russians can reach with their ballistic missiles, they strike civilian infrastructure,” Zelenskyy said.

Russia's Ministry of Defense said Sunday that it had targeted a metallurgical plant in Kryvyi Rih and several military-industrial sites in Kyiv, including a manufacturing facility for Ukraine's Flamingo missiles.

The domestically produced missiles are increasingly key to Ukraine's long-range attacks on Russia, with Zelenskyy announcing Saturday that Kyiv had used the weapons to attack a rocket research and production center in Samara approximately 900 kilometers (560 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

NATO jet downs drone in Romanian airspace

Romania’s Ministry of National Defense said Sunday that a Spanish Air and Space Force F-18 fighter jet shot down a drone that had entered Romanian airspace.

The drone’s entry into the NATO member’s airspace was detected by surveillance systems at 4:44 a.m., the ministry said, about 24 kilometers (14.9 miles) north of the eastern city of Galati near the border with neighboring Moldova. Moldova is a landlocked country between Ukraine and Romania.

A Spanish F-18 aircraft that was performing air policing duties “made radar contact with the target and received engagement approval,” the ministry said. “The drone was safely shot down by the F-18 aircraft at 05:01.”

The ministry later said that drone debris was also reported in the Black Sea around 10 a.m. on Sunday, about 1.5 kilometers (0.9 miles) from the coastal city of Constanta. Separately, another drone fragment was found on Sunday 1 nautical mile (1.85 kilometers) from Constanta.

Romanian officials did not specify the drone’s origin.

However, Moldova’s Ministry of Defense said Sunday that its Army surveillance systems had detected a Geran-type Shahed drone in Moldovan airspace, which entered from Ukraine and exited toward Romania.

The spate of drone incidents comes weeks after Romanian pilots shot down three drones over three days as Russia intensified attacks against Ukraine near the border. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Romania has reported dozens of drone incidents, including some that have crashed and exploded on its territory.

Acting Foreign Minister Oana Toiu said in a post on X that the Spanish deployment in Romania was scaled up “at the request of Romania and NATO to bolster the Eastern Flank following prior drone incidents,” and that it was Spain’s fourth such deployment.

___

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

“Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie” and “The End of Oak Street,” one targeted to very young children and the other an original PG-13 rated action movie, battled for third place in their first weekend in theaters. According to studio estimates on Sunday, the Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor movie had the slight edge, with a projected $21 million to the animated pups’ $20.5 million.

Neither stood a chance for first, however, while “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” continues to cast its sticky web around audiences three weekends into its historic run. The Sony Pictures release added another $70 million from theaters in the U.S. and Canada, bringing its domestic total to a staggering $785.8 million, making it the fourth-biggest domestic release ever. With $118.7 million from overseas markets, it surpassed $2 billion globally, only the eighth movie ever to achieve that landmark (not accounting for inflation) and the second-fastest to do so. “Avengers: Endgame” did it in 11 days in 2019. “Brand New Day” took about 18.

“The Odyssey,” now in its fifth weekend, also managed to stay in second with a $23.2 million weekend that pushed its domestic total to $504.7 million. With $98 million from international showings, propelled by $36.6 million from its first few days playing in China, Christopher Nolan’s epic has now made over $1.2 billion globally.

“The End of Oak Street” came in ahead of expectations with around $21 million from 3,446 locations. It also made $26 million from international screenings, adding up to a $47 million global opening against a reported $80 million production budget.

The film, written and directed by David Robert Mitchell, stars McGregor and Hathaway as suburban parents in 1982 whose neighborhood is mysteriously transported to prehistoric times. It was well-received by critics and currently carries an 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, but audiences gave it a less enthusiastic B CinemaScore. According to PostTrak exit polls, just over half the opening weekend audience said they would “definitely recommend” to friends.

Family audiences showed up for “Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie,” which Paramount Pictures released in 3,545 theaters in the U.S. and Canada this weekend. Carrying a PG rating, it’s the third theatrically released Paw Patrol movie since 2021. The opening weekend audience gave it an A CinemaScore. Globally, it has a running total of $69 million.

The Katseye documentary “Katseye: Wild Hearts” rounded out the top five with $4 million from only 724 screens. Several other newcomers also managed to get places in the top 10: “Six: The Musical Live” opened in sixth place with $3 million, followed by “The Brink of War” with $2.7 million. The Tamil-language romance “Vishwanath & Sons” made $1.6 million to take 10th place.

The Matthew McConaughey crime thriller “The Rivals of Amziah King” opened outside of the top 10 with just over $1 million from 632 theaters. The young Anthony Bourdain biopic “Tony,” meanwhile, made $706,676 from 37 theaters in its second weekend. The A24 release is expanding in the coming weeks.

The box office is strong with the summer season, now over, accounting for over $4.2 billion in ticket sales — about 5.7% ahead of the pre-pandemic summer of 2019. Paul Dergarabedian, the head of marketplace trends for Rentrak, noted that the number to date is only about $130 million shy of the record 2013 summer, which was led by “Iron Man 3” and “Despicable Me 2.”

While this summer might not surpass 2013, which ended with just under $4.8 billion, Dergarabedian said, “This is going to be a top five summer of all time.”

The year overall is just under $6.9 billion.

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,” $70 million.

2. “The Odyssey,” $23.2 million.

3. “The End of Oak Street,” $21 million.

4. “Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie,” $20.5 million.

5. “Katseye: Wild Hearts,” $4 million.

6. “Six: The Musical Live,” $3 million.

7. “The Brink of War,” $2.7 million.

8. “Toy Story 5,” $2.3 million.

9. “One Night Only,” $2 million.

10. “Vishwanath & Sons,” $1.6 million.

English soccer’s annual season curtain-raiser between the reigning champions in the Premier League (Arsenal) and FA Cup (City) offered a chance for an early assessment of the two teams most likely to challenge for the big trophies this campaign.

While Arsenal delivered a statement performance — not least by scoring after 23 seconds through Riccardo Calafiori — at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium, there might be some early concerns for City and Maresca at the start of the post-Pep Guardiola era.

Kai Havertz headed home the second goal in the 28th through the grasp of City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and Martin Odegaard ran unchallenged into City’s area, before sitting down Donnarumma with an outrageous dummy and slotting a finish into an unguarded net in the 48th.

Playful chants of “You’re getting sacked in the morning” came from Arsenal’s jubilant supporters toward Maresca for part of the game in which City rarely threatened opposition goalkeeper David Raya. Erling Haaland — only just back in training after the World Cup — was substituted in the 53rd minute after having just seven touches.

“The goal we conceded after 30 seconds affects the game,” Maresca said.

“It’s a defeat that hurts us, but it’s only the beginning.”

It was the perfect preparation for Arsenal ahead of the beginning of its Premier League title defense — at home to Coventry on Friday.

“I think we showed our level today, that we are ready,” Odegaard, Arsenal's captain, said. “We are serious and we want to do it again.”

City launches its league campaign two days later at home to Bournemouth and it remains to be seen if Maresca reacts to this defeat by changing his team around.

“It's part of any transition, for things to not be perfect in the beginning,” newly appointed City captain Ruben Dias said. “You need to keep on working … and there's going to be lots of challenges along the way.”

Explosive start by Arsenal

Calafiori ran on to Myles Lewis-Skelly's threaded throughball to give Arsenal an explosive start and score the first goal in the opening minute of the Community Shield since 1968. On that occasion, Bobby Owen netted for City against West Bromwich Albion.

Arsenal went on to record the biggest margin of victory in the season curtain-raiser since 2014, when the Gunners also beat City 3-0.

No Rodri but Grealish plays

Rodri, Spain's World Cup-winning captain, wasn't with the City squad in Cardiff as he continues his recovery from minor back surgery to the backdrop of a potential move to Barcelona.

His absence leaves a huge hole in Maresca's midfield that might only have been partially filled by Elliot Anderson following his $155 million move from Nottingham Forest.

One interesting selection by City's new manager was Jack Grealish, who came on at the start of the second half for his first appearance for the team in more than a year. Does it suggest his career at City could be reignited after he was sent on loan to Everton last season?

Maresca did little to clear up the situation.

“While he’s here with us, it’s my duty to help him,” he said.

___

Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80

___

See AP’s full soccer coverage here

The U.S. men beat Italy 46-26 to secure a sixth straight title and the women missed out on a fourth straight title after losing 27-20 to Canada.

“Gold is the only standard,” said men's quarterback Nico Casares, who threw two touchdown passes. “That's our motto. That's what we play by, that's what we live by.”

The U.S. women started strongly but it was tied 14-14 at the break after Caroline Moquin-Joubert caught quarterback Sara Parker's pass at the end of the first half. Parker set up Frederique Morneau at the start of the second half as Canada took control.

The U.S. had a fourth down, yards from the line, with three seconds left, but could not make the final play count. It was Canada's third title and first since beating the U.S. in the 2014 final.

“I feel so happy, I can’t believe it,” Parker said after hugging her mother. ”Literally the best day ever.”

The International Federation of American Football ran the championship tournament, which doubled up as a qualifier, in the German city of Düsseldorf.

The top two men’s and top two women’s teams earned a spot at the 2028 Games, along with the U.S. men's and women's teams because they already qualified as hosts.

Sunday's two other finalists — the Italian men and Canadian women — earned an Olympic spot by reaching the final against the U.S. teams, meaning that the bronze-medal games decided who joined them.

Mexico women cried with joy after a 20-19 win over Great Britain — which rallied from 20-6 down — for the women’s bronze and an Olympic spot.

But Mexico's men lost 34-26 in overtime to Canada, which claimed an Olympic spot.

Rules of the game

Flag football was among five sports given Olympic status for the 2028 Games back in 2023, with the game played five-on-five in two 20-minute halves, no tackling and an emphasis on speed and elusiveness.

The NFL has said it plans to launch women’s and men’s professional flag football ahead of the Olympics. ___

See AP’s full NFL coverage here

Houston TranStar reports that all lanes are reopen.

UPDATE | 11 a.m.

Some southbound lanes are beginning to reopen. Houston TranStar reports two lanes, the left and center, and the HOV remain closed.

ORIGINAL REPORT

HOUSTON - All southbound main lanes and the HOV lane on the North Freeway near Richey Road are closed as authorities investigate the scene of a crash.

Houston TranStar cameras show a heavy law enforcement presence in the area.

Drivers should expect delays and use caution while traveling through the area.

This is a developing story

Back on the job the morning after the alert was lifted, Isidro threw a rope over an avocado tree about 20 feet (6 meters) high and climbed up. Fifteen minutes later, he had filled a box with avocados bound for the United States.

“Thank God ... and now we’re getting paid!” he shouted happily after several days without work.

Eight days after the alert affecting Michoacán state and the deployment of more Mexican troops in the region, U.S. authorities fully lifted the restrictions that spurred producers to shut down operations, and exports resumed. Michoacán is Mexico’s main avocado-producing state and a region where four cartels designated by the Trump administration as terrorist organizations operate.

By the weekend, orchards were operating again, packing plants were running at full speed and U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors had returned to certify the fruit and ensure it was free of pests before entering the United States.

The workers were happy to get their daily wages back. Some producers hoped the increased security would reduce violence and extortion. Others feared the calm would not last long.

“We’ll be safe for a while, we’ll see what happens next,” said Valentín Rodríguez, a longtime avocado industry businessperson.

Many threats are possible in a violent state

The U.S. alert caught Isidro high in a tree in an orchard in Santa Ana Zirosto, an area of green, low hills in western Michoacán where criminal groups are very active. There were no explanations, just the foreman’s shout to stop cutting.

Isidro, 39 years old and with two decades of experience as a harvester, knew that this meant either starting to look for another job until the situation returned to normal — since they’re paid by the day — or supporting his family solely on what his wife earned from a small store.

More than 90 miles (145 kilometers) away, in the town of Tacámbaro, an engineer at an avocado packing plant received the alert in the early hours of the morning: The facility should be kept sealed and under quarantine.

Some 200,000 people employed by Michoacán’s avocado industry were left in limbo.

Authorities did not say what threat triggered the alert. But in a state where numerous local cartels make money not only from drugs but also from extortion, there are plenty of possibilities.

Some growers have come to consider extortion an unavoidable production cost. A producer from Michoacán told The Associated Press recently that he pays 1 peso per kilo exported in extortion fees and exports about 90 metric tons a day, which amounts to more than $5,000 in daily payments.

In March alone, Mexico shipped nearly 4,800 tons of avocados a day to the United States.

Trucks loaded with avocados are also sometimes robbed on roads in western Michoacán. And some farmworkers have been stopped and beaten by armed men near the border with Jalisco without being told why, according to one worker who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

Mexican avocado production is US-controlled

U.S. inspectors have been assaulted and temporarily detained in the past, triggering similar export suspensions. On some occasions, threats arose after inspectors detected pests and were pressured not to report them, said an official familiar with their work who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons. The U.S. Embassy does not usually provide details about the incidents.

Inspectors now have less of a presence in the orchards, which are located in isolated hills where armed groups operate with little interference, and concentrate on packing plants.

“If the United States says that it is suspending technical services for security reasons, it’s impossible to export. If it's for a plant health, it’s the same,” said Rodríguez, who grows, packs and sells avocados. “We are at the mercy of whatever the U.S. market and government decide to do with the industry.”

There is also a political dimension, he said, adding that Mexico didn't export avocados to the United States for eight decades after a worm was found in an avocado pit in 1914. The U.S. ban was lifted in 1997 as domestic production could no longer meet growing demand.

Exports rely on inspection and certification

More than 80% of Mexican avocados are sold to the U.S. Thousands of tons of avocados travel daily to the United States, especially at the beginning of the year, when demand for guacamole surges ahead of the Super Bowl. To keep that volume moving, certification is key.

Isidro is a “certified” picker. He knows how to disinfect cutting tools before using them, handle the fruit quickly and carefully, and report any spots or damage. The orchards where he works are also certified, providing dining and bathroom facilities for workers.

Jesús Méndez, his supervisor, inspected the boxes before they were loaded onto a truck with the tracking details. The trucks wait until all those in the area are ready before traveling in convoys to packing plants, accompanied by police patrols to prevent robberies.

At the packing plants, inspections continue, checking quality, the fruit’s flesh and possible pests. The avocados then move along mechanical lines that sort them by size before workers place them into boxes.

Once labeled and sealed, the trailers head for the U.S. border. At the slightest security alert, every point along the route can be brought to a standstill.

Fears remain despite the return to work

The deployment of more than 1,500 soldiers to protect Michoacán’s avocado-growing region and recent arrests of people allegedly involved in extortion have eased concerns, but only partially.

Luis Manuel Soto, a 36-year-old grower and packer from western Michoacán, hopes the increased security will bring improvements. So far, he says, he has not felt them.

In 2024, he said, armed men pulled him from his vehicle and threatened to kill him unless he paid them and withdrew a complaint over extortion and an attempt to seize his orchards. The threats returned last July, even though one person involved in the earlier case has been convicted.

“They left me a funeral cross and ... a written message saying I had only days left,” Soto said from a town near Morelia, Michoacán’s capital.

The threats have continued by phone. Now he divides his time between occasional visits to his orchards, managing his businesses and social projects remotely, and going to prosecutors’ offices to request protection.

In Santa Ana Zirosto and surrounding communities, residents welcome the military presence.

“It gives us some peace, but it also scares us a little because it could lead to confrontations with some of the groups,” said Méndez.

Medal ceremonies were postponed to Sunday, when West Midlands Police said a man in his 30s had been arrested on suspicion of fraud. Governing body European Athletics added “it is safe to attend the stadium” Sunday night for the concluding session of the week-long championships.

Police said in a statement that around 8:15 p.m. Saturday “concerns were raised after a man was found in an area of Alexander Stadium with the wrong accreditation.”

“As a precaution, security measures were put in place and transport for the championship staff and athletes were suspended,” the statement said. “This then led to delays to transport from the stadium for the wider public.”

Police said there was “no immediate risk to the public," and that the man remained in custody Sunday for questioning.

Fans had waited in long lines while transport was suspended. Just past 11 p.m. Saturday, organizers posted an apology on social media for “significant delays” and that bus service would “gradually begin to take place.”

“The safety and wellbeing of our spectators, athletes, workforce and the wider championships family will always be our first priority,” Birmingham 2026 said in a statement.

The stadium is located outside the city center.

“We recognize that the delays presented challenges for those affected and would like to thank everyone for their patience, understanding and cooperation throughout the evening,” organizers said.

European Athletics said the local organizing committee has worked closely with authorities “to ensure that all necessary measures are in place” for Sunday night.

“Any issues connected with last night have now been fully resolved,” it said Sunday. "Everything possible has been done to guarantee the safety and smooth running of tonight's competition.

“Fans can be reassured that it is safe to attend the stadium for the closing night of the championships.”

___

See full AP coverage of European sports here

More than 50 transfer students are also expected to join the university this fall. Rice said it’s undergraduate enrollment has grown by about 25% since 2020.

The university reported receiving more than 38,000 first-year applications, a 5% increase from the previous year. Rice said approximately 8% of applicants were admitted and that the incoming class includes students from 46 states and 54 countries.

• Rice expands free tuition for families earning up to $200K. Here’s how experts say Texans can save on college costs.

Rice described Move-In Day as one of its most energetic campus traditions. Upperclassmen from the university’s residential colleges and members of the football team are expected to greet new students and help families move belongings into residence halls.

University President Reginald DesRoches and his wife, Paula Gilmer DesRoches, are among the campus leaders expected to welcome the incoming students.

O-Week continues through Aug. 21 with activities designed to introduce students to their residential colleges, classmates, campus traditions and university resources.

• What can you change on your Norhill home? The city’s design guidelines just took another turn

The historic gem designed by a Cuban refugee was the backdrop of Elvis Presley’s 1967 film “Clambake” and a beloved venue of Gloria Estefan and the late Jimmy Buffett, who performed on a movable, floating stage.

But since closing in 1992 after suffering serious damage during Hurricane Andrew, the 6,500-seat venue has fallen into disarray and today is fenced off and covered in graffiti despite being listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

On Tuesday, voters will decide whether to allow the city to partner with a private company to return the unique stadium situated on Virginia Key across the water from downtown Miami to its former glory.

President Richard Nixon and Sammy Davis Jr. appeared together at the stadium during a 1972 campaign rally to support Nixon's reelection bid. And residents would gather for Easter sunrise services, as well as celebrate Our Lady of Charity, a representation of the Virgin Mary honored by many Cubans and Cuban Americans.

“It encapsulated a time period in Miami that’s incredibly unique with an incredible story that touches all Miamians,” Miami Commissioner Damian Pardo said. “So this is really a place that connects with Miami at a very deep and personal level.”

The stadium has a rich history in Miami

Hilario Candela was in his late 20s and a recent refugee from the Cuban Revolution when he designed the structure. He spent decades designing buildings around Miami and led community efforts to restore the marine stadium until his death in 2022.

When it was added to the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places in 2018, then-Secretary of State Ken Detzner called the stadium “one of the state of Florida’s most unique architectural and historic resources,” and “an ambitious example of mid-century Modernist architecture” that represented the “multi-cultural influences evolving in the city of Miami during the 1960s.”

The year before his 2023 passing, Buffett wrote a letter to Miami officials, urging them to save the “little cathedral of musical fun.” The Mayor of Margaritaville described a 1985 concert at the marine stadium that ended with him jumping off the floating stage into the surrounding water, joining cheering swimmers and boaters.

“Those were the ‘Miami Vice’ days, and Don Johnson introduced us,” Buffett wrote of the actor in the popular 1980s television crime drama. “WITCO Desperadoes from Trinidad opened the show, and the Coral Reefer Band finished the night with what I think was one of the most fun shows, for band and fans, that I have ever done.”

Buffett's daughter, Savannah, continues to work with Restore Miami Marine Stadium. The group's co-founder, Donald Worth, began a mission to save the stadium in 2008, shortly after city officials at the time announced plans to tear it down.

“The architecture gives it the wow, the history gives it its soul,” Worth said. “It’s just a special, magical place, and so many people in Miami have had such memorable experiences there.”

Voters will help decide the stadium’s future

Breakwater Hospitality Group co-founder Emi Guerra, who's working with the company selected to partner with the city, said the stadium’s view of the city skyline and its location right off Biscayne Bay could make it an entertainment destination that rivals Denver’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre, an open-air venue built into the side of a mountain.

“There’s just something here that can’t be duplicated, and that’s the view,” Guerra said of the marine stadium.

Guerra said he can understand the cynicism felt by some voters, but he points out that this isn’t a developer land grab to build more condos. The city of Miami will retain complete ownership of the stadium and surrounding area, and the management company will be stewards of the city’s vision, Guerra said.

“When it’s something that’s historic, you have two options: restore it or let it rot,” Guerra said.

Ernesto Cuesta, head of the Brickell Homeowners Association, sees another option.

He said the group supports the preservation of a historical landmark, but members are worried about how noise and traffic from a large-scale event space will affect residents across the bay and nearby wildlife. He said he’d prefer a park with more green spaces.

Restoration plans aim to honor the stadium’s past

Despite sitting unused for more than three decades, multiple studies have shown that the stadium remains structurally safe.

Project architect Richard Heisenbottle, who has previously worked to restore other Miami landmarks, said he hopes reviving the marine stadium will honor its original architect.

He said renovations will have to include modern amenities and accessibility requirements, but the galvanized steel rebar used to reinforce the concrete during its original construction has protected the stadium from serious deterioration. Completed construction documents for the restorations have already been permitted by the city of Miami, he said.

Miami Commissioner Pardo said a significant hurdle to reopening the stadium previously has been the city government simply not having the capacity to properly run a major event space.

The referendum going before Miami voters on Tuesday would allow the city to enter into a management agreement.

The private company would develop the stadium’s large parking area into a flex park that includes public recreational facilities and a special events space. The city would collect revenue from events to fund the stadium repairs and upgrades, while paying the company a management fee. The total cost of the project hasn’t been determined, but Pardo insisted it will not be borne by taxpayers at all.

“It’s the right time to finally do this,” Pardo said.

Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir made the statement while speaking to a former Gaza-held hostage, Rom Braslavski, on Braslavski's podcast. The two were discussing Israel's recovery from the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023, when Ben-Gvir criticized Israel's recent drawdown of strikes in Gaza.

“It’s no secret, I disagree with the prime minister," he said. “I think targeted assassinations should be carried out in Gaza, taking down 30 to 40 every night. Not just those who pose an immediate threat — there are people there who are not worthy of life. They shouldn’t live. They’re not even people.”

In the past, similar statements by Ben-Gvir and other Israeli officials were widely condemned. Many have been presented to the UN’s world court as evidence of genocidal intent. Israel denies it has committed genocide in Gaza.

Israel’s domestic media has made scarce mention of the statement, highlighting how once-fringe ideologies like Ben-Gvir’s are surging in the leadup to Israeli elections Oct. 27.

Figures like Ben-Gvir have become more popular among Israelis since Hamas’ brutal attack in 2023, when the militants killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostage. Many hostages have recounted long-term starvation, physical and psychological abuse and, in some cases, sexual abuse.

Ben-Gvir oversees Israel's police force and prisons

Ben-Gvir does not have power over the country’s military and cannot order strikes on Gaza. But, after operating for decades within Israel's far-right fringe, he is now one of the most influential people in the country.

He has substantial control over key parts of Israel’s security apparatus, running the country’s prisons — where thousands of Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank are incarcerated — as well as the national police force.

He has previously boasted of lessening food rations for Palestinian prisoners. Israel’s top court ruled in 2025 that the prison service under Ben-Gvir was depriving Palestinians of a minimum subsistence diet.

Ben-Gvir criticizes drawdown of Israeli strikes in Gaza

Until recently, Israel was striking Gaza nearly every day, attacks that have killed over 1,250 people since an October truce deal came into effect, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Israel's military, which says the strikes have targeted Hamas militants, appeared to ease off on the attacks in a quiet concession to U.S. President Donald Trump after Netanyahu rejected the president’s latest attempt to move the truce forward.

Israeli media last week reported that the authority for carrying out strikes has now been limited to the army’s chief of staff, raising the ire of right-wing lawmakers such as Ben-Gvir.

Ben Gvir advocates mass emigration, expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza

In the same taped appearance, the lawmaker advocated for mass emigration of Palestinians from Gaza — a proposal that international lawyers say could amount to ethnic cleansing — and resettlement of Gaza by Israel.

Twenty years ago, Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip, dismantling a block of 21 Jewish settlements known as “Gush Katif” and pulling out its forces.

“I see all of Gaza as ours,” said Ben-Gvir in the interview. “Settlements not just in Gush Katif but throughout Gaza, encouraging as much emigration as possible, sending them to their countries, and for the terrorists, no emigration, nothing, just to kill them one by one.”

Trump’s latest proposal involves Hamas gradually giving up its weapons while Israeli forces halt their attacks and begin withdrawing from Gaza. Hamas accepted the deal, although the group linked the surrender of its heaviest weapons to the creation of a Palestinian state, something Israel’s current government and most of its political class adamantly reject.

Netanyahu says Israel will not retreat from any of its positions in Gaza until Hamas has been completely disarmed. The stance leaves other elements of the ceasefire, including the deployment of international forces and any reconstruction of the devastated territory, on hold.

• The public can gather at Pier 21 (2100 Harborside Drive) from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. to welcome the ship back to the Galveston Historic Seaport. Elissa is expected to arrive around noon. Organizers said the homecoming event is free.
• An evening celebration is also planned from 5 to 7 p.m. at Pier 22 (22nd Street and Harborside Drive). The $25 reception will include access to the ship’s deck, opportunities to meet members of the crew, the Ship to Shore interactive exhibit and commemorative merchandise.

The event marks the end of Elissa’s three-month Galveston 250 Voyage, which included stops in New York City, Boston, Savannah and Pensacola. The voyage was part of a broader series of events honoring the 250th anniversary of the United States.

• PHOTOS: Texas’ Tall Ship Elissa returns to New York Harbor for Sail4th 250 Parade of Sail

Elissa left Galveston in June for an approximately 2,500-mile journey — the ship’s longest extended voyage in decades. Before departing, the vessel underwent drydock work that included installation of a new jibboom, a fore-topmast sail and a new diesel engine.

The ship led a fleet of Class A tall ships into New York Harbor on July 4. It was Elissa’s first visit to New York since 1986.

A rare piece of maritime history

Elissa was built in 1877 by Alexander Hall & Co. in Aberdeen, Scotland. The 205-foot, three-masted iron barque spent nearly 90 years as a merchant ship before preservationists rescued it from a scrapyard in Piraeus Harbor, Greece.

The vessel is not a replica. It is one of only a few surviving 19th-century tall ships that still actively sails, according to the Galveston Historical Foundation. Elissa carries 19 sails covering about 11,500 square feet and rises nearly 100 feet above the water at its main mast.

The Galveston Historical Foundation brought Elissa to Texas in 1978. Staff and volunteers completed its restoration by 1982, transforming the ship into a floating museum that could also return to sea.

Today, Elissa is the Official Tall Ship of Texas, a National Historic Landmark and a working symbol of Galveston’s history as a seaport shaped by maritime commerce, immigration and coastal life. The ship welcomes more than 40,000 visitors each year and continues to sail during Gulf Coast sea trials and special voyages.

James Michael Nona was initially investigated after the sheriff’s office received a report in July 2023 involving alleged sexual abuse of a child under 14. Investigators said the child reported that Nona had abused them over a period of years.

As detectives with the agency’s Special Victims Unit worked the case, they learned Nona had left Texas after becoming aware of the investigation. Authorities later located him in Choctaw County, Oklahoma, where they say he was living under the name “Jordan Hill.”

• Police looking for man who attacked a woman with a bat

Nona was arrested in Oklahoma, returned to Montgomery County and booked on a charge of continuous sexual abuse of a young child or disabled individual. Investigators also received information suggesting there could be additional victims connected to his time in Oklahoma. Those allegations remain under investigation by law enforcement agencies there.

Nona was released on bond in October 2024. More than a year later, authorities say he removed his court-ordered GPS monitor and disappeared while the Montgomery County case was still pending.

The investigation into his whereabouts led detectives to Louisiana, where they say Nona had been using the names “Trevor Craw” and “Dusty Crawford.” His arrest followed an extended effort involving the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office SWAT Team, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Galveston Police Department.

Nona was transported to the Montgomery County Jail following his arrest.

Mother-daughter missing persons case

Nona was also reportedly seen with a missing Louisiana mother and her 10-year-old daughter in the Butte La Rose area before his arrest, according to the St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Earlier this month, Louisiana authorities said Danielle Escue Lea, 39, and her daughter, Alayna, 10, were reported missing from Baton Rouge and are believed to be in St. Martin Parish. Their disappearance is being investigated by the St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office, Louisiana State Police and Baton Rouge police. Authorities have not said what role, if any, Nona may have played in the case.

Anyone with information about Danielle or Alayna Lea is asked to contact the St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office at 337-394-3071 or St. Martin Crime Stoppers at 337-441-3030. Tips can also be submitted through the P3 Tips app.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office is asking anyone who believes they may have been victimized by Nona—or who has information that could assist investigators—to contact the agency at 936-760-5800 and reference case No. 23A209127.

County officials broke ground Friday on a new Swiftwater Rescue Training Facility at 1731 Hugh Road. The center will give deputies, constables, firefighters and other emergency personnel a place to practice water rescues, entrapment avoidance, swimming skills and team coordination in controlled conditions.

The facility is designed to address a problem local agencies are facing. Sheriff Ed Gonzalez and Sean Williams, assistant director of capital improvements for the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, said the swiftwater training facility near Austin has closed, while other options require responders to travel across Texas or out of state.

“For so long, we’ve really been unprepared, trying to figure things out on the go,” Gonzalez said. “Now we’ll have the training up front where we can train our personnel in real-life situations.”

• 2 Helps You Community Impact: Spring Branch officer rescues trapped driver from burning, overturned vehicle on I-10

That lesson became especially clear during Hurricane Harvey in 2017.

As floodwaters overwhelmed parts of the county, first responders rushed into neighborhoods to rescue residents. Many were working under dangerous conditions without consistent access to hands-on swiftwater training nearby. Officials said many first responders had to learn on the go.

Harvey showed officials that courage and equipment are not enough on their own. Responders also need a place to practice how to use that equipment, move through dangerous water and coordinate with other agencies before a crisis begins.

The new facility will include a deluge tank that helps trainees transition from flood conditions into a swiftwater environment, officials said. It will also allow responders to train with equipment they may use during an actual emergency, including high-water vehicles and boats.

“Having this in our backyard, having this resource, we can train them day and night,” Williams said. “We can also simulate night during the day.”

• Texas schools are required to have silent panic alerts. Here’s how one Houston-area district is using them

The center is expected to train as many as 1,600 people each year, including personnel from partner agencies across the region, Gonzalez said. Williams said it will be about twice the size of the county’s previous training space and could serve law enforcement, fire departments, military personnel and other agencies.

That local access could make a real difference. Instead of spending several days traveling to training, responders could complete instruction closer to home and return more quickly to patrol and other duties. Agencies could also schedule training more regularly, helping maintain a larger pool of certified responders.

Part of a broader effort

The project is part of a broader expansion of flood-rescue training in the Houston area. A separate $104 million facility known as STORM Ranch is being developed in Mission Bend by the Community Volunteer Fire Department and Harris Fort Bend ESD 100.

• RELATED: Harris County will become home to nation’s largest flood rescue training facility

That project is designed as a large, multi-scenario training complex with swiftwater channels, a boat-rescue pond and an urban village where buildings can be flooded for rescue exercises. Its developers have also said the facility will offer basic flood-preparedness training for civilians.

The Harris County Sheriff’s Office facility and STORM Ranch are separate projects with different scopes. But together, they could give the region more ways to train responders locally and improve coordination before the next hurricane or flood.

“Other events, [first responders] have gone into, and they’ve had training on the job during the event, unfortunately,” Williams said. “The safety of our officers is the safety and the result of our residents as well.”

The county project is funded through voter-approved bonds and supported by Harris County Commissioners Court, the Harris County Office of the County Engineer and the Sheriff’s Office.

For most residents, the facility may not be top of mind until the next major flood. But that is the point.

“We want to make sure that every first responder, not only here but across the region, can really be prepared and have the training and tools they need to successfully and effectively conduct rescues,” Gonzalez said.

Officials said they expect to complete the project by mid-2027.

The Hugs in a Blanket Foundation will host Everybody Eatz: Ivan’s Pop-Up Grocery Store & Food Park from 2:30 to 5 p.m. on Sunday at Exotic Pop, 5410 Almeda Road in Houston.

Organizers say the event is intended to support families facing rising grocery costs and reduced access to food assistance. Guests will be able to select items including meat, produce, snacks and other dry goods in an indoor, air-conditioned setting.

The event will also include hot food from local vendors, hibachi, customizable tacos, cold drinks and a live DJ. Families can take part in free haircuts and hairstyling, a photo booth, raffles and giveaways.

• Historic Tall Ship Elissa returns to Galveston after America250 voyage

“Rather than a typical back-to-school giveaway, we’re creating a real pop-up grocery experience—plus hot, prepared options—so families can stock up and enjoy time together,” said Ivan Lambert, the nonprofit’s founder.

Children’s activities will include a foam party, bounce house, mechanical bull riding competition and a mobile basketball competition.

All offerings are free and available on a first-come, first-served basis. Early arrival is encouraged.

That's because California Democrats sliced Kiley's district six ways as payback for Republican redistricting in Texas and elsewhere. The chunk of the district that Smull, who identifies as a conservative, lives in is now grafted onto an overwhelmingly Democratic seat based in the state's wine country.

During a recent lunch at a cafe in Lincoln, a onetime agricultural town that has morphed into a bedroom community on the edge of Sacramento's exurban sprawl, Smull was heartbroken to hear she can no longer vote for Kiley.

“He believes in the same things I do,” Smull said. “It feels sneaky and underhanded.”

Republicans started the redistricting competition. Democrats might finish it

Democratic voters in several other states know how Smull feels.

President Donald Trump last year told GOP-controlled states to redraw their maps before this year's midterm elections to increase the number of winnable seats for Republicans in order to help the party hold onto the U.S. House. The effort was turbocharged by a U.S. Supreme Court decision this spring that neutralized a key provision of the Voting Rights Act and cleared the way for Republicans to redraw more seats across the South that had elected Black Democrats.

Democratic-leaning and heavily minority communities from Texas to Tennessee have been split into multiple congressional districts that dilute the Democratic vote by stretching deep into conservative areas.

In the future, it is likely that more Republican voters in other states will go through what Smull and other conservatives in Northern California are facing. Democrats in Maryland, New York, Illinois and other strongholds have pledged to retaliate in time for the 2028 elections and split Republican-leaning districts the way their California counterparts did Kiley's.

Democrats have been hindered nationally by stricter rules against partisan line-drawing in their states, but California showed a way around that. California Democrats won voter approval last year to redraw the state's congressional map, originally made by an independent commission, and formed five new Democratic-leaning seats.

‘We have zero voice,’ says voter angry at the Democratic drive for a new political map

Kiley's is one of them. The reworked political lines led the two-term congressman to leave the Republican Party and run as an independent in the slightly Democratic-leaning district that now includes his home.

He spoke out against partisan gerrymandering, even unsuccessfully trying to force the Republican-led House to allow a vote on a bill to ban mid-decade redistricting.

“We've seen partisan divisions really spin out of control in really harmful ways, and I think exhibit number one is the redistricting wars,” Kiley recently told a group of voters in the suburb of Citrus Heights.

Democrats contend Kiley's party switch is purely a political trick to survive in a more liberal district. They note he still caucuses with House Republicans, has voted for many of the GOP's priorities, including Trump's sweeping budget and tax cut bill last year, and that political organizations run by House Republicans are spending money to back his reelection.

Even some of Kiley's supporters think the election was a factor in the congressman's decision to become an independent.

“My original thinking was he did it because of redistricting — maybe it'd help him get reelected,” said John Coburn, a 68-year-old retired business owner, at the Citrus Heights event.

Coburn is furious at the Democrats’ redistricting and hopes Kiley wins. Coburn does not care that they did it in retaliation for Texas, where Republicans at Trump's directive revised that state's map to carve out up to five new winnable conservative seats.

“I don't care about Texas, I live in California,” Coburn said, adding that “40% of the state is Republican, and we have zero voice. Zero. It's not how our Founding Fathers intended.”

For Democrats in the district, a rare political opportunity

In an interview, Kiley said his switch to independent was no political gambit. If he wanted to stay in the House, he argued, he could have had an easier time staying in the GOP, moving to a more conservative district that included parts of his old one and running in a Republican primary there.

"I could have gone there and run and played the same game these other politicians are playing,” he said.

Kiley said he is caucusing with Republicans to avoid losing his seats on committees and that in the next Congress he will try to change rules so independent members do not lose committee seats because they do not caucus with one of the two major parties.

Among his backers, he noted, is onetime Democratic presidential hopeful Andrew Yang, a former technology entrepreneur who co-founded a centrist party for independents.

The Democrat running against Kiley, former state Sen. Richard Pan, scoffs at his rival's newfound independent status.

“He was a MAGA champion when he first ran for Congress, and now he's trying to say ‘I’m not,'” Pan told a crowd at a senior community in Roseville, referring to Trump's “Make America Great Again” movement.

Earlier that day, Pan swung by the Placer County Democratic Party office, tucked away on the second story of a brick shopping arcade in Lincoln's compact downtown.

Placer is a Republican county that stretches from the Sacramento suburbs to the northwestern shores of Lake Tahoe. The entire county is in Kiley's current district, but it will be divided among three districts in the new map.

Kathleen Crawford, chair of the county Democratic Party, was enthusiastic about the county getting carved up.

“It's worth it, because we have an opportunity to get Democratic representation, which has been missing from our county,” Crawford said. “I've been here 15 years, and this is my first real opportunity to elect a Democrat.”

A never-ending cycle that cuts out ‘the little people’

Lincoln's downtown is flanked by fruit, vegetable and flower farms, as well as new subdivisions. The community and its neighboring suburbs have become a destination for people fleeing the San Francisco Bay Area's housing prices. That has helped change the once solidly conservative area into a political battleground where skilled mapmakers can draw winnable seats for Democrats.

Ed Church, a 61-year-old risk manager, was eating lunch at Simple Pleasures cafe in Lincoln when he contemplated Kiley's shift. A Democrat, Church has not been a Kiley fan and he was bemused by the congressman's move.

“If that's how he'd been initially and not so MAGA, I probably could have supported him,” Church said of Kiley's independent status. Now Church, as a Lincoln resident, is in a purely Democratic district and will not have a say in Kiley's fate in November. His main criteria in the election will be “who's going to stand up to Trump?”

Across the street at a gun store, Wesley Johnson, 43, who considers himself a conservative independent, said he was dispirited by the state's redistricting.

“I feel Northern California is not represented fairly,” Johnson said. “San Francisco, Sacramento and Los Angeles control everything.”

He acknowledged Republicans were doing the same thing in states they controlled and said he did not know how it could stop.

“You're just cutting out the little people,” Johnson said.

The state has been hammered over the past week by heavy rains, resulting in rivers reaching record levels and sending residents in search of higher ground. More than a dozen counties have declared local disasters, with much of the latest damage concentrated along river corridors from Hamilton County heading into the northern Indianapolis suburbs.

President Donald Trump approved an emergency declaration for Indiana, and federal disaster assistance is available to the state, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Saturday.

Residents evacuate as water rises

Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett said the city was experiencing its most severe flooding in more than 30 years, noting that conditions were shifting rapidly. Hundreds of homes in neighborhoods that were located between the river and parallel canals were evacuated Saturday, as first responders used boats to rescue people who were already stranded.

Rita Reith, a spokesperson with the Indianapolis Fire Department, put the number of rescues at 95 people and 45 pets as of late afternoon. Dispatchers had received hundreds of calls for service throughout the day.

The governor’s office reported more than 350 evacuations have occurred in Delaware County and that a senior mobile home community in Tipton County was being evacuated. Rescues and welfare checks also were happening in Fayette County.

Indiana authorities said Saturday at least five people have died as a result of the severe weather over the past week. That includes a boy killed when a tree fell on his home, a woman who was swept away after driving into floodwaters and a teen who was reported missing after jumping in to a river on Wednesday.

“My heart is with the families and loved ones of the five Hoosiers we have lost and every family whose life has been changed by these storms,” Braun said in a statement issued Saturday. “Please continue to take flooding seriously and stay away from floodwaters.”

Rivers and creeks surge after days of rain

Jacob Spence, director of Marion County Emergency Management, called it a once-in-a-lifetime type flood.

“This is an unprecedented event, and unfortunately we’re setting some new records,” he told The Associated Press.

The National Weather Service reported that more than 11 inches (28 centimeters) of rain fell over a two-day period in some areas. The White River crested at more than 24 feet (7.32 meters) in the communities of Anderson and Noblesville, surpassing records set in 1913.

While some floodwaters were receding north of Indianapolis, flash-flood warnings and watches remained in place Saturday across a swath of central Indiana.

Forecasters expected the White River to crest Saturday evening in the Indianapolis area, where National Guard vehicles were among those helping with the rescue efforts. Rita Reith, a spokesperson with the Indianapolis Fire Department, put the number of rescues at 95 people and 45 pets as of late afternoon.

Earlier this week, severe storms wreaked havoc across other parts of the Midwest, causing tornadoes, heavy rains and flash flooding. Storm damage was reported from the Chicago area all the way to western Pennsylvania. Power had yet to be restored for some residents in other parts of Indiana.

Cleanup begins for upstream communities

Residents posted videos on social media that showed submerged homes, vehicles stranded in high water, a power pole being toppled by rushing water and roads being washed away.

There were ominous clouds over Noblesville on Saturday morning, but the river already had marked its historic crest the night before, leaving homes standing in water, parking lots flooded and corn fields saturated. The community's historic covered bridge — Potter's Bridge — was still standing.

“This is crazy for all of us,” said Matt Doudt, the city's photographer, who was out early to document the aftermath. He pointed to a grassy commons area that usually hosts farmers' market and concerts. That was under water. So was a brand new memorial and flower garden recently installed by the city.

He said Noblesville, with its historic charm and brick streets, didn't get much rain in recent days but that the flooding was caused by the downpours that happened in communities upstream. All that water had no where to go but rush down to Noblesville — and now Indianapolis, he said.

Still, Doudt and others are thankful.

“We have a lot of damage,” he said, “But we didn’t lose any lives and everybody got rescued and our city is taking care of people pretty well.”

___

Montoya Bryan reported from Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The 24-time major champion fell to Thiago Agustin Tirante 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 on Saturday in a match that took 2 hours, 44 minutes in hot and humid conditions.

A 25-year-old from Argentina, Tirante is ranked No. 50 in the world. Djokovic — a three-time Cincinnati champion and No. 5 in the rankings — was playing for the first time since his loss to top-ranked Jannik Sinner in the semifinals at Wimbledon.

Up next for Djokovic is the U.S. Open, which starts Aug. 30 in New York.

Djokovic appeared to struggle physically in the heat and had his 10-match winning streak in Cincinnati snapped. The 39-year-old told reporters that an unspecified health condition made it difficult for him to play in hot and humid weather.

“It’s just a condition that I have, health-wise, that has been bothering me for the past couple of years,” Djokovic said. “A lot of issues, especially when it is humid and it is hot. I did anticipate it (would be humid), but there are all these things, like nerves and everything involved that make it worse, and that’s what happened.”

Djokovic has had plenty of success in Cincinnati, with a 45-13 record and titles in 2018, 2020 and 2023. But he wasn't sure he would return.

“I certainly hope so, but it looks more likely not, unfortunately,” Djokovic said. “But let’s see what the future brings.”

Djokovic saved 13 of the 15 break points he faced. Tirante broke Djokovic's serve in the ninth game of the final set and then served it out.

“I think this is the best win of my career,” Tirante said. “I think I really did a good job inside the court. I managed very well the nerves of playing against a legend like Novak.”

In a rain-delayed match that ended at 2:15 a.m. Sunday, top-seeded Alexander Zverev rallied to avoid a third straight loss, beating Cameron Norrie 3-6, 6-3, 6-3. After losing to Jannik Sinner in the Wimbledon final, Zverev — the French Open champion — returned to play in Montreal and fell to Tallon Griekspoor in his opener Aug. 5.

Eala and Pegula win in women's draw

On the women's side, Alexandra Eala of the Philippines continued her run of strong play with a victory over Elena-Gabriela Ruse, who lost the first set and stopped playing in the second with an ankle injury. Eala — who is No. 20 in the rankings — won her first WTA singles title in Washington earlier this month and has won eight of her last nine matches.

American Jessica Pegula beat Simona Waltert 6-3, 6-2, improving her record to 25-6 on hard courts in 2026. The third-ranked Pegula won the title in Cincinnati in 2024.

___

See AP’s full tennis coverage here

Pallister was under world-record pace for much of the race and touched in 8 minutes, 6.10 seconds to erase Ledecky's championship record from 2018.

“I was just so locked in and I've been really focused on what I want," Pallister said. “The 800 is my favorite event.”

Ledecky took silver in a season-best 8:07.26.

“That was definitely my best swim of the week, so I’m actually pretty happy with it,” she said. “If I was going to get second tonight, I wanted to make it a good one. Just wanted to make it hard for Lani.”

Ledecky is the four-time Olympic champion in her signature event. The American's lone previous defeat in an 800 free final since 2010 came in a small domestic meet in February 2024 against Summer McIntosh of Canada.

“Katie's such a dominant force,” a breathless Pallister said after the race.

Kate Douglass lowered her own world record in the 50 free for the second time Saturday, winning the final in 23.19 — one of three events on the final night.

“I was doubting myself, questioning my ability to do the triple,” she said. “My coaches and my teammates just really had a lot of faith in me and they really gave me a lot of energy.”

In the morning preliminaries, the 24-year-old American swam 23.49 to take the mark away from teammate Gretchen Walsh, who finished second in the evening final in 23.74.

Douglass returned 25 minutes later to finish second in the 200 breaststroke. She rallied from third down the stretch but couldn’t catch Alexanne Lepage of Canada, who led the entire race and touched in a lifetime best of 2:21.73. Douglass finished in 2:22.57.

“I feel like I’m just a little bit shocked,” Lepage said.

Walsh had owned the 50 free record of 23.55 since setting it in June at an international meet in Rome.

It’s the third time Douglass has lowered the world mark in the sprint race. She first did it on June 19 at the TYR Pro Swim Series meet in Indianapolis, posting a time of 23.59. Nine days later, Walsh lowered it again.

Fourteen minutes after climbing out of the pool, Douglass appeared on the medals podium in her cap and goggles to accept her gold. The other medalists were dressed in their usual team sweats. Eleven minutes after that, Douglass dived in for the 200 breast final.

Douglass capped a busy night by anchoring the U.S. women to a dominant victory in the 4 x 100 medley relay. Their time of 3:50.43 was a championship record. Australia was second in 3:55.09.

Douglass is a five-time Olympic medalist. She earned silver in the 50 free at the 2024 world championships but didn’t compete in the event at the 2024 Paris Games.

Her 50 free was the second individual world record set at the meet that includes swimmers from the U.S., Australia, Canada, Japan and China, among others.

The U.S. men also topped Australia in the 4 x 100 medley relay. Will Modglin, Van Mathias, Luca Urlando and anchor Jack Alexy swam a championship-record time of 3:29.06.

Sam Short of Australia won the 1,500 free to go with his earlier titles in the 400 and 800 free events. His time of 14:33.97 was the sixth-fastest in history and broke Grant Hackett’s 24-year-old championship record.

“That was actually so much fun,” Short said.

Kazushi Imafuku of Japan took silver in 14:42.59 and two-time defending Olympic champion Bobby Finke earned bronze in 14:44.26 on the same day he lost his world record to Johannes Liebmann of Germany at the European championships.

The men’s 50 free was won by Jamie Jack of Australia in a championship record of 21.35. American Jack Alexy took silver in 21.42.

Yu Yiting of China defeated a strong field including world record-holder McIntosh to win the 200 individual medley.

Yu was under world-record pace on the opening butterfly leg before American Regan Smith took over the lead on the backstroke. Yu moved back in front on the breaststroke and held off McIntosh in the closing meters. Yu’s time of 2:07.45 set a championship record in the outdoor pool in Irvine.

McIntosh, the Canadian star whose lone individual victory of the week was in the 400 IM, took silver in 2:07.47. American Alex Walsh, the older sister of Gretchen Walsh, earned bronze in 2:07.66. Smith finished fourth.

McIntosh claimed silver in the 200 freestyle and bronze in the 4 x 200 freestyle relay. She surprisingly failed to qualify for the 400 free championship final, but finished first in the ‘B’ final.

“It wasn’t a horrible swim, but getting touched out is something that is never a good thing to feel,” she said. “Overall, the meet didn’t go the way I wanted it to, so there’ll definitely be a lot of reflection.”

Zac Stubblety-Cook of Australia went from fourth to first in the 200 breast, winning in 2:08.09. American Josh Matheny earned silver. Shin Ohashi, who led until the final 15 meters, took bronze.

In the men’s 200 IM, Tomoyuki Matushita of Japan won in 1:56.02 over American Carson Foster.

___

See AP’s full sports coverage here

He may not have looked the part, yet Makhachev was again a winner — all while toppling one of UFC's most enduring records.

Makhachev set the UFC record with his 17th straight victory, reaching the milestone with a unanimous decision over Ian Machado Garry to successfully defend his 170-pound championship in the main event of UFC 330 on Saturday night.

Makhachev won 49-46 on two scorecards and 48-47 on the third in a competitive five-round fight that never rose to the level of greatness.

“He gave me a hard time," Makhachev said, "but I still prove it every fight.”

Makhachev (29-1) was tied with UFC Hall of Famer Anderson Silva with 16 straight victories and has not lost since UFC 192 in 2015. Makhachev won the welterweight crown in his first attempt when he beat Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 322 in November 2025.

He took his share of head kicks in his first title defense, notably in the third round that did most of the cosmetic damage, yet bested a record set by Silva that had stood for 13 years.

“If he keeps going like he says he's going to keep going, it might never be beaten,” UFC CEO Dana White said.

The 34-year-old Makhachev nearly ended the fight in the second when he threw his left foot and caught Machado Garry flush with a headkick that dropped the challenger to his rear end. Makhachev pounced with a series of punches that had the sellout crowd of 19,238 fans roaring in anticipation of a quick finish, only for Machado Garry — serenaded throughout with obscenity-laced chants — to hold on and finish the round.

Machado Garry (17-2) won the third round on all three scorecards and rallied in the fifth round with seven significant strikes landed to none for Makhachev.

Yet it wasn’t enough to topple one of UFC’s great fighters.

“I believed in my heart and soul I was better than him tonight, and he won," Machado Garry said. “No complaints, no excuses. I’m 28, I have a decade of domination already. This man won tonight.”

Makhachev — who held the lightweight championship and has seven total wins in title fights — continues to dominate no matter the weight class.

Dern defends 115-pound title on first try

Mackenzie Dern successfully defended the 115-pound championship in her first title defense with a unanimous decision victory over Gillian Robertson that could set her up for a fight with division great Zhang Weili.

Dern (17-5) won the vacant strawweight belt in her last fight at UFC 321 and won a lopsided and lackluster first defense against Robertson.

Dern won 49-46 on two scorecards and 48-47 on the third in the five-round fight.

“I wanted to get the submission with Gillian," Dern said. "I definitely wanted to submit her. That was the goal.”

Dern nearly made Robertson (17-9) tap in the first round with a choke hold that about turned the challenger’s face as pinkish-red as her braided hair. Dern might have won the bout had it stretched even another 30 seconds, but Robertson was saved by the bell.

Too bad the fight didn't end there.

The next four rounds were relatively uneventful, and the title match slowed to a near complete stop as they mostly locked up on the canvas with barely a strike thrown.

Dern's 7-year-old daughter peered her head over the barricade from her front row seat and shouted encouragement each time mom got close to her side of the cage. The little girl could be heard well over a rowdy crowd that had about been lulled into passiveness — and eventually, boos in the fifth round — in the humdrum title fight.

Barboza calls it a career after loss at UFC 330

Edson Barboza left his fight gloves on the mat and choked back tears as he retired following a lightweight loss on the main card to Esteben Ribovics.

The 40-year-old Barboza received a standing ovation and was flanked by his family as he officially called it quits after an MMA career that began in 2009. He made his UFC debut a year later and won multiple Fight of the Night honors. He lost the last four fights of his career.

“Every single fight, I promise I did my best,” Barboza said from inside the cage.

Barboza dropped to his knees and bowed his head as he lay down his gloves and was consoled by UFC ring announcer Bruce Buffer as he made the final walk back to the locker room.

Different kind of Broad Street Bullies usher in UFC’s return to Philadelphia

UFC held only its third numbered card in Philadelphia and first fight event overall in the city since 2019.

UFC 101 was held in August 2009, and UFC 133 was in August 2011.

Philly fight fans were in the mood to make up for lost time and about packed the arena and were wild for the punishing action the preliminary fights delivered hours before the main card was set to start.

It’s a perfect fit for a city that loves their bullies.

The fans got an early reward when 39-year-old Philly fighter Jeremiah Wells — who was booed on his walkout — won via submission on the card's opening night and won over the inhospitable fans.

Tresean Gore won his middleweight fight, but lost his teeth in a unanimous decision victory over Vicente Luque.

Gore took a knee to his mouth and lost most of his bottom front teeth. They littered the cage and the fight official picked at least one up with his gloved hand. Gore pulled down his lower lip to show the bloody results as he talked to fight announcer Joe Rogan.

Charles Johnson celebrated his submission victory by leading the crowd in an off-key rendition of “Fly, Eagles, Fly.” It helps to pander. He walked out of the cage to a big ovation.

___

AP MMA: https://apnews.com/hub/mixed-martial-arts

The possibility the island could witness its first direct hit from a hurricane in 155 years faded as the eye of the storm passed the island’s southern tip. Landfall is not expected at this point, said National Weather Service meteorologist Joseph Clark.

However, hurricane-force winds are expected to continue into the overnight hours, with the strongest wind gusts likely in areas of higher terrain, the National Hurricane Center said. Heavy rainfall into Sunday could produce flooding and mudslides, while powerful waves pound the coast, the agency said.

Tropical storm warnings remain in effect for the islands of Maui, Molokai, Lanai, Kahoolawe, Oahu, Kauai and Niihau as the storm moves west. The Big Island is the state's largest, with a population of about 210,000.

Whitecap surf slammed ashore nonstop, howling winds whipped the tops of palm trees and waterways swelled with fast-moving runoff from relentless rain that blew nearly sideways.

Gov. Josh Green said at least one person died in a car accident in the South Point area of the Big Island, while 19 roofs were lost and 190 flights were postponed. “You definitely want to be home, do not be out on the roads,” he said.

Forecasters said higher elevations on the island, dominated by the towering Mauna Kea volcano, could get as much as 25 inches (63.5 centimeters) of rain. That could cause life-threatening mudslides in a mountainous area where people live off the grid in improvised housing.

Earlier the governor called it an “enormous storm,” capable of destructive flooding and even the possibility of wildfires kicked up by strong winds across the island chain.

Tens of thousands of homes were without power.

Residents prepare for the worst

Bobby Camara, a 75-year-old lifelong resident, said he planned to “hunker down, cross my fingers, hope the lights don’t go out” at a care home just outside Hilo. He said gas stations were busy as people sought fuel for chain saws and vehicles.

“I think stocking up is part of life over here. ... You learn to be self-reliant,” Camara said.

Mike Caputo, who lives in Keaau, near the Big Island's east coast, said his power generator was ready and a 10,000-gallon (37.8 kiloliter) home water tank was full. He said the main concern was flash flooding and fallen trees, especially albizia, a common tree.

“They’re not very sturdy, but they grow extremely large,” said Caputo, 50, a local fire captain. “They can make roads impassable."

Warnings posted everywhere

Lala intensified from a tropical storm into a hurricane early Saturday as its maximum sustained winds increased to 75 mph (120 kph), the hurricane center reported, making it a Category 1 hurricane. The Big Island is Hawaii’s largest and has a population of about 210,000.

A hurricane last made landfall on the islands in 1992, when Hurricane Iniki — a Category 4 storm — lashed Kauai.

“It did $3 billion worth of damage. It destroyed thousands of homes, and it did kill six people,” said Green, the governor. “We just can never know if a storm is going to turn.”

The Big Island was last hit directly in 1871, when a Category 3 hurricane hit the northeast corner, according to research by a University of Hawaii atmospheric scientist.

On Saturday, shelters were opened, events were canceled and ranchers were urged to leave their cattle in pastures, rather than structures that might collapse.

Christine Matsuda, who lives in Waimea, on the northern side of the island, said “big gusts every few minutes rattle the whole house.”

“We're finding unexpected leaks in places that don't see water under normal conditions,” Matsuda said.

The hurricane center predicted 8 to 12 inches (20.3 to 30.5 centimeters) of total rainfall across Maui and the lower elevations of the Big Island, and 4 to 6 inches (10.2 to 15.2 centimeters) across the island chain.

Many Hawaii residents are still dealing with the aftermath of devastating floods in March.

___

Associated Press writer Jennifer Sinco Kelleher in Honolulu contributed.

___

This story has been correctly attribute the quote about damage from Hurricane Iniki. It was said by Gov. Josh Green, not Steven Businger.

Home Depot reports its latest results on Tuesday, followed by Target and Lowes on Wednesday, and then Walmart on Thursday. The results will help give investors a more detailed picture of how businesses and consumers are handling stubbornly high inflation.

The rate of inflation remains solidly above 3%. The ongoing U.S. war with Iran prompted a surge in oil prices, which jolted gasoline prices. Higher prices on everything from gasoline to groceries and any goods that are shipped could prompt people to shift or cut spending.

Results from Home Depot and Lowes could provide more insight into the housing market and whether people are spending more or less on home improvements. Results and forecasts from retail giants Target and Walmart could provide more insight into how households are budgeting and spending.

Wall Street and economists will get more details about the Fed's interest rate policy when the central bank releases minutes from the July meeting on Wednesday.

The Fed once again held its interest rate steady in July amid worries about stubborn inflation, the jobs market and the direction of the economy. But three officials dissented in favor of higher rates during the meeting. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh described the policy discussion to reporters as a “good family fight.” Wall Street expects at least one rate hike before the end of 2026.

“Don’t let the boys get hot,” the driver of Team Penske’s No. 22 Ford said after fending off a late charge by Chase Briscoe to earn his 39th career win by 0.392 seconds. “We’re pretty strong right now. It’s awesome to see the speed in the 22 again.”

After falling as low as 20th in the points standings at the season's halfway mark, the three-time Cup Series champion is surging toward the NASCAR Chase. Two races remain until the title run featuring the top 16 drivers.

With two victories in the past four races (after only one win in his previous 56 starts), Logano has jumped to ninth in the points standings and established himself as a championship contender again.

It’s no surprise given that it’s the 2026 season. Since 2014, Logano has either won the Cup title or advanced to the championship round in every even-numbered year, and he typically does it with a late-season spree. In his last title run, the 36-year-old won three of the final 10 races.

“We’ve seen it a lot over the years once he gets that confidence,” crew chief Paul Wolfe said. “He’s very good under pressure situations.”

Logano scored his third Richmond win Saturday but his first in nine years at the track.

“Gosh, it was a great car,” he said. “We’ve had a great car here the last five races, and we haven’t been able to capitalize on the win. We’ve been so close, but it was sweet redemption today.”

Logano capitalized on the final strategy call by Wolfe, who pitted his driver just after taking the lead from Briscoe with 39 laps remaining. Logano needed only 15 laps to retake the lead from Christopher Bell, who was trying to stretch his tires to the finish on Richmond’s abrasive surface over the last 57 laps.

Briscoe led a race-high 171 of 400 laps. He had a best finish of 11th in nine previous starts at Richmond, one of only three active tracks where he had yet to score a top 10. After qualifying second, he passed pole-sitter Ryan Blaney on the first lap to lead the first lap of his career on the 0.75-mile oval.

“This place has been a real struggle to me,” said Briscoe, who clinched a spot in the Chase with his sixth top 10 in the past seven races. “To get close and not get it done is so frustrating. We had a great points night, but just frustrating to say the least to have one slip away like that at the end.”

Austin Cindric finished third and credited his teammate Logano with providing the advice that helped him score his best result since an April 2025 win at Talladega Superspeedway.

“This is a racetrack that I feel like Joey Logano could finish top five in my rental car,” said Cindric, who. “It’s a place where I study him so much.”

Denny Hamlin took fourth, followed by Chase Elliott, who notched his first top five since winning at Texas Motor Speedway three months ago.

Hamlin family dedication

In an emotional ceremony Friday morning, Richmond Raceway dedicated the grandstand seats where Hamlin’s parents sat for years watching NASCAR races long before their son became a 64-time winner in the Cup Series. Hamlin’s father, Dennis, died in a house fire last December.

The track’s tribute was among the highlights of a homecoming weekend for Hamlin, who grew up about 20 minutes from the track.

“It’s really the time I get to see my brother and sister that still live up here,” said Hamlin, who lives in the Charlotte, N.C., area. “I’ve got lots of high school friends that have their own campsite here. It will be amazing if they don’t get arrested.”

Mirror driving

In an appearance on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s podcast this week, Ty Gibbs lobbied for removing the digital rearview camera that NASCAR implemented four years ago. Gibbs joked that some Cup drivers would be out of the series without the high-tech device that makes blocking easier by anticipating an opponent’s move. He’s gotten no feedback from NASCAR but hopes a change could be made in the offseason.

“I didn’t hear anything on it, but I thought I’d recommend it,” Gibbs said. “I just think everybody probably agrees to it, too. I mean, a lot of people do, so I thought I’d say it. I think it could happen. They took windshield wipers off, and we run in the rain still, so I think it could happen.”

Another sellout

Richmond Raceway announced its grandstands were full for the second consecutive year, marking the 11th sellout in 24 Cup Series races this season. Many of those tracks have reduced seating capacities in the past 15 years, and Richmond is among the most notable. The track’s capacity is roughly half of its 112,000-seat peak in the mid-2000s.

Up next

The NASCAR Cup Series will make its annual stop at New Hampshire Motor Speedway with a 301-lap race Aug. 23 at the 1.058-mile oval. Ryan Blaney is the defending race winner at the track.

___

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

The USS George Washington is departing the Pacific and expected to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East amid growing concerns about mental health and supply issues aboard the long-deployed carrier. The Lincoln has had its time at sea extended from its original May return date to support operations against Iran.

The lack of a U.S. carrier in the Pacific may be short-lived if the Navy deploys another in the next couple of months. But it shows how the open-ended operations with Iran are running some American sailors ragged, analysts say, while the Trump administration further retreats from the Asia-Pacific region and focuses on the Western Hemisphere.

“The administration says that the Pacific is supposed to be the most important behind the Western Hemisphere,” said Greg Poling, director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Instead, the U.S. is "doing the exact opposite" of its previously expressed goal of pulling out of the Middle East.

American allies in the Pacific are unsettled over the unpredictability of the Republican administration, Poling said, while Beijing “is quite happy with U.S. distraction, with the frustration of U.S. allies and partners."

China may take advantage of US carrier's absence

Beijing sees the U.S. military presence in the region as a threat to China’s rise and an obstacle to its ambition to seize Taiwan, the self-governing island it claims as its own. But the United States has argued that the Pacific region is too important economically to lose.

No one expects China to invade Taiwan because an American aircraft carrier has left the region. But the carrier's absence gives the Chinese another opportunity to show its strength, said Bryan Clark, a former Navy submariner who is a defense analyst at the Hudson Institute.

“They’re using this as part of the narrative to demonstrate to the Philippines, to Japan, to Indonesia and others that the U.S. is not the big dog in the western Pacific anymore,” Clark said. “They would just prefer that countries in the region decide that China is the bigger power and the U.S. is not able to guarantee their security anymore.”

China conducted naval exercises this week with Indonesia and recently has shown signs of aggression toward Japan and the Philippines, two key U.S. allies that also have territorial disputes with Beijing.

China carried out military drills this month near the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea. Both China and the Philippines have claims over the shoal. Last month, a Chinese guided-missile destroyer conducted a live-fire exercise off Japan’s southernmost island of Okinotori.

Adm. Frank Bradley, head of the U.S. Special Operations Command, has been trying to reassure regional allies of Washington’s commitment. He was in Manila on Thursday, telling his Filipino counterparts that U.S. special operations forces are ready to step up joint exercises to strengthen the countries' alliance. He also is expected to travel to Japan.

“We have the ability to project force, the United States, anywhere on the globe,” Bradley told The Associated Press. “And when the threat in the region of the Middle East has been attended to, we will redeploy and reorient and be able to project that force wherever else it might be required.”

“I also feel very confident in the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ ability to protect their sovereignty here and for us to remain close with them,” he said.

Evan Sankey, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute who focuses on U.S. policy toward China, said aircraft carriers provide psychological assurance to U.S. allies. The absence of carriers in the region, he said, “adds to the general sense that the U.S. is distracted by events in the Middle East.”

Trump has relied on aircraft carriers for military actions

Trump has relied heavily on aircraft carriers to support military operations during his second term. For example, the USS Gerald R. Ford returned home in mid-May after an 11-month deployment, the longest since the Vietnam War, during which it supported the U.S. fight against Iran and the capture of Venezuela's then-leader, Nicolás Maduro.

The Ford had experienced a fire in a laundry space that forced the carrier to turn around and return to the Mediterranean Sea for repairs and left hundreds of sailors without places to sleep. Meanwhile, the Lincoln has spent a record uninterrupted time at sea of more than 240 days. Democratic lawmakers have been calling for investigations and greater visibility into conditions aboard the ship.

Warships and their crews can only handle so much, said Robert Farley, who teaches national security and diplomacy at the University of Kentucky and often writes about aircraft carriers.

“People don’t get enough rest. It's psychologically exhausting. And R&R is part of keeping the crew healthy,” Farley said. “Sometimes it’s framed as, ‘These people haven’t had a vacation.’ But we are dealing with well-known limits on the capacity of a crew to operate at top efficiency over time. And that just declines."

Clark, of the Hudson Institute, said the squeeze on the nation's aircraft carriers stems from the lack of preparation and planning for the Iran war.

“If we were going to mobilize to do this kind of conflict, and we anticipated it might go this long, we might have done some changes to the carrier schedule to make sure more would be available,” Clark said.

Clark said the Navy has 11 aircraft carriers and typically deploys two or three at a time. But it could soon deploy four if the USS Theodore Roosevelt leaves San Diego for the Middle East, allowing the Washington to return to Pacific.

But the massive warships will need maintenance, likely causing a bottleneck at the nation's only two carrier shipyards.

“We’ll end up with a maintenance debt that needs to be paid for the next few years,” Clark said. “We’ll probably have less carrier presence than we’ve had in the previous years because carriers will be lined up to get into the shipyard.”

There are questions about the use of aircraft carriers in modern warfare

Michael Swaine, a senior research fellow in the Quincy Institute’s East Asia Program, questions the future need for aircraft carriers as warfare rapidly changes.

Carriers can be more easily targeted with drones and missiles, particularly by an adversary such as China, Swaine said, while smaller ships and submarines can be as effective in striking targets as the fighter jets that launch off a carrier.

Top Navy officials have indicated a desire to move away from a heavy reliance on carriers. Adm. Daryl Caudle, chief of naval operations, told The Associated Press in February that he wants to convince commanders to use smaller, newer ships and other assets instead of consistently turning to huge aircraft carriers.

___

Associated Press writer Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this report.

In the morning preliminaries, she swam 23.49 to take the mark away from teammate Gretchen Walsh, who finished second in the evening final in 23.74.

Walsh had owned the record of 23.55 since June when she set the mark at an international meet in Rome.

It’s the third time Douglass has lowered the world mark in the sprint race. She first did it on June 19 at the TYR Pro Swim Series meet in Indianapolis, posting a time of 23.59. Nine days later, Walsh lowered it again.

Douglass, 24, is a five-time Olympic medalist. She earned silver in the 50 free at the 2024 world championships but didn't compete in the event at the 2024 Paris Games.

It was the second individual world record set at the meet that includes swimmers from the U.S., Australia, Canada, Japan and China, among others.

___

See AP’s full sports coverage here

Houston Police Department watch command received a call at 6:29 p.m. reporting suspicious activity. The caller stated a husband was acting strangely and made a bomb threat referencing the airport. One Southwest Airlines flight was subjected to a security screening at the request of local law enforcement.

• Heights family says mail dispute with carrier has led to months of missing mail

“We had some brief holding of flights on the ground as one flight was subject to security screening at the request of local law enforcement,” said Chris Perry, Southwest Airlines media relations. “We’ll defer to Houston PD for anything additional they wish to share, but our operations are rolling again at HOU.”

HPD is continuing to investigate. No additional details about the outcome of the security screening have been released.

The sport has given so much to them, culminating with enshrinement into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday night.

Parker carried a ball up to the podium for her speech as part of the 2026 class that also included the 1996 U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team, Chamique Holdsclaw, NBA player Amar’e Stoudemire, longtime NBA official Joey Crawford, NBA coaches Doc Rivers and Mike D’Antoni, and Gonzaga coach Mark Few.

“It felt weird to walk on the stage without the reason I’m here today,' Parker said, talking to the ball. ”We did a lot together: dunk on UConn at UConn, shimmied over our right shoulder and hit that sick fadeway, had our own signature shoe, first woman to grace the cover of NBA2K. ... We stand on this podium as first-ballot Hall of Famers."

Parker, who won three WNBA titles, two MVPs, a pair of championships at Tennessee and two Olympic gold medals, then broke down while closing her speech, saying that “we were meant to be a love story that began 27 years ago.”

Delle Donne also used her speech as a love letter to the game with all the ups and downs she faced in her career. But she always kept life in perspective, thanks to her older sister Lizzie, who is blind and deaf.

“She never played in front of thousands of people, never had a standing ovation. never been interviewed after a big win. Yet I’ve never met anyone stronger,” Delle Donne said, choking up. “Thank you all for keeping me going.”

Delle Donne won MVP awards in 2015 and 2019, the second of which came when she led the Washington Mystics to their lone WNBA championship. Delle Donne became the first player in league history to shoot more than 50% from the field, 40% from behind the 3-point line and 90% from the free-throw line.

She started off her speech giving a shoutout to actor Larry David, who was in the audience. She told him that she hoped her speech was “pretty, pretty, pretty good.” using David's signature line. Delle Donne was introduced to him before the ceremony by Rivers.

Rivers, who won 1,194 regular-season games as an NBA coach, which is the sixth most in league history. He was emotional while talking about his brother Grady, who inspired him to be a better player.

Holdsclaw thanked all of her former teammates and coaches in her acceptance speech. She was best known for helping Tennessee win three straight titles from 1996-98, the first team to accomplish that, under Hall of Fame coach Pat Summitt.

Summitt died in 2016 following a battle with Alzheimer’s.

“One person that I wish was here as my presenter was my demanding and wonderfully supporting college coach, Pat Summitt,” Holdsclaw said. “The one and only. coach Summitt allowed me to grow as a player and person. I miss her dearly.”

Holdsclaw’s 1998 team was Tennessee’s first undefeated season at 39–0 and the Lady Vols also set an NCAA record for the most wins in a season at that time. Holdsclaw went on to have an 11-year WNBA career.

She also thanked the 1996 Olympic team, saying she had posters of their players on her wall when she was in high school.

That team helped start the Americans’ 30-year Olympic dominance that has seen the U.S. win eight straight gold medals.

Few has been Gonzaga’s coach since 1999 and has led the team to the NCAA Tournament every year. He’s won numerous West Coast Conference championships and reached the NCAA title game twice.

“What a crazy, surreal moment for me,” Few said. “The town I grew up in had a population of 1,500 people and had one stoplight. To be standing where I am today is absolutely mind boggling.”

Crawford officiated more than 2,500 regular-season games in the NBA, nearly 400 more in the postseason and 50 of those were in the NBA Finals during his 39-year career. He said he first dreamed of officiating in the NBA when he was a teenager and did everything he could to make that possible.

D’Antoni really came into his own as a player and coach in Italy before he returned to the NBA. He developed a fast-paced style with the Phoenix Suns led by fellow inductee Stoudemire.

___

AP Basketball Writer Doug Feinberg contributed to this story.

___

See AP’s full sports coverage here

Driver and Navarrette were among the new cast members announced Friday night at Disney's D23 convention by Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, along with Driver's “Girls” castmate Christopher Abbott as Professor Charles Xavier and Maya Boyd as Storm. The film is slated for release in May 2028.

The announcements were the biggest news to emerge from Disney Entertainment's D23 presentation that also brought updates on its forthcoming “Star Wars” titles and a song-and-dance that went sideways from the stars of “Frozen 3.”

Driver's name was often rumored and often dismissed as an “X-Men” possibility. Many thought he'd be playing the antihero Magneto. The rest of the cast appeared on stage at the Honda Center arena in Anaheim, California, while Driver appeared on a big screen.

“Kevin and I had been talking for years about my joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and I think we finally found the perfect film,” Driver told the crowd of 12,000 via video. “So I’m very excited to be playing the role of Maaagneto!” he said before pausing, taking it back and saying, “even better, Nathaniel Millbury,” an alias for Mister Sinister.

Also on stage were previously announced cast members Samara Weaving, who is playing Emma Frost; Kit Connor, who is playing Scott “Cyclops” Summers; and Sadie Sink, whose role as Jean Grey was revealed by her appearance in this summer’s Marvel megahit “Spider-Man: Brand New Day.”

The castmates were as new to each other as they were to the fans.

“They’ve just met backstage for the very first time,” Feige said.

Navarrette had also been heavily rumored to have a role after fast becoming one of Hollywood's most sought-after actors for her striking performance as a spellbound girlfriend in the indie horror hit “Obsessed” earlier this year.

The “X-Men” joining the MCU became possible with Disney's 2019 acquisition of Fox's film studio.

Director Jake Schreier is heading the reboot. and two writers from prestige TV — “Beef” creator Lee Sung Jin and “The Bear” co-showrunner Joanna Calo — are working on the script.

Gosling cosplays as Kade Auberon in 'Star Wars' presentation.

Ryan Gosling and director Shawn Levy headlined the “Star Wars” part of the night with a presentation on their film “Star Wars: Starfighter,” which is getting a May, 2027 release.

Gosling's appearance on stage was preceded by clips of him as a child cast member of “The Mickey Mouse Club.”

“I owe a lot to Disney," Gosling said. "Had they not looked far and wide and come to my hometown I would not be here today. Now, 30 years later, I'm back, and it's changing my life again.”

Shawn Levy put on Gosling a leather jacket with his “Star Wars” character Kade Auberon's skull-and-bones symbol.

Gosling described Auberon as “a guy from the wrong side of the galaxy, whose fate is intertwined with the fastest starfighter ever built,” before showing clips from the film.

Disney announced earlier this summer at its San Diego Comic-Con presentation that Gosling will play the character Ghost Rider in the MCU, first in a “Black Panther” sequel, then in a “Ghost Rider” film that Levy will also direct. Both are set for release in 2028.

“Star Wars: Ahsoka” star Rosario Dawson also appeared to promote the Season 2 return of her Disney+ series, as did Hayden Christensen, who will return as a force-ghost version of her mentor Anakin Skywalker.

More Marvel with classic stars Downey, Evans, Atwell and Bettany

Marvel veterans also took the D23 stage as past and future “Avengers” stars Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr. and Hayley Atwell introduced a new trailer for “Avengers: Doomsday,” to be released Dec. 18.

The footage shows Downey, now playing Dr. Doom having shed his Iron Man suit, beating back Chris Hemsworth’s Thor and his hammer, and shows Evans, who is returning as Captain America, holding a baby. And it shows Ian McKellan as a long-haired, haggard, struggling version of Magneto.

Hugh Jackman appeared on the big screen to tell Feige he's willing to appear in “Doomsday” as Wolverine. Whether he'll be in the movie has led to heated fan speculation. His answer wasn't definitive, but most bets are now switching to yes.

Fans also got a glimpse of the soon-to-drop Disney+ series “Visionquest.” Paul Bettany, who returns to his Marvel role as Vision, and James Spader, who returns to playing Ultron, showed a trailer with oddly human and ordinary versions of their cybernetic characters. Bettany said it’s been a pleasure to play multiple versions of Vision, who has “rather inconveniently died several times.” But, he said, “I'm told in the Marvel Universe that no one is ever really dead.”

“Frozen 3” stars serenade fans, sort of

Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel sang an eerie new arrangement of “Frozen Heart” from their first film playing princess sisters Elsa and Anna as they introduced the forthcoming “Frozen 3.”

Or they tried to, anyway. The segment was plagued with malfunctioning audio, video, and a set of doors that failed to open.

They ad-libbed their way through it like pros.

“Should we go back and try it again?” Menzel asked at the song's end.

Bell described for the crowd everything that was supposed to happen and said, “You guys were gonna freak out.”

They found their way back to the script.

“Doesn't it kind of feel like the world of Frozen is a bit different?” Bell said. Menzel added, “Maybe a little bit more mysterious?”

“Yes, OK, we're back on track,” Bell said, to big laughs.

Their castmate Josh Gad followed with a rendition of “Oooh, Samantha,” a love song his snowman character Olaf will sing in “Frozen 3.”

The night's other big musical set pieces included songs and dance from the cast of “The Greatest Showman,” the stage musical adaptation of the 2017 Jackman film that is premiering on London's West End next year.

___

This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Inde Navarrette’s last name throughout the story and in headlines.

The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the contract, which would make Witherspoon the highest-paid cornerback in the NFL, hasn’t been finalized. In a television interview during Saturday's preseason game against the Dallas Cowboys, Witherspoon said he was grateful.

“It feels good,” Witherspoon said. “Long time coming, but we had to get it done, though. I’m thankful. All glory to God. Shoutout to (general manager John Schneider) and all the people that are upstairs for making this happen.”

The Seahawks exercised their fifth-year option on Witherspoon back in March. They finalized his long-term deal on the same day they began their preseason.

Witherspoon, 25, was selected No. 5 overall by the Seahawks in the 2023 NFL draft. In the same round of that draft, the Seahawks took wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who in March agreed to a four-year, $168.8 million contract with $120 million guaranteed.

Witherspoon has been selected for the Pro Bowl in each of his three seasons. He was a second-team All-Pro and helped the Seahawks win the Super Bowl last season.

Witherspoon appeared in all three of Seattle’s playoff games during its Super Bowl run, making 17 tackles and defending four passes.

In 43 regular-season games, Witherspoon has 249 tackles, 32 passes defended, 16 tackles for loss, 4 1/2 sacks and two interceptions. Now he's ready to show he's worth what the Seahawks are paying him.

“Can you be consistent in what you do? That’s what defines greatness to me,” Witherspoon said. “That’s what I’m chasing right there.”

___

See AP’s full NFL coverage here

The family says the problems started about a year ago, when their mail carrier began leaving mail on their cars instead of putting it in the mailbox.

The carrier later alleged that the family’s dog attacked her. The family disputes that claim, saying their small dog is chained when it is outside. HPD tells KPRC they are temporarily unable to verify reports of a dog attack or bite at the address due to a technical issue.

Family moves mailbox

In an effort to make deliveries easier, the family says they moved their mailbox closer to the driveway so the carrier could pull in, deliver the mail and leave.

But they say the situation only got worse.

The family says the carrier eventually stopped delivering mail to their home altogether. They say they now wait outside for deliveries, and when the carrier does not stop, they are left to confront her about their missing mail.

In one video provided by the family, the carrier can be heard telling them: “I don’t have any mail for y’all. Handle that at the station.”

Other carriers still deliver

The family says other carriers have continued to deliver to the home.

Video shows weekend carriers handing mail directly to someone outside the house. The family also provided video of an Amazon driver stopping near the home and making a delivery.

The family says this is the first time in 32 years of living at the home that they’ve had problems receiving their mail.

• Accused child sex abuse suspect arrested after fleeing Texas twice, using multiple aliases

Family says trips to post office come up empty

They say they’ve repeatedly gone to the post office trying to find out where their missing mail is.

According to the family, management has told them there is no mail there for them.

That, they say, conflicts with delivery notifications they’ve received showing about 15 pieces of mail arriving at their address.

Maria Narvaez, who lives at the home, says the missing mail includes credit and debit cards, bills and other important documents. She says her disabled mother’s health benefits has also been affected by the missing mail.

“But what worries me the most is, what is she doing with my mail? Where is she throwing it up?” Narvaez said.

Family files police report

The family says they have filed multiple complaints with the U.S. Postal Service and have received an investigation number, but say they have not received answers about where their missing mail is.

They have also filed a police report alleging mail theft.

Narvaez says the family is not asking for special treatment — they simply want their mail delivered.

“I just want my mail delivered,” she said.

The family says they are still waiting for answers from USPS about the missing mail and the carrier’s delivery practices. USPS was contacted for a response to the family’s allegations, and as of airtime, has not heard back.

Chad Hickman, 39, was found dead after a wide search in Missaukee County, police said. Police released the ages and genders of the victims on Saturday but did not specify whether they were related to each other or the suspect.

Officers responded Friday morning to reports of a shooting at a home about 170 miles (270 kilometers) northwest of Detroit, where they found the bodies of a 16-year-old boy, a 45-year-old man and 40-year-old woman, and a 13-year-old girl in critical condition, Michigan State Police said.

Authorities say Hickman fled that scene, leading to a large-scale search. Police found the body of a 53-year-old man at a second home, and then a 29-year-old woman, dead alongside Hickman, in the woods. All the victims died of gunshot wounds, police said.

“This situation is heartbreaking for the community and challenging for the investigators involved,” Lt. Ashley Miller said in a Friday statement. Miller said Saturday the investigation is ongoing.

Hickman was convicted in 2024 of misdemeanor fourth-degree child abuse, according to court records. He was sentenced to one year in jail. In the same case, the court dismissed felony assault and criminal sexual conduct charges.

Tim Penrose, who lives on the street where the 53-year-old was found dead, said Hickman lived in that home. Penrose said he heard shots but didn’t think much of it until police arrived because he lives in a rural area where gunfire is not uncommon. Penrose said Hickman frequently harassed him and his wife, though he didn't provide more details.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Friday that she was monitoring the situation. “My thoughts are with the victims, their families, and the Missaukee community,” she said.

___

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

The Omaha, Nebraska-based company also continued to pare its stake in financial companies and a number of other stocks in the April-June quarter, according to a regulatory filing filed late Friday.

CEO Greg Abel, who took over from Warren Buffett at the start of the year, agreed in June to make a $10 billion stock investment in Alphabet, expanding on the stake that Berkshire started to build last fall.

In the second quarter, Berkshire picked up roughly 48.1 million shares in Alphabet, bringing its total shares in the tech giant to roughly 106 million. That stake was valued at about $37.76 billion as of June 30, according to the filing. As recently as the end of December, Berkshire held only 17.8 million Alphabet shares worth $5.6 billion.

Alphabet has said it plans to raise $80 billion to pay for the computing infrastructure needed to power its AI offerings.

Beyond tech, Berkshire continued to boost its investments in the U.S. homebuilding sector. Its stake in homebuilder Lennar increased nearly 30% in the second quarter. Berkshire also established a small new stake in D.R. Horton that was worth $580,504 at the end of June.

In July, Berkshire completed a $6.8 billion acquisition of homebuilder Taylor Morrison.

Berkshire also sharply increased its shares in Delta Air Lines and Macy's in the second quarter. The stakes were worth about $5.37 billion and $173 million, respectively, as of June 30.

Berkshire also pruned its investment portfolio in the second quarter, reducing its stake in several companies relative to where they stood in the first quarter, including supermarket operator Kroger, steel manufacturer Nucor and dialysis giant DaVita.

The company also dumped all its holdings — 632,890 shares — in beverage company Constellation Brands.

Berkshire also pared its shares in several financial companies. Its stakes in Bank of America and Ally Financial declined by around 6% and 6.9%, respectively, and it slashed its shares in Capital One Financial by 58%.

Many investors have followed Berkshire’s portfolio closely over the years because they liked to copy Buffett’s moves. He remains the company's chairman and largest shareholder.

But Berkshire, which owns dozens of businesses including major insurers like Geico and BNSF railroad, never comments on the moves it makes to its stock portfolio from quarter to quarter because it doesn’t want to discuss what it is buying and selling.

The shooting happened around 2:37 a.m. at a home in the 9300 block of Fairland Drive, near Wilmington Street.

Houston police said the suspect had argued with a woman he was dating before leaving the home. Investigators said he later returned with a gun and shot four people, then ran away.

Rosalyn Williams’ family said she had picked up a friend who was involved in a domestic dispute and brought the friend to her home. They believe Williams was trying to help the woman when the shooting happened.

Williams was killed. Her daughter, Latonja Williams, described her mother as “a good, stand-up woman” and said the shooter “came and took his anger out on everybody.”

• 3 injured after gunman opens fire on vehicles, exchanges gunfire with HPD near Chicken Plus

The three surviving victims—two women and one man—were taken to local hospitals. Williams’ family said her husband was among those wounded. Police said the man was in critical condition and undergoing surgery, while the two women appeared to be stable.

Investigators believe the suspect’s girlfriend may have been one of the injured women, but they had not confirmed which woman was involved in the relationship. Police also had not determined the exact relationships among the other people at the home.

Williams’ aunt, Pretta Stallworth, said she was devastated when she learned about the shooting.

Police continued searching for the suspect, who fled on foot. No weapon had been recovered, and investigators were still processing the scene.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Houston Police Department or Crime Stoppers.

On Saturday, firefighters parked firetrucks at Pearland High School’s practice lot and sprayed down student band members following their final summer rehearsal session, running from 7:30 to 11:30 a.m.

• Historic Tall Ship Elissa returns to Galveston after America250 voyage

The celebration marks the start of what promises to be a historic school year for the band. The Pride of Pearland Band has been selected to perform in the 100th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City — a milestone moment for students, parents, and the Pearland community alike.

Band members, parents, and community boosters are currently working to raise funds to ensure every student can make the trip to the Big Apple.

• Click here for a link to their fundraiser!

And in southern Lebanon, 11 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes, some of the deadliest since a shaky truce between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah went into effect on June 20.

Here’s a look at the latest developments on Saturday in the Iran war and the wider Middle East. Full coverage can be found here.

Iran says Qatar is holding 3 of its pilots

Qatar's armed forces captured and were holding three pilots who went missing in March when their jets were downed, the Missing Persons Committee of Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff said. Qatar, however, denied it.

Until now, Tehran had said it had no information about their fate. This is the first known case in the war where Iran has said a regional country is holding its fighters. Qatar on March 2 said its air force shot down two Iranian bombers as Tehran lashed out against countries hosting U.S. military bases in the opening days of the war.

Saturday's statement alleged that Qatar had not allowed the pilots to meet or communicate with families or Iranian officials handling their cases. Iran asked the International Committee of the Red Cross president for help. The letter said a fourth pilot was killed while on the mission “targeting an enemy military base in Qatar," state media reported.

A spokesperson with Qatar's foreign ministry, Majed Al Ansari, later denied the claims and indicated on X that the pilots had been shot down and that Qatar's search and rescue teams found the remains of one. He said Iran was invited in April to visit and be briefed on those efforts, with no response.

A tanker is attacked in the Strait of Hormuz

The tanker owned by Abu Dhabi’s state-owned oil and gas company ADNOC was attacked while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the Emirati state-run WAM news agency said Saturday.

There were no injuries in the Friday evening attack, the agency reported. It was the third such attack on a vessel operated by ADNOC in the critical waterway in the last week. The United Arab Emirates in a statement called on Iran to stop the unprovoked strikes.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said a bulk carrier was struck in the hull by an unknown projectile on Friday. It was not immediately clear if it was the same vessel.

Iran asserted control over the strait after the war started on Feb. 28 with U.S. and Israeli strikes. About one-fifth of the world’s traded oil and natural gas passed through the waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf before then.

Talks between the U.S. and Iran have stalled while Iran is in discussions with Oman about how to manage the strait that runs between them and had been considered an international waterway.

Israeli strikes kill 11 in southern Lebanon

Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon killed at least 11 people Saturday.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry and state news agency said one strike targeted a home on the edge of the village of Ansar and killed seven people, including three children, and wounded two. The second, on the village of Deir al-Zahrani, killed four and wounded 17.

Israel's military said it killed a Hezbollah battalion commander and several other militants at a headquarters in southern Lebanon in response to the group’s actions against Israeli soldiers operating there. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office in a separate statement said three soldiers were seriously injured. The military blamed an explosive drone.

The military said the commander's family was with him, and that “it should be emphasized that the family members were not the target of the strike.” Both the military and Netanyahu's office alleged the commander used the family members as human shields.

It was one of the deadliest days since the Lebanese government and Israel announced a “framework agreement” laying out a plan for Israeli forces to withdraw from southern Lebanon in exchange for Hezbollah's disarmament.

The militant group refused direct talks and was not part of the agreement.

Houthis in Yemen attack Red Sea port, killing at least 3

Yemen's military said the Houthis attacked the Red Sea port of Mokha under the control of the internationally recognized government. Port director Abdul-Malik al-Sharabi told journalists that Friday evening’s attack killed three people including two marines, and that port operations had been suspended.

Military spokesperson Col. Majed al-Nazili said in a statement that the Houthis fired six ballistic missiles.

The Houthis' attack was the latest on government-held areas and on neighboring Saudi Arabia, part of an escalation threatening to plunge Yemen back into civil war.

Analysts say the escalation reflects how Iran is scaling up pressure on the United States and its regional allies.

“As synagogue security was escorting him out, he struck a member of the congregation, damaged synagogue property, and then spit at and head-butted a member of the security team,” a statement from Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.

A police sergeant working as a paid security detail at the synagogue immediately took the man into custody and no one was seriously injured, Tisch said.

Larry Montes, 46, of the Bronx, faces two counts of assault as a hate crime and one count of criminal mischief as a hate crime, among other charges, Tisch said.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the assault during the livestreamed service “horrifying."

“Every New Yorker must be able to observe their religion without fear of violence," he posted on social media.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer were among those who also condemned the attack.

Additional police security was added and Shabbat services continued Saturday.

“We might want to be focusing on the beauty of our liturgy and the sanctity of Shabbat, and somehow the feeling of the imperfect and cruel world keeps flooding in,” Rabbi Rebecca Thau told congregants.

The primary lineup pushes Iowa from the traditional top spot and makes South Carolina the leadoff state, voting on Jan. 22, 2028, followed by Nevada on Feb. 1. New Hampshire, New Mexico, Michigan and Virginia round out the early states, throughout February, according to the plan endorsed by the Democratic National Committee at its meeting in Texas.

DNC Chairman Ken Martin said that to win the general election, “You have to be battle-tested in a way that you already have campaigned in front of and for the support of various communities throughout the country.” That is why the calendar designed by the party matters, he said in an interview.

Some potential candidates in what is expected to be a large field have visited early-voting states such as South Carolina. Party leaders have said the order give candidates the best shot at winning back the White House after Republican President Donald Trump's second term.

“They have to show that they can go to the South and talk to Black voters and rural voters, as well as out west, talking ranching and mining issues, to a border state, to union members,” said party strategist Karen Finney, who has worked on multiple presidential campaigns. “Whoever survives will be battle-tested.”

Former presidential candidate Howard Dean, a onetime Vermont governor, recalled his tenure as national party chairman, when Democrats solidified Nevada and South Carolina as early states behind Iowa and New Hampshire. The latest change is even better, he said.

“These states look more like the country,” as a whole, he said, “whereas Iowa and New Hampshire don’t.”

Rita Hart, chair of the Iowa Democratic Party, said bypassing her state in the early going would sideline important voter voices and give a political edge to Republicans, who are expected to keep Iowa atop their calendar.

Nonwhite voters claim top billing

As the first-in-the-South primary, South Carolina was more decisive than Iowa and New Hampshire for nominees Barack Obama in 2008, Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020. All three dominated among South Carolina’s large Black population, which can yield more than half the state’s Democratic primary electorate.

With Nevada and New Mexico following, that will require candidates to court more Latino voters early in the process.

Shifting from Iowa and New Hampshire does not mean little-known candidates cannot catch fire, as Pete Buttigieg did in Iowa and New Hampshire in 2020, when he was a 37-year-old former mayor. They just will not be able to do it with an almost entirely white audience.

“If you can’t go to every part of this country and make your case, you should not be running for president,” Finney said.

The progressive vs. establishment dynamics may shift

There is disagreement over how Democrats’ split between progressives and mainstream liberals may or may not surface in the nominating calendar.

“I think our primary voters up north are probably a little different than primary voters in South Carolina,” said Boyd Brown, a former DNC member from South Carolina. “It’s not the woke ideologies that we just can’t get away from” in other places.

Nina Smith, a former Buttigieg adviser who now works closely with progressive causes, disagreed. Smith said Black South Carolinians, especially, have gravitated to more moderate candidates – twice rejecting Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in favor of Clinton and Biden.

But, she said, “Southern Black voters are more progressive than they’re given credit for” on policy but also “realists” about what is possible.

“Living through Jim Crow and other oppressive structures will force you to be take that approach,” she said.

Smith said that with South Carolina leading off and many Southern states following on Super Tuesday soon after the early lineup concludes, progressives will have to take the time to listen and then tailor their messages.

“A lot of Black voters don’t necessarily see themselves in the ideas and arguments that progressives put forward,” she said.

Unions will get a spotlight in the early-voting states

Nevada has the service industry unions because of Las Vegas; Michigan has the auto industry and associated manufacturing support industries; Virginia is home to more federal workers than any other state.

“Labor is still so important,” Dean said.

Beyond seeking the backing of organized labor, the campaigns and the party will look to unions for help in spreading Democrats' message to voters and getting people to the polls.

More scheduling efficiency for candidates

Campaigns struggle to balance many demands such as meeting voters in person, raising money and the logistics of travel. As a result, places such as Nevada have gotten short shrift in the past because candidates, most from the eastern part of the country, have concluded the investment of time is not worth it.

An expanded calendar offers more clustering opportunities.

A swing to the West could hit two early states — Nevada and New Mexico — and include a fundraising stop in California, full of Democratic donors. A South Carolina trip could mean fundraisers and public appearances in Atlanta, Charlotte and Raleigh, both in North Carolina. Virginia offers proximity to donors and national TV studios in Washington; the same options are available by adding a New York City stop on the way to New Hampshire.

Bre Maxwell is a DNC member from South Carolina who said the state’s smaller size and lower media costs are a financial equalizer, allowing not only the best-funded candidates to have an impact.

“They can campaign from the top to the bottom in a day,” Maxwell said.

It’s about primaries, with a clear look to November

Of the six early states, all but South Carolina have been competitive in general elections.

That means that even before Super Tuesday, the Democratic candidates will have spent significant time and resources in states worth a combined 43 Electoral College votes. That is not insignificant on the way to the 270 needed to win.

Television ads and news coverage can spill over, as well. Markets targeting parts of South Carolina also reach portions of North Carolina and Georgia.

After all, Brown said, the point is to put a Democrat in the White House.

“This is not a social or a debate club. It is a political party,” he said.

___

Barrow reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writer Meg Kinnard in Columbia, S.C., contributed to this report.

Well, bad news: Bedbug infestations are increasing. This is the time of year when they tend to be at their worst. And some scientists think the reviled pests might be capable of spreading an antibiotic-resistant infection called MRSA.

For centuries, the bugs have horrified homeowners and occasionally panicked the public. That happened in New York City in 2018, when at least a half dozen city buses were taken out of service after reports of bedbugs crawling on seats. It happened again in Paris in 2023, when reports of bedbugs at a movie theater, on trains and on buses popped up in the lead-up to the 2024 Olympics.

“They certainly are out there,” said Christopher Hayes, a North Carolina State University assistant professor who has been bitten by bedbugs more than 50 times in the course of research. “And if you're unaware, if you're not on top of your game, it's easy to bring them into your home."

Bedbugs really do come out at night

Bedbugs are reddish-brown bloodsuckers about the size of an apple seed. Some researchers estimate they date back to the time of the dinosaurs, but they are best known for their unfortunate ability to live with — and prey on — humans.

They can hide in narrow crevices in furniture and lurk in clothes, linens and mattresses. They are hard to see but can be detected through the small dark excrement stains they leave.

The pests can be year-round problems but they have traditionally thrived in the summer. They tend to emerge at night, crawling onto people and using a beaklike body part to pierce human skin and suck blood for several minutes.

The bite itself is painless. Some people develop itchy red welts a day or so later, but others have no reaction.

That's a problem, because people unaware that they are repeatedly being bitten can quickly find themselves victims of an infestation.

One of the more gruesome stories about bedbugs and human health was detailed in a 2020 medical journal case report from France.

It told of a 70-year-old man who lived by himself in an apartment and fainted on the street one day. He was brought to a hospital emergency department in a Paris suburb where he was diagnosed with dementia — and with anemia caused by a longstanding loss of blood.

He also had bedbugs feeding on his neck, head and shoulder. An investigation of his apartment detected thousands of them in his bed and on the floor, walls and curtains of his home.

They aren't thought to spread disease, but one experiment raises questions

Some good news about bedbugs is there hasn't been clear evidence that they have spread diseases from one person to another. The bugs' digestion and anatomy seem to prevent germs from being passed on efficiently, said Chow-Yang Lee, an entomologist at the University of California at Riverside.

But University of South Dakota researchers in 2023 published the results of an experiment — using blood capsules with an artificial skin — that demonstrated bedbugs could acquire MRSA during one feeding and spread it during a later one.

Follow-up research is needed to really prove bedbugs actually are spreading MRSA to people, said one of the study's authors, Jose Pietri, who is now at Purdue University. But “it changes the perspective of what bedbugs do, in terms of public health,” Pietri said.

Bedbugs are more resistant to pesticides

Bedbug populations in developed countries were decimated after World War II due to the widespread use of the pesticide DDT. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency banned the pesticide for most uses in 1972, citing evidence that it was harming animals and was a potential risk to people.

Bedbugs had already started to develop resistance to DDT by then, and they have only been getting stronger and more common, said Lee, noting that insecticide resistance has driven a continued resurgence in bedbugs in recent decades.

Exactly how much more common isn't clear. Pest control companies generate annual rankings of U.S. cities with the worst bedbug problems. (Orkin currently ranks Chicago at No. 1, while Terminix says Philadelphia has the biggest problem.) But those lists are based on how many calls each company receives in a year, not a rigorous survey.

Many bedbug infestations happen in low-income or public housing, which may not hire the big companies that compile those rankings, Lee said in an email.

How to protect yourself from the pests

The best thing you can do is never get them in the first place, experts say. That means not bringing them into your home.

Travelers can pick them up in hotel rooms. So before you unpack for your stay, check the room for signs of bedbugs by pulling back the covers and bedsheets to look for bugs or fecal spots.

Do not place luggage on beds or on the floor near beds, and consider placing your bags in a light-colored trash bag or even in the bathtub. When you get home, open the luggage outside and take laundry right to the washing machine and dryer.

Sometimes, bedbugs enter homes by hitching a ride on secondhand furniture or other products. Visually inspect those items and treat them before you take them into your home, Hayes advised. Some experts advise vacuuming, steaming or heating furniture, and quarantining it in a garage or storage unit for a few days before bringing it inside the house.

If it's clothes, wash them and put them through the dryer for an hour. Shoes or other items? Consider putting them in a freezer for a week “to make sure that everything in there that could be alive is taken care of,” Hayes said.

How to get rid of bedbugs if you have them

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency offers do-it-yourself guidance for getting rid of the pests, but it's labor-intensive, involving sealing hiding spaces and treating infested items.

It also contains many warnings of what not to do.

"You can't just blast random chemicals and expect it's going to work because there's a fairly high likelihood that they'll be resistant to some of the first-line insecticides,” Pietri said.

It makes sense to hire professional exterminators who are experienced in getting rid of bedbugs, Pietri and other experts said. But it can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

Insecticides are not the only option.

Silica dust treatments, for example, absorb the bedbug’s body moisture, killing them.

Sustained dry heating works wonders, killing eggs as well as adult bedbugs. But it has to be at least 122 degrees (50 degrees Celsius) and can damage furniture, paintings and other personal possessions, so it must be done by professionals.

“I think the biggest piece of advice is just people shouldn't panic,” Hayes said. “They just need to take action. If you think you have bedbugs, don't wait to deal with it.”

___

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.

“Just part of the ramp-up to baseball activity,” manager Aaron Boone said of Judge before Saturday’s game against the Blue Jays in Toronto. “Hopefully he’ll continue to progress through this week. We’ll see what else gets introduced.”

Judge hasn’t played since May 31, but the three-time AL MVP and eight-time All-Star has said he intends to return this season. He was cleared to begin light workout activity on Aug. 5.

Boone spoke to Judge and said the slugger responded well to throwing for the first time in his rehab. However, Boone didn’t know when Judge might be ready to rejoin the Yankees.

“We expect him back, but we’re in the early stages of baseball activity,” Boone said. “Hopefully things continue to go well.”

Judge is hitting .248 with 17 home runs, 38 RBIs and a .907 OPS. He had just one homer in his final 18 games before going on the IL.

___

See AP’s full MLB coverage here

The Grammy-nominated Welsh pop star, beloved worldwide for her 1983 chart-topping power ballad “Total Eclipse of the Heart," died last month in a hospital in Portugal. She was 75.

Tyler was hospitalized in May in Faro, where she had a home, for emergency intestinal surgery.

Locals and fans from around the United Kingdom and beyond took to the streets of Mumbles, near the city of Swansea, to see the hearse, which carried her coffin, draped in a Welsh flag. Dozens waited outside the singer's former home or left floral tributes there.

“She was always coming home and making sure that she came back to her fans in Wales," said Carys Edwards, 18. “Her songs really did touch a lot of people here in Wales; we loved her a lot."

Tyler was born Gaynor Hopkins, a coal miner’s daughter in public housing with an outside toilet in Skewen, Wales, about 7 miles (11 kilometers) outside Swansea. She grew up with three sisters and two brothers.

The singer earned three Grammy nods and in 2013 represented Britain at the Eurovision Song Contest, where she came in 19th. She was honored as a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 2022 for her services to music by Queen Elizabeth II, thanks mainly to “Total Eclipse of the Heart."

The ballad shot to the top of the charts in Britain and the United States and has had more than 1 billion streams, boosted by real eclipses in 2017, 2024 — and most recently during this week's solar eclipse.

She was also known for other hits including “It's a Heartache” and “Holding Out For a Hero," from the soundtrack of the film “Footloose.”

A celebration of Tyler’s life for family and friends will take place at a church in Swansea on Monday, before the singer makes a final journey through her hometown of Skewen.

In July, U.S. President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on hundreds of Brazilian exports, with duties reaching up to 37.5% in some products. The Trump administration has accused Brazil of unfair trade practices, but Lula has denied the accusations, insisting they are politically motivated ahead of the October election.

Lula is seeking reelection against Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, a Trump ally who met with U.S. officials, including Trump, in Washington weeks before the administration proposed higher tariffs on Brazilian goods.

“Yesterday, we invoked the reciprocity law to show that we are not to be taken lightly," Lula said in an interview with Brazilian podcasters. “We respect ourselves. I am very calm knowing what could happen, and I am prepared to debate the defense of Brazil anywhere in the world.”

Brazil’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement late Thursday it is requesting diplomatic consultations with its U.S. counterparts on the issue, as a sign of Lula's aim “to privilege dialogue and negotiation in its international relations.”

The beginning of the proceedings does not necessarily mean Brazil will retaliate against U.S. tariffs.

“I don’t want any fight with the United States," Lula said Friday. “Unfortunately, they are spreading falsehoods."

Earlier this month, the U.S. State Department revoked the visa of Brazil’s ambassador to Washington in retaliation for Brazil’s denial of visas last month for two American diplomats who sought to visit ahead of the October election.

The U.S. government also has accused Brazil of stalling approval of Trump’s nominee for ambassador in Brasilia, while Brazilian officials say the U.S. should have first sought the government’s approval before submitting the nomination to Congress, as diplomatic protocol requires.

Since U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked the Brazilian ambassador’s visa in response to Lula’s actions but did not order her expelled, U.S. officials have said the Trump administration does not want the dispute to escalate.

These officials, who have spoken on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration deliberations, have said on multiple occasions that Rubio’s limited response was intentionally designed to give Lula time and space to back down.

At the same time, they have said that the U.S. will respond quickly should Lula's government choose to escalate the matter and that declaring the Brazilian ambassador “persona non grata” and expelling her from the U.S. would be a logical next step.

Lula said once again Trump has treated him well, but warned any foreign governments “who come here to meddle in the election, will lose.”

___

Associated Press writer Matthew Lee contributed from Washington.

___

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

Lebanon's Health Ministry and state news agency said an airstrike that targeted a home on the edge of Ansar village killed seven people, including three children, and wounded two. The second, on the village of Deir al-Zahrani, killed four and wounded 17.

Israel and the Lebanese government announced a “framework agreement” on June 26, laying out a plan for Israeli forces to withdraw from southern Lebanon in exchange for the disarmament of the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group. It envisions steps toward an eventual peace agreement between the countries, which remain technically at war nearly 80 years after Israel’s establishment.

Hezbollah has refused direct talks and wasn’t party to the deal.

Prime minister says Israeli strikes undermine efforts at stability

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam criticized Israel's airstrikes on southern Lebanon, saying they intimidate “residents in their homes" and undermine efforts to stabilize the situation in the south.

“The seven martyrs of the Israeli airstrike on the town of Ansar are not military infrastructure and the children and women killed were not military targets,” Salam said on X. He added that it is the job of the Lebanese state to deal with any military infrastructure in the country.

President Joseph Aoun said in comments released by his office that the strikes are “a clear message to the negotiation track and to the American efforts aimed at implementing this agreement.”

Israel says it was responding to action against its soldiers

Intense Israeli airstrikes early Saturday also hit the strategic Ali Taher hill, which overlooks parts of the southern city of Nabatiyeh and main roads leading to it, NNA reported. Despite the truce, Israel’s military has continued near-daily attacks in the area north of the Litani River, with large areas to the south under Israeli military control.

The Israeli military said in a statement it struck Hezbollah infrastructure in the areas of Ali Taher and Ansar in response to an action against Israeli soldiers in the area.

The office of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hezbollah violated the ceasefire by attacking Israeli soldiers inside Lebanon, seriously wounding three. It said the military responded by striking the Hezbollah headquarters which ordered the attack, learning only later that Hezbollah “deliberately put civilians” in that military compound. Israel's military later said the soldiers were hurt by an explosive drone.

The Israeli military issued another statement later Saturday saying the strike on Ansar killed Ali Samir Al-Haj Hassan, whom it described as a battalion commander with Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force unit. The military said Haj Hassan’s family was with him and was harmed, but emphasized that the family was not targeted.

Hezbollah refuses to disarm

Hezbollah supporters posted photographs on social media of the commander, his wife, three sons and one daughter and said they were all killed in the strike.

A Hezbollah official did not immediately respond when asked for comment on whether they carried out any attacks on Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah called on the Lebanese state to find ways to halt “this aggression” rather than pursuing U.S.-sponsored direct talks with Israel, arguing that would be “free gifts for the enemy despite the crimes and aggression it is carrying out.”

“The American side is a partner of the Israeli enemy in its crimes and massacres,” Hezbollah added in the statement.

Earlier this month, two Israeli soldiers were killed in an explosion in southern Lebanon, the first Israeli deaths since the truce. Hezbollah has not commented on the blast.

Lebanon and Israel have held seven rounds of talks; the most recent took place in Rome earlier this month.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah has refused to disarm and accuses the Lebanese government of making too many concessions without guaranteeing an Israeli withdrawal.

The latest Israel-Hezbollah war erupted on March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets across the border two days after the U.S. and Israel launched their attacks on Iran. More than 4,000 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon since then, including hundreds of civilians. About 40 soldiers and three civilians — including a military contractor — have been killed on the Israeli side.

___

Associated Press writer Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.

Authorities issued a tsunami warning and urged coastal residents to move to higher ground, but later lifted the warning when Indonesia’s meteorological agency said monitoring showed no significant sea-level changes that posed a threat to coastal communities. Some smaller tsunamis were reported.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake hit eastern Indonesia's Flores region at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles) at 5:58 a.m. local time. Its epicenter was 68 km (42 miles) north-northwest of the city of Ende in East Nusa Tenggara province.

The quake triggers landslides and generates small tsunamis

The meteorological agency said the quake was followed by at least 235 aftershocks, with the largest recorded at magnitude 6.2.

The agency's sea-level monitoring stations acknowledged some small tsunamis reached coastal villages in Manggarai and East Manggarai regencies. Videos obtained by The Associated Press showed the coastal village of Riung in Ngada regency blanketed in mud and debris after what the agency described as a 1.61-meter (5.3 feet) tsunami. Fishing boats were stranded ashore, infrastructure damaged, and homes surrounded by sediment left by receding waters.

Waves measuring 0.94 meters (3.1 feet) were observed in Maurole, Ende Regency.

Tsunami waves exceeding 0.5 meters (1.6 feet) were detected in Bulukumba, South Sulawesi, and Sape in Bima Regency.

A strong, land-based earthquake of 6.9 magnitude hit North Sumatra province in western Indonesia on Saturday afternoon, according to the USGS. It struck 172.5 kilometers (107 miles) beneath the earth’s surface, meaning it was too deep to cause significant damage or casualties, Indonesian authorities said.

The quake has caused buildings to collapse

East Nusa Tenggara Police Chief Rudi Darmoko said power outages hampered the spread of information about the impact of the earthquake in cities and villages, complicating search and rescue efforts.

“We are continuing to collect reports of damage and casualties, but there are communication disruptions,” Darmoko said. He said quake-triggered landslides in Ende regency blocked the Trans-Flores highway, a roughly 700-kilometer (435-mile) paved mountain road spanning Flores Island, from Labuan Bajo to Larantuka.

The head of the National Disaster Management Agency, Suharyanto, said rescuers have recovered at least 47 bodies, mostly in Sikka, Manggarai and East Manggarai, and at least 50 people were taken to hospitals.

Suharyanto, who like many Indonesians uses a single name, said the quake flattened at least 157 houses and damaged nearly 200 more, forcing about 2,000 villagers to abandon their homes and move to temporary shelters. The powerful temblor also destroyed more than 100 public facilities, including schools, medical centers and churches.

The death toll could rise because landslides triggered by the earthquake buried or cut off many remote villages across six regencies on Flores Island, said Fathur Rahman, who heads the Search and Rescue Office in Maumere, the capital of Sikka.

Some remote villages are completely buried, he said, and damaged infrastructure and a lack of heavy equipment were hindering rescue efforts.

Authorities deployed three helicopters and a rescue vessel to support logistics and emergency response operations, including potential evacuations. East Nusa Tenggara consists of numerous islands and presents significant transportation and access challenges.

Residents ran for their lives when the quake struck

The quake was felt across much of Flores island with initial reports indicating heavy damage.

Yohanna Embu, who lives in Sikka, said people ran in a panic to higher ground.

“Many buildings here were damaged ... I saw that the waiting room at the port terminal in Maumere had collapsed,” she said.

Students at St. Peter Major Seminary in Sikka who were attending morning Mass fled when the roof of an assembly hall collapsed, said the Rev. Guidelbertus Tanga, rector of the seminary, known locally as Ritapiret Seminary on the predominantly Catholic island of Flores.

“Our students and nuns ran out in panic beneath a collapsing roof,” Tanga said. “At least one priest suffered a broken leg after jumping from the second floor of a building during the quake.”

The quake also struck Labuan Bajo, a gateway town to eastern Indonesia’s Komodo National Park, one of the country’s best-known attractions. Damage was reported in Bima, a city in neighboring West Nusa Tenggara province, and in parts of southern Sulawesi island.

Indonesian authorities initially issued a tsunami warning for parts of East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara, South Sulawesi and Southeast Sulawesi provinces, and urged residents to stay away from beaches and riverbanks. The agency located the shallow undersea quake near Flores island.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity because of its location on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.

Most notably, a powerful earthquake caused a tsunami in 1992 that killed about 2,500 people on Flores, part of a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia, while in 2018, a magnitude 7.5 quake spawned a large localized tsunami that wiped out coastal areas, killing more than 4,400 people.

In December 2004, a massive magnitude 9.1 earthquake off Sumatra in western Indonesia triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries.

___

Associated Press writers Niniek Karmini and Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

___

This story has been corrected to show Ngada is a regency, not a village.

Takaichi, however, did not mention her country’s wartime past in Asia or express remorse for it in a speech at the ceremony, and the defense minister and other political representatives visited the shrine.

The Yasukuni Shrine, which commemorates over 2.4 million people who died in wars, became controversial after enshrining 14 convicted World War II Japanese war criminals. China and South Korea say visits by Japanese officials to the shrine show a lack of remorse over Japan's wartime atrocities.

Japan invaded and occupied large parts of Asia before and during World War II, committing atrocities that included mass killings, forced labor and the sexual enslavement of women. Millions died during Japan's wars and colonial rule.

Japan has embraced a pacifist ethos in the decades since its defeat. But memories of Japan's colonial rule and atrocities still run deep, and leaders and the public in China and South Korea closely watch how Japanese leaders confront the country’s past.

Japan's leaders say they uphold their commitment to peace

Takaichi mourned the victims of major devastation in Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Okinawa, as well as those who perished in overseas battlefronts, and thanked them for their sacrifice as the “foundation of Japan's peace and prosperity today.”

“Japan, since the end of the war, has consistently contributed to global peace and prosperity. We will never let the tragedy of the war be repeated,” she said in her address at Nippon Budokan, located a short walk away from Yasukuni.

Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, three other Cabinet ministers and three executives from Takaichi’s governing Liberal Democratic Party visited the shrine earlier Saturday. A nonpartisan group of dozens of lawmakers also prayed there.

The secretary general of Takaichi's Liberal Democratic Party, Shunichi Suzuki, said he prayed at Yasukuni on behalf of Takaichi and brought cash offerings that Takaichi made as party leader. He did not disclose the amount.

“I renewed my war-renouncing resolve and will continue to fulfill Japan’s postwar responsibility as a peace-loving nation," Koizumi, who has regularly visited the shrine, said on X after his visit Saturday. He is the son of a popular former prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, who enraged China with a visit to Yasukuni on Aug. 15, 2006.

China and South Korea protest shrine visits

China’s Foreign Ministry protested the visits, saying the Japanese politicians’ true intentions were to “change the verdict on the war criminals, cover up Japan’s war crimes, distort the historical facts and pave the way for accelerating militarization.”

It urged Japan to do “serious soul searching” on history and make a clean break with militarism.

Tensions between Japan and China escalated in November when Takaichi said a Chinese attack on Taiwan could constitute “a survival-threatening situation” for Japan requiring the use of force. The comments enraged Beijing.

South Korea's foreign ministry also criticized the Japanese politicians' visits and offerings as “an anachronistic act that disregards history." The ministry urged Japan to face its history and demonstrate remorse.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung struck a different tone in a speech Saturday marking the 81st anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule. He stressed that his administration favors “pragmatic diplomacy."

“Korea-Japan cooperation is now more important than ever," he said.

Japanese emperors have shunned the shrine

Japanese emperors have shunned Yasukuni since its 1978 inclusion of war criminals as “martyrs,” and have expressed regrets over Japan’s wartime past, though in a nuanced way.

Emperor Naruhito, in an address Saturday at the ceremony, said he hopes the ravages of war will never be repeated while “reflecting on our past and bearing in mind the feelings of deep remorse.”

Addressing concerns of fading memories of wartime history, Naruhito said he hoped the memories of the suffering during and after the war will be passed down to younger generations.

Pushback against remembering Japan's wartime history

Takaichi has resisted acknowledging Japan's wartime aggression. She has denied that coercion was used against Korean laborers and that women were held as sex slaves for Japanese troops. She was previously part of a campaign to remove references to wartime sexual slavery, known as “comfort women,” from school textbooks.

She has said she is from a postwar generation that bears no responsibility for Japan's past actions and has no intention of apologizing.

The country has faced revisionist pushback since the 2010s under nationalistic former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Takaichi says Abe is her political mentor.

Since 2013, Japanese prime ministers have stopped apologizing to Asian victims for wartime atrocities, under a precedent set by Abe.

People at Yasukuni remember relatives lost in the war

Descendants of the war dead also gathered at Yasukuni early Saturday to honor their fallen ancestors.

Mariko Shinoda, 56, whose grandfather died as a Kamikaze pilot, said she visited Yasukuni with her mother as a child every year on Aug. 15. Kamikaze pilots departed on their one-way missions saying, “Let’s meet at Yasukuni,” her mother told her.

“To me, Yasukuni is where every spirit gathers, and that’s where you get to see them on Aug. 15,” Shinoda said.

___

Associated Press writers Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea, and Kanis Leung in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

• PREVIOUS: ICE arrests crime witness who helped Houston police identify shooting suspect

FIEL, PSL, CRECEN and other groups held the demonstration at the store on West Sam Houston Parkway South following the detention of Juan Francisco Monroy Turuy. Organizers said they wanted clarity about why ICE responded so quickly, why Monroy Turuy was taken into custody and whether Home Depot had provided information or otherwise assisted federal immigration authorities.

“The community demands answers,” FIEL Executive Director Cesar Espinosa said. He also warned that community members could consider boycotting Home Depot if the company did not explain its role.

Kora Furton, speaking on behalf of the participating organizations, connected the detention to broader concerns involving immigration enforcement, surveillance technology and cooperation between federal agents and local law enforcement.

The groups did not provide evidence confirming a formal partnership between Home Depot and ICE.

A Home Depot spokesperson, in a statement to KPRC 2, said:

To say that we are cooperating with these immigration enforcement activities is just false. We aren’t notified that immigration enforcement activities are going to happen, and we aren’t involved in the operations. We aren’t coordinating with ICE or Border Patrol. We cannot legally interfere with federal enforcement agencies, including preventing them from coming into our stores and parking lots.

For more information click here: Immigration Activity in Our Parking Lots

Home Depot spokesperson

KPRC 2 has reached out to ICE for comment.

A top United Nations official, however, warned of a grave human rights crisis in Afghanistan, where girls over age 12 are barred from attending school.

The Taliban seized power on Aug. 15, 2021, as the U.S. and other NATO troops withdrew following a costly two-decade war. The U.S. withdrawal led to chaos at Kabul airport as crowds of people tried to flee the country in desperation.

Soon after taking power, the Taliban administration imposed a ban on girls’ education beyond the sixth grade and later banned higher education for women, despite having pledged before the takeover that women would be allowed access to education, employment and public participation.

Women have also been banned from public spaces such as gyms and parks, from taking part in sports and traveling to distant locations without a male guardian.

Taliban hails ‘liberation’ from American forces

At the Loya Jirga, high-ranking officials were joined by some foreign representatives and thousands of ordinary citizens for speeches marking what they said was Afghanistan's liberation from American forces.

“We pray to Almighty God to forever protect our homeland from occupation, aggression, wars, and insecurity, and to enable our people to enjoy peace, tranquility, and prosperity under the auspices of the Sharia-based government,” the Taliban government’s deputy spokesman, Hamdullah Fitrat, said during the ceremony.

Abdul Salam Hanafi, the deputy prime minister in charge of administrative affairs, said the Taliban rule ended an era of external interventions and internal strife in Afghanistan “over the past half-century,” restoring security.

“At least 300 Afghan youth were martyred or killed every day,” Hanafi said. “Three hundred sisters would become widows, several children would become orphans and 300 mothers would be grieving. Praise be to God, with the rule of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, this tragedy was removed from the Afghan nation.”

There were no women present at the ceremony.

Top Taliban official calls for more international engagement

Five years on, the Taliban government remains isolated internationally, with Russia being the only country to have recognized it formally.

Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said countries that have engaged with the administration have gained from doing so and called on others that have not established contacts to reconsider their approach.

“They should move towards a policy of engagement and mutual interaction,” he said.

Celebrations held under tight security

In Kabul, Afghans took to the squares carrying Taliban flags and chanting slogans in support of the government. Convoys of vehicles wound their way through the city, causing traffic jams.

Security was tight, with a heavy Taliban security force presence and several checkpoints on a main road leading to the Loya Jirga.

Celebrations were also held in provinces across Afghanistan, where Taliban flags and posters emblazoned with slogans in praise of the Taliban’s return to power were displayed along major roads and marketplaces.

UN warns of worsening human rights crisis

In a video message, Richard Bennett, the U.N. special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Afghanistan, said the country was undergoing a deep human rights crisis.

“While the era of war has ended, it’s questionable whether there’s real peace, and the human rights situation has steadily deteriorated, most dramatically for women and girls,” Bennett said. “My mandate has concluded that this system amounts to the crime against humanity of gender persecution.”

“The crisis extends well beyond gender discrimination, even beyond gender apartheid,” he continued, noting that the U.N. continues to document arbitrary arrests, torture, extrajudicial killings and persecution of minorities in Afghanistan.

Bennett warned the international community against “normalizing” the Taliban’s policies, saying it would legitimize the discrimination and tell “victims their suffering is negotiable.”

In an interview with The Associated Press earlier this week, Molvi Hayatullah Mahajar Farahi, deputy minister in the Taliban government for broadcasting at the Ministry of Information and Culture, said despite “challenges and difficulties” the administration has in the past five years delivered security and infrastructure and created jobs.

2.4 million girls excluded from secondary education

Farahi, when asked, did not address the issue of the education of girls and women but said “the level of investment made in universities surpasses anything seen in the past."

The U.N. agency on education and culture, UNESCO, estimates that some 2.4 million girls have been excluded from secondary education. The U.N. World Food Program said child malnutrition has reached critical levels in a third of Afghanistan’s provinces and is expected to worsen due to funding shortfalls.

U.N. Women said this week that women and girls are facing the harshest restrictions in the world and that the bans are damaging Afghanistan’s future, with the lack of teachers, doctors, nurses and midwives threatening the country’s social and economic foundations.

___

Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey.

In a booming music business, CDs were king, like Shakur's monumental “All Eyez on Me," which topped the Billboard album chart a few months earlier. It was the pinnacle of a brief hip-hop career whose legend would only grow in the following decades. His shooting was one of several momentous mid-1990s musical deaths, including those of Kurt Cobain and Shakur's archrival the Notorious B.I.G.

Starting Monday in Las Vegas, that September night will come under intense scrutiny again as 63-year-old Duane “Keffe D” Davis is tried in his killing. It is a moment that many fans and followers of the formerly cold case thought might never come.

Prosecutors allege Davis orchestrated Shakur’s shooting. They have charged him with one count of murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang.

Davis has pleaded not guilty. His defense attorneys argue there is no evidence he directed the shooting and the state is relying on witnesses who weren't there.

Here's a look at key elements of the trial that is expected to last about a month.

What happened on the night Tupac was shot

Shakur and Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight were in Las Vegas to watch Mike Tyson knock out Bruce Seldon at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Just outside the fight, Shakur, Knight and their entourage got into a brawl with a group that included Davis' nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson.

Authorities, authors and Davis himself say the shooting was an act of retaliation. Davis' 2019 memoir “Compton Street Legend,” said the men had “crossed the line” when they beat up Anderson.

“We couldn’t let no record company studio gangsters do us like that,” says the book, which along with Davis interviews revived the cold case and led to Davis being charged. The co-authored memoir will be essential to the trial. Davis’ defense fought unsuccessfully to get it excluded.

Later in the night, Shakur and Knight were heading to a nightclub where Shakur was scheduled to perform. At a red light near the Las Vegas Strip, a white Cadillac pulled up beside them, and gunfire erupted. Shakur was shot multiple times and died six days later. Knight survived with minor injuries.

Prosecutors say Davis called for shooting that was fueled by long gang feud

The long, lingering question of who shot Tupac may stay unanswered. But prosecutors hope to prove that Davis was the shot caller and provided the weapon.

He was one of four men in the Cadillac, authorities said. The other three have all died in the years since. Authorities say neither the car nor the gun used in the shooting were recovered.

Grand jury testimony portrayed the shooting as a culmination of a longstanding feud between rival record labels — Death Row Records and Bad Boy Records — and rival gang sects Mob Piru and South Side Compton Crips.

The key players at trial

The jury will consist of six men and 10 women who were seated Thursday. Four are alternates.

Attorney Michael Sanft will lead Davis' defense. He has said he took the case on a pro-bono basis. His previous high-profile clients include Michele Fiore, a Nevada politician convicted of wire fraud but pardoned by President Donald Trump before she was sentenced, and Andrew Cote, a former Las Vegas pastor found guilty of shooting and killing his 71-year-old neighbor and her 54-year-old boyfriend.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo will head the prosecution. He previously faced off with Sanft as the prosecutor in the Cote case.

Judge Carli Kierny was a public defender for 10 years in Clark County, Nevada, where she was elected as a judge in 2020. She is on the ballot again later this year.

Dozens of prosecution witnesses could include ‘Suge’ Knight

Prosecutors expect to call between 35 and 45 people to the stand. Along with police and technical witnesses, they are expected to include people who saw Shakur moments before he was shot and those who were associates of both Shakur and Davis at the time.

Knight, the West Coast hip-hop mogul who was once one of the most important and most feared men in music, is the only surviving eyewitness other than the defendant. He is on the witness list and may be summoned. He has said he wants no part in the trial. He is serving a 28-year prison sentence in California for running over and killing a Compton businessman in 2015.

Davis wrote in his book that moments before the shooting, he and Knight “looked each other dead in the eye” like “two rams locking horns.”

Sean “Diddy” Combs, Knight’s East Coast counterpart and fierce foe, will not be testifying.

The defense intends to call only a handful of witnesses. They have not said whether Davis will testify.

The three men who didn't live to take part in the trial

Law enforcement authorities long suspected that the gunman was Anderson, Davis' 12-years-younger nephew who was 22 at the time. He was sitting in the backseat of the Cadillac, behind his uncle. Anderson, who denied involvement in Shakur’s killing, died two years later in what police said was an unrelated shooting at a Compton car wash.

Deandrae “Freaky” Smith was in the backseat sitting next to Anderson. Denvonta Lee, a former associate of Smith who talked to him about the shooting soon after it happened, told a grand jury it was Smith who fired the shots but let Anderson take credit for Shakur's death. Smith died in 2004 at age 30 from what authorities said were natural causes.

Terry “Bubble Up” Brown was the driver of the Cadillac. He died in a 2015 shooting at a medical marijuana dispensary in Compton.

“I’d go home and I’d cry,” said Touzalin, an 18-year-old college student from Colorado. “I didn’t understand why all this weight was coming back or why my friends didn’t have to shave their faces and I had to.”

Touzalin and her mom, Anne Schultz, were finally diagnosed with polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, a hormonal condition affecting 1 in 8 women worldwide. But unlike her mom, Touzalin is beginning young adulthood with new hope after taking part in a study testing blockbuster GLP-1 drugs as a treatment.

A small but growing body of research shows that these obesity medications may also work for the disorder known as PMOS — not only by promoting weight loss but also by improving insulin resistance, hormone balance and ovulation. These things are key to the disease, which used to be called polycystic ovary syndrome but was renamed earlier this year to shift the focus away from ovaries and cysts.

“We need to do a better job taking care of it,” said Dr. Melanie Cree, who has led three studies testing GLP-1 drugs for PMOS including the one Touzalin joined. “We are finding them incredibly effective and really exciting for improving symptoms in women with this condition.”

PMOS is a mysterious and maddening disease

Touzalin and her mom's long, frustrating journey with PMOS is common.

Diagnosis often takes years because symptoms overlap with other conditions, vary widely and may be dismissed by doctors. The disorder tends to run in families, and many but not all women affected carry excess weight. But there’s no known cause or specific treatment, just symptom management such as taking birth control pills to regulate periods and keeping weight in check with diet and exercise.

Two hormones are key drivers of PMOS: insulin, which acts like a key to let blood sugar into cells, and testosterone, which among other things helps maintain sexual desire, bone density and muscle mass.

Most women with PMOS, regardless of their body size, have insulin resistance, which means this hormone doesn't work as well as it should, said Cree, PMOS clinic director at Children’s Hospital Colorado. In many women, the high insulin can go directly to the ovaries, spurring them to make more testosterone and leading to problems like skipped periods, severe acne and even beard growth.

Schultz, 43, didn’t even know the condition existed when she first began having irregular periods and bloating around age 18. In addition to struggling with the same symptoms as her daughter, she had problems with her ovaries and numerous miscarriages, which are more common with PMOS.

Schultz received various diagnoses before learning she had PMOS around the same time as her daughter, who faced a similar medical runaround.

Schultz recalled talking about Touzalin's symptoms with a pediatrician who was seeing her for what they thought was primarily an issue with binge eating and ADHD.

Schultz told the doctor: “There's gotta be something else going on here.”

Touzalin said she felt “heard for the first time” when a nurse practitioner began piecing things together a few years ago. Cree definitively diagnosed her last year.

“It was like a godsend,” said Schultz, tearing up. “We finally had an answer and some kind of a path for her.”

In Cree’s study, Touzalin gave herself shots of semaglutide weekly for 10 months. The abnormal hair growth slowed and her periods normalized. For the first time, she felt full after eating and stopped gaining weight constantly.

“I became a happier version of myself,” she said. “I felt like a normal person.”

While research on GLP-1s for PMOS continues, insurers put up barriers

Touzalin’s results weren’t unique. Early data from the study, published in June in the journal Fertility and Sterility, said eight of 11 participants completing the trial lost at least 10% of their body weight. The median weight loss among them was about 42 pounds; the median drop in testosterone was 52%. Six women had more periods and four of them went to monthly periods.

In all three of Cree’s studies, women on GLP-1s lost more weight than those in control groups, and levels of testosterone, blood sugar and insulin dropped. While the study involving Touzalin looks at semaglutide shots, the other studies examined semaglutide pills in one and exenatide shots in the other.

Other studies globally have shown similarly positive results. Although the studies are small, some researchers say GLP-1s are already showing promising potential for targeting metabolic issues in PMOS. Others say the evidence remains uncertain, and more studies are underway.

As research continues, more and more doctors are prescribing the drugs “off label” for PMOS and seeing improvements in their patients. But insurance coverage is often a problem because the drugs are not approved to treat the condition.

“I use these medicines a great deal,” said Dr. Rana Malek, an endocrinologist with the University of Maryland Medical System.

Among patients with insulin resistance, she said she usually uses them to help with weight loss.

Doctors stress that results vary. GLP-1s don’t work for everyone and can have side effects, like nausea and constipation. If people stop taking them, weight can return.

Still, they can help a lot of PMOS patients, Malek said, and it’s frustrating that many can’t get them because of insurance issues. Not only are they unapproved for PMOS, some insurers don’t cover them for weight loss.

Touzalin recently ran into this barrier herself. After finishing her study participation, she no longer gets free GLP-1s and had to go off them in June.

Schultz is determined to get her back on them. She’s fighting with her insurer and has a backup plan to get medications through a drug company program. She’d also like to try GLP-1s for her own PMOS, but said her daughter comes first.

Touzalin hopes for a day when any PMOS patient can get the treatment if she needs it.

“It’s something that could help a lot of other people,” she said.

___

AP video journalist Brittany Peterson in Denver contributed to this story.

___

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

The crash happened around 6:07 p.m. and involved a Honda sedan, Hyundai sedan, BMW SUV and a heavy hauler parked for road construction. The passenger vehicles collided before leaving the main lanes and entering the service road.

• Lanes reopen after 18-wheeler carrying oversized load strikes Houston Avenue bridge on I-10

The Honda overturned, and its driver was taken to a hospital in stable condition. Two occupants of the Hyundai—including the driver—were hospitalized in critical but stable condition. A third Hyundai occupant died after the vehicle hit the parked construction truck.

All those involved were adults. Authorities said intoxication was not suspected, and the drivers cooperated with the investigation.

In Tuesday's primary, Wisconsin Democrats cast nearly 800,000 ballots, their highest total for a midterm in more than 20 years. That followed 1.5 million Democratic voters in Michigan the week before, a midterm record for the state.

The enthusiasm extends beyond the Midwest. Democratic turnout also surged earlier this year in Texas and Georgia, states that will have competitive Senate races in the fall. It is giving Democrats a string of strong showings heading into the midterms, when the president’s party is normally at a disadvantage. That is compounded this year by President Donald Trump’s weak approval ratings, persistent inflation and an unpopular war with Iran.

“The big news is that Democrats are getting huge turnouts,” said David Axelrod, who was a top adviser to Democratic President Barack Obama. “That’s been a steady story throughout this period.”

Competitive Democratic primaries have helped drive the surge, giving the party’s voters more reason to participate. Republican primary turnout remained closer to historic norms in Michigan, even with a competitive statewide contest.

Voter turnout in primary elections is an imperfect predictor of general election results, especially when one party has the more compelling early contests. Republicans say they are responding with a major effort to turn out their voters in the fall.

GOP leaders say they can energize voters by tapping into a major fundraising advantage over Democrats and sending Trump back out campaigning, including during a midterm convention in Texas next month.

“Primary turnout doesn’t win general elections,” said Mike Marinella, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. “House Republicans are entering November with the money, momentum, stronger candidates and a battle-tested operation built to turn out voters when it actually counts.”

Democratic turnout in some states is the highest in two decades

The scale of the Democratic turnout advantage varied across states, but the pattern extended across much of this year's competitive landscape for House, Senate or governor's races.

In Wisconsin, more than 790,000 people voted in the Democratic primary for governor, putting turnout at about 22% of registered voters. More than 1.5 million people voted in Michigan's recent Democratic Senate primary, which accounted for a little more than 18% of registered voters. It was the state's highest midterm turnout rate in a Democratic primary since at least 2002 — the same as in Wisconsin, according to an analysis of Associated Press election data.

In Minnesota, Democratic primary turnout was on par with the 2018 midterm election, with both years marking the state’s highest Democratic primary turnout in a midterm year so far this century.

For Republicans in Wisconsin and Michigan, turnout in last week’s primary was in line with previous GOP midterm primaries in each state. In Michigan, turnout for the Republican governor’s race was about 11%. In Wisconsin’s Republican primary for governor, it is expected to be about 14%.

“Republicans in Michigan will close the enthusiasm gap by highlighting the massive differences between our nominees and the extreme, out-of-touch politicians the Democrats have nominated,” said Ted Goodman, a spokesperson for the Michigan GOP. “It's one thing to lead in enthusiasm before we know who is running. Now, the differences are clear.”

Other states that held elections earlier this year also saw significant Democratic primary turnout. In Georgia and Texas, the midterm turnout rate in the Democratic primaries was higher than it’s been since at least 2002. In Georgia, just over 1 million people voted in May in the Democratic governor’s race, a little more than 13% of registered voters. In Texas, about 2.3 million people voted in March in the Democratic Senate primary, a little more than 12%.

Competitive primaries fueled turnout. They may complicate Democratic unity

The robust primary turnout has been a “good sign for Democrats,” said Corwin Smidt, a political science professor at Michigan State University. But he cautioned that it is “not a very solid predictor” of how voters will break in November.

Smidt pointed to several factors behind the numbers, including high turnout in recent elections, which has created a larger pool of regular voters.

“Voting is a lot of habit-forming,” he said.

He also noted that many of the states with high turnout had what he described as “media spotlight candidacies.”

Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota all held marquee progressive versus moderate races in August that likely helped drive Democratic participation.

In Michigan, spending in the Democratic Senate primary topped $80 million, making it one of the most expensive races of the year so far, according to AdImpact. Progressive Abdul El-Sayed narrowly defeated Rep. Haley Stevens after a campaign that drew national attention and energized younger voters and university communities.

But Stevens carried Wayne County, the state’s largest source of Democratic votes, and some of the congresswoman's supporters said before the primary that they would not back El-Sayed if he became the nominee.

In Wisconsin, the governor’s primary was repeatedly reshaped as moderate Democrats left and reentered the race while democratic socialist Francesca Hong consolidated progressive support. Hong lost narrowly to Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, a more moderate candidate.

The races highlight how competitive primaries helped drive attention and also how the winning candidates have work to do to bring their party together for November. Both Wisconsin and Michigan Democrats held unity breakfasts in the days after the primaries.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who backed El-Sayed and Minnesota Senate nominee Peggy Flanagan but did not endorse Hong, said in an interview this week that he expects Democratic voters to bridge their differences for the general election.

“At the end of the day, when it comes to taking on Trump and creating a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate, there is going to be unity, because I think everybody knows how important that is,” he said.

A favorable environment, but a difficult map

Democrats have reason to believe the primary enthusiasm could last. The president’s party has historically lost ground in midterm elections, and Trump enters the fall deeply unpopular amid economic unease and an unpopular war.

Some 33% of American adults approve of his job performance, according to the most recent polling by The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs.

But a favorable national environment may not be enough. Democrats will need unusually strong turnout to overcome a congressional map that has become more favorable to Republicans.

The number of competitive House races has shrunk considerably this year after Republican-controlled states redrew congressional districts in their favor at Trump’s urging. Some Democratic-controlled states responded, but the new lines are expected to produce a net benefit for Republicans, who hold a slim House majority.

Republicans control the Senate 53-47, with Democrats needing to pick up four seats to win the majority. Democrats will have to generate energy similar to Republicans two years ago, Smidt said.

“If we have a national tide like we had in 2024, suddenly that opens the map a little more,” he said.

___

Pamela Jo Martin and Samuel Jens of The Associated Press Election Services team contributed to this report from Washington.

Concerns about a weak economy and still-high inflation? His predecessor, Joe Biden, saddled him with that, he says, even though the Democrat has been out of office for 18-plus months and despite Trump once promising an immediate turnaround.

The problem-plagued revamp of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool? That was marred by vandalism, the Republican president insists, even though the office of a prosecutor he put in the job has said the damage was due to shoddy workmanship.

The increasingly unpopular war in Iran that has kept oil prices high, Trump’s approval rating low and sent shock waves through the global economy? Actually, this was Trump making up for timid earlier presidents who, he argues, squandered nearly 50 years of opportunities to curb Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

Pithy slogans aside, all modern presidents shift responsibility onto others to some degree, frequently blaming the commander-in-chief who preceded them, Congress — or both. But Trump has taken it to a new level, effectively embracing a de facto political strategy of being in charge of everything but responsible for nothing when things go badly.

“Taking responsibility being a characteristic of presidential leadership — or any kind of leadership — is absolutely true,” said Nicole Anslover, a history professor at Florida Atlantic University and author of “Harry S. Truman: The Coming of the Cold War.”

Trump’s tendency to point fingers at others is increasingly in the spotlight before November’s midterm elections, when Republicans are trying to retain control of Congress. His unwillingness to accept blame sometimes leads him to deny that there are problems at all, and could leave GOP leaders in tight races with little reassurance for voters that their concerns are being addressed.

The White House counters that Trump is working to correct long-festering challenges, not simply throwing up his hands and ignoring them.

The president is "rightfully addressing the failures of his predecessors while taking action to deliver big wins for the American people,” spokesperson Taylor Rogers said, pointing to a series of policies that she said Republicans can run on, including tax cuts, efforts to lower prescription drug prices, cracking down on immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border, increasing domestic energy production and a strong stock market.

Ducking responsibility dates to Trump's first term

Truman famously kept a “The Buck Stops Here” sign on his desk as president. That came from “pass the buck,” which, according to Truman’s presidential library, dates to frontier times, when poker players would pass a buckhorn handle knife to the person whose turn it was to deal the cards.

“The president, whoever he is, has to decide,” Truman said during his farewell address in 1953. “He can’t pass the buck to anybody. No one else can do the deciding for him. That’s his job.”

The understanding of the phrase has broadened over the years to include taking responsibility for the outcome of tough decisions. Trump used to espouse similar beliefs, saying back in 2013 that in running a business, “Whatever happens, you’re responsible. If it doesn’t happen, you’re responsible.”

Accepting the 2016 presidential nomination, Trump said, “Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.” But as president, he has often suggested that the solution and blame rest elsewhere.

“The buck stops with everybody,” Trump said in 2019, during a lengthy government shutdown. In 2020, on the same day he declared the coronavirus pandemic a national emergency, he said, “I don’t take responsibility at all" for a lack of COVID-19 testing.

Anslover said Truman took full responsibility for dropping atomic bombs on Japan even though he was not informed that the U.S. was developing such weapons until his predecessor, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, died.

John F. Kennedy saw his approval ratings rise after he acknowledged he was to blame for the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba. Ronald Reagan said he was sorry for any involvement he may have had in the Iran-Contra scandal even while saying he wasn’t sure he was to blame. “The buck stops here with me,” he said then.

At his final news conference in early 2009, George W. Bush listed a series of mistakes he had made, including failing to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. His successor, Barack Obama, said, “I screwed up,” after his nominee for health chief, Tom Daschle, withdrew because of unpaid back taxes.

Presidents before Trump "really usually take accountability,” Anslover said.

‘We inherited a total catastrophe,’ Trump says

The president acknowledged in a recent Punchbowl interview that voters are angry, but he said they are not mad at him but at congressional Republicans.

Trump believes his party can hold its congressional majorities after November, but he was clear that if Republicans lose, it won't be his fault — echoing his comments before the 2018 midterms that he would not accept blame if his party lost control of the House, which it did.

Trump's approval rating on the economy, once seen as among his strongest issues, has fallen throughout his time in office, from 40% in March 2025 to 32% in July, according to Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research polling. About 6 in 10 U.S. adults say Trump’s economic policies have made economic conditions worse, according to Pew Research Center polling.

“The public certainly expects the president to be concerned about, and focused on, making life more affordable,” Republican pollster Frank Luntz said.

Trump instead points to Biden, under whom inflation hit a four-decade peak of 9.1% in 2022 as the pandemic was still roiling the world economy, before declining to 2.7% by November 2024. Last month, pressured by the Iran war, it was 3.4%.

“When we took office, we inherited a total catastrophe,” Trump said at a recent rally, later adding, “I inherited those high prices, just so you understand."

Andrew Bates, a Democratic strategist and former Biden White House spokesperson, noted that Trump no longer mentions his campaign promise to “immediately end inflation” on Day One.

“He may not remember having made those promises, but swing voters sure as hell do,” Bates said.

Trump has shown the same pattern with Iran and the Reflecting Pool

The president has characterized the Iran war as “a little excursion" or “detour." To play down how long it has lasted, he frequently notes that U.S. wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan dragged on for years, though the Iran conflict — which he initially said would be over in four weeks to five weeks — is now in its sixth month with no clear end in sight.

Trump has sought to shift blame to the past on the Reflecting Pool, falsely suggesting that Biden and Obama spent “hundreds of millions of dollars” trying unsuccessfully to fix it.

But Trump's main defense has been vandalism. And, so far, at least four cases alleging that, including the most prominent case against an Olympic canoeist, have been dropped because of a lack of evidence.

Anslover said that, after 11-plus years in politics, Trump has proved he is not afraid to violate norms of presidential comportment. Lots of his core supporters do not seem bothered.

“For many Americans, it has either been a shift in how they view the presidency, or, like with so many things, they just feel empowered to say, ‘These are my priorities. My priority is not the facts,'" she said.

___

Associated Press writer Amelia Thomson DeVeaux contributed to this report.

The Israeli military, which over the past three years has displayed staggering military and intelligence capabilities from Beirut to Tehran, has yet to fully remove the settlers from the area of the village, about an hour's drive from Tel Aviv.

The United States, which provides billions of dollars in military aid to Israel, has issued a scathing rebuke, perhaps because one of the homeowners is a Palestinian American living in Ohio.

U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee referred to the settlers as “terrorists.” Israel's defense minister dismissed them as radical misfits — “boys on the hills.”

In reality, they are the tip of the spear for a much larger movement, supported by successive Israeli governments and supercharged under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that is aimed at cementing Israeli rule over the territory and preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Settlements built over decades now house over 500,000

Israel captured the West Bank, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war, territories the Palestinians want for a future state.

Since then, the Israeli government has built nearly 150 settlements that are home to well over 500,000 Jewish settlers. Many of the settlements resemble fully developed suburbs, with apartment blocks, shopping malls, parks and industrial zones.

Radical settlers have established hundreds of additional outposts without government authorization, while still enjoying protection from the Israeli military and often other public services.

Netanyahu's government, the most nationalist and religious in Israel's history, has boasted of establishing over 100 new settlements. On Thursday, as the army deployed in Qusra, members of his Cabinet celebrated the rebuilding of a settlement that had been dismantled in 2005 as part of the Gaza withdrawal.

Israel's current government and much of its political class view the West Bank as the biblical and historical homeland of the Jewish people and see the settlements as key to maintaining security.

Most of the international community views all settlements as illegal and an obstacle to peace.

Separate laws for settlers and Palestinians

The roughly 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under Israeli military rule, with the Palestinian Authority exercising limited autonomy in population centers. Israel's military operates in all parts of the territory, and Palestinians suspected of militancy can be held without charge for months or years under what's known as administrative detention.

The settlers are Israeli citizens, with law enforcement typically handled by Israeli police and civilian courts.

Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz said in 2024 that Israelis would no longer be subject to administrative detention, which has also been used against settlers accused of violence. On Friday, he announced plans to fully transfer law enforcement among settlers to the Israeli police.

The military's role “is to fight Palestinian terrorism” and “focus on protecting the borders and settlements against threats,” he said in a statement. “Not chase after boys on the hills.”

That would cement the status quo of what are already largely separate legal systems for Jews and Palestinians in the West Bank, which major human rights groups say amounts to apartheid, something Israel denies.

Israel's police and military have been reluctant to confront the settlers

The Israeli police are overseen by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, himself a hard-line settler who has been convicted eight times for offenses that include supporting a terrorist organization. He was a defense attorney for Jewish extremists before entering politics.

The Israeli military says the settlers' actions in Qusra are “illegal, reprehensible and unacceptable,” and that it tries to maintain law and order in the West Bank. It says it dismantled two outposts in the area of Qusra and detained one Israeli.

But rights groups say the military frequently turns a blind eye to settler violence, and that when it intervenes it often focuses on protecting the settlers. Yesh Din, an Israeli rights group, says around 94% of investigations into settler violence since 2005 have ended without an indictment, with just 3% leading to full or partial convictions.

US pressure has had little impact, and has eased under Trump

Settler violence intensified after the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, triggered the war in Gaza. The following year, the Biden administration imposed sanctions on settlers and Israeli organizations accused of violence.

Other Western nations have announced sanctions against Ben Gvir and another hard-line Israeli Cabinet minister, Bezalel Smotrich, accusing them of “inciting extremist violence” toward Palestinians.

The sanctions had little impact, as the settler community rallied around those targeted.

President Donald Trump rescinded the U.S. sanctions at the start of his second term and appointed Huckabee, a staunch supporter of Israeli settlements, as his ambassador.

During his first term, Trump had upended decades of U.S. policy by moving the American Embassy to Jerusalem and supporting Israel's claims to other territories seized in war.

Netanyahu's opponents criticize the violence but support settlement growth

Netanyahu will need the backing of Ben Gvir, Smotrich and other settler supporters if he hopes to keep his job after October elections. He will also need to maintain good relations with the Trump administration.

His opponents have criticized what they characterize as the growing chaos in the West Bank. But most of Israel's political leaders — even critics of Netanyahu — support the growth of existing settlements and are opposed to Palestinian statehood.

Gadi Eisenkot, a former top general seen as Netanyahu's main opponent, criticized the government's handling of the events in Qusra, accusing it of undermining military commanders “in the face of anarchy and violent lawbreaking by an extremist minority.” He has also come out against plans to annex the West Bank.

But he has also told Israeli media that he has “never spoken about a Palestinian state,” and that he supports settlements that are “in line with Israel’s interests.”

Naftali Bennett, a staunch settlement supporter and another leading rival of Netanyahu, has condemned the violence, saying it amounts to “terrorism” by a minority.

“Precisely as someone who believes in our right to the land and in the settlement enterprise, we need to denounce this and eradicate the violence from within our own ranks — not wait for the Americans to tell us to do it,” he said in a recent interview with Israeli media.

When Bennett was prime minister, during the only brief period in the last 17 years that Netanyahu was out of office, his national unity government approved thousands of additional settler homes.

___

Associated Press writers Erin Cunningham in Jerusalem and Koral Saeed in Abu Snan, Israel, contributed.

The National Hurricane Center said Lala should be at hurricane strength by the time it approaches the Big Island Saturday.

If it makes landfall there, it would be the first to hit the island since 1871. Back then, according to a University of Hawaii atmospheric scientist's research of newspaper accounts, a Category 3 hurricane hit the northeast corner of the island, said Vanessa Almanza, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Honolulu.

“First time since satellites,” Almanza said. “The latest forecast has it very close to the southern tip of the Big Island.”

A hurricane warning was issued for the Big Island, and a tropical storm warning was in effect for Maui County, which includes the islands of Maui, Molokai, Lanai and Kahoolawe.

Officials and residents braced for Lala regardless of whether Hawaii takes a direct hit. Shelters were scheduled to open, and various events were canceled.

“It doesn’t take landfall to create destruction,” Almanza said. “A lot of the impacts are felt outside of the hurricane.”

The National Hurricane Center predicted 8 to 12 inches (20.3 to 30.5 centimeters) of rainfall totals across Maui and the Big Island, with maximum totals as high as 25 inches (63.5 centimeters) in some spots on the Big Island. Four to 6 inches (10.2 to 15.2 centimeters) were expected across the island chain.

The center also warned that the storm could cause “life-threatening flooding and mudslides, especially in areas of steep terrain,” along with a dangerous storm surge and ocean swells “likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.”

“Suffice it to say, this is an enormous storm,” Gov. Josh Green said.

Officials urge taking the storm seriously

State Rep. Jeanné Kapela, who represents communities that are in the storm's possible track, traveled to the Big Island from Honolulu on Friday morning and called for people to be on alert.

The southern end of the island is remote and rural but growing in population because of its affordability. Kapela said she was especially worried about people who live off the grid in unpermitted structures. The area's agriculture includes coffee and cattle.

“We're encouraging residents to take this storm seriously, remain vigilant, and get somewhere safe before conditions deteriorate,” she said in a text message to The Associated Press as her flight took off. “We're hopeful the storm moves through quickly, but we're preparing for whatever comes.”

Green urged residents to be ready: “If you feel now that your house doesn’t have a great roof or might not be able to withstand hurricane force winds, then first things first you go to a family or friend's house and you kind of hunker down there."

Kapela also noted that many parts of the state are still reeling from devastating flooding in March, saying, “We know how quickly heavy rain and flooding can impact our rural communities.”

Brian Miyamoto, executive director of the Hawaii Farm Bureau, said growers are always concerned when there is a threat of a lot of water in a short amount time. But those still recovering from the spring floods, including on Oahu’s North Shore, were worried about suffering more damage.

Coffee farmer Bruce Corker said it was “sunny and beautiful” Friday in Holualoa, on the west side of the Big Island, and the island's only Costco seemed normal a day earlier. Still, he said, the prospect of “streams overflowing and high winds” was worrisome.

Wildfire risks increase during windy weather

As winds ramped up across the islands, there were no red flag warnings in place but Almanza said the dry and breezy conditions would still elevate fire concerns.

In 2023 the Maui town of Lahaina burned during extreme winds amid a hurricane passing far to the south of Hawaii.

“Since the fire, everybody is way more aware of weather in general and our environment and things that are happening,” said Archie Kalepa of Lahaina, who is well known in the area for his surfing, paddling and other ocean skills and has been watching the storm closely.

As of Friday afternoon, Tropical Storm Lala was located about 275 miles (440 kilometers) east-southeast of South Point, Hawaii, according to the National Hurricane Center. It had maximum sustained winds of 65 mph (100 kph) and was moving toward the west-northwest at 14 mph (22 kph).

The wind speed threshold for a Category 1 hurricane is 74 mph (46 kph).

“I wouldn’t be afraid of what’s to come, just be prepared,” said Steven Businger, the University of Hawaii professor whose research found information about the hurricane that hit the Big Island 155 years ago.

Lala has the potential to make landfall with damaging winds, he said, but its path was trending south with every forecast.

“The Big Island is furthest south and furthest east, so it has the greatest probability of having a hurricane hit,” he said. “However, historically Kauai has seen the most landfalls.”

Kauai, which is several islands northwest up the archipelago from the Big Island, saw Hurricane Iniki make landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in 1992. That, like this year, was an El Nino year. Pacific hurricane activity increases during El Nino, a warming of the Pacific near the equator that affects weather patterns across the globe.

Iniki, the last hurricane to make landfall in Hawaii, was following a southern trajectory before it turned up and hit Kauai, the governor said.

“It did $3 billion worth of damage. It destroyed thousands of homes, and it did kill six people,” he said. “So we just can never know if a storm is going to turn.”

In a stunning turn, Mangione pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to a pair of stalking charges and admitted that he targeted and killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson as the executive walked to his company’s investor conference at a Manhattan hotel in 2024.

Neither Mangione nor his lawyers said why he pleaded guilty now, but they gave some clues.

Immediately after his plea, Mangione’s lawyers filed paperwork seeking to have the state case thrown out on double jeopardy grounds. That trial is scheduled to begin next month, but could be pushed back or canceled altogether depending on what the judge decides.

If it succeeds, Mangione’s defense team could concentrate on trying to convince the judge in his federal case, Margaret Garnett, to spare him from the life sentence that prosecutors say they intend to seek when he’s sentenced on Dec. 18.

Mangione was facing back-to-back trials and a pile of evidence

In their double jeopardy filing Friday, Mangione’s lawyers described him as a “pawn in parallel prosecutions," and defense lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo accused state and federal prosecutors of “trying to punish him twice for the exact conduct.”

Indeed, Mangione remains scheduled to go to trial on state murder charges beginning Sept. 8. His federal trial — now moot because of his guilty plea — was set for January.

Complicating matters, anything said in federal court — including Mangione's statements Friday admitting to killing Thompson — potentially could be used against him in state court, or vice versa.

But that's not all. Prosecutors say they have a trove of evidence that proves Mangione’s guilt, including: Video of him shooting Thompson and tailing him the day before; Mangione’s DNA and fingerprints on items at or near the crime scene; testimony from shooting witnesses; a 3D-printed 9mm pistol that police found in his backpack when he was arrested that authorities said matched the gun used to kill Thompson; and a notebook found with Mangione at the time of his arrest in which he expressed a willingness to kill a healthcare executive.

The defense previously argued all the items in Mangione's backpack were obtained in an unconstitutional search, but judges in both the federal and state cases disagreed.

Guilty plea allows defense to argue double jeopardy

Mangione's guilty plea, just three weeks before jury selection in his state murder trial, appeared to be part of a larger defense strategy to swiftly resolve both cases, minimize his legal consequences and, perhaps, give him a chance to live some of his life outside a prison cell. Earlier plea talks broke down in June.

Within minutes of his plea, Mangione’s lawyers petitioned the judge in the state case, Gregory Carro, to throw out those charges on double jeopardy grounds. Instead of two trials — and two potential sentences that could run back-to-back — they are fighting for just one and are sure to argue he deserves a far lesser sentence than life in prison.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office, which is prosecuting the state case, will have a chance to respond to the defense's double jeopardy motion before Carro rules. In a statement, the office said it would fight efforts to terminate the state case, in part because Mangione's sentence in the federal case isn't yet known. Thompson's family members, in a statement, suggested they are also looking forward to the state case going to trial. Mangione has pleaded not guilty in the state case.

Compared with federal law and that of other states, New York has uncommonly strong protections for defendants facing multiple prosecutions — though they are not guaranteed.

Bragg's office contends that the state charges, including murder and firearms offenses, involve different legal elements and criminal conduct than federal charges, which alleged Mangione traveled across state lines to stalk and kill Thompson.

However Carro rules, his decision will be subject to appeal, meaning a final answer on whether Mangione faces a state trial could take a while.

An opportunity to argue for less than a life sentence

Mangione’s lawyers previously fended off the government’s attempts to seek the death penalty. Now they're fighting for a sentence that's less than the life term U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald said federal prosecutors intend to seek. Life is also the maximum punishment in Mangione's state case.

Unlike other defendants, Mangione doesn't have a plea deal with prosecutors. There were “no accommodations or concessions, and we are free to seek the maximum penalty under the law," McDonald said.

Still, Garnett noted in court that the government’s calculation of federal sentencing guidelines would call for a sentence of 24 to 30 years in prison. Mangione's lawyers can submit their own calculation and both sides can argue for greater or lesser punishment in submissions to the judge. Such filings typically chronicle the impact of a defendant's crimes, as well as his history, upbringing and other aggravating or mitigating factors.

Mangione will also be interviewed by probation officers, Garnett said, adding that the report they produce will factor heavily in her sentencing decision. Judges are free to ignore sentencing guidelines, which are intended to reduce disparities in punishments levied for the same crimes.

Garnett told Mangione she is obliged to determine what she thinks is the correct guideline range and “more importantly what I think the appropriate sentence is in your case.”

“No one, not your lawyers, not the government’s lawyers, no one can give you any assurance of what your sentence will be since I am the one who will decide your sentence,” the judge said, “and I’m not going to do that today.”

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington, D.C., denied the Tohono O’odham Nation's request for a court-ordered halt to border wall construction on its 2.8-million-acre reservation. Leon ruled the tribe hasn't established that a border wall will change its reservation boundaries without congressional authority.

The judge also rejected the tribe's claim that the planned border wall would illegally trespass on its reservation.

“And in any event, I find that the Government’s interests in securing the border, enforcing immigration laws, and ensuring public safety outweigh any surviving irreparable harms at this juncture,” Leon wrote.

The tribe released a statement late Friday strongly disagreeing with the decision.

"Too many critical issues were not adequately addressed, such as inevitable impacts construction will have on the Nation’s land and the permanent destruction of sacred sites," Tohono O’odham Nation Chairman Verlon M. Jose said. “The Nation will consider all possible options for moving forward, as this issue is simply too important to the O’odham.”

The O’odham reservation in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona abuts 62 miles of the Mexico border. The tribe has over 37,000 members, including thousands who live in Mexico.

Building the border wall would led to “significant devastation” on the reservation, including the destruction of mountain peaks that are sacred to the O’odham, tribe attorneys said.

“It would fray the ties between O’odham communities and families on opposite sides of the border, interfere significantly with O’odham religious rituals and practices, and destroy plant and animal resources sacred to the O’odham,” the lawyers wrote.

In 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt issued a proclamation reserving a 60-foot strip of public land along the U.S.-Mexico border for a buffer zone called the “Roosevelt Reservation,” which was formed a decade before the reservation's establishment.

Tribe attorneys say it is “fanciful at best” to suggest that border wall construction can be confined to a 60-foot-wide corridor.

During a July 22 hearing, Leon appeared to be skeptical that U.S. laws tip in favor of the tribe’s bid for a preliminary injunction, calling it an “extraordinary” request. Leon, who was nominated to the bench by Republican President George W. Bush, said he couldn’t find a previous court ruling under comparable circumstances.

“This is a novel case with novel issues,” the judge said.

Caitlin Clark had 29 points and 10 assists in an entertaining duel with fellow No. 1 overall pick Paige Bueckers, and the Fever beat the Dallas Wings 98-87 on Friday night in a rare game that wasn't marred by on-court or off-court controversies.

“We love each other in that locker room and we know there are a lot of people out there that are trying to tear it apart,” White said, three days Indiana's coach denounced the “divisiveness” around the WNBA in a 2 1/2-minute pregame rant. “When we say we’re a family, we mean that. It doesn’t always mean we get along, It doesn’t mean we always agree. But at the end of the day, it means we circle are wagons and we have each other’s back.”

White had drawn the wrath of Fever fans — and even Indiana Lt. Gov Micah Beckwith — after what some saw as her downplaying a flagrant foul by Chicago's DiJonai Carrington on Indiana's Sophie Cunningham.

After White called the foul on Cunningham “egregious” during her table-pounding pregame speech on Tuesday and said she always backed her players, the Fever went out and beat the New York Liberty 106-92 as Clark and her teammates rallied around their coach.

All appeared to be forgiven on Friday as the Fever picked up their third straight win.

“I think our fans, you know the true Indiana Fever fans, are amazing. They’ve been incredible to me for a long time,” White said. “But more than anything, I’m thankful for this group of women and the men on our staff, and I’m thankful we can all lift each other up when need to be and they’ve been lifting me up. I’m happy about that.”

All-Star guard Kelsey Mitchell continued scoring at a high clip, finishing with 23 points. All-Star center Aliyah Boston scored 10 of her 16 points in the fourth quarter, and even Indiana’s oft-criticized defense played well through the first half and in the closing minutes.

Friday’s game and next week’s game in Dallas could be a playoff preview.

Indiana has won eight of 10 and finished the night as the league's fourth-place team, a half-game ahead of the Atlanta Dream — its opponent on Sunday. The Wings have lost seven of 10 to fall into a tie for seventh with Washington.

Bueckers matched Clark with 29 points, but it wasn't enough for Dallas.

“Obviously, she is an incredible player, makes it really hard on us defensively,” Clark said. “We tried to throw a lot of different things at her. She’s so good in the mid-range. I felt like we had a few miscommunications, especially in that third-quarter spurt where she was completely wide open. That’s on our group to figure it out.”

___

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

The residents say they are concerned about how the project could affect their rural community, including water, noise, light pollution and the environment.

“We are not going to lay down and take it. We are here to fight,” resident Lisa Hicks said.

Another resident said noise and light from the development could affect the area’s wildlife.

• RELATED: Here’s how to find information about data centers in Texas

“First of all, because of the noise. Secondly, we have the migratory birds that come across here, and that light and the noise is gonna disturb them,” she said.

The protest comes two days after Gov. Greg Abbott announced that Google, Rowan and CleanSpark would comply with standards and guidelines he established for data centers. Abbott has said the guardrails are working and are being implemented by data centers across Texas.

CleanSpark says it is proposing a 285-megawatt data center on a roughly 270-acre property, but only about 10 acres would be used for the actual facility.

CleanSpark Chief Business Officer Harry Sudocks said the company would build its own substation and pay the utility for necessary upgrades to serve the project.

“That is a lot of power,” Sudocks said. “It sounds like a lot of power, but ultimately, the way that we work with the grid is that we pay our own way.”

The company also says the data center would use a closed-loop cooling system and consume less than 10 homes’ worth of water per day for operations. CleanSpark expects the project to generate millions of dollars in tax revenue for the county and school district.

Residents have also raised concerns about a battery energy storage system, or BESS, located nearby.

• RELATED: Gov. Abbott orders review of proposed data centers as AI boom raises questions about Texas power grid, water use

Hicks said she discovered the system while investigating development in the area.

“We had the BESS, Battery Energy Storage System, already in place and intact, up and running with that low infrasound,” Hicks said.

CleanSpark says the BESS is a separate project on a different piece of land that was in place before the company purchased its property. Sudocks said it has a different owner and developer and is not part of CleanSpark’s project.

Despite meeting with CleanSpark representatives, residents say they remain concerned about the proposed data center and its potential impact on their community.

CleanSpark says it expects to learn more about the governor’s audit process within the coming months. The company says it needs certainty about power availability before breaking ground, and construction would take approximately 16 to 18 months once it begins.

In a phone interview, the former chief confirmed that a document obtained by KPRC 2 News is authentic and that a version later provided by the department appears to have been altered.

Former Police Chief Jerry Wright told KPRC 2 News that the document he personally submitted to the department’s civil service process on March 7, 2025, recommended an indefinite suspension for Palitz.

• RELATED: Pasadena police sergeant resigns while under internal investigation; council member cites alleged misuse of Flock camera

Wright said that is not what appears in a version of the document Pasadena police later provided in response to a public records request.

“My document indicated clearly an indefinite suspension for the individual and what I saw was it altered to reflect 30-day suspension,” Wright said. “Without question, that was not the document that I submitted.”

KPRC 2 News reached out to Pasadena police shortly before noon Friday, August 14, 2026, for comment regarding the records related to Palitz and asked if the documents were “ever altered, modified, replaced, or otherwise changed.” The department did not respond to our 3:30 Friday deadline.

Allegations involving Flock cameras

The disciplinary action former Pasadena Police Chief Wright is now questioning is separate from the allegations that ultimately led to Palitz’s resignation from the department.

This year, after Wright was no longer chief, Palitz faced a separate investigation involving the department’s Flock Safety license plate reader system.

KPRC 2 News first reported Palitz’s resignation and TCOLE license surrender.

• RELATED: Pasadena council discusses KPRC 2 reporting on police sergeant, alleged Flock camera misuse

The resignation came after Pasadena City Council Member Emmanuel Guerrero told KPRC 2 News, he believes the investigation centered on allegations that Palitz improperly accessed the city’s Flock Safety license plate reader camera system to monitor another officer.

“Based on what we gathered, [he] was using our camera system, our Flock system, to track and stalk a female officer,” Guerrero previously told KPRC 2 News.

KPRC 2 News has not independently verified the specific allegations discussed by Guerrero, and Pasadena police have not publicly released details of the investigation.

TCOLE oversees licensing and professional standards for law enforcement officers in Texas. A permanent surrender of a TCOLE license makes an individual ineligible to hold or obtain a TCOLE-issued law enforcement license in Texas.

That means Palitz cannot return to a TCOLE-licensed law enforcement position in Texas.

A license surrender, however, is not the same as a criminal conviction. KPRC 2 News has not reported any criminal charges against Palitz stemming from the investigation.

Palitz’s attorney previously declined to comment to KPRC 2 News about the investigation and the surrender of his license.

Former chief confirms document obtained by KPRC 2 News

Wright authenticated an unredacted copy of Palitz’s personnel records, recently obtained by KPRC 2 News, confirming that it was consistent with the disciplinary document he submitted while he was still chief.

“I can say unequivocally that [the version provided by Pasadena police] was not reflective of the document I submitted to civil service back on March 7th of 2025,” Wright said.

Wright said his original document clearly called for an indefinite suspension.

• RELATED: Pasadena police sergeant surrenders Texas law enforcement license after internal investigation closes

“While you were chief at Pasadena Police, you submitted an indefinite suspension, not this redacted 30-day suspension,” KPRC 2 News’ Rilwan Balogun asked.

“Exactly,” Wright responded.

Wright said the discrepancy also creates a misleading impression about his tenure as chief.

“It’s just not accurate, and from my view, it’s definitely not right,” he said.

Wright says indefinite suspension followed investigation

Wright said recommending an indefinite suspension was not a decision he made lightly.

“At the conclusion of the investigation without a doubt, it was my opinion that an indefinite suspension was warranted,” Wright said.

The disciplinary document reviewed by KPRC 2 News details allegations involving Palitz’s conduct toward other officers, including allegations of inappropriate comments, harassment and violations of orders issued by the department.

Among the allegations cited in the document are comments Palitz allegedly made about women working for the department.

The document quotes Palitz as saying: “We have women under the age of 25. Their brains aren’t even developed yet. We have lowered our hiring standards. We got all of these emotions. It’s basically like Jersey Shore.”

The document also describes allegations involving a female officer and a subsequent no-contact order.

According to the disciplinary letter, in October 2024, another sergeant issued Palitz a no-contact order involving a woman who had come forward to the department. The letter says Palitz signed the order.

The following day, however, investigators alleged that Palitz violated the order by sending the woman an unsolicited text message.

The letter states that the message came approximately two and a half hours after a meeting with Palitz about the matter.

The woman told investigators she believed the message was intended to further harass or retaliate against her for pursuing the investigation. According to the letter, she told the department she was fearful of Palitz and emotionally distraught over the situation.

The investigation also involved a text Palitz sent to an all-female squad group in 2024.

In that text message, according to the disciplinary document, Palitz addressed rumors that he was having inappropriate relationships with one or more members of the squad.

The document quotes Palitz as saying he cared about the women in the squad “more than the average sergeant” and referenced the “Sergeant Palitz babies popping out soon.”

KPRC 2 News has not independently verified the truth of the allegations in the disciplinary document. The allegations are presented as they appear in the records reviewed by the station.

“I wanted to set the record straight”

Wright said he initially did not want to become involved in current issues surrounding the Pasadena Police Department.

He said that changed after he learned his name was attached to a version of a document, he says he did not submit.

“It was my preference not to get involved in any of the local issues or politics,” Wright said. “But when it was brought to my attention that my name was on this document that had been apparently altered, I wanted to set the record straight.”

Wright did not accuse a specific person of altering the record.

He said he could not say whether the change was intentional or unintentional but maintained that the document provided by the department was not the document he submitted.

KPRC 2 News is not aware of any evidence suggesting that the difference in the documents is the result of any professional misconduct by the Pasadena Police Department.

That distinction is significant because the version released by Pasadena police lists a 30-day suspension rather than the indefinite suspension Wright says he recommended.

The difference also affects how Wright’s role in the disciplinary process appears in the public record.

KPRC 2 News has asked Pasadena police about those discrepancies and the handling of the disciplinary record.

The department previously said the Palitz matter was closed after his TCOLE license surrendered and declined to provide additional comment on the investigation.

Officers responded just before noon to reports of a shooting at a home in Missaukee County, about 170 miles (270 kilometers) northwest of Detroit, and found three people dead and another in critical condition, Michigan State Police said in a statement. The wounded person was taken to a hospital.

Suspect Chad Hickman, 39, fled before they arrived at the home, according to police. As officers conducted a large-scale search for him, they found a fourth person dead at another home.

In a post on the social platform X, police warned that Hickman was armed and dangerous and told community members not to approach him.

Hickman's vehicle was later found in a wooded area near Whitlock Lake, and that led authorities to his body as well as that of another dead person.

“This situation is heartbreaking for the community and challenging for the investigators involved,” Lt. Ashley Miller said in a statement.

She added that investigators would work through the night to process each scene.

Police asked people to avoid the areas where the shootings took place.

The names and ages of the people killed were not immediately released, pending family notification.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said she was briefed on the shooting and monitoring the situation.

“My thoughts are with the victims, their families, and the Missaukee community,” she said.

We were fortunate to get the rain we did on Friday. It helped keep temperatures in the mid-90s, but that relief will be short-lived.

High pressure builds in this weekend, bringing a hot, humid and dry weather pattern that looks to stick around not only through the weekend but much of next week.

Temperatures will climb into the upper 90s, with the potential to hit 100° on a few days next week. With the humidity, it will feel even hotter.

Lala and Hawaii:

Something incredibly rare is about to happen in Hawaii. Did you know That the Hawaiian island chain has only been hit by a hurricane two times since reliable records have been kept going back to 1949. Cat 1 Dot in 1959 and Cat 4 Iniki in 1992 both hit Kauai.

Saturday could be the third time a hurricane hits the islands with Lala moving through Saturday night. It may make a direct hit on the southern part of the Big Island.

The Big Island has only been hit by three tropical storms. Unnamed in 1958, Iselle in 2014 and Darby in 2016. This would be the first hurricane hit for the Big Island.

Here are the impacts. The biggest and most dangerous is rain. It’s not out of the question that two feet of rain could fall in the Big Island creating deadly mudslides. Orographic lifting will enhance rain rates and the topography will race the water down.

Hurricane force winds will also hit parts of the big island lashing trees and knocking out power.

Waves as high as twenty feet will lash the southern part of the big island.  

And even without a direct landfall, rain totals will not change. Hurricane Lane in 2018 was 150 miles west of the big Island and dropped 58” of rain near Hilo.

Sunday, this storm moves away from the Islands.

Atlantic Ocean:

While the Pacific Ocean has Lala, the Atlantic basin has dry air and strong wind shear. This is preventing the two disturbances we’ve been watching this week from strengthening. I doubt either of these areas becomes Dolly, the next named storm in the Atlantic.

10 Day Forecast:

I don’t have a chance of rain in the forecast until possibly Monday August 24th!

The Swiss star, who was given a spot in the final after falling in the semifinal a day earlier, finished in 1 minute, 54.81 seconds at Alexander Stadium.

Hodgkinson closed the gap down the stretch but Werro willed herself across the line for gold ahead of her British rival. Dutch star Femke Broeders-Bol took bronze.

“I was coming for the gold medal. It truly means a lot. I’m so happy with the finish of the race,” said Werro, who did her trademark lion's roar after winning.

Werro, sporting a small bandage on her right hip, took the lead in the first lap and never let up. Werro in late June ran the third-fastest women’s time ever: 1:53.80.

In one of Thursday's semifinal heats, Anais Bourgoin’s left hand made contact with Werro’s right foot and Werro tumbled on the last bend.

“It was not the best scenario to qualify like that,” Werro said. “It was just a little bit hard for me at this point as that fall was very dramatic in the semis. But I tried to convince myself that I have the second chance and I have to take it and do something great. I’m glad I had a second chance and I just took it.”

Hodgkinson had won the past two 800 titles at the European championships.

“Going into that last 100m I really thought I could catch her but sometimes you just don’t have enough and that was the case today,” Hodgkinson said. “Of course, I am very disappointed but it was a fantastic race.”

Werro broke the European championships record of 1:55.41 set in 1982 by Olga Mineyeva, European Athletics said.

Gold for Italians and Warholm

It’s back-to-back doubles for Italy’s Nadia Battocletti, who defended her 10,000-meter title three nights after retaining her 5,000-meter crown.

Battocletti, the silver medalist in the 10,000 at the Paris Olympics, made her move with 200 meters remaining and Maureen Koster of the Netherlands and Belgium’s Jana van Lent couldn’t keep up.

Battocletti crossed the line in 31 minutes, 41.17 seconds. Koster took silver, and Van Lent won bronze.

In the high jump, Gianmarco Tamberi won his fourth European championships title — and third in a row — after clearing 2.32 meters.

The charismatic Tamberi, who famously shared gold with his good friend Mutaz Barshim at the 2020 Tokyo Games, pulled off his jersey and thumped his bare chest in celebration Friday.

Ukraine's Oleh Doroshchuk (2.30) took silver, and Tamberi teammate Matteo Sioli (2.27) won bronze.

Norway star Karsten Warholm lowered his own European championships record in the 400-meter hurdles by winning in 46.63 seconds for his fourth consecutive title in the discipline.

“It’s not as easy as it looks out there, I don’t take any medal for granted but today was extra special for me as nobody has ever won four in a row,” the 30-year-old Warholm said. “I was so locked in today.”

Germany's Emil Agyekum took bronze, and Ismail Nezir of Turkey was third.

Married man ‘Mondo’ Duplantis into pole vault final

Swedish pole vaulter Armand “Mondo” Duplantis is hoping to break the world record — as a married man.

Duplantis, who tied the knot with Desiré Inglander in June, needed just one successful attempt at 5.60 meters to qualify for Sunday night’s final.

The world record is 6.31, which the Louisiana-born Duplantis vaulted in March. That was his 15th world record. He first broke it in 2020 and has eclipsed his mark by 1 centimeter every time since.

The two-time reigning Olympic champion looked fully recovered from a thigh issue that forced him to stop competing at the London Diamond League meet one month ago.

“I’ve worked really hard the past few weeks to try and make sure I am ready for this competition, so I feel good out there. I feel hopeful and confident for Sunday,” he said. "The jump was clean, good. Nothing too out of the ordinary. Now it’s just about going up there and doing what I normally do in the final on Sunday."

The world record holder signed autographs and shook hands with fans. Organizers sold special ‘Mondo’ children’s tickets priced at 6.31 pounds — the figure representing his latest world record height — for Friday morning’s session.

Duplantis also revealed on Friday he usually keeps his wedding band “in between my laces (of) my spikes” while he competes.

He said his marriage proposal and wedding day were more nerve-wracking than vaulting himself into rarefied air going for a world record.

“When I attempt a world record, it's just like the cherry on top," he said. "I don’t really even get that nervous, it's more like I won the competition and whatever happens after that is really nice.”

Duplantis competes for his mother’s native Sweden and has won the past three European championship titles.

___

See full AP coverage of European sports here

The Justice Department announced last year that it had issued more than 20 subpoenas to doctors and clinics that provide gender-affirming care as part of an effort to investigate healthcare fraud. Federal judges have quashed many of the subpoenas as illegitimate efforts to intimidate providers into ending care.

In a 2-1 decision, a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the efficacy and long-term risks of the treatments are "uncertain," and the president has the power to align the Justice Department's enforcement priorities with his broader policy goals.

“Every President has law enforcement priorities, just as every President has signature policies (often, the former are components of the latter)," Judge Carlos Bea wrote.

Bea, a nominee of Republican President George W. Bush, was joined in the opinion by Daniel Bress, a Trump nominee. They reversed a ruling that quashed the subpoena against telemedicine provider QueerDoc, sending the case back to the district court to consider other arguments.

The subpoena seeks QueerDoc's personnel files, billing documents, communications with drug manufacturers and records of patients who were prescribed puberty blockers or hormone therapy, among other information, according to the 9th Circuit decision.

American Civil Liberties Union attorney Adrien Leavitt, who represented Washington state-based QueerDoc, said the ACLU would continue fighting the subpoena in district court. QueerDoc has also argued the subpoena is overbroad and burdensome. The Justice Department has said it has reason to believe the company may be misleading people about puberty blockers and hormones.

"We’re ready to continue defending one of the most fundamental principles of healthcare: every patient’s right to confidential medical care,” Leavitt said in a statement.

He said the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit was the first appeals court to weigh in on the subpoenas.

Trump has signed one executive order defining sex as only male or female — and as unchangeable — and another that seeks to end federal funding of gender-affirming care for patients under 19. The latter order also directs the Justice Department to “prioritize investigations” into violations of a drug safety law by “any entity that may be misleading the public about long-term side effects of chemical and surgical mutilation.”

Gender-affirming care includes a range of medical and mental health services to support a person’s gender identity, including when it’s different from the sex they were assigned at birth. It encompasses counseling, medications that block puberty and hormone therapy to produce physical changes as well as surgeries to transform chests and genitals, though those are rare for minors.

Most major medical groups say access to the treatment is important for those with gender dysphoria and see gender as existing along a spectrum.

The 9th Circuit majority called discussion around gender-affirming care "an unsettled scientific debate," and said the Trump administration could also justify its opposition to the treatment on ethical or philosophical grounds.

Pearce was arrested in February following a domestic dispute with his ex-girlfriend, WNBA player Rickea Jackson. The incident took place in Doral, Florida.

Pearce's charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, fleeing police and resisting arrest, and misdemeanor stalking could be dropped if he cooperates in a pretrial intervention program requiring random drug tests, distance from Jackson and staying out of legal trouble for one year.

Pearce will be available to participate in preseason games and all team activities until the suspension takes effect on Aug. 30.

The second-year defensive end can be reinstated on Nov. 2, following Atlanta's Week 8 game at Tampa Bay. The Falcons will travel to Madrid to play the Cincinnati Bengals the following week.

The Falcons' pass rush has taken a hit recently following Jalon Walker's season-ending ACL tear. The group is left with Christian Harris, JD Bertrand, Samson Ebukam, Kendal Daniels and Bralen Trice. The Falcons also added Cameron Sample after Walker's injury.

Atlanta traded back to the No. 26 pick in the first round of the 2025 draft to select Pearce. The former Tennessee Volunteer has played a substantial role in transforming the Falcons' pass rush, leading the team with 10 1/2 sacks during his rookie season.

Other suspensions

Pearce was one players suspended on Friday.

The NFL also suspended Washington Commanders edge rusher Dorance Armstrong, Tennessee Titans safety Nazeeh Johnson and Buffalo Bills defensive tackle Phidarian Mathis.

Armstrong was suspended one game for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy. He will miss the Commanders' season opener against Philadelphia on Sept. 13.

Armstrong opened training camp on the physically unable to perform list, but has since been activated. He was limited to playing seven games last season before tearing a knee ligament.

He’s entering his ninth NFL season and third with Washington.

Johnson was suspended six games for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancers. Mathis was issued a three-game suspension for violating the league’s substances of abuse policy.

Under league rules, the players are allowed to practice and play with their respective teams through Aug. 30, when NFL teams are required to set their 53-man rosters.

Johnson is eligible to return for the Titans’ home game against Cleveland on Oct. 25. Mathis can return for Buffalo’s home game against New England on Oct. 4.

Johnson has three previous seasons of NFL experience, all with the Kansas City Chiefs, and signed with the Titans on July 27, just before the opening of training camp.

The 28-year-old had six starts in 29 NFL games with the Chiefs since being selected by Kansas City in the seventh round of the 2022 draft. A shoulder injury limited Johnson to two games last season. He also missed the entire 2023 season with a torn ACL in his right knee.

The 28-year-old Mathis appeared in six games with the Bills last season. He spent his first three NFL seasons appearing in 23 games with Washington.

___

See AP’s full NFL coverage here

Abbott sent a letter to the North Texas airport’s CEO Christopher McLaughlin, as well as the mayors of Houston, Dallas and Fort Worth, stating his office was in the process of reviewing all grant funds over facilities in their cities’ airports. He also sent a letter to U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to refer the airports for federal investigations.

“These ablution facilities appear designed to single out one subset of the population for special treatment based on religion. That is illegal,” Abbott said in a news release announcing the grant reviews. “Both airports are government-owned facilities. The federal and state constitutions prohibit government from facilitating this sort of discrimination. Just as the government cannot favor the secular over the sacred, it also cannot favor one religious view over all others.”

At the center of the investigation and grant reviews are ablution facilities, used by Muslim people for wudu, in which hands and feet are rinsed prior to prayer. Abbott said the facilities “appear designed to single out one subset of the population for special treatment based on religion” in his letter to the mayors and said funding would be revoked if their use continued.

Houston’s airport has had an ablution room since 2024, described as for use by people of all faiths. DFW told KERA that it has had a station since 2019.

Houston Airport did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Shortly after Abbott’s public announcement about the grant reviews, a DFW airport spokesperson said in a statement that plans for the facility had been cancelled after deciding it “would not deliver the originally anticipated operational benefits.”

“Like all proposed projects, the airport ultimately considers the operational benefits, customer service impacts, operational risks and costs before approving them,” the statement read.

Anti-Islamic rhetoric has been at the forefront of Texas Republican messaging through the year, as GOP leaders have railed for months about the urgency of ending the so-called “Islamification” of Texas.

Abbott has repeatedly used threats of withdrawing funding as a means of exerting control over Texas cities to press issues important to the GOP base in the state. Most recently, Abbott threatened $530,000 in grants for Grand Prairie unless the city canceled an event at a water park initially advertised as a “Muslims only” gathering. He also threatened funding for transportation last year unless cities removed rainbow crosswalks intended to show support for LGBTQ+ communities.

Abbott’s letters about the ablution facilities follow another letter sent Thursday by Sen. Tan Parker, R-Flower Mound, to DFW airport officials. Parker, who chairs the state Senate’s transportation committee, sent a list of questions to administrators asking how the private donation for the facility was accepted and who it came from.

“Really just a dream start,” Scheffler said. “Probably one of the best starts I’ve had on tour, to be honest with you. I couldn’t tell you a time where I’ve been lower early in the round.”

The top-ranked Scheffler had 11 birdies and two bogeys in 100-degree heat at TPC Southwind in the playoff opener. He had an 11-under 129 total.

“The tournament is halfway over,” Scheffler said. “I had two good rounds to start and hopefully continue that over the weekend.”

Scheffler tied the tournament course record.

“I wouldn’t say golf’s ever easy,” Scheffler. “I did some good things out there. I hit some iron shots in there close and was able to hole a few putts as well.”

He has played the TPC Southwind more times (seven) without winning than any other course on the PGA Tour.

Viktor Hovland and Sungjae Im were tied for second at 8 under. Hovland had a 64, and Im shot his second 66.

“It was really nice, really solid,” Hovland said. “Hit a lot of fairways, and I think that’s a big deal for my game, but also especially at this golf course. I think it’s really difficult to score if you’re missing fairways.”

Ludvig Aberg was 7 under after a 65.

Jordan Spieth shot 69 to get to 6 under. He was part of a four-way tie for the first-round lead. Spieth is outside the top 50 in the FedEx Cup who advance to the BMW Championship next week.

Scheffler entered the week with a 794-point lead over Matt Fitzpatrick in the FedExCup standings. Fitzpatrick was 3 under after a 67.

So much emphasis is on getting into the top 50 because that locks up all the $20 million signature events for next season.

Rory McIlroy played alongside Scheffler the first two days. He followed an opening 74 with a 70, leaving him tied for 60th at 4 over.

___

See AP’s full golf coverage here

The cats are being rescued from the former Luján Zoo, about 70 kilometers (43 miles) northwest of Argentina's capital of Buenos Aires, after years of uncertainty over their fate. Four Paws, the international animal-welfare organization overseeing the transfer, described it as one of the largest relocations of captive big cats in the world.

“We are putting everything into making this go as smoothly as possible so we can celebrate that 30 lives have improved because of this effort,” said Luciana D’Abramo, program director for Four Paws.

Once loaded into their crates and placed aboard cargo and passenger jets, nine tigers and six lions will be flown to Lionsrock, a Four Paws sanctuary in South Africa that houses more than 80 big cats across natural enclosures sprawling 60 hectares (148 acres). The remaining eight tigers and seven lions will travel to The Wild Animal Sanctuary in Colorado, a vast refuge on the grasslands northeast of Denver where rescued lions, tigers and other animals roam expansive habitats.

But getting there is no easy feat: The big cats bound for Colorado will fly through Chile, while the others will travel to Johannesburg via Frankfurt or Amsterdam before a four-hour drive to Lionsrock.

The Four Paws handlers trained many of the lions and tigers to enter the crates voluntarily. But some of the big cats required sedation, including two tigers that veterinarians hoisted in canvas slings Friday and carried by hand to their transport crates.

Argentine authorities shut down the Lujan Zoo — famous for letting visitors handle and pose for pictures with tigers and lions — over safety and animal welfare concerns in 2020. D’Abramo said about 200 big cats were living there when it closed. Only 112 remained when Four Paws first arrived in 2023 seeking a solution.

By the time the organization was allowed to take over the site two years later, that number had fallen to 62. Some of the captive animals can barely walk because of obesity, muscle loss or poor nutrition. Others suffer from dental and kidney disease, complications from declawing and injuries that never healed properly.

“That alone shows the level of overcrowding and the conditions in which these animals have endured,” D’Abramo said.

The organization retrained longtime zoo employees in modern animal-welfare practices and began improving the cats’ diets and medical care. This transfer leaves more than 20 lions and tigers at Luján while Four Paws searches for their long-term homes.

___

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

Begay, one of the last two living Code Talkers, made the long trip from his home on the Navajo Nation to the Arizona State Capitol for the event. He was joined by family members and dozens of descendants of other Code Talkers.

“I am so damn proud,” said Begay, in a wheelchair and wearing a cap dotted with pins and a golden shirt that featured military patches and his service ribbons. “We used our language in World War II and won the battles.”

The Marine Corps recruited over 400 Navajos during World War II to communicate confidential information using their then-unwritten language. It was the largest code-talking program in the military at the time. In 2021, Arizona became the first state adopting Navajo Code Talker Day as a state holiday.

Between 1942 and 1945, they sent thousands of secret messages on battle tactics and enemy troop movements — using the same language Begay spoke while growing up and herding sheep on the Navajo Nation. Ultimately, the Code Talkers helped save the lives of thousands of Allied soldiers.

The program remained secret for decades and in 1982, President Ronald Reagan signed a proclamation designating Aug. 14 as the official day to honor the Navajo Code Talkers and all Native Americans who served in the war.

“The U.S. was being defeated. Without that code, that war could have been different," said Dawn Manuelito, a granddaughter of one of the first 29 Navajo Code Talkers who developed the code. “Our language saved this country."

Navajo soldiers were sworn to secrecy

When the Code Talkers were discharged after the war, they couldn't tell anyone about their mission. The program remained classified until 1968 and then efforts began to formally recognize the soldiers for their contributions.

In 1971, President Richard Nixon sent a letter of appreciation to the Navajo Tribal Council. Code Talker veterans participated in the bicentennial parade in Washington in 1976, and a joint congressional resolution resulted in Reagan's proclamation.

In the proclamation, Reagan also acknowledged that members of the Choctaw, Chippewa, Creek, Sioux, and other tribes used their tribal languages as effective battlefield codes in the two world wars.

At least 20 tribes have had members participate in the code talking programs, according to the National Museum of the American Indian.

During World War II, over 40,000 Native American men and women enlisted in the U.S. armed forces. Of the hundreds of Code Talkers deployed, the Comanches participated in operations in Europe, including the D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied France.

Advocates work to keep the legacy alive

Following President Donald Trump’s executive order to end federal diversity and equity programs, the Defense Department deleted thousands of pages honoring contributions by women and minority groups, including the Navajo Code Talkers and other Native American veterans.

Tribes condemned the action. The Pentagon restored some webpages, saying the Navajo Code Talker material was erroneously removed.

“They left their home, their sheep, their loved ones, to serve a country. They came back home and most of them have PTSD, like my dad. But they continued to do the best they can — and the Trump administration wiped them out of the map,” said Ronald Begay, 70, the oldest son of Thomas H. Begay. “It just makes your blood boil."

Laura Tohe, the Arizona poet laureate and daughter of a Navajo Code Talker, said her father went to a boarding school where students were punished for using their native languages. But when he joined the Marines, Tohe said, he and other men were told that the military would use their language to devise a code.

“It's a huge contradiction,” Tohe said. “Despite the complicated and dark history and relationship that we have with the U.S., these men were willing to step up because many of them felt like it was their responsibility to serve."

There's no dedicated museum to honor the group. Attempts to build one on the Navajo Nation haven't come to fruition.

New Mexico officials announced on Friday that the state would invest $20 million in a museum in Farmington.

Only two Navajo Code Talkers remain

Thomas H. Begay grew up speaking only the Navajo language with his parents. At 13, like many Native American Code Talkers, he first learned English when he was sent to boarding school.

Begay left the Marines in 1946 and joined the U.S. Army a year later. He worked as a communication specialist and was a paratrooper during the Korean War. That experience convinced him to leave the military in 1953.

The other surviving Navajo Code Talker is Peter MacDonald. He joined the Marine Corps at 15. He was two years too young, so he lied about his age.

After the war, MacDonald worked as an engineer for a defense contractor and eventually became a powerful and controversial politician on the Navajo Nation. In November 2017, MacDonald, along with other World War II veterans, met Trump in the Oval Office and shared the history of the Navajo Code Talkers.

——

Associated Press writer Savannah Peters contributed from Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport and Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport were specifically named in the governor’s announcement.

In the announcement, the governor’s office said DFW airport plans to install ablution facilities for Islamic washing rituals and that IAH has already installed one such facility and an interconnecting prayer room.

Abbott also requested that the U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration review the religious facilities and accommodations at DFW and IAH and take appropriate corrective actions.

“These ablution facilities appear designed to single out one subset of the population for special treatment based on religion. That is illegal,” said Governor Abbott. “Both airports are government-owned facilities. The federal and state constitutions prohibit government from facilitating this sort of discrimination. Just as the government cannot favor the secular over the sacred, it also cannot favor one religious view over all others.”

The review could lead to the revocation of state grant funds and/or the denial of any future grant money.

KPRC 2 has reached out to the Houston Airport System for a statement.

Jason Arday, who was 37 when he became Cambridge's youngest Black professor in 2023, resigned after he came under intense media pressure, with weeks of allegations about plagiarism in his academic work and questions surrounding claims about his athletic and fundraising accomplishments.

The Times and Telegraph newspapers, along with the BBC and Sky News, reported that Arday, 41, was found “unresponsive” inside a home in Battersea, south London, on Friday afternoon.

News of his death comes the same week as the release of his memoir, “Great and Unfortunate Things,” a highly anticipated work that Simon & Schuster had decided to release despite the doubts about his credibility. In a statement issued through his publisher, Arday's family said that they were “in shock to have lost this amazing father, partner, brother, uncle and son.”

“The campaign of misinformation was too much for Jason, who was a gentle man and who always wanted to see the best in everyone,” the family said, adding that for three years Arday was “subjected to a campaign of sustained abuse ... by those who would leave no stone unturned in their quest to undermine him.”

The Metropolitan Police said only that a 41-year-old man was pronounced dead in Battersea, without naming the man, in accordance with its policy.

“At this time his death is being treated as unexpected, but is not believed to be suspicious," the police statement said.

Cambridge Vice-chancellor Deborah Prentice, who earlier announced that the university will investigate the circumstances around Arday's employment, said she was “desperately saddened” by the news.

“Our heartfelt sympathies go to Jason Arday’s family and friends at this incredibly difficult time," she said.

In resigning as professor of sociology of education, Arday wrote in a statement that "the relentless accusations, speculation and public commentary have taken a profound toll on me and on those I love.”

He said his stepping down should not “be mistaken for an acceptance of the narratives that have surrounded me.” He has denied plagiarism, but admitted to some mistakes when working on his doctorate.

Supporters, including more than two dozen academics and politicians, had described the plagiarism allegations as a “smear campaign” designed to undermine Arday and other Black people who hold “positions of influence.”

Arday’s appointment at Cambridge highlighted his personal story of overcoming dyslexia, developmental delays and autism that he said left him non-verbal until the age of 11 and illiterate until his late teens.

Cambridge has opened investigation into plagiarism accusations

In his memoir, Arday wrote of himself as born to achieve and born to struggle. He remembered a family “legend” that the 1980s hit “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” was on the radio at the time of his birth. He described how a midwife noted his long fingers and told his mother that it was a sign he was meant for greatness. In his early 20s, he recalled, he was on a relief mission in Brazil when an aid worker placed a hand on his arm and also predicted an extraordinary life.

“But I also believe you're destined for very sad and difficult things as well,” she warned him.

Questions about Arday's qualifications were raised publicly last month by Nathan Cofnas, a one-time Cambridge philosophy researcher who left the university after his critique of diversity, equity and inclusion programs sparked widespread protests.

On July 24, the Times of London published an analysis of Arday’s 2015 Ph.D. thesis highlighting what it said were multiple examples of passages that were “identical or near-identical” to an earlier paper written by another researcher.

British media also raised questions about Arday’s claims that he had raised 5.5 million pounds ($7.4 million) for charity through feats such as running 30 marathons in 35 days and 600 miles in six days.

Dozens of Cambridge academics had signed a letter calling for an independent inquiry into how Arday was appointed. Cambridge initially stood by Arday, saying that the plagiarism allegations had been investigated by Liverpool John Moores University, which awarded Arday’s doctorate.

The university then changed its stance and said it opened an investigation “following new information about Professor Arday’s qualifications and honorary appointments.”

Prentice, the university's vice-chancellor, said this week that Cambridge will run a review of its hiring processes. She stressed that “our staff of color are highly valued, for their scholarship, their achievements and the contributions they make to the institution and the wider academic community.”

“This particular case is an aberration and should not be used to cast aspersions on their work or the legitimacy of their roles at Cambridge," she said Thursday.

DeLind immediately recognized the stolen “Torero” print, one of 30 known to exist signed by Picasso.

“I was overwhelmed,” DeLind said Friday. “I was at a loss for words. It was an overwhelming moment for me.”

The sticker from his DeLind Fine Art Appraisals was still on the back of the framed print, just as it had been placed there in 2018.

“It was indeed mine,” DeLind said. “It came back full circle.”

Milwaukee landlord Tim Dertz told WISN-TV that he found the print while cleaning out an apartment of someone who had been evicted.

“It was kind of in a weird spot hanging on a wall,” Tim Dertz told the station. “It looked like it had been there for a long, long time because it had tons of dust across the top of it.”

Dertz said he showed it to an antique dealer friend who recognized it as a Picasso and said it appeared to be the one DeLind reported stolen in 2018. Dertz handed it over to police, who then contacted DeLind.

“When they called me, I was in disbelief,” DeLind said.

The Milwaukee Police Department said in an email Friday that the statute of limitations for theft and property crimes is generally six years but the case remains under investigation. Caroline Clancy, a spokesperson for the FBI in Milwaukee, declined to comment.

The year it was stolen the piece was appraised at between $35,000 and $50,000, DeLind said. He guessed that the value hasn't changed much since then, but now given its story it may be worth closer to $50,000.

The artwork remains in possession of Milwaukee police while the client who had commissioned it for sale with his art gallery works it out with his insurance company, DeLind said.

DeLind said his former business partner, who died in February, was distraught over the theft in 2018 and called police every year on the anniversary of the crime asking that they publicize it again in the hope the Picasso could be found.

“He would have been over the moon about this,” DeLind said. “It was special to him.”

The decision is the latest turn in a nearly decade-long process to establish neighborhood-specific standards for evaluating changes to properties in the historic district. It also comes as Norhill homeowners are already navigating separate neighborhood rules adopted by the Norhill Neighborhood Association in 2025.

Norhill was designated a City of Houston historic district in 2000. The City began developing neighborhood-specific design guidelines in 2016, but the process was later paused during the COVID-19 pandemic. The City said the NNA eventually asked that the process resume with measurable standards and information gathered through neighborhood engagement.

The guidelines are meant to “guide new development to account for a specific community’s individual character and provide better clarity for homeowners and builders navigating the development process,” according to the City.

Norhill also has existing deed restrictions requiring projects subject to those restrictions to be harmonious with the neighborhood.

The NNA says its own guidelines are not legally binding. Instead, the association says it enforces the existing deed restrictions, while its guidelines provide a framework for defining what “harmony” means when reviewing projects.

The debate over the guidelines has divided some residents. Some say clearer, measurable standards would make the approval process more predictable. Others worry that more specific standards could limit what homeowners are able to do with their properties.

The City says its rules are separate from neighborhood association rules and deed restrictions.

“Residents would need to abide by the Historic Preservation Ordinance as well as any neighborhood association rules and deed restrictions,” the City said.

Once the City guidelines are approved, property owners seeking changes that alter the exterior appearance of a designated historic property would need a Certificate of Appropriateness, or COA. The City says that includes exterior alterations, additions, new structures in an historic district and certain relocations or demolitions.

The NNA would continue its separate review under the neighborhood’s deed restrictions.

The HAHC conditionally approved the proposed guidelines June 18, including conditions requiring changes to the Floor Area Ratio, or FAR, provisions and a recalibration of the FAR chart to create a more consistent relationship between lot size and allowable home size.

The new subcommittee will review those conditions and consider potential changes. Commissioners said the additional review is intended to provide more clarity and move the process forward more confidently.

The next HAHC meeting is scheduled for Sept. 10.

Until then, the City’s Norhill Design Guidelines are not final.

Officer Michael Seiss says he was traveling on I-10 over a week ago when he came upon a serious crash in the eastbound lanes. The vehicle was upside down, heavily damaged and on fire, with the driver trapped inside.

As he walked around the vehicle, Seiss noticed something that confirmed someone was still alive.

“As I did a walk around I saw fingers coming up from underneath the door, between the door and the pavement,” he said.

The upside-down vehicle was badly crushed, making it impossible to simply pull the driver free. Seiss opened the door and discovered the driver was trapped by his seat belt.

Body cam video shows Seiss using his knife to free the driver, “He couldn’t be just pulled out, I had to cut his seat belt off. I started to pull it off and it also was around his neck so I had to cut that as well,” Seiss said.

It was the first time Seiss had faced a rescue of this nature. Despite the danger and the severity of the crash, he relied on his training and instincts.

“I really didn’t have to think much, it becomes second nature,” he said.

Seiss said that as the first officer at the scene, he knew he had to take control and direct the response.

“As an officer when you are first on scene that is your scene. You have to take control of it and give direction,” he said.

The situation was dangerous for both the trapped driver and Seiss, but the officer remained focused on getting the victim out alive.

“I know it was a situation that was mortal to him, it was mortal to me, but no one was going to die on my scene. It had to be done,” Siess said.

When not jumping to action on I-10, Seiss is usually protecting the children at Rummel Creek Elementary School in Memorial.

Now if you know someone making a difference in the Houston 2 Helps You wants to hear about it.

Simply contact the 2 Helps You Help Desk.

Woodland Acres Middle School earned an A with an overall score of 92 out of 100 in the 2026 A-F accountability system, according to TEA data reviewed Friday.

• HISD STAAR scores show academic gains three years after state takeover; Mike Miles says ‘the work isn’t done’

The campus also earned all seven distinction designations available to it, recognizing performance in several academic areas and measures.

Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath is scheduled to visit Woodland Acres Middle School Friday afternoon as part of an event recognizing Galena Park ISD for what TEA described as its “A-F Accountability Success.”

The visit comes as the state releases its latest round of accountability ratings for Texas public schools and districts.

Woodland Acres Middle earns A, 92 overall

The 2026 TEA accountability report shows Woodland Acres Middle earned an overall score of 92, placing the campus in the A range.

The school received:

• Overall: 92 — A
• Student Achievement: 86 — B
• School Progress: 92 — A
• Academic Growth: 86 — B
• Relative Performance: 92 — A
• Closing the Gaps: 91 — A

The School Progress category accounted for 70% of the campus’ overall rating, while Closing the Gaps accounted for 30%.

Within School Progress, Woodland Acres received an A in Relative Performance, which measures a campus’ academic performance compared with schools serving similar percentages of economically disadvantaged students.

• Look up your Texas school’s A-F accountability grade, STAAR performance

The TEA report shows 87.3% of students at Woodland Acres Middle are economically disadvantaged.

Campus earns all seven distinction designations

View data: TEA

Woodland Acres Middle also received seven distinction designations from TEA.

The campus was recognized for:

• Academic Achievement in Reading/Language Arts
• Academic Achievement in Mathematics
• Academic Achievement in Science
• Academic Achievement in Social Studies
• Top 25%: Comparative Academic Growth
• Postsecondary Readiness
• Top 25%: Comparative Closing the Gaps

Distinction designations recognize campuses that perform at a high level compared with similar schools across the state.

The TEA report also shows Woodland Acres Middle was not identified for comprehensive support and improvement, targeted support and improvement or additional targeted support.

Texas preparing to replace STAAR

During his visit, Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath also discussed a major change coming to standardized testing in Texas.

The Legislature is replacing the STAAR test, with the current system expected to begin phasing out during the 2027-28 school year.

Morath said the replacement will be shorter and will give teachers more information throughout the school year instead of relying primarily on one end-of-year exam.

“It’s called the SST or the Student Success Tool. But it also comes with a diagnostic at the beginning of the year and in the middle of the year. That way, teachers can use these results in real time to help their kids. It’s a significant improvement in the, in testing. Shorter, less disruptive, and also can help support instruction.”

The Student Success Tool is expected to include assessments at multiple points during the school year so teachers can identify where students need additional help earlier.

Morath addresses HISD’s return to local control

Morath was also asked about Houston ISD, which has been governed by a state-appointed Board of Managers for more than three years.

HISD has shown substantial academic improvement since the state takeover, including a steep decline in the number of campuses receiving low accountability ratings.

KPRC 2 asked Morath when Houston voters could expect to begin regaining control of the district through an elected school board.

Morath said HISD has already met several of the state’s requirements for ending the intervention, but work remains.

“Given how the district has taken to grow, they have accomplished many of our exit criteria. There’s three key things that we wanted. No more multi-year, academically unacceptable campuses, which I believe is now they have accomplished. Also, a special education system that operates in full compliance with state and federal requirements. Yeah. Also, a special education system that operates in full compliance with state and federal requirements. They have seen improvements there, but there is still a bit of work to go. And then their governing team is operating at the highest governing level. I would anticipate that that should all be resolved relatively soon, and as a result, then we can revert back to a local electoral control.”

Morath did not give a specific date for when elected trustees could begin replacing members of the state-appointed board, but his comments suggest the district is moving closer to meeting the state’s exit requirements.

What will school vouchers mean for public school funding?

Texas is also moving forward with its new school voucher program, which will allow eligible families to use state money toward private-school education and other approved expenses.

Opponents of the program have argued that allowing public money to follow students outside traditional public schools could put additional financial pressure on school districts.

KPRC 2 asked Morath what impact he expects the program to have on public-school funding.

Morath said he does not believe the voucher program will negatively affect public schools, pointing to additional education funding approved by state lawmakers.

“Well, same time that the legislature passed the voucher program, they increased funding for public education by four and a half million dollars per year in perpetuity. So, the school year that we’re sitting in today, schools have had a significant infusion of resources from the state legislature to support overall funding. So, it’s functionally had no impact at all, certainly not in any negative way.”

Texas’ 2026 A-F accountability ratings are now publicly available, giving families a new look at how individual schools and districts are performing.

Campuses and districts received their state report cards Friday, providing families a glimpse of how well schools educate students. About one in four schools saw their ratings improve, while a nearly similar number of campuses saw a drop. 

Of the more than 9,000 campuses in the 2025-26 school year, 24% scored an A, 34% scored a B, 23% scored a C, 10% scored a D and 4% scored an F. Some schools did not receive grades.

Schools with high poverty performed worse than more affluent campuses, while campuses with predominantly Black or Hispanic students scored lower than those where white or Asian students make up the majority. 

Still, Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath characterized the ratings as a win, pointing to the hundreds of campuses in high-poverty communities that earned an A. 

“We are teaching them handwriting. They are memorizing the timetables. They are thinking through more and more advanced math problems. All children can learn and achieve,” Morath said as he visited a New Braunfels campus Friday morning.

Because two Austin middle schools earned their fifth consecutive failing grades, the threshold for the state’s most severe sanctions, Morath must decide between shuttering the campuses and replacing the district’s locally elected school board with appointees he selects. 

AISD Superintendent Matias Segura told the Austin Current he has not communicated with state officials regarding the commissioner’s plans for the district.

“I understand there is an anxiousness and concern in the community,” Segura told the Current. “We are going to be here tomorrow, the teachers are going to show up, we are going to do the work to ensure their student gets what they need, regardless of what that looks like for that specific family, for that specific school. AISD will continue to be here; we have been here for 145 years.”

The letter grades campuses receive can shape community perceptions. Often, parents use the scores to pick a school for their kids. Businesses may also weigh the ratings when choosing which regions to invest in or move to, as they anticipate that schools labeled high-performing will graduate more students prepared for the workforce. 

Ratings for schools and districts largely depend on three primary metrics: how students perform on STAAR and meet college and career readiness benchmarks; how results on state tests improve over time; and how well schools educate underserved children.

Bridget Worley, the chief of statewide impact at Commit Partnership, said grades stagnated this year partly because of how the Texas Education Agency measures growth. 

“In the districts that are evaluated on growth, we see fluctuations in performance,” Worley said. “It is rare to actually see giant jumps in performance year over year. You can have a really high growth year that is hard to sustain.”

Critics of the state’s accountability system say school ratings fail to account for the challenges facing high-poverty schools, which often work with fewer resources to serve children with higher needs. They say it pressures districts to focus more on improving their letter grades than helping students grow academically.

Proponents of the grades say Texas families deserve transparency about how well schools educate their children. Worley, an advocate for accountability grades, said ratings are a way to help low-income schools access more resources. 

“It is possible for all campuses in Texas to earn an A or B,” Worley said. “But it takes dedicated systemic decisions to bring in those resources and that talent.”

Some districts stave off state takeover. One falls short.

Texas has increasingly leaned on state takeovers as a way to fix chronic academic struggles. But a handful of districts on the brink of intervention this year — Ector County, Greenville, Ralls and Spring — managed to narrowly avoid Austin’s fate with gains at their struggling campuses. 

Waco inched closer to a takeover with a failing grade at one elementary campus this year, but the district’s partnership with charter network Third Future Schools buys them more time before they hit the threshold.

Austin became vulnerable to a state takeover earlier this year after the state rejected the district’s bid to enter a partnership similar to Waco’s move. Agency officials said the nonprofit wanting to step in, Texas Council for International Studies, did not have a proven record of academic turnaround. 

Now, Austin students, parents, educators and local advocates await news on whether the state’s education chief will replace their elected trustees. Districts have until Sept. 11 to appeal their grades to the Texas Education Agency.

Texas schools that trigger state takeovers tend to serve predominantly Black, Latino or low-income students. That remains true for the two Austin campuses that received their fifth F ratings on Friday. 

“We know the state takeover playbook,” Ken Zarifis, the president of Education Austin, a local teachers union, said in a statement. “We just hope they won’t run it in Austin ISD.”

How districts under state control over fared

Two of Texas’ largest school districts, Houston and Fort Worth, have state takeovers well underway. Students are seeing aggressive changes because of the intervention, including teacher departures and scripted classroom lessons.

Three years after Houston’s takeover, the campus that triggered the takeover, Wheatley High School, received an A. 

The state’s largest district, however, slipped in some ratings, going from no F-rated campuses last year to five this year. One of those schools did not previously receive a rating. 

Critics often point to high teacher turnover, declining enrollment and an overemphasis on testing as evidence that the takeover harms students. They express concerns about district officials moving children to less rigorous courses, which some consider proof that letter grade increases do not equate to meaningful learning.

“People should be asking why the scores move up and down all the time,” said Ruth Kravetz, co-founder of the Houston-based Community Voices for Public Education. “Bad things are happening to make the ratings look good.”

Morath replaced Fort Worth ISD’s leadership this spring, about two weeks before most STAAR testing began. Before then, former superintendent Karen Molinar shifted instruction to improve outcomes. The district went from 39 D and F rated campuses last year to 26 campuses this year.

“We are pleased by these results,” said Zach Leonard, a Fort Worth parent who leads a coalition of families organizing against the takeover. “Ratings don’t just define people in a district the way that the state wants to. But these improvements are a direct reflection of Dr. Molinar and her staff.” 

The commissioner also took over the Beaumont, Connally and Lake Worth school districts earlier this spring. It’s too early to assess the impact of the takeover in those communities.

Lake Worth had one F school this year, down from five last year, which included an early childhood campus whose rating was paired with another. 

Beaumont had 11 schools failing the standards, compared to three last year. Connally had one F school in 2025 and four this year, including an early childhood campus that’s paired with another school.

For one district, a long-awaited pay off 

Student cheerleaders and teachers packed the cafeteria in Oak Run Middle School to celebrate the New Braunfels campus’ jump from a C to an A. The wins come even as teachers said they must manage growing class sizes.

“You are one of the few schools that saw this amount of gain in one year,” Morath said. “And this happens because of extraordinary leadership. It happens because of an extraordinary staff that buckles down, that focuses on the fundamentals.”

Jessica White, the former principal of Oak Run Middle, credited the gains in academic achievement to providing additional tutoring to students as often as every six weeks and helping new teachers deliver lessons effectively the first time. 

“We showed students if they could prove themselves, they could move into something fun,” said White, of offering small rewards such as popsicles or recess to students doing intervention work. When educators followed through on their promises of rewards, “they felt more powerful. It really does matter.”

Search and rescue teams from Venezuela, Argentina and Israel joined the search for survivors following the 7.4 magnitude quake that struck the South American nation on Monday, killing at least 287 people. At 96 hours since the temblor hit, the window for survival was narrowing Friday afternoon.

The mayor of Pereira, Mauricio Salazar, told radio station FM on Friday that “contact was made with a woman who was asking for help amid the rubble” of a collapsed hotel at around 4 a.m. He suggested other people may have survived but were still trapped.

Authorities in Cali also reported apparent signs of life, saying at least three people were trapped under collapsed buildings. The search and rescue effort has been extended through Saturday.

Residents who lost their homes must start over again

With the overall search for survivors winding down, Colombia faced another challenge: rebuilding a nation shattered by a disaster that affected more than 100,000 people.

Tens of thousands of houses were damaged or destroyed, according to the government. Authorities have also reported damage to thousands of schools, medical facilities and community centers in more than 400 cities.

“There is no place to live, we lost everything,” Ebert Jonathan Morales, 38, said Friday in a shelter in Cali.

Morales is one of the 102,263 people whose lives were upended by the quake. The government says nearly 4,000 people were injured and hundreds remain missing. Private groups estimate the number of missing is in the thousands.

Morales said he, his wife and four children are trying to rebuild from scratch.

“The earthquake destroyed several neighborhoods in the city. Many houses were damaged, and buildings collapsed,” he said. “We are going to stay here until the government gives us some help, some support.”

The government focuses on providing shelter

The devastation has tested Colombia’s President Abelardo de la Espriella, who was inaugurated just days before the earthquake shook the country's west. De la Espriella acknowledged Thursday night that “the situation is complex” and announced a plan to partner with private companies to rebuild, as well as subsidies for families who are homeless.

“We will not overcome this tragedy alone as a government,” he said. “We need the private sector to rebuild Colombia together.”

Monday’s earthquake was the most powerful to hit Colombia this century. Government aid has yet to arrive in some areas, where many people are relying on volunteers and neighbors for help.

“A neighbor is giving me shelter,” Olga Castro, a mother of five in Cali, said. “At least we survived, but right now we are practically on the street because we don’t have a home anymore.”

De la Espriella said national and international funds raised in response to the disaster will focus on the reconstruction of hospitals, schools, homes, roads and airports.

Rebuilding the country requires a “serious technical assessment” to determine which buildings can be used, which can be repaired and which must be demolished and rebuilt, said Yezid Alvarado Vargas, a professor in construction engineering at Javeriana University, in Bogota, Colombia.

“Before even discussing reconstruction, we must guarantee temporary housing, food, healthcare, continuity of basic services and economic support for families who lost their homes or livelihoods,” Alvarado said.

In Bogota, Colombia’s capital, around 500 volunteers gathered at a reception center to sort food, toiletries and pet food before distributing the supplies in the most affected areas. From youngsters to the elderly, everyone diligently participated in the challenging relief efforts.

“We all have to help. Today is for you, tomorrow might be for me,” volunteer Jorge Muñoz, 85, said. One of the oldest helpers at Bogota's Vive Claro aid collection, Muñoz has witnessed the devastation caused by other earthquakes, including one in 1999 that killed more than 1,180 people.

National and international aid keeps coming

Authorities have converted schools, parks and public buildings into shelters, providing tents, mattresses and food to the displaced. In other hard-hit cities, residents improvised shelters in the streets, while hundreds of volunteers rush to help those in need in hard-to-reach areas.

“These are isolated, neglected territories, historically lacking in institutional support, already plagued by violence, and now they are hit by an earthquake of this magnitude,” said María Mercedes Liévano, director of Save the Children in Colombia.

“It’s a crisis on top of a crisis, leaving the population in a situation of extreme vulnerability,” she added, citing communities including Buenaventura, the country’s main port, and Choco, the earthquake’s epicenter.

Many buildings in Pereira have limited or no access to electricity and water, and volunteers have been delivering hygiene kits to displaced families in the city's shelters, said Pamela Londoño, a technical adviser with Project HOPE. Of the five or six shelters in the city, at least one is already full and no longer accepting new residents. The nonprofit is also assessing medical supply needs.

Other areas are also suffering, such as the town of Roldanillo, where approximately 60% of residents do not have access to clean water.

“The main concern is the lack of basic services for multiple communities,” Londoño said. “This is a really critical situation.”

De la Espriella visited several cities to track relief efforts and aid distribution, including Quibdo, in the Choco region, and Pereira. Authorities are still waiting for tons of supplies and humanitarian aid from countries that have pledged their support, including Peru, China, the United States and the United Arab Emirates.

“My heart, my strength and my spirit are with all the victims and with all these territories that have been forgotten and now devastated by nature,” he said. “We must rebuild them. There is a great task ahead and I am committed to it.”

The Trump administration announced Friday an additional $11 million in humanitarian aid — including food, health, protection and shelter assistance — bringing the total U.S. assistance following the earthquake to $26.5 million.

The U.S. “continues to coordinate with Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella and the Colombian government to assess and respond to earthquake-related needs,” the State Department said in a statement.

___

Suarez reported from Bogota, Colombia and Batschke reported from Santiago, Chile.

The shooting happened in the 6300 block of North Wayside Drive, across the street from Chicken Plus, where the area remains blocked off as police investigate.

HPD says officers fired at an armed suspect who was shooting at vehicles in the area. The suspect, who is believed to be in his 30s, was armed with a rifle and was taken to a hospital with multiple gunshot wounds.

According to witnesses, the scene unfolded like something out of a movie.

Witnesses said a shirtless man came out of a white-and-blue house located on the median and began firing at passing vehicles. They described the weapon as resembling an AK-47.

The suspect allegedly fired into three vehicles.

The first vehicle was occupied by a mother and daughter, who were both hit by gunfire, according to police. Despite their injuries, the mother was able to drive to a nearby fire station to get help.

A person in a second vehicle was also struck. The third vehicle was fired upon, but no one inside was hit, according to police.

People in the area said they scrambled for cover, hiding behind vehicles and ducking behind fences as the gunfire continued.

David Davis, a witness, said he yelled at the man that there were children in one of the vehicles. Davis said the man responded with vulgar language and told him he did not care about the children.

Witnesses said the suspect’s gun appeared to jam, prompting him to run back inside the home.

About 20 minutes after the shooting began, police officers arrived and exchanged gunfire with the suspect, according to witnesses.

An employee at Chicken Plus, located across the street from the scene, was grazed in the hand, witnesses said.

The suspect was taken to a hospital with multiple gunshot wounds. His current condition is unknown.

HPD has not released the suspect’s identity.

The investigation remains ongoing.

We are working to gather more information and will update this story as additional details become available.

The former LSU coach and athletic director passed away in a Baton Rouge hospital, LSU spokesman Michael Bonnette said.

“Few people have had a greater impact on LSU than Skip Bertman,” LSU athletic director Verge Ausberry said in a written statement. “As the greatest college baseball coach of all time, and later as our athletics director, Skip developed a championship standard and culture that still guide us today.”

The LSU Tigers, now synonymous with college baseball's elite and known for fielding numerous major league prospects, had never won a national title when Bertman, a native of Miami, took over the program in 1983.

The College Baseball Hall of Famer's legacy now includes Alex Box Stadium, which opened in 2009, holds about 11,000 and routinely is filled to capacity. The field at the stadium was named for Bertman in 2013. The Tigers also have won three national championships under two of Bertman's successors, most recently in 2025.

“Coach Bertman was so far ahead of his time while leading the LSU Tigers, and as a young coach just starting my journey, I watched, studied, and admired his incredible skills of leading, motivating, teaching, coaching, and ultimately cultivating what became ‘The Powerhouse’ of college baseball,” said current LSU coach Jay Johnson, who guided the Tigers to national titles in 2023 and 2025. “The impact he made and legacy he has left on the state of Louisiana and college baseball is beyond remarkable and will never be duplicated.”

Since 2013, the College Baseball Foundation's annual award for the nation's top coach has been named the Skip Bertman Coach of the Year Award. Bertman won it six times between 1986 and 2000.

Bertman coached a total of 18 seasons, retiring in 2001 with a record of 870-330-3 and 11 College World Series appearances. He then served as athletic director until 2008 and athletic director emeritus after that. He continued to live in Baton Rouge, support the university and attend LSU events for the rest of his life.

Bertman coached the Tigers to their first five College World Series championships in 1991, ’93, ’96, ’97 and ’00. His tenure as coach also included seven Southeastern Conference championships. His NCAA Tournament winning percentage of .754 is the highest in history.

Bertman also was head coach of the 1996 U.S. Olympic team, which at that time included only amateur players and won a bronze medal in Atlanta.

Bertman played baseball at Miami before going into coaching, starting at the high school level in Miami Beach. His final job before taking over at LSU was as an assistant at Miami under Ron Fraser.

Bertman was preceded in death by his wife, Sandy, and daughter, Lisa.

Funeral arrangements were pending Friday.

___

See AP’s full college sports coverage here

The officials’ testimony also highlighted just how data significant the buildout is: The 200 gigawatt of future demand accounted for by the projects that will be audited is more than twice the ERCOT grid’s peak demand record set last month. 

It will take the Electric Reliability Council of Texas “several months” to audit the projects, which must be completed before any data center can be approved for connection to the state grid, according to Abbott’s Aug. 3 directive to ERCOT and the PUCT. ERCOT had already planned on assessing large load projects seeking to connect to the grid as a part of a process already underway, but Abbott’s audit order moves up the checks to first priority and adds some more requirements, officials said. 

“With the governor’s letter, what we’re really doing is moving that verification process now to the front of the line before we begin the interconnection study process,” said Chad Seely, general counsel and senior vice president of regulatory policy for ERCOT.

Friday’s emergency meeting of the PUCT was the first public discussion the state regulator and state grid operator have had since Abbott ordered the pause on data center approvals amid public backlash to the accelerating buildout of the facilities statewide. 

The meeting clarified that the audit is limited to projects under consideration in ERCOT’s “Batch Zero” study, or the process the grid operator has been undertaking since the start of the year. The study aims to organize its grid approval process as more than 1,800 individual projects — 90% of which are data centers — overwhelmed the queue in recent years. 

Projects were previously studied and approved on an individual basis, but the crush of requests for energization has forced ERCOT to introduce a new process of studying and approving the projects in batches. 

The work involved in Abbott’s audit directive was already planned under the Batch Zero study — it just adds a few more standards data center projects have to meet, ERCOT officials said. Spot checks were going to be conducted on the 250 to 300 projects eligible in the first batch of projects moving through the queue, and ERCOT is now planning to simply conduct those checks now before moving ahead with the rest of the study. 

“The goal of the verification audit is to provide more certainty and confidence in the Batch Zero process,” said Thomas Gleeson, chair of the PUCT. 

While Abbott’s order was limited to data centers in the queue, a “handful” of the projects that will be audited are traditional large-load energy users, like a factory, ERCOT officials said. 

ERCOT, last week, was supposed to notify developers of projects that are being included in the first batch study, but that notification was put on hold at the request of ERCOT following Abbott’s Aug. 3 letter. Seely said ERCOT is still aiming to complete its study of the first batch of projects by its original deadline of April. 

Both ERCOT and representatives of data center companies have stated many of the more than 1,800 projects in the queue, totaling more than 474 gw of potential demand, are unlikely to come to fruition because those projects lack elements such as financing and companies that have agreed to lease server space from the data center, if constructed. However, the size of the queue has prevented ERCOT from issuing demand forecasts for the grid, making it unclear just how many will actually be built and energized in the coming years. 

Experts call the Batch Zero study a first-of-its-kind effort by a U.S. grid operator to formalize an approval process better equipped to address data centers’ energy demands.

Since Abbott ordered the audit, at least 43 companies constructing data centers have issued public comments in support of Abbott’s approach. 

Abbott, in his own news release, has touted each of the companies’ announcements, saying his directives will address public concern around the facilities. 

“I established clear guardrails to ensure data centers protect our electric grid, conserve our water, respect our neighborhoods, and pay their own way,” Abbott wrote in a statement accompanying the latest group of companies to sign off on the approach, issued shortly before the PUCT meeting began Friday. “They must not pass costs on to Texas families or interfere with their quality of life.”

Abbott’s Aug. 3 letter said the audit should ensure data center developers provide information on tax breaks they will receive; power use and generation; water use and cooling operations; efforts to reduce impacts on local communities; and ownership of the facility. Any projects that fail Abbott’s ordered “comprehensive verification and audit” should be denied connection to the grid, the governor said.

Abbott in June also directed the PUCT to ensure data center interconnections to the grid will result in reduced electricity rates for residential customers and that data centers pay the cost of any new transmission infrastructure needed to serve them. 

Closely tied to the data center controversy is ERCOT’s plan to build massive 765 kilovolt transmission lines across much of the state, aimed at relieving growing transmission congestion caused by growing energy demand. 

Residents living along the lines’ proposed routes, three of which extend hundreds of miles from the eastern half of the state to the Permian Basin, have been frustrated by the PUCT’s approval process for the lines, arguing it is too short for landowners to participate in the process. 

Following a Senate interim committee hearing in late July that featured hours of testimony by residents opposed to the transmission lines, several legislators and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called on the PUCT to deny any certificate of convenience and necessity application, or CCN, by transmission companies to build the 765 kv lines until the Legislature can meet to revise its approval process. A denial of the CCN would effectively kill the project, although the companies could refile their application to start the process anew.

“The only remedy to this is denial of all applications of CCN, thus allowing the Legislature, the peoples’ representatives, to take up this issue in the next legislative session,” state Rep. Brad Buckley, R-Salado, told the commissioners Friday.

Officials from ERCOT testified during the July committee hearing that without the transmission lines, the Permian Basin could face rolling blackouts by next summer. 

On Friday, commissioners discussed the latest developments in the transmission line buildout but made no formal decision about any individual application. 

More than 20 landowners living near the proposed routes attended the meeting to testify in opposition to the lines.