Now & Forever, a Houston-based, family-owned chain of travel centers and convenience stores, is offering regular unleaded for $2.99 per gallon at two locations through noon Saturday, July 18, according to information provided by the company.

The price applies to cash purchases and requires customers to enroll in the company’s free loyalty program onsite before fueling. The offer ends at noon Saturday.

Locations

• 13380 West Bellfort Boulevard, Houston, TX 77099
• 13450 Westheimer Road, Houston, TX 77077

The deal comes as fuel costs trend higher statewide and nationally. AAA Texas’ Weekend Gas Watch reported the Texas average for regular unleaded rose 13 cents in a week to $3.55, while the Houston metro average was about $3.42, tying Houston with several East Texas metros for the lowest average among major metro areas in the state. Nationally, AAA listed the average for regular unleaded at about $3.94.

• Houston drivers feeling the pinch as gas prices rise again; see how much more you’re paying

AAA has linked the upward pressure to volatility in crude oil markets, including uncertainty around the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping route, as crude prices approach $80 per barrel.

Maitlin White, 29, was charged with two counts of online impersonation and court records show she accepted a plea deal Friday morning.

• ‘Despicable’: Florida woman arrested in connection to fake GoFundMe impersonating Hill Country flood victim’s family

“It is inexcusable how she sought to prey on the emotions of our community and abused the family of Chloe Childress who have endured an unimaginable tragedy,” Harris County Constable Precinct One Alan Rosen, said in a statement. “Let this be a warning to anyone else who ever seeks to engage in such schemes in the future.”

According to court records, she told investigators she was a single mother of two children looking to make quick money and used her cell phone to set up a fake GoFundMe impersonating Chloe Childress’ family. GoFundMe told us her account has been banned from future fundraising on the platform.

The 18-year-old, who once found classes boring and put in only enough effort to pass, found renewed purpose to come to school everyday.

“It motivates me. I like making connections with the kids, I like helping them,” Dillon said.

It began in his junior year when he enrolled in career training courses. Soon, Dillon said, his grades improved. He graduated in June from Chief Leschi Schools in Washington and is now considering going to college for a teaching degree.

Administrators at the school say a shift in focus to technical training and career readiness is paying off, with more students not only staying in school but graduating on time.

Those gains are emblematic of progress across the U.S. Bureau of Indian Education, which oversees 183 primary and secondary schools serving over 40,000 students. In 2015, just over half of high schoolers at BIE schools graduated within four years. That number soared to a record high of 79% by 2025.

Some BIE educators attribute that surge to local innovations. Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Billy Kirkland says they reflect the Trump administration’s commitment to Native American students, including efforts to strengthen teacher training. In addition, the way graduation rates are reported across BIE schools was changed to address flawed data collection that previously depressed the numbers.

But concerns loom that changes reshaping the BIE under the Trump administration — including the planned dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education and continued fallout from cuts instituted by DOGE — could undermine progress and prevent struggling schools from improving.

Reporting standards net more accurate data

The surge in graduation rates reflects, in part, more accurate reporting rather than a sudden leap in student academic improvement, according to agency officials.

For years, school administrators across the system used flawed methods to track graduation rates, often counting students who had transferred to other schools as dropouts.

“We had to come to a consensus and set an accountability framework for our schools,” said Carmelia Becenti, the agency’s chief academic officer.

Beginning in 2018, BIE began standardizing data collection methods. In the years since, Becenti said, the data has painted a more accurate and encouraging picture.

An AP analysis of BIE data found that graduation rates across the system are up 55% since new reporting standards began rolling out, with 11 of its secondary schools reporting 100% growth or higher.

New approaches help students connect

Less than one-third of BIE schools are operated by the agency itself. The rest are run by tribes and receive federal funding. At some of those, educators say data collection is only part of the story.

Don Brummett, superintendent of Chief Leschi Schools, said his staff has been working to correct a “disconnect” between the high school's previous laser focus on getting students ready for college and many students’ goals of finding a job upon graduation.

“We devalued the trades. That was a mistake,” Brummett said.

The school launched its career and technical curriculum in 2020 with funding from the Puyallup Tribal Council. Since then, Brummett has seen students who might otherwise have dropped out instead enter health sciences, education and fisheries management and find new motivation to stay in school.

Dillon, the recent graduate, said hands-on job training was a better match for his learning style.

“It was kind of the first time I felt excited to go to school,” said Dillon, reflecting on his time helping second graders practice reading skills and learn the life cycle of a frog.

Between 2019 and 2025, Chief Leschi Schools reported four-year graduation rates rose from 53% to 87%.

A focus on trades is just one of the ways tribal-controlled BIE schools have innovated to keep students on track. At Choctaw Central High School, a BIE school operated by the Mississippi Band of Choctaw, administrators said a COVID-era experiment in virtual learning contributed to a surge in graduation rates from roughly 70% to 93%.

“For certain kids that have more responsibilities at home, kids that need to work, we saw that (virtual learning) gave them a flexible schedule and an opportunity to earn their diploma,” said principal Alaric Keams.

When pandemic lockdowns lifted, the district maintained a virtual learning option for all high schoolers.

But not all tribal governments have the resources to pay for these kinds of programs or take over management of BIE schools.

Peter Lengkeek, chairman of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, says the BIE-operated high school serving his community is chronically understaffed and crumbling under a backlog of deferred maintenance, including a gymnasium with sinking walls and a rodent infestation. It has reported graduating fewer than 60% of students on time in recent years.

“If we were able to, we would step in and try to remedy a lot of these things,” said Lengkeek. “We have to rely on the government to fulfill its treaty promise.”

Tribal leaders push back against education changes

From the dismantling of the federal Department of Education to DOGE reductions that swept out longtime staffers, as well as repeated threats of deep funding cuts, tribal leaders fear the progress that has been made could be undermined.

In November 2025, the Department of Education began handing off oversight of dozens of programs that serve Native students to BIE.

At a tribal consultation session in February in Washington, D.C., dozens of tribal leaders spoke in opposition, saying the transition could overwhelm the already understaffed and stretched BIE with additional responsibilities. Several accused the department of ignoring its legal responsibility to seek their input before moving forward.

“We are here too late,” said Herschel Gorham, lieutenant governor of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes. “The ink was dry on the agreements before the tribes were ever notified. That should never, ever happen.”

Jason Dropik, executive director of the National Indian Education Association, said turmoil at the agency's Washington office trickles down to schools, pointing to a Trump administration executive order that aimed to turn the BIE into a school choice system but was scaled back after an outcry from tribes.

“That caused some delays and disruptions to services,” Dropik said. “When drastic changes go into motion without tribal consultation, there can be unintended consequences for our students.”

Lengkeek worries the BIE could be consumed by political upheaval while schools like the one serving his community continue to underperform.

“This system holds the future of our nations in its hands,” Lengkeek said. “We need stability. We need increased funding. We need infrastructure.”

——

This story is published through the Global Indigenous Reporting Network at The Associated Press.

___

This story has been updated to correct that 11 BIE secondary schools, not nine, reported 100% growth or higher.

The landslide occurred at around 9:08 a.m. in Pengshui County on the outer edge of the Chongqing municipality, when massive amounts of rocks and soil washed downslope, burying more than 10 residential buildings, state broadcaster CCTV said.

Ten people were rescued from the debris, including two who were seriously injured, Pengshui County Mayor Ren Xujiang said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping asked authorities to determine the cause of the disaster, state media said.

Water, electricity and gas supplies were cut off within a 1-kilometer (0.6-mile) radius of the landslide to prevent further disruptions. Over 800 rescuers were on site, a local government statement said.

Images by CCTV showed part of a mountainside collapsing onto a residential area. Several buildings were located next to the collapse site, while rescue crews combed through the debris. Rescue efforts were hindered by the unstable terrain and the risk of another landslide, according to the broadcaster.

Images shared on social media showed orange-clad rescuers using excavators to dig through the rubble. At one point, a team of rescuers pulled a survivor out of the debris.

Large slabs of rock had slid beside buildings into a waterway below. Two buildings that looked about five and 15 stories high were damaged but still standing.

The rain-triggered landslide occurred near a section of the Wujiang River, which cuts through karst mountains peppered with small towns and terraces.

Authorities said they sent more than 8,000 disaster relief items to Chongqing, including tents, folding beds and family emergency kits.

Pengshui County is located in the southeast part of Chongqing, bordering the provinces of Hubei and Guizhou.

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AP video producer Wu Jia contributed to this report from Chongqing.

The body was identified as Tondra Madruga, 58, also known as Tondra Miller, the San Francisco medical examiner said Friday.

Madruga's body was recovered Thursday by a police marine unit, two days after the Volare, a 49-foot (15-meter) cabin cruiser, sank with 20 people aboard after being hit by a wave and capsizing. The group was on the boat to scatter the ashes of a loved one.

“Our family is heartbroken by the loss of our beloved mother, daughter, sister, and aunt, Tondra Madruga,” family member Quin Madruga said on Facebook. “Our hearts remain with every family impacted, and we sincerely appreciate your kindness and understanding.”

One man, Clifford Boisa, died immediately after being retrieved from the chilly water. The U.S. Coast Guard suspended rescue efforts Wednesday evening but police are still looking for the missing.

Ralph Boisa said his extended family and some close friends were on the boat Tuesday to celebrate the life of his daughter, who died over a decade ago. Madruga was a friend.

The two people who remain missing are Ralph Boisa's sister, Carol, and Clifford Boisa's wife, Jackie, he said.

Madruga's body was discovered in San Francisco Bay near Treasure Island, a former naval station, when a boater first reported it, police said.

The bay is notorious for its strong currents, and within hours of the boat’s sinking, rescuers were also searching the open ocean beyond the Golden Gate Bridge.

Crews searched more than 800 square miles (over 2,000 square kilometers), according to the Coast Guard. That’s an area roughly half the size of Rhode Island.

The boat is believed to be submerged on the rocky seabed in water 120 feet (36 meters) deep. When the wreck is located, authorities will determine whether a safe recovery can be conducted, police said.

The press conference will be held at 1 p.m. Friday at the Houston Liberation Center.

Local leaders are expected to join the groups in calling on Houston to end its collaboration with ICE and emphasizing the importance of demanding justice for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo.

“We are encouraged by the show of support that the Houston community has shown to the Salgado Araujo family. Our main goal is to keep momentum high so that the death of our father, neighbor and friend does not become another statistic. We stand Houston Strong,” said Cesar Espinosa, co-founder and executive director of FIEL.

What happened on Canal Street

The shooting happened around 6:50 a.m. on July 7 in the 6800 block of Canal Street, according to the Department of Homeland Security, while ICE agents were conducting what the agency described as a targeted enforcement operation. Salgado Araujo, identified by DHS as an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, was not the intended target of that operation, according to the office of U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia.

In a statement, DHS said the encounter began after agents received a tip from law enforcement partners and conducted surveillance at a target address.

“After receiving a credible tip from our law enforcement partners, our officers conducted surveillance on a target’s address. Weeks prior to the incident, they noted two white vans at the property. On July 7, officers were almost at the target’s address when they observed a white van with an individual who resembled the target. Officers then initiated the vehicle stop,” the agency said.

DHS has said the ICE agent acted in self-defense after authorities say Salgado Araujo rammed an ICE vehicle, ignored repeated commands and “weaponized” his work van by trying to run over an agent.

Witnesses dispute federal account

Three other men were inside the van with Salgado Araujo at the time of the shooting. Through their attorney, the men said ICE vehicles struck Salgado Araujo’s work van first and that agents were never in danger of being run over. They alleged an agent approached from the passenger side, yelled, “Stop!” and then opened fire, striking Salgado Araujo in the abdomen.

Garcia said she has spoken with two of the three men and that their accounts contradict the version of events provided by federal authorities.

No body camera footage

Investigators face a significant evidentiary challenge: There is no body camera footage of the shooting. DHS confirmed ICE agents were not equipped with body cameras and attributed the lack of the devices to what it described as “back-to-back Democrat shutdowns,” saying funding delays prevented officers from being equipped with the cameras.

Without that footage, investigators are expected to rely on witness statements, physical evidence and any available surveillance or cellphone video.

Salgado Araujo’s family and civil rights advocates have challenged parts of the federal government’s account and continue to call for an independent and transparent investigation.

Before saying goodbye, the Katy shop is inviting the community to a farewell and fifth anniversary celebration on Wednesday, July 22.

The event will recognize the shop’s impact in the Katy area while celebrating Houston culture and raising awareness about autism, special needs and disabilities.

Howdy Homemade Ice Cream has built its mission around employing people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, providing meaningful job opportunities in an inclusive workplace. The Katy location opened in 2021 with support from Houston rapper Trae Tha Truth and has since become known for its community involvement and its “Howdy Heroes” employees.

As part of the celebration, Houston rapper Quiet Money Dot will debut his signature ice cream flavor, “Million Dollar Swirl,” a chocolate-and-vanilla swirl featuring brownie bites.

Organizers say guests can also enjoy:

• A variety of ice cream flavors
• Custom cars, including Houston-style slabs
• Local vendors
• Music
• Games
• Family-friendly activities

The event is open to all ages.

Event details

• What: Howdy Homemade Ice Cream Katy Farewell & 5-Year Anniversary Celebration
• When: Wednesday, July 22
• Media check-in: 2:30 p.m.
• Where: Howdy Homemade Ice Cream Katy, 20920 Katy Freeway, Suite S, Katy, TX 77449

The business recently announced it will permanently close at the end of July, making the anniversary celebration both a milestone and a farewell to the customers and community members who have supported the shop over the past five years.

Executive Chef Marcos Juarez joins Houston Life today at 1 p.m. to share the story behind the restaurant’s comeback and prepare one of the standout dishes from the current seasonal menu: the Tuna and Squash Tart.

Hidden Omakase’s Tuna and Squash Tart

INGREDIENTS

• Tart shell
• Grilled Zucchini and squash tossed in a Meyer lemon sesame vinaigrette.
• Bluefin tuna
• Thai Basil puree
• Kaluga caviar

DIRECTIONS

1. Toss zucchini and squash with Meyer lemon sesame vinaigrette.
2. Fill the tart
3. Top with basil puree, then put tuna sheet on top, and a dollop of caviar.

Trump's amplification of debunked theories about the election six years ago and his inability to accept his loss led to one of the darker moments in American history when a mob of his supporters led a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in the final days of his first term.

Now back in power, Trump opted to revisit the subject, despite persistent voter concerns about the cost of living, American forces escalating strikes on Iran in a conflict for which there is no end in sight, and an immigration crackdown facing bipartisan scrutiny for its sometimes deadly tactics.

His address Thursday hinged on contradictions.

A twice-elected president complained about his one personal defeat, alleged a cover-up by officials in his own first administration and surfaced claims about countries attempting to harm his own prospects while staying silent on steps taken by other nations to boost him.

Trump used the remarks to justify his push to pass a strict voter ID bill in Congress that has not advanced because it lacks enough support from his fellow Republicans.

“America is back and doing really well, but we still have a major challenge that must be urgently addressed, because no country can be great without fair and honest elections,” he said.

Trump doesn't raise doubts about his election wins

Trump began Thursday night with a stark warning about what he described as flaws in the voting system and said he was releasing previously classified documents related to the 2020 and 2018 elections, when he lost the presidential election and when his party suffered losses.

Trump’s speech presented allegations of interference and influence in ways that lacked key context and did not produce evidence that votes had been manipulated or that the election outcome had been altered.

Notably, Trump focused on China but glossed over Russia, a country that intelligence officials have said favored Trump in 2016 and 2020 and engaged in wide-ranging influence campaigns aimed at boosting him over Democrat Joe Biden in the latter campaign.

Despite focusing on China in his speech, Trump did not criticize or issue a warning to Chinese President Xi Jinping, whom he has long praised.

Election security experts say America’s decentralized voting system, with the power over elections residing with the states instead of the federal government, is a strength. Americans vote in more than 10,000 different jurisdictions with different rules, making the nations’ elections extraordinarily complicated but safe from widespread fraud.

No credible intelligence has emerged showing that the vote count in 2020 was manipulated by foreign actors. Repeated audits and reviews -- manyrun by Republicans, including Trump’s own then-attorney general -- have found no significant fraud occurred in 2020.

Even if substantiated, Trump’s claims did not amount to conduct that would have altered the outcome of any race, let alone the 2020 race for the White House.

He also did not raise doubts about his election wins in 2016 or 2024.

As Trump spoke, the White House unveiled a website containing documents that were presented without context and included selectively released pieces of investigation files, intelligence analysis and correspondence.

Former intelligence official calls address ‘dangerous’

Sue Gordon, principal deputy director of national intelligence in Trump’s first term, called the president’s address “a dangerous speech about an incredibly important topic.” She said the intelligence community throughout Trump’s first term was alarmed about foreign interference in elections, but Trump scoffed at them, angered at the investigation of his campaign’s relationship with Russia.

“He had an entire term to deal with it and I don’t know how you can believe how the same community that told him about it, that was excoriated about it” wouldn’t warn him in 2020, Gordon said on CNN.

Conservative commentator John Solomon, who joined the White House staff last month and was seated in the East Room for Trump’s speech, later told MS NOW that “the intelligence community has zero evidence that someone has flipped – that a foreign power flipped -- a vote in 2020, ‘22 or ’24.”

But, he added, “We’re not through all the documents.”

Trump urged the Justice Department to conduct investigations and prosecutions, though it was unclear from his speech what sort of criminal conduct — if any — could be identified, proven and charged.

In a contrast with his concerns about foreign interference in elections, Trump in his new budget proposes a $707 million cut in the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, the group charged with protecting American election systems from overseas cyberattacks. Trump and other conservatives have been frustrated that the organization pushed back on election claims in 2020 and beyond.

Some networks did not air it live

In past presidencies, primetime addresses have typically been reserved for major milestones or nationally significant events.

Trump last spoke to the nation in April, giving an address on the Iran war a month after it started. He said then that the U.S. would accomplish its objectives “very shortly” and that “the hard part is done, so it should be easy.” The war, however, has dragged on and strikes between the U.S. and Iran have intensified this week.

Trump also delivered a politically charged primetime speech in December in which he sought to blame the challenging economic climate on Democrats.

ABC, NBC and CNN did not air Thursday's remarks live but carried them in full on their streaming services.

CBS and MS NOW both cut away from Trump’s speech before he finished, while Fox News continued to carry his address.

Trump called out the media outlets for not carrying it live, accused them of being “part of a plot" and suggested their broadcast licenses be revoked.

Networks typically — but not always — carry presidential addresses to the nation live. In 2022, when Biden delivered a primetime address full of warnings about Trump and his adherents’ “extreme ideology,” the networks did not carry it live.

In 2014, the major networks chose to stick with their primetime programming instead of airing an address by President Barack Obama on his plans for immigration reform.

Democrats accuse Trump of seeking to discredit next election

Democrats warned that Trump was trying to revive false claims of past stolen elections in order to delegitimize the 2026 midterm elections, in which Trump’s Republican Party is facing headwinds.

Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia called Trump’s claims “totally bogus.”

“The fact is our intelligence agencies unanimously agreed that China did not even try to change a single vote in the 2020 election,” Warner said in a statement on X. “A single concurring opinion suggested China may have tried to sway voters’ opinions … but that’s been public knowledge since 2021."

Rep. Joseph Morelle of New York, the ranking Democrat on the administration committee that handles federal voting issues and elections, said Trump is trying to sow confusion before the midterm elections.

“This is a pretext for the president, I think, calling into dispute the 2026 elections,” Morelle said on C-SPAN, adding that “we have secure elections.”

“I heard no concrete allegations that foreign actors actually changed the results of an American election,” Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware said on CNN.

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Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick, Lisa Mascaro and Will Weissert in Washington, Ali Swenson and Jocelyn Noveck in New York and Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed to this report.

Water rescues were ongoing in several areas west of San Antonio including Sutton, Crockett and Zavala counties, authorities said. Floodwaters spilled over Interstate 10 in a rural area near Ozona, and a section of a bridge over the Nueces River in Uvalde County collapsed, officials said.

Emergency personnel aboard boats and helicopters have saved more than 200 people including stranded drivers and people trapped in homes since storms began Tuesday, Gov. Gregg Abbott said.

The National Weather Service issued a flash flood emergency in the early morning for the city of Sonora in Sutton County, about 170 miles (274 kilometers) northwest of San Antonio.

The local sheriff's office used a boat to rescue one person and local officials were urging residents in low-lying areas along the Dry Devils River to evacuate as heavy rain fell, although the request was not mandatory, said Chief Deputy Jon Gann.

“The water's up to the top of the banks,” Gann said. “If we get any more, we're going to be into homes.”

Officials in nearby Crockett County said there were multiple boat rescues underway near Ozona, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) northwest of San Antonio and many roads were flooded and impassable.

About 180 miles (290 kilometers) to the south in Zavala County near the Mexico border, emergency responders were rescuing people from floodwaters and asking residents to stay away from the area, officials said. The Texas Department of Transportation said high waters closed a 50-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 57 from La Pryor to its junction with Interstate 35 southwest of San Antonio, and parts of the highway were not expected to reopen until Monday.

Flash flood warnings were issued Friday for several counties including many areas still reeling from devastating floods a year ago. Flood warnings also were in place through the weekend in many locations downstream from hard-hit areas, where rain was tapering off Friday. Some rivers were expected to reach historic levels.

Some areas have seen 2 feet (60 centimeters) or more of rain this week.

The storms and flooding threatened multiple counties close to the Mexico border and in the Hill Country. Roughly 6 million residents across Texas were under a flood watch this week.

One person who died was driving on a flooded road and was swept away near Uvalde, authorities said. Another victim, 65-year-old John Mark Steward of Kerrville, died after his mobile home was swept into Goat Creek on the Guadalupe River, his wife said. The Guadalupe is the same river wrecked by flash floods last year when two dozen children and counselors died at Camp Mystic.

The slow-moving severe weather system was expected to meander in a northwesterly direction on Friday and make its way toward the Texas Big Bend in the western part of the state, the weather service said.

In Uvalde, one of the hardest-hit cities from flooding, waters were receding and officials said a major highway, Route 90, had reopened. Crews there were out clearing debris. But later Friday morning, police were urging people in the Chalk Bluff area to evacuate due to rising waters. Floodwaters had overrun the city overnight into Thursday, cutting off most outside routes.

Sandra Gomez was assessing the damage at her Uvalde home on Friday after having left it before the flooding. She said about 6 inches (15 centimeters) of water got inside and left mud throughout the house, where she's lived since last year. She said she was luckier than other people she knows whose homes were under 5 or 6 feet (1.5 to 1.8 meters) of water.

“Well, really it’s very, very emotional," she said, adding "Material things I can replace. It may take a while, but I can replace those but I cannot replace my family. So, my family’s safe and that’s all that really matters.”

The unfolding crisis brought back haunting memories of last summer’s unimaginable Hill Country floods that killed more than 100 people over the July Fourth holiday.

So far, the Guadalupe has remained below the record levels reached in 2025. Close to Camp Mystic, which hasn't reopened since last year's tragedy, the Guadalupe near Hunt on Thursday reached about 20.5 feet (6.3 meters), which is enough to cause flooding, according to U.S. Geological Survey and National Water Prediction Service data.

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Collins reported from Hartford, Connecticut.

The S&P 500 fell 0.5% after dropping as much as 1.4% in the morning. It's on track for its first losing week in the last three and only its third since March, just a couple days after it climbed within 0.5% of its all-time high.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 149 points, or 0.3%, as of 12:53 p.m. Eastern time, after veering between an early loss of 566 points and a modest gain. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.7%.

Chip stocks once again were at the center of the shakiness. They’ve been under pressure for weeks on worries that their prices shot too high and that voracious demand for computer memory and processors may be unsustainable if AI ends up producing less profit and productivity than promised.

Applied Materials sank 2.6% to trim its surge for the year to about 112%. Micron Technology rose 4.6% after sliding earlier in the day.

Earlier in the morning, tech sold off worldwide. Indexes tumbled 6.5% in Taipei, 4% in Tokyo and 3% in Shanghai as stocks like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. dropped 7.3%.

South Korea’s stock market was closed for a holiday, offering some respite, if only temporary. It’s been at the center of the AI swings because it’s dominated by two huge tech companies, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. This past week alone, Seoul’s Kospi stock index had one day where it surged 6.2% and two others where it sank 6.4% and 8.9%.

News of a Chinese open-sourced AI model by startup Moonshot, Kimi K3, further shook markets. Similar to when China’s DeepSeek announced its AI model in early 2025, another low-cost rival to big Western AI models like ChatGPT and OpenAI could potentially hurt demand for computer chips and other components.

European stock indexes, which have less of an emphasis on AI and tech, had milder moves.

Adding to the pressure on Wall Street Friday were drops for several stocks following their latest earnings reports. It’s a departure from much of the rest of the week, when companies like Goldman Sachs and BlackRock jumped after delivering better profits for the spring than analysts expected.

Netflix sank 6.8% after its revenue for the latest quarter fell just short of analysts’ expectations, even though its profit was bigger than expected. Its forecasts for upcoming revenue and profit in the summer also fell below expectations.

Intuitive Surgical, a maker of robotic surgical systems, dropped 12.6% despite topping expectations for the latest quarter. Analysts pointed to worries about slowing procedure growth because of the expiration of enhanced tax credits that helped lower the cost of health insurance for many Affordable Care Act enrollees.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX fell 4.1% and touched its lowest level since its stock began trading on the Nasdaq just over a month ago. The owner of the xAI business has been swept up in the swings of AI stocks, and it had to abort a test flight of its mega Starship rocket Thursday within a second or so from blasting off.

More climbs for oil prices also pressured the stock market.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, rose 3.9% to $87.48, up from roughly $76 a week ago.

The United States expanded its airstrike campaign against Iran early Friday by hitting more bridges and collapsing a tower at a key Iranian port. That raised further worries about whether oil tankers will be able to use the Strait of Hormuz to carry crude from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide.

High oil prices have sent Treasury yields upward in the bond market, which threaten to slow the economy and undercut prices for stocks and all kinds of other investments. Higher yields have already sent the average 30-year mortgage rate to its highest level in nearly a year.

But Treasury yields eased Friday. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.54% from 4.57% late Thursday.

A report suggested sentiment among U.S. consumers is improving more than economists expected, while expectations for upcoming inflation eased. That's important for the Federal Reserve, which is considering hikes to interest rates to keep a lid on inflation. If expectations for inflation remain anchored, it could prevent a vicious cycle where people make moves in anticipation of higher inflation, which only worsen it.

The preliminary reading from the University of Michigan’s survey for U.S. consumer sentiment hit its highest reading since February. But much of the rise was due to recent drops for prices at gasoline pumps, according to Joanne Hsu, director of the survey. If gasoline prices rise again because of crude’s recent rally, the improvement could be under pressure.

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AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.

David Brouillette has a history of terrifying and violent behavior, according to those relatives. They accuse him of attacking women in his life over the years, and one shared a voicemail with the AP from last winter in which he told her that he thought someone should slit her throat.

Brouillette’s troubling past further challenges how thoroughly the Department of Homeland Security has vetted recruits as it went on a hiring spree to help carry out President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.

At least 10 people have died in encounters with immigration agents since Trump launched the crackdown after retaking office, including 25-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a Colombian national who was shot and killed by Brouillette on Monday while in his car near his home in the coastal Maine city of Biddeford.

DHS, which hasn't released the name of the officer who killed Durán Guerrero, has said the “vehicle attempted to flee the scene and, fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon.”

Brouillette didn’t respond to text messages or an email seeking comment. Three relatives who said they had spoken to him since the shooting, including an ex-wife and daughter, said he told them he acted in self-defense.

When reached for comment about Brouillette's record and his role in Monday's shooting, ICE spokesperson Lauren Bis said in a statement that, “We will never confirm or deny attempts to dox our law enforcement officers," and that “The ICE officer in question has nearly a decade of federal law enforcement experience with required training including use of force training.”

The White House referred all questions about the shooting and Brouillette to ICE.

A new career in ICE

Brouillette, 37, told his ex-wife Ashley Brouillette late last year that he had been hired by ICE. She said that because of his long history of psychiatric issues, she thought he was having a mental health episode and she didn't believe him. She didn’t realize he’d been telling the truth until this week, when videos began circulating online of the moments surrounding the shooting.

Ashley Brouillette told the AP that she spoke to her ex-husband in a Facebook audio call, and he acknowledged that he had killed Durán Guerrero. Their 18-year-old daughter, Madison Brouillette, also told the AP that her father called her Wednesday and said that he shot and killed Durán Guerrero.

David and Ashley Brouillette were high school sweethearts who got married in 2007. She said she divorced him in 2009 because he had become physically violent with her, which began after she got pregnant with their daughter.

According to Ashley Brouillette, he once threw boiling water at her while she was holding their child — an incident her mother Avis Collins also recounted.

The abuse continued after she left him, she said.

David Brouillette doesn't appear to have a criminal record in Maine, as a check with the Maine Department of Public Safety returned no records for him.

But hundreds of family court records obtained from the Augusta District Court clerk’s office detail years of allegations of physical and verbal abuse raised by his second ex-wife on behalf of herself and his daughters.

The ex-wife — whom the AP is not identifying because she fears retaliation — alleged that he had stalked and harassed her and physically and verbally abused his daughter, according to multiple requests for temporary protection orders. Brouillette tackled his teenage daughter and smashed spaghetti in her hair, and during another outburst, he dragged his daughter around the house as she cried, she said.

“Dave needs counseling or something for his PTSD & depression,” she wrote in an application for a temporary protective order on behalf of his teenage daughter which a judge granted in 2021.

In court filings, David Brouillette said that his second ex-wife had slandered him.

His oldest daughter, Madison Brouillette, said she also witnessed her dad’s volatility.

“I watched my dad struggle a lot with a lot of things,” she told the AP. She said she came home from school once and he told her he had been sitting on a tree stump with a gun to his head.

“If you don’t really, truly take care of yourself, there’s no way you can protect other people. And with my dad, he never wanted to get help,” she said.

An immediate relative of David Brouillette who spoke on the condition that their name not be used said he was diagnosed with severe bipolar disorder and attention deficit disorder as a child — a diagnosis that Ashley Brouillette confirmed. The immediate relative described him as “extremely mentally ill" and said he attempted suicide twice at age 12 and was hospitalized multiple times.

The relative said they've been estranged for years, after they broke off contact because they feared he would harm them. He did not respond to their outreach this week, the relative added.

A military deployment and law enforcement aspirations

Growing up in Gardiner, a city of about 6,000 people roughly 60 miles (97 kilometers) northeast of Biddeford, where Monday's shooting occurred, David Brouillette was enchanted by law enforcement and the military, his relatives said.

High school yearbook photos show he was a member of the school’s Naval Junior ROTC, and he wrote that he planned to go to college and become a police officer.

Brouillette was initially rejected by military recruiters because of his mental health diagnoses, but recruiters encouraged him to go off his medications for a year and reapply, which he did, his immediate relative said.

He was eventually able to enlist.

According to U.S. military records, Brouillette enlisted as a chemical equipment repairer in the Maine Army National Guard but then changed jobs to be a medical logistics specialist. He was in the Guard from November 2007 until January 2010, according to records provided by the Pentagon.

A 2009 article in the Kennebec Journal listed Brouillette as a private in the Maine Army National Guard’s 152nd Maintenance Company in Augusta.

In January 2010 he joined the regular Army as a human intelligence collector. Brouillette deployed to Afghanistan from May 2012 to February 2013 and eventually left the Army as a sergeant in December 2015.

His immediate relative believes Brouillette's time abroad worsened his emotional struggles: “Afghanistan destroyed him -- trained him to be a killing monster, a machine. They took someone who was extremely mentally ill and turned him into a killing machine.”

Life after the Army

After his discharge, Brouillette held a hodgepodge of jobs — some in or adjacent to law enforcement — and was injured in an accident while training to become a firefighter, public records and court documents show.

Brouillette worked for the Maine Correctional Center — a medium-security prison — and for the state’s Health and Human Services Department, spending less than a year at each.

In 2019, court documents show, he was a police officer at a Department of Veterans Affairs medical center near the state capital, Augusta. A Veterans Affairs department spokesperson on Thursday referred questions about Brouillette’s employment to DHS.

But by the end of 2021, he wrote in a text message included in court filings, he was broke, going to school full-time and making money delivering food for DoorDash.

Brouillette was enrolled in a firefighting program at Southern Maine Community College and was struck in the head by a steel beam while unloading a trailer at a training facility, according to a lawsuit he filed over his injury.

He sustained a concussion and post-concussive syndrome, with symptoms including impaired memory, cognitive deficits, headaches, vertigo and light sensitivity, and was unable to complete the program, according to the lawsuit, which was settled out of court.

In recent years, court filings show, he was collecting disability pay through the VA. He also drove a truck, but quit in January 2025, citing health issues.

In March 2025, Brouillette passed an exam to become a real estate sales agent. His license was active until December. In a Facebook post, Realty of Maine announced Brouillette would be working in the firm’s Bangor office.

“David lives in Maine after retiring from the United States Army,” said the post, which has since been deleted. Brouillette is no longer listed as an agent on the firm’s website. Messages seeking comment were left for Realty of Maine.

In March, the Maine agency that handles child support matters filed a lien against him, public records show. The filing suggests that Brouillette may have been in line for a permanent impairment or disability settlement.

‘I don’t think he sees himself as a killer’

In late 2025, around the time he joined ICE, his ex-wife Ashley said he left a three-minute voicemail mocking her for taking out a restraining order against him. According to the message she shared with AP, he repeatedly called her “disgusting” and suggested that she and the other women and girls in her “bloodline” should die.

“And all of you should have your f——--g throats cut,” the voicemail said. “Yeah, you should. Am I threatening that I’m gonna do that? Nope. Nope. But do I think that you should have your f——-g throats cuts? Or should have had them cut? Yep.”

She said she cut off contact with him until Wednesday, when his picture began circulating online.

Ashley Brouillette reached out to his current wife on Facebook and they spoke on the phone for several minutes. Her ex-husband spoke with her, according to cellphone screenshots of the phone exchange she shared with the AP. He acknowledged he had fatally shot Durán Guerrero.

“He was asking if I could tell them that he was a good person and not to talk about the abuse and stuff that I had endured while with him and he said that the most important thing is his character right now,” she said.

She said he told her he is now hiding in protective custody.

“I asked him why he did it,” she said. “He said it was a justified shooting. The guy was trying to run him over with a car.”

His daughter also said he told her it was justified.

“I don’t think he sees himself as a killer,” Madison Brouillette said.

“I think he thinks that he genuinely did the right thing,” she added. “All he said was that he did what he had to do. He said that he had to protect himself.”

___

This story was updated to correct that that Gardiner is northeast of Biddeford.

___

Brook reported from New Orleans, Sisak reported from New York and Galofaro reported from Louisville, Kentucky. Associated Press reporter Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report.

___

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

The Commerce Ministry said that the U.S. made commitments on Hong Kong issues and other matters during the U.S.-China trade talks in Madrid last year. The U.S. recently confirmed to China that the President’s Executive Order on Hong Kong Normalization would end, the ministry said in a statement responding to media questions.

“The U.S. side’s actions represent an important step in fulfilling the consensus reached during the bilateral economic and trade talks. China appreciates it,” it said.

It is not immediately clear what all the implications of the decision are. The White House referred questions about the executive order lapsing to the Treasury Department.

The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control said in a statement Friday that the national emergency declared in the executive order had expired and that it delisted people who were sanctioned under the order. But it said people who remain sanctioned under another act related to Hong Kong have been added to a different sanction list.

The statement showed Hong Kong leader John Lee and his predecessor, Carrie Lam, were removed from the first list but added to the second one.

The U.S. decision came two months after President Donald Trump met with his counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing. It could warm ties between them ahead of Xi's expected visit to the U.S. later this year. Earlier this month, a pastor of a prominent underground church who was detained in China in October was released after Trump brought up his case with Xi.

Trump signed the now-expired executive order in July 2020, during his first term in response to Beijing imposing a national security law that year. Trump's order was last renewed for a year in July 2025.

Under the order, Trump said Hong Kong was no longer sufficiently autonomous to justify differential treatment in relation to mainland China under certain laws. It eliminated the preferential treatment for Hong Kong to the extent permitted by law and in the national security, foreign policy, and economic interest of the United States.

China considers the national security law for Hong Kong necessary to restore stability in the city after massive anti-government protests in 2019. The pro-democracy movement back then posed one of the biggest challenges to the Communist Party in Beijing and the Hong Kong government since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

Six years after the law's introduction, many leading activists, including pro-democracy former media tycoon Jimmy Lai, were imprisoned under it. Critics say the Western-style civil liberties that Beijing promised to maintain for 50 years after the handover have declined.

Hong Kong government said in a statement that it noted the “positive shift in the U.S. policy” toward the city.

“Safeguarding Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability serves the common interests of China and the US, and also aligns with the general expectation of the international community,” it said.

It said it hopes the U.S. will respect China's sovereignty and the rule of law in Hong Kong and resume normal economic and trade exchanges with the city.

____

Associated Press writer Joshua Boak in Washington contributed to this report.

It's a delicate balance for the candidates, who are vying to face Collins in a contest that could decide control of the Senate as Platner’s shadow hangs over the race. In their first debate Thursday night, one of the first questions candidates were asked was: What was Graham Platner's best idea?

Moving past Platner is just one of the challenges facing Democrats. The never-before-used process to pick a new nominee means candidates have less than three weeks to pull off what typically takes campaigns months or years, from organizing volunteers to raising money and preparing for debates.

The whiplash many of the candidates are facing was on display Thursday.

Asked by debate moderators about President Donald Trump's decision to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife earlier this year, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows gave inaccurate information about Collins not pushing back against Trump, a Republican. When a moderator called her on it, Bellows said she was on vacation on the Kennebec River last week after previously focusing on her unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign and hadn't expected to be running for the Senate.

“When I need to know the facts, I will. I’ll do my homework," said Bellows, who lost to Collins in 2014.

The field of 12 candidates also includes former public health leader Nirav Shah and union-backed logger Troy Jackson, who campaigned alongside Platner in a failed bid for governor.

Platner's exit means the clock is ticking

Platner quit the Senate race last week after he was accused of rape, which he denies, and his campaign quickly imploded as supporters revoked their endorsements and resources.

Democrats have until July 27 to choose a new nominee, according to state law. The Maine Democratic Party's succession plan calls for a state party convention at which 601 delegates will meet on July 25 and vote for Platner's replacement. The majority of the convention delegates will be selected this weekend from each of the state’s 16 counties.

Candidates hoping to replace Platner have been recruiting delegates who will vote for them at the convention. The candidates also must collect 500 voter signatures needed to qualify for the convention vote.

“I don’t think anyone’s happy that we’re in this situation,” said Dan Jenkins, a Maine Democrat who has applied to be a delegate. “We would have preferred that this had broken many, many months ago and then Graham had exited the race when there was a time for a democratic process. But it's where we are.”

Some candidates might see a boost from prior campaigns

Jackson is among the handful of candidates pivoting to the Senate race after running for other political offices, likely giving them a leg up in not having to launch from scratch.

Our Revolution, a progressive organization founded by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont that had originally backed Platner, has thrown its support behind Jackson, the former Maine Senate president. Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, has not endorsed in the race.

Shah, former director of Maine’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, also unsuccessfully ran in this year’s Maine Democratic governor’s primary. He has been pitching Platner’s supporters that he’s also an outsider who can unify a fractured Democratic Party.

“You have an important place in this campaign, and we welcome your voices,” Shah said earlier this month speaking to Platner’s base.

Bellows also ran for governor. She's hoping that her previous battles with Trump will bolster her argument that she’ll be an advocate for the working class.

Bellows previously tried to unseat Collins in 2014 as the Senate Democratic nominee and lost to her in a landslide. She later went on to win a seat as a state senator before becoming Maine’s secretary of state. She’s since downplayed her prior loss to Collins by pointing to the Democratic establishment’s unwillingness to take on the Republican in 2014.

Another candidate, Jordan Wood, initially announced his intent to run in the Maine Democratic Senate primary. He dropped out last fall to run in the state’s 2nd District but lost that race.

Candidates seize on recent ICE shooting

The fatal shooting by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Maine this week has been top of mind among the potential Senate nominees.

The Embassy of Colombia has identified the man killed Monday in Biddeford, roughly 15 miles (24 kilometers) southwest of Portland, as Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian national. The Department of Homeland Security has since said an ICE officer fired his weapon when the man officers were pursuing attempted to flee the scene, threatening “public safety.”

Many have rushed to connect Collins to the embattled federal agency.

All the candidates who debated Thursday said they agreed with the call to “abolish ICE,” though Wood stopped short of saying the agency should be completely dissolved.

“I believe that when I say we have to abolish it, what I mean is that we need a new law enforcement agency that has the trust of the people,” Wood said.

Jackson disagreed, calling ICE a “rogue agency that goes around doing things that they’re being told to on high.”

Candidates asked about Platner's best ideas

Platner attracted more than 150,000 votes during the June 9 primary, an eye-opening number that signaled a progressive base eager to support a candidate known for his promise to defend the working class and ability to rally large crowds.

With little more than a week until the state convention to find Platner's replacement, it still remains unknown just who will be able to capture that same excitement seen among Platner's base.

When pressed during Thursday's debate about Platner's best idea on the campaign trail, Jackson pointed to his commitment to “Medicare for All.” As a gubernatorial candidate, Jackson also voiced support for replacing job-based and individual private health insurance with a government-run plan that guarantees coverage for all with no premiums, no deductibles and only minimal copays for certain services.

Bellows said that she agreed with Platner’s description that democracy in the U.S. has been corrupted by those in power.

Shah said he would take up Platner's commitment to “abolish ICE,” while Wood said he admired Platner's decision to say that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, something Israel denies.

“Graham got into this race saying, ‘this is genocide.’ And I learned that it is so important in these moments to draw those moral lines,” Wood said.

Federal health officials identified iceberg lettuce from Mexico served at Taco Bell locations in five states as a source of widespread infections from the diarrhea-causing parasite cyclospora. A U.S. Food and Drug Administration investigation identified a single supplier as the source of the suspect lettuce.

Taco Bell issued a statement on Thursday saying that “the affected ingredient from our supplier is being indefinitely removed from our supply chain nationwide and will be replaced within 24 hours in select states.” The company described the move as precautionary.

A federal official who was briefed on the outbreak investigation and not authorized to discuss it identified the supplier as Taylor Farms, a company based in Salinas, California, that produces fresh vegetables for commercial use and meal kits and bagged lettuce products sold at supermarkets.

Federal health officials stressed that other “brands, restaurants, retailers, or distribution channels” could be identified as the investigation continues.

Here’s a brief history of some other recent outbreaks that roiled restaurant companies and sometimes changed how food safety is regulated in the U.S.

Taylor Farms provided onions implicated in an outbreak linked to McDonald's hamburgers

E. coli bacteria caused a 2024 food poisoning outbreak tied to raw onions on McDonald’s Quarter Pounder hamburgers. The outbreak sickened at least 104 people in 14 states, including 34 who were hospitalized, according to the FDA. One person in Colorado died.

McDonald's said the onions came from Taylor Farms and temporarily pulled the Quarter Pounder off its menu in the affected states. Other national restaurant chains temporarily stopped using fresh onions in some of their locations.

Likely E. coli contamination gets lettuce pulled from Wendy’s sandwiches

Wendy’s pulled lettuce from sandwiches in its restaurants in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania in August 2022 after some people reported falling ill.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said at the time that it was trying to determine whether romaine lettuce was the source of an E. coli outbreak that sickened at least 37 people and whether romaine used at Wendy’s was also served or sold at other businesses.

One person was also sickened in Indiana, according to the CDC.

Extensive E. coli outbreak at Chipotle leads to criminal charges

In 2015, Chipotle was hit by an E. coli outbreak that sickened more than 50 people and it temporarily shut down dozens of restaurants on the West Coast, but that was just the beginning. A month later, 30 Boston College students, including at least eight members of the men’s basketball team, complained of gastrointestinal symptoms after eating at a Chipotle restaurant.

Federal officials declared the outbreak over by February 2016, but the chain shut down every one of its restaurants to retrain employees and allow them to regroup.

By the end of the year, however, Chipotle Co-CEO Montgomery Moran stepped down as sales plunged.

In 2020 Chipotle Mexican Grille agreed to pay a record $25 million fine to resolve criminal charges that it served tainted food that sickened more than 1,100 people in the U.S. between 2015 and 2018.

The company admitted that poor safety practices, such as not keeping food at proper temperatures to prevent pathogen growth, sickened customers in Los Angeles and nearby Simi Valley, as well as Boston, Sterling, Virginia, and Powell, Ohio.

Taco Bell removes green onions nationwide after an E. coli outbreak sickens dozens

In December 2006, Taco Bell ordered the removal of green onions from its 5,800 restaurants nationwide after samples taken by investigators appeared to contain a harsh strain of E. coli. The outbreak sickened at least 71 people in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware, with most of them hospitalized, according to the CDC.

Eight people developed a type of kidney failure called hemolytic-uremic syndrome.

Eventually, it was determined that contaminated lettuce was the probable cause, with the vegetable used in numerous dishes on the menu.

Almost immediately, Taco Bell launched a newspaper ad blitz and sent its president on a string of media interviews to assure customers that its food was safe.

Deadly outbreak traced to Jack in the Box hamburgers leads to regulatory changes

Four deaths and more than 700 illnesses in Washington, Idaho, California, and Nevada between 1992 and 1993 eventually were traced to undercooked Jack in the Box restaurant hamburgers contaminated with E. coli.

The ensuing investigation by federal regulators changed regulatory practices in the U.S., experts say.

An investigation by the CDC identified five slaughter plants in the U.S. and one in Canada as the likely sources of animals used in the contaminated lots of meat and identified potential control points for reducing the likelihood of contamination. The animals slaughtered in domestic slaughter plants were traced to farms and auctions in six western states. No one slaughter plant or farm was identified as the source.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture mandated a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point system, which helps identify and control hazards within the system of food production. The system provided for more monitoring and controls to rapidly limit the spread of outbreaks.

Jack in the Box lost more than $44 million in 1993 and did not post another annual profit for another three years.

Overnight storms added several inches of rain to hard-hit areas in Edwards, Real, northern Uvalde and western Kerr counties, pushing overall rainfall totals to 10 to 13 inches over the past two days, the National Weather Service said.

Several areas of concern remain in place across the region. The National Weather Service issued flash flood warnings for parts of seven counties in West-Central Texas that received up to 3 inches of rain since midnight. 

Flash flood warnings for Kerr, Mason, Real and Edwards counties are set to expire at 9 a.m., with parts of Schleicher and Sutton counties set to expire at 9:45 a.m. and Crockett County at 10 a.m.

Overflowing rivers remain a concern, as the Guadalupe, Nueces and Pedernales rivers reached critical condition this week, exacerbating flooding in areas that had been awash in rain. 

Forecasters said conditions are poised to improve throughout Friday. Rainfall will ease, decreasing the likelihood of sustained emergency flash flooding, but saturated ground will leave the region’s rivers vulnerable to flooding. River levels for the Guadalupe and Pedernales dropped Friday — though they remain a concern as excess water travels downstream, forecasters said. 

“We are in the kind of wind-down phase, but we don’t want to put our guard down just yet,” said Emily Heller, a forecaster with the National Weather Service’s San Antonio office. “There’s still river flooding ongoing, and those flood waves are still working their way downstream.” 

Cities and areas that will experience flash flooding Friday morning, the weather service said, are Eldorado, Sonora, Ozona, Rocksprings, Camp Wood, Vance, Barksdale, Prade Ranch, Streeter, Grit, Camp Air, Katemcy, rural areas of Northeastern Edwards and Northwestern Kerr Counties, Devil`s Sinkhole State Natural Area, Kickapoo Cavern State Park.

— Carlos Nogueras Ramos and Katlyn Ma

Correction 10:40 a.m. July 17: This post originally said up to 13 inches of rain had fallen overnight in several counties. That was the two-day total.

Here’s what you need to know

• Drifting anti-immigrant buoys briefly close 2 Rio Grande bridges
• Laredo told to prepare for moderate flooding
• Flood risk remains for parts of Texas after days of rain
• Hill Country residents face renewed anxiety amid new flooding
• Governor confirms second flood-related death
• Kerr County flood victim identified
• Hill Country preparing for another night of floods, swelling rivers
• Sid Miller declares agricultural emergency amid drowned livestock, flooded crops
• Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country steps in
• Rain to ease in the afternoon but more could be coming
• Camp CAMP says all are safe 
• Kendall County rescues two, shelters nearly 70
• Dam floodgates to open along Highland Lakes system 
• One person has died in the flooding, Gov. Abbott says
• More than 40 rescued as rain pummels Uvalde
• Flash flood emergency declared for Pedernales River
• Life-threatening flooding in 14 counties, weather service says
• Additional rain expected to batter Kerr and Uvalde counties after a long night of showers 
• Life-threatening floodwaters endanger southwest Texas
• Dangerous flood wave moving down Guadalupe River near Center Point

July 17, 2026, 11:25 a.m.

Drifting anti-immigrant buoys briefly close 2 Rio Grande bridges

About 100 buoys that the federal government planned to install as anti-immigration deterrents near Eagle Pass drifted into the Rio Grande, prompting officials to close two key bridges along the U.S.-Mexico border for about three hours, reopening them just after midnight Friday.

Eagle Pass shut down transit at the bridges while it worked to determine whether the buoys posed a threat, City Manager Homero Balderas said. About 9,000 vehicles cross both bridges daily, transiting between Eagle Pass and Las Piedras.

Read the full story

— Carlos Nogueras Ramos and Katlyn Ma

July 17, 2026, 10:55 a.m.

Laredo told to prepare for moderate flooding

National forecasters warned Laredo residents to expect the Rio Grande river to enter flood stage Saturday night, with highest levels of nearly 21 feet expected by Sunday evening. River levels are typically under 5 feet.

A moderate flood warning has been issued for Webb County, meaning water can be several feet deep in low-lying areas, said Kirsten Snodgrass, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Laredo is “susceptible to flash flooding,” and officials are now meeting with the weather service to assess the current forecast for next steps, she said. 

The Amistad and Falcon reservoirs – upstream and downstream of Laredo on the Rio Grande – are not included in the warning.

— Katlyn Ma

July 16, 2026, 11:35 p.m.

Flood risk remains for parts of Texas after days of rain

Parts of southwest Texas and the Hill Country endured a third night in a row of heavy rain and flash flooding that has left at least two people dead and forced evacuations. 

The Hill Country, the Rio Grande Plains and the southern Edwards Plateau remain among the hardest-hit areas with “life-threatening flooding” and “locally catastrophic flash floodings of creeks, streams, and other low-lying locations”, according to the National Weather Service. 

The agency forecasts rainfall totals of 2 to 4 inches for that region, with isolated areas potentially receiving up to 8 inches overnight and into Friday morning. Experts warn that the additional rainfall could worsen an already critical situation. 

As of Thursday night, seven locations were experiencing major flooding or at significant risk: the Pedernales River at Johnson City; the Guadalupe River near Spring Branch; Cibolo Creek at Sutherland Springs; Cibolo Creek near Falls City; the Frio River below Dry Frio near Uvalde; the Nueces River at Laguna; and the Nueces River below Uvalde. 

Water levels at all of these locations are expected to recede on Friday. 

— Alejandro Santos Cid 

July 16, 2026, 11:35 p.m.

Hill Country residents face renewed anxiety amid new flooding

For many Hill Country residents, Thursday’s flooding brought back the familiar levels of wreckage and trauma that they suffered through during the July 2025 floods that killed 119 people in Kerr County.  

In many parts of the county and elsewhere, scenes were strikingly similar: fences lined with debris and personal effects, cars strewn in all directions and water lines that hugged the bottoms of homes. The response by Hill Country community members echoed last year, too, as neighbors coalesced in one another’s homes to help begin cleanup and shelters welcomed those displaced with hot meals and clean clothes.

Rain in the early morning Thursday pushed the Guadalupe River in Comfort to as much as 37 feet and the Pedernales River to 34 feet in Fredericksburg, according to river gauges.  Near Kerrville last year, the Guadalupe River in Hunt spiked to a record-breaking 37.5 feet on July 4. 

Those who have lived along the rivers have been accustomed to flooding for decades, but the sudden overflow last year caught even longtime residents off-guard. Since then, residents sought solace in the idea that the river’s sudden swelling had been a once-in-a-century event — an apparent illusion shattered in the early hours Thursday.

“When it did it last year, we’re like, ‘Oh my God, it’s never happened before, ever, so maybe it won’t happen again in our lifetime,’” said Sherri Steadham, who lives in Center Point within eyesight of the river. “And here we are, a year and a few days later.” 

Though the rate of flooding and the severity of human casualties have differed — two people have died, as of Thursday evening — watching the waters rise and taking calls from trapped residents reminded many first responders of the fear-stricken residents they saved from  harrowing floodwaters last year.

“When that rain’s hitting really hard, and you hear it pounding, you can see the look on their faces,” said Razor Dobbs, a volunteer firefighter at Center Point Fire Department, who responded to last year’s flood. “You can see the look on their faces, this is it.

Read the full story

— Ayden Runnels and Ellie Ashby

July 16, 2026, 5:48 p.m.

Governor confirms second flood-related death

Gov. Greg Abbott confirmed Thursday at a press conference that two people died in the ongoing flooding across south-central Texas.

The victims are John Mark Steward, 65, of Kerrville, who was swept away in an RV near Comfort along the Guadalupe River, and a 74-year old man in Uvalde County who was swept away while driving across a flooded roadway.

Abbott warned that life-threatening, catastrophic flooding remains the biggest threat through tonight and into early Friday, with additional risks of tornadoes. Flood watches remain in effect for 59 counties.

The state has mobilized about 2,350 emergency responders, more than 1,400 vehicles and specialized equipment, 85 boats and 21 aircraft. Officials have completed over 230 rescues.

“Protecting life remains our top priority,” Abbott told reporters, emphasizing that response efforts — not recovery — are the focus as conditions continue to change rapidly.

Abbott said last year’s deadly flooding served as “a warning” that prompted a more aggressive response this year, including the early evacuation of more than 80 people from campgrounds before rivers began to rise. He said that first responders are applying the lessons learned from last year and being “very aggressive.” 

He added that state leaders will review this flooding event after the emergency ends to determine whether additional emergency management or flood-related legislation is needed.

“We will take experiences gained from this flooding event and evaluate if further laws are needed, or the existing walls need to be recalibrated,” he said. 

– Alejandra Martinez

July 16, 2026, 4:15 p.m.

Kerr County flood victim identified

John Mark Steward, a 65-year-old Kerrville resident, was identified by his wife as the first victim of flash flooding that has swept through southwest Texas and the Hill Country this week. 

“My heart is broken. I am devastated. My husband, Mark, was found and went to be with Jesus,” said his widow, Jennie Steward, in a statement on social media. “Mark, my love, I will forever be grateful for the beautiful years we shared together. You made me a better person. I love you all.” 

The mobile home where Mark and Jennie lived on Junction Highway, Kerr County, which runs  parallel with the Guadalupe River, was swept away and destroyed by the rising water on Thursday morning. Only John Mark Steward was inside the home at the time — his wife had traveled to Dallas.

At 3:06 a.m., Steward called a neighbor to tell him that his home was floating away, according to the Houston Chronicle. He phoned his neighbor a final time to say his home had been destroyed before the line went dead.

Steward was a caretaker at Sage Park Guadalupe, an assisted living facility for seniors, the Chronicle said. Before that, he worked as a pest control technician. Wednesday marked the couple’s third wedding anniversary.

Steward’s cousin, Maranda Freeman, shared her condolences in a Facebook post. “Our family is completely heartbroken by this loss,” Freeman said. “While we had been holding onto hope and praying for a miracle, we now find comfort in knowing that he has been found and is at peace in the arms of our Lord.” 

— Alejandro Santos Cid 

July 16, 2026, 3:44 p.m.

Hill Country preparing for another night of floods, swelling rivers

Parts of the Texas Hill Country are preparing for one more round of heavy rain tonight, National Weather Service forecasters said.  

While showers and storms may briefly decrease early this evening, another round of thunderstorms is expected to redevelop overnight across portions of the Hill Country, southern Edwards Plateau, and the Rio Grande. Although the storms are not expected to be as widespread as in previous nights, the flood threat remains extremely high.

“There’s no more room to take rainfall,” forecaster Jason Runyen said at an afternoon webinar.

After days of relentless rain, saturated ground means any additional rainfall will immediately run off, worsening flash floods. Areas west of Interstate 35 and north of the U.S. 90 corridor are especially vulnerable.

Several rivers remained at dangerous levels as “catastrophic flash floods” continued Thursday afternoon. The Nueces River below Uvalde is expected to crest at a record high above 27 feet tonight into Friday, creating downstream concerns for Crystal City. The Pedernales River, which has already experienced devastating flooding, crested near 34 feet upstream and is now sending a major flood wave toward Johnson City, where rapid rises are expected in the evening before water levels slowly begin to recede.

Forecasters expect rainfall to decrease beginning Friday night and through the weekend. 

— Alejandra Martinez

July 16, 2026, 3:39 p.m.

Sid Miller declares agricultural emergency amid drowned livestock, flooded crops

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller declared an agricultural emergency in response to the torrential flooding in the state. This comes after reports of drowned livestock and flooded crops in some areas. 

Miller’s declaration allows the Texas Department of Agriculture to use relief resources to help farmers, ranchers and other businesses related to agriculture as they recover from widespread flood damage. 

In a statement, Miller said Texas agriculture is taking another blow. 

“Families who make their living on the land are watching their crops, livestock, and homes threatened by rising floodwaters,” Miller said. 

There are reports of hundreds of livestock trapped and potentially drowned along the Pedernales River and Cibolo Creek near Falls City. Similar reports have come out of the Frio and Nueces Rivers near Uvalde.

Miller also encouraged people to help recovery efforts by donating to the department’s relief fund. 

— Jayme Lozano Carver

July 16, 2026, 3:16 p.m.

“We knew that there would be a role for philanthropy”

A little more than one year after mobilizing to raise and distribute millions of dollars for response and recovery from the devastating July 4 flood in Kerr County, the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country launched a new flood relief fund Thursday.

The fund will support communities in the 10-county region that the foundation supports, which includes hard-hit Uvalde, Gillespie and Kendall Counties in addition to Kerr. 

Some in the area woke to relentless rain Thursday morning, and the foundation leader realized a similar flooding scenario was unfolding, foundation Chief Executive Officer Austin Dickson said. Organization leaders felt prepared to take action to help. 

“There is a significant number of evacuations, water in homes and businesses, roads and bridges washed out, many physically damaged,” Dickson said. “It was at that point that we knew that there would be a role for philanthropy and long-term recovery.”

In San Antonio, San Antonio Animal Care Services put out a call for people to help temporarily foster dogs as a surge of animals arrived because of the weather. Volunteers were directed to 4710 State Highway 151 to meet dogs that needed immediate homes.

— Emily Foxhall

July 16, 2026, 1:32 p.m.

Rain to ease in the afternoon but more could be coming

After hours of incessant rainfall, forecasters at the National Weather Service said hard-hit parts of Texas can expect some relief Thursday afternoon but warned that the storms could return in the evening. 

Forecasters are monitoring northern Uvalde, Del Rio and Bandera counties, where since morning storm systems have formed over already drenched areas. Those storms migrated north to Kerr County, exacerbating flooding and spiking the Guadalupe River to dangerous levels. 

Forecasters estimate it is raining at a rate of two inches an hour. That’s down from earlier reports of six inches of rain in some areas, but the soil is so saturated that the water is running off, resulting in flooding. 

“The rainfall rates have come down, fortunately, from what they were earlier,” forecasters said. 

— Carlos Nogueras Ramos

July 16, 2026, 1:05 p.m.

Camp CAMP says all are safe 

Summer camps near Hunt were not flooded, Gov. Abbott said during a Thursday news conference, adding that his office is still getting updates on others and could not confirm any more details. 

The Kerr County Sheriff’s Office said all camps in the county have been contacted and confirmed that their campers are safe.

The Children’s Association for Maximum Potential, a beloved program for individuals with disabilities known as Camp CAMP near the Guadalupe River, said Thursday that campers and staff would remain in the campgrounds, which stand 80 feet above the riverbank, and continue with programming. In a statement on social media, the camp said it is “fully prepared for changing conditions, with back up generators in place.” 

“At this time, travel to the area is not safe,” the camp said in a statement on social media. “In accordance with our Emergency Action Plan, sheltering in place remains the safest course of action for everyone on site. … We also have ample food and essential supplies on hand to care for everyone at the camp for as long as needed.”

— Carlos Nogueras Ramos and Terri Langford

July 16, 2026, 1:05 p.m.

Kendall County rescues two, shelters nearly 70

Two people were rescued and 68 have sought shelter in Kendall County as the Guadalupe River swelled to life-threatening levels early Thursday morning, prompting multiple flash flood emergency warnings from forecasters, emergency management officials said in a news conference.

County officials said they’d been coordinating to deploy rescue efforts since 2 a.m. in advance of the early wave of rainfall.

“We didn’t know where the water was going to hit, how much, and if it was going to affect us,” county officials said. 

— Carlos Nogueras Ramos

July 16, 2026, 12:25 p.m.

Dam floodgates to open along Highland Lakes system 

Several Central Texas reservoirs have reached capacity, prompting operators to begin releasing water downstream along the Colorado River.

The Lower Colorado River Authority plans to open multiple floodgates at Alvin Wirtz Dam, which forms Lake LBJ west of Marble Falls, and Max Starcke Dam, which forms Lake Marble Falls. Both dams are part of the Highland Lakes system operated by LCRA.

Officials are urging anyone living, working or recreating downstream to take precautions as water levels rise and the river flows much faster than normal. Conditions can also change quickly, especially if additional rain falls.

While reservoir releases are common in Central Texas, they can create hazardous conditions. Reservoir operators control how much water is released to reduce flood risks downstream. 

The LCRA warns that unscheduled water releases may occur at any time due to emergency hydroelectric generation or other operational needs.

— Alejandra Martinez

July 16, 2026, 11:59 a.m.

One person has died in the flooding, Gov. Abbott says

One person has died in the flooding and more than 70 others have been rescued, Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday. 

The death of the adult occurred between Kerrville and Comfort but Abbott had no other details. 

“I am informed that the loss of life is not a camper,” Abbott said. 

“We have been engaged in making rescues,” Abbott said. “We have rescued well over 70 people already and we will continue making those rescues every step of the way,” Abbott said. 

After last year’s deadly flooding, state legislators required warning sirens to be installed in areas hit by the July 2025 disaster that regulators identified as having a history of severe flooding and other factors such as where people could die or structures could flood. 

The Upper Guadalupe River Authority had so far installed six sirens in Kerr County expected to be paid for with state funding, but all of those sirens were upriver of where the worst river flooding occurred Thursday, according to river gauges. 

Abbott confirmed Thursday that the sirens worked except for one that did not go off as soon as it was triggered.

“All the sirens worked,” he said. “With regard to one of the sirens and sometime before 4 a.m. this morning there was a triggering of the siren that did not go off immediately. But it was triggered again five minutes or two minutes later and it did go off at that time,” he said. “So for all practical purposes, the functionality of the sirens worked just fine and so those alarms went off.”

While a lot of attention is on the Kerrville and Uvalde areas, Abbott said he was concerned about the “massive challenges” in the Rio Grande Valley and other areas hit by heavy rains. 

“People need to understand to expect very meaningful flooding in the Rio Grande,” he said. 

So far, 1,300 personnel have been “actively engaged” in responding to the flooding, Abbott said. 

Unlike the 2025 flooding, which was concentrated upstream from Kerrville near Hunt, this year’s flooding is happening downstream from the Guadalupe River headwaters, he said.

The Guadalupe River at Center Point spiked just below the July 2025 record, according to federal data. In Comfort, it spiked just above last year’s record, hitting 37.08 feet compared to last year’s 35.64 feet, a difference of 1.44 feet, according to the gauge.

More than 90 new River Sentry flood warning sirens that the directors of Camp Mystic raised money for have also been installed in Kerr County, again largely upriver of where the worst river flooding occurred Thursday, according to a company map. Twenty-seven campers and counselors died at Camp Mystic in last year’s floods, along with the camp’s co-owner and executive director. Some of these sirens were stationed in the Kerrville area. 

— Terri Langford and Emily Foxhall

July 16, 2026, 10:58 a.m.

More than 40 rescued as rain pummels Uvalde

Intense overnight rain in Uvalde submerged roads and homes, prompting more than 40 rescues. After receiving 7 inches of rain overnight, Uvalde was placed under a flash flood emergency, with mandatory evacuations underway, as drone footage from the Weather Channel showed the Leona River overflowing near Uvalde. 

The Uvalde County Office of Emergency Management closed all major highways and city streets, issuing a shelter in place order. 

More than 40 people have been rescued, most of them in Uvalde County, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Uvalde officials have deployed boats for rescue operations and plan to fly helicopters.

Roads across Uvalde County are also flooded, including Highway 90, where videos have shown pavement torn up by floodwaters.

— Katlyn Ma and Carlos Nogueras Ramos

July 16, 2026, 9:14 a.m.

Flash flood emergency declared for Pedernales River

Federal forecasters issued a flash flood emergency for the Pedernales River in Gillespie and Blanco Counties, warning of life-threatening flash flooding and catastrophic damage. 

A “large and deadly flood wave” was pushing down the Pedernales River, the forecast alert said. At Fredericksburg, the river had already passed 28 feet at 8 a.m., according to a U.S. Geological Survey gauge. It was forecast to keep rising into a major flood. 

Forecasters urged people to move to higher ground immediately.

July 16, 2026, 7:45 a.m.

Dangerous flood wave moving down Guadalupe River near Center Point

Center Point through Bergheim on the Guadalupe River were under a flash flood emergency early Thursday morning as forecasters warned of a “large and deadly flood wave” pushing down the Guadalupe River and urged people to seek higher ground.

“The river gauge at Center Point has risen 32 feet in 4 hours and is expected to reach a crest similar to July 4, 2025 catastrophic river flood,” the forecast warning said. “Flash flooding is already occurring.”

A flash flood emergency was also extended upstream in Hunt and Kerrville in Kerr County through 3 p.m. Thursday where up to a foot of rain had fallen and more was expected, according to the alert. Kerrville officials asked residents to shelter in place if safe to do so.

Forecasters warned the damage could be catastrophic. The river near Center Point hit nearly 38 feet at 5:20 a.m., according to a U.S. Geological Survey gauge. A steep rise was recorded downriver in Comfort, passing above 33 feet at 6:25 a.m. No rise had been recorded yet at the next gauge near Bergheim as of 6:45 a.m.

In Hunt and Kerrville, forecasters reported between three to six inches of rain had fallen in that area already as of 3 a.m. Thursday with a heavy rainfall rate of two to four inches of rain expected and the Guadalupe rising.

“Flash flooding is already occurring with evacuations, escalating water rescues, and water beginning to enter structures,” the alert said.

The gauge on the Guadalupe River at Hunt had spiked just above 20 feet around 3:35 a.m. Thursday morning, which was below what’s considered a major flood there, according to the USGS gauge. The river later hit nearly 17 feet in Kerrville, also below what’s considered a major flood.

Kerrville officials also asked residents to minimize water use as a preventive measure because of operational issues at its water plant.

More than 100 people died in Kerr County last summer during flash floods early on July 4, when more than 10 inches of rain in places on the river’s South Fork fell largely in the span of several hours, with much of the worst damage in Kerrville and upriver.

— Emily Foxhall

July 16, 2026, 7:36 a.m.

Life-threatening flooding in 14 counties, weather service says

All or portions of 14 counties were under flash flood warnings issued by the National Weather Service as of 7 a.m. Thursday morning as heavy rain had fallen across the area. A flash flood warning means life-threatening flooding is imminent or likely. 

Uvalde and the Knippa area were under flash flood emergencies, meaning “historic and catastrophic” flash flooding was imminent or already happening that could damage entire communities. The area had received up to 8 inches of rain over two hours as of 4 a.m., according to the forecast alert, and had already been drenched with heavy rain over several days.

Structures had flooded and water rescues were occurring, according to the forecast alert.

Areas along the Guadalupe River between Center Point through Bergheim, as well as in Hunt and Kerrville, were also under flash flood emergencies.

Counties under flash flood warnings included:

• Sutton County

• Kendall County

• Kerr County

• Bandera County

• Gillespie County

• Real County

• Kinney County

• Maverick County

• Val Verde County

• Uvalde County

• Edwards County

• Zavala County

• Medina County

• Kimble County

According to the weather service, the following cities and areas will experience flash flooding: Kerrville, Comfort, Waring, Sisterdale, Center Point, Crown, Medina, Fredericksburg, Bandera, Kerrville-Schreiner Park, Tivydale, Camp Verde, Harper, Vanderpool, Hunt, Uvalde, Sabinal, Knippa, Kerr Wildlife Management Area, Lost Maples State Natural Area, Mountain Home, Rio Frio, Del Rio, Brackettville, Lake View, Amanda, Laughlin AFB, Val Verde Park, Standart, Cienegas Terrace, Long Point, Black Brush Point, Diablo East, Amistad Village, Governors Landing, Escondido Estates, 277 South Boat Ramp, 277 North Campground, Lake Ridge Ranch, San Pedro Canyon, Devils Shores, Rough Canyon Recreation Area, Leakey, Camp Wood, Barksdale, Vance, Tuff, Brackettville, Spofford, La Pryor, Dabney, Anacacho, Washer, Darling, Alamo Village, Turkey Mountain, Fort Clark Springs, Waltonia, Ingram, Boerne, Fair Oaks Ranch. Welfare, Walnut Grove, Nelson City, Kreutzberg, Bergheim, Kronkosky State Natural Area, Old Tunnel State Park, Kendalia, Bankersmith, Guadalupe River State Park, Bandera Falls, Spring Branch, Lakehills, Hondo, D`Hanis, Hill Country State Natural Area, Lake Medina Shores, Concan, Reagan Wells, Garner State Park, Laguna, Montell, Utopia, Cline, Blewett, Roosevelt, Telegraph, Cleo, I-10 near the Sutton-Kimble county line.

The warning includes the following streams: Block Creek, Sabinas Creek, Holliday Creek, Jacobs Creek, Verde, Creek, Turtle Creek, Cherry Creek, Guadalupe River, Wasp Creek, Bruins Creek, Joshua Creek, Steel Creek, Elm Creek, Werner Creek, West Sister Creek, Violet Creek, Cypress Creek and East Sister Creek, Pipe Creek.

— Emily Foxhall

July 16, 2026, 7:22 a.m.

Additional rain expected to batter Kerr and Uvalde counties after a long night of showers

Additional rainfall fell across Central Texas overnight, with storms battering several towns particularly vulnerable to the rising Guadalupe River, forecasters at the National Weather Service’s San Antonio office said. 

Forecasters said they expect the heaviest downpours in Kerr and Uvalde counties after a long night of heavy rain. Over the last six hours, towns along central Kerr County, including Kerrville, Hunt and Ingram, saw as much as 8 to 10 and a half inches of rain. The storms also showered towns downstream from the Guadalupe River, in Center Point, Comfort and Bergheim, forecasters said. 

Nearly 20 inches of rain has fallen over the past 48 hours in central and northern Uvalde County, forecasters said.

Storm activity is developing further south in Bandera County and is likely to travel north, bring more rain in the coming hours. 

“Showers and thunderstorms and the rainfall rates are picking up again a little bit acrossKerr County, and even back into those areas that got hit hard across Uvalde and back into the portions of the Hill Country,” said Eric Platt, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. “So it’s not over just yet.”

— Carlos Nogueras Ramos

July 15, 2026, 9:45 p.m.

Life-threatening floodwaters endanger southwest Texas

National Weather Service forecasters were expecting stormwater to push rivers and creeks over their banks in southwest Texas — including the Nueces and Frio rivers —  Wednesday afternoon and Wednesday night. 

Homes in D’Hanis and Crystal City are threatened, according to the forecasts, as are livestock and campgrounds.

Federal forecasters also issued a flash flood emergency for Boerne midday Wednesday through Wednesday evening. As much as a foot of rain had fallen in the area, according to the warning, and more was possible.

Forecasters said people were being rescued and were stranded, according to local emergency management. Chris Shadrock, the city’s communications director, said in a video posted online that areas that don’t typically experience high water were likely to see flooding.

“This is a PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION. SEEK HIGHER GROUND NOW!” the warning said. 

The federal forecasters predicted imminent major flooding on Seco Creek near D’Hanis on Wednesday afternoon, when water levels could rise so high that homes could flood with up to 5 feet of water, or 6 feet if Parker Creek also floods. A flash flood emergency was in effect, with similar warnings as in Boerne to seek higher ground immediately to escape danger.

Uvalde police officials were also urging residents on the Leona River to get to higher ground Wednesday afternoon. The river had already risen to nearly 20 feet near Uvalde that morning, according to a river gauge, a record-breaking surge of water that was moving downstream.

Nearby, federal weather officials also expected the Sabinal River at Sabinal to see dangerous flooding, including at “Utopia on the River” and a Girl Scout camp, before water flowed quickly into the Frio River.

The Frio River at Concan looked poised to hit a level Wednesday afternoon where forecasters warned: “Up to near ten feet of turbulent flow smashes through campgrounds” and could easily push RVs, cars and gear downstream and threaten flood-prone homes. 

Downstream, the Frio River near Uvalde was predicted to peak with major flooding Wednesday night, reaching levels that could trap and drown livestock and flood cropland. 

The Nueces River also faced expected challenges: The West Nueces River at Bracketville was already significantly flooded and forecasted to hit a point that could threaten livestock, roads and fencing with flooding “over four hundred yards wide.”

Below Uvalde, “disastrous widespread lowland flooding” on the Nueces River overnight Wednesday looked poised to damage some homes around Crystal City, also potentially threatening livestock, fencing and roads.

“A lot of this rain that’s falling upstream is just kind of flowing downstream and there’s not a whole lot to slow down or stop that rise of water,” said Harrison Tran, a forecaster with the National Weather Service’s Austin and San Antonio office.

River flooding could impact areas downstream of heavy rain, so people needed to stay vigilant, Tran said. 

“Folks along the rivers should prepare to see some pretty steep rises either over the next few hours if they’re closer to the area or in the day or two ahead as well,” Tran said.

— Emily Foxhall

July 15, 2026, 9:36 p.m.

Cities stay vigilant ahead of an anticipated early morning downpour

Cities across the Hill Country and South Texas already pummeled by a series of rainstorms held their flood precautions steady into Wednesday evening as rainfall was expected to return in the early hours of Thursday morning.

In Uvalde County, where some mandatory evacuation orders were given earlier in the day, City of Uvalde police outlined more neighborhoods that should be prepared to evacuate “at any time” through the night. Most of the county was under a flash flood warning set to expire at 1 a.m.

In La Pryor, the Nueces River had risen significantly, according to a social media post from the Zavala County Sheriff’s Office. According to a river gauge in the Nueces River south of the city of Uvalde, water levels had reached a historic high of 20 feet at 8:30 p.m., but were expected to peak there and lower through the night. 

Flash flood warnings in Kinney and Real counties were extended until 4 a.m. Thursday and in Bandera, Kendall and Medina counties until 2 a.m. as showers ebbed Wednesday evening. In Edwards County, a flash flood warning was issued just after 9:15 p.m. Wednesday until Thursday at 11:15 a.m.

Emergency officials across the region warned residents to stay vigilant, avoid travel unless absolutely necessary and be prepared to leave in areas closer to waterways.

— Ayden Runnels

July 15, 2026, 6:06 p.m.

Abbott: Rainfall could surpass July 4 flooding numbers, but state is prepared

Gov. Greg Abbott said portions of the state could see upward of 30 inches of rain over the course of the storm, surpassing the surge of rainfall that caused the deadly July 4 flooding last year.

At a news conference Wednesday evening with agency officials, Abbott laid out Texas’ response to the larger wave of rainfall expected through the night and drew comparison to the disastrous rainfall in 2025. 

Roughly 20 inches of rainfall last year caused flooding in the Hill Country that killed more than 119 people in Kerr County. While Abbott said storms through the week could well exceed last year’s rainfall, potential ramifications are lessened by both the state’s level of preparedness and the differences in where rain is expected to occur.

“We are better prepared than we have ever been to deal with weather events in general, but rainfall events and flooding events in particular,” Abbott said, mentioning that sirens have been set up alongside the Guadalupe River as well as other river basins across Texas.

As of Wednesday, there have not been any reported fatalities, Abbott said, but he and other officials urged residents to stay alert through the end of the week, even after rainfall subsides as rivers and waterways continue to shift. 

More than 75 people have been rescued, most of whom were taken from stranded vehicles, said Texas Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd. With rainfall in some areas forecasted at 3 inches an hour, Kidd cautioned against residents making unnecessary trips on roadways, which can quickly become flooded under such heavy rates of rainfall.

“It doesn’t matter where you live in Texas; three inches of rain an hour will cause flooding,” Kidd said. 

Kidd cautioned Texas against driving on roads obscured by water and said that shelters were ready to be opened if needed.

The state has deployed more than 800 vehicles and 1,300 state personnel to help assist with preparation, rescue and recovery efforts, and Louisiana and Oklahoma officials have also provided resources, Abbott said.

Abbott said the biggest challenge facing emergency crews was making Texans aware of the inclement weather and flooding. 

“If every Texan is aware of what’s going on and realizes they can protect themselves over the next 24 hours, everything’s going to work out just fine,” he said. 

— Ellie Ashby and Ayden Runnels

July 15, 2026, 4:05 p.m.

More heavy rain expected over hard-hit areas

Another round of heavy rain was expected to fall over the same drenched areas of southwest Texas on Wednesday night and Thursday, said Jason Runyen with the National Weather Service in Austin and San Antonio. 

Forecasters said 2 to 6 inches of rain could fall in the worst-hit regions along U.S. 90 west of San Antonio and the western Hill Country, with up to 10 to 15 inches in some areas that could cause catastrophic flash flooding, Runyen said.

Counties of concern included Uvalde, Medina, Kinney, Edwards, Real and Bandera, plus possibly Kendall and Gillespie. Forecasters were also watching Kerr County, where more than 100 people died in floods last summer, for possible heavy rainfall.

“It’s a pretty big area west of San Antonio that’s been impacted,” Runyen said. “This is many counties we’re dealing with.”

A staggering 12 to 17 inches of rain had already fallen over the past two days over north Uvalde, northeast Kinney and north Medina County, according to the National Weather Service.

Flash flooding had prompted evacuations or calls to seek higher ground in the city of Uvalde, D’Hanis and Boerne. River flooding continued to threaten Crystal City and Carrizo Springs and other areas along the Nueces, Frio and Medina Rivers as water pushed downstream, plus smaller waterways such as Cibolo Creek. 

Emergency officials notified forecasters Wednesday that Cibolo Creek had overflowed, flooding River Road and stranding multiple vehicles. “Numerous water rescues, evacuations and road closures have been reported,” a forecast statement said.

A Cibolo Creek gauge near Boerne showed the water had risen above 22 feet Wednesday afternoon and was pushing downstream toward Selma.

— Emily Foxhall

July 15, 2026, 2:30 p.m.

Mandatory evacuations ordered in Uvalde

Some residents in Uvalde have been ordered to evacuate and have been notified by first responders, with additional  mandatory evacuations possible, according to a Facebook post from the Uvalde Police Department. 

South of Uvalde in Zavala County, emergency officials in another Facebook post warned residents near the Nueces River to prepare for flooding, with the river expected to crest near historic levels.

— Emily Foxhall

July 15, 2026, 2:00 p.m.

Reported tornado damages apartments near UTSA, displacing students

A reported tornado touched down near the University of Texas at San Antonio campus Wednesday, causing significant damage to an apartment complex and displacing 10 to 12 students, local officials said. That number could rise as assessments continue. 

The San Antonio Fire Department is on scene at the Oasis San Antonio apartments. No injuries were reported and the apartment has been evacuated.

UTSA is working with the American Red Cross to provide assistance and connect affected students with temporary housing and other resources.

“We’re grateful that no injuries have been reported. University staff are working closely with UT Police, the San Antonio fire and police departments, and the American Red Cross to support affected students and connect them with needed resources,” the university posted on X.

Meanwhile, crews have begun clearing debris, removing downed trees, and responding to storm-related damage across San Antonio as emergency officials continue to monitor weather conditions.

— Emily Foxhall and Katlyn Ma

July 15, 2026, 11:25 a.m.

Heavy rains continue as Texas’ flash flood concerns persist

A heavier band of rainfall continued to drop water on Kinney, Uvalde and Medina counties Wednesday morning, all of which had seen a lot of rain already, said meteorologist Matt Lanza, who helps write the Eyewall. Storms were also expanding toward Kerrville, Fredericksburg and Boerne.

But the rain — while intense — has been somewhat more manageable than the huge amount that dropped all at once in Kerr County last July, causing the Guadalupe River to surge, Lanza said. In this case, Lanza didn’t expect the flash floods to be quite so urgent and “flashy,” he said, giving people a little more time to watch and react. Even so, flooding concerns were still widespread before the rain was expected to slow into the afternoon.

Areas in Bexar, Guadalupe, Bandera, Kerr, Gillespie and Kendall counties had all come under flash flood warnings. Flash flooding was reported on Cibolo Creek at FM 78 with more rain possible, according to federal forecasters.

“Hopefully just another couple of hours of this and then things will start to settle,” Lanza said. “But even in those couple hours you could be talking about easily another 2 to 4 or 5 inches of rainfall, maybe even a little bit more in spots.”

Rain had picked up starting around 6 a.m. in Medina County and water was starting again to cover roadways, said Mark Chadwick, the county’s emergency management coordinator. Responders had rescued four people from vehicles the day prior. 

No water had gotten into structures, but officials were keeping a particular eye on D’Hanis, which has historically flooded, Chadwick said.

“We’re saturated,” Chadwick said. “Right now, any rain, it’s not going to take much for that to rise back up.”

— Emily Foxhall

July 15, 2026, 10:45 a.m.

Rescues underway in Uvalde County as rain may return with “a vengeance”

At least 25 people were rescued in Uvalde County as of Wednesday morning, while more rescues were ongoing, local officials said during a 10 a.m. news conference.

“As we speak, the river levels are rising due to rains last night, and first responders are actively rescuing in the northern part of Uvalde County,” County Commissioner Roy Kothmann said.

A shelter remained in operation at the Uvalde County Fairplex, Kothmann said. 

The Uvalde Police Department on Wednesday morning asked residents near the Leona River to voluntarily evacuate and warned other residents to prepare for possible evacuation as predicted rainfall is expected to affect rivers and creeks that run through town.

Officials urged residents to avoid low water crossings and call 911 if needed. 

“The rain’s going to come back tonight — it looks like with a vengeance — again, so I would urge caution,” said state Rep. Don McLaughlin, R-Uvalde. 

— Emily Foxhall and Katlyn Ma

July 15, 2026, 8:24 a.m.

Tornado confirmed in northwest Bexar County

Forecasters just before 8 a.m. Wednesday reported a confirmed tornado in northwest Bexar County they said was crossing Interstate 10 near Shavano Park and urged people to take shelter. 

Some waterways in Texas had also risen rapidly Wednesday morning, according to river gages tracking their heights.

Significantly, the West Nueces River at Bracketville had come up 20 feet over four hours, as of 6:30 a.m., according to the U.S. Geological Survey gauge. At that height, it’s considered a major flood by federal forecasters with “extensive inundation of structures and roads.”

Other rivers had spiked into a moderate flood level, including the Sabinal River at Sabinal and the Dry Frio River near Reagan Wells.

— Emily Foxhall

July 15, 2026, 6:50 a.m.

Multiple counties under flash flood warnings; Uvalde County hit hard

All or portions of multiple counties remained under flash flood warnings early Wednesday morning, while storms continued to dump rain in southwest Texas. 

Federal forecasters estimated between 6 and 16 inches of rain had fallen over 24 hours in Uvalde County, relaying reports that people had been rescued from the water. Northeast Kinney County also received significant amounts of rain and remained under a flash flood warning, meaning life-threatening flooding could be imminent. Rainfall rates of two to four inches an hour were forecast in the area. 

South central Edwards, southern Real, western Gillespie and southeastern Kerr counties were also still under warnings. 

Forecasters were watching for another round of storms to move back in over previously hard-hit northern Uvalde and northwestern Medina counties. They were also keeping an eye on the Frio and Nueces and West Nueces rivers, 

“It’s very rural out there,” said Monte Oaks, a forecaster with the National Weather Service office in Austin and San Antonio, of the hardest-hit spots. “From what we know, they just basically shut down long stretches of road out there.”

— Emily Foxhall

July 15, 2026, 5:00 a.m.

Wide swath of Texas bracing for 2 to 6 inches of rain

Considerable to catastrophic flooding is likely to occur over the next two days in places along the U.S. 90 corridor west of San Antonio, according to forecasters who elevated the risk for heavy rain causing flash flooding to the highest possible level through Thursday morning.

Some places could see a staggering 10 to 20 inches of rain, raising particular concerns for vacationers who might not be familiar with the flash flood threat. The areas at greatest expected risk included all or parts of Medina, Frio, Uvalde, Kinney, Maverick, Zavala, Val Verde, Edwards, Real and Bandera counties.

The Pecos, Rio Grande, Nueces, Frio, Medina and San Antonio rivers could all flood, National Weather Service forecasters said.

Areas outside of the worst forecast still faced a possible 2 to 6 inches of rain, including Kerr County. The city of Kerrville Police Department on Monday night and Tuesday said it already barricaded some roadways because of high water.

The warnings arrived barely more than one year after flash flooding killed 119 people in Kerr County on the July 4 holiday, when many children were attending summer camp and families packed RV parks and vacation homes. Residents continue to feel intense anxiety when it rains and were watching the forecasts.

Weather experts after last summer’s flood cautioned that it is impossible to predict precisely and with certainty where the heaviest rain might fall. That’s why people need to have a way to receive weather warnings and be aware of how they might need to act.

State legislators have since required certain areas prone to flash-flooding to install warning sirens, a process that is ongoing. The state also mandated new safety standards at youth camps, but it took no action on other recommendations such as standardizing training for local emergency management coordinators.

Gov. Greg Abbott midday Tuesday issued a disaster declaration for 59 counties in recognition of the threat to make resources available.

“Texas is positioned to respond quickly and effectively,” Abbott said in a statement. “I urge all Texans in affected areas to monitor local weather forecasts, avoid driving through flooded roadways, and have emergency supplies ready.”

Storms had already dropped more than 10 inches of rain north of Uvalde as of Tuesday, with more heavy rain also falling in parts of Medina, Bandera and Kerr Counties, according to the National Weather Service Austin and San Antonio Office. The Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday was urging people to stay home and reporting on roadways that had flooded. Bandera and Medina County also reported multiple road closures, including on U.S. 90.

Forecasters expected a lull in storm activity before it ramped up again overnight Tuesday into Wednesday morning.

“All areas are kind of saturated now across the Rio Grande, Edwards Plateau and in portions of the western Hill Country and U.S. 90 corridor,” forecaster Jason Runyen said at an afternoon webinar. “Any additional heavy rainfall that occurs is going to run off very, very quickly.”

July 14, 2026, 11:50 p.m.

Counties under flood warning brace for looming overnight deluge

Amid warnings Tuesday night about imminent flooding, South Texas and Hill Country towns braced for river overflows and submerged roadways into Wednesday morning as forecasters estimated rainfall to continue to batter the region.

The National Weather Service late Tuesday noted storms had stalled over Bandera County as well as Uvalde County, where the agency also warned of “swollen” creeks and rivers causing floods. Flash flooding had already been observed in Uvalde and Medina counties, according to their emergency management offices.

Flash flood warnings for Bandera, Medina, Real and Uvalde counties that were scheduled to expire at midnight were extended until 8 a.m. Wednesday. NWS discouraged travel in the affected areas and warned that it expected rainfall at 2 to 4 inches an hour.

Medina County’s Office of Emergency Management warned in a social media post that Seco Creek, which runs through several counties under warnings, was at risk of flooding. The office urged residents to be alert through the night in the event an evacuation was called, and announced five road closures.

The NWS also reduced a warning for Bexar, Comal and Kendall counties to a flood advisory, noting that 2 to 6 inches of rain through the night were still expected.

— Ayden Runnels

July 14, 2026, 7:45 p.m.

New flash flood warnings issued in Hill Country counties

The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for several counties on Tuesday evening as rainfall was expected to worsen through the night.

The warnings issued for parts of Bexar, Comal, Kendall and Real counties include San Antonio International Airport and the Guadalupe River State Park, where NWS warned that “life-threatening” flash flooding was expected or potentially already underway. Warnings for three counties were issued at 6:20 p.m. and are in effect until 11:15 p.m. but may be extended. An additional warning for parts of Bandera and Real counties was issued at 8:15 p.m. with a midnight expiration set.

A portion of Bexar County north of San Antonio was also placed under a brief tornado warning by the NWS that expired at 7:15 p.m.

The new warning adds to two already issued flash flood warnings covering most of Uvalde and Medina counties, scheduled until midnight Wednesday. The City of Uvalde opened a temporary community shelter Tuesday afternoon for those who could potentially be affected by the flooding.

In Edwards County north of Uvalde, the sheriff’s office posted photos of roadways already flooded midday Tuesday, and CNN drone footage of Sabinal showed roads completely covered by the rainfall. Several counties in the affected regions under an NWS flood watch announced road closures in preparation for any flooding occurring through the evening. Texas Game Wardens reported several swiftwater rescues earlier in the day in several South Texas counties including Uvalde.

— Ayden Runnels

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

Ellie Ashby, Emily Foxhall, Terri Langford, Katlyn Ma, Alejandra Martinez, Carlos Nogueras Ramos, Ayden Runnels and Alejandro Santos Cid contributed to this story.

Now those images of the longhaired Messi, his hands covered in soap suds as if anointing Yamal as soccer's Next Big Thing, have become the most talked about — and gawked about — in the runup to Sunday’s World Cup final, when Messi’s Argentina will play Yamal’s Spain for the biggest trophy in the sport.

“I have never been a believer or thought that anything was destined to occur, but I am beginning to have my doubts. This is beyond all reasonable explanations,” Monfort told The Associated Press from his home in Barcelona on Friday.

Monfort, who works as a freelance photojournalist for the AP, took the photos in 2007 as part of a charity calendar produced by local newspaper Sport and UNICEF.

Luck dictated that Yamal’s mother, who appears in the calendar photo, won a raffle of families in the city of Mataró, near Barcelona, who wanted to participate. Soccer destiny then deemed that her baby boy, who would become a star for Barcelona some 15 years later, was paired up with the Argentine who would become one of the greatest of all time.

A tearful Messi left Barcelona in 2021 when the club was in financial trouble. Yamal erupted at the club two years later. The journey is now complete, from bathtub to World Cup final, where the 19-year-old Yamal will face a Messi who is 20 years his senior.

The famous photo was forgotten until ...

Monfort had no recollection of the photos until Yamal’s father posted one on social media during the 2024 European Championship, when a teenage Yamal was enjoying his international breakout and led Spain to the title.

The photo went viral then. But now, with the World Cup final looming, Monfort said, interest in his photos has skyrocketed.

“This has exploded all over the world, and the fact that the final is in the U.S. has given it the extra push,” Monfort said. “And now this has culminated with the final between Messi and Yamal. It is better than any film script.”

Monfort said he has been bombarded by queries for the photos by professional media outlets, while also seeing his images reproduced countless times on social media and the internet without any credit or compensation.

Yamal's Spain teammate Mikel Merino had the same reaction as most people who see the photos.

“The first time I saw it, I thought it was AI and that it wasn’t even real,” Merino said Friday. “It’s unbelievable that two of the best players to have played the game — and hopefully Lamine, in the future, will be one of those — share a picture like that. Hopefully we’re going to see a very bright final with those two protagonists at their best, playing and giving all the fans a great spectacle.”

Barcelona fans are torn by love of both Messi and Yamal

Like many Barcelona fans, Monfort's loyalty is split. It is common to see children wearing both Yamal’s Barcelona and Spain shirts, as well as any Messi shirt, whether from his Barcelona years or Argentina or his current club, Inter Miami, on the city’s streets.

Monfort, 58, is considering traveling to see the final in New Jersey, but whether he watches it in person or at home, he said he will have trouble cheering for one team or the other.

“My heart is split. I don’t know if I want Messi or Yamal to win,” said Monfort, a lifelong Barcelona supporter.

“I have an everlasting love for the best player of all time (Messi),” he said, but “Yamal has broken the mould here” and represents a new, diverse Spain, thanks to his parents from Morocco and Equatorial Guinea. “Maybe they can both win. I wouldn't rule it out after everything we have seen.”

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

Trump used the primetime address to the nation to elevate his yearslong push to raise doubts about the legitimacy of U.S. elections and dispute his 2020 loss — this time, to justify his push to pass a strict voter ID bill. His allegations of interference and influence didn’t include key context. Nor did he produce evidence that votes had been manipulated or that the election outcome had been altered.

Here's the latest:

DHS secretary says ICE hitting arrest records ‘every single day’

Mullin said the department is ramping up enforcement and hitting records for the number of arrests.

“Our arrests are up. We’re hitting single day records every single day,” Mullin said.

Mullin also said the agency deported 442,637 people in 2025 and so far this year has deported 403,294.

“We’re trying to perfect our ability to work with local law enforcement, state law enforcement,” he said.

ICE and DHS do not release regular data related to deportations, arrests and detention, leading to criticism that there’s no way to verify their work.

Unlike his predecessor Kristi Noem, Mullin has attempted to keep a lower profile for immigration enforcement operations. But the recent shooting deaths of two people who were killed by ICE officers during operations has brought the department back into the spotlight.

Trump’s envoy greeted by protests in Venice on latest stop of super yacht diplomacy tour

The billionaire U.S. ambassador to Italy was met by protests when he arrived in Venice on Friday aboard his luxury yacht as part of a coastal diplomacy tour marking the 250th anniversary of American independence.

Hospitality mogul Tilman Fertitta’s arrival represents an unwelcome display of American wealth and influence for many Italians at a time when they see the Trump administration as upending the post-World War II international order.

The so-called Coastal Diplomacy 250 tour of 13 Italian coastal regions on a super yacht is intended to celebrate “our shared history, our economic partnership, and the cultural bonds that make the U.S.-Italy relationship so special,” Fertitta said in a social media post.

In Venice, many of the same groups that protested the wedding last year of Jeff Bezos to Lauren Sanchez are mobilizing against Fertitta’s arrival aboard the 117-meter (384-foot) luxury yacht, Boardwalk, which features two helipads, a pair of swimming pools and a fully equipped spa and gym.

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Mullin won’t comment on ICE shootings and says arrests are up

The Homeland Security secretary said during a news conference that he hadn’t heard about allegations of violent behavior against a deportation officer who shot and killed a Colombian man in Maine earlier this week.

Relatives of the officer told The Associated Press he struggled with serious mental health issues, had a history of violent behavior and never should have been given a badge and gun.

Mullin said the shooting was being investigated and he’d allow the investigation to go forward.

“We understand that it’s being investigated, and we’ll allow the investigation to go through. That’s all I’m going to say about that,” said Mullin.

He wouldn’t comment on whether the officer was on leave but said that was standard practice in the aftermath of any shooting.

DHS secretary pledges to aggressively chase voter fraud cases

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said if anyone votes illegally in the upcoming midterm elections, “we will hunt you down, we will find you and we will prosecute you.”

In a White House briefing doubling down on Trump’s primetime election claims, Mullin also threatened fines, penalties or prison time for state election officials who refuse to hand over sensitive voter data to DHS.

He said states that don’t elect to use DHS’s recently updated tool for identifying noncitizen voters, will become “a priority” for investigations.

The comments come as a federal judge has blocked the use of DHS’s updated system, citing voter privacy and the fact that it can result in the wrongful purging of eligible voters.

Why American elections are so complicated — and secure

In his speech to the nation Thursday evening, President Trump said Americans deserve secure elections, and he claimed to be using federal authority to prevent them from being “stolen.”

In fact, one of the strongest security features of U.S. elections is the fact that they aren’t conducted at the federal level. America votes in more than 10,000 different election jurisdictions, each with different rules set by state and sometimes local governments.

That structure makes the nation’s elections extraordinarily complicated — and also safe from widespread fraud. And when misconduct does happen — rarely — security protocols frequently catch it.

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ICE has seen a surge in new hires

In January, Homeland Security said it had hired 12,000 new officers and agents since the hiring surge began and said thousands of those new officers were already out on the streets assisting with investigations. The number includes both deportation officers and agents for Homeland Security Investigations, a separate agency that falls under ICE.

ICE has said the majority of new hires are police and military veterans. But evidence has been mounting that applicants with questionable histories were either not fully vetted before they were brought on or were hired in spite of their past, an investigation by The Associated Press earlier this year found.

Maine shooting and officer’s background raise new questions about ICE’s rapid hiring

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been rapidly expanding its workforce, hiring thousands of new officers as part of the Trump administration’s attempt to ramp up immigration arrests and deportations.

The supersizing of ICE — fueled by an infusion of billions of dollars granted by Congress — has raised concerns about the agency’s hiring practices and whether officers being brought on are receiving proper vetting. Those concerns have been rejected by the Department of Homeland Security.

Relatives of the ICE officer who shot a Colombian man in Maine this week told The Associated Press he struggled with serious mental health issues since early childhood and never should have been given a badge and gun to patrol American streets.

▶ Read more

Lawmakers demand answers after ‘bombshell’ report of ICE officer shooting in Maine

Democratic members of Congress demanded answers about Homeland Security’s vetting and training of immigration enforcement agents after it was disclosed Thursday that the ICE officer involved in a deadly shooting this week in Maine had a history of mental health issues and violent behavior.

The Associated Press reported that David Brouillette, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who shot a Colombian man in Maine, is an Army veteran who’s struggled with serious mental health issues since early childhood, according to several of his close relatives.

The AP reached out to congressional leaders and several key lawmakers of both parties for response.

The top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, said Brouillette’s history of violence and mental health issues, as well as the death in Maine, “directly call into question the supposed vetting and training ICE does of its recruits.”

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To air or not to air? Nation’s TV networks struggle to find the right balance for Trump speech

As President Trump threatened sanctions for those who didn’t cover his address live Thursday night, the nation’s broadcast and cable news operations wrestled with the thorniest of questions: To air or not to air?

Networks and their news operations, broadcast and cable alike, spent the hours leading up to Trump’s address debating how to cover it — and struggling to balance delivering the news with handing over their airwaves to potential falsehoods about the 2020 elections.

In the end, a patchwork quilt of coverage was largely united by one common strategy: real-time fact-checking as much as was possible even while the president was still speaking.

The dilemma took place against a backdrop of deep tension between the media and a president working to exert control over it by whatever means he can. Even in his speech itself, Trump excoriated networks that chose not to carry it live.

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Rubio set for Asia trip

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is heading to the Philippines next week to attend meetings with foreign ministers at a gathering of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN.

The State Department says Rubio is going to meet with his counterparts and senior officials from governments in the region as he pushes for a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Rubio is scheduled to leave for Manila on Sunday and head back to the U.S. on Thursday.

China rejects Trump’s election interference claim as ‘groundless accusations’

China on Friday said it has never interfered in U.S. elections and has no interest in doing so, urging Washington to stop making what it described as “groundless accusations” after President Trump accused Beijing of meddling in the 2020 election.

In an address to the nation Thursday, Trump again raised doubts about the U.S. elections results in 2020 and accused China of interfering in them.

“The relevant allegations by the U.S. are entirely fabricated and aimed at vilifying China,” said China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian. “We have no interest in interfering in US elections and have never done so.”

In a daily briefing in Beijing, Lin called on the U.S. to stop making groundless accusations against China.

▶ Read more

Former intelligence official calls Trump’s address ‘dangerous’

Sue Gordon, principal deputy director of national intelligence in Trump’s first term, called the president’s address “a dangerous speech about an incredibly important topic.” She said the intelligence community throughout Trump’s first term was alarmed about foreign interference in elections, but Trump scoffed at them, angered at the investigation of his campaign’s relationship with Russia.

“He had an entire term to deal with it and I don’t know how you can believe how the same community that told him about it, that was excoriated about it” wouldn’t warn him in 2020, Gordon said on CNN.

Conservative commentator John Solomon, who joined the White House staff last month and was seated in the East Room for Trump’s speech, later told MS NOW “the intelligence community has zero evidence that someone has flipped — that a foreign power flipped — a vote in 2020, ’22 or ’24.”

But, he added, “We’re not through all the documents.”

Trump doesn’t raise doubts about his election wins

President Donald Trump began Thursday night with a stark warning about what he described as flaws in the voting system and said he was releasing previously classified documents related to the 2020 and 2018 elections, when he lost the presidential election and when his party suffered losses.

Trump’s speech presented allegations of interference and influence in ways that lacked key context and did not produce evidence that votes had been manipulated or that the election outcome had been altered.

Notably, he focused on China but glossed over Russia, a country intelligence officials have said favored Trump in 2016 and 2020 and engaged in wide-ranging influence campaigns aimed at boosting him over Democrat Joe Biden in the latter campaign.

Trump’s Thursday night address hinged on contradictions

A twice-elected president complained about his one personal defeat, alleged a cover-up by officials in his own first administration and surfaced claims about countries attempting to harm his own prospects while staying silent on steps taken by other nations to boost him.

Trump used the remarks to justify his push to pass a strict voter ID bill in Congress that hasn’t advanced because it lacks enough support from his fellow Republicans.

“America is back and doing really well, but we still have a major challenge that must be urgently addressed, because no country can be great without fair and honest elections,” he said.

The man was arrested Thursday morning inside 30 Rockefeller Center in Midtown by an officer responding to reports of a disorderly individual inside the building, police said Friday.

NBC News says in a statement that an individual approached Melvin after entering an unauthorized area in a vestibule near Studio 1A. Melvin notified security, who held the man until police arrived, according to NBC.

No altercation occurred and no injuries were reported. NBC did not say how the man gained access to the area.

“We are reviewing the incident and our security protocols and remain committed to providing a safe and secure environment for everyone who works at and visits our studios,” the network said in a statement.

The man has been charged with burglary, menacing and criminal trespass as hate crimes, as well as harassment. It was not clear Friday if has appeared in court or if he has an attorney.

Police did not say what led to the hate crime enhancements on the charges. Police records show a court date has been scheduled for Wednesday.

Melvin, who is Black, discussed the incident on-air Friday morning.

“Unfortunately, an intruder made his way into an unauthorized area here at Studio 1A,” Melvin said. “Thankfully, he was apprehended quickly. He was placed under arrest. We are just very happy that everyone is safe.”

Melvin also posted about the incident on Instagram.

“Hey everyone. I’ve heard from so many of you over the last few hours,” he wrote on Thursday. “I’m doing just fine. Thanks for reaching out."

Longtime “Today" show meteorologist Al Roker also took to social media to thank everyone reaching out to check on Melvin.

“We are both okay,” Roker posted on Instagram. “It’s moments like these that serve to pull us together. You all, like Craig, said ‘You come after one of us, you come after all of us.’”

Melvin and Roker are among a relatively small group of prominent Black journalists and anchors with regular, highly visible roles on national broadcast network news programs.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention late Thursday warned consumers not to eat shredded iceberg lettuce from Taco Bell restaurants in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia. A record number of cyclospora cases have been reported in more than 30 states, and experts have said not every recent U.S. illness might be caused by a single source.

A Food and Drug Administration investigation identified a single supplier of the lettuce. The federal warnings to consumers did not identify the company, but a federal official who was briefed on the investigation and not authorized to discuss it told The Associated Press it was Taylor Farms of Salinas, California.

Taylor Farms, which has been tied to foodborne outbreaks in the past, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“FDA is working with the supplier of iceberg lettuce to determine if potentially contaminated shredded iceberg lettuce remains on the market,” including in other states, the CDC said. “Taco Bell has committed to stop using any lettuce from the supplier identified by FDA’s traceback investigation.”

In a statement, federal health officials stressed that other “brands, restaurants, retailers, or distribution channels” could be identified as the investigation continues.

CDC, FDA and public health officials in several states have been investigating a multistate outbreak of cyclospora infections.

More than 30 states have reported infections this year, and current data from them shows the number of infections surpassing the record U.S. mark of about 4,700 set in 2019. The illness is not usually life threatening and is typically treated with antibiotics.

On Tuesday, ahead of the federal government’s confirmation, Taco Bell issued a statement saying it had “voluntarily and temporarily removed limited ingredients at select restaurants as a precautionary measure. We will continue to closely monitor the situation and follow the guidance of public health authorities.”

Cyclospora is a microscopic, spherical parasite that commonly causes watery diarrhea “with frequent and sometimes explosive bowel movements,” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Outbreaks tend to occur most often in the late spring and summer.

The heat-loving parasite infects the bowels and spreads through feces. In the past, people have been infected by consuming fruits or vegetables that were exposed to feces-contaminated irrigation water.

The illness, called cyclosporiasis, is less common than foodborne illnesses caused by other germs, including salmonella and E. coli. Many cases are never linked to a specific food or other source and, for years, few U.S. cyclospora outbreaks were reported. But the number started rising about a decade ago, with a particularly notable spike in 2018 and 2019.

Experts say it’s likely that cyclospora cases historically were underreported, in part because some common tests used to check for food poisoning have not been geared to detect cyclospora. They attribute the increasing trend in cases to climate change and better detection.

Taylor Farms also was tied to a 2013 cyclosporiasis outbreak linked to salad mix and a 2024 E. coli outbreak tied to onions served at McDonald’s.

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Stobbe reported from New York.

Herbert bent over with hands on his knees after missing a 5-foot par putt on the 18th hole at Royal Birkdale, knowing the 30-year-old Australian was an inch away from being the first man with a 61. Burns wasn't even aware of the record when he holed a bunker shot to cap a birdie-birdie-birdie finish.

“I'm absolutely disappointed, and at the same time, so proud of today,” Herbert said. "Very, very proud to put my name on that list of guys that have shot 62 in a major championship. So it's kind of holding two emotions there at the same time.

“It's a pretty good problem to have, too, to be disappointed you shot 62.”

Most remarkable about Burns is that the 29-year-old American — the runner-up at the U.S. Open last month — wasn't even planning to play in The Open. His wife was due this week, and when she gave birth to a daughter earlier than expected, Burns decided a week ago Friday to make the trip.

Still steaming from a bogey-bogey-bogey finish on Thursday for a 3-over 73, his goal was to get back under par and keep his hopes alive in the championship.

“The finish there the last three holes was just a bonus,” Burns said.

And what a finish. He holed from 40 feet off the green at the 16th for birdie, made a 20-foot birdie putt on the 17th and then made the first birdie of the day on the tough 18th by splashing out of the pot bunker and calmly raising his right arm when it went in.

“It was a tricky bunker shot because I had to land it in the fringe there and use the slope down to the hole. Definitely very lucky for it to go in,” Burns said.

That two record-tying rounds happened so close together was reminiscent of Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele — also two groups apart — each with 62 in the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club in 2023.

The record was first set by Branden Grace in 2017, also at Royal Birkdale. It had been matched four times since then at two majors — Schauffele and Fowler at the U.S. Open, and Schauffele and Shane Lowry at 9-under 62 in the 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla.

The amazing rounds came one week after Haeran Ryu set the women’s major record with a 60 at the Evian Championship in France, where all lowest scores in LPGA majors have been set.

Herbert's round was simply flawless until the final hole. A self-described golf nerd, he allowed himself a thought about a record score on a par-70 links after three straight birdies to start the round. And the birdies kept coming until he was 8 under through 12 holes, with the two reachable par 5s still to play.

“I might not play 12 better holes in my life,” he said.

Herbert was a foot away from a mid-iron into the par-5 14th, but it just caught a pot bunker, and he had to save par from a greenside bunker. But he holed a 7-foot birdie putt on the 16th to reach 9 under, and he missed a 10-foot birdie attempt on the par-5 17th.

He went into the right rough off the 18th tee, came up short of the green and from 50 feet away on the baked fairway, Herbert rolled it some 5 feet short of the hole. The putt looked left of the cup from the moment it left his putter.

“I didn’t hit a bad putt. I can at least sleep easy tonight knowing I didn’t hit a bad putt,” Herbert said. “I just misread it. It’s pretty tough when you’ve got a putt for the major championship record to get everything to work and to get everything to sync perfectly still and straight.”

Three of the seven rounds of 62 have come at Royal Birkdale, and weather played a role. There was a breeze for so much of the morning, and players took aim. Eric Cole was first out with a 64. Patrick Reed (66) reached 6 under through 12 holes before he slowed.

“It’s pretty benign, and if you were ever going to do it, this was the morning for it,” said Herbert, who now plays on LIV Golf and has won on five tours. “These guys are good. I’m probably not as surprised as you think that there’s another 62 out there. I’m probably more surprised at myself shooting 62, to be honest.”

Of the seven rounds of 62 in the majors, Schauffele at the PGA Championship is the only one to leave with the trophy.

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

What struck Le then, and amazes him still, is Pannakara’s iron-clad determination.

“When he decides to do something, he goes all the way,” said Le, secretary of the temple — the Huong Dao Vipassana Bhavana Center in Fort Worth. “He’s never been afraid of obstacles. He always finds a way through them.”

That indomitable will was in full display during the meditative Walk for Peace that Pannakara led earlier this year with an international group of monks and his rescue dog, Aloka, who has become a mascot for the movement. The 2,300-mile (3,700-kilometer) journey started in Fort Worth on Oct. 26 and ended in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 14.

An ascetic walks into the spotlight

Pannakara’s discourses on mindfulness and kindness in churchyards, town squares and in front of the Lincoln Memorial drew large, diverse crowds. Millions worldwide followed along online.

Within weeks, the Walk for Peace had propelled this obscure monk into the spotlight as a leading voice for inner peace and unity in an increasingly divided nation. His popularity continues to soar, with some drawing comparisons with the Dalai Lama, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the late Thich Nhat Hanh, a revered Zen master and peace activist who shared Pannakara’s Vietnamese roots.

Pannakara, who traveled to Southern California last weekend with Aloka for several speaking engagements, said he doesn’t care for all the attention.

“There is no fame for monks,” he said. “I made a vow to walk to raise awareness of peace, loving kindness and compassion. That’s what it’s about.”

As part of his Theravada Buddhist practice, he follows “Vinaya” — a strict code of monastic rules. That means no social media accounts, personal possessions or handling money, and the practice of celibacy and modesty.

He doesn't eat after noon and, according to Le, sleeps sitting up, which is not mandatory for Theravada monks, but adopted by some as an ascetic practice to deepen mindfulness.

The pivot from engineer to monk

Pannakara was born in Dak Lak, Vietnam, in 1981, the youngest of 10 children. He says his family was Buddhist in “name only.” He immigrated to the U.S. in 1997 and graduated with a degree in information technology from the University of Texas at Arlington. He said his first exposure to Buddhism was in the U.S. through temple summer camps and youth leadership.

Pannakara stepped away from his engineering career to become a novice monk and became fully ordained in 2010 by his teacher, the Most Venerable Ratanaguna, who he has often cited as his source of inspiration. There was not one life-changing event that prompted his decision, he said, but the cumulative effect of seeing his loved ones suffer and people trying to step on each other to move up.

“To me everything just seemed fake,” he said.

Le recalls that Pannakara’s parents were inconsolable.

“Even on the day he was ordained, his mother came, and she cried a lot,” he said, adding that they eventually accepted it.

Le said Pannakara was a quick learner, completing several projects on their campus including landscaping, a new kitchen, homes for the monastics and a memorial hall for deceased members.

At his teacher’s direction, Pannakara traveled to Myanmar between 2018 and 2020 to study and practice Vipassana meditation, an ancient technique taught by the Buddha himself as core for attaining enlightenment. When COVID hit, he returned to Fort Worth and organized food drives, said Amanda Phan, a temple member.

“(Pannakara) is a rare human being,” she said. “He is an embodiment of kindness, compassion, wisdom — a bodhisattva — a being whose purpose is to relieve others from their suffering.”

Transformative journey tracing the Buddha's steps

In late 2022, Pannakara joined about 100 monks in a 2,100-mile (3,380-kilometer), 112-day pilgrimage tracing the footsteps of the Buddha — from his birthplace in Lumbini, Nepal, to Bodh Gaya where he attained enlightenment; Sarnath, the site of the first sermon; and Kushinagar, where he died. The monks emulated Buddha's journey — walking barefoot, eating one meal a day, and sleeping under the stars.

“I had learned the Buddha’s teachings from the Tipitaka (Buddhist canon),” Pannakara said. “But with this walk, I experienced it.”

He also learned about himself — about his strength to bear adversity and pain.

“I learned that we can do much more than we think we’re capable of,” he said.

That journey also brought Aloka into his life. Aloka means light in Pali.

“Even when he faced challenges and almost died he walked with us,” Pannakara said of his dog.

It was on a previous trip to Bodh Gaya — under the Bodhi tree where the Buddha attained enlightenment — that Pannakara said he had a vision to build stone stupas to preserve the sacred teachings for generations to come. Seven years later, he told Ratanaguna about his desire. With his teacher’s blessing, the plan for the $200-million Dhammacetiya project was born — 840 stupas bearing Buddha’s teachings in 10 languages, built to last 4,000 years.

Pannakara knelt before an assembly of monastics and visitors during the temple’s 2022 International Vesak Ceremony and vowed that if he is unable to complete the project in this lifetime, he would “be reborn to continue this project until its completion.” This project and the peace walks — which he plans to do more of — together uphold his vow to promote peace and preserve the Buddha’s teachings, he said.

Ajahn Nisabho, a Seattle-based Theravada Buddhist monk, said he was moved by Pannakara's authenticity and commitment.

“The story of his quilted robe that he stitched it together from pieces of cloth he picked up during the walk in India — he was honoring that past and that ethos,” Nisabho said. “As a fellow monk, it was inspiring for me to see floods of people walking behind him during the peace walk.”

A conscious decision to steer clear of politics

The Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi, a senior Theravada monk who spoke at the conclusion of the Walk for Peace in Washington, said Pannakara was wise to remain silent on politics during his walk. But Bodhi, 81, hopes he does speak up on critical social issues like poverty, hunger, housing and the climate.

“I just hope that as (Pannakara) becomes more established and gets accustomed to publicity, he’ll consider taking a stand on these issues that have deep moral and spiritual significance,” he said.

Nisabho believes Pannakara made the right decision to steer clear of politics and activism. He said there are not many spaces today that are able to welcome the kind of diversity the peace walk attracted — with the exception of Dolly Parton “who brings truckers and drag queens together.”

“The vision of a monastic is the one chance someone has, to be inspired toward awakening and find an escape from suffering,” Nisabho said. “If you bring politics into that, you cause damage by alienating half the country.”

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

The Awda Hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp confirmed the number of casualties, saying people were struck at the funeral for a Palestinian killed in a strike earlier on Friday.

Israel and the Hamas militant group agreed to a ceasefire deal in October aimed at halting a two-year-long war.

The heaviest fighting has subsided but at least 1,123 people have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire took effect, according to the territory’s Health Ministry.

The ministry, which has been 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 but says women and children make up most of the dead.

Militants have carried out shooting attacks on troops, and Israel says its strikes are in response to that and other violations. Five Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire.

The war began after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killed around 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage. Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed more than 73,264 Palestinians, including those killed since the ceasefire, Gaza’s Health Ministry said.

Work Location: On-site (Detroit, Roanoke, Orlando)

Position Overview

The Digital Revenue Accelerator (DRA) is a high-impact role designed to drive digital revenue growth and position Graham Media Group as a market leader in digital advertising solutions. As the station’s digital sales authority, the DRA partners with local sales teams to identify untapped opportunities, craft innovative client-centric strategies, and close high-value, multi-platform deals. This role demands a competitive mindset, a deep understanding of the digital advertising landscape, and the ability to accelerate revenue growth through strategic execution and collaboration.

Key Responsibilities

• Revenue Growth Leadership: Collaborate with Account Executives to identify, strategize, and close new digital revenue opportunities with both existing and prospective clients.
• Innovative Strategy Development: Design and implement cutting-edge, multi-platform strategies leveraging GMG’s digital product suite and vendor partnerships to deliver measurable results.
• Client-Centric Solutions: Lead digital discovery sessions, develop compelling proposals, and deliver persuasive client presentations to secure high-value deals.
• Competitive Edge: Maintain a deep understanding of the competitive landscape, emerging advertising technologies, and market trends to position GMG as a leader in digital solutions.
• Training and Enablement: Provide advanced digital education and training to local sales teams, empowering them to confidently pitch and execute digital solutions.
• Performance Optimization: Collaborate with the Director of Digital Sales and vendors to refine product offerings, set ambitious campaign goals, and ensure optimal performance outcomes.
• Data-Driven Insights: Track, analyze, and forecast digital sales performance, delivering actionable insights to drive continuous improvement and revenue acceleration.
• Relationship Building: Foster strong, long-term relationships with clients and internal teams to ensure alignment and sustained success.

Qualifications

• Proven Expertise: Minimum of 3 years of experience in digital media sales or strategy, preferably within a broadcast or media company.
• Strategic Mindset: Demonstrated ability to develop and execute innovative, results-driven digital strategies.
• Competitive Drive: Strong understanding of digital advertising platforms, targeting, analytics, and emerging technologies.
• Exceptional Communication: Outstanding presentation and interpersonal skills, with a proven ability to influence and inspire both internal teams and external clients.
• Track Record of Success: Consistent achievement of or exceeding revenue goals in a fast-paced, competitive environment.
• Collaborative Leadership: Ability to work seamlessly across teams and departments, driving alignment and shared success.

Preferred Attributes

- Competitive mindset with a focus on achieving and exceeding goals.

- Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to adapt to changing market dynamics.

- Experience in developing marketing solutions tailored to client needs, rather than selling pre-packaged offerings.

- Deep understanding of consumer behavior and retail dynamics to craft impactful strategies.

Additional Information:

Graham Media Group is an Equal Opportunity Employer. In addition to complying with the requirements of federal law, GMG will comply with applicable state and local laws prohibiting employment discrimination. Any offer of employment is conditional upon the successful completion of a pre-employment drug screening, investigative background check, employment/education verifications and reference checks.

Contact:

careers@grahammedia.com

Iran launched missiles into U.S.-allied nations in the Middle East, including Qatar, a mediator in the war, and Kuwait, where one of the desert nation's water desalination plants was damaged.

The interim ceasefire agreed to last month has collapsed — though efforts remain to salvage it — and the region has endured days of back-and-forth attacks by the U.S. and Iran as they battle for control of the strait vital to world energy supplies.

Iranian officials say recent U.S. strikes have killed dozens of people and wounded hundreds, with new casualties reported Friday.

When the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Iran on Feb. 28, Tehran effectively closed the strait to shipping traffic, a move that sent the price of oil soaring and gave Iran major leverage in negotiations. Crossings through the strait have fallen to a three-week low, according to an international shipping tracker, and the price of oil rose Friday above $86 a barrel, close to its highest level in a month.

In an address to the American public on Thursday, Trump insisted the war was going well. “We are likewise winning big in Iran, and you will see the fruits of that labor very, very shortly,” he said.

Before the war began, the U.S. had been in talks with Iran over its nuclear program. Trump now faces political pressure to bring the war to a close and avoid the kind of prolonged Middle East conflict he had campaigned against.

Bridges and 'electrical infrastructure' hit in Iran

The U.S. airstrikes hit bridges overnight into Friday in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province, killing at least seven people, Iranian state television reported. The attacks hit Bandar Khamir, a city on Iran’s coast on the Strait of Hormuz.

The highway and railway bridge strikes appeared aimed at cutting off Bandar Abbas, Iran’s main port, from roads leading into the Islamic Republic’s central region onward to Tehran, the capital.

While other routes still are open, the U.S. strikes could expand further, potentially disrupting both the movement of military materiel and goods needed for Iran’s 90 million people.

Iran acknowledged “attacks on power infrastructure” during the U.S. airstrike campaign for the first time Friday when its Energy Ministry issued a call for people to use less power in southern provinces "experiencing extreme heat.” The ministry did not say whether it was power plants, transmission lines or other equipment that had been attacked.

Tower at key port collapses in US strike

The U.S. military’s Central Command said it hit dozens of targets in its latest airstrikes, which concluded at dawn Friday, after the sixth night in a row of American attacks.

The strikes collapsed a tower at Iran’s Chabahar port on the Gulf of Oman, a key trade route for landlocked, neighboring Afghanistan, the state-run IRNA news agency reported and the U.S. military later confirmed.

Chabahar port, which Iran had been running with support from India, has been a repeated target of American airstrikes.

Iran said the tower oversees commercial traffic into the port. But Central Command said it was part of a maritime surveillance network used by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard to “track and target” commercial vessels in the strait.

“The destruction of the tower directly degrades (the paramilitary's) ability to coordinate attacks on innocent civilian crew members,” Central Command said in a social media post Friday morning.

As of 6 a.m. Friday, the U.S. strikes had killed at least 38 people and wounded more than 400 in Iran, Health Ministry spokesperson Hossein Kermanpour said.

Iran retaliates by targeting Qatar, a mediator in the war

On Friday, Qatar twice warned the public to take shelter as a barrage of Iranian missiles targeted the nation. People heard explosions overhead as air defenses fired to intercept the missiles. Qatar’s Interior Ministry said falling debris wounded a child.

Qatar, along with Pakistan, is a key mediator in trying to reach an end to the Iran war.

Iran also targeted Bahrain and Kuwait early Friday. In Kuwait, authorities said Iran attacked a power and water desalination plant, causing widespread damage to the station. About 90% of the country's drinking water comes from desalination.

Kuwait said it extinguished the blaze and was working to assess the damage and get the station working again.

Jordan's military said it intercepted three incoming missiles Friday morning launched by Iran.

Explosions also could be heard Friday morning in Irbil and Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region as air defenses targeted incoming fire. The attack apparently targeted the Iranian Kurdish dissident group Komala, killing at least nine people and wounding others, said an official who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

Iran did not immediately claim the attack but has targeted Komala in the past.

Also on Friday, a tanker came under attack traveling through the Strait of Hormuz taking the route closest to Oman, the British military said.

The report from the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said the ship sustained minor damage without any of its crew being injured.

Iran did not immediately acknowledge any attack. In recent days, it has openly targeted ships using the route, which is overseen by the U.S. military and intended to be outside of Tehran’s control.

Strikes come as Iran and US vie for Strait of Hormuz

Iran has said the strait must be under its sole control and that vessels should pay fees to Tehran — even though the world for decades has considered it an international waterway.

Trump has returned in recent days to his threats to target Iranian power stations and bridges to try to compel Iran to loosen its hold on the strait, through which about a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded once passed in peacetime. The U.S. also reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports to halt its shipments of crude oil.

Crossings through the strait fell to a three-week low of just eight vessels on Thursday, according to MarineTraffic.com. It said seven of the vessels used a route operated by Iran and none used the route closest to Oman.

A growing amount of the region’s energy is being shipped through pipelines, but not nearly enough to offset the decline in shipping through the strait.

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Associated Press writers Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, Annika Wolters in Rayong, Thailand, and Stella Martany in Irbil, Iraq, contributed to this report.

Whether you're hoping Argentina will become the first repeat champion since Brazil in 1958 and 1962, or that young superstar Lamine Yamal will score for Spain, everyone's a winner across these 10 tracks.

Read on below and then stream the full playlist on Spotify, here.

“Dai Dai,” Shakira and Burna Boy (2026)

Kick off your World Cup final listening party with this year's official anthem: “Dai Dai” from Colombian superstar Shakira and Afrobeats icon Burna Boy. The song is the perfect intersection of their musical languages, Afrobeats and Latin rhythms, on an undeniably global, multilingual track. After the first chorus, they take turns tackling verses, singing back and forth, before joining in a duet. It's a message of unity and victory. Take it from Shakira herself: “Fútbol is a thing that unites so many cultures and people of different walks of life,” she told the AP. “The big responsibility of making a World Cup song is that you’ve got to make a song that represents people’s feelings, emotions, and passion.”

“DNA (More Than A Game),” Andrea Bocelli, David Guetta, EJAE and Megan Thee Stallion (2026)

You read that artist list correctly. On this World Cup song, tenor Andrea Bocelli, EDM star David Guetta, singer-songwriter EJAE from “KPop Demon Hunters” and rapper Megan Thee Stallion team up for the genre-agnostic “DNA (More Than A Game).” Performed in English, Italian and Korean, it's surprisingly anthemic and has a strong empowerment message. “’Cause it’s more than just a game / it’s our DNA,” Bocelli and EJAE harmonize on the chorus.

“It's a kind of music very, very far from the scores that I’m used to performing in general, but sometimes it’s very nice to do something different and to discover new atmospheres,” Bocelli told the AP. “It's very happy, the song. I think it gives happiness.” That it does.

“La Copa de la Vida (The Cup of Life),” Ricky Martin (1998)

A Spanglish global smash and one of the most addictive World Cup anthems of all time, Puerto Rican superstar Ricky Martin was really onto something when he released “La Copa de la Vida (The Cup of Life)” for the 1998 tournament held in France. It is the standard to which all World Cup anthems should be held — from its unmistakable soccer themes to its multilingual mambo-pop, unyielding horns section and Eurodance-club intensity. Ale, ale, ale!

“Despechá,” Rosalía (2022)

Supporters of Spain are more than familiar with this up-tempo, merengue-pop tune — it has become a celebratory track for the team upon victory, played after they score and post-match. And now that the 2010 World Cup champions are in the final, it's not unlikely it's played out loud on stadium speakers again. It's a cool pick from a team with swagger — and fitting for this playlist.

“Mi Gran Noche,” Raphael (1967)

The legendary Spanish singer Raphael is central to celebrations in the country this World Cup season. “Mi Gran Noche” is just one gem in his treasure trove of hits — a '60s Latin pop classic with intergenerational appeal, played in clubs, bars, football clubs, on the radio and television specials and beyond. There’s a reason it has stood the test of time, with its big band brass and cheerful chorus.

“La Roja Baila,” Sergio Ramos, Niña Pastori and RedOne (2016)

What do you get when you combine Spanish footballer Sergio Ramos, flamenco-pop singer Niña Pastori and Moroccan record producer RedOne (known for his work with Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez and many more)? “La Roja Baila,” the Spanish team's official anthem for the 2016 European Championship. (It translates to “The Red One Dances,” a reference to the team's nickname, La Roja.) The results that year weren't in Spain's favor, but that's no reason to stop chanting along to the song's cheery post-chorus: “España ey ey! / Cantamos gol, gol / España ey ey! / La Roja baila.” (“Spain, hey hey! / We sing goal, goal! / Spain, hey hey! / La Roja dances!”)

“La Cumbia de los Trapos,” Yerba Brava (2000)

It was Argentina's signature song in 2022, when they won in Qatar, and it has been their statement track this tournament, too. Argentine band Yerba Brava's 2000 hit “La Cumbia de los Trapos” was written as a soccer anthem, and a soccer anthem it has remained. It's a high-energy cumbia with a title that directly references “los trapos,” or “the rags” — the flags flown in Argentine stadiums.

“Matador,” Los Fabulosos Cadillacs (1993, remastered 2008)

Ska-samba-reggae-rock group Los Fabulosos Cadillacs' “Matador” is heard when Argentina scores. The hit — with its Afro-Argentine candombe rhythms, big brass and chant-along chorus — is undeniably spirited. On first listen, it's an upbeat party record. On closer inspection, it's an indictment of the late-'70s and early-'80s period of dictatorship in Argentina.

“Dumbai,” Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso (2024)

The Argentine duo of Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso is making some of the most exciting music in the modern mainstream. Call it genre-averse, hook-heavy Latin pop with trance and trap beats atop tropical rhythms performed through an absurdist, comedic lens — that is, if you have to call it anything. “Dumbai” is arguably one of their more reserved tracks but still a fun romp about a fun night out.

“Waka Waka (This Time for Africa),” Shakira featuring Freshlyground (2010)

No such playlist would be complete without the greatest World Cup anthem committed to record: “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa),” also courtesy Shakira. It was the official anthem of the 2010 World Cup held in South Africa and featured the South African band Freshlyground. The song, with its soca-influenced beat and reference to the 1986 song “Zangaléwa,” recorded by Cameroonian band Golden Sounds, manages to do what all World Cup songs should: Take local sounds and make them global, all without sacrificing hook and rhythm. It's an earworm with a capital “E.”

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

Through DNA testing and old-fashioned sleuthing, the Maryland teenager who died in one of the last big battles of the American Revolution can now take his place in history, just in time for the 250th birthday of the nation he fought to create.

“There was a sense of divine timing, I guess,” said Allison Peacock, founder of FHD Forensics, a company that helped with the search. “I don’t know what else you want to call it.”

Pumphrey died Aug. 16, 1780, at the Battle of Camden, South Carolina. It was one of the Continental Army’s most devastating defeats, where British Gen. Charles Lord Cornwallis routed patriot forces under Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates.

Many of the 900 killed were left where they fell, abandoned to the predations of wild animals, South Carolina’s scorching heat and its ruinous humidity.

Bones emerge from a Revolutionary War battlefield

Archaeologists surveying the area in 2020 came across human bones protruding from the ground. Eventually, 14 sets of remains were identified — 12 of them Continental soldiers. The others were determined to be connected to the British side and were reburied at the battlefield.

The Richland County Coroner’s Office had worked with Texas-based FHD Forensics on modern-day cases and asked for their help. Peacock took to calling it the case of “America’s oldest John Doe.”

“What we did is pretty much the same as what we do with any other John Doe case,” she said. “Nobody really knew for sure whether we could get genetic profiles suitable for a genealogy investigation on 240-plus-year-old remains. But we got lucky.”

Unlike most, Pumphrey and four comrades received a cursory burial beneath a thin layer of dirt. He was dubbed “Camden 9B,” because his were the second set of remains retrieved from burial nine. The remains were examined and cataloged.

The 12 Continentals were later reinterred with full military honors. Camden 9B’s headstone read: “UNKNOWN. REV WAR. BATTLE OF CAMDEN. AUG 16 1780.”

DNA unlocks a centuries-old mystery

Meanwhile, samples from two of the soldiers were sent to Astrea Forensics in California for DNA extraction and sequencing.

“Typically, in a case like this, we work with teeth, because teeth are in the jaw and are protected, the roots are protected,” said Peacock. “In this case, they were just coming up with nothing on the teeth.”

With remains this old, it's often difficult to separate the human DNA from all the other genetic material in the grave, said Astrea co-founder and scientific adviser Kelly Harkins Kincaid.

“It gets colonized by the microbial environment in the soil and the water in the environment,” she said.

Although she's worked with DNA samples as old as 10,000 years, this was the oldest sample her company has ever used to try to reconstruct a family tree.

From a petrous portion of the temporal bone, a delicate structure behind the ear at the base of the skull, they successfully extracted DNA that generated Pumphrey's entire genome. Peacock’s team then uploaded the data to FamilyTreeDNA and GEDmatch to trace three types of DNA matches: autosomal, X chromosome and Y chromosome.

“We got 20,000 matches to work with,” she said. “So, it was a lot to kind of comb through.”

An orphan soldier's life comes into focus

One of those matches, from the maternal line, was Russ Hudson.

The retired federal agent in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, offered to help do archival research. A profile began to emerge of a young orphan from Maryland’s Anne Arundel County, dispossessed and looking for his way in life.

“I learned that probably when he was 13, he went to Baltimore and he enlisted in the militia,” Hudson said. “And who knows what his story was? What did he accomplish in order to become a member of the militia at such a young age?”

Because no birth record has been found, it’s unclear how old Pumphrey was when he went to war. He signed his reenlistment papers with an “X.” But he was young enough that, when he died, the growth plates around his knees had not yet fully closed, Peacock said.

A witness to history

Researchers now know Pumphrey and his comrades from the 7th Maryland Regiment were with George Washington in the snows at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Peacock said his unit was involved in some of the major contests in the Northern Theater, including the battles of Brandywine, Germantown and Monmouth.

She figures he had marched 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) before he met his end in the pinelands of South Carolina.

“We don’t really know what John Pumphrey’s cause of death was because they did not find a particular injury on his body,” she said. “It’s possible that he had a soft tissue injury, like a bayonet injury, but it’s a little hard to tell after 246 years.”

An unexpected twist and an emotional reunion

Work continues on the other set of remains, Camden 11A. One thing is certain: Peacock is related to him.

“One of the first things I do when I take on a case is I run my DNA against the remains to see if it’s somebody I’m related to, just on the wild chance that it might be,” she said. “It’s never happened before, but I am related to Camden 11A. So, I’m very motivated to get him identified.”

Last month, Peacock was confident enough in the research to put a name to Camden 9B. Relatives wept during an emotional ceremony at the 19th-century Benson-Hammond House in Anne Arundel County.

“The fact that some archaeologists just happened to stumble on bones that were protruding from the earth, and knowing that it would be difficult to identify those people by DNA, I just found it really exciting,” Becky Berman of Daytona Beach, Florida, Pumphrey’s first cousin, several times removed, told The Associated Press.

For Hudson, the retired federal agent, the story won’t be over until the U.S. government confirms the research and replaces his fifth great-uncle’s “UNKNOWN” gravestone. He said America owes it to John Pumphrey.

“He sacrificed himself, along with some others,” Hudson said, his eyes tearing up, “for the sake of this new nation.”

• More dangerous Texas floods expected after at least 2 killed and hundreds of people rescued in high water, governor says

Authorities are urging people to avoid flooded areas, follow all road closures, and never drive around barricades, stressing that fast-moving water can be deceptive and dangerous.

The collapse comes as parts of the Hill Country continue to deal with another round of dangerous flooding—just over a year after the catastrophic July 4, 2025 floods.

He'll have to do much, much more to lift the claret jug.

The world No. 2 bounced back with a 3-under 67 in the second round at the British Open on Friday, ensuring he'll make the cut with his score of 1-under par overall.

The projected cut is currently at level par.

McIlroy knew he'd left a few shots out there, though, especially when he saw that two other morning starters — Lucas Herbert and Sam Burns — tied the major championship record with rounds of 62 in gorgeous conditions.

“It was a little better today,” McIlroy said, “but still didn’t feel 100% comfortable. Hopefully try to figure that out as the week goes on.”

He might have left it too late.

McIlroy was seven shots off the clubhouse lead held by Herbert, on 8-under par. More relevant might be No. 4-ranked Cameron Young being at 6 under, while players like top-ranked Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau were just starting out their second rounds and already higher on the leaderboard.

McIlroy, who won the Open just down the road in Hoylake in 2014, struggled on the greens in shooting 72 on Thursday and said he still hasn't figured them out.

“I felt like I hit good putts and they did something completely different to what I saw in the read, and I think that’s a little unnerving,” he said.

McIlroy was, however, very happy with his driving. He drove the green on the par-4 ninth hole — for the second straight day — with a 377-yard tee shot that settled 11 feet from the pin, setting up the third of his four birdies on Friday.

Yet, for all his excellence off the tee, he has only made one birdie on the par 5s this week.

McIlroy hopes the conditions allow him to be aggressive off the tee over the weekend.

It might be his only hope of a victory.

“I think any time I can get a driver in my hand, I’m going to try to,” he said. "I just feel like with how I’m feeling with the driver, I think it’s a big advantage if I can get the ball down there and take out some of these fairway bunkers.

“l continue to do that when I can, and then I’m still trying to figure out these greens a little bit.”

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

The verdict underlined the determination by authorities to stamp out any remaining sign of dissent ahead of September's vote as the fuel crisis caused by Ukrainian strikes on oil facilities across Russia threatened to erode public support for the Kremlin.

The charges against Nadezhdin, 63, were based on a 2023 online video in which he briefly showed a picture of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who at that time was serving a 19-year prison sentence on charges of extremism that were widely seen as politically motivated. Navalny later died in an Arctic penal colony on Feb. 16, 2024.

Nadezhdin rejected the case against him as absurd and argued authorities were trying to keep him from campaigning in September's parliamentary vote. The court in Dolgoprudny, a town on Moscow’s northern outskirts where he lives, convicted him and ordered him to pay a fine of 1,000 rubles (about $13).

The Kremlin's main United Russia party is seeking to preserve its dominance in the lower house of parliament in a race against so-called “systemic” opposition, including the Communist Party and a couple of other parties that vote in sync with the Kremlin on key issues. The campaign comes amid signs of growing public fatigue as fuel shortages and economic pain from the Ukraine conflict increase, an environment that reduces the tolerance by the authorities for even token opposition.

Nadezhdin's run for parliament triggers a quick response

In January 2024, Nadezhdin collected thousands of signatures in his run for president as he openly called for a halt to the fighting in Ukraine. But he was kept off the March 2024 ballot after Russia’s Supreme Court ruled that more than 9,000 signatures submitted by his campaign were invalid — enough to disqualify him. Putin faced only token opposition in the election and easily won a fifth term.

A veteran politician, Nadezhdin worked in the government in the 1990s when he was an adviser to Sergei Kiriyenko, now a top Putin aide. He also served as a lawmaker and more recently became a member of a municipal council, one of the few remaining liberal voices on Russia's political scene.

Last month, Nadezhdin declared his bid to run for the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, but the Justice Ministry quickly branded him a “foreign agent” — a designation that carries strong pejorative connotations and brings additional government scrutiny. It also bars him from holding public office, but he was still able to wage his symbolic campaign for a parliament seat until Friday’s verdict.

Another blow came Monday, when police detained Nadezhdin for a few hours before making the charges that were punishable by a fine or a 15-day jail term. He said he was considering going abroad but was barred from leaving Russia.

He told the court that he was too sick to serve any prison time, saying he “will just die” behind bars. “The real goal of what's going on here is to shut my mouth and prevent me from running for the State Duma,” he said.

Nadezhdin complained of feeling sick at Friday’s hearing, which was interrupted to let an ambulance team check his condition.

After the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, authorities ramped up their crackdown on dissent and free speech, relentlessly targeting rights organizations, independent media, members of civil society organizations, LGBTQ+ activists and some religious groups. Hundreds of people have been jailed and thousands of others have fled the country.

Another Putin critic is arrested

Also on Friday, Ilya Remeslo, a pro-Kremlin activist and blogger who has become a Putin critic, was arrested in St. Petersburg on charges of spreading false information about the Russian military — an accusation widely used against those who oppose the government's policies.

The state Tass news agency reported that he would be taken to Moscow to face a court hearing.

In March, Remeslo criticized the military action in Ukraine and called for Putin's resignation. Soon after, he was placed in a psychiatric clinic and spent a month there in what he cast as a punishment for his remarks.

The Irish character actor died Thursday night in Dublin after a period of ill health, her agent, Phil Belfield said in a statement.

Fricker became the first Irish woman to win an Academy Award in 1990 for best supporting actress for her portrayal of the determined mother of Christy Brown, who was born with cerebral palsy and could control only his left foot. Daniel Day-Lewis, who played Christy Brown, won the award for best actor.

“We will never see her like again and the world is lesser for the lack of her,’’ Belfield said. “I was honored to know, love and work with her and she will always have a place in my heart and in the heart of so many film and TV fans the world over.”

Fricker, who appeared in more than 90 films and television shows between 1964 and 2024, was known for her role as the “pigeon lady” in the 1992 film “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York,” where she played a homeless woman who befriended Macaulay Culkin’s character in New York’s Central Park.

She also featured in the original cast of the BBC medical drama “Casualty” and appeared alongside Cate Blanchett in “Veronica Guerin,” the story of an Irish investigative journalist who was murdered in 1996.

Born in Dublin in 1945, Fricker received the city’s highest honor earlier this year when she was awarded the Freedom of the City.

In her autobiography “She Died Young: A Life in Fragments,” Fricker describes both happy childhood escapades with her sister Grania and her struggles to overcome sexual violence and mental health issues, which caused her to be institutionalized several times. Published in September 2025, the book appeared on the Irish Sunday Times bestseller list.

Simon Harris, Ireland’s deputy prime minister, said the country had lost a national treasure.

“She truly was among the greatest exports this country has ever produced and an ambassador for Irish talent on the world stage,'' he said. "Quite simply, we will never see the like of her ever again.

The former mayor of Greater Manchester was the only contender in the center-left party's leadership contest to replace departing Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who was forced out by a rebellion within his party. Friday's announcement was a foregone conclusion after Burnham secured nominations from 379 of the 403 Labour lawmakers in the House of Commons.

Burnham pledged to serve “people and places who have been waiting too long for politics to let them hope again.”

“We’re going to give them hope back,” he told an audience of lawmakers, party activists and trade union leaders in his first speech as leader. “I am ready.”

“I have a plan,” he added, in a bid to reassure a party that has seen its popularity nosedive since winning a landslide election victory two years ago. He pledged to end Labour's factional disputes, saying “we won’t beat Britain’s new right if we are consumed by infighting and pulling in different directions.”

The prime minister in waiting is about to take office

Burnham has been prime minister-in-waiting for weeks, since winning a special election for a seat in Parliament a month ago, but he has revealed little detail about his policy priorities. He will arrive in Number 10 Downing Street largely unknown to voters outside Manchester.

He sketched out some priorities in Friday's speech, promising to deliver “hope in every heart” and “good growth in every post code,” in part by transferring power from central government in London to local leaders in cities and regions.

“We will take power back from Westminster and Whitehall and give it to the place you live,” he told the audience. “More power over life’s essentials so you can make them work better.”

Starmer announced last month that he would resign after two years in office marred by missteps and judgment errors that eroded his standing with his party and the public.

Labour regularly trails behind anti-immigration party Reform UK in opinion polls, and the governing party had catastrophic results in local elections in May, triggering pressure on Starmer to step down that he couldn’t resist.

Burnham deemed a better communicator than Starmer

Burnham brings a more relaxed style of leadership than the rather stern Starmer, and is regarded as one of the Labour Party’s best communicators. But he faces many of the same problems as his predecessor, including a sluggish economy, a cost-of-living squeeze fueled by wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and overstretched public services.

And his promises of a new, less divisive politics are not too different to what Starmer pledged when he took office in 2024.

“I will work to build a new politics. The country is crying out for it,” Burnham said. “How can politicians point fingers when living standards are falling and politics as a whole isn’t working for them? It infuriates them and makes them switch off.”

He said he would have the “courage to fix the big things that politics has neglected,” such as tackling the patchy access to social care for those who need it because of age, illness or disability. It’s a pressing issue in a country with an aging population, and one that has foxed previous Labour and Conservative governments.

Burnham says he'll reverse 40 years of bad decisions

He highlighted plans to focus on economic renewal, more public control of key sectors and creating new modern industrial jobs, arguing that Britain took “a series of wrong turns in the 1980s” when “political power was centralized and economic power privatized.”

That’s the decade when Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher oversaw policies of privatization, deindustrialization and political centralization that transformed the U.K. economy.

“Slowly, at times imperceptibly, over four decades, political and economic power drained away out of our communities in every region and nation of the U.K.,” Burnham said, calling Britain's change of prime ministers — for the sixth time in a decade — “the most significant change moment in our politics for 40 years.”

Starmer will remain prime minister until Monday, when he formally tenders his resignation to King Charles III. The king will then ask Burnham to form a government.

Britain’s parliamentary democracy allows governing parties to change leaders, and thus prime ministers, without the need for a general election. The next national election doesn’t have to be held until 2029.

New prime ministers have come with increasing frequency in recent years. Burnham will be the U.K.'s seventh leader since 2016.

He faces strong and sometimes conflicting pressures.

Unions welcomed his focus on living standards but said the test would be whether he can deliver. Business group the Confederation of British Industry praised his emphasis on economic growth, but also aid that “the challenge is execution.”

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Associated Press Writer Brian Melley contributed to this story.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s major shake-up of his government on Thursday, which included the dismissal of Mykhailo Fedorov as defense minister and the appointment of a new prime minister, unsettled the country’s military leadership and triggered a public outcry. It tested Zelenskyy's authority and was an unwelcome difficulty after Ukraine in recent months gained traction in the war.

Zelenskyy said he had asked Maj. Gen. Yevhen Khmara, acting head of the state’s security service and a highly regarded special operations expert, to take over the defense minister’s duties.

Zelenskyy said late Thursday he would ask Parliament to formally approve Khmara’s appointment as defense minister, as required by law.

That step could be delayed by bureaucratic hurdles, however. Ukrainian law requires the defense minister to be a civilian, so a serving soldier or security service officer must leave active duty before being formally appointed. Also, lawmakers will be on summer recess through mid-August.

It was not clear whether Khmara would have enough votes in Parliament to be confirmed in the job.

Relations between 35-year-old Fedorov and Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, the 60-year-old commander of Ukraine’s armed forces who started his military career in the former Soviet Union, had broken down, according to Zelenskyy, and made Fedorov’s position untenable.

Fedorov, who is credited with pushing forward Ukraine's innovative drone technology that has brought advantages on the battlefield and fighting corruption in the military, defended his record after just six months in government.

“We transformed Ukraine into a global tech leader and a defense powerhouse,” he said Friday on social media.

A second day of Kyiv protests demand Fedorov's return

The surprise departure of Fedorov, a youthful, digital-savvy modernizer, drew thousands of people to demonstrate against his dismissal in cities across Ukraine on Thursday.

Further street protests took place in Kyiv on Friday, where one sign read, “Don’t ruin something that works.”

“I don’t think they should replace an effective leader and manager like Fedorov,” Olha Horoshkova, one of the protesters, told The Associated Press.

She said her father has been serving in the armed forces since 2022 and told her he has seen “noticeable changes” under Fedorov.

“There’s a little less bureaucracy now, and things have genuinely become easier,” she reported her father saying.

Another protester, Yehor Pohrebniak, said army chief Syrskyi had had some notable triumphs during the war.

But he added: “Syrskyi’s vision of war is already outdated, because war is changing very rapidly ... We need more technological solutions.”

Ukraine's interim defense minister is a special operations expert

Khmara, tapped by Zelenskyy to replace Fedorov, has been in charge of the SBU security service since January.

He had previously led the SBU’s elite Alpha special forces unit and is known for being an architect of Operation Spiderweb, one of Ukraine’s most spectacular attacks when it struck Russian air bases last year.

He joined the Alpha unit in 2011 and became its commander in 2023 before being promoted to major general the following year.

Russia and Ukraine trade more long-range attacks

Moscow’s response to its recent battlefield difficulties and Ukraine’s targeting of Russian oil facilities, which has caused severe fuel shortages, has focused in part on relentless strategic bombing of civilian areas of Ukraine.

Russian attacks on Ukraine overnight killed at least four civilians and wounded 20 other people, Zelenskyy said.

Two people were killed and 10 others injured, including children, in a Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s southern port city of Odesa, regional military administration head Oleh Kiper said. One of those killed was a woman who had been walking in a park with her children, who survived, he said.

In the Zaporizhzhia region, two people were killed and five were injured in a strike, according to Zelenskyy. He said three people were injured as a result of Russian shelling in the northeastern Kharkiv region.

Officials said more people were injured in Russian strikes on five other regions of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said air defenses downed 243 Ukrainian drones overnight into Friday.

Three civilians were killed and seven others injured in Ukrainian drone attacks over the previous 24 hours, according to Vladimir Saldo, the Moscow-appointed head of the Russia-occupied part of Ukraine's Kherson region.

Ukrainian drones struck 12 Russian vessels in the Black Sea overnight, Robert “Madiar” Brovdi, head of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, said Friday. The vessels included nine dry cargo ships, one tanker, one gas carrier and one tugboat, according to Brovdi.

Ukrainian forces struck 159 Russian vessels in the Black and Azov seas over the past 12 days, he said, in its campaign to stop Russian shipping.

Ukrainian forces also destroyed a Russian Tu-95 strategic bomber in Engels, about 800 kilometers (500 miles) from the Ukrainian border, Zelenskyy said.

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Dan Bashakov and Dmytro Zhyhinas in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed to this report.

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

The bus crashed Thursday night in the Kapchorwa District in eastern Uganda on the way back from the region’s Sipi Falls, the Uganda Police Force said in a statement posted on X.

Survivors, including three adults and several children, were taken to several hospitals, according to police. More than 28 children were being treated in hospitals, nine of them in critical condition, Ugandan Minister of Local Government Balaam Barugahara Ateenyi said on X.

The adult among the 21 people who died appeared to be the founder and head of the school, Barugahara said.

Video from the Uganda Red Cross showed bodies of victims in and around the wreckage as people arrived to help following the nighttime crash. Some of the survivors were transported to a hospital in a pick-up truck, according to the video provided to The Associated Press.

Education Minister John Muyingo said the government had suspended all school trips and tours across the country of around 45 million people in response to the tragedy.

The bus belonged to the King David Junior School, an elementary school in the capital, Kampala, police said. The village where police said the crash occurred is near the Uganda-Kenya border, some 300 kilometers (some 190 miles) from Kampala.

The driver reportedly lost control of the bus, which veered off the road, struck a rock and overturned, according to the police statement, which added that the information was preliminary and the cause of the crash was under investigation.

A police photo showed the bus lying on its side with the entire roof ripped off and the seats exposed, including some that were mangled. Luggage and clothing lay strewn on the road.

Road accidents are common in the East African nation and often are blamed on poorly maintained vehicles, speeding and poor road conditions, which are problems across Africa. At least 14 people died when a bus collided with a truck in a remote area of northern Uganda earlier this month.

Africa has the worst road safety record in the world, with more than 300,000 annual road deaths and around 26 deaths per 100,000 people. In Europe, which has far more road traffic, there are around 20,000 deaths yearly and nine deaths per 100,000 people, according to the World Health Organization and the United Nations.

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AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

Even as the buzz was wearing down, there was a reminder that a name in the record book is not nearly as satisfying as the name to be etched in the silver claret jug on Sunday.

Halfway through the second round, it was abundantly clear anything was possible.

Herbert's record-tying round could have felt like a consolation prize. The 30-year-old Australian was practically flawless until he stood over a 5-foot par putt for a 61. He pulled it left and dropped hands onto his knees when he realized his shot at history was over.

“So it was a strange one – knocking that in and knowing I tied the record but feeling like it might be one of best chances we’ve ever had to shoot a 61,” he said.

It was only 20 minutes later when Royal Birkdale saw another 62, and it came out of nowhere. Burns, who wasn't even planning to play in The Open until his wife gave birth to their second child earlier than expected, was having a good round that turned into a great one.

He finished with three straight birdies — from 40 feet off the green at the 16th, from 20 feet on the 17th and holing a bunker shot for the first birdie of the day on the 18th — for his 62.

Herbert has the early lead at 8-under 132, two shots ahead of 18-hole leader Jackson Suber (69) and Cameron Young, who birdied the last two holes for another 67. Burns was another shot behind.

Defending champion Scottie Scheffler teed off in the afternoon, when the wind was expected to be at least slightly stronger than a wee breeze that led to so much low scoring in the morning.

Rory McIlroy had a 67 that didn't feel all that great compared to what was going on around him. He saved par on the final hole and was at 1-under 139, leaving him at least seven behind.

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

The location, 8503A Gulf Freeway, is CVS’ first pharmacy-focused site in Texas and comes in at about 3,000 square feet, roughly one-third the size of many traditional CVS stores.

CVS says the goal is to make it easier for more than 9,000 nearby residents to get prescriptions filled, stay current on immunizations, and ask questions of a neighborhood pharmacist—services that can feel out of reach when the nearest pharmacy is too far away or hard to get to. That access can matter most for seniors, people managing chronic conditions, and families juggling transportation and work schedules, because missing refills or delaying routine care can quickly turn into more serious health problems.

• Storms disrupt prescriptions? TRICARE members in Greater Houston can refill early through July 25

The company is marking the opening with a ribbon-cutting at 10 a.m. Friday, followed by tours and a community event. CVS says its Project Health mobile unit will also be on-site from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. offering free health screenings with no appointment required, including checks such as blood pressure, glucose and BMI, along with on-site consultations and information on local health resources.

The store is part of a broader CVS push to open nearly 20 pharmacy-focused locations in select U.S. communities in 2026, and the company says at least one more is planned for the Houston area within the next year.

The timing also ties into ongoing cost-of-living pressures: KPRC 2 has reported on low-cost care options for families without insurance and ways to manage everyday health expenses—issues that can be compounded when basic pharmacy access isn’t close to home.

• Affordable healthcare options in Houston – without insurance!

A small fly has the potential to impart a big impact on Texas’ beef and agricultural industry.

On June 3, the New World screwworm was detected in a three-week-old calf in Zavala County by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Since then, the agency reported more screwworm infestations in Texas.

The fly poses a multibillion-dollar crisis for the state’s cattle industry, which generates $41 billion a year. It could also increase already record-high beef prices nationwide.

It’s unclear how many cases could hit Texas. Nearly 28,000 cases have been detected in Mexico since November 2024, according to Mexican officials.

State and federal officials are working together to stop the northern migration, which they have tracked since 2023. In response to the cases, USDA and the Texas Animal Health Commission have ramped up animal surveillance of animals near the confirmed detections by setting up zones around each infestation. Animals are not allowed to leave infested areas without being properly inspected.

Officials are also increasing fly traps, surveillance of wildlife and releasing sterile flies, which are used to break the reproduction cycle of the parasitic screwworm fly.

What is New World Screwworm?

New World Screwworm is a parasitic fly that is attracted to living tissue, burrowing their larvae into open wounds. After they hatch, the maggots then feed off that living flesh, causing damage to the animal. If untreated, the damage can even cause the animal to die.

Screwworm can also burrow through openings in the skin, such as the corner of an eye or through the nose.

From a biological standpoint, all mammals are vulnerable to screwworm, including pets and humans. However, livestock and wildlife tend to be the most susceptible because they spend their entire lives outdoors.

Dogs and cats are vulnerable through small wounds or scratches that break the skin. Health officials recommend pets be medicated for fleas and ticks year-round, said Casey Locklear, veterinarian and parasiticides lead for Elanco Animal Health.

“As a pet owner, if you were to notice that your dog or cat had a wound, especially if it’s foul smelling, it’s enlarging, you may actually see the maggots,” Locklear said. “If you see a wound, get treatment early. Whether that’s for yourself or your pet, early treatment is key.”

Read more about the screwworm here.

It attacks the body immediately, spiking asthma cases with increased ambulance runs within hours, swamps emergency rooms in a day or so with people suffering from heart attacks and other cardiovascular and lung issues, as well as mental health issues, doctors and scientists told The Associated Press.

Smoke also harms pregnant women, increasing the risk of premature births and low-weight babies who could have breathing problems the rest of their lives, doctors and studies say. And then there are long-term risks connecting prolonged smoke and other air pollution exposure to some cancers and dementia.

After huge global fires in 2018 and 2019, the medical and science communities started looking at the health effects from the smoke with “more and more studies coming out finding that there’s all types of impacts that may not have been so obvious before,” said Dr. Mary Johnson, a Harvard School of Public Health environmental health scientist.

Smoke causes inflammation by triggering the body's immune system to go into overtime to fight the irritant. Scientists have found it can harm the brain, the skin and men's sperm, with almost no system of the body spared, Johnson said. People over 60 become more prone to stroke in wildfire smoke, she said.

“Wildfire smoke is the toxic product of combustion of whatever burned,” which could include houses and cars, said Dr. Courtney Howard, an emergency room physician, chair of the Global Climate and Health Alliance and president-elect of the Canadian Medical Association.

“So really it's a big giant toxic soup of particles and gases.”

Scientists have counted at least 1,000 toxins in wildfire smoke, according to Colorado State University environmental toxicologist Luke Montrose.

“If I gave you a list, you would recognize some of these as being very bad, oftentimes associated with the burning of diesel fuel or cigarette smoke, things like formaldehyde or volatile organic compounds,” Montrose said. “So just the smoke itself can be bad.”

Rising global temperatures from climate change means more fires

So far this year, more than 5,740 square miles (more than 14,860 square kilometers) of the United States has burned from wildfires, which is 31% more than the average of the previous 10 years on this date, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. The amount of U.S. land burned each year in the 2020s — averaged out over a decade — is now more than twice what it was 30 years ago.

Europe saw a record high amount of land burned in 2025, Canada has had several record or near-record fire years in the 2020s and the Arctic recently has had unprecedented levels of burning.

“Wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense because of climate change, and when a fire happens, you have smoke,” said Colleen Reid, a University of Colorado geographic health professor.

Most of the biggest particles in wildfire smoke fall close to where a blaze is burning, while the smallest particles — the ones that scientists say do the most damage — travel the farthest. In a typical wildfire, the nasty particles that harm human health are about the size of one micron, Reid said.

Inside the body, particles attack

First those particles have to get by your body's protection, mainly nose hairs and mucus, then they get into your lungs and from there the bloodstream.

Montrose said the particles can be coated in lots of chemicals and have large surface areas. That triggers the body's defense system to “send signals to other cells that say, ‘We have a problem. We need to mount an immune response to this.’ And that’s where you get your acute effect or your effect within minutes, hours or even that day.” It's mostly happening in the hearts and lungs, he said.

And many people die.

On average 24,100 people died each year in the Lower 48 states between 2006 and 2020 due to long-term exposure to tiny particles from wildfire smoke, according to a study this year in the journal Science Advances. A Stanford study projects that U.S. wildfire smoke deaths will increase with climate change and by midcentury hit an annual cost of $244 billion in terms of the economic value the government puts on each life.

On a global scale, wildfire smoke particles cause 677,745 deaths annually, with almost 39% of them children under age 5, according to a 2021 study that combined observations, studies on how the body responds to the particles and computer models to calculate the toll.

The biggest nonlethal effects have to do with the way people breathe, especially those with asthma.

“We did a study here in 2014 after we had about two-and-a-half months of smoke off and on, because we’re in the subarctic so we’re warming at triple the global rate, so in a way we’re kind of canaries in the coal mine of the health impacts of climate change,” Howard said on a clear day from Yellowknife, Canada. “We found a full doubling of emergency department visits for asthma and about 50% increase in pneumonia.”

“Even in individuals that don’t have asthma, the air can be so irritating that you could have difficulty with your respiratory system regardless,” Johnson said, “whether it’s coughing, whether it's chest tightness, whether it’s sore throat, headache.”

There are ways to minimize the risks

Studies have linked smoke to people having more trouble with decision making and other cognitive issues. People come to the emergency room depressed, Howard said. That's why it's important to find a place with clean air — including designated shelters or libraries — to get a break from the smoke and possibly exercise, she said.

Experts suggest people wear high-quality masks when outdoors, even though they don't provide perfect protection. Inside, check windows and doors for seals, invest in a good ventilation system and check air filters, they say.

“Staying away from the smoke is No. 1 if you can,” Johnson said.

___

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Howden is replacing Jane Nelson, who left her post Friday as Texas’ top election official after three and a half years. Nelson’s resignation, announced in early June, set off a flurry of speculation about why she was leaving and who would replace her ahead of the contentious midterm elections in November.

Howden will need to be confirmed by the Texas Senate when the Legislature returns in January, but can serve until then without legislative approval. Nelson’s three immediate predecessors in the role resigned before the Senate got a chance to approve them.

“Robert Howden has served Texas with distinction in four Republican governors’ administrations,” Abbott said in a statement. “His experience in the legislative process and extensive public service have prepared him to protect the integrity of Texas elections and represent our state with strength on the global stage.”

Nelson has not commented on her departure, other than to say she worked hard “to ensure that voting in Texas is secure, accessible and fair.” Abbott praised her as an “extraordinary” secretary of state.

Nelson was the longest-serving Republican woman in the Texas Senate, and the first woman to lead the Senate Finance Committee. She presided over seven statewide elections and disbursed millions in grants to county election officials, according to a press release from her office.

But she clashed with GOP leadership toward the end of her tenure over closing the primaries, which would require voters to register with a specific party to vote in the primary. Last year, the Texas GOP filed a lawsuit arguing they had the legal right to close their primaries. Attorney General Ken Paxton, rather than defending Texas law, joined the party in its suit, which Nelson called “brazen and misguided.”

Nelson said in a filing that Paxton’s office gave her less than an hour’s notice about their plans, and said it was up to the Legislature, not the courts, to change the law. Abbott, who has joined the call for closing the primaries, has agreed, telling Texas Scorecard that lawmakers “can and should be more responsive to Republicans than a judge may be.”

As chief elections officer for a state whose leaders are heavily focused on election integrity and the threat of voter fraud, Howden will have more to manage than just the November elections. Nelson often found herself facing competing demands from the Trump Justice Department, state leaders, county elections officials and voting rights groups.

During her tenure, Texas was one of just 15 states that gave the U.S. Department of Justice access to the state’s full voter roll, including identifiable information about 18 million registered voters. The state also began using a federal database called Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, last year, to verify voters’ citizenship, leading to at least two lawsuits by voting rights groups.

Nelson raised concerns about that system in a letter to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in April, Votebeat reported Wednesday.

Kristin Miles, the Bastrop County elections administrator and president of the Texas Association of County Election Officials, said in a statement that Howden was assuming a position “which carries the tremendous responsibility of fostering trust in Texas’ election system.”

“It will be critical for Secretary Howden to help maintain that trust through the upcoming November general election in Texas, and we stand ready to be a resource and a partner to the new secretary from day one,” Miles said.

A decade ago, Burnham abandoned a 20-year climb up the Labour Party ladder in London to head north and run for mayor of Greater Manchester. A month ago, he returned to Parliament by winning a risky special election. On Monday, he will become Britain’s 59th prime minister.

The sudden downfall of Prime Minister Keir Starmer after just two years in office has swept the 56-year-old Burnham into office — unelected and largely untested. He will enter No. 10 Downing St. carrying the heavy weight of expectation, and big questions about how he will shoulder it.

“A whole range of people across the Labour movement and in the country have projected onto Andy Burnham their hopes and their fantasies about how the country should be run and what Labour should stand for and what Andy Burnham stands for,” said Joshi Herrmann, founder of Manchester news site The Mill, who has covered Burnham for years.

“He has got lots of people’s hopes up.”

He was born in Liverpool and attended Cambridge

Burnham has made his name in Manchester, but he was born in Liverpool, and grew up in a commuter village between the rival northwest English cities.

His father worked as a British Telecom engineer and his mother as a receptionist, and he was raised in a close-knit Catholic family. Burnham has said he’s “not particularly religious,” but Catholic teaching, along with the center-left Labour Party, helped forge his values and sense of social justice.

Burnham and his brothers were the first generation of their family to go to university. And not just any university — Burnham attended Cambridge, one of the country’s oldest and most prestigious institutions.

“He needed a lot of persuading to apply because he felt that as a working-class boy, going off to Cambridge wasn’t for him,” Stephen Harrington, Burnham’s former English teacher at St. Aelred’s Catholic High School, told the BBC. “He didn’t believe in himself. But he did it, and the rest is history.”

Burnham has said he felt out of place at Cambridge, where many of his classmates had gone to posh private schools in the more affluent south of England. But he got a degree in English and met his future wife, Dutch fellow student Marie-France Van Heel, now a marketing executive. The couple married in 2000 and have a son and two daughters.

After graduating, Burnham worked as a journalist at trade magazines before becoming a researcher and adviser to Labour politicians.

Elected to Parliament for the Manchester-area district of Leigh in 2001, he rose through the government ranks under Labour Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. He served in Brown’s Cabinet between 2007 and 2010 as chief secretary to the Treasury, culture secretary and health secretary.

A formative experience came in 2009, when he was heckled at a commemoration of the 1989 Hillsborough Stadium disaster, when 97 Liverpool soccer fans were crushed to death. Bereaved families had fought for years to overturn a false narrative offered by police that unruly fans had been to blame.

Burnham became a champion for the families and helped push for a new inquest, an apology and a law that imposes a duty of candor on public officials to tell the truth about tragedies whatever the impact on their reputation.

As mayor, he became known as King of the North

After Labour lost power in 2010, Burnham ran for leadership of the party that year and in 2015, losing both times. He quit Parliament in 2017, a low ebb for Labour nationally, to run for mayor of Greater Manchester.

Being mayor played to his strengths: an ability to bring people together, a sharp eye for opportunities and a wide streak of pragmatism. His approach became known as “Manchesterism,” a brand of business-friendly socialism that aims to harness private and public money to invest in areas like transport, housing and infrastructure.

Manchester was a former manufacturing powerhouse — known as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution — that had been hollowed out as British industry crumbled. During his tenure the city boomed, with skyscrapers blooming on vacant post-industrial sites. Burnham won praise for taking a piecemeal public transport system under public control and improving it.

He shed suit and tie for jeans and dark T-shirts, spoke about his love for Oasis, The Smiths and New Order and spent spare time playing soccer or spinning 1990s tunes during DJ battles.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, he harangued Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson over what he called a “London-centric” approach to the crisis that was punishing northern cities. That’s when he gained the nickname King of the North, a “Game of Thrones”-inspired nod both to his championing of his home region and his political ambition.

He has said he saw his work in central government as “unfinished business,” and got his chance when Starmer was pushed to resign by Labour colleagues alarmed at the party’s unpopularity.

But Burnham still needed a seat in Parliament. A Labour lawmaker agreed to resign, triggering a special election for the Manchester-area district of Makerfield. Burnham trounced the candidate from anti-immigration party Reform UK, cementing his credentials as a winner.

In the subsequent contest to replace Starmer as Labour leader, he was the only candidate.

He’s promising to restore hope

Now he says he will deliver “a new politics based on unity and hope” and “an economy that works for everybody,” no matter where they live. A key plank is giving regional leaders more powers, and he plans to move part of the prime minister’s office to a “No. 10 North” in Manchester.

Herrmann said Burnham has clear strengths, especially an ability to tell a persuasive story and a sense of empathy that many politicians lack.

He added that the incoming prime minister has “a set of principles about trying to make the country fairer, trying to bring people out of poverty, that he really does believe in.”

Critics claim Burnham’s politics are vague on key points, such as where the money will come from to pay for his pledges. He will face many of the same political and economic challenges that stymied Starmer, including a sluggish economy, overstretched public services and a cost-of-living squeeze. He has little experience of foreign policy issues, from the Ukraine war to dealing with U.S. President Donald Trump.

And running a country of 70 million is a lot different from overseeing a region of 3 million.

But Sacha Lord, a Manchester music entrepreneur who served as Burnham’s nighttime economy adviser, said the politician has a steely side that will help him rise to the occasion.

“He’s not scared of locking horns with people,” Lord said. “Everybody thinks Andy’s this nice, cheeky-chappy guy. But trust me, when he wants something ... he tends to get it.”

The preparations come as meteorologists warn that El Nino is already underway and increasingly likely to strengthen through the remainder of the year. Unlike hurricanes or earthquakes, the climate phenomenon develops gradually over months, which gives governments time to prepare before its most severe impacts arrive.

But experts say authorities across the region have often struggled to turn forecasts into action, raising questions about whether countries will be better prepared than during previous El Nino events that caused widespread economic damage and disrupted water, energy and food systems.

“Now is the time for decisions, for effective preparedness and the political consistency to really be proactive this time,” said Rodney Martinez, the World Meteorological Organization’s representative for North America, Central America and the Caribbean.

“El Nino is confirmed. El Nino is ongoing. It’s not simply a possibility,” he said.

Many countries have stepped up preparations

Previous strong El Nino events have caused billions of dollars in damage across Latin America, contributing to severe drought in some regions while triggering floods and landslides in others. The phenomenon has disrupted agriculture, strained drinking water supplies, fueled wildfires and, in some countries, reduced hydroelectric power generation, leading to energy shortages.

Martinez said countries should use the months before impacts intensify to secure alternative energy sources, protect vulnerable communities and prepare for potential strain on public services.

In hydropower-dependent countries such as Ecuador, that could mean bringing thermal power generation online to offset lower reservoir levels during drier conditions and completing maintenance and procurement work well in advance. He pointed to Ecuador’s energy crisis last year, when drought depleted water levels at hydroelectric facilities and contributed to widespread power outages.

Central America, parts of the Caribbean and northern South America are already experiencing drier-than-normal conditions associated with the phenomenon, according to the WMO. Those conditions are expected to expand into parts of the Amazon basin, raising concerns about water availability, agriculture and wildfire risk.

The threats vary considerably across the region.

In Brazil, Colombia and parts of Central America, authorities are focused on drought, water shortages and wildfire risk. Brazil has hired more than 4,600 federal personnel for wildfire prevention and response, expanded firefighting brigades and deployed aircraft ahead of what officials fear could be a difficult fire season. Colombia has activated water-monitoring systems, strengthened wildfire preparedness and urged local authorities to prepare for potential shortages.

Elsewhere, governments are preparing for flooding. Ecuador, where strong El Nino events have historically brought damaging rains to the Pacific coast, has ordered local governments to develop contingency plans and allocated millions of dollars for flood mitigation, emergency response and agricultural recovery. Local authorities have begun clearing drainage channels, stabilizing hillsides and preparing emergency shelters.

Costa Rica says it has launched more than 200 measures under a national contingency plan, including efforts to protect water supplies, expand renewable energy generation and prepare for a potentially severe wildfire season. In Peru, authorities have strengthened monitoring and early-warning systems while expanding meteorological observation networks.

Panamanian authorities have developed plans to address potential impacts on operations at the Panama Canal, where lower rainfall can affect water availability needed to maintain shipping traffic through one of the world’s most important trade routes.

The WMO official warned that drought and heat could threaten food security across parts of Central America’s Dry Corridor while increasing wildfire risks in several countries. In areas expected to receive excessive rainfall, flooding can damage infrastructure, contaminate water supplies and increase the risk of disease outbreaks.

Advance warning does not always translate into action

Colombia's environment minister, Irene Vélez, told The Associated Press that El Nino is not new, but “what is new is its intensity. And because of that intensity, what is also new is how long it could last and the area it could affect.”

Despite the advance warning, Martinez said preparations remain uneven across the region.

“The reality is that this preparation doesn’t happen until they have the emergency,” he said.

Martinez said some authorities continue to delay decisions despite increasingly strong forecasts, either waiting for additional confirmation or assuming their countries will avoid the worst impacts. He warned that postponing decisions despite increasingly strong scientific evidence could leave governments scrambling to respond once droughts, floods and heat waves intensify.

Recent studies examining previous major El Nino events found their economic impacts can linger for years and ultimately cost the global economy trillions of dollars.

His message to governments still waiting to act was simple.

“Be prepared in advance, in a serious way,” Martinez said. "“The information is there. Now is the time for decisions.”

Vélez said the challenge extends beyond responding to a single climate event and requires governments to adapt to increasingly extreme conditions.

“Climate change is here to stay,” she said.

___

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Today we are following the storms and flooding out of the Texas Hill Country. We have crews in place around Uvalde and Kerr Counties to bring you the latest on the dangerous floods that have already claimed at least two lives and hundreds of rescues.

• Where to find flooding resources and how to help impacted Texans

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

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TODAY: 91° TONIGHT: 88°

KPRC Meteorologist Daji Aswad says:

“Friday will feature more sunshine and noticeably fewer storms, although a stray shower or thunderstorm could still develop late in the afternoon along the sea or bay breeze. Rain chances remain near 20%, so most of the Houston area should stay dry. Watch for a few showers and thunderstorms north of I-10 from 3 PM to 8 PM.

Afternoon temperatures will climb into the mid-90s, with heat index values potentially reaching around 105 degrees.”

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Get your forecast details here.

Houston’s Top Headlines 📰

More dangerous Texas floods expected after at least 2 killed and hundreds of people rescued in high water, governor says

Catastrophic flash flooding hit parts of Texas yesterday, killing two people and triggering hundreds of high-water rescues, Gov. Greg Abbott said. Crews using boats and helicopters saved more than 200 people as the Guadalupe River surged—reviving painful memories of last summer’s deadly Hill Country flooding—with more rain expected into Friday.

River Sentry flood detection system, installed on Guadalupe River after July 4 flood, alerted campground to 2026 flood

A new River Sentry flood warning network—installed after the July 4, 2025 disaster—was tested in real conditions Thursday when rising water triggered six siren towers near Ingram around 3:32 a.m. The automated alarms woke campers and nearby residents and prompted an evacuation; three towers were damaged but later recovered, repaired, and put back in service.

➡️ More from Christian Terry

Man charged after shooting inside Cypress Kroger

Authorities say a shooting inside a Kroger on Cypresswood Drive sent two men to the hospital, with one victim shot multiple times and listed stable but critical. Investigators identified Kaden Ausbrooks as the other injured man and charged him with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon causing serious bodily injury; officials believe the incident stemmed from a domestic dispute and say no customers or employees were hurt.

➡️ More from Ninfa Saavedra

Family says ‘crystal-like substance’ found in Lorenzo Salgado Araujo’s work van was homemade electrolyte mix, not drugs

The family of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo says a “white crystal-like substance” referenced in an FBI search-warrant affidavit was a homemade electrolyte mix (salt with lemon/water), not methamphetamine. Harris County DA Sean Teare said his office doesn’t believe the substance is drugs and called it a “red herring” unrelated to whether deadly force was justified in the ICE-involved shooting that killed Salgado Araujo.

➡️ More from Brittany Taylor and Bryce Newberry

You Got a Text! 💌

The villa may be closed, but we’re spilling all the tea! 🌴❤️📱

In this week’s The Villa Verdict, Ninfa Saavedra is joined by pop culture creator Dana Omari, radio personality Young Jas and a surprise special guest to break down the Final Four, the winning couple, and the biggest moments from the Love Island USA finale.

New episodes every week. Check them out here.

Things 2 Know 💡

Houston drivers feeling the pinch as gas prices rise again; see how much more you’re paying

Endangered Houston toad spotted for first time in more than 50 years, signaling recovery milestone

Texas gas prices jump 13 cents in a week as crude oil nears $80 per barrel; Houston among cheapest metro areas

In case you missed it... 👀

• Astros RHP Lance McCullers Jr. to Brewers
• Pepsi National Battle of the Bands ends 11-year Houston run, moving to Arlington for 2027
• Arcola Mayor Fred Burton arrested on multiple felonies in Fort Bend County

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Kimi Antonelli heads into the Belgian Grand Prix with a piece of advice he picked up recently from Roger Federer.

After a run of car problems cut into the Italian's Formula 1 standings lead, Antonelli's chat with the tennis great in the Royal Box at Wimbledon offered a fresh perspective on how to stop these blips turning into a slump.

“About pressure, he just told me to really focus one race at a time, just focus on what you can control, and also to control the emotions, especially the ones that can make you do mistakes,” Antonelli said Thursday.

“Those were the main pieces of advice. Other than that, it was an incredible experience to witness.”

So far, Antonelli seems to be staying focused, even as Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton threaten Mercedes' supremacy. Antonelli doesn't seem to have lost any of his race-winning pace, unlike last year, when his confidence hit rock-bottom after errors on the European tracks he was meant to know best.

“I just need to maximize every opportunity I get, what I have in control, and then we’ll see what the rest will be,” Antonelli said. “It's part of the sport and the team are doing a tremendous job to make sure that all these issues are not happening again.”

Mercedes off the practice pace

Antonelli was only sixth and teammate George Russell eighth in first practice Friday, a rare session this year where Mercedes failed to make much impression.

Instead, it was Belgian-born Max Verstappen who led the way by 0.145 of a second from Hamilton, with Leclerc third, .208 off the pace, as Ferrari showed signs of building on Leclerc's surprise win at the British Grand Prix.

The session ended with McLaren's Oscar Piastri limping back to the pits with a technical problem.

Russell's struggles

While not everything is going Antonelli's way, at least he knows why. His more experienced Mercedes teammate Russell is finding his problems harder to fix.

A second-place finish for Russell at the British Grand Prix was more about luck than speed, as he benefited from Antonelli's car trouble, a crash for Max Verstappen and a strategy blunder for Hamilton.

Russell cut Antonelli's lead to 25 points but said he felt “less satisfied” with that home podium finish than he had breaking down from the lead in Canada.

The fast, sweeping Belgian circuit has key similarities to Silverstone. That could pose a challenge to Russell and offer an opportunity to Ferrari.

Leclerc and Ferrari were surprised he had the pace to win in Britain and they've been working since then to understand what worked so well to deliver that pace this weekend, too.

Mercedes remains the team to beat and “should be a lot further ahead" in the standings by now, Hamilton told Sky Sports.

Norris hits another setback

One driver who almost certainly won't be in contention for the win is Lando Norris. The defending champion comes into this week's race with a 10-place grid penalty after McLaren switched out a troublesome electrical part on his car.

His teammate Piastri spent Thursday stressing he trusts McLaren's assurances he'll stay with the team next year despite reported interest in signing Verstappen.

Four-time champion Verstappen left his future open Thursday but had warm words for Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies, who started his tenure a year ago with a stunning win for Verstappen in a sprint in Belgium.

After Verstappen fumed at Red Bull's “dangerous” car after back-to-back crashes caused by rear wing failures, the team is going back to an older design this week, potentially affecting Verstappen's pace.

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

The revisions include adoption of distant male relatives to father future heirs and allowing princesses to keep their royal status after marrying commoners.

Royal watchers and experts fear the new measures could doom the 1,500-year-old hereditary institution by insisting that only males can be emperor.

Emperor Naruhito ’s 24-year-old daughter is hugely popular, and many Japanese want her to be his successor, but Princess Aiko is ineligible because she is a woman. Japan’s male-only succession rule means the line must move to the emperor's younger brother, then to his 19-year-old nephew Prince Hisahito. Next in line after him is the emperor's 90-year-old uncle.

In an imperial family that places a premium on male royal babies, Hisahito is the first such boy to be born in four decades. Only five of the 16 adults in the imperial family — there are no children — are men.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and other conservatives insist the male bloodline is “the only source of the emperor’s authority and legitimacy,” which is the basis for the upcoming measures.

“I'm deeply moved,” Takaichi told reporters after the enactment.

While an emperor's mother can be a commoner, as is the case with the current one, only boys born to men with royal blood can be heirs to the throne, according to the Imperial House Law.

The revision to the antiquated law is meant to solidify the principle of that crucial bloodline by allowing the adoption of distant royal male relatives to father future heirs, pushing the Emperor's daughter to the side. It will also allow princesses to keep their royal status and serve duties if they marry a commoner.

“It’s a declaration to prevent female monarchs … and to defend the male lineage at all costs,” said Hideya Kawanishi, an expert on monarchy at Nagoya University. “They cannot say it’s male chauvinism, so they call it tradition.”

Imperial Household Agency chief Buichiro Kuroda said in a statement that his agency “will do everything it can appropriately to support smooth activity for the Imperial Family members in line with (the revisions), while fully taking into consideration their feelings.”

Takaichi supports male-only succession

There have been eight female monarchs. The last was Empress Gosakuramachi, who ruled from 1762 to 1770.

The paternal-line male succession was stipulated for the first time in the 1890 Imperial House Law, when Japan promoted patriarchal systems. That law was largely carried over to the current 1947 version.

Friday’s revisions have led to protests from Japanese who see the government efforts as meant to eliminate Princess Aiko from ruling and to justify discrimination against women and a patriarchal system.

“It’s very ironic that the first female prime minister herself is the leading proponent of the obsession with male succession,” Chizuko Ueno, a prominent feminist scholar, wrote recently referring to Takaichi.

Ueno said the new measures “treat male royals as stallions and put female royals under pressure as ‘childbearing machines’ to produce male offspring.”

After Aiko’s birth, her mother Empress Masako, a Harvard-educated former diplomat and a commoner, developed a stress-induced mental condition, apparently over criticism for not producing a male heir.

Imperial family is shrinking

Because of the male-only succession rules and the dismissal of princesses who marry commoners, the monarchy after Hisahito is “extremely unstable,” former Imperial Household Agency chief Shingo Haketa told Kyodo News recently.

Historians say the current system is unworkable, as Japan more broadly faces a fast-aging, dwindling population. It only worked in the past because concubines produced half the emperors until about 100 years ago, when the practice ended under Naruhito’s great-grandfather, Emperor Taisho.

A government proposal in 2005 to allow female monarchs was scrapped following Hisahito’s birth.

Naruhito's two male heirs are his brother, Crown Prince Akishino, 60, who is only six years younger than the emperor and has reportedly said he would be too old to serve, and Hisahito, Akishino’s 19-year-old son. Third in line is Naruhito's uncle, Prince Hitachi, who is 90.

Distant relatives

The more controversial of the two measures allows unmarried male descendants, aged 15 or older, of distant imperial relatives — but only of paternal lineage — to be adopted into the royal family.

Fifty-one members from 11 branch families renounced their royal status in 1947, mainly to ease the postwar financial burden on the monarchy, Imperial Household Agency official Yoshimi Ogata told a recent parliamentary session.

Those people are at least 36 generations removed from Naruhito because they split from a common male-line ancestor 600 years ago, Ogata said.

There is criticism of what some see as the government's extraordinary efforts to make sure that male royals are producing male emperors.

“Who wants the son of an adoptee who nobody knows to be emperor instead of Aiko?” asked Yoshinori Kobayashi, a cartoonist campaigning for Aiko’s succession.

It may also be unrealistic to ask former royals to reenter a very strict family known as “an enclave without human rights.” Royals cannot choose their jobs or homes, and must follow other serious constraints.

“I wonder if anyone would raise a hand,” 81-year-old Asahiro Kuni, whose family renounced its royal status when he was 3, told TBS television. “I imagine many people, by age 15, have some idea about their future. It’s cruel to tell them … to change the course of their life.”

Kuni, who worked as an engineer at a major Japanese company, said he would tell his family to decline if asked by the palace. “You are asked to sacrifice your life for the happiness of the people. I can’t tell my family to choose such a difficult life.”

He expressed support for female monarchs in interviews with other Japanese media.

Princesses who marry commoners can keep royal status

Aiko, known for her engaging smile, enthusiasm and witty conversation, is a public favorite.

Five single princesses, including Aiko and her popular cousin Kako, 31, may be affected by the other main revision to the Imperial House Law, which would allow them to keep their royal status and continue serving official duties if they marry commoners, although their spouse and children wouldn't be accepted as royals.

Aiko’s elder cousin Mako renounced her royal status and moved to New York after marrying her college boyfriend, a commoner who now is a lawyer. The move was largely seen as her attempt to flee from the restrained imperial life.

Ueno calls the system inhumane and urges the princesses to follow Mako's example and leave when they can.

Hisahito, possible adoptees and their future wives will face enormous pressure to produce male offspring, Kawanishi said.

Many Japanese want Aiko to be emperor

“The emperor is a symbolic figure, and I don’t see why women cannot serve in the role,” said 78-year-old Junichiro Tsujimaru, a sushi chain founder.

Yoshio Iwase, 78, said Aiko, as the daughter of the emperor, is the legitimate successor. “I think it’s fine because there used to be female emperors in the past.”

There is worry that the government's push will upset former Emperor Akihito's legacy, which included making amends for the victims of World War II, fought in his father’s name.

Akihito, who abdicated in 2019, also tried to bring what was seen as an aloof monarchy closer to the people, an example followed by his son, Naruhito, and his family.

Akihito reportedly supports Aiko's succession. He avoided directly answering a question about the 2005 government proposal but said female royals served a major role in the monarchy and that its role was to work for the happiness of the people — a remark interpreted as his support for female monarchs.

Naruhito also said in June that he hoped discussions about the measures would reach a conclusion that “will gain understanding of the people,” a comment palace watchers said was his nuanced displeasure.

Japan on Friday also enacted a controversial new law prohibiting desecration of its national flag, a key right-wing agenda pushed by Takaichi. Opponents see it as an attempt to intimidate the public and silence criticism against her government.

But all that frothy foam obscures a cold reality: Beer sales have been struggling globally, and it’s unclear if soccer's world championship tournament can reverse the trend despite having three countries and 16 cities as co-hosts this year.

In the U.S., beer consumption has fallen steadily for a decade, according to the Brewers Association, a trade group for craft brewers. Canada has seen a similar decline, according to the national statistics agency. The Brewers of Europe trade association says the story is the same in the European Union.

Consumers are buying less regular beer and more ‘wellness’ drinks

Many consumers are cutting back on alcohol for health reasons. Last year was the first time in Gallup’s polling that a majority of Americans – 53% -- said drinking “one or two drinks a day” was bad for one’s health.

While sales of non-alcoholic beer have grown, they still make up only around 1% of the U.S. market, according to the Beer Institute, a trade group for brewers.

Economic worries also have taken a toll on sales. U.S. consumption of all types of alcohol – including wine and spirits – fell 5% last year, and affordability concerns were partly to blame, beverage market research company IWSR said.

Craig Purser, the president and CEO of the National Beer Wholesalers Association, said he thinks smartphones and Netflix have taken consumers away from socializing with a cold beer in hand.

“If you have this behavior where we’re cocooning and we’re not spending time with other folks, that’s going to affect beer consumption,” Purser said.

World Cup host cities saw a bump in beer sales at stadiums, bars and restaurants

Enter the World Cup and the soccer fans who traveled from around the world to support their national teams and engage in communal celebration or sorrow.

In the first four weeks of the tournament, beer sales in bars, restaurants, stadiums and other venues rose 14% in U.S. host cities compared to the same period last year, according to the Beer Institute. The bump extended beyond host cities; sales were up 4% nationally, the institute said.

Jim Koch, the brewer, founder and CEO of the Boston Beer Co., which makes Samuel Adams and other brands, said the company had to make two emergency deliveries to its Sam Adams Boston Taproom on the first day that Scotland's fans were in town.

“At one point, we were pouring them a Sam Adams Boston Lager every 12 seconds. What a wonderful group of people,” he said.

But that wasn't all that warmed Koch's heart.

“I didn’t see a single soul on their phone," he said, “They had a beer in their hand and they were talking to each other. They were doing what beer is meant to do, which is helping people enjoy each other’s company.”

The plentiful drinking on display in stadiums stood in stark constrast to the World Cup held four years ago in Qatar, where the government banned the sale of alcoholic beer in match venues.

Brewers leaned heavily into this year's tournament. Budweiser and Michelob Ultra maker AB InBev, the World's Cup's official beer sponsor, doled out marketing support to bars and hosted 200,000 watch parties in 40 countries.

Molson Coors said it would spend 60% more than last year on marketing in June and July; it also debuted a limited edition soccer ball that can hold 12 cans of Miller Lite.

A team's loss can make supporters cry, but not in their beer

Maybell Romero, a law professor at Tulane University School of Law in New Orleans, usually prefers cocktails over beer. But she says she opts for beer during the World Cup since it has lower alcohol content than liquor or wine and watching games can be an all-day affair.

“If I drink cocktail after cocktail, I will not be functional after a few hours,” Romero said.

Romero, who has been watching this year's matches at bars in Mexico City, said she’s enjoyed trying new beers, especially those with novel ingredients like champagne yeast. She might order an occasional beer once the World Cup ends but expects to go back to mostly drinking cocktails.

Beer consumption was expected to fall in some markets even before the World Cup ended. Shares in AB InBev and Constellation Brands — which owns the U.S. rights to Mexican beer brands like Corona and Modelo — tumbled after Mexico and Brazil were eliminated from the tournament.

Romero observed the mood shift in Mexico City after those losses.

“The city is collectively depressed,” she said. "Everything is a lot quieter, and people aren’t going out as much."

Major sporting events on the horizon allow the beer industry to hold out hope

Purser remains hopeful the World Cup will remind people how much they like to gather and cheer on athletes, especially with the Summer Olympics heading to Los Angeles in 2028. Occasions are expanding, he said; college and professional football games are now played on more nights of the week, for example. And beer's consumer base is widening as more brands put out low- and no-alcohol versions, he said.

In May, the NCAA reversed its long-standing ban on alcohol advertising during March Madness, allowing makers of beer, wine, spirits and hard seltzer makers to sponsor the college basketball tournaments for the first time starting next season.

The Boston Beer Co.'s Koch said he's not fretting until then.

“People worry that the beer business has declined for a few years, and I always remind them that beer has been a part of human society, human civilization, for 10,000 years,” he said. “Beer will always be a part enhancing our enjoyment of our lives and the time we spend on this earth.”

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AP Video Journalist Rodrique Ngowi contributed from Boston.

FIFA announced the pick late Thursday. It's the second straight World Cup final where Argentina, now the defending champion, will have a European referee to face a European opponent.

FIFA has faced criticism during the current World Cup for Argentina seeming to get the benefit of some refereeing decisions — including when soccer great Lionel Messi escaped a red card for a rough challenge on an Algeria opponent — with the coaches of Egypt and South Africa claiming inconsistencies.

After Egypt formally alleged bias in decisions during its 3-2 loss to Argentina, FIFA director of referees Pierluigi Collina said: “Nobody can question the integrity of the FIFA World Cup match officials.”

In his three games so far at the 2026 World Cup, Vinčić has shown seven yellow cards and one red card, and awarded no penalty kicks.

In the most recent of his games, in the round of 32 more than two weeks ago, Vinčić sent off Ecuador’s Piero Hincapie after a video review for covering his mouth in a confrontation with a Mexico opponent.

Vinčić also worked two group-stage games, when Brazil and Morocco drew 1-1 and Algeria beat Jordan 2-1.

Bayern-Madrid epic

In the last European club season, Vinčić’s biggest match was Bayern Munich’s 4-3 win over Real Madrid in the quarterfinals of the Champions League.

Vinčić showed yellow cards to five Madrid players, and second yellows to Eduardo Camavinga for timewasting and Arda Guler for dissent to send them off late in the game.

Those were among just three red cards that Vinčić showed in nine Champions League games and he awarded just two penalties.

The 46-year-old Slovenian refereed Madrid’s 2-0 win over Borussia Dortmund in the 2024 Champions League final.

The Slovenia link

FIFA’s pick of Vinčić surprised some observers given ongoing tensions between its president Gianni Infantino and UEFA, led by Slovenian lawyer Aleksander Ceferin, who should attend the final at East Rutherford, New Jersey.

UEFA claimed FIFA “crossed a red line” in suspending a mandatory one-game ban for United States forward Folarin Balogun to let him face Belgium in the round of 16, and called the decision “unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable.”

On day four of the World Cup, some soccer federations published a letter during a FIFA-hosted conference in Miami criticizing Ceferin personally for a reported comment made days before the tournament in Slovenia about the expanded 48-team competition format.

Vinčić follows Szymon Marciniak of Poland in being chosen to officiate the biggest match in world soccer. Marciniak awarded a penalty to each team in the thrilling 3-3 draw in the World Cup final between Argentina and France in Qatar in December 2022. Argentina then won the penalty shootout in which Marciniak showed a yellow card to goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez for unsporting conduct in trying to distract French players.

The pick of Vinčić continues a pattern for 10 straight World Cups since 1990: European referees are chosen for finals played outside Europe, and referees from other continents are picked for finals played in Europe. Those include Italian Collina, the premier referee of his generation, who worked Brazil's 2-0 win over Germany in the 2002 final in Japan.

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

The rule announced by the Department of Homeland Security will do away with the “duration of status” system, which allows foreign journalists to stay and work in the United States as long as they meet eligibility requirements. That will be replaced with a fixed period of time, though the visas may be extended.

The agency says it's necessary to better vet the visa holders. But advocates for foreign journalists oppose the change, saying the drastically shorter stay would severely restrict their ability to live and work in the States.

The even shorter visa rule for Chinese journalists, which does not include those from the “special administrative regions” of Hong Kong or Macao, is particularly harsh and could add tensions to the already fraught relations between Washington and Beijing, despite both leaders stating they intend to stabilize ties.

The decision comes at a time when President Donald Trump is targeting news organizations with multiple threats and legal actions at home and his administration is tightening immigration policies, though foreign journalists are not considered immigrants.

Journalism organizations denounce the decision

The rule will take effect 60 days after it’s published in the Federal Register. Congress can reject a rule, but it's extremely rare.

“We are outraged that the Trump administration has cruelly limited the duration of visas for foreign journalists from a period of up to five years to a fixed eight months,” the advocacy group Reporters with Borders said in a statement. “This change destroys international journalists’ ability to report from the U.S. and makes it extremely difficult for international outlets to operate here at all.”

“The relentless cycle of visa renewals restricts press freedom, as journalists will feel compelled to avoid drawing the administration’s ire, lest their applications be rejected,” it said.

The Committee to Protect Journalists released a statement calling the new visa policy “the behavior of a backsliding democracy, not the international vanguard of free speech.”

In proposing the change in August 2025, the federal agency said the rising number of foreign journalists in the U.S. “poses a challenge” to its ability “to monitor and oversee these nonimmigrants while they are in the United States.”

It added that students and foreign visitors also will see their previous rule of “duration of status” replaced with fixed periods by the same decision.

By admitting them into the country for a fixed period, the Department of Homeland Security said it could better vet the visa holders to ensure their activities are permissible. The visas can be extended.

This isn't the first time shortening visas has been proposed

The first Trump administration sought to change the visa rules in 2020, but the proposal was withdrawn in 2021 when President Joe Biden took office.

But the White House then tightened visas for Chinese journalists to only 90 days, in response to the treatment of U.S. journalists in China, including the expulsion of three Wall Street Journal reporters, as tensions flared up during the COVID-19 pandemic between the two countries. The Biden administration later relaxed the rule, allowing stays to increase to up to a year.

When the Trump administration proposed to revive the 90-day rule last year, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said it opposed “the U.S.’s discriminatory move targeting a specific country.”

China warns of reciprocal measures

China's Foreign Ministry called the decision “discriminatory” and said it would affect the work of Chinese media in the U.S.

“China urges the U.S. to immediately revoke its discriminatory policies targeting Chinese journalists and effectively safeguard their lawful rights and interests in the U.S.,” said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian at a daily briefing in Beijing. He added that “China reserves the right to take reciprocal countermeasures.”

___

AP journalists Fu Ting in Washington and E. Eduardo Castillo in Beijing contributed to the report.

Friday’s Forecast:

Friday will feature more sunshine and noticeably fewer storms, although a stray shower or thunderstorm could still develop late in the afternoon along the sea or bay breeze. Rain chances remain near 20%, so most of the Houston area should stay dry. Watch for a few showers and thunderstorms north of I-10 from 3 PM to 8 PM.

Afternoon temperatures will climb into the mid-90s, with heat index values potentially reaching around 105 degrees.

Weekend Forecast:

A more typical summertime weather pattern settles into Houston this weekend, bringing mostly dry conditions and plenty of heat. Saturday will be partly sunny with a high near 95 degrees, while Sunday should be mostly sunny with temperatures around 96 degrees. Rain chances will be very low, but the combination of heat and humidity will make it feel hotter than the actual temperature. Overnight lows will remain in the mid-to-upper 70s, with some urban and coastal locations struggling to fall below 80 degrees.

10 Day Forecast:

The heat will continue building into next week as high pressure strengthens over the region. High temperatures are expected to reach the upper 90s by Tuesday and Wednesday, with a few locations potentially approaching 100 degrees. Heat index values could climb into the 108- to 110-degree range, possibly reaching Heat Advisory criteria. Rain chances remain minimal through most of next week before a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms returns Thursday.

Speaking at a conference in Shanghai, Xi said AI should not be dominated by any single nation. American-led restrictions have blocked China from accessing some of the world's most advanced technologies, spurring China's efforts to build its own know-how and intensifying the rivalry between the world’s two biggest economies.

“The development of artificial intelligence should not be a solo performance by any single country but rather a symphony of global cooperation,” Xi said at the opening of China's annual World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai. Others attending included the leaders of Kazakhstan, Cambodia and Thailand and U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres.

Xi opposes the ‘overstretching’ of national security in AI

“We should together oppose the practice of overstretching the concept of national security in the field of artificial intelligence, and of placing one’s own security above that of other countries,” he said, repeating a longstanding Chinese complaint.

China will expand AI cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the League of Arab States, the African Union, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the BRICS countries, Xi said. He promised to provide access for 30 countries to a Chinese-developed AI meteorological tool that provides early warning systems.

Over the next five years, Xi said China will provide 5,000 AI training opportunities to developing countries.

Closer partnerships can help prevent “historical injustice in AI,” he said.

China’s new AI cooperation body seen as response to the U.S.

Ahead of the conference, 29 countries including Pakistan, Russia and Kazakhstan signed an agreement with China to establish a World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization. State media described it as an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Shanghai promoting global AI governance.

The new AI cooperation organization can be viewed as China’s answer to the U.S.-led Pax Silica initiative, said George Chen, partner and chair of digital practice at Washington-headquartered consultancy The Asia Group.

The Pax Silica framework, launched late last year, focuses on strengthening collaboration with U.S. allies and partners on AI-related supply chains. Signatories include Japan, the U.K., Australia, the Philippines, Israel and India.

Following a visit by U.S. President Donald Trump’s to Beijing to meet with Xi in mid-May, China and the United States also agreed to conduct a dialogue on AI development and governance.

Chen, who was at the conference in Shanghai, also said Xi’s speech can be seen as a signal that China can be a reliable partner to the developing world, or “Global South” countries. “China will not let America be the monopoly of AI technology.”

China's advanced tech showcased as it steps up self-reliance

More than 1,100 companies and 1,400 guests are participating in the annual AI conference this year, Chinese state media said.

During the conference that runs until Monday, tech giant Huawei is showcasing its powerful AI computing system, the Atlas 950 SuperPoD.

Some technology analysts now believe China has become an innovator in AI and is no longer just catching up with the U.S. China’s five-year plan until 2030 has prioritized progress in frontiers of science and technology including AI.

China’s open-source AI models, like DeepSeek, are seen, especially across the developing world, as appealing and often more affordable than U.S. AI models, which are largely closed-source.

Coinciding with the conference, the Chinese AI startup Moonshot released its latest AI model, Kimi K3. It said Kimi K3's 2.8 trillion parameters — one of the measurements of an AI model's capability — will make it the world's largest open-source model. DeepSeek's V4 Pro version has 1.6 trillion parameters.

Last month, another Chinese AI company Zhipu, or Z.ai, rolled out its new flagship GLM-5.2 open-source model in a challenge to U.S. rivals including Anthropic’s models.

But U.S. politicians and several major U.S. AI companies including Anthropic have accused Chinese AI models of illicit “distillation” of their models to extract their technologies, a claim that Beijing says is “groundless.” U.S. policymakers have also raised concerns over Chinese AI posing an economic threat to the United States.

____

Chan reported from Hong Kong. Associated Press writer Ken Moritsugu contributed from Beijing.

That was May 24, 2000, the day Israel ended its 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon.

By then, many Israelis had grown to view the invasion — initially aimed at ousting Palestinian militants — as a strategic failure, akin to the U.S. military quagmire in Vietnam.

Now, 26 years later, Israel is again occupying much of southern Lebanon, and while polling shows that a majority of Israelis currently support an extended military presence in Lebanon, some, including Barak, who remember the pitfalls of the last occupation, are afraid that Israel is falling into the same trap.

“Our very presence will become the only goal,” Barak said in a recent interview, recounting what he said he thought of the occupation in 1985, when he was a general in the Israeli military, and Israel was shifting from active fighting to long-term deployment in Lebanon.

“We will protect our fortresses, we will protect our convoys of supply, the logistics, the patrols, everything," he said he warned. “But we were not serving Israeli security, we were not serving the state. There was no logic to this in 1985, and there was no logic in 2000, when we pulled out.”

An open-ended occupation

Israel again invaded Lebanon in March and now controls more than 600 square kilometers (230 square miles) of territory. It began the operation after Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group, launched a wave of drone and missile attacks in retaliation for the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.

Last month, Israel signed a framework agreement with the Lebanese government to use at least two areas in southern Lebanon as “pilot zones” for removing Hezbollah weapons and infrastructure and handing over security to Lebanon’s army. Israel would then redeploy or withdraw its forces from those areas. Hezbollah was not part of the agreement and has vowed to oppose it.

In the meantime, Israeli officials have vowed to keep troops inside a broader “security zone” in Lebanon as long as Hezbollah retains its weapons. After the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas that sparked the war in Gaza, Israel has maintained smaller “security zones” in Gaza and Syria, which it says are needed to prevent future attacks by militants.

“We didn’t ask anyone’s permission to enter Lebanon, and we don’t need anyone’s permission to stay in Lebanon,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said recently, calling it Israel's “right and our duty” to protect residents in northern border towns.

A former prime minister warns of similar pitfalls

Barak, who served as Israel’s military chief before coming prime minister, still considers the pullout one of his proudest achievements.

As a general, he recalls visiting soldiers stationed in Lebanon in the early 1980s. He said they told him, “We are fighting to remove the threat from Hezbollah so that our children will be safe and won’t have to serve here.”

But when Barak ordered the withdrawal nearly two decades later, he said some of the children of those same soldiers were serving in Lebanon.

Israel’s self-declared security zone inside Lebanon did not deliver for Israelis during the previous occupation, and it is unlikely the new zone will either, Barak said. Even in the 1990s, rudimentary Katyusha rockets launched by Hezbollah could easily bypass it and hit northern Israel.

“In order to destroy, totally destroy Hezbollah, you’d have to conquer the whole of Lebanon,” Barak said, something most Israelis consider to be impractical.

But even Israel's presence in the south, and the widespread destruction of villages there, runs the risk of rallying Lebanese support for Hezbollah, he said. Israel says the group embeds fighters and weapons in these border towns, but Israeli operations since March had displaced around 1 million Lebanese.

About 40% of them have since returned home, according to the Lebanese government. More than 4,300 people have been killed since hostilities began on March 2. Nearly 40 Israeli soldiers have also died, as well as a defense contractor and two civilians in northern Israel.

Same place, different war

Hezbollah was founded in 1982, as a response to the Israeli occupation, and fought a deadly guerrilla war that included high-profile suicide bombings and assassinations, roadside bombs and ambushes.

Israel carried out bombing campaigns and airstrikes against the militant groups. It also helped establish a local proxy force, a mostly-Christian militia known as the South Lebanon Army that carried out patrols and provided a buffer between Israeli troops and Hezbollah. Thousands of SLA fighters and their families fled to Israel following the withdrawal.

But the type of warfare between the two sides has also changed.

Israel is now operating without a local proxy, instead relying on monitoring and strikes either by air or from vantage points on ridges and hilltops. And Hezbollah, which once relied on insurgent tactics, now uses high-precision missiles and drones, including fiber-optic drones that are hard to defend against and have caused Israeli casualties.

Unique diplomatic opportunity could shift balance

One key difference from 2000 is the possibility of a diplomatic solution with Lebanon, said Orna Mizrahi, former deputy director of Israel’s National Security Council.

Israel has an opportunity in Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Mizrahi said. Since he was elected last year, he has publicly condemned Hezbollah and expressed readiness to negotiate a permanent ceasefire with Israel.

“The military operation needs to complement a diplomatic process,” said Mizrahi, now a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, an Israeli think tank.

Although Hezbollah is unlikely to agree to disarm, it has been severely weakened by wars with Israel, she said, adding that its main sponsor, Iran, is also busy weathering U.S. strikes and battling for control of the Strait of Hormuz.

Mizrahi said this has created an opportunity for a new balance of power inside Lebanon, by strengthening the Lebanese government and military. Israel will never destroy Hezbollah completely, she said. But while the group is scrambling to reorganize, Israel can work with international powers to empower Lebanon to confront it, she added.

4 mothers against the war

By the time Israel withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, the occupation had become deeply unpopular, in large part because of the more than 1,200 Israeli soldiers killed in operations.

In 1997, four mothers of soldiers serving in Lebanon founded a grassroots movement advocating for withdrawal.

Brurya Sharon, now 84, one of the founding members, recalls sending both of her sons off to fight in Lebanon. At the time, she said she felt like Israel’s government and military were maintaining the occupation out of inertia, without stopping to consider if it was effective.

The “Four Mothers” movement has been widely cited as a major factor in Israel’s withdrawal in 2000. They tried to steer clear of politics, instead focusing on the soldiers’ lives, a bipartisan issue, Sharon said.

But now, the country is so divided, especially after the Oct. 7 attack, that Sharon says she sees no option for a broad-based public movement to pressure Israel to withdraw.

Israelis, still traumatized from the Hamas attack, are also concerned about leaving the country's borders vulnerable. Currently, more than seven in 10 Israelis support a permanent security presence in southern Lebanon, according to a recent poll by the think tank Israel Democracy Institute.

“I don’t see a sunbeam of hope, I don’t even see a speck of light,” Sharon said.

The Associated Press reported that David Brouillette, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who shot a Colombian man in Maine, is an Army veteran who has struggled with serious mental health issues since early childhood, according to several of his close relatives.

The AP reached out to congressional leaders and several key lawmakers of both parties for response.

The top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, said Brouillette’s history of violence and mental health issues, as well as the death in Maine, “directly call into question the supposed vetting and training ICE does of its recruits.”

“This senseless tragedy must be investigated and the officer responsible should be taken off our streets and face justice for his actions,” Thompson said in a statement to the AP.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, who led a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security earlier this year as Democrats tried to impose restraints on immigration enforcement operations, said the consequences of failing to put guardrails on ICE are now being measured in lives.

“The Trump administration rushed 12,000 agents onto our streets without ensuring they were fit to carry a badge and a gun — and Republicans gave this rogue agency vast power and no accountability,” Schumer said in a statement. “They empowered ICE. Now they must work with us to prevent more killings.”

The report on Brouillette’s troubling past comes as the Department of Homeland Security has been on a hiring spree, fueled by vast sums from Republicans in Congress to help carry out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda. It raises fresh questions about the department's efforts to quickly hire, vet, train and dispatch recruits who are being sent to patrol communities across America.

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the Republican chair of the powerful Appropriations Committee, referred back to her prior statement that “an impartial investigation into the shooting in Biddeford needs to proceed, as the details surrounding this tragedy are important.”

Collins had said earlier that it is “extremely unfortunate” that the agent did not have a body-worn camera.

The senator ensured $20 million for expanded use of body-worn cameras and $2 million for deescalation training as part of the Homeland Security funding bill that Republicans approved to end the department shutdown.

“The Democratic government shutdown delayed enactment and implementation of these important safety measures,” she said.

At least 10 people have died in encounters with immigration agents since Trump launched the crackdown after retaking office, including 25-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a Colombian national who was shot and killed by Brouillette on Monday while in his car near his home in the coastal Maine city of Biddeford.

“This bombshell is absolutely appalling — exactly the intolerable danger that we feared as a result of arrest quotas and inadequate training,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., in a statement to the AP.

“This agent clearly should never have had a gun — let alone one provided to him by the United States government. And now a man is dead. I’m going to continue demanding answers and accountability,” he said.

Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., said Trump and his administration “have encouraged ICE and CBP to enter and terrorize our communities, even if those agents are untrained, improperly vetted, or lack experience,” referring to Customs and Border Protection.

“The killing of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero was horrifying,” he said in a statement to the AP, “and there must be a credible, independent, and transparent investigation so that those responsible are held accountable.”

• Family says ‘crystal-like substance’ found in Lorenzo Salgado Araujo’s work van was homemade electrolyte mix, not drugs

Reitz, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, released a video statement outlining what he described as preliminary information gathered by federal investigators. He emphasized that authorities have not reached any final conclusions.

“I want to assure the public that the appropriate law enforcement agencies are looking into this matter,” Reitz said. “That includes my office, the FBI, DHS, and other state and local partners.”

Reitz describes investigators’ preliminary findings

According to Reitz, federal officers were investigating two Guatemalan men believed to be driving a white van on the morning of July 7. He said the men had previously evaded arrest and were potentially subject to deportation.

• RELATED: FBI search warrant says ‘crystal-like substance’ found in Lorenzo Salgado Araujo’s work van after fatal ICE shooting

Reitz said agents initially attempted to stop what they believed was the suspects’ van after spotting a similar vehicle in the area.

Statement from @USAttyReitz on the shooting and death of Lorenzo Salgado. Video below. Written statement here:https://t.co/vVvCzMilVF@USAttorneys pic.twitter.com/XwO5PqiV2J

— US Attorney SDTX (@USAO_SDTX) July 16, 2026

“The officers’ two vehicles, each with two officers inside, turned on their police lights and attempted to pull over the van,” Reitz said.

According to his statement, the van made a rapid U-turn, crossed a median and fled. Reitz said agents chose not to pursue the vehicle at that time.

Later that morning, agents encountered the van again and surrounded it, Reitz said.

• ICE orders officers to stop vehicle pursuits nationwide amid Houston and Maine shootings

He said preliminary information indicates officers instructed the men to put the van in park, but the driver instead shifted into reverse and then forward while an officer was either partially inside the van or immediately beside it.

“During this confrontation between federal agents and a group of illegal aliens attempting to flee, one of the officers fired a single shot,” Reitz said. “The round struck Lorenzo Salgado.”

Reitz said the other officers immediately began providing first aid before Salgado was transported to a hospital, where he later died.

DHS later told Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia that Salgado Araujo was not the intended target in the ICE operation.

Search warrant executed on van

Reitz also referenced a development first reported this week involving the vehicle.

• Houston police chief requests Texas Rangers investigate fatal ICE-involved shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo

He said officers observed “several small bags of a white, crystal-like substance” inside the van after the shooting.

“As a result, just yesterday the FBI executed a search warrant on the van in connection with possible narcotics trafficking and drug offenses,” Reitz said.

Court records previously obtained by Click2Houston showed the FBI sought the search warrant after agents reported seeing the suspected substance in plain view inside the work van.

The warrant affidavit stated investigators planned to test the substance and search the vehicle for additional evidence related to possible drug offenses.

Case has drawn widespread attention

The shooting has sparked protests and calls for transparency from community members, elected officials and Salgado’s family.

According to previous statements from the Department of Homeland Security, Salgado was not the original target of the immigration operation. Federal officials have said ICE agents were attempting to locate another person with a final order of removal when they encountered Salgado.

DHS has previously said an ICE agent fired in self-defense after Salgado allegedly used the van in a manner that placed an officer in danger.

• RELATED: Texas Rangers not investigating ICE fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, cite no federal or local request

Salgado’s family and their attorneys have disputed the federal government’s account and have continued calling for the release of additional evidence surrounding the shooting.

Earlier this week, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office said it remains involved in the investigation, while the FBI continues to lead the federal review.

Investigation status

Reitz stressed Thursday that his office is not making any final determinations while the investigation remains active.

“We draw no decisive conclusions and believe federal law enforcement will conduct a thorough investigation,” he said.

• Harris County ME rules Houston ICE shooting death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo a homicide

“We are doing everything we can to seek the truth and do the right thing. In the meantime, I encourage the public to give the FBI and DHS the opportunity to investigate. Let the justice system work.”

No timeline has been announced for when investigators expect to complete their review.

Salgado Araujo was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent on July 7.

The viewing drew mourners from across the city, many dressed in blue and carrying flowers or rosaries as they waited in line to enter. Some walked out clutching mini soccer balls — a tribute to Salgado Araujo’s love of the game.

Beto Davila, who attended the viewing, described the East End as a place where community bonds run deep.

“This is a great place to live, to raise your family, to raise your kids,” Davila said. “This should never happen in any community, let alone in our community. It is very tight knit.”

Davila added that being together helped ease the weight of grief.

“Just by being with everyone else, we can lift each other up,” he said. “It’s small things like this that help us to start, get over it and remember that we shouldn’t forget.”

Calls for change

Teodoro Aguiluz, with CRECEN, a Central American Resource Center, told KPRC 2 that immigration enforcement tactics under the Trump administration have fueled violence and contributed to deaths in the community — including that of Salgado Araujo.

“Nosotros creemos que la respuesta que esta dando esta administracion se a excedido con la violencia, la muerte que a llevado con nuestros hermanos no solo la de Lorenzo,” Aguiluz said.

(Translation: “We believe that the response this administration is giving has gone too far with the violence, the death it has brought to our brothers, not just Lorenzo’s.”)

Former Houston City Council Member Letitia Plummer also attended the viewing and called on local and county government to take action on how ICE operates within the city.

“The way ICE is moving in our city is unacceptable,” Plummer said. “This is a government decision. This is a situation that local and county government has to figure out in how we want to allow other law enforcement to come to our city and function.”

A community in mourning

Salgado Araujo was shot and killed by an ICE agent in the Magnolia Park area while on his way to work, according to family and community members. He leaves behind a wife and three children.

The Salgado family will hold a private service this weekend.

Networks and their news operations, broadcast and cable alike, spent the hours leading up to Trump’s address debating how to cover it — and struggling to balance delivering the news with handing over their airwaves to potential falsehoods about the 2020 elections.

In the end, a patchwork quilt of coverage was largely united by one common strategy: real-time fact-checking as much as was possible even while the president was still speaking.

The dilemma took place against a backdrop of deep tension between the media and a president working to exert control over it by whatever means he can. Even in his speech itself, Trump excoriated networks that chose not to carry it live, saying that “NBC and ABC fake news” avoided it because they “don't like the topic.” He also threatened them with consequences, using the presidential pulpit to suggest they should be sanctioned for their editorial decisions.

"They and others in the media are part of a plot," Trump said, offering no evidence for his assertion. There is also no evidence of fraud in the 2020 elections.

“They want to continue this fraud for whatever reason. They want to keep it going," he said. "Fraud like this should mean a revocation of their licenses. They use our public multibillion-dollar-in-value airwaves for absolutely no money. They pay nothing. All we want is honesty in our elections and honesty in reporting.”

The tension between Trump and the news media during his second term has taken many forms, from sanctions against members of the White House press corps to regulatory actions through the Federal Communications Commission to outright lawsuits.

There were a variety of approaches to coverage

The media outlets' decision-making — seemingly last-minute, for many, with networks divulging their plans minutes beforehand — produced a variety of coverage scenarios for the 24 minutes of Trump’s address.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins anchored her nightly program. “We aren’t taking it live,” she said of the speech, given the president’s “well-documented history” of falsehoods. Panelists were on hand for analysis and fact-checking. “Sadly, we have no choice to be skeptical when this president talks elections,” said the network’s veteran correspondent John King.

Fox News and Fox Broadcasting aired the president’s speech live. But ABC and NBC did not, sticking with regular programming — “Press Your Luck,” in ABC's case, and an animal show featuring alligators in NBC's. But they were ready to cut in as they deemed newsworthy, as well as offering special reports afterwards.

Both ABC and NBC, however, provided live coverage on their streaming channels — NBC News NOW and ABC News Live — as well as ABC News Radio. In the still-young era of streaming, that is increasingly a decision that allows network news to play it both ways.

As for CBS, the network did preempt regular programming — a summer rerun of “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage” — to air a special report anchored by Tony Dokoupil. The report joined the live speech a few minutes in, at 9:06, and left it before the end, at 9:23.

MS NOW started airing the speech, then cut away for analysis and commentary after 17 minutes on host Jen Psaki’s show. Psaki used the split screen for a bit, with her speaking on the right and a muted Trump appearing on the left.

By the end, of the top networks, the speech was continuing live only on Fox News.

Robert Thompson, director of Syracuse University’s Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture, said coverage of the 24- minute address made for “a weird evening, where the reporters quote and describe the speech but show little of what they’re quoting." Thompson said full coverage was the way to go even — and perhaps especially — if the speech was believed to contain falsehoods.

“When the president of the United States makes an announcement that there is going to be a major speech with major information, however cynical we are … I think that is, by definition, important civic news significant to the citizenry,” he said. “It’s the president making the speech, and if the president does what everybody’s worried about him doing, that is a real reason to be covering it, to bear witness on exactly what gets said."

Networks had been urged beforehand to carry it live

Earlier Thursday, at the White House briefing, press secretary Karoline Leavitt had urged TV networks to carry the speech live. And Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity said on his show that major networks not going live was “pretty unheard of for a primetime address for a president.”

Broadcast networks, though, have previously declined primetime coverage to President Barack Obama for a 2014 speech on immigration, and President Joe Biden for his speech on democracy, “Battle for the Soul of the Nation,” in 2022.

The backdrop of Thursday’s speech was an ever-increasing tension between the media and the administration. Broadcast networks have been under close scrutiny by the Trump-appointed chair of the FCC, Brendan Carr, who has launched early reviews of licenses of some ABC-owned stations and threatened to revoke the long-held exemption from equal time rules for the popular talk show “The View.”

Trump’s animosity toward news outlets whose agenda runs counter to his own isn’t new. But in his second presidential term, he has launched an escalation, often harnessing the levers of the federal government or attempting to do so. The efforts have taken place both in actual courtrooms and in the court of public opinion.

In fact, one of the strongest security features of U.S. elections is the fact that they aren’t conducted at the federal level. America votes in more than 10,000 different election jurisdictions, each with different rules set by state and sometimes local governments.

That structure makes the nation's elections extraordinarily complicated — and also safe from widespread fraud. And when misconduct does happen — rarely — security protocols frequently catch it.

Decentralized elections date back to the nation's founding

America's highly decentralized system of voting exists because the nation’s Founding Fathers gave authority over elections to the states, rather than the federal government. While Congress has the power to regulate elections — and has used that authority to pass such laws as the Voting Rights Act — the Constitution makes clear that states have primary authority to set the “times, places and manner” for elections.

There also is no national election agency that administers the presidential contest, something that's different from many other countries. And when it comes to doing the day-to-day work of running an election, the responsibility falls to officials at the local level — usually a clerk or election supervisor — with help from staff and volunteers.

While differences in election laws can get confusing, election security experts say this structure is a strength. That's because to pull off stealing a presidential election — as Trump falsely claims was done to him in 2020 — it would require large numbers of election workers in the most competitive counties across the country who are willing to risk prosecution, prison time and fines while working with officials from both parties willing to look the other way. And everyone somehow would have to keep quiet — a highly unlikely scenario.

There are also shared practices and security measures in place across the country that together work to ensure that only eligible voters can cast a ballot and only one ballot is counted for each.

Voter fraud can happen, but it's rare and there are safeguards to catch it

Most Americans by now have probably heard stories about someone casting multiple ballots, or voting in the name of dead relatives, or stealing mail ballots from mailboxes.

When these incidents happen, they are often caught and prosecuted.

Voting more than once, tampering with ballots, lying about your residence to vote somewhere else or casting someone else’s ballot are crimes that can be punished with hefty fines and prison time. Non-U.S. citizens who break election laws can be deported.

For anyone still motivated to cheat, election systems in the United States are designed with multiple layers of protection and transparency intended to stand in the way.

For example, for in-person voting, most states either require or request voters provide some sort of identification at the polls. Others require voters to verify who they are in another way, such as stating their name and address, signing a poll book or signing an affidavit.

For absentee voting, all states require a voter's signature, and many states have further precautions, such as having bipartisan teams compare the signature with other signatures on file, requiring the signature to be notarized or requiring a witness to sign.

That means even if a ballot is erroneously sent to someone’s past address and the current resident mails it in, there are checks to alert election workers to the foul play.

AP review found there was too little voter fraud to tip the 2020 election

Trump has spent six years insisting he won the 2020 election, a campaign he lost to former President Joe Biden.

An Associated Press review in 2021 dug into every potential case of voter fraud in the six battleground states that Trump disputed. It found fewer than 475 cases — a number that would have made no difference in that race.

Allegations from Trump of massive voting fraud have been refuted by a variety of judges, state election officials and an arm of his own administration’s Homeland Security Department. In 2020, then-Attorney General William Barr, a Trump appointee, told the AP that no proof of widespread voter fraud had been uncovered. “To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election,” he said at the time.

At Trump’s last primetime presidential address in April, he said the U.S. would accomplish its Iran war objectives “very shortly.” But days of back-and-forth attacks by the U.S. and Iran across the Middle East and in the Strait of Hormuz have shredded the interim deal to pause the fighting. U.S. strikes intensified early Thursday against a widening set of targets, including a ship it accused of breaking its blockade on Iranian ports. Iran retaliated by firing on U.S. allies in the region.

Here's the latest:

Solomon says he’s seen no intelligence that votes were flipped

Conservative commentator John Solomon, who joined the White House staff last month, was seated in the East Room for Trump’s speech.

He later told MS NOW outside the building that “the intelligence community has zero evidence that someone has flipped — that a foreign power flipped — a vote in 2020, 22 or 24.”

Solomon added, “We’re not through all the documents.”

He also defended Trump’s decision to discuss intelligence that Venezuela interfered with voting results on their own election machines, not ones in the U.S. Solomon argued that Venezuela’s “machine protocols are the same as America.”

Trump uses primetime address to the nation to once again raise doubts about past elections

The president used Thursday’s address revive a subject he’s long used to make unproven claims and deny his loss in the 2020 election.

Trump’s speech presented allegations of interference and influence in ways that lacked key context, and did not produce evidence that votes had been manipulated or that the election outcome had been altered.

Trump began with a stark warning about what he described as flaws in the voting system and said he was releasing previously classified documents related to the 2020 and 2018 elections, when he lost the presidential election and his party suffered losses.

No credible intelligence has emerged showing that the vote count in 2020 was manipulated by foreign actors.

Repeated audits and reviews — manyrun by Republicans, including Trump’s own then-attorney general — have found no significant fraud occurred in 2020.

He did not raise doubts about his election wins in 2016 or 2024.

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Top Trump officials were in the room for the speech

Nearly the entire Cabinet, including Vice President JD Vance, was in attendance for the president’s primetime speech, underscoring the centrality of elections — and continued preoccupation with his 2020 loss — for Trump and his administration.

A photo of the audience shared by Communications Director Steven Cheung showed Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick among those in the first row.

The speech came a day after a contentious confirmation hearing in which Jay Clayton, Trump’s pick to head the nation’s intelligence agencies, clashed repeatedly with Democrats as he refused to acknowledge that former President Joe Biden won the 2020 election.

That stance has become a litmus test of loyalty for the president.

DHS secretary to speak Friday on voting system security

Trump said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin will hold a briefing to talk about his department’s cybersecurity findings related to electronic voting systems.

The president said the systems are in “bad shape in so many states” and his administration is informing political leaders of potential issues in their states.

Election experts have long acknowledged that the technology used to facilitate elections carries risks that officials work to identify and address. Nationwide, the vast majority of ballots cast included a paper record, helping to prevent cyberattacks or errors from affecting the accuracy of the vote count.

Trump obsesses over election security after cutting election security agency

The president’s concern about foreign interference in the 2020 election is a striking contrast with how his administration has treated the federal agency charged with protecting election infrastructure from overseas tampering.

The Cybersecurity Infrastructure and Security Agency was founded in Trump’s first term in the wake of Russia’s attempt to influence the 2016 presidential vote. When its director, Chris Krebs, said the 2020 vote was secure, Trump fired him.

After returning to office, Trump cut the agency’s staff and programs. His budget this year cuts $707 million from CISA as it says it will restore the agency “to its original mission of securing cyberspace and protecting critical infrastructure.”

CISA’s attempts to combat election misinformation in 2020 and beyond angered Trump and some of his allies.

Trump calls for prosecutions

The president urged Justice Department investigations and prosecutions, though it was unclear from his speech what sort of criminal conduct — if any — could be identified, proved and charged.

At one point he suggested prosecutions for government officials who had left documents he said were related to election investigations in “burn bags” to be incinerated. The FBI under Director Kash Patel investigated that, but no charges have been filed.

Despite the vague claims, Trump’s push could matter because the FBI and the Justice Department in this administration have proved willing to act at his behest.

House Democrat says Trump is trying to weaken democracy

Rep. Joseph Morelle of New York, the ranking Democrat on the House Administration committee, which provides oversight of federal voting issues and elections, said what’s troubling about the president’s address is the way he is trying to sow confusion and spread misinformation ahead of the midterm elections.

“This is a pretext for the president, I think, calling into dispute the 2026 elections,” Morelle said on C-SPAN.

“We have secure elections,” Morelle said, inviting Trump to spend some time understanding the state systems.

“This is a fundamental effort to weaken the foundation of our democracy.”

Former Trump intelligence official pans speech

Sue Gordon, who was principal deputy director of national intelligence for Trump, noted that the intelligence community was alarmed about foreign interference in his first term but the president was dismissive, apparently angered by the probe into his campaign’s possible ties with Russia.

“This was a dangerous speech about an incredibly important topic,” Gordon said on CNN. “He had an entire term to deal with it, and I don’t know how you can believe how the same community that told him about it, that was excoriated about it” would ignore a danger in 2020, she added.

Gordon also said none of the president’s speech surprised her and noted that new intelligence documents may simply recount theories without showing anything actually happened: “Even if there’s new data that’s released, that doesn’t prove anything.”

Voting by noncitizens is uncommon

“According to the DHS review, state voter rolls and public records, they identified approximately 278,000 noncitizens who are registered to vote in federal elections.”

Multiple studies and investigations in individual states have shown that noncitizens casting ballots in federal elections is exceedingly rare.

For example a Georgia audit of its voter rolls conducted in 2022 found fewer than 2,000 instances of noncitizens attempting to register to vote over the last 25 years, none of which succeeded. Millions of new Georgia voters registered during that time period.

A 1996 U.S. law makes it illegal for noncitizens to vote in elections for president or members of Congress. Violators can be fined and imprisoned for up to a year. They can also be deported.

Trump looks toward the midterms

During his speech the president referenced November's midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.

“We have very important elections coming up,” he said. “We want those elections to be honest.”

Trump has been eager to overhaul the country’s voting systems and has said changes are necessary to ensure that Republicans can still be successful.

Election officials and voting system experts maintain that the decentralized nature of U.S. elections and the many safeguards in place to catch meddling ensure that the vote can be trusted.

The SAVE America Act is stalled in the Senate

Trump has made legislation to require proof of citizenship for voters a priority for his presidency.

However, it doesn’t have enough votes to pass.

Trump has unsuccessfully pressured Senate Republicans to scrap the filibuster to eliminate the need for Democratic support, but there aren’t enough votes to do that either.

Trump has concluded his elections address

After 24 minutes, the president closed out his speech by urging the passage of the SAVE Act.

The bill, known as the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, would require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship for anyone registering to vote — something voting rights group have warned could disenfranchise millions of Americans.

Noncitizen voting is illegal under federal law and already rare.

Trump says California vote count 'worse than any Third World country'

Trump zeroed in on California’s routinely prolonged vote count but he vastly misstated the scope of the issue. He complained the state only finished the count for the June 2 primary on July 10. It takes most states a month or more to formally certify the vote, which is what California did on July 10.

The winners of the state’s big races were known sooner — but not exactly soon. It took a week before the Los Angeles mayoral primary was called, for example. That’s partly because California tallies mail-in ballots that arrive up to a week after Election Day as long as they were postmarked by the end of voting.

There are issues with California’s drawn-out vote count, but there’s no indication of any sort of fraud. Indeed, when Republicans have done well in the state’s elections, such as in 2022 congressional races, Trump hasn’t cast aspersions on the results.

Fox goes live, CNN, ABC and NBC do not, CBS airs special report

As Trump arrived at the lectern and began speaking, networks launched into a variety of coverage, after days of intense deliberation.

Fox News and Fox were airing the speech live. ABC and NBC were not, staying with regular programming but ready to cut in as deemed newsworthy.

CBS did preempt regular programming — a summer rerun of “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage” — and was airing a special report anchored by Tony Dokoupil.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins was anchoring her nightly program. “We aren’t taking it live,” she said of the speech, given the president’s well-documented history of falsehoods.

MS NOW started airing the speech, but cut it off for analysis after 17 minutes on host Jen Psaki’s show.

By 9:25 p.m. the speech was only continuing live on Fox News.

Trump claims his own appointees were wrong in 2020

Trump’s vague allegations included a rant against one of his favorite targets: “members of the deep state.”

He claimed that intelligence agencies covered up China’s attempt to disrupt U.S. elections. But Trump appointed the very people who led those intelligence agencies in 2020. Indeed, Trump was given the assessment from those agencies on Jan. 7, 2021, that no foreign country tried to change vote totals or fake ballots in the election. There’s no record of him objecting to the findings at the time.

Now, of course, Trump has restocked the leadership of intelligence agencies with people who echo his often-debunked allegations about elections.

Trump says the benefits of his war with Iran will soon be realized

In his speech on election security, the president said the U.S. is “winning big in Iran and you will see the fruits of that labor very, very shortly.”

The comments come as the U.S. expanded its airstrike campaign against Iran early Friday by hitting bridges as part of a broader attack on the nation’s infrastructure to pressure Tehran to ease its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz.

The White House has created a new website posting documents that Trump claims reveal major ‘areas of concern’

The White House has created a new website with documents that Trump says reveal major ‘areas of concerns’ in election security.

The site went live Thursday as Trump was delivering a primetime address on foreign interference and foreign influence in U.S. elections.

Trump devotes the opening minutes of his speech to repeating campaign-style boasts

The president ran through a long list of what he said were his administration’s accomplishments – including cutting drug prices.

He avoided speaking about elections or the conflict with Iran, including new strikes.

Trump beings his speech saying America is safer, stronger and wealthier

Trump has started his primetime address saying “We are doing great.”

He’s promised he will focus on elections and may revisit some of the unproven claims he has previously made about Republican losses.

The White House has offered few concrete details on what Trump will say, insisting he could still alter his remarks up until the last minute.

But White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt promised it “will shock you.”

ABC, NBC and CNN decided not to air the remarks live. CBS said it was “airing a special report” during the address.

CBS plans special report while CNN will not air speech live

More networks revealed their plans for coverage of Trump’s speech, with CBS saying it was planning to air “a special report” at 9 p.m., anchored by Tony Dokoupil. A person familiar with the plan, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it included various scenarios, including taking the speech live, or cutting away for analysis. There would be experts on set to provide analysis and fact-checking, the person said. As for CNN, the cable network said it would not air the speech live, but would cover it “as a news event,” monitoring it for developments and providing analysis and commentary from CNN experts on elections, intelligence and the FBI. A live feed of the speech, alongside analysis and expert commentary, was being made available on CNN.com and on CNN’s All Access streaming platform.

— Jocelyn Noveck

Top Democrat on House Homeland Security panel questions vetting, training of ICE officers

The top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, is calling into question the vetting and training of ICE officers after details have emerged about the officer involved in a fatal shooting in Maine this week.

Thompson’s remarks come after The Associated Press reported that the ICE officer who shot a Colombian man in Maine is an Army veteran who has struggled with serious mental health issues since early childhood, according to the officer’s relatives.

David Brouillette has a history of terrifying and violent behavior, according to those relatives. They accuse him of attacking women in his life over the years.

“This senseless tragedy must be investigated and the officer responsible should be taken off our streets and face justice for his actions,” Thompson said in a statement to AP.

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AP Exclusive: ICE officer in Maine shooting has history of violent behavior, family and records say

The ICE officer who shot a Colombian man in Maine this week is an Army veteran who has struggled with serious mental health issues since early childhood and never should have been given a badge and gun to patrol American streets, several of his close relatives told The Associated Press.

David Brouillette has a history of terrifying and violent behavior, according to those relatives. They accuse him of attacking women in his life over the years, and one shared a voicemail with the AP from last winter in which he told her that he thought someone should slit her throat.

Brouillette didn’t respond to text messages or an email seeking comment. Three relatives who said they spoke to him since the shooting, including an ex-wife and daughter, said he told them he acted in self-defense.

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Democrats warn Trump’s intelligence officials against misleading Americans on election security

Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut and Democratic lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee sent a letter to CIA Director John Ratcliffe, FBI Director Kash Patel and others ahead of the president’s primetime address.

“The President is within his authority to declassify intelligence,” the lawmakers wrote, “but if he does so in a way that is intended to mislead Americans about the most basic foundation of our democracy and that may compromise sources and methods, it is incumbent on you to stand up for the agencies you lead.”

Before any intelligence is publicly disclosed, they said, “it should be coordinated with all relevant Intelligence Community elements.”

The lawmakers said, “We remind you that you are statutorily obligated to keep the Committee fully and currently informed, a requirement that should include notification of new intelligence related to election influence or interference as well as any significant declassification.”

Hegseth backs low-altitude military flyovers as a series of maneuvers draws scrutiny

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is sticking to encouraging low-altitude military flyovers after a fighter jet buzzed a Florida beach during a show this week.

Video spreading widely on social media shows a jet from the Navy’s demonstration squadron, the Blue Angels, flying so low over a crowded beach in Pensacola that chairs and tents went flying, sand kicked up and children held their hands over their ears.

The U.S. Navy said in a statement shortly afterward that it was “conducting a thorough safety review.” Then on Thursday morning, a host of Trump administration officials heaped praise on the maneuver.

“The flyovers will continue until morale improves,” Hegseth wrote on his personal X account, without elaborating.

The Pentagon’s top spokesman, Sean Parnell, wrote “Carry on Patriots” on social media alongside a photo showing a Blue Angels jet with a wingtip just feet above the heads of beachgoers.

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Flyovers might not violate rules but that doesn’t make them safe

Former Transportation Department Inspector General Mary Schiavo said military planes flying low over people probably don’t violate military rules because the Pentagon doesn’t have the same restrictions that the FAA imposes on civilian flights.

“They are air demonstration teams, and what they do is exceedingly dangerous — amazing and wonderful — but dangerous,” said Schiavo, who is also a pilot and used to work in air shows years ago. “And so it is really not something to be performed over people.”

Florida beachgoer Alexandra Belcher, 34, called the Blue Angels flyover this week a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

“I didn’t realize how close it was, until everyone around me was like, ‘That was so cool,’” she said. “It was not normal, but it was such a blessing to be able to witness that with everybody that I was with.”

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Trump administration to drastically shorten visas for foreign journalists in US

The Trump administration will drastically shorten visas for foreign journalists in the U.S. to 240 days, down from years, and cut those for Chinese journalists to only 90 days, raising concerns over press freedom in the United States and retaliation against American journalists overseas.

The final rule announced by the Department of Homeland Security will do away with the “duration of status” system, which allows foreign journalists to stay and work in the United States as long as they meet eligibility requirements. That will be replaced with a fixed period of time, though the visas may be extended.

The agency says it’s necessary to better vet the visa holders. But advocates for foreign journalists oppose the change, saying the drastically shorter stay would severely restrict their ability to live and work in the States.

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Trump media firm plans to sell high speed access to Truth Social posts

Trump’s media company is planning to charge for special high-speed access to Truth Social posts, including possibly his own affecting national security and financial markets.

The move announced Thursday would allow Wall Street trading firms and other institutions to get news from Truth Social contributors in milliseconds so they could profit off subsequent moves in stocks, bonds and interest rates. The most popular Truth Social poster is the president himself and, as the biggest shareholder of the public traded parent company, he would directly benefit.

“He’s selling expedited, privileged access to information about what he is doing as president,” said Kathleen Clark of Washington University School of Law and an expert in government conflicts of interest rules. “It’s yet more brazen corruption, an improper exploitation of government power to enrich himself.”

The Trump family company declined to comment about whether the new feature is profiting off the presidency.

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GOP senator says Blanche must meet Epstein accusers to earn his vote for attorney general

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was expected to meet Thursday with accusers of Jeffrey Epstein after a key Republican senator said it was necessary to earn his support for Blanche’s nomination to lead the Justice Department.

Sen. Thom Tillis had indicated during Blanche’s confirmation hearing on Wednesday that he was leaning toward backing Blanche, who has been leading the department in an acting capacity since April.

But after an Epstein accuser testified a day later, Tillis said he expects a meeting to occur before he’s “willing to vote out of this committee.”

Without Tillis’ support, Blanche’s nomination won’t make it through the Senate Judiciary Committee.

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Trump stops offshore wind development while citing national security

President Donald Trump’s administration has worked to stop offshore wind development on the grounds it’s a national security risk since late last year, halting work on major projects and buying back leases.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum says a classified report from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth proves offshore wind is a national security threat.

This comes against the backdrop of the Republican president’s hatred of wind turbines and desire to boost fossil fuels for “energy dominance” in the global market. Wind turbines interfere with radar, but that isn’t a new problem.

The Pentagon reviews wind farm construction plans and can deem areas off limits. And there are upgrades to radar to mitigate turbine impacts.

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The supersizing of ICE -- fueled by an infusion of billions of dollars granted by Congress — has raised concerns about the agency's hiring practices and whether officers being brought on are receiving proper vetting. Those concerns have been rejected by the Department of Homeland Security.

Relatives of the ICE officer who shot a Colombian man in Maine this week told The Associated Press he struggled with serious mental health issues since early childhood and never should have been given a badge and gun to patrol American streets.

The precise circumstances surrounding the officer's hiring were not immediately clear. But the revelations about the man, David Brouillette, shine a new spotlight on ICE's hiring spree and the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.

Here is a look at the agency's hiring and training practices:

A surge in new hires at ICE

In January, Homeland Security said it had hired 12,000 new officers and agents since the hiring surge began and said thousands of those new officers were already out on the streets assisting with investigations. The number includes both deportation officers and agents for Homeland Security Investigations, a separate agency that falls under ICE.

ICE has said the majority of new hires are police and military veterans. But evidence has been mounting that applicants with questionable histories were either not fully vetted before they were brought on or were hired in spite of their past, an investigation by The Associated Press earlier this year found.

At the time, Homeland Security, ICE’s parent agency, would not answer questions about specific hiring decisions. It did say some applicants received “tentative selection letters” and offers to begin working on a temporary status before they had been subjected to full background checks.

It defended its hiring practices, saying it does rigorous vetting.

ICE’s former acting director, Todd Lyons, said during a congressional hearing in February that he was proud of the hiring campaign, which drew more than 220,000 applications.

“This expansion of a well-trained and well-vetted workforce will help further ICE’s ability to execute the president’s and secretary’s bold agenda,” he said.

The vetting process includes reviewing applicants' criminal histories and credit scores and conducting background investigations that include interviewing prior employers and other associates, which can take weeks. ICE also promised signing bonuses of up to $50,000, advertised that college degrees were not required and lowered the age of new recruits to 18.

An internal memo, first reported by Reuters in February, told ICE supervisors that if they receive “derogatory information about a newly hired employee’s conduct” they should refer the allegations to an internal affairs unit for investigation. Such information could include the employees’ termination or forced resignations, the memo said.

The DHS inspector general last August announced plans to audit ICE’s hiring and training processes, but no findings have been released.

Applicants have to get a security clearance

Recent job advertisements for deportation officers spell out the current qualifications, including that the person must be a U.S. citizen to apply and will have to pass a background investigation and a drug test.

New deportation officers also have to take a physical fitness test and be able to obtain and maintain a security clearance. Once hired, new deportation officers may have to serve a one-year probationary period.

According to the job advertisement, deportation officers are required to carry a firearm, which means anyone convicted of domestic violence is ruled out.

Applicants undergo a medical exam and should be prepared to possibly be polygraphed. The application cautions that any false statements on the application can translate into the job offer being pulled or, if the person has already started work, they can lose their job or go to prison.

The background investigation can include a credit check, reviews of any financial problems like failure to pay child support or taxes and a look at the person’s criminal and drug history.

Claire Trickler-McNulty, a former ICE official under the Obama, first Trump and Biden administrations, said hiring a new deportation officer is similar to any other federal hiring.

Generally, applications are reviewed by a hiring manager who decides which candidates to advance. Once someone gets a tentative offer, the agency conducts a background check.

When people are applying for jobs that involve getting a security clearance, Trickler-McNulty said, they have to disclose on their application any drug use, interactions with police, groups they’re affiliated with, mental health concerns, prior addresses and job history.

Depending on the clearance level, they’ll also ask for references that a background investigator will contact. If there’s red flag such as a DUI or a history of debt, that can trigger a deeper investigation.

“You want to make sure the person is appropriate for a public trust position,” she said.

Concerns over changes to ICE training schedule

Generally, new candidates for deportation officer positions have to go through a 50-day immigration law enforcement training program, according to the job advertisement.

Ryan Schwank, a former lawyer at ICE who was responsible for training new deportation officers, told The Associated Press that the agency reduced the overall amount of training new recruits received and reduced the testing needed to pass before graduating. Homeland Security has denied that it has removed any training requirements or lessened requirements for officers.

Trickler-McNulty said she has concerns over reports the agency shortened training as it was aiming to hire thousands of new officers. ICE officials revamped the training as part of efforts to swiftly hire and train an additional 10,000 deportation officers with an infusion of billions of dollars last summer from Congress.

At the time, the agency had about 6,500 deportation officers. That led to allegations that the department was cutting corners in an effort to get more officers in the field, which Homeland Security and ICE repeatedly denied.

In June, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the agency would be increasing the amount of training for new officers starting this month. In a statement Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security said all new academy training classes beginning July 1 will last for 71 days and officers who graduated under the previous curriculum would get more training under a separate field officer program.

The department also said it was adding new training in crowd control measures, high-risk vehicle stops, live-fire exercises and medical training, in response to what they called coordinated attacks against their officers and ICE facilities.

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Associated Press reporter Jonathan J. Cooper contributed to this report from Phoenix.

The interim ceasefire agreed to last month has collapsed, and the region has endured days of back-and-forth attacks by the U.S. and Iran as they battle for control of the strait. Iranian officials say U.S. strikes have killed more than 35 people and wounded over 300 others, with new casualties reported in Friday's strikes.

When the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Iran on Feb. 28, Tehran effectively closed the strait to shipping traffic, a move that sent the price of oil soaring and gave Iran major leverage in negotiations.

Speaking in a primetime address to the American public, Trump insisted the war was going well.

"We are likewise winning big in Iran, and you will see the fruits of that labor very, very shortly," Trump said.

US airstrikes hit bridges in Iran

The U.S. airstrikes hit bridges overnight into Friday in Iran's southern Hormozgan province, killing at least seven people, Iranian state television reported. The attacks hit Bandar Khamir, a city on Iran's coast on the Strait of Hormuz.

The U.S. military's Central Command said it hit dozens of targets in its latest airstrikes, which concluded at dawn Friday, the sixth night in a row of American attacks.

Iranian state media said the U.S. strikes Thursday hit around Tehran and Semnan province, home to Iran’s ballistic missile production and space program.

On Friday, Qatar twice warned the public to take shelter as a barrage of Iranian missiles targeted the nation. People heard explosions overhead as air defenses fired to intercept the missiles. Qatar’s Interior Ministry said falling debris wounded a child.

Qatar is a key mediator with Pakistan in trying to reach an end to the Iran war. But talks have broken down over Iran’s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran earlier targeted Bahrain and Kuwait over U.S. airstrikes hitting bridges in the Islamic Republic overnight.

Strikes come Iran and US vie for Strait of Hormuz

Trump has returned in recent days to his threats to target Iranian power stations and bridges to try to compel Iran to loosen its hold on the strait, through which about a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded once passed in peacetime. The U.S. also reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports to halt its shipments of crude oil.

Week-to-week cargo shipments through the strait dropped by almost a quarter at the beginning of the month, according to Maritime data firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence. And that was before the recent surge in tit-for-tat attacks.

Given the risks, some oil shippers are transiting the strait with their location devices turned off, but many are just staying put, Lloyd’s said Thursday. A growing amount of the region’s energy is being shipped through pipelines, but not nearly enough to offset the decline in shipping through the strait.

U.S. forces have redirected three commercial vessels trying to run the blockade, disabled one that did not comply and boarded another “to ensure full compliance,” the U.S. military's Central Command said in a post on X.

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Associated Press writers Abby Sewell in Beirut, Mae Anderson in New York and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Heavy, pungent wildfire smoke darkened skies in the U.S. from the Great Lakes to parts of the East Coast, reducing visibility and prompting warnings that breathing the air outside could be dangerous.

Officials in many cities urged residents to stay inside or wear masks outside as air quality reached unhealthy to hazardous levels, meaning it’s unhealthy for anyone, regardless of health conditions. The National Weather Service said a lingering high pressure system has trapped the smoke close to the ground.

The Philadelphia region is experiencing smoky and hazy skies. The game's start was moved to 6:10 p.m. EDT from 7:10 p.m. It is the only game on the big league schedule coming out of this week's All-Star break.

“It’s definitely different,” Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper said on ESPN during the broadcasting of the game. “Not the greatest idea, I guess, to come out here and play in this type of weather, but we’re doing it.”

After his team’s 4-1 victory, Mets interim manager Andy Green was asked how the conditions affected the game.

“I don’t think they really did,” Green said. “I think it felt like they could have at any moment, especially as visibility got tougher. But, guys managed to see baseballs that I couldn’t when they went up in the air as popups. So, good thing we’ve got good athletes on the field that can see things.”

Phillies manager Don Mattingly said tracking fly balls later in the game seemed to become an issue.

“It didn’t seem to be a huge problem,” Mattingly said. "The vision, later on, was a little bit like foggy conditions more than the air quality. As far as the guys were concerned (visibility) seemed to be the problem.”

This is the second time wildfire smoke has affected a game in Philadelphia. In June 2023, a game between Detroit and Philadelphia was postponed due to poor air quality related to smoke from Canadian wildfires.

Poor air quality due to wildfire smoke also forced the Major League Soccer game between the Vancouver Whitecaps and Fire at Chicago's Soldier Field, along with a scheduled postgame concert, to be postponed. The game, which was expected to draw 40,000, will be made up on Oct. 6.

Also, the Canadian Premier League postponed Thursday's scheduled game between Forge FC and Pacific FC that was to be played in Hamilton, Ontario, due to “worsening air quality issues.” The league said on its website that conditions “deteriorated in the final hours leading up to kickoff.”

Trinity Rodman, a member of the U.S. women's national team, said the smokey sky was difficult to deal with during Wednesday night's NWSL game between the Washington Spirit and Gotham FC at New York's Citi Field.

Rodman said she wasn't a fan of the hydration breaks every 15 minutes in the game as the temperature reached into the 90s.

“Air quality was rough,” Rodman was quoted as saying by The Athletic. “Not to make excuses at all, but I think on both sides we were all like, ‘another break, another break, another break.’”

A crowd of more than 42,000 attended the rematch of teams in last season's NWSL title game. The crowd was a record for a women’s sporting event in New York City.

“If we have to have a hydration break every 15 minutes, then we shouldn’t be playing the game, and that’s my opinion,” Rodman said. “But at the end of the day, there’s 40,000 people. It’s a whole event, so it’s really tough. It’s just a really hard situation for everyone to work around.”

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

One video posted on social media showed a man yelling and crying on the ground in Terminal 3 at Harry Reid International Airport on Monday when a man and a masked woman, both in plainclothes, tried to control, handcuff and detain him. When the pair realized they were being filmed, they walked away, leaving the man with a handcuff attached to one arm.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police found no outstanding warrants for the man, removed his handcuffs and notified ICE.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, ICE officers on Monday did not proceed with the arrest at the Las Vegas airport of Phu Nguyen, a 57-year-old citizen of Australia who overstayed his visa. ICE arrested him at his flight departing the Los Angeles International Airport on Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security said.

“ICE is continuing to act with impunity — instilling fear in our communities and scaring tourists, which hurts our tourism economy,” Democratic U.S. Senator for Nevada Jacky Rosen said in a statement. “Enough is enough. ICE must follow the same commonsense guardrails as other law enforcement agencies."

The Nevada Latino Legislative Caucus and the Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Caucus are calling for a full investigation into the aborted arrest by ICE at Harry Reid International Airport, urging Gov. Joe Lombardo to explain the transparency and accountability for federal law enforcement agencies operating in Nevada.

At the public viewing at Forest Park Lawndale Funeral Home, which was followed by a Catholic rosary, visitors said that’s what it means to live in Houston’s east end and to be part of the Latino community: stand up together, and grieve together.

“How could we not show up and be here?” said Luke Orlando, who lives 10 minutes from where Salgado Araujo was shot and killed on July 7 by a federal immigration agent. “It could have been any of us, any of our neighbors.”

The viewing drew hundreds of residents from across the Houston area who paid their respects and offered condolences to his family, including local leaders like Mayor John Whitmire, state Sen. Carol Alvarado, and Houston City Council Member Julian Ramirez.

Salgado Araujo’s two eldest sons, 29-year-old Ronaldo Salgado and 27-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Jr., stood by their father’s casket for hours, greeting everyone who approached.

“I’m here because Lorenzo’s boys need to know that we love them, we are here for them,” said Kathy Danas, who lives in Katy, a suburb on the other side of Houston. “Today, all the tias and tios are getting together, all the primos and primas, getting together to be here for Lorenzo’s family and his boys … If we don’t take care of our gente, no one else will.”

Danas said her father grew up and lived in Houston’s east side and, like Salgado Araujo, was a working man who just wanted to support his family.

“My dad would do anything for anyone, and Lorenzo seemed to be that kind of father, he was like my father,” she said. Her father, who died 12 years ago, would “be so hurt if he saw what was going on, he would not be able to handle the world the way it is now,” she said.

Salgado Araujo’s dedication to his construction job and love for soccer were on full display at the funeral home on Thursday. Two of his white hard hats sat on the greeting table, with markers so people could sign them, surrounded by his work gloves, tape measures, and tool box. Another table was adorned with his soccer memorabilia and two of his Mexican soccer jerseys.

As a mariachi band, dressed head to toe in black, stood in front of the casket and filled the room with music, visitors saw photos and videos of a joyful Salgado Araujo dancing with his wife at a fiesta. A proud Salgado Araujo posing with one of his three sons after a soccer game, holding a tall trophy. A young Salgado Araujo listening to his son playing guitar.

Salgado Araujo lived in this community for more than three decades, built a construction business and put all of his sons through college.

Many parts of the 52-year-old’s life and family resonate deeply with residents in Houston’s Latino community, which since the shooting, has been gripped by fear and grief. Albert Davila said he relates most to Salgado Araujo’s eldest son Ronaldo, since they’re close in age and are both teachers.

Davila said he’s proud of living in Houston’s east side, where “you feel like home anywhere you go … Seeing everyone here today, it felt like I’m going to a family event.”

But he said elected officials have “robbed a lot of the community of their innocence,” and he’s more motivated than before to push his representatives to fight for tougher limitations on immigration enforcement — or lose their seats.

“Our local, state reps, they don’t feel pressure, but they should not feel comfortable right now,” he said.

As Nelly Monrroy walked up to the funeral home, she felt a mix of emotions. Devastation for her community, for sure, but also immense pride for her Latino heritage.

“I am here today in solidarity with my immigrant community,” Monrroy said. “We come here looking for a better life for us and for our family, and that’s what Lorenzo did.”

Monrroy works at Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, a church just down the street from the funeral home.

She didn’t know Salgado Araujo. But that didn’t matter.

“It’s not going to stop here, I’m going to keep speaking up and on behalf of Mr. Salgado,” she said. “The least I can do is come here today to pay my respects.”

Dozens of family members of the victims packed the courtroom as Chief Judge Paolo Lepri read the verdicts against 57 defendants, including former executives and officials. Many relatives broke down in tears as the sentences were read.

A representative for the families of the victims, Egle Possetti, expressed satisfaction with the verdicts, saying they showed “there were serious failures in management, and 43 people paid with their lives.”

The former chief executive of highway operator Autostrade per l'Italia, Giovanni Castellucci, was sentenced to 12 years in prison, the longest sentence handed down after four hours of deliberation in the trial that spanned four years.

Castellucci’s lawyers said they would appeal, noting in a statement that as CEO, their client had relied on Italy’s leading engineers and suggesting that he had been scapegoated.

“The suffering caused by the Genoa tragedy is immense and deserves respect. But the gravity of the event requires justice to remain based on individual responsibility, not the search for a scapegoat,” they said in a statement.

Also convicted were Autostrade’s former head of maintenance, Michele Donferri Mitelli, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison. The former CEO of the SPEA engineering company, Antonino Galatà, received five years and six months.

The court says the bridge collapse was foreseeable

The most serious charges included negligence resulting in the collapse, aggravated manslaughter and vehicular homicide stemming from failures to properly monitor and maintain the bridge, which was part of a main route linking northern Italy with the French Riviera.

The court will issue its full reasoning within six months. But in a summary accompanying the verdict, it said the convictions were based on findings that identified a system of defects affecting one of the bridge’s stay cables and concluded that the collapse was “foreseeable and preventable.”

The court said that some defendants from the highway concession and its engineering subsidiary failed to carry out the requiring monitoring of the bridge, relying in part on a 1967 Ministry of Public Works circular, while some transport ministry had officials had failed to exercise proper oversight of Autostrade's safety monitoring.

In all, 32 people were convicted and handed sentences ranging from 1 year and 11 months to 12 years. The rest were either found not guilty, or lesser charges had expired under the statute of limitations.

Lawyer Raffaele Caruso expressed satisfaction that court had held people resonsible at the three main players: the highway concession, its engineering subsidiary and the transport ministry.

“What emerges is that this bridge did not collapse by chance — this bridge collapsed due to specific, precise, individualized, personalized, and specifically identified responsibilities," Caruso told a press conference. “There has been much talk about the construction defect ... But this does not rule out the existence of liability.”

Warning signs of defect were ignored

Shortly before noon on Aug. 14, 2018, a 200-meter (650-foot) section of Genoa’s Morandi highway bridge gave way during a rainstorm, sending dozens of vehicles plunging to the ground.

Images of the collapsed bridge were seen around the world and shocked Italians on one of Italy’s busiest travel days, as millions headed out for the traditional Aug. 15 Ferragosto holiday that marks the peak summer vacation season.

Prosecutors argued that years of maintenance neglect led to the collapse, and demanded combined sentences totaling nearly 400 years for all of the defendants. The defendants denied wrongdoing and say the fault was caused by a construction defect.

Considered an engineering marvel when it opened in 1967, the Morandi featured three A-shaped concrete pylons and concrete-encased stay cables.

Caruso said that the trial showed that warning signs about defects in the pylon that collapsed had existed for decades. He cited maintenance on the other two starting in 1993 that was never extended to the third.

“From 1993 onward, the problem was known. We had three identical pylons. Two had already shown the same defect, and no one seriously asked whether the third one had it as well,” Caruso said.

Autostrade had reached a deal to avoid trial

The current Autostrade chief executive, Arrigo Giana, issued a public apology Thursday in an open letter published in major Italian dailies.

“The actions and decisions of some people left indelible scars,’’ said Giana, who joined Autostrade as CEO last year. “Offering today the apology that was not made then is, for us, a moral imperative that goes beyond establishing legal responsibility and the course of justice toward the truth.”

Autostrade and its subsidiary reached a deal on corporate liability earlier in the proceedings, paying roughly 30 million euros ($34 million) in financial penalties. The agreement spared the companies from a trial as corporate defendants and potentially much harsher sanctions, including exclusion from public contracts.

The settlements were reached after the companies adopted new compliance procedures aimed at preventing similar accidents, and after victims were compensated.

A new bridge designed by Genoa-born Italian architect Renzo Piano opened in 2020, spanning a memorial to the victims of the Morandi Bridge collapse.

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Barry reported from Milan.

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This story corrects the number of convictions to 32.

Rescuers aboard boats and helicopters have saved more than 200 people, including stranded drivers and people trapped in homes, Abbott said.

The governor said the hardest-hit areas are expecting more rain into Friday and are not out of danger yet, with some rivers expected to reach historic levels.

After days of pounding rain, the National Weather Service said a large wave on Thursday barreled down the same river wrecked by flash floods last summer when two dozen children and counselors died at Camp Mystic.

Much like last year, the floods came in the middle of the night. But this time some residents in the Texas Hill Country said they received more warnings.

Forecasters urgently warned, “Move to higher ground now!” as rivers rose hour by hour. Some spots of the Guadalupe River rose by more than 30 feet (9 meters).

The governor said more than 2,000 first responders had been deployed and some evacuations began before the worst of the flooding.

“What happened last year was a warning to people on or near rivers," Abbott said. “No one can be complacent.”

As much as 28 inches (74 centimeters) of rain fell over the past three days in Uvalde County, which was spared from the worst flooding a year ago, the weather service said Thursday. Other areas saw roughly a foot of rain.

Victims in Texas floods were swept away

The governor said one of the victims was driving on a flooded road and was swept away near Uvalde while the other died in Kerr County.

Jennie Steward said the body of her husband, 65-year-old John Mark Steward, of Kerrville, was found Thursday.

She was visiting her parents when a neighbor called overnight, saying her husband was missing after water had risen to the door of their mobile home, which stood off the ground.

The entire home was swept off the platform and floated down Goat Creek on the Guadalupe, she said.

“It’s really hard that I wasn’t there with him,” she said. The two last spoke by phone Wednesday to celebrate their third anniversary.

Hill Country residents say they were better prepared

The unfolding crisis brought back haunting memories of last summer's unimaginable Hill Country floods that killed more than 100 people over the July Fourth holiday.

“It’s crazy happening two times in one year,” said Josiah Rodriguez, who awoke to the sound of heavy rain around 2 a.m. Thursday in Kerrville. He navigated flooded roads to help evacuate relatives.

“Last year there was no warning of it,” he said. “It just kind of happened overnight and it took everyone by surprise. This year, a lot more alerts have gone into place, a lot more safety measures.”

Residents said they were caught off guard a year ago and didn’t receive any warning when floods overtopped the Guadalupe. Some local leaders were criticized for not acting quickly.

The storms and flooding this time threatened multiple counties close to the Mexico border and in the Hill Country near San Antonio. Roughly 6 million residents across Texas were under a flood watch this week, and many were expected to remain in effect into Friday.

Several agencies sent rescue helicopters to the flood zone, including Travis County in the state capital of Austin.

Residents rush animals and campers to higher ground

At a wild animal rescue, Katie Buck evacuated several dozen animals to higher ground in the dark Thursday as the normally dry Lazy Creek overflowed. She got all of the animals to safety, but flooding destroyed several enclosures at the Buck Wild Animal Rescue and Wildlife Rehab near Ingram in Kerr County.

“We were just starting to get back on our feet again,” Buck said. “To have to go through this again is just devastating.”

Residents at an RV park in Comfort moved their trailers as sirens sounded, manager Duke Earwood said.

Water rose over the hoods of vehicles parked near the river at the Comfort RV Resort. Markers showed the flooding already matched last July's big flood.

“Too familiar for sure, and too soon,” Earwood said.

Uvalde residents isolated by floodwaters

Floodwaters also overran the city of Uvalde overnight, cutting off most outside routes. The Leona River, normally dry most of the year, filled streets with water.

“People really can’t get anywhere,” said Carmen Rodriguez, who nervously watched water engulf her neighborhood as a helicopter roared overhead. “We have a place to go, but all the streets are closed.”

Rodriguez said authorities seemed to be prepared, ordering mandatory evacuations and notifying people directly.

After staying up most of the night, Casy Sanford and her husband felt like things were OK at their home in Uvalde as the downpour and heavy winds let up. Texas Game Wardens were outside their door just a few hours later, evacuating the couple, Sanford’s son and three daughters, her mother-in-law and two dogs by boat Thursday morning.

Sanford said she felt “mere shock” as they left most everything and closed the door behind them, water seeping into the ground floor of the only home her little girls have known.

“My little one was scared. She kept grabbing my hand real tight,” Sanford said of her 8-year-old. “I’m not sure what we’ll see when we get back.”

Sanford later said a neighbor had visited her family’s home and found water had climbed as high as their kitchen counters.

Texas Game Wardens rescued close to 150 people by the afternoon, according to a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department spokesperson. Video released by the agency showed crews hoisting children from a house surrounded with water into a helicopter.

Uvalde resident Jose Maldonado said water reached the first step to the entrance of his RV on Wednesday and rose above the door on Thursday. Floodwaters took down nearby walls, moved cars, flipped a trailer and left behind debris, he said.

He and his wife planned to stay with his parents until they could return to clean up.

Flooding hasn't reached last year's deadly high

So far, the Guadalupe has remained below the record levels reached in 2025. Close to Camp Mystic, which hasn't reopened since last year's tragedy, the Guadalupe near Hunt reached about 20.5 feet (6.3 meters), which is enough to cause flooding, according to U.S. Geological Survey and National Water Prediction Service data.

In Kerr County, where summer camps dot the river's shores, the sheriff’s office said all campers were safe. Several camps said the children were staying inside, with one camp reporting normal flooding.

While the water didn’t rise as high as a year ago in Ingram, Mayor Claud Jordan believes this round of flooding was more widespread in his city.

“There are a bunch of businesses that haven’t reopened from last year,” Jordan said. “This doesn’t help.”

The Hill Country is especially prone to flash floods because the area’s signature limestone is covered by just a thin layer of soil. During heavy rains, water can quickly shoot downhill before filling the narrow river basins.

___

Stengle reported from Dallas and Fingerhut reported from Des Moines, Iowa. Associated Press writers Christopher L. Keller in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut; Michael Phillis in Washington; Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; Anna Wilder in Austin, Texas; Laura Turbay in Little Rock, Arkansas; and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.

Rescuers aboard boats and helicopters have saved more than 200 people, including stranded drivers and people trapped in homes, Abbott said.

The governor said the hardest-hit areas are expecting more rain into Friday and are not out of danger yet, with some rivers expected to reach historic levels.

After days of pounding rain, the National Weather Service said a large wave on Thursday barreled down the same river wrecked by flash floods last summer when two dozen children and counselors died at Camp Mystic.

Much like last year, the floods came in the middle of the night. But this time some residents in the Texas Hill Country said they received more warnings.

Forecasters urgently warned, “Move to higher ground now!” as rivers rose hour by hour. Some spots of the Guadalupe River rose by more than 30 feet (9 meters).

The governor said more than 2,000 first responders had been deployed and some evacuations began before the worst of the flooding.

“What happened last year was a warning to people on or near rivers," Abbott said. “No one can be complacent.”

As much as 28 inches (74 centimeters) of rain fell over the past three days in Uvalde County, which was spared from the worst flooding a year ago, the weather service said Thursday. Other areas saw roughly a foot of rain.

Victims in Texas floods were swept away

The governor said one of the victims was driving on a flooded road and was swept away near Uvalde while the other died in Kerr County.

Jennie Steward said the body of her husband, 65-year-old John Mark Steward, of Kerrville, was found Thursday.

She was visiting her parents when a neighbor called overnight, saying her husband was missing after water had risen to the door of their mobile home, which stood off the ground.

The entire home was swept off the platform and floated down Goat Creek on the Guadalupe, she said.

“It’s really hard that I wasn’t there with him,” she said. The two last spoke by phone Wednesday to celebrate their third anniversary.

Hill Country residents say they were better prepared

The unfolding crisis brought back haunting memories of last summer's unimaginable Hill Country floods that killed more than 100 people over the July Fourth holiday.

“It’s crazy happening two times in one year,” said Josiah Rodriguez, who awoke to the sound of heavy rain around 2 a.m. Thursday in Kerrville. He navigated flooded roads to help evacuate relatives.

“Last year there was no warning of it,” he said. “It just kind of happened overnight and it took everyone by surprise. This year, a lot more alerts have gone into place, a lot more safety measures.”

Residents said they were caught off guard a year ago and didn’t receive any warning when floods overtopped the Guadalupe. Some local leaders were criticized for not acting quickly.

The storms and flooding this time threatened multiple counties close to the Mexico border and in the Hill Country near San Antonio. Roughly 6 million residents across Texas were under a flood watch this week, and many were expected to remain in effect into Friday.

Several agencies sent rescue helicopters to the flood zone, including Travis County in the state capital of Austin.

Residents rush animals and campers to higher ground

At a wild animal rescue, Katie Buck evacuated several dozen animals to higher ground in the dark Thursday as the normally dry Lazy Creek overflowed. She got all of the animals to safety, but flooding destroyed several enclosures at the Buck Wild Animal Rescue and Wildlife Rehab near Ingram in Kerr County.

“We were just starting to get back on our feet again,” Buck said. “To have to go through this again is just devastating.”

Residents at an RV park in Comfort moved their trailers as sirens sounded, manager Duke Earwood said.

Water rose over the hoods of vehicles parked near the river at the Comfort RV Resort. Markers showed the flooding already matched last July's big flood.

“Too familiar for sure, and too soon,” Earwood said.

Uvalde residents isolated by floodwaters

Floodwaters also overran the city of Uvalde overnight, cutting off most outside routes. The Leona River, normally dry most of the year, filled streets with water.

“People really can’t get anywhere,” said Carmen Rodriguez, who nervously watched water engulf her neighborhood as a helicopter roared overhead. “We have a place to go, but all the streets are closed.”

Rodriguez said authorities seemed to be prepared, ordering mandatory evacuations and notifying people directly.

After staying up most of the night, Casy Sanford and her husband felt like things were OK at their home in Uvalde as the downpour and heavy winds let up. Texas Game Wardens were outside their door just a few hours later, evacuating the couple, Sanford’s son and three daughters, her mother-in-law and two dogs by boat Thursday morning.

Sanford said she felt “mere shock” as they left most everything and closed the door behind them, water seeping into the ground floor of the only home her little girls have known.

“My little one was scared. She kept grabbing my hand real tight,” Sanford said of her 8-year-old. “I’m not sure what we’ll see when we get back.”

Sanford later said a neighbor had visited her family’s home and found water had climbed as high as their kitchen counters.

Texas Game Wardens rescued close to 150 people by the afternoon, according to a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department spokesperson. Video released by the agency showed crews hoisting children from a house surrounded with water into a helicopter.

Uvalde resident Jose Maldonado said water reached the first step to the entrance of his RV on Wednesday and rose above the door on Thursday. Floodwaters took down nearby walls, moved cars, flipped a trailer and left behind debris, he said.

He and his wife planned to stay with his parents until they could return to clean up.

Flooding hasn't reached last year's deadly high

So far, the Guadalupe has remained below the record levels reached in 2025. Close to Camp Mystic, which hasn't reopened since last year's tragedy, the Guadalupe near Hunt reached about 20.5 feet (6.3 meters), which is enough to cause flooding, according to U.S. Geological Survey and National Water Prediction Service data.

In Kerr County, where summer camps dot the river's shores, the sheriff’s office said all campers were safe. Several camps said the children were staying inside, with one camp reporting normal flooding.

While the water didn’t rise as high as a year ago in Ingram, Mayor Claud Jordan believes this round of flooding was more widespread in his city.

“There are a bunch of businesses that haven’t reopened from last year,” Jordan said. “This doesn’t help.”

The Hill Country is especially prone to flash floods because the area’s signature limestone is covered by just a thin layer of soil. During heavy rains, water can quickly shoot downhill before filling the narrow river basins.

___

Stengle reported from Dallas and Fingerhut reported from Des Moines, Iowa. Associated Press writers Christopher L. Keller in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut; Michael Phillis in Washington; Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; Anna Wilder in Austin, Texas; Laura Turbay in Little Rock, Arkansas; and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.

Elon Musk, the company's founder and CEO, said two engines will be replaced “to be confident of a good flight” before sending Starship from Texas on a space-skimming journey halfway around the world. It will be the 13th flight for Starship, which at 407 feet (124 meters) tall with 33 main engines is the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket.

SpaceX's launch webcast showed the start of engine ignition three seconds before the planned liftoff, viewed from a drone high above the pad. Although the company did not elaborate, onscreen data showed four engines not firing, with the remaining 29 engines immediately shutting down and keeping the rocket anchored to the pad. It was the first time a full-scale Starship experienced a last-second abort like this.

The launch team immediately began draining the fuel from the rocket.

"Most probable launch timing is early next week," Musk said via X.

Everything was going SpaceX's way, even the weather, until the partial engine ignition. In the end, the rocket’s automatic launch system worked as planned by halting everything. Too few operating engines could have doomed the launch. Some earlier Starship flights ended in explosive fireballs.

Elon Musk's company had newest, most advanced Starlinks aboard

Twenty of SpaceX's newest and most advanced Starlinks were on board Starship for release during the planned hourlong flight from Starbase, the company's hub near the Texas-Mexico border. The internet satellites were going to try communicating with Starlinks already in orbit while taking photos of Starship's heat shield.

Neither the first-stage booster nor spacecraft were meant to be recovered, with both ending up in the sea.

The rocket's automatic launch system worked as planned by halting everything. Too few operating engines could have resulted in a failed launch. Some earlier Starship flights, for example, ended in explosive fireballs.

World's biggest rocket is key to putting astronauts back on the moon

NASA is counting on Starship to land its astronauts on the moon in the next few years. The space agency has hired SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin to build and fly the lunar landers that will return humanity to the surface of the moon after an absence of more than half a century.

Both companies need to have their landers — Starship and Blue Moon — ready to fly by next year so that the newly named Artemis III crew can practice docking their capsule with them in orbit around Earth. The mission after that — Artemis IV planned for no earlier than 2028 — would use one of those landers to take two astronauts to the moon's south polar region.

___

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.

• RELATED: FBI search warrant says ‘crystal-like substance’ found in Lorenzo Salgado Araujo’s work van after fatal ICE shooting

The response comes one day after an FBI affidavit filed in support of a search warrant stated investigators found several bags containing what appeared to be a “white crystal-like substance” that an agent believed was consistent with methamphetamine. The substance has not been confirmed through laboratory testing.

“Lorenzo and narcotics were never in the same sentence. It never would happen,” immigration attorney Ruby Powers told KPRC 2 News. She represents Lorenzo’s brother, Victor Salgado Araujo.

In a statement she released Thursday, Powers said the family believes the substance was granulated salt mixed with lemon and water as a homemade electrolyte drink commonly used by outdoor workers.

• ICE orders officers to stop vehicle pursuits nationwide amid Houston and Maine shootings

“After consulting with my client and his family, our understanding is that this was granulated salt, which is paired with lemon and water as a homemade electrolyte mix used by outdoor workers in extreme Texas heat, not methamphetamine or any other illicit substance,” Powers said.

Powers emphasized that the FBI affidavit was part of a request for a search warrant and did not establish that a crime had occurred.

“A search warrant does not equate to guilt. An unidentified substance is not a confirmed narcotic,” she said, calling on the FBI to expedite laboratory testing so the family’s names can be cleared.

In an interview with KPRC 2 News, Powers said Victor Salgado Araujo was shocked and angry at the government’s claims.

“He didn’t even know what meth was,” Powers said. “He’s already detained. He already lost his brother. And now you’re trying to insinuate that he’s involved with drugs, trying to discredit who he is.”

Hugo Balderas-Ibarra, the attorney for the other two men in the van who have been detained by ICE, posted on social media that he visited his clients Daniel Tirado Pantoja and José Trinidad Rojas Pliego, who allegedly told him they carried granulated salt to add into their water to help with the heat and to prevent cramping.

• Houston police chief requests Texas Rangers investigate fatal ICE-involved shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo

Powers added that regardless of what testing ultimately shows, it “will not change the fact that deadly force was used against Lorenzo.”

“You cannot shoot first and ask questions later,” Powers said.

If the results are positive, Powers said questions would come up about the chain of custody of any of the items investigators recovered from the vehicle.

Powers also said Victor Salgado Araujo remains in ICE custody while grieving the loss of his brother and continues fighting to remain in the United States.

• Public viewing set for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, man killed in ICE shooting in Houston

“We continue to call for his release so he can participate fully in the investigations and pursuit of justice for his brother,” she said.

Harris County DA questions affidavit

The family’s statement came hours after Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare publicly questioned the significance of the FBI affidavit during an interview with CNN.

Teare said investigators from his office were present while the FBI executed the search warrant and that, based on what his office has seen, “we don’t believe that they are drugs.” He said the FBI would test the substance and urged the FBI to quickly release laboratory test results once testing is complete.

Teare also said the issue is unrelated to the central question investigators are trying to answer.

• RELATED: Texas Rangers not investigating ICE fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, cite no federal or local request

“It doesn’t matter whether or not there were drugs,” Teare said. “It has no bearing whatsoever on whether or not the use of deadly force against Mr. Salgado was justified. This is a red herring that really has no bearing on a death investigation.”

The district attorney also criticized the federal handling of the investigation, calling the decision to unseal the search warrant before the case is presented to a grand jury unusual and urging federal authorities to explain why it was made public.

• Harris County ME rules Houston ICE shooting death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo a homicide

“Based on what we’ve learned about the passengers, it’s inconsistent that drugs were in the van,” Teare said in a statement to KPRC 2.

Investigation continues

Salgado Araujo was fatally shot by an ICE agent on July 7 during an attempted stop in Houston’s Magnolia Park neighborhood.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has said the agent acted in self-defense after Salgado Araujo allegedly attempted to run over an officer with his work van.

The three men who were riding with Salgado Araujo have disputed that account through their attorney, saying ICE vehicles struck the van and that no agent was ever in danger of being run over.

The FBI affidavit does not determine whether the substance found in the van was an illegal drug, and publicly available court records do not indicate laboratory testing has been completed.

In a statement released Thursday evening, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, Aaron Reitz, said the FBI executed the search warrant on Wednesday.

“The FBI executed a search warrant on the van in connection with possible narcotics trafficking and drug offenses. I want to reiterate: This assessment is based on preliminary information given to my office. We draw no decisive conclusions and believe federal law enforcement will conduct a thorough investigation,” Reitz said.

It’s unclear if or when any test results could be released.

“I encourage the public to give the FBI and DHS the opportunity to investigate. Let the justice system work,” Reitz said.

The Harris County District Attorney’s Office is conducting its own investigation into the shooting alongside the Texas Rangers, while federal authorities continue their investigation into the incident.

The ceremony for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national who was fatally shot last Tuesday by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer while driving his construction crew to a job site in Houston, comes amid mounting scrutiny of President Donald Trump's aggressive immigration crackdown. Encounters with ICE have resulted in at least 10 deaths since the start of Trump's second term last year — two of which happened in the days after a federal agent killed Salgado Araujo.

“My family would like to express our heartfelt gratitude for the unbelievable and incredible support we have received,” Salgado Araujo's son, Ronaldo Salgado, said in a Facebook post Thursday.

Salgado Araujo, 52, who had no criminal record, had lived in the U.S. for 35 years.

In the fallout of the shooting, three men whom Salgado Araujo was driving when he was killed have adamantly disputed the government's official account.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said Salgado Araujo had rammed an ICE vehicle, and that a federal agent fired a weapon in self-defense. Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a staunch supporter of Trump’s immigration crackdown, said Wednesday that the state’s top law enforcement unit would investigate the fatal shooting.

More than a week after the shooting, new court records show the FBI is investigating whether drugs were found in the van, according to a search warrant application signed by a federal judge on Tuesday.

FBI Special Agent David McNeilly stated in an affidavit that he observed four plastic bags of a white substance appearing to be meth inside the van. DHS has not stated that suspected drugs were the reason why ICE officers engaged in the traffic stop. The FBI referred all questions to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas.

U.S. Attorney Aaron Reitz emphasized in a recorded video statement on Thursday that all information was preliminary and not conclusive.

“We are doing everything we can to seek the truth and do the right thing,” Reitz said. “In the meantime, I encourage the public to give the FBI and DHS the opportunity to investigate.”

An attorney for Salgado Araujo's brother, who was in the van when the agent killed Salgado Araujo and who was subsequently detained by ICE, said that the powder is a homemade electrolyte mix that the construction crew used to stay hydrated while working outside in the grueling Texas heat.

Ruby L. Powers, the attorney for Salgado Araujo’s brother, in a statement called for officials to test the substance to establish that it isn't an illicit substance.

“But no test result, whatever it ultimately shows, will change the fact that deadly force was used against Lorenzo,” Powers said. “You cannot shoot first and ask questions later.”

—

Riddle reported from Los Angeles.

Blanche spent about an hour at Justice Department headquarters in Washington with the group of Epstein accusers, who have criticized the Trump administration's handling of the disgraced financier's investigation and a trove of files related to his sex trafficking case.

After the meeting, Blanche told reporters that he encouraged the accusers to come to the FBI with any information that could help investigators build cases against additional figures tied to Epstein.

But Blanche acknowledged he couldn't assure them additional prosecutions could be brought. The Justice Department has repeatedly said it will investigate further if new information surfaces, but the government doesn’t currently have evidence to support prosecutions against others in Epstein's orbit.

“It wasn’t all cordial,” Blanche said of Thursday’s meeting. “Because there’s something that they want that I don’t think I can give them, which is some form of justice. And I want to be able to give justice in the form of prosecutions, and maybe we can do a prosecution at some point,” Blanche said.

But Blanche added, “I don’t know.”

The political firestorm over Epstein has been a persistent headache for the Trump administration, which released millions of investigative documents over the last year in response to right-wing clamoring for answers about the disgraced financier's crimes and connections to high-profile people.

One accuser is disappointed in Blanche meeting

One accuser, Dani Bensky, expressed frustration after the meeting, saying Blanche appeared to treat it as “a mere ‘check-the-box’ exercise intended to secure votes for his confirmation.”

"He danced around his wording, repeatedly interrupted us and could not commit to anything that would demonstrate good faith or begin to restore trust," she said in an emailed statement. She said Blanche offered “no credible plan to investigate and pursue accountability" beyond Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein.

Earlier Thursday, Bensky told lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee that women harmed by Epstein repeatedly asked to meet with Blanche “through multiple channels and he never responded.”

“We deserve to be heard directly, not dismissed and ignored,” Bensky said.

Blanche has pushed back on suggestions that the Justice Department has been dismissive of the Epstein's accusers, saying officials have spoken with more than 30 representatives of the women over the course of their sweeping review of the files.

“The Department of Justice will always meet with victims or their representatives, and if those victims or their representatives have evidence that anybody committed a crime — whether it has to do with Jeffrey Epstein or anybody else — we will of course move forward and investigate and prosecute,” Blanche told reporters.

Blanche needs key Republican support to get confirmed

The meeting came hours after Republican Sen. Thom Tillis said it needed to happen before Blanche could earn his vote.

Without Tillis’ support, Blanche’s nomination won’t make it through the Senate Judiciary Committee, which questioned Blanche for hours Wednesday about the Epstein files as well as the creation of a fund to compensate President Donald Trump’s allies, a tax immunity deal for the president and a slew of other issues.

Another Republican, Sen. John Cornyn, has also expressed concern over the fund and has said he remains undecided about his vote.

Tillis indicated during Blanche’s confirmation hearing Wednesday that he was leaning toward backing Blanche, who has been leading the department in an acting capacity since April. But after lawmakers heard Bensky's testimony, Tillis said he expected a meeting between victims and Blanche to occur before he’s “willing to vote out of this committee.”

Tillis later Thursday commended Blanche for holding the meeting, writing in a social media post, “I appreciate his willingness to directly engage and listen to them.”

After missteps by then-Attorney General Pam Bondi that enraged Trump's base, Blanche as deputy attorney general oversaw a massive review and the release of millions of files related to the investigation into Epstein. The case has captivated internet sleuths and conspiracy theorists for years, in part because of Epstein's connections to other powerful individuals.

Blanche has also defended the department's staggered release of the Epstein files, a process beset by problems, including redaction errors that left exposed nude photos showing the faces of potential victims.

Blanche said during his confirmation hearing Wednesday that he takes responsibility for mistakes that were made, but noted that department lawyers were given a "herculean task” to quickly review millions of files for release. Blanche said department lawyers took pains to protect the women involved, and quickly fixed any errors that were found.

“I am sorry that in about 1% of the documents mistakes were made,” Blanche said Wednesday. “But what I will say on top of that is we put tons of resources to rectifying those mistakes immediately, including pulling down documents within minutes of being informed that there were mistakes.”

The dangerous flooding for a second consecutive year set off hundreds of high-water rescues, washed out roads and killed at least two people, authorities said. Relentless downpours served as another frightening reminder of the flood-prone Texas Hill Country, following what experts say was fueled this time by the right mix of air and lots of available moisture.

“Last year, it was one big wave that came through. And it wiped everything out, and then it receded, and then we could deal with the damage. This time, we’re on day three of heavy rain and everything keeps continuing to rise, and it’s expected to rain today and tonight,” said Suzanne Sutphin Gschwind of Kerrville, where some of the worst flooding took place.

Hot weather over the middle of the continental United States ensured storms that formed would move slowly, and rounds of rain over roughly the last three days at times reached several inches an hour. The flooding is “about as bad as it gets” — conditions that are typically rare, said Bob Oravec, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

“Obviously, something like this doesn’t occur every year, but it has occurred over two years in a row and it has occurred over a region that is prone to flash flooding by its topography,” Oravec said.

Nearly 1 trillion gallons of water fell on the three hardest-hit counties in Texas over three days — Uvalde County alone got more rain in that period than California has seen over the last month, according to Ryan Maue, former chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.

Flooding over the Fourth of July weekend last year killed more than 100 people, including roughly two dozen children and camp counselors at Camp Mystic, a now-shuttered Christian camp for girls. These storms dumped rain on a wider area, overlapping with some of the places where floodwaters overturned cars, ripped down trees and sent rescuers hustling to save lives last July.

A local official in Travis County, which includes Austin, said people were trapped on barn roofs and in trees. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said drones and helicopters were airborne for rescues.

"We are looking at every square inch of the entire area for anybody who may be stranded anywhere. And there will be help coming very rapidly to whoever may be displaced, wherever they are,” Abbott said.

The flood in Texas Hill Country

The rain hit Texas Hill Country, a part of central and south Texas with steep terrain. Shallow soil covers limestone hills that have been soaked for days. Instead of the land absorbing the water, it shoots into rivers with steep banks.

That causes water to rise fast, a dangerous scenario that catches people by surprise.

When rivers rise so fast “it’s almost like a river tsunami,” said Tyler Roys, a senior meteorologist with the forecasting company AccuWeather. These conditions are so deadly because water is heavy and moves quickly. Just one cubic foot of water — imagine a box a bit larger than the size of a basketball — weighs about 62 pounds (28 kilograms).

Compared to last year's flood, the rain fell hard, but in some places it wasn't quite as intense and rivers in many places didn't rise quite as quickly, Texas State Climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon said. Plus, the previous days of rain previewed the flood threat.

“This one is producing greater overall precipitation totals, but it is mostly doing it with lower rain rates. They are still fairly high, but they aren't as high as they were last year," he said.

While swollen from rainfall, so far Guadalupe River levels have largely remained below record levels, some of which were reached during last year’s deadly floods. The river did surpass last year's mark at the small community of Comfort, rising to 37 feet (11.3 meters) early Thursday, a mark 1.5 feet (0.5 meters) higher than it reached last year. At its height then, water weighing as much as the Empire State Building flowed downstream roughly every minute.

The river's record at this spot is 42.3 feet (12.9 meters) set in 1869.

Climate change and forecasting

It is difficult, especially as storms are happening, to know whether climate change has made the event more likely or worse.

Oravec said that the conditions that created this storm — hot air that steers and slows storms — have long occurred, but that climate change could make these conditions more common. A warmer atmosphere also has the potential to hold more moisture and heavier rains.

Last year's flooding did raise awareness of the dangers floods create, especially when they occur at night, Oravec said.

“I think overall it has been a good forecast. The effects are catastrophic, but the signal was there for potential heavy rainfall,” he said.

___

Associated Press writers Christopher L. Keller in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia and Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed.

___

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

According to the Harris County Precinct 4 Constable’s Office, Kaden Ausbrooks has been charged with Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon Causing Serious Bodily Injury, a first-degree felony.

Deputies say they were called to the Kroger located in the 20300 block of Cypresswood Drive Wednesday after receiving reports of an active shooter inside the store.

• RELATED: Man charged after shooting inside Cypress Kroger

Authorities say deputies arrived in less than two minutes and took Ausbrooks into custody as he was leaving the store.

Investigators said the suspect is currently receiving medical treatment at a local hospital and will be booked into the Harris County Jail once he is released.

The victim remains hospitalized in stable but critical condition. Investigators said no one else was injured.

The Kroger store has since reopened, and the company is providing counseling services to employees who were working during the shooting.

Expert: Have a plan before an emergency happens

In the wake of the shooting, KPRC 2 spoke with Tim Reboulet, a former U.S. Secret Service agent with M6 Global Defense, about what people can do to better protect themselves if they ever find themselves caught in a violent situation.

Reboulet teaches what he calls the “Four E’s”:

• Educate – Have a plan before an emergency happens. Talk with your family about meeting locations if you’re separated and identify exits whenever you enter a public place.
• Evade – If you cannot immediately escape, move from cover to cover while looking for a safer route away from danger.
• Escape – If there’s a safe opportunity to leave, get out as quickly as possible instead of staying inside the building.
• Engage – Fighting back should only be considered as a last resort when there are no other options and your life or someone else’s life is in immediate danger.

Reboulet also encourages people to stay aware of their surroundings and avoid becoming distracted by their cell phones while out in public. He says paying attention to what’s happening around you could provide valuable seconds to recognize danger and react.

• RELATED: 2 in critical condition after shooting inside Kroger store in Cypress

The investigation into the Kroger shooting remains ongoing.

The shooting happened around 2:50 p.m. Wednesday at the Kroger located at 20355 Cypresswood Drive.

• 2 in critical condition after shooting inside Kroger store in Cypress

According to the Harris County Precinct 4 Constable’s Office, deputies responded to reports of an active shooter and arrived in less than two minutes.

When deputies arrived, they found one man, later identified as Kaden Ausbrooks, walking out of the store with a gunshot wound. After clearing the building, deputies located a second man inside who had been shot multiple times.

The victim was flown to a local hospital and is in stable but critical condition, according to investigators.

• NYC helicopter that crashed and killed 6 last year shows signs of bird strike

Ausbrooks, who authorities said suffered a gunshot wound to the neck, was also taken to a nearby hospital. Following an investigation by Precinct 4 detectives, he was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon causing serious bodily injury, a first-degree felony.

Deputies are guarding Ausbrooks while he receives medical treatment. He will be booked into the Harris County Jail upon his release.

Investigators now believe the shooting stemmed from a domestic dispute between the two men. Authorities said no customers or employees were injured.

• 1 injured, 3 detained after reported shooting in northwest Harris County, deputies say

The investigation remains ongoing as detectives continue reviewing surveillance video from inside the store.

In a statement, Kroger said it is providing counseling services for employees who were working when the shooting occurred.

“We are grateful that no additional individuals were injured during this incident,” Constable Mark Herman said. “The rapid response of our deputies, along with the assistance of our partner law enforcement agencies, allowed officers to quickly secure the scene, provide access to emergency medical care for those injured, and conduct the investigation necessary to file charges against the alleged shooter.”

It halted work on major projects, and it's buying back leases, citing national security concerns. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum says a classified report from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth proves offshore wind is a national security threat.

This comes against the backdrop of the Republican president's hatred of wind turbines and desire to boost fossil fuels for “energy dominance” in the global market. National lab estimates show that turbines installed along the U.S. coasts could provide more than enough power to cover the nation's annual electricity consumption.

Wind turbines interfere with radar, but that isn't a new problem. The Pentagon reviews wind farm construction plans and can deem areas off limits. There are upgrades to radar to mitigate turbine impacts.

Here’s what to know about the national security implications of offshore wind development:

Turbines’ spinning blades can create false targets on radar screens

Burgum says he’s worried about autonomous drones going through a wind tower field undetected because of radar interference. And, he said, the vibration of wind towers could affect undersea sonar.

Radar systems can be adjusted to raise the threshold for what's considered a detection but may miss actual targets consequently, according to the Department of Energy.

Kirk Lippold, a national security expert and former commander of the USS Cole, said radar operators are trained to differentiate a live track — anything from a boat or a submarine periscope to an inbound drone or missile — from clutter. If drones aren't detected before they reach a wind farm, “we have bigger national security issues,” he said.

Trump administration says there are new risks

According to the Department of Justice, defense officials gave the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management classified information in November 2025 detailing new national security risks from offshore wind projects.

BOEM halted construction on five big East Coast projects days before Christmas. Burgum said they had to address the rapid evolution of relevant adversary technologies and vulnerabilities created by these projects near East Coast cities. This came after courts blocked Trump's efforts to halt development through executive action.

Like the United States, Sweden is raising security concerns with offshore wind energy. Officials said Thursday they're approving two offshore wind farms while rejecting 11 others.

Green Power Sweden CEO Nils Grunditz said he questions why Sweden is scaling back its offshore wind plans when technological solutions for radar interference are used elsewhere in the region. Denmark has been a pioneer in wind energy since building the first offshore wind farm in 1991.

The UK government said in March it bought new air defense radars to mitigate against anomalies created by offshore wind farms, touting it as new technology that secures coexistence of air defense and offshore wind. The independent climate change think tank E3G said North Sea turbines can be a defense asset, for example by including surveillance and monitoring equipment.

Judges were not convinced by the Trump administration

Developers impacted by the construction freeze and states sued. The DOJ argued national security concerns are paramount and federal courts do not second-guess military officials’ assessment of these risks.

Federal judges reviewed the classified information and allowed all five wind farms to resume construction.

At the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Senior Judge Royce Lamberth expressed concern that the stated national security reasoning may have been “pretextual,” to mask the true motives for stopping offshore wind.

In putting a major wind farm for Rhode Island and Connecticut back on track in January, Lamberth said the government did not apply the newly discovered concerns specifically to that project, Revolution Wind, Burgum publicly criticized offshore wind around the time of the stop work order for reasons unrelated to national security, and BOEM waited to act until December on information it received in November.

The Pentagon is also holding up the development of onshore wind farms, and the administration has used emergency orders to keep fossil fuel plants online. On Thursday, attorneys general from 18 states and Washington moved to intervene in a lawsuit to try to advance the onshore wind farms.

Meghan Greenfield, a partner at Jenner & Block LLP in Washington, said the administration is making a national security argument in so many different contexts, “it has caused increased skepticism by the courts.”

A retired Navy officer is suspicious of the administration's motives

In buying back offshore wind leases, the Interior Department cited national security concerns with the projects, including those off California. The Interior Department said Thursday there were serious national security risks that demanded immediate attention, and it won't let “reckless projects create higher utility costs, a weakened energy system and unnecessary harm to the environment.” Several states are suing.

Retired U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Dennis McGinn knows the waters off California's shore well. He commanded the fleet responsible for naval operations across the eastern and northern Pacific Ocean. He said there's no “showstopping national security issue” that would invalidate years of analysis of the lease areas.

McGinn said he thinks the administration is maximizing the risks and costs of offshore wind while minimizing the benefits to justify pursuing more fossil fuels and “it doesn't pass commonsense tests.” Offshore wind produces electricity cleanly. Oil, coal and natural gas emit carbon pollution when burned.

McGinn, who served as an assistant secretary of the Navy, said that radar interference is a problem recognized early on and adequately addressed and that thousands of turbines are operating across Europe and Asia.

“National security and offshore wind are compatible, if it is done right, in the right locations,” he said.

Economist Diana Furchtgott-Roth disagrees. A distinguished fellow at the Energy Policy Research Foundation, Furchtgott-Roth said the defense issues have been known for decades, the military's views should be taken very seriously, the nation shouldn't be dependent on Chinese-made turbines, and gas, coal and nuclear provide affordable, reliable power. The administration is acting prudently, she said.

Members of Congress were briefed

Democratic U.S. Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island said he participated in a classified briefing months ago and didn't find the reasoning compelling. Reed, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is trying to include a measure in the defense bill that sets military policy to force a 180-day deadline for a military office known as the siting clearinghouse to evaluate wind projects and explain its conclusion.

“They have to be able to produce a thoughtful and thorough analysis which justifies their decision,” Reed said Wednesday. "That’s the way to go.”

Even with that step, Reed said, this administration finds many ways to stop things it doesn't like and he expects the campaign against wind energy to continue.

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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find the AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

“After consulting with my client and his family, our understanding is that this was granulated salt, which is paired with lemon and water as a homemade electrolyte mix used by outdoor workers in extreme Texas heat, not methamphetamine or any other illicit substance,” said Ruby Powers, a Houston immigration attorney representing Victor Hugo Salgado Araujo, who was the front passenger inside the van.

Powers said in a statement on Thursday that she is asking the FBI to expedite the testing so “their names can be cleared.

“But no test result, whatever it ultimately shows, will change the fact that deadly force was used against Lorenzo,” Powers said. “You cannot shoot first and ask questions later.”

The other two men in the van have also said there were no illegal drugs in the vehicle and that they would sometimes carry salt to mix with water and help prevent cramps while working in the Texas heat, according to Hugo Balderas-Ibarra, their attorney.

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who had lived and worked in Houston for nearly 35 years, had no criminal record, according to officials and available public records. His family said he was in the final stages of obtaining legal status through his children, who are U.S. citizens.

The 52-year-old man was also not the intended target of the ICE operation that led to his fatal shooting on July 7, according to U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, who said she got that information from acting ICE Director David Venturella.  

A spokesperson for the FBI’s Houston office, which is investigating whether there was an assault on a federal law enforcement officer, referred questions to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas. The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General is investigating the shooting.

Aaron Reitz, the newly appointed U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, said in a statement that his office believes federal law enforcement “will conduct a thorough investigation. 

“We are doing everything we can to seek the truth and do the right thing,” he said. “In the meantime, I encourage the public to give the FBI and DHS the opportunity to investigate.”

An application for an FBI search warrant alleged that there were “small clear plastic bags” in Salgado Araujo’s van containing white “crystal-like substances.” FBI Special Agent David McNeilly, who filed the application, then wrote that he believed the substances could be methamphetamine based on the packaging and appearance.

The application was made public a day after it was filed in court on Tuesday, even though federal agents don’t typically publicize such information that quickly. Court records on Thursday didn’t indicate that the FBI had revealed what was collected from the van, or whether testing had been completed.

Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare — whose office is running its own investigation into the shooting — has also expressed doubt about the FBI’s suspicions in an interview with CNN, citing information that he said his team has but is not yet releasing.

“But my understanding is that this substance is being tested by the FBI, either today or in the next few days, and I think it’s so important to the public that those results be shared immediately,” Teare said in the Thursday interview.

Lomi Kriel contributed to this story.

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

Another defeat in the semifinals. Another defeat from a winning position.

The English media was predictably critical of coach Thomas Tuchel after Wednesday's 2-1 loss to Argentina.

“Same old story” read one headline. Another declared that “Tuchel just shrank."

Tuchel, a serial trophy-winning coach with Borussia Dortmund, Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and Bayern Munich, was hired to put a second star on England's jersey and end the decades-long wait for a first trophy since the World Cup in 1966.

The wait goes on.

Former England captain Gary Lineker raised the question about Tuchel's future, saying he was "brought in specifically to take us over the line.”

“Is he the right man to take us forward?" Lineker said on his Netflix show ‘The Rest is Football.’ "He just got it so wrong in the big moment."

Tuchel's predecessor, Gareth Southgate, was credited with making England fans fall back in love with the men's national team after years of underachievement. He reached back-to-back European Championship finals but ultimately fell short, with his supposed cautious approach said to have cost England in clutch matches.

Southgate's substitutions were criticized as well as his tactics when England relinquished leads against Croatia in the World Cup semifinals in 2018 and Italy in the final of the Euros three years later.

There was criticism of the English soccer federation's decision to turn to a German, but Tuchel, a Champions League winner, was supposed to be difference maker in those key moments.

Leading 1-0 going into the 85th minute and in a defensive shell, England saw its hopes shattered on Argentina goals from Enzo Fernandez and substitute Lautaro Martinez.

“It’s a real panic. You can’t go a goal up and then surrender the ball and surrender any opportunity of trying to get the second goal," former England captain Wayne Rooney told the BBC. ”I just think the decisions Thomas Tuchel made, and I think we have to be honest on this, have cost us tonight."

Lineker said Tuchel's tactics and substitutions after going 1-0 up “made zero sense to me.”

Tuchel, who signed a two-year contract extension ahead of the World Cup, stood by his decisions.

“As soon as you lose, you get criticized. It’s just what it is,” Tuchel said. "No one knows what would have happened if I had made different decisions so it makes no sense to engage in that and lose my head.

“I’m responsible for them. I took them, so I take the criticism. That’s just the way it is.”

FA chief executive Mark Bullingham said shortly after the loss that it is “heartbreaking to be so close.”

“The players and Thomas gave it everything today and the squad, coaches and staff could not have worked harder during the tournament,” he said in a statement. “I would like to thank them all — and also give my heartfelt thanks to our wonderful fans here in the USA and at home. We felt your support every step of the way and we are all so disappointed not to go further.”

England will face France in the third-place game on Saturday in Miami.

Defeat to defending champion Argentina continued a pattern for the England men at the World Cup.

It has not beaten one of the traditional major nations at soccer's biggest tournament since the 1-0 win over Argentina in the group stage in 2002. Before that, England beat France in the group stage in 1982.

Knockout eliminations have come at the hands of Argentina and Germany on three occasions each, Brazil, Portugal and France. There was also the 2018 semifinals defeat to Croatia, a team that has never won a major trophy.

Tuchel, however, does not buy into the narrative that repeated failure is a specifically English problem.

“I love to see these things in a football matter and through football glasses. So first of all I always think it’s solvable on the football field,” he said. “I don’t believe so much in an English thing or in a curse or whatever or history repeating itself.”

Britain and Ireland are co-hosting Euro 2028.

"I have a contract until the home Euros, and I’m looking forward to that, even if right now it is difficult to look that far ahead,” Tuchel said.

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

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

The move announced Thursday would allow Wall Street trading firms and other institutions to get news from top Truth Social contributors in milliseconds so they could profit off subsequent moves in stocks, bonds and interest rates.

Called Truth PSI, the new service comes amid a flurry of other deals by Trump and his family company that critics say are exploiting the presidency for profit. It follows similar offers of paid access on rival platforms, though with one key difference: The most popular Truth Social poster is the president himself and, as the biggest shareholder of the public traded parent company, would directly benefit.

“He’s selling expedited, privileged access to information about what he is doing as president,” said Kathleen Clark of Washington University School of Law and an expert in government conflicts of interest rules. “It’s yet more brazen corruption, an improper exploitation of government power to enrich himself.”

The Trump family company declined to comment about whether the new feature is profiting off the presidency. Truth Social's public parent, Trump Media & Technology, did not respond to emailed questions, including whether the president's posts will be excluded from the offering.

A press release states it would allow traders to see “the highest-ranking Truth Social accounts” ahead of others. The president has the most followers — 12.9 million — followed by his oldest son, Don Jr. and, close behind, his son Eric.

The release did not say how much customers would be charged.

In the past few months, Trump has announced major decisions and musings on his platform including posts about the Iran war, tariffs and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdown in U.S. cities. The Iran posts in particular are impactful because investors are worried that higher oil prices will continue to stoke inflation and possibly force the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates.

Stock in Trump Media & Technology has plunged more than 70% since the president took office last year, erasing $6 billion in shareholder wealth. Those losses, along with billions more of investor losses tied to new Trump family crypto businesses, have drawn scrutiny after Trump's annual disclosure of his financial holdings shows he took in more than $1 billion in revenue last year in the same companies and offerings.

Conflict of interest laws would bar U.S. government officials from owning a company that profits off their office by selling access to their decisions through public posts, says Washington University's Clark. But the president and vice-president, she notes, are excluded from the provision.

Despite that, all presidents since the law was passed decades ago have acted as if it applied — selling individual stocks, dumping business holdings or putting their financial assets in a blind trust so they wouldn’t know what was being bought and sold on their behalf while they wielded power — but Trump has refused.

Trump Media has been trying to lift its stock price recently by branching into various businesses, including crypto, financial services and even nuclear fusion. It recently replaced its longtime CEO, former Congressman Devin Nunes, with a seasoned media executive, Kevin McGurn.

In the release, McGurn described the Truth PSI move as part of a “strategy to monetize proprietary assets." He added that he expected it to become a "meaningful, ongoing source of revenue.”

Trump Media said that it plans to start the service next month and that it has already signed up customers.

The stock rose 0.6% to $9.63 on Thursday. Before Trump took office last year, it closed at $40.

But just months into Mullin's time in office, the department is squarely in the center of controversy again after three people were killed in encounters with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in the span of less than a week.

The events are the first major test for Mullin, who promised a steady hand for a department roiled by his predecessor's conduct and the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. New revelations about one of the officers involved could add further scrutiny.

As he navigates the uptick in violence, Mullin is being forced into a balancing act that has him juggling pressures from a White House eager to carry out mass deportations and his former colleagues in Congress seeking answers — all while attempting to ease tensions in American cities over the deaths.

“When he took his position, Secretary Mullin said that his goal was to get the department off the front page of the news,” Democratic Rep. Seth Magaziner said on the House floor Tuesday. Then, waving a newspaper, he said: “Well, you’re back on the goddamn front page now."

Mullin's approach is a marked change from his predecessor, Kristi Noem

Mullin, a former senator from Oklahoma, was a surprise pick to run the sprawling department after Noem was fired in the wake of two deadly shootings of American protesters at the hands of federal immigration officers in Minneapolis earlier this year.

As the secretary in charge of carrying out the administration's mass deportations vision, Noem pushed an aggressive style of immigration enforcement where she was front and center, including most famously, a visit to a Salvadoran detention center. She was quick to speak publicly on controversial events, weighing in on both Minneapolis shootings with statements accusing the killed protesters of being agitators.

President Donald Trump, who made mass deportations a central promise of his second administration, ultimately soured on Noem over a $200 million ad campaign and her handling of the Minneapolis operation.

Mullin promised a different approach, while still pledging to deliver on the president's priorities. His first trip as secretary was not to promote immigration enforcement but to observe hurricane recovery efforts in North Carolina. Noem frequently went out on immigration raids with her officers — Mullin has not.

Since he became secretary and in the aftermath of the Minneapolis violence, the administration has also moved away from high-profile and unpopular immigration operations in American cities to a quieter approach to enforcement that has largely shifted media attention away from the crackdown. Under Mullin, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is also retreating from a plan to use warehouses to detain migrants.

But immigration arrests continue under Mullin and often with little fanfare: ICE arrested 10,000 people over a five-day period in late June, averaging out to about to 2,000 arrests per day. And legal pathways to immigration have also faced new restrictions.

Trump, during Mullin's tenure, has hailed the secretary as “so incredible,” and “amazing,” lauding him for giving up his Senate seat to run DHS.

For months, it appeared as though Mullin's change in approach was taking hold. While advocates and civil rights activists accused the department of mistreating immigrants under his leadership, Mullin's less confrontational approach seemed to keep the department out of the spotlight.

ICE-related deaths bring renewed spotlight to Mullin and DHS

But the events of the past week have posed a new challenge for Mullin as he walks a tightrope between his softer approach and the president's demands.

“Trying to deal with competing policy objectives is a challenge for any Cabinet secretary, but Mullin has this worse than most,” said Tom Warrick, a former counterterrorism official at Homeland Security who’s now at the Atlantic Council.

“In the case of Homeland Security, the White House wants both to meet their immigration quotas at the same time that they keep public trust, and how you do that — even with the funding that Mullin has — is a really difficult challenge."

ICE officers in Houston and Maine shot and killed individuals in their cars during immigration operations. In Florida, a man fleeing ICE officers was killed in a car crash.

Mullin has not spoken publicly about the deaths while the department’s public affairs office has released only brief statements following each.

Behind the scenes, Mullin, who frequently talks about how he shares his cellphone number with members of Congress and encourages them to call him directly, has talked with lawmakers and shared information, including talking with both senators from Maine.

And after the second shooting death in Maine, as criticism surged from both protesters and Mullin's former colleagues in Congress, ICE was ordered to suspend most vehicle stops.

Trump heaps pressure on Mullin over vehicle stop order

That decision infuriated Trump's supporters.

Conservative influencer Nick Sorter called it a “TOTAL CAPITULATION to the left," in a post on X. Conservative activist Mike Davis accused Mullin of heeding the advice of Maine Sen. Susan Collins, who said she'd suggested the vehicle stop pause to the secretary.

A day later, Trump appeared to contradict the guidance to ICE, saying in a social media post “we must be strong, tough and smart and we CANNOT give up one of ICE’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!”

Mullin then reposted Trump's words, adding that people in the country would be “arrested and deported wherever they are." He later said on X that he and the president are “on the same page.”

During a briefing Thursday, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said vehicle stops are continuing after field offices around the country were given “verbal guidance."

"The president and the secretary of Homeland Security are on the same page that vehicle stops are a necessary tool that ICE agents need," she said.

But it showed the friction between Mullin's attempts to maintain calm and the president's demands that illegal immigrants, which the administration has in many instances portrayed as criminals, be arrested in large numbers.

Democrats have slammed the new secretary, saying that they see little change at the department.

“Secretary Mullin, if he wants to, and if he has the backing of the White House, he has the ability to get ICE under control and make them follow the law,” said Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Democrat from Texas. “So either he has no interest in doing that, or the White House is not backing him up, or the agents are simply out of control.”

Republican lawmakers have come to Mullin's defense.

“I think the Secretary has lived up to what he’s wanted to do to try to change the atmosphere over there,” said Rep. Andrew Garbarino of New York, who as chair of the congressional Homeland Security Committee has requested a bipartisan briefing on ICE's use of force policies from DHS.

“I don’t think anybody is celebrating that ICE is back in the headlines," Garbarino said.

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Associated Press writer Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.

The verdict — believed to be the largest ever against a gun dealer — was awarded by a jury Wednesday following a trial focused on whether the vendor, Husky Armory LLC, skirted federal regulations barring the sale of the gun-assembly kits to those under 21.

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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org. Helplines outside the U.S. can be found at www.iasp.info/suicidalthoughts.

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In a wrongful-death lawsuit, the family of Henry Willis said he was just 18 when he purchased the Glock G19 pistol “build kit” from Husky Armory's website in 2023. He assembled the handgun in his garage — telling his father it was a transistor radio — and used it to end his life six days later.

Everytown Law, which represented the family, said the $104.2 million payout was the largest ever reached against a gun seller, surpassing the $73 million settlement awarded to the families of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting by the rifle maker Remington.

It comes a little over a year after the Supreme Court upheld regulations enacted by the Biden administration that mandated serial numbers on the homemade weapons and required buyers to complete background checks and age verification.

Attorneys for Willis said Husky Armory had flouted each of those requirements.

Its website advertised the product as having “everything you need to build your own Glock style pistol from the comfort of your home,” noting the weapon could be assembled by “nearly anyone with a brain,” according to the lawsuit.

Inquiries to Husky Armory LLC and its owner, Cody Yurk, were not immediately returned. The company, which is based in Omaha, Nebraska, was not present for the trial, according to the family and their attorneys.

At a news conference Thursday, Willis’ mother, Laura Herp, described her son as a “kind, gentle child” who had struggled with mental health issues in the months leading up to his death.

“A child in crisis should never be able to access a deadly weapon,” Herp said. “Companies like Husky Armory thrive off selling to folks who shouldn’t have access to firearms, and they didn’t care who Henry was. They didn’t even bother showing up to the trial.”

A state court in Louisville had previously issued a default judgment against the vendor for failing to respond to the lawsuit. Following a two-day trial this week, a jury awarded $4.2 million in economic damages and $100 million in punitive damages to the family.

“This historic verdict sends a powerful message to ghost-gun sellers who set up businesses to profit by circumventing critical safeguards like background checks and age verification,” said Dana Mulhauser, an attorney for Everytown Law. “Henry should be home with his family today, and Laura deserved more time and opportunity to help her son heal.”

Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, held a “Rally in the Valley” at a McAllen brewery Tuesday night with two of the GOP’s key congressional recruits, Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina and Eric Flores, an Army veteran and lawyer from the region. Meanwhile, Democratic nominee James Talarico ended the third day of a “Frontera Tour” 140 miles northwest in Laredo, where he traces his family’s roots, ahead of his own stop in the Rio Grande Valley on Wednesday.

The dueling visits underscored the region’s importance as a battleground this fall, two years after Trump won 14 of 18 border counties and carried the historically Democratic Valley. They also provided a glimpse of the contrasting visions Paxton and Talarico will present over the coming months to the predominantly Latino voters who populate the border.

Talarico, a state lawmaker from Austin, pitched what he called a “commonsense” plan for border security that prioritizes hiring personnel, while focusing the bulk of his remarks on the campaign trail on affordability issues. In his lone border stop in McAllen, meanwhile, Paxton bashed his Democratic opponent’s record in the Legislature on the border and taxes, while reminding those gathered at his rally that he relentlessly sued President Joe Biden over his “open border” policies that he said left border communities vulnerable. And Paxton cast himself as a champion of economic opportunity who will lower taxes, not raise them like he said Talarico would.

The two Senate hopefuls are courting South Texas voters under a much different political climate than the one that prevailed in the fall of 2024. At the time, the record number of illegal border crossings under the Biden administration were still fresh on the minds of voters in the region, many of whom saw the White House’s response as inadequate. By the summer, most Texans ranked immigration and border security as the state’s most important issues.

With border crossings having ground to a near halt, those issues are no longer at the top of Texans’ list of priorities. Taking their place are concerns about affordability and persistent inflation — particularly among Latino Texans, who have grown increasingly disenchanted with the GOP. The candidates’ pitches this week offered an early look at their messaging under the reshaped immigration landscape, and how they will weave in top-of-mind economic issues, heading into November’s midterms.

Targeting the Trump administration’s sweeping deportation crackdown, which has resulted in three deaths at the hands of federal agents over the last 9 days, Talarico tried to position himself as a more reasonable moderate who wants to secure the border while maintaining a humane posture toward immigrants and listening to border residents about their needs.

Earlier in the week, joined by local GOP officials from West Texas to roll out his border security plan, Talarico lambasted a border wall proposed by the Trump administration that would slice through Big Bend National Park, labeling it a “monument to corruption.” Instead, he said the nation needs more Border Patrol agents and immigration judges — and reiterated claims that members of his own party had failed border residents in the past, an error he said they can’t afford to make again.

“I think Texas Democrats should have felt more comfortable pushing back against the Biden administration when there was so much chaos on our southern border,” Talarico told The Texas Tribune after a rally in Eagle Pass on Monday night. “It felt like too many Democrats were silent about it, and we can’t repeat those mistakes.”

Paxton, meanwhile, closed his McAllen rally with a direct appeal to Hispanic voters, saying that the outcome of the U.S. Senate race would be critical to determining which party would control the upper chamber.

“As Texans, and particularly in this area, with Hispanics moving more Republican, we have the opportunity with this group of people to not only defend Texas values, to not only provide more opportunity for ourselves, but for our children and our grandchildren,” Paxton said Tuesday night at University Draft House. “And it’s all up to you.”

In the audience at both candidates’ events were hundreds of Latino voters who have grown frustrated with prices at the gas pump and grocery store, which have remained stubbornly high through the first year and a half of Trump’s term. In interviews, some said they felt even more exasperated by what they see as unnecessary spending on the United States’ conflict in Iran.

“I felt heard today,” said Rogelio D. Espinoza, a 21-year-old who will vote for the first time this November, after he told Talarico about his financial woes. He said nobody would hire him despite all the “Help Wanted” signs hanging on storefronts all over Eagle Pass. When he finally landed a job, the paycheck he earned working overnight was still insufficient and he was having to decide between making his car or rent payments, even after dropping out of college.

The candidates also doubled down on the criticisms of their opponents they have been hammering for weeks since the May 26 runoff, when Paxton defeated U.S. Sen. John Cornyn to become the GOP nominee.

Paxton began his speech by taking a jab at Talarico’s past stances on border security, and touting his own record. “We need a secure border. We need to protect our country. We need to make sure that we take care of America first,” Paxton said.

The three-term attorney general then plunged into the more socially conservative issues he and his allies have already dragged Talarico for in recent weeks, reupping the Democrat’s past comments about Christianity, transgender children, gender and sexuality. All evidence, Paxton said, that Talarico is unqualified to hold state office in ruby red Texas.

“Once this community knows what his views are on transitioning boys into girls and girls into boys, boys in girls sports, they’re not going to support him,” he said.

Those comments resonated with some voters at Paxton’s event, on top of his posture of remaining bullish on border security.

“Talarico scares me, he really does,” 63-year-old Martha Martin, a former Democrat from Laredo, said after the rally. “I want to protect children.”

At stops in Sanderson, Del Rio and Eagle Pass, Talarico said that he wanted to listen to border residents. He received an earload from people struggling to pay rent, forgoing medical care and feeling unseen in their plight.

During the question-and-answer portion of a town hall in Eagle Pass, 80-year-old Vietnam War veteran Javier Mancha asked Talarico how he planned to end the conflict in Iran, stop Trump and lower everyday costs.

Talarico told him he vividly remembers the billions spent on the Iraq War this century. The federal government needs to be reined in, the nominee told Mancha. As far as prices go, Talarico noted he supports suspending the federal gas and diesel tax, the second of which is overlooked, he said, but just as important because of all the commerce moved by diesel-fueled trucks.

Mancha approved.

“Talarico is down to Earth, like us,” Mancha said in an interview after the event. “He came to see us.”

For his part, Paxton also embraced the dominant conversation surrounding tight economic conditions. To a roar of applause, he said at his rally that he would fight for economic freedom.

Paxton’s company at the rally is also betting that voters’ disappointment in the Biden administration is fresh enough to keep driving GOP gains in South Texas.

Flores is challenging Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-McAllen, in the 34th Congressional District, while Tijerina is running against Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, in the 28th Congressional District.

Both seats, located in South Texas and majority-Latino, were held by their moderate Democratic representatives last cycle despite being carried by Trump. They were redrawn by the Legislature last year to be more friendly to Republicans — both now would have elected Trump by 10 percentage points in 2024 — but are expected to be highly competitive races.

Throughout the primary and runoff, some Republicans worried that Paxton would be an electoral liability for down-ballot candidates. Cornyn allies put out a memo in early May listing a number of seats they believed Paxton would put at risk as the nominee, including the 34th District.

Tijerina, a former Democrat who defected to the GOP in December 2024, downplayed those concerns this week.

“South Texas is not moving. First of all, the big question is, what have the Democrats done for the Hispanic people?” Tijerina said after his rally with Paxton. “Which is, in the last few years, absolutely nothing.”

An NBA spokesman said that “the NBA is continuing to look into it.” ESPN first reported that the NBA was investigating the signing for possible circumvention of the salary cap.

Although the Bucks didn’t disclose terms when they announced the signing, ESPN has reported Trent received a four-year, $64 million deal. He’s getting that lucrative deal after a season in which his statistics dipped.

Trent is coming off a 2025-26 season in which he scored 8.1 points per game and played 21.2 minutes per game for Milwaukee. Those represented his lowest averages in both categories since his rookie season of 2018-19.

The 6-foot-4 guard had joined the Bucks in 2024 by signing for the veteran minimum after a season in which he had scored 13.7 points per game and had shot 39.3% from 3-point range for the Toronto Raptors.

He returned to the Bucks last year after scoring 11.1 points per game and shooting 41.6% from 3-point range with Milwaukee in 2024-25. He had capped that 2024-25 season by scoring over 30 points in two of the Bucks' five playoff games during their first-round loss to the Indiana Pacers.

The contract Trent signed last year included a $3.9 million player option for 2026-27 that he declined before agreeing to this new deal.

The concerns over salary cap circumvention involve whether there was a prior agreement that Trent would be rewarded now if he signed below-market deals each of the last two years.

While the situations aren't similar, this probe comes as the NBA also investigates whether the Los Angeles Clippers circumvented salary cap rules involving a $28 million endorsement contract between seven-time all-NBA forward Kawhi Leonard and the now-bankrupt California-based sustainability services company called Aspiration Fund Adviser LLC. That investigation has put the Clippers' trade of Leonard to the Toronto Raptors on hold.

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

Officials in many cities urged residents to stay inside or wear masks outside as air quality reached unhealthy to hazardous levels, meaning it's unhealthy for anyone, regardless of health conditions. The smoke is coming from fires that are burning primarily in Canada but also in northern Minnesota. A lingering high pressure system has trapped the smoke close to the ground, said Steven Freitag, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Detroit, where air quality was among the worst in the world for major cities.

“Sure enough, it arrived in force here and it’s really pretty extreme levels,” said Freitag, who noted that visibility in some areas was reduced to a half mile.

“It’s scary,” Omar Mitchell, 50, said as he looked to the sky. He wore a mask while walking to his restaurant in Detroit. “You don’t know necessarily what the side effects may be. That’s days or months later.”

Microscopic particles can lodge deep in the lungs and enter the bloodstream, leading to heart and lung problems and contributing to other long-term health issues.

The air stinks and the sky glows yellow in some places

All of Michigan and much of Minnesota were under a hazardous air quality alert. In the Chicago area, air quality ranged from very unhealthy to hazardous.

National Weather Service meteorologist Jake Petr said even if winds from the northwest clear skies as expected later this week, the smoky air could keep returning until the fires are out. That could take months, until it snows in Canada and northern Minnesota, officials have said.

Bill Ostrowski, 76, wore a mask as he walked through downtown Chicago, where wildfire smoke shrouded skyscrapers. “It stinks. It’s not a good sign when you wake up in the morning and you can smell the air,” said Ostrowski.

In St. Paul, Minnesota, the sky was “glowing yellow,” said Brent Williams, head of the soil, water and climate department at the University of Minnesota. The area “could be looking at weeks to months of continued smoke and flare-ups off and on as the winds blow in different directions,” he said.

A study published this year found that long-term exposure to tiny particles from wildfire smoke contributed to an average of 24,100 deaths a year in the lower 48 states. Long-term exposure can make existing health problems worse and lead to a range of chronic and deadly issues, including respiratory illness, cardiovascular and neurological diseases, and premature death.

New York City cancels activities and hands out masks

In the New York City area, a thick haze tinged the morning sky orange and yellow and partly obscured Manhattan’s skyline.

City officials opened cooling centers as health officials urged New Yorkers to limit strenuous and prolonged outdoor activities. The city’s schools, parks and other agencies moved activities indoors, rescheduled events and adjusted operations. State officials distributed tens of thousands of face masks at transit hubs and other major locations.

Gwen Moseley, 65, was among the first patrons at Rosedale Library in Queens to take advantage of the free masks, saying she’s on the road much of the day working as a therapist for children with autism.

“Who wants to be breathing this? It’s not healthy,” Moseley said as she waited to meet a young client. “When I’m out walking, I can feel the scratchiness in my throat.”

Smoke eased a bit but was expected to thicken again by late afternoon or evening, possibly lasting overnight, weather service meteorologist Maureen Hastings said. She said it might move south for a while on Friday but return at night.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation warned that there was a potential for temporary spikes of “very unhealthy” air quality from Buffalo in the state's western corner to Rochester by Lake Ontario, Syracuse in the central region and down to the greater New York City area.

Philadelphia officials urged people to avoid strenuous activity and stay inside or wear N95 or KN95 masks outside.

“Today is not the day to start your marathon training plan,” said Dr. Palak Raval-Nelson, the city's public health commissioner.

Minnesota fires are spreading

In Minnesota, forest rangers on Thursday combed a remote wilderness area for anyone who might still be there days after wildfires led to its closure.

Officials closed the Boundary Waters along the U.S.-Canada border on Tuesday. At the time, 6,000 to 10,000 people were inside, but Superior National Forest staff estimated Wednesday that they’d reached 90% of them, said Karen Harrison, a spokesperson for state and federal agencies involved in the response.

She said Thursday that smoke is making it difficult for helicopters to fly and that fires are spreading despite firefighting efforts.

“There will be fire on the landscape until fall, and some fire will be burning until snow cover,” Harrison said.

The Royal Canadian Air Force successfully evacuated 11 Minnesota teenagers and four staff members Wednesday from wildfires in an Ontario provincial park about 175 miles (282 kilometers) north of the Minnesota border.

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Webber reported from Fenton, Michigan. Associated Press reporters Ed White in Detroit, Jacqueline GaNun in Lansing, Michigan, and Cybele Mayes-Osterman in Chicago contributed to this report.

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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

The motorcycle was the only vehicle involved.

It happened at the intersection of Wayside Drive and Avenue W.

Investigators are still on scene, working to determine what caused the crash.

The United States said Wednesday it would impose a new 25% tariff on certain imports from Brazil, citing unfair trade practices by the world’s 10th-largest economy.

The tariffs, first proposed last month, will take effect next Wednesday. The order exempts some goods that are not produced in the U.S. or that officials worry would disrupt supply chains — including coffee, beef, oranges and orange juice and aircraft components.

Brazil's government said the decision hits about 3,000 items, but is yet to decide whether and how it could retaliate with a law its Congress passed in 2025 in response to President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Brazil’s industry minister, Márcio Elias Rosa, said Thursday the U.S. move hits about 18% of the country’s exports — or an estimated $7.4 billion worth of products, based on 2024 data.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's office on Wednesday denied U.S. allegations of unfair trade practices. It said 76% of imports from the U.S. entered Brazil duty-free in 2025, and that the average tariff effectively applied to U.S. products was only 3.1%.

The statement also said it has taken steps to impose reciprocal tariffs, along with other trade-related countermeasures, through its own law and through the World Trade Organization’s dispute settlement mechanism.

Brazil’s Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira accused the Trump administration of pressuring the South American nation to give American companies exclusive access to some sectors of its economy. He said Brazil has never left the negotiating table.

Vieira said Rubio made statements that are “unacceptable, offensive to the Brazilian people and the Brazilian government” after the new tariffs were announced. Rubio said in a post on X that the tariffs were the result of Lula putting “his own ego ahead of making a deal” and not negotiating with the U.S. in good faith.

“Rubio launches a crude and arrogant attack on the Head of State of a friendly nation, who has personally sought to open channels for dialogue on several occasions," Vieira told a news conference in the capital, Brasilia.

"What Secretary Rubio dismisses as ‘ego’ is, in fact, President Lula’s steadfast resolve to defend Brazil’s sovereignty and the interests of our businesses and workers,” Vieira said.

US has a robust trade surplus with Brazil

The U.S. has for years run a massive trade deficit with the rest of the world, and Trump has cited the lopsided trade numbers to justify his aggressive use of tariffs.

But Brazilian imports make an unusual target: The U.S. has persistently piled up trade surpluses with Brazil. Last year, in fact, U.S. exports to Brazil exceeded imports by nearly $42 billion; only U.S. trade surpluses with the Netherlands and the United Kingdom were higher.

The new tariff puts pressure on national exports and increases insecurity for companies in both countries, Brazil’s National Confederation of Industry said in a statement Thursday.

The Trump administration first imposed a 50% tariff on Brazilian imports last July. Trump cited what he called a “witch hunt” against former President Jair Bolsonaro, a Trump's ally on trial at the time for attempting a coup despite his 2022 electoral defeat to Lula. Bolsonaro was later convicted and some of those U.S. tariffs were later rescinded.

Trump at the time also accused Brazil of unfair trade practices and said he had directed U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to initiate an investigation under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974.

That led the office to charge Brazil with lax anti-corruption enforcement and unfair tariffs, among other things, in June. One of the targets of the investigation is Brazil's popular PIX payment system, which is run by the country's central bank and is overwhelmingly free of charge.

Scott Lincicome, a trade analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute, said the U.S. administration might have had a legitimate Section 301 case if it narrowly targeted Brazil’s restrictions on trade in digital services. Instead, it threw in a bunch of other allegations.

“It’s a pretty clear case of the administration simply finding an excuse and finding a law that allows them to impose the tariffs they want to impose,’’ Lincicome said.

Welber Barral, a trade lawyer and former Brazilian foreign trade secretary, said the move comes as his country's exports to the U.S. are now less than 10% of its total for the first time in two centuries.

“Brazil is diversifying to other destinations,” Barral said. “Brazil is negotiating with Canada through the Mercosur. Other deals will also come out as the American market closes.”

Brazil elections may be impacted

Brazilian officials have blamed the Bolsonaro family — Lula's main political opponents — for the latest round of tariffs. Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, a presidential hopeful in October's elections and son of the former president, visited Trump, Rubio and other U.S. officials in Washington in May.

The senator reposted Rubio’s statement, adding that “Lula is no longer fit to be the president of Brazil. We are on a plane without a pilot.” He also described Lula as “the Brazilian Biden” and said he “is grumpy, reckless, and has become a danger to our nation.”

Flávio Bolsonaro is expected to be confirmed as Lula's main election rival on July 25 at his Liberal Party's convention in Sao Paulo, though his bid has struggled to overcome the findings of a police investigation, which showed he received millions of dollars from a disgraced banker to finance a movie about his father. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Thomas Traumann, an independent political consultant and former Brazilian minister, said he thinks the tariffs could ultimately hurt Lula's opponent, describing two issues he sees as working against Flávio Bolsonaro.

"The first was the revelation of his involvement with the disgraced banker,” Traumann said. “And now he has U.S. tariffs with Bolsonaro fingerprints. Now Brazil's business understands he will be submissive to Trump.”

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Savarese reported from Sao Paulo.

Paul Wiseman contributed to this report from Washington D.C.

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

In the latest maneuver, video spreading widely on social media shows a jet from the Navy's demonstration squadron, the Blue Angels, flying so low over a crowded beach in Pensacola on Wednesday that chairs and tents went flying, sand kicked up and children held their hands over their ears.

The U.S. Navy said in a statement shortly afterward that it was “conducting a thorough safety review." Then on Thursday morning, a host of Trump administration officials heaped praise on the maneuver.

“The flyovers will continue until morale improves,” Hegseth wrote on his personal X account, without elaborating.

The Pentagon’s top spokesman, Sean Parnell, wrote “Carry on Patriots” on social media alongside a photo showing a Blue Angels jet with a wingtip just feet above the heads of beachgoers.

The White House tweeted a cartoon showing people on a beach taking photos of a Blue Angels jet, with the words “Freedom” and “It's okay to love America.”

It is at least the third time that Hegseth and others have voiced support for military aviators performing maneuvers that, while often popular with the crowds experiencing them, have drawn public scrutiny and military investigations.

In two prior cases, Hegseth's remarks led to the end of the safety investigations. In the Florida flight, acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao, a Trump administration political appointee, said the Navy had “no problem” with the flight and there would be no reprimands or firings. His social media post was retweeted by Hegseth.

Cao's post said Thursday that the Blue Angels conducted a “flight debrief.” Navy officials would not say if that debrief — typically a routine occurrence after every flight — was the “thorough safety review” the Navy said it would conduct the day prior.

Military leaders are excusing reckless behavior, one safety expert says

Flyovers at low altitudes like these have been linked to a number of past crashes, said Jeff Guzzetti, an aviation safety consultant who used to investigate crashes for both the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration.

“It’s shocking to me as an aviation safety professional that the top leaders of the military would excuse this type of reckless behavior,” he said. “A cavalier attitude like that can only lead to accidents in my view.”

The Florida flyover comes after video emerged in March of two Army helicopters hovering near Kid Rock’s Tennessee home during a training run while he clapped and saluted. The Army initially said that the helicopter crews were suspended pending a safety investigation.

Days later, Hegseth lifted their suspension and ended the investigation saying, “No punishment. No Investigation. Carry on, patriots.” The singer is an outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump.

Months later, eight South Carolina National Guard helicopter pilots were suspended following a low-flying sweep by Army Apache helicopters over beachgoers as part of a July 4 event honoring service members.

Less than a week after the event, Hegseth again said he was intervening, writing on social media: “We’ll fix this." The next day, Parnell posted that "effective immediately, the suspension of all involved South Carolina pilots has been lifted.” He added to his social media post, “Carry on Patriots.”

When asked if Thursday's posts, which use the same phrasing as the prior two cases, meant that Hegseth's office was halting another safety investigation, Jacob Bliss, a Pentagon spokesman, said he had “nothing further to provide at this time.”

Guzzetti said the military's top leaders are excusing unprofessional and dangerous behavior from military aviators.

“That sends out a powerful signal that this type of deviant behavior is acceptable and, in fact, desired," he said. “And that’s dangerous. That’s the antithesis of a good safety culture.”

Flyovers might not violate rules but that doesn't make them safe

Former Transportation Department Inspector General Mary Schiavo said these flyovers probably don’t violate military rules because the Pentagon doesn’t have the same restrictions on flying low over people that the FAA imposes on civilian flights. But that doesn’t mean they are a good idea — particularly the risky maneuvers that Blue Angels pilots perform.

“They are air demonstration teams, and what they do is exceedingly dangerous — amazing and wonderful — but dangerous," said Schiavo, who is also a pilot and used to work in air shows years ago. “And so it is really not something to be performed over people.”

Florida beachgoer Alexandra Belcher, 34, called the Blue Angels flyover this week a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

“I didn’t realize how close it was, until everyone around me was like, ‘That was so cool,’” she said. “It was not normal, but it was such a blessing to be able to witness that with everybody that I was with.”

A Navy official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to share internal planning, said the Blue Angels’ next show on Saturday will go on as scheduled.

The military has been involved in previous deadly aircraft accidents

The Army was sharply criticized by the NTSB during the investigation of last year’s midair collision between a Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines jet near Washington for failing to identify and address the hazards that contributed to the crash that killed 67 people.

The NTSB said it found that “the Army’s aviation safety system failed to consistently detect, interpret, and act on signals of latent hazards, resulting in degraded safety assurance, organizational learning, and safety culture.”

Even basic flyovers, like the kind Hegseth is defending, have been known to turn deadly.

In April 2025, a Japanese woman was killed after the propeller wash from an Air Force HH-60W helicopter knocked her down on a concrete walkway, causing severe head injuries.

A subsequent Air Force investigation noted that key factors leading to the mishap included “allowing deviation from safe spectator distances” as defined by the Air Force and “an operational mindset fostering a false confidence of safety.”

In 2011, Cmdr. Dave Koss, then-head of the Blue Angels, voluntarily stepped down days after a performance at a regional air show where he carried out a low-altitude maneuver that was called “unacceptable” in a Navy statement at the time. The Blue Angels had to cancel several of their air shows that year as a result.

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Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska. AP writer Beatrice Dupuy contributed from New York.

The policy, known as “public charge,” appeared on Thursday in the Federal Register. It will be formally published on July 20 and take effect Sept. 18. Under the policy, applicants for green cards have to show they wouldn’t be burdens to the country or “public charges.”

The policy was first implemented in February 2020 as one of President Donald Trump’s moves to limit legal immigration during his first administration, but it was reversed after Democratic President Joe Biden came to power.

Its return comes when the Republican administration is implementing a hard-line policy to curb both illegal and legal immigration, and when the cost of healthcare and food is rising.

The federal government “is reaffirming the requirement of self-reliance, protecting public resources and ending policies that encouraged dependency on the backs of hard-working American taxpayers,” U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said in a post published on its X account.

“Under President Trump, USCIS is restoring the basic principle that immigrants must be able to support themselves,” the post said.

While the administration’s crackdown on immigration has an increased focus on deportations and immigration enforcement in cities across the country and at borders and entry points, it has also taken actions that target legal immigrants and mixed-status families, in which the parents are foreign nationals with U.S.-born children.

The rule expands disqualification options

Federal law already requires those seeking permanent residency or legal status to demonstrate that they will not become a public charge. The Trump administration’s rule, however, broadens the grounds for disqualification.

The new rule does not describe or specify by name the benefits and programs that could be considered a public charge. Instead, it says that officers who would implement the policy will make “individualized, fact-specific public charge inadmissible determinations, based on a totality of the alien’s circumstances.”

It says that, “using good judgment and discretion, officers will more accurately assess an alien’s likelihood at any time of becoming a public charge.”

The Trump administration first promoted the rule in 2018 as a way to ensure that only those who were self-sufficient came to the U.S. Immigrant rights advocates criticized it, saying it amounted to a “wealth test.” Public health experts said it would lead to worse health outcomes.

Manatt Health, a group that provides advice to state and federal governments, estimated the policy would have deterred as many as 26 million people from seeking healthcare, food, housing or other aid through programs for which they qualified under federal law. About half were U.S. citizens, mostly children or adults living in a mixed-status family, according to the group.

Experts also noted that most people who receive benefits from the government are already legal residents.

A 2020 study from the Migration Policy Institute said that while the “chilling effects” may be vast, the number of immigrants who could be deemed ineligible for legal permanent residence based on use of one of the public benefits under the rule was small.

The institute estimated that no more than 167,000 people — less than 1% of the 22.1 million noncitizens residing in the United States at that time — could be determined ineligible for a green card based on their current use of a listed benefit.

There were 22.8 million noncitizens living in the U.S. in 2023, according to the Census Bureau.

Critics say the rule creates fear in the community

Nongovernmental organizations said the policy generated confusion and fear and caused many immigrants and their U.S.-born relatives to decide not to apply for benefits and services to which they were entitled.

Immigrant advocates condemned the government’s decision to revive the “public charge” rule and expressed concern.

“This regulation is a direct assault on immigrant families, and a threat to our country’s health and economic security,” said Adriana Cadena, executive director at the Protecting Immigrant Families Coalition. “The Trump administration is basing immigration decisions on bias and politics, regardless of the resulting harm.”

Sarah Krieger, senior policy counsel at the National Immigration Law Center, said the rule would make immigrants afraid to go to the doctor, buy food at the grocery store and file taxes.

“With this new rule, they are sowing fear and chaos to ultimately reshape America into a country where only the few who are white and ultra-wealthy are welcome,” Krieger said. “The rule is not just deeply harmful, it also violates the law.”

Their recommendations include four page-turning beach reads, followed by four novels with Texas ties, either through their setting or their authors.

Blue Willow is celebrating 30 years and host book clubs, authors, signings, and events for the whole family. Head to their website to stay in the know!

Beach Reads

Romantic Hero by Kirsty Greenwood

A witty romantic comedy with plenty of heart, this novel follows a woman whose life takes an unexpected turn as she begins to question whether real life can ever live up to the romance novels she loves. Filled with humor, chemistry and surprising twists, it’s an ideal escape for summer.

Change of Plans by Sarah Dessen

The latest from beloved young adult author Sarah Dessen follows a recent high school graduate whose carefully mapped-out future is suddenly upended. As unexpected opportunities arise, she discovers that life’s detours may lead to exactly where she’s meant to be.

Anatomy of an Alibi by Ashley Elston

Houston-area author Ashley Elston delivers another addictive mystery. When secrets, lies and suspicious circumstances collide, readers are taken on a fast-paced ride filled with twists that will keep them guessing until the final pages.

The Great Wherever by Shannon Sanders

This thoughtful collection of interconnected stories explores identity, family and belonging through richly drawn characters navigating life’s transitions. Sanders blends warmth, humor and emotional depth into a memorable summer read.

Texas Picks

Flirting with Disaster by Naina KumarSet in Texas, this charming romantic comedy follows an estranged married couple who find themselves unexpectedly reunited. As old feelings resurface, they’re forced to confront whether their love story deserves a second chance.

By the Bootstraps by Alexa Martin

Texas author Alexa Martin delivers a heartfelt romance about starting over after life doesn’t go as planned. With relatable characters, humor and plenty of swoon-worthy moments, it’s a story about resilience, friendship and finding love when you least expect it.

Faculty Lounge by Jennifer Mathieu

Written by Texas author Jennifer Mathieu, this sharply observed novel offers an inside look at the lives of teachers navigating the challenges, politics and personalities inside a public school. Both funny and poignant, it’s a timely story about the people shaping the next generation.

Enormous Wings by Laurie Frankel

Set in Texas, this imaginative novel follows a family whose lives are transformed after the birth of a child with wings. Blending magical realism with heartfelt family drama, Laurie Frankel explores themes of acceptance, identity and unconditional love.

Whether you’re craving romance, mystery, literary fiction or stories with strong Texas roots, these recommendations from Blue Willow Bookshop offer something for every reader. Stop by your local independent bookstore, grab a title that speaks to you and make this summer one filled with unforgettable stories.

The drug from Merck was OK'd on Thursday for patients with artery-clogging cholesterol that persists even after taking statins, the standard medications for cutting heart attack risk. Merck will market its pill under the brand name Lipfendra.

It's the first noninjectable medication that works by blocking a liver protein called PCSK9. That protein limits the body's ability to clear cholesterol from the blood, and biotech injectables targeting it have been available from Amgen and other drugmakers for more than a decade. But patient access has been stymied for years by high prices, insurance restrictions and limited prescribing by doctors.

Statins block some of the liver’s production of cholesterol and are the cornerstone of treatment. But even at the highest doses, many people need additional help lowering their LDL, or bad, cholesterol enough to meet medical guidelines.

Merck, which has headquarters in Rahway, New Jersey, won approval based on two studies in high-risk patients who added the company's pill to their standard treatment, including statins. In one study of 3,000 patients, those taking Lipfendra saw their levels of LDL cholesterol drop more than 55% after six months. In a second study, patients averaged a reduction of 59% compared with patients who received a dummy pill.

That benefit dropped only slightly over a year, and side effects — including dizziness and diarrhea — were similar between those taking the pill or a placebo, researchers found. One caveat: The pill must be taken on an empty stomach.

The FDA reviewed the drug under its program that promises ultra-fast reviews for promising medications that serve the public interest. The pathway was created by then-FDA chief Dr. Marty Makary, who resigned from the agency in May after months of pressure from drugmakers, patients and other outside groups.

Heart disease is the nation’s leading cause of death, and high LDL cholesterol, which causes plaque to build up in arteries, is a top risk factor for heart attacks and strokes. While an LDL level of 100 is considered fine for healthy people, doctors recommend lowering it to at least 70 once people develop high cholesterol or heart disease — and even lower for those at very high risk.

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

Reports from the National Transportation Safety Board were not final and do not identify a definitive cause of the crash. But they describe evidence that supports bird strikes before the helicopter plummeted into the river on April 10, 2025.

The Federal Aviation Administration has said that helicopters are especially vulnerable to bird strikes because they fly at low altitudes. Strikes can turn out to be devastating.

“It seems pretty clear to me that the breakup of that helicopter was precipitated by several bird strikes,” said aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti, a former federal crash investigator, who read the key findings. “Not just one but several — and birds of a different feather.”

He noted damage to the aircraft's horizontal stabilizer, a key part of the helicopter.

“Without it, the helicopter could become very unstable and difficult to fly,” Guzzetti said.

The victims of last year’s accident included a Siemens business executive from Spain, his family and the pilot, Seankese Johnson, 36, a U.S. Navy veteran who received his commercial license in 2023.

Passengers Agustin Escobar, 49; his wife, Mercè Camprubí Montal, 39; and their three children, Victor, 4; Mercedes, 8; and Agustin, 10, all died.

The crash renewed safety concerns about the popular sightseeing flights and prompted New Jersey’s governor to ask for additional restrictions on nonessential helicopter flights.

Remains of several geese were found on the helicopter’s rotors and left horizontal stabilizer. One witness told the NTSB that just minutes before the crash a large flock of geese took flight in the area.

“The geese were big and there were many of them. When the helicopter went bang, I immediately thought it was a bird strike,” the witness told NTSB investigators.

The Smithsonian Institution’s Feather Identification Lab identified remains from different breeds of geese on the wreckage, including a female Canada goose, which can average nearly 8 pounds (3.6 kilograms).

Guzzetti said it's reasonable to conclude “the pilot is not culpable here.”

“Birds are everywhere, and pilots have limitations with their eyesight,” he said.

The report, however, noted that a control panel switch to turn on pulsing lights to help deter birds was missing. The tour company's former chief pilot said the light system was not mandatory during daylight rides, according to investigators.

The NTSB has investigated 24 helicopter bird-strike crashes in the past 25 years, including three fatal ones. Helicopter pilots are encouraged to try to avoid areas where birds are known to be present and fly slower to minimize the potential damage from an impact.

The “ miracle on the Hudson” highlighted the danger of bird strikes when a US Airways jet hit a flock of birds and lost power in both engines shortly after takeoff in 2009. Pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger was hailed as a hero after he landed the powerless plane in the Hudson River and all 155 people on board were rescued.

In last year’s crash, the helicopter took off from a downtown heliport that afternoon and flew north along the Manhattan skyline before heading south toward the Statue of Liberty. Less than 18 minutes into the flight, parts of the aircraft were seen tumbling into the water.

Rescue boats circled the submerged aircraft within minutes of impact and recovered the bodies from the water. Later recovery crews hoisted the mangled Bell 206L-4 helicopter out of the river for investigators to examine.

New York Helicopter Tours shut down after the crash, and the FAA issued an emergency order to ground all the company’s flights after learning it had fired its operations director minutes after he had agreed to suspend flights during the investigation.

The FAA said at the time that it suspected the firing was retaliation for a safety decision.

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Associated Press writer Ed White in Detroit contributed to this story.

UniverSoul Circus has returned to Sam Houston Race Park with its all-new production, “We All Belong,” bringing together world-class performers, high-energy entertainment and interactive fun for audiences of all ages.

On Houston Life, Ringmaster Donald “N.O” Longshared what makes UniverSoul Circus unlike any other live show.

“It’s like a family reunion,” Long said. “You’re not just watching a performance. You’re experiencing the culture, the music and the energy together.”

Now celebrating 32 years, the production features performers representing 12 countries across five continents. Audiences can expect everything from daring motorcycle stunts and aerial acrobatics to roller skating, comedy, dance and live music.

Houston Life viewers also got a special preview from two out of the 10 Elite Soul Skaters. Rocio Merchan and Michele Torres wowed viewers with a fast-paced roller skating performance showcasing the skill, precision, and athleticism that have become crowd favorites under the big top.

This year’s show also includes the Ethiopian Pole Act, the Morning Doves aerial duo, the Caribbean Street Carnival, Fresh the Clowns, fire breathers, stilt performers and gravity-defying motorcycle stunt artists soaring high above the arena.

Opening weekend also celebrates the Houston community with themed performances, including City of Houston Night, Veterans and First Responders Night, Youth Sports Day and International Night. Houston rapper and philanthropist Trae the Truth will also serve as guest ringmaster during a special Sunday performance.

UniverSoul Circus runs through Aug. 2 at Sam Houston Race Park. Tickets start at $25, and opening weekend includes a special promotion where children can attend free with the purchase of an adult ticket by using the promo code ‘KIDSFREE.’

Mancebo was charged in 2017 with capital murder in Harris County. Investigators say he later skipped sentencing and disappeared, prompting an effort to locate him across jurisdictions.

Officials credited “outstanding teamwork” among multiple law enforcement agencies for the arrest, saying Mancebo is no longer a threat to the public.

The NBA's career scoring king and current free agent spoke publicly for the first time in weeks Thursday afternoon, indicating that a decision is close — though stopping short of revealing which team he'll choose to play for this fall, despite at least one cry from someone in a jampacked room shouting for him to “pick a team.”

“I won’t hold you guys up too much longer," James said.

The four-time NBA champion had a pair of appearances Thursday: He recorded an episode of his “Mind the Game” podcast alongside guest co-host Tyrese Haliburton of the Indiana Pacers in New York on the opening day of Fanatics Fest, then spoke at the Game Plan Summit presented by CNBC and Boardroom later in the afternoon.

At the summit, he told Boardroom co-founder Rich Kleiman in an on-stage conversation that making this decision has a slew of layers — many of which, it seems, are off the court.

“It’s not just about the team,” James said. “There’s so many other factors that I’m factoring in right now on what best fits me as a player, what best fits me as a person and what best fits my happiness, and also my family as well.”

At Fanatics Fest, an 11-year-old in the crowd asked James about free agency and his next team — “first of all, that was a hell of a question and some of the media people here probably should learn from the young fella," James said — and the youngster got perhaps the best answer of the session, with James indicating that the 2026-27 season may not necessarily be his last as a player.

“It's a big decision for not only myself, but for my family as well,” James said. “Just for the last part of my career and where I want to spend the last few years or the last year or the last two years of my NBA career ... I'm going to try to fit into whatever team I'm going into — but also give them all the tools and give them all the knowledge that I've been able to grasp over the last 23 years. I know the game. I know the ins and outs of the game of basketball.”

James playfully chided Haliburton for asking him about his future — “didn’t we talk about this in the back?” James asked, and Haliburton said he would ”leave it alone.”

Of course, they didn't leave it alone. James made reference to a slew of teams such as Cleveland, Miami, Philadelphia and Golden State, though didn't appear to give much in the way of hints. He did sip from a bottle of red wine that he opened and shared with Haliburton, calling it one of his podcast traditions.

And when fans shouted out suggestions for James' next team — one even asked him to play for the New York Yankees — no clues were forthcoming.

“We'll see,” he said.

In Miami, where the Heat introduced Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis Jr. as their newest forwards on Thursday, team president Pat Riley acknowledged there have been talks about a reunion with James.

But the Heat don't seem to have any hints either.

“Right now, I think we’re like everybody else,” Riley said. “We’re just waiting to see what he does and then we’ll see what happens.”

Same goes for the NBA: Commissioner Adam Silver spoke at the Game Plan Summit not long after James on Thursday. Silver said he has a bit of an “inkling” on which way James is leaning, but no concrete word.

The league office, Silver said, would like to know for one specific reason.

“We have to finish up the schedule and where LeBron plays will affect the schedule,” Silver said. “So, I would like him to make his announcement already so we can finish the schedule. As you can imagine, the teams are calling us, the networks are calling us, and everybody wants to lock in the schedule. It will influence how we set the schedule, how we set opening week, Christmas Day, etc. I need him to make a decision. But the direct answer is I have no inside information.”

James is the NBA’s oldest active player at 41 and the only player in league history to have a career spanning 23 seasons; this coming season will be his 24th. Speculation has been rampant for more than two months about his future, officially starting in May when the Los Angeles Lakers were eliminated from the NBA playoffs.

At that time, James said he didn’t know what he would be doing.

And the only developments that he’s revealed since came on June 30, when he said he would play this coming season and that he was leaving the Lakers after an eight-season run highlighted by the 2020 NBA title.

For more than two weeks, the NBA has been waiting to hear what comes next. James, as he did in a social media post at the time, lauded his time with the Lakers, who also offered him well wishes as he moves forward.

“I spent eight great years with the Los Angeles Lakers,” James said.

James’ resume is beyond compare in NBA history. He’s a 22-time All-Star, a 21-time All-NBA selection, a four-time Most Valuable Player, a four-time NBA Finals MVP, a three-time All-Star Game MVP, and was a member of the NBA’s 75th anniversary team.

He’s also coming off a season where he averaged 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 7.2 assists per game. For his career, he’s averaged 26.8 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 7.4 assists in more than 1,600 games.

James started his career in Cleveland in 2003 and spent seven seasons with the Cavaliers before heading to Miami for four seasons — where he won his first two titles. He then returned to Cleveland for four more seasons, leaving in 2018 to start an eight-season run with the Lakers.

Cleveland and Miami are believed to be on James' radar again as he weighs this decision, as are several other teams including Philadelphia, Minnesota and Golden State.

“I’m looking forward to what comes next as I wind down my journey,” James said.

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Reynolds reported from Miami.

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

Tonight’s Forecast:

Any remaining showers or thunderstorms should fade quickly Thursday evening, with rain chances dropping to around 10% before 7 p.m. Skies will remain mostly cloudy overnight, with warm and muggy conditions continuing. Temperatures will only fall into the upper 70s, with southeast winds around 5 to 10 mph.

Friday’s Forecast:

Friday will feature more sunshine and noticeably fewer storms, although a stray shower or thunderstorm could still develop late in the afternoon along the sea or bay breeze. Rain chances remain near 20%, so most of the Houston area should stay dry. Afternoon temperatures will climb into the mid-90s, with heat index values potentially reaching around 105 degrees.

Weekend Forecast:

A more typical summertime weather pattern settles into Houston this weekend, bringing mostly dry conditions and plenty of heat. Saturday will be partly sunny with a high near 95 degrees, while Sunday should be mostly sunny with temperatures around 96 degrees. Rain chances will be very low, but the combination of heat and humidity will make it feel hotter than the actual temperature. Overnight lows will remain in the mid-to-upper 70s, with some urban and coastal locations struggling to fall below 80 degrees.

10 Day Forecast:

The heat will continue building into next week as high pressure strengthens over the region. High temperatures are expected to reach the upper 90s by Tuesday and Wednesday, with a few locations potentially approaching 100 degrees. Heat index values could climb into the 108- to 110-degree range, possibly reaching Heat Advisory criteria. Rain chances remain minimal through most of next week before a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms returns Thursday.

Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington framed the proposal as one last push to deliver for voters ahead of the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress. It advanced on a vote of 20-14.

"We are rallying to finish what we started when the American people sent us here,” said Arrington, R-Texas.

With Iran war funding making up the bulk of the package, some $60 billion, Arrington acknowledged that people can debate “why we're there” in the overseas conflict. But he said the money is needed for basic supplies — "just the bombs, bullets and battlefield readiness for our men and women in uniform to finish the fight successfully and return home safely — that’s it."

The resolution, which sets out instructions for the various congressional committees to draw up proposals, also calls for $13 billion for Intelligence, $12 billion for Agriculture, and $10 billion for Administration, which handles voting and elections.

Speaker Johnson goes it alone, trying to push past Democrats

The proposal is the third budget reconciliation package Republicans in control of Congress have put forward this session to steamroll Trump's priorities past Democratic objections using a legislative procedure that allows for simple majority votes for passage.

It's the same process House Speaker Mike Johnson used to pass Trump's big tax cuts bill last year and to advance Homeland Security money after Democrats refused to fund the department following the deaths of Americans protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions earlier this year.

Johnson is pushing the effort almost single-handedly, without full backing from his slim House Republican majority or the Senate. He held lengthy meetings with Trump this week at the White House and hosted a private session for Republicans at the president's Camp David retreat to hash out details.

But the 47-page package remains a long-shot effort — too meager for some, too costly for others — ahead of voting in the full House expected next week.

Key Republican Rep. Chip Roy, an influential member of the Freedom Caucus who has expressed reservations about the package, did not vote at the Budget Committee session, as his home state of Texas deals with flooding.

Democrats argue Americans are paying for Trump's plans

Democrats are ready to vote against the proposal, as they did Thursday during committee action.

Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania, the ranking Democrat on the Budget Committee, said the document, some 6,500 words, never once mentions the issue that's top of mind for many Americans: affordability.

“People know this is a failed presidency, and a failed Republican majority,” Boyle said.

Democrats offered more than a dozen amendments to the package during the hourslong Budget Committee session and raised questions about how the new spending will ultimately be paid for — either via budget cuts to other programs or by piling onto the nation's debt.

Boyle offered an amendment to reverse healthcare cuts from the Republicans' big tax breaks bill. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., sought to reinstate funding for food stamps under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Rep. Scott Peters, D-Calif., suggested funding for immigration enforcement at Department of Homeland Security could be used to offset costs elsewhere.

Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, blamed the high costs of living on the Iran war and said every time Americans open their refrigerators or go to the gas pump they are “paying for a war that should never have been started.”

Senate pans House plan, leaving next steps uncertain

Next steps are highly volatile, as the House holds a rare Saturday pro forma session, which is a largely administrative meeting that will allow the resolution to be filed in time for consideration next week.

Johnson can only lose a few detractors on his side of the aisle as he relies on Republicans only, without Democrats, for passage.

But the resolution would also have to be agreed on by the Senate, and Republican senators have largely panned the House effort, waiting to see if Johnson can heave it to passage.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said senators have “a lot of questions” about it – from defense hawks concerned about the military to deficit hawks who want to offset costs.

“It’s a very uneven path,” he said. “We’ll see what the House can execute on,” he said, but “I can’t make any guarantees over here.”

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who is expected to take over the Senate Budget Committee after the sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham, has been a leading budget hawk concerned about the nation's rising deficits.

The House plans to have its committees work on bill text over the August recess and bring the whole package back to the floor for a final vote in the fall.

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Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

This focus comes even as studies show that there are very few reported cases of such incidents in the U.S., especially compared to historically higher levels of far-right violence.

With sweeping statements about the “alarming rise” of political violence by the left, Rubio and other U.S. officials painted a dark image of the future if the “communists and Marxists” perpetrating these supposed acts are not defeated. He urged officials in attendance — mostly from European and Latin American countries — to unite to address the issue, which he says has been a “blind spot” in counterterrorism doctrine.

“So many people in positions of power have repeatedly dismissed acts of violence and even terrorism as legitimate forms of political expression, so long as they served a left-wing cause," Rubio said in opening remarks. “A bomb planted by a neo-Nazi group was ‘a nefarious and murderous act of evil.’ It is, but a bomb planted by a Marxist revolutionary; well, that’s just merely a tragic excess of idealism.”

A report published last year by the Center for Strategic and International Studies found that left-wing terrorism attacks as of July 4, 2025, had surpassed those from the far right for the first time in more than 30 years. However, a closer look at the data reveals that the uptick reflects a very low starting level and a concurrent drop on the far right.

There was an average of 0.6 left-wing incidents annually from 1994 through 2000, compared with an average of 20.6 on the right, the report shows. From 2016 to 2024, there were an average of four per year on the left and 22.7 per year on the right. Those numbers had dropped dramatically on the right as of early July 2025, with only one incident. Meanwhile, there had been five from the left.

But the report’s authors note that right-wing terrorism could easily return to elevated levels and that it is important to fight terrorism on both sides of the political spectrum.

A Republican push before midterm elections

President Donald Trump and his allies have prioritized talking points against the far left ahead of the congressional elections this November. Trump has repeatedly stated that the Democratic Party’s ascendant left are communists who want to “completely destroy the traditional American way of life” and even engage in assassinations.

Vice President JD Vance has similarly called out communism as a political shift that is “something we haven’t seen in the U.S.” House Speaker Mike Johnson has decried “radical candidates” who are “self-described, self-identifying Marxists.”

For Rubio, his worldview on this issue has been largely shaped by his own history: He is the son of Cuban immigrants who arrived in Miami in May 1956, a few years before communist leader Fidel Castro rose to power in Havana. The former Florida senator said Thursday that it was that same government’s sprawling intelligence and ideological network that “helped to build the far left in our country and in our hemisphere.”

Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff and main architect of the administration's immigration policy, followed Rubio's remarks, aiming to drive home the immediacy of the perceived threats he saw to American institutions coming from the left, and what response is needed in return.

“If your civilization is your home, you must defend it with the same passion and force as if an enemy intruder is inside your own house where your family lives,” Miller said. “That is the level of dedication and urgency that is required.”

This ideological focus has repeatedly conflated democratic socialism — which often centers on securing universal healthcare, higher taxes on the wealthy and stricter corporate regulation — with communism, under which private ownership is largely eliminated.

It has only intensified in the last year, following the election of democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani to become New York City mayor and several of his proteges winning their New York City congressional primaries last month, beating out incumbents.

One of the ways the administration has started to target left-wing efforts is through sanctions. In November, the State Department designated four antifa or anti-fascist groups in Europe as foreign terrorist organizations. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in his remarks Thursday that targeting these groups and entities' financial networks is the best way to circumvent their efforts.

Later Thursday, Rubio announced a new policy that would give the department a wide latitude to restrict visas to members of these supposed groups who have supported or incited acts of terrorism, including those who have supported those efforts financially, aided recruitment or provided logistical assistance.

“We have spent decades developing the world’s most sophisticated financial counterterrorism capabilities, and now we are mobilizing some of the same tools that we have deployed against terrorists abroad to confront this emerging threat here at home,” Bessent told the conference.

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Amiri reported from New York and Kinnard from Columbia, South Carolina. Associated Press writer Melissa Goldin in New York contributed to this report.

Six months after last year’s flood, a groundbreaking flood detection system was installed at several camps along the river and on Thursday, it was put to the test.

• RELATED: Hill Country camps - including Camp Mystic - install new flood detection system after deadly July floods

The River Sentry flood warning system was developed by a group of concerned camp parents following last year’s deadly flood.

Unlike conventional flood alerts that rely on weather services and river gauges, River Sentry creates an independent network of flood detection towers that can function even when power, cellular and internet services fail.

Each $7,500 tower combines multiple safeguards:

• Water detection sensors monitor rising water levels
• Two AS-124 speakers capable of generating 135-decibel alarms
• Directional lighting systems that illuminate evacuation routes
• Battery backup systems with solar charging options
• LoRaWAN (Long Range Wide Area Network) technology for tower-to-tower communication

The system is designed to ensure sleeping campers hear the alarm.

The technology’s reach extends beyond individual camps.

Last year, a group led by Camp Mystic said they planned to install 100 towers along the North and South Fork of the Guadalupe River before the 2026 camping season, creating a network that would benefit entire neighborhoods.

What happened on Thursday, July 16?

River Sentry says six of its RS-1A siren towers autonomously initiated a flash flood intervention after detecting high water at Howdy’s and River Run Campground near Ingram at approximately 3:32 a.m. Thursday morning.

“All units activated, triggering the immediate evacuation of the camp ground and surrounding residents who were awoken by the towers. Kerr County dispatch was notified soon after,” River Sentry said on Facebook. “Three towers were damaged and/or lost and this is OK. We always place our equipment between sleeping quarters and the river to ensure water must encounter our sensors before it reaches people. This strategy was proven sound early this AM. We may have to replace some gear but so be it. It accomplished its purpose.”

Later Thursday afternoon, River Sentry said the three lost towers had been recovered and will be repaired and reinstalled. The other three units were cleaned, inspected, tested, and are back on duty.

National Weather Service forecasters said the rain would ease in the afternoon but cautioned that another round of storms is expected to develop overnight across parts of the Hill Country. Forecasters expect rainfall to taper off Friday night and through the weekend.

Here’s more about how to respond to flood warnings, where displaced people can find shelter and how to help Texans affected by the flooding.

Regions hit the hardest

Uvalde, Del Rio and Bandera counties received hours of rainfall Thursday on already saturated ground. Uvalde already had more than 25 inches of rain over the past three days, and overnight rain in the region submerged some roads and homes, prompting more than 40 rescues.

Further north, the Guadalupe River surged to dangerous levels near Kerrville, in Center Point and Comfort, downstream of where last year’s deadly July 4 floods killed more than 100 people. Abbott said the one known fatality occurred between Kerrville and Comfort and was an adult, not a camper. Two people were rescued and 68 have sought shelter in nearby Kendall County. Communities in the area set up shelters and relief funds for the recent flooding.

A flash flood warning was issued for the Pedernales River in Gillespie and Blanco counties Thursday morning, as a “large and deadly flood wave” passed through.

Officials from the Lower Colorado River Authority said Thursday floodgates will be opened downstream of several Central Texas reservoirs that have reached capacity.

What to do in case of flooding

Stay informed and prepared. A flash flood watch means conditions are favorable for flooding. A flash flood warning means that flash floods will occur or are happening in the area.

To stay updated, sign up for emergency alerts from your city or county. Residents can use the Texas Division of Emergency Management’s website to find their county’s website for information on emergencies or on how to sign up for alerts. You can search for forecasts and alerts from the National Weather Service by ZIP code. Other precautions to take include:

• Follow evacuation orders from local authorities and take an emergency kit with you.
• Avoid walking or driving through flood waters. Just six inches of water can make a person fall, while one foot of water is enough to sweep up a vehicle during a flood. The state’s highways map details hazardous conditions.
• Shut off your home’s main circuit breakers to prevent appliance short circuits and the threat of electrocution.
• Make a plan for your pets and take them with you in case of an evacuation.
• If flood waters rise around your vehicle, abandon the vehicle and move to higher ground. If you are stuck in a flooded area, look for a higher space away from rising waters. Stay off bridges over fast-moving water.
• Be careful in areas where flood waters have receded. Watch out for debris or electrically charged standing water. Stay away from all bodies of water and electric lines near you.

Find more safety tips here.

Shelters for displaced Texans

Three shelters opened in Kerr County and are available to those displaced from their homes or lodgings:

• Calvary Temple, 3000 TX-534 Loop in Kerrville;
• City West Church, 3139 Junction Highway in Ingram;
• Center Point ISD Gymnasium, 215 China St. in Center Point.

The Uvalde County Fairplex, located at 215 Veterans Ln, is also serving as a shelter and accepting pets, according to the American Red Cross.

Other shelters announced by the Uvalde Volunteer Fire Department Thursday morning include:

• Dalton Elementary, 600 N. Fourth St.;
• Flores Elementary Campus, 901 N. Getty St.;
• Southwest Texas College, 2401 Garner Field Road.

How to request FEMA or insurance assistance

Texans who sustained storm damage are encouraged to report it through the Individual State of Texas Assessment Tool. Emergency management officials use the information to understand the scope of damage, which can influence emergency declarations and federal aid.

A governor can issue a disaster declaration, asking the president to declare an emergency or major disaster, which then frees up federal funds to help those affected. The Federal Emergency Management Agency provides disaster assistance in these situations. Abbott issued a disaster declaration for 59 counties in the Hill Country and the southwest of the state earlier this week.

Before applying for FEMA assistance, insured Texans should first file claims through their existing policies. People cannot receive disaster and insurance assistance for the same damages. Doing so would be considered insurance fraud, according to FEMA.

If you need to file a claim because your home or property was damaged, call your insurance company to report the damages and be ready to answer questions about how you were impacted. Take photos and videos to submit to insurance or FEMA and document damages for your records.

If you need help quickly, ask your insurance company about an advanced payment. If you aren’t able to live in your home after the disaster because of extensive damage, most policies will cover some housing costs, according to the Texas Department of Insurance. Be sure to keep receipts.

If you need help filing a claim, TDI has a helpline that operates Monday to Friday. Texans can call 800-252-3439 to find contact information for their insurance company and ask any questions about claims.

How to get mental health support

It is normal for people to experience shock in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. Some people, such as those with existing mental health conditions, may see increased symptoms of stress. Others may focus on recovery and relief efforts initially and then feel symptoms of stress and trauma later on, according to experts.

Symptoms can include aches, trouble sleeping, changes in appetite, losing motivation, getting frustrated more frequently and feeling overwhelmed, sad, numb, lonely and physically or mentally drained.

Most emotional responses and stress symptoms are often temporary. If they persist for two weeks or longer, it is recommended to seek help. Signs of greater emotional distress can include feeling hopeless, feeling guilty without being sure why, having difficulty readjusting to home and work life, excessive smoking, drinking or drug use or thinking of hurting yourself or someone else, according to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

SAMHSA runs the Disaster Distress Helpline that provides support to those experiencing emotional distress related to disasters, including flooding. The helpline operates year-round, 24 hours a day and is free and confidential. You can call or text 800-985-5990 to be connected with a trained crisis counselor who can provide counseling, healthy coping tips and more information on signs of emotional distress. Crisis counselors can refer callers to local resources for additional support.

Trained crisis counselors also are available through the national Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988.

Read more tips about how to take care of your mental health during natural disasters here.

How to help Texans affected by flooding

The Rebuild Texas Fund is accepting donations to support response and recovery efforts in communities impacted by flooding. Donations can be made online here.

The Community Foundation of the Hill Country has a relief fund to support immediate relief and long-term recovery for the communities it serves in the Hill Country that are affected by the flooding. One-time and recurring donations are accepted online here.

This new fund is separate from the Community Foundation’s Kerr County Flood Relief Fund, which was established after the July 4 floods in 2025.

San Antonio Animal Care Services is seeking people to temporarily foster or adopt shelter dogs following a surge of pets arriving from weather-related calls, according to a press release from the City of San Antonio. Adoption fees will be waived through this weekend and include spay/neuter surgery, vaccinations and a registered microchip. Those who foster will be provided with all necessary supplies and medical care. To meet dogs and help, visit San Antonio Animal Care Services at 4710 State Highway 151.

Austin Pets Alive! announced it is also helping affected areas by seeking people to adopt or foster pets for a minimum of three weeks. The nonprofit is allowing people to name their own price for adoption fees.

Disclosure: City of San Antonio and Lower Colorado River Authority have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in The Texas Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

They are the Juárez Cartel, on the border with Texas, and Los Viagras, a criminal group from the western state of Michoacán. The Federal Register, the U.S. government's gazette, published the designation on Thursday.

They joined six other Mexican criminal organizations that the U.S. considers terrorist groups, including the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. Gangs in other Latin American countries, including Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador and El Salvador, also have been designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the Trump administration.

President Donald Trump began to extend the terrorist label to Latin American cartels in February 2025 to allow U.S. authorities to take more aggressive action against them or against anyone who the U.S. sees as aiding the groups.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that both criminal groups either have committed terrorist acts or pose a serious risk of committing acts that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States.

The measure represents a further increase in pressure on Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration following the indictment of 10 current and former officials from the state of Sinaloa for alleged ties to the Sinaloa Cartel, as well as the controversies about U.S. operations in Mexico.

Higher pressure on the Texas border

Juarez Cartel is one of Mexico’s oldest drug trafficking organizations, which for decades has controlled a key crossing point in the central part of the Mexico-U.S. border: Ciudad Juárez, across from El Paso, Texas. One of its factions is considered responsible for the 2019 deaths of nine U.S. citizens, six of whom were children.

Both its founder, Amado Carrillo Fuentes — known as “El Señor de los Cielos” for smuggling massive drug shipments by light aircraft in the 1990s — and the brothers and sons who succeeded him, turned the trafficking of tons of drugs into a multimillion-dollar business. Despite the arrests of many of its leaders, the cartel and its allied gangs maintained control of a vast infrastructure for smuggling illegal shipments into the U.S..

According to Mexican analyst David Saucedo, the designation is key to enabling the United States to take more decisive action along the border, where two other groups both located at the eastern end of the border with Texas — the Gulf Cartel and the Northeast Cartel — were declared terrorist organizations in February 2025.

The US again targets Michoacan

Los Viagras is a local cartel in the western state of Michoacan, which is already home to two other criminal groups designated as terrorist organizations: Cárteles Unidos and La Nueva Familia Michoacana. The Jalisco New Generation Cartel and partners of Sinaloa Cartel also operate in this state.

Los Viagras emerged following the 2013–2014 armed uprising led by farmers who succeeded in driving out many of the old cartels, only to see them replaced by new ones.

The cartel is led by Nicolás Sierra Santana, who faces a formal indictment in the District of Columbia for conspiracy to traffic drugs, filed in June 2025. The State Department is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture.

The group has shifted its loyalties and alliances to consolidate its regional control of the territory through extortion affecting key exports to the United States, such as avocados. It also produces synthetic drugs, which sells to other cartels that traffic them into the United States.

But the company's shares declined sharply in after-hours trading as the video streaming company's forecast for the current quarter fell below Wall Street's expectations.

Netflix earned $3.4 billion, or 80 cents per share, in the March-June period. That's up 9% from $3.13 billion, or 72 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Revenue grew 13% to $12.56 billion from $11.08 billion.

Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of 79 cents per share on revenue of $12.58 billion, according to a poll by FactSet.

For the current quarter, Netflix is forecasting revenue growth of about 12%. Analysts are expecting revenue to grow by about 13%, to $13 billion.

The Los Gatos, California-based company said its advertising business remains a top priority and it expects to bring in about $3 billion in ad revenue this year. Netflix added that it's seeing strong interest in its live events offerings, including the Women's World Cup.

Netflix said animated film “Swapped” is on its way to becoming its second-most viewed original animated movie, behind last year's wildly popular “ KPop Demon Hunters. ”

The quarter's most popular streams included Harlan Coben’s "I Will Find You," “Legends” from the U.K., "The Polygamist" from South Africa and the K-drama “Teach You a Lesson."

Netflix said it is using large language models to improve how its subscribers find things to watch and it's adding voice search functionality and artificial-intelligence powered natural language search.

In February, Netflix walked away from its offer to buy Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming business.

Shares of Netflix fell $5.33, or 7.2%, to $69.02 in after-hours trading.

Messi, to him, is greatness. And Antetokounmpo wants to follow Messi's path.

Antetokounmpo got his welcome-to-Miami ceremony Thursday at the team's arena, with a few fans chanting his name as he walked along his new home court for the first time after he got a tour of his new city.

“I need pressure at this time of my career," Antetokounmpo said. "I think in order for me to go to the next level, I've got to get out of my comfort zone — and I feel like Miami was the place for me to be.”

Messi came to Inter Miami three years ago, adding to his already copious resume by winning a couple of Major League Soccer MVP awards and another championship. Antetokounmpo has now joined him in Miami, hoping his relocation comes with the same level of success.

“That's the blueprint," Antetokounmpo said. “LeBron James, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, they set the blueprint and you just got to follow, right? It’s hard. You have to be disciplined. You have to be dedicated to your craft, but it’s there. And if you want to follow, you follow. If you don’t want to follow, then you go home.”

He didn't go home. He's in a new home.

Antetokounmpo got his formal Heat introduction a couple of weeks after Miami swung the trade that landed the two-time MVP along with Bobby Portis Jr. from the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for Tyler Herro, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kel’el Ware, Kasparas Jakučionis and draft capital.

For the Heat, it's another on a long list of superstar acquisitions made since Pat Riley arrived to take over as team president in 1995.

“I think this is just part of who the Heat are in the pursuit of excellence," Riley said. "But you don’t win championships unless you have greatness on the court and on the bench. ... I'm just so excited for this challenge.”

Antetokounmpo entered the NBA in 2013. His career totals to date: 21,531 points, 8,882 rebounds and 4,484 assists. The point and rebound totals are both fifth best in the NBA over that span, while the assist total is 13th best — and those numbers are just part of the reason why the Heat consider him to still be one of the five best players in the league.

If all that wasn't enough, has simply been a nightmare for defenses. Nobody has drawn more fouls over those 13 seasons than Antetokounmpo, which is absolute music to the ears of Heat coach Erik Spoelstra.

“A little while ago Pat called me into his office and he looked at me," Spoelstra said. “He said, ‘Do you want to coach Giannis?'”

Spoelstra's no-brainer answer: “Yes.”

And then he walked out, waiting for Riley, Heat general manager Andy Elisburg and the rest of the front office to get a deal done. When Antetokounmpo arrived early Thursday morning for his first workout as a member of the Heat, Spoelstra was waiting for him.

“I just want to be coached hard,” Antetokounmpo said. “I'd rather you tell me the ugly truth than a beautiful lie. ... I'm excited to be coached by him."

Antetokounmpo's run in Milwaukee ended with him having, by far, the most points in franchise history, more than 7,000 ahead of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s total during his tenure with the Bucks. Antetokounmpo is also Milwaukee’s all-time leader in rebounds and assists, plus he ranks second on the team’s career list in steals.

He had a ton of success there. He's looking for more success in Miami, which is one of the reasons why Portis felt like the Heat were the best place for him as well.

“The conversations I have with Giannis have always been about winning. ‘Where can we go to win? How can we impact winning? How can you get another ’chip? That’s always been the talk,'” Portis said during his introductory news conference earlier Thursday. “It hasn’t been about anything else but winning. ... All he cares about is winning.”

By all accounts, the Giannis-in-Miami era is off to the right start.

Antetokounmpo was thrilled by the welcome he and his wife got when their plane landed in Miami after watching Messi and Argentina beat England in Atlanta on Wednesday. He says he already loves the Miami weather ("warmer than Milwaukee," he said) and isn't a fan of iguanas, which are everywhere in South Florida ("those guys, stay away from me," he said).

Riley told him the Heat are looking to win and win big. That was all Antetokounmpo needed to really hear. He has one ring. He wants more.

“You’ve got to work," Antetokounmpo said. "They show you, they show you the way. It’s not hard. Just listen and open your eyes. It's something that I wanted. I was able to accomplish it once in my career. Hopefully, it will happen a second time.”

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

Dallas-area Democrats are demanding that Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton be investigated for illegal voting after ProPublica and The Texas Tribune revealed that he has repeatedly voted while registered at an address where he appears to no longer live.

In a complaint filed Tuesday, the Collin County Democratic Party asked the Texas secretary of state to investigate whether Paxton committed election fraud by voting in the May primary runoff. Paxton beat longtime incumbent John Cornyn in that race, securing the Republican Party’s nomination for U.S. Senate.

Mary Higbe, vice chair of the Collin County Democratic Party, noted in the complaint that Paxton’s office, as recently as February, warned voters that “it is illegal to misrepresent your residence on election records.”

“For someone who’s made a stand against voter fraud, it’s unconscionable (yet not surprising) that Paxton engages in this behavior,” Higbe wrote. She added, “I ask that he be held to the same standards he wishes to hold others to.”

ProPublica and The Texas Tribune reported last week that Paxton has voted six times in the past two years while registered at an address in Collin County where he previously lived with his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton.

Paxton moved out of the Collin County home in June 2024 and has not returned, according to a divorce filing by his wife and a source close to the Paxton family. It is unclear where Paxton has lived for the past two years, but reporting by ProPublica and the Tribune has linked him to a home in neighboring Denton County since February.

Three election officials told ProPublica and the Tribune that Paxton may have broken state election law, which requires voters to be registered where they live. Voters may temporarily cast ballots using an address where they do not reside, so long as they intend to return. The experts said it is unclear whether Paxton could make such an argument given his ongoing public and contentious divorce.

The day after Collin County Democrats filed the complaint, the Texas Democratic Party issued a news release that accused Paxton of ignoring “bombshell voter fraud accusations.”

It’s unclear what will happen with the complaint. Under the current system, the secretary of state conducts an “initial review and, if appropriate, refers it to the Office of the Attorney General,” said Alicia Pierce, spokesperson for Secretary of State Jane Nelson, whose last day in the position is Friday. Pierce did not respond to a question about whether the office would handle a complaint against Paxton differently. She instead pointed to the state law that requires the secretary of state to “promptly” refer complaints to the attorney general if “there is reasonable cause to suspect that criminal conduct occurred.”

Paxton’s situation seems to meet that threshold, and the attorney general should seek outside help, given the conflict of interest in investigating himself, said San Antonio election lawyer Joaquin Gonzalez, who previously led the voting rights program at the Texas Civil Rights Project.

“The ethical and sort of best practice would be for the attorney general’s office to hire an independent special investigator to look into the complaint,” Gonzalez said.

Paxton did not answer questions from the newsrooms in early July about his voter registration and residency.

Neither he nor the attorney general’s office responded to questions about the complaint or how they would handle the case should the secretary of state refer it to his office.

Paxton campaign spokesperson Madison Cercy sent the newsrooms a broad statement unrelated to Paxton’s voter registration that accused the “political elite” and reporters of digging through the attorney general’s private life to “draw the most damning conclusion.” The campaign did not answer a question about Cercy’s previous statements to other news outlets that Paxton “is a lawful, registered Texas voter in full compliance with the law.”

Higbe said in an interview that the complaint tests Texas’ system of checks and balances, adding that this is “an opportunity to see if that system still works.” Still, she said she doubts the attorney general would permit a fair investigation of his own conduct.

“But pointing out hypocrisy from the state’s top cop is necessary,” Higbe said.

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

The S&P 500 fell 0.5%, even though more stocks rose within the index than fell. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 105 points, or 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite sank 1.5%.

Nearly three out of every four stocks rose within the S&P 500 after more of the country’s biggest companies reported better earnings for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

Abbott jumped 10.7% after the healthcare company delivered a fatter profit than expected and raised its forecast for earnings over the full year. J.B. Hunt Transport Services climbed 8% after the freight company likewise topped analysts’ expectations for the latest quarter.

But a 1% move for Nvidia’s stock packs more punch on the S&P 500 than a 1% move for any other company because it’s the largest on Wall Street by value.

And Nvidia fell 2.4%, making it the heaviest weight on the index. Other AI winners also sank, giving back some of their stellar gains.

Micron Technology fell 5.6% to shave its gain for the year so far below 199%. Sandisk fell 12.6% but is nevertheless up 494% for the year so far. Western Digital sank 9.2% but is still up 171% for the year so far.

Such stocks have been under pressure for weeks because of worries that their prices shot too high and that voracious demand for computer memory and processors may not be sustainable if AI ends up not producing as much profit and productivity as promised.

All told, the S&P 500 fell 38.63 points to 7,533.77. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 105.67 to 52,552.97, and the Nasdaq composite sank 387.28 to 25,881.95.

The losses came even though Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., a bellwether of the chip industry, reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Its stock in Taiwan rose 1.2%, but its stock that trades in the United States fell 2.3%.

In South Korea, drops for AI winners like Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix dragged the Kospi index down 6.4%. It’s been among the world’s shakiest markets in recent weeks because of how dominant the two AI winners are in it.

The day before, the Kospi jumped 6.2%, but it’s had drops of 8.9%, 7.8% and 5.3% in the last couple weeks.

A hike to interest rates by the Bank of Korea also weighed on stocks in Seoul, the first by the bank since 2023.

Higher interest rates can keep a lid on inflation, but they also slow the economy and hurt prices for all kinds of investments. And worries are rising that the Federal Reserve and other central banks around the world may have to raise rates to rein in the effects of expensive oil.

Oil prices are near their highest in a month because of worries that the war with Iran will keep oil tankers out of the Strait of Hormuz and prevent shipments of crude from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude briefly climbed above $86 per barrel in the morning before erasing the gain and falling back to settle at $84.23, down 0.8% from the day before.

In the bond market, the 10-year Treasury yield edged up to 4.56% from 4.55% late Wednesday and just 3.97% before the war with Iran began. Higher yields have already sent the average 30-year mortgage rate to its highest level in nearly a year.

Reports on the U.S. economy came in mixed, which added to the eddies swirling through the bond market. One report said shoppers spent less at U.S. retailers last month than economists expected. But after ignoring sales at gasoline stations, spending by U.S. consumers remained resilient.

A separate report said fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, an indication of a solid job market, while a third report said manufacturing in the mid-Atlantic region is better than economists expected.

In stock markets abroad, indexes fell across much of Europe and Asia, including drops of 1.8% in Shanghai and 2.8% in Tokyo.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was an outlier and rose 1.3%. Alibaba rose after China’s cyberspace regulator said Wednesday it had approved the Apple Intelligence AI tool for use in China. An Alibaba spokesperson said its Qwen model will be integrated into Apple Intelligence.

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AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this report.