A three-judge panel in the state’s long-running redistricting case issued the preliminary injunction that prevents the state, at least for now, from switching maps. It requires Alabama to continue using the same court-ordered districts under which congressional representatives were elected in 2024.

Lawyers representing Black voters in the state's lengthy redistricting case had sought the preliminary injunction, arguing the same panel in 2023 found the state map was intentionally discriminatory against Black voters. They also argued Alabama was creating chaos by trying to change lines in the middle of an election year.

The ruling was a defeat for state Republicans who want to use a map for the November midterms that will give the GOP a chance to reclaim the seat now held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures. However, the state could appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The court order is the latest development in the twisting legal and political saga following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down a Black-majority district in Louisiana and weakened the federal Voting Rights Act. That ruling has led Republicans in several Southern states, including Alabama, to take steps to reshape voting districts with large minority populations that have elected Democrats.

The redistricting frenzy is part of a broader push by President Donald Trump to try to hold on to Republicans’ slim House majority in the November elections.

Other states also have considered adjustments to their primary elections to allow time for congressional redistricting after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision affecting the Voting Rights Act. Louisiana’s congressional primaries, scheduled for May 16, were postponed until later this summer by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry so that state lawmakers could consider a new U.S. House map that would eliminate a majority-Black district.

In South Carolina, the Republican-led legislature considered a plan that would throw out the votes from its June 9 congressional primary and instead hold a new primary in August under revised districts that could improve Republicans’ chances of winning an additional seat.

Tennessee also moved quickly to enact new U.S. House districts after the Supreme Court’s ruling by carving up a Black-majority district based in Memphis that had elected the state’s only Democratic representative. The new map gives Republicans a chance to sweep all nine of the state’s seats. As part of the plan, Tennessee temporarily reopened the candidate qualifying period for its August congressional primaries, allowing new candidates to enter the race and existing ones to either switch districts or drop out.

Since Trump first urged Texas to redraw its U.S. House districts last summer, about a half-dozen Republican-led states have enacted new voting districts, though some still face legal challenges. Democrats countered with new districts in California and also expect to gain a seat from new court-imposed districts in Utah.

The 79-year-old president traveled to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for what the White House described as annual preventive medical and dental checkups. It will be Trump's fourth publicly disclosed medical exam since he returned to office for a second term, and it comes as he tries to project strength ahead of midterm elections that will test his sway with voters.

For decades, administrations have released selected results from presidential physicals, offering the public a glimpse at the commander-in-chief’s health. But the results are filtered through the White House and must be approved by the president, raising questions about what the public does and doesn't get to see.

Trump, a Republican, turns 80 next month and was the oldest person elected U.S. president. His predecessor, President Joe Biden, a Democrat, was 82 when he left office, dropping out of the 2024 presidential race because of widespread concerns he was too old for the job.

A Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted in April found that less than half of U.S. adults think Trump has the mental sharpness or physical health to serve effectively as president.

“I think concern for the president’s physical health is probably at an all-time high, and I think advanced physical age is the No. 1 concern,” said Dr. Jeffrey Kuhlman, who served as a White House physician for more than a decade under Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

For a president of Trump’s age, a complete physical would be expected to include advanced heart testing, screening for common cancers and a cognitive assessment, along with basics like height, weight and blood pressure, Kuhlman said.

The White House has not disclosed what the visit will entail but expressed confidence in what it will show.

“President Trump is the sharpest and most accessible President in American history who is working nonstop to solve problems and deliver on his promises, and he remains in excellent health,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in a statement.

No law requiring presidents to disclose their medical records

In the weeks leading up to his visit, Trump has been saying he feels as good as he did five decades ago — even as he jokes about his fondness for fast food and his minimal exercise regimen. Yet he’s also sensitive to perceptions about his age, noting that he takes extra caution descending the steps from Air Force One to avoid headlines about a stumble.

There is no law requiring presidents to publicize their health records, and the degree of transparency has varied by administration. Trump’s past reports have been criticized for offering scant detail and providing statistics that some medical experts eyed with skepticism.

At public appearances, Trump is often seen wearing makeup to conceal bruising on his hands, which the White House attributes to handshaking and regular aspirin use. He has sometimes appeared drowsy during meetings and closed his eyes for long stretches, though he denies having fallen asleep.

Trump often boasts of having “aced” cognitive tests while frequently deriding Biden, who faced questions about his mental acuity. Biden and his aides pushed back aggressively against doubts raised about his fitness for office.

Some of Trump’s previous physicals have included the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, used to screen for dementia and cognitive impairment. His physicians reported a score of 30 out of 30 for Trump at 2018 and 2025 checkups.

Yet critics have pointed to Trump’s meandering speeches and sometimes bellicose rhetoric as evidence of cognitive decline.

Last month, a statement from more than 30 neurologists, psychiatrists and other medical experts — who acknowledged they’ve never examined him — said Trump was mentally unfit to serve and warned of an “increasingly dangerous decline” in his behavior based on what they called “objectively observable signs of serious medical concern.″

“Any so-called medical professionals engaging in armchair diagnosis or false speculation for political purposes are clearly breaking the Hippocratic Oath they’ve sworn to,” Ingle said.

Just like any other patient, presidents get to choose what’s disclosed about their health, said Sara Rosenthal, a bioethicist at the University of Kentucky who studies presidential health. Questions about transparency have become more acute as America elects aging presidents like Trump and Biden, she said.

“I think we can expect very little disclosure about the true health status of any president unless they’re in perfect health,” said Rosenthal, who has suggested an independent medical organization to review and report on the health of the president and those in the line of succession.

'Nothing should be hidden'

Trump's first medical report in his second term was released last April. In July, he was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, a common condition in older adults that causes blood to pool in his veins. Photographs have shown the president with swollen feet, ankles and calves, described by the White House as a symptom of chronic venous insufficiency leading to “mild swelling” in his lower legs.

Following his last publicly disclosed exam, described as a routine follow-up last October, Trump’s physician issued a one-page summary saying the president was in “exceptional health” without divulging many specific results.

The frequency of Trump's medical checkups is not uncommon for someone his age, according to S. Jay Olshansky of the University of Illinois-Chicago, who has studied the health of past presidents. It's part of a strategy to catch problems while they’re still treatable, Olshansky said.

Olshansky says the public deserves to see more than White House medical summaries that “may be subject to editorial discretion.” Full, unredacted medical records should be made public, he said: “Nothing should be hidden.”

The White House has not said whether Trump's visit will include any procedures that may require anesthesia. Trump’s last colon exam was in 2024 and recommended a follow-up in three years.

If Trump were given anesthesia, Vice President JD Vance would be expected to assume temporary control of the office under the 25th Amendment. That last happened in 2021 when Vice President Kamala Harris was briefly sworn in while Biden had a colonoscopy. President George W. Bush twice turned over power to Vice President Dick Cheney.

The villagers entered the cave in Xaisomboun province on May 19, but heavy rain triggered flash flooding that blocked their exit, according to Lao and Thai rescue teams involved in the operation.

The Lao organization Rescue Volunteer for People, which is working closely with the local authorities, posted on its Facebook page that Tuesday’s operation plan included exploring air shafts above the cave in hopes of identifying possible access points and locating the trapped people.

Rescue workers from neighboring Thailand arrived at the site over the weekend to assist the operation. Those helping out include divers from several nations who took part in the complicated 2018 rescue in northern Thailand of 12 schoolboys and their soccer coach who were trapped for more than two weeks in a cave before being safely extricated.

Challenging conditions hamper rescue efforts

According to rescuers, divers have navigated about 100 meters (330 feet) into the flooded, narrow cave. They believe the villagers may be trapped about 30 meters (100 feet) beyond the furthest point currently accessible and are also working to pump water out of the cave to aid the rescue operation.

The site is in a rugged, remote area in Xaisomboun province's Longcheng district, which is about 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of the capital, Vientiane. Rescuers at the scene have detailed on social media the challenging mountainous terrain and heavy rain that is hampering their work.

Videos shared online by Thai rescuers showed that reaching the cave's entrance requires a steep hike on foot of roughly 4 kilometers (2.5 miles). The entrance is also steep and rocky, and barely wide enough for a single person at a time to climb through.

Inside, rescuers must make their way through muddy passageways, flooded sections and narrow tunnels that forced them to crawl.

Claus Rasmussen, a diving instructor based on the Thai island of Phuket who took part in the 2018 rescue in Thailand's Chiang Rai province, told The Associated Press he has been following the situation in Laos, although he is not currently involved.

“The villagers up there are used to living on very little, but that also means that they may not have a lot of sustenance in their body to actually deal with whatever is going on," he said in a video interview.

He noted that other circumstances also weigh against them: the possibility of collapsed tunnels, physical injuries "and everything else, which obviously increase that risk of them not coming through it in a safe manner.”

Villagers were reportedly mining

There has been no official confirmation on why the villagers went into the cave.

However, Bounkham Luanglath of the Lao rescue group said that the cave was frequented by local residents looking for gold, even though authorities had repeatedly warned them against entering the cave out of safety concerns.

The average per capita income in Laos of about $2,000-2,500 is among the lowest in Southeast Asia, and it is much less in rural areas.

Laos is not known as a major gold producer, but its mining industry is sizable considering the country’s developing economy. The mining sector is fueled by foreign direct investment, largely from neighboring Thailand and China. Copper is a major export, and mining for rare earth elements, needed for most modern technologies, has become more common in Laos recently.

The Laos Foreign Ministry on Tuesday said it has no official information to share with the media. The Southeast Asian nation is a one-party communist state with no organized opposition and the government keeps a tight lid on information.

Cave rescues are risky business

The cave crisis quickly drew headlines in Thailand because of its resemblance to the dramatic 2018 cave rescue in northern Thailand, which became a global sensation. A former Thai navy SEAL diver died during that search and rescue effort.

A major health risk for those trapped in a cave is cold conditions quickly leading to hypothermia. The body can cope for weeks without food, but clean water is necessary to prevent dehydration. A contaminated water supply could cause diarrhea, hastening dehydration.

Declining oxygen levels cause symptoms similar to altitude sickness and in the long run can damage the lungs and other organs, while carbon dioxide buildup causes exhaustion and eventual unconsciousness.

Constant darkness disrupts time perception and the body’s circadian rhythms. It also causes extreme sensitivity when the eyes have to adjust again to light.

Recalling the 2018 rescue operation in Thailand, when fears were high for the boys' fate, diver Rasmussen said it showed survival is possible even when it appears unlikely.

“Here it is still a rescue until proven otherwise,” he said. "And that’s the way that people have to go forward.”

——

Associated Press journalists Grant Peck, Anton L. Delgado and Haruka Nuga in Bangkok contributed to this report.

HCSO deputies responded to a call for service at Patch Street and Waldine Street, where they found a man, believed to be the driver, inside a vehicle with possible gunshot wounds.

@HCSOTexas deputies responded to a call for service at Patch/Waldine in East Harris County. Upon arrival, units found a man (driver) in a vehicle with possible gunshot wounds. The man has been confirmed deceased on scene. CSI and Homicide Detectives are responding to the scene.… pic.twitter.com/pTvtqq0WHw

— Ed Gonzalez (@SheriffEd_HCSO) May 26, 2026

The man was pronounced dead at the scene.

Crime Scene Investigators and homicide detectives are responding and working the investigation.

Sky 2 was briefly over the scene as authorities continued to gather evidence in the area.

At this time, no suspect information has been released.

The investigation remains ongoing.

“I’ve been dancing my whole life, it’s the best,” said Ross, who founded the Rodeo City Wreckettes group 23 years ago at an age when many people are getting ready for retirement.

Now 87, Ross and her husband and lifelong dance partner John, also 87, have long known what more older adults are now discovering: Moving to music is one of the best ways to stay healthy. Medical professionals say it doesn’t matter if it’s Western line dancing, ballroom steps, salsa, tap, Zumba at the gym, or with a group like the Wreckettes.

“Dancing is one of the most powerful activities for older people,” said Julio Loya, a nurse and geriatric program coordinator at the Tucson Medical Center.

Why dancing helps balance, strength and more

Dance, like other exercise, can help people lose weight, get stronger, reduce fall risk, increase mobility and flexibility, and even improve brain health.

“ It engages their brain, it changes their mood, and it connects them socially while getting them moving,” said Loya. “And it’s fun. Everybody has a good time.”

Dr. Tom Johnson, a gerontologist at the UC Health Seniors Clinic in Aurora, Colorado, said he remembers one man in particular whose passion for dance was so strong that he willed himself to attend one last class before he died in his late 80s.

“His No. 1 priority was that he danced until the day that he died," Johnson said of his patient.

Johnson said dance can improve the balance of his patients at the clinic, which serves about 2,500 people 75 and older a year.

He said older patients can benefit from adding two to three dance sessions to the 150 minutes of aerobic exercise he recommends for them each week, because dancing often involves movements that help with balance, such as walking backward or standing on one foot.

Meeting people by dancing together

The Wreckettes practice their routines during two-hour sessions at least twice a week in a rented dance studio.

After studying ballet as a girl, then moving on to everything from ballroom to tap as an adult, Ross said it made sense to keep dancing when she and her husband moved from Philadelphia to retire in Tucson.

John Ross is a key part of the Wreckettes' routines, typically joining his wife for at least one number. At one recent practice, it was a saucy saunter to Merle Haggard’s “Let’s Chase Each Other Around the Room.”

“I learned early on that dancing was a great way to attract the chicks,” joked John Ross, who slid across the floor like a much younger man.

Wreckettes member Cindy Soffrin said that watching her mother suffer as she aged convinced her to stay active as she got older.

“My mom was sedentary the last 20 years of her life. It was pretty rough,” said Soffrin, 74.

For 67-year-old Gail Kowalski, joining the Wreckettes three years ago meant finding new friends after her husband died and she moved from Utah to Tucson.

“Plus, it’s so dang fun,” Kowalski said.

The fun of performing

The Wreckettes perform throughout the year, from holiday events to rodeo shows, dressing up in a series of matching sparkly costumes.

But they all said what they love the most is being hired by retirement homes to perform for memory care patients. Wreckette members take turns picking a favorite charity to donate their earnings.

“When we first arrive, people will be distracted or sleeping,” said Soffrin. “But once the music comes on, they perk up right away.”

A similar dance group for older women in Las Vegas, the Vegas Golden Gals, also performs at retirement homes, said Cheryl Cortez, the group’s president. They add pompoms to their routines.

“I must now know close to 40 routines,” said Cortez, 69. “And that alone has to be great for the memory.”

How to begin dancing when you're older

If you want to start moving to music, here are some tips from health professionals and dance instructors:

BEFORE STARTING: Check with your health provider before starting a dance or any exercise program. Choose something simple to start, like line dancing rather than intricate tango steps.

FIND A CLASS: Check with a YMCA, parks and recreation department, or senior or community center. Community colleges often have dance classes, sometimes tailored for older people. Local dance studios and YouTube videos are other options. If you have Medicare Advantage insurance with the Silver Sneakers benefit, find out if your local gym has Zumba or other dance classes you can attend for free.

BEFORE THE SESSION: Dress comfortably for easy movement, and warm up and stretch before class.

MOST IMPORTANTLY: Have fun! You are doing great things for your mind and body.

__

For more AP stories about healthy aging, go to https://apnews.com/hub/aging

Mondelez, Oreo’s parent company, said Tuesday that BTS-themed Oreos will go on sale June 1 online and June 8 in stores. The cookies, which feature purple wafers in a nod to the band’s signature color, will be sold in more than 80 markets around the world, making the partnership the brand's biggest to date.

The band also designed 13 embossments for the wafers, including the names of the seven members and an outline of the light stick that fans hold at BTS concerts.

The white-and-tan creme center of the sandwich cookies was formulated to taste like hotteok, a warm, brown sugar-stuffed pancake that’s a popular Korean street food.

“For Oreo to be the first snacking brand we’ve collaborated with globally is a huge honor. We ate them as kids, we eat them in the studio and now Oreo is helping us share a taste of home with the world,” BTS said in a statement.

BTS Oreos will be sold for a limited time. Chicago-based Mondelez wouldn’t say how many packages it’s making.

Martin Renaud, Mondelez’ chief marketing and sales officer, said the BTS cookies strike a balance of staying true to Korean culture and food while remaining consistent with Oreo’s brand and flavoring.

“You want to be authentic, you want to be differentiated and live an experience. But when you are Oreo, you need to be pleasing a large group of people,” Renaud told The Associated Press. “You cannot come up with something that will be liked only by 20% of the population because it would alienate some of our customers.”

Renaud said Oreo spent around two years developing the BTS cookie, eventually narrowing the possible flavors to three before settling on hotteok.

“I think Korean food is an incredible cuisine. I’m French, maybe I should not say that, but I believe it,” Renaud joked.

BTS Oreos arrive at a time when consumers are increasingly eager to sample new and authentic global cuisines and flavors. Datassential, a food and beverage consulting company, said U.S. restaurants featuring global flavors — Asian and South American, specifically -- have been gaining market share since 2019. In Europe, West African restaurants are growing in popularity, the company said.

Social media is spurring the international taste trend. There are more than 11,700 TikTok videos under the hashtag “hotteok,” for example. Seeking out global foods or learning to make them is a low-risk and low-cost way to enjoy other cultures, said Russell Zwanka, the director of the food marketing program at Western Michigan University.

“You can experience the world without spending $2,000 on a ticket,” Zwanka said.

Delivery services and speciality grocery stores like the Asian supermarket chain H Mart have also made it easier for consumers to sample international foods, he said.

“People have a much more proactive stance on trying to find flavors they can attribute to certain regions of the world,” Zwanka said. “I think that’s beautiful. It’s way the world should be.”

In recent years, Oreo has partnered with Coca-Cola, singer and actress Selena Gomez, and the K-pop girl band Blackpink, among others. The brand also offers limited-time flavors in specific markets, like cherry sakura in Japan and red bean paste in China.

BTS is also no stranger to food collaborations. The band partnered with McDonalds in 2021 for a global meal promotion in 50 countries. BTS also worked with the Korean food companies Paldo and Hy to develop Arih, a line of noodles and drinks sold at Walmart.

Renaud said partnerships and playful, interesting flavors help Oreo expand its appeal beyond families.

“We want to be making sure we also keep our older children and Gen Zs and keep the brand up to date,” he said.

Renaud said Oreo is already working on its next collaborations, which may or may not be as big as the BTS partnership.

“We’re not obsessed to be more, more, more, more, markets. I think if we can, yes, let’s go for it,” he said. “But the key point is we need to be really resonating with the local culture.”

While there's no longer a risk of a major explosion at the GKN Aerospace Transparency Systems plant in Garden Grove, there's still a chance for a smaller blast or a fire, Orange County Fire Authority division chief Craig Covey said during a news conference.

An overnight evaluation of the tank containing 6,000 to 7,000 gallons (22,700 to 26,500 liters) of methyl methacrylate, which is highly flammable, showed a reduction of pressure inside the tank thanks to a crack that was discovered Sunday. About two-thirds — roughly 34,000 — of the evacuated residents can go home as a result, Covey said.

“It’s not over yet. We still have work to do,” TJ McGovern, interim fire chief of the Orange County Fire Authority, said. “We still have to mitigate a fire and very small explosion concern, and also a spill potential.”

Officials began ordering residents of Garden Grove, near Los Angeles, to evacuate their homes on Thursday after the tank overheated, and by the weekend about 50,000 residents had been told to leave.

Officials said they needed to cool the tank to prevent a toxic leak or explosion. The tank’s interior had cooled to 93 degrees F (33.9 degrees C), Covey said Monday, down from 100 degrees (37.7 degrees C) a day earlier.

Orange County Health Director Regina Chinsio-Kwong said she wanted to reassure everyone who is returning home that they can feel safe. Exposure to methyl methacrylate can cause serious respiratory problems, neurological problems and irritation to the skin, eyes and throat, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

“There was no contamination. There were no fumes. There were not vapors that came from this incident,” she said at the news conference. “There was not a leak. So it should be, you should feel comfortable going home even if you’re across the street from that new zone line.”

Environmental risks remain

The tank might eventually cool enough for crews to safely stabilize and drain the remaining material without triggering a spark or ignition, said Andrew Whelton, a Purdue University engineering professor who has studied environmental contamination.

Whelton cautioned there is still some risk of an explosion while the chemical inside the tank remains hot and reactive. He said temperatures need to fall closer to ambient levels — roughly 60 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit (15.6 to 21.1 degrees C) — before conditions are considered significantly safer.

As the interior temperature of the tank increased, methyl methacrylate — which is used to make plastics — converted from liquid to gas, ramping up the pressure and risk of explosion, Whelton said.

Some of the methyl methacrylate may already have hardened into a stable plastic similar to plexiglass, reducing the risk inside the tank, he said.

Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen said the South Coast Air Quality Management District will be monitoring the air for several months and the EPA will be checking the sewer and storm drains.

County health officials have said the chemical is easy to smell and people may notice it over a large area without being harmed.

Relief among residents after hearin

g the latest update

Authorities have not defined what a catastrophic explosion might mean, but said Monday the worst-case scenario is off the table.

Kim Yen, a retiree who had to evacuate her Garden Grove home, said she has been closely following the news and is relieved to learn that the worst has passed.

“I am happy and many of us are happy but, still, we are still on our evacuation,” she said.

Yen, who lives two blocks from the plant, said she’s ready to return home but first wants to be sure it’s safe. And, she said, she’s been worried about the emergency crews.

“They are really our heroes,” Yen said.

The parking lot was full Monday at a large park in Fountain Valley, just southwest of Garden Grove, as people sought refuge in an ad hoc shelter there or pitched tents outside. Other people gathered in the park to enjoy Memorial Day.

GKN is a British company that supplies aircraft manufacturers

GKN Aerospace Transparency Systems, which owns the plant, is a British company that makes cockpit windows, canopies and windshields for military and commercial aircraft.

GKN Aerospace technical specialists and the Orange County Fire Authority removed external insulation material from the tank to help cool its contents, according to a GKN Aerospace statement released Monday.

“We apologize for the ongoing disruption this incident is causing and our priority remains its safe resolution, so that residents can return to their homes as quickly as possible,” the statement said.

GKN Aerospace says on its website that it employs about 16,000 people across 32 manufacturing sites in 12 countries and supplies technologies and components used by major commercial and military aircraft manufacturers worldwide.

It remained unknown when the operation would reopen.

GKN Aerospace agreed in 2025 to pay state regulators more than $900,000 to settle violations involving recordkeeping, permitting issues and nitrogen oxide emissions, according to a report on the South Coast Air Quality Management District website.

Aircraft manufacturing vulnerable to supply chain disruptions

Disruptions at facilities producing specialized aircraft components can be difficult for the global aerospace industry to absorb because supply chains are highly concentrated and already strained, said Richard Aboulafia, managing director of the aerospace consulting firm AeroDynamic Advisory.

Aboulafia said aerospace manufacturing differs from many other industries because aircraft production rates are relatively low, leaving only a small number of suppliers for many specialized parts and systems.

“There’s just not a lot of margin in the system,” he said.

___

This story was first published on May 25, 2026. It was updated on May 26, 2026, to correct the attribution of a quote to TJ McGovern, interim fire chief of the Orange County Fire Authority, not to division chief Craig Covey.

___

Willingham reported from Boston. Stengle reported from Dallas. Associated Press journalist Ethan Swope in Garden Grove, California, contributed to this report.

___

This story has been corrected to say the evacuations were ordered Thursday, not Friday.

In Washington, the president has a medical checkup on his schedule, and the redistricting war also continues — the Congressional Black Caucus is urging corporate America to get involved to save voting rights, ending a collective retreat during Trump’s second presidency. in Texas, the Trump-backed, scandal-plagued Ken Paxton is favored over Sen. John Cornyn in Tuesday's GOP primary runoff election.

The Latest:

US stocks rise, oil falls after Trump said Iran talks are ‘proceeding nicely’

The price for a barrel of U.S crude oil fell 3.8% to $92.99 on Tuesday after resuming trading following the Memorial Day holiday, and U.S. stocks were catching up to others around the world that climbed after Trump said Iran talks were “proceeding nicely.”

The S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq composite all rose Tuesday to near their all-time highs even though fighting continued in the Mideast and the U.S. military said it struck Iranian missile launch sites and boats placing mines on Monday. Markets have rallied in the past on hopes for a coming end to the war with Iran, only to see the conflict drag on, causing painful inflation around the world.

Congressional Black Caucus presses US corporations to oppose Republican redistricting push

The Congressional Black Caucus is calling on major U.S. corporations to oppose Republican-led redistricting efforts that seek to eliminate majority-Black U.S. House districts.

Their letter sent Tuesday urges more than 250 companies to condemn “coordinated efforts to silence Black voices at the ballot box.” Some had cosigned their own message to Congress five years ago urging lawmakers to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, a Democratic proposal to restore and update the Voting Rights Act.

That 2021 coalition, Business for Voting Rights, included Apple, Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Tesla, Salesforce, Target, PayPal, Intel and Starbucks.

“Corporations that have profited from Black consumers, relied on Black workers, and amassed wealth in part from Black communities cannot look away while Black political power is dismantled in plain sight,” the caucus chair, Rep. Yvette Clarke, said in an interview.

Trump arrives at Walter Reed military hospital for his latest physical

The White House said Trump would participate in a greeting with service members and hospital staff before he spends hours being examined by a team of doctors.

It is the Republican president’s fourth publicly disclosed medical exam since he returned to office in January 2025, and it comes as the nearly 80-year-old Trump tries to project strength going into November elections that will test his sway with voters.

The White House says the visit is an annual preventive medical and dental checkup. Trump was last at Walter Reed in October and also had a physical there in April 2025.

Last July, the White House said he’d been diagnosed with a condition common in older adults that causes blood to pool in his veins, causing the swollen ankles seen in some photos of Trump.

The White House also has blamed handshaking for visible bruising on Trump’s hands.

Presidents aren’t required to disclose health information

There’s no law requiring these disclosures and the degree of transparency varies.

Presidents for decades have released medical test results to try to reassure the public that they are up to the high-pressure job.

But the president signs off on what is released, which raises questions about what isn’t being shared.

Trump’s past medical reports have been criticized for offering scant detail and including statistics that some medical experts eyed with skepticism.

It will be several hours before the White House releases any information about Tuesday’s exam.

▶ Read more:

The first bee was held in 1925, when the Louisville Courier-Journal invited other newspapers to host spelling bees and send their champions to Washington. After a long run at a convention center in suburban Maryland, the bee returns to the nation's capital this year at Constitution Hall, a few blocks from the White House.

Another change for this year: ESPN NFL analyst and recent “Celebrity Jeopardy!” champion Mina Kimes has joined the bee as its television host.

This is the 98th bee; it was canceled from 1943 to 1945 because of World War II and again in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year’s champion will be the 111th, because the bee ended in a two-way tie several times and an eight-way tie in 2019.

Thirty of the past 36 champions have been of Indian heritage, including last year’s winner, Faizan Zaki.

How can I watch the Scripps National Spelling Bee?

The bee is broadcast and streamed on channels and platforms owned by Scripps, a Cincinnati-based media company.

On Tuesday, preliminary rounds will stream on Scripps Sports Network and spellingbee.com from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. EDT.

Wednesday's quarterfinals will stream on Scripps Sports Network and spellingbee.com from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and semifinals can be watched on those platforms from 2:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Tape-delayed semifinals will be broadcast on ION from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Finals will be broadcast Thursday on ION from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. The semifinals and finals will also air or be streamed on these Scripps-owned channels or services: ION Plus, Bounce, Grit, Laff, The Spot, Bounce XL, Grit Xtra, Laff More, Scripps News and Scripps Sports Network.

What are the rules of the Scripps National Spelling Bee?

Spellers qualify by advancing through regional bees hosted by sponsors around the country. In order to compete, spellers must not have advanced beyond the eighth grade or be older than 15.

Competitors must get through two preliminary rounds, where they are quizzed on words from a list provided in advance. There is one spelling round and one multiple-choice vocabulary round.

Those who make it through the preliminaries sit for a written spelling and vocabulary test, with the top 100 or so finishers advancing to the quarterfinals. The words for the test, and for all subsequent rounds, are taken from the Merriam-Webster Unabridged dictionary.

Throughout the quarterfinals and semifinals, spellers are eliminated at the microphone through oral spelling or vocabulary questions.

About a dozen spellers advance to the finals. When only two remain, Scripps has the option to use a lightning-round tiebreaker known as a “spell-off” to determine the champion.

Who is competing in the Scripps National Spelling Bee?

This year's bee has 247 spellers representing all 50 states, the District of Columbia, three U.S. territories and five other countries: The Bahamas, Canada, Ghana, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates.

The top returning finisher from 2025 is Sarv Dharavane of Dunwoody, Georgia, who finished third last year as an 11-year-old fifth-grader. Even if he falls short this year, he has two years of eligibility left.

Other possible contenders:

— Shrey Parikh, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Rancho Cucamonga, California, who finished third in 2024. He has dominated the bee circuit in the past year, winning the South Asian Spelling Bee, the SpellPundit National Spelling Bee and the Words of Wisdom Spelling Bee.

— Oliver Halkett, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Los Angeles who finished in a tie for seventh last year.

— Esha Marupudi, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Chandler, Arizona, who also tied for seventh last year.

What are the prizes for the Scripps National Spelling Bee champion?

The winner receives a custom trophy and more than $50,000 in cash and prizes. Here are the prize payouts:

— First place: $52,500 in cash, reference works from Encyclopedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster, a custom trophy and commemorative medal, and $1,000 in flight credits from Delta Air Lines.

— Second place: $25,000.

— Third place: $15,000.

— Fourth place: $10,000.

— Fifth place: $5,000.

— Sixth place: $2,500.

— All other finalists: $2,000.

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Ben Nuckols has covered the Scripps National Spelling Bee since 2012. Follow his work here.

The cleanup procedure for the North Shore graduate should allow him to rehab the knee and get back on the field at some point.

He is currently on the Texans’ injured reserve list after being waived-injured. He can be removed from injured reserve with an injury settlement and then sign with the Texans or another team after an undetermined amount of weeks.

Carter joined the Texans last season and was primarily on the practice squad. He played in two regular-season games.

Carter is a former University of Houston and North Shore player who went undrafted and signed with the Kansas City Chiefs. He played 20 snaps on special teams against Tennessee for 74 percent participation.

A Utah State transfer, the 6-foot-2, 200-pound former all-district wide receiver tied for third on the Coogs last year with three pass breakups and allowed one or no catches in six games. He played 453 snaps, 360 on defense and 92 on special teams.

At Utah State, he intercepted four passes overall.

He had 33 catches for 495 yards and seven touchdowns in high school on a state championship squad, beating Duncanville as part of a 16-0 season. He also played baseball and ran track.

Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com

Now, the conversation has flipped. After pouring billions of dollars into laptops, tablets and learning apps, many schools are facing a digital reckoning. Classrooms have become saturated with screens, and a growing number of parents, teachers and school districts are saying it is time to scale back.

“The Chromebook is just a world of distraction,” says Soffer, who teaches sixth-grade English and history. She favors pen-and-paper assignments but is required to use laptops and online apps for certain activities. “Every day, I’m battling, ’Who would you rather listen to, Ms. Soffer or Minecraft?'”

The Los Angeles Unified School District, where Soffer teaches, recently became the first major school district to say it will stop giving devices to its youngest students. It is part of a new screen time policy taking effect in the fall across the country’s second-largest school system.

A sweeping resolution passed last month by the Los Angeles school board requires the district to eliminate devices until second grade; set daily and weekly screen limits for all higher grades; block YouTube on school devices; and ban the use of devices at lunch and recess in elementary and middle school. The district will also audit its education technology contracts, which the teachers’ union says amount to $1.6 billion.

The Los Angeles crackdown is adding momentum to calls for reform emerging around the country. In many cases, parents lobbied a few years ago for school cellphone bans, which have now become the norm. Realizing phones weren’t the only classroom distraction, they pivoted to a new target: school-issued devices.

The campaign for change is becoming a public policy issue. At least 14 states have proposed laws to limit screen time in schools, according to Ballotpedia. The federal government issued an advisory last week warning that excessive screen use among youth is becoming a growing public health concern.

Parents say school-issued devices undermine screen limits at home

In Los Angeles, concerned parents last year formed a group, Schools Beyond Screens, and pressured the district by speaking out at school board meetings, on social media and in private talks with administrators. Many are frustrated by trying to curb screen time at home, only to have screens mandated by school.

As a mother of three, Katie Pace does everything in her power to limit screens. There is one family iPad and one television at home, no screen time during the week and no screens allowed in bedrooms. Her eighth grade daughter, Clementine, does not have a phone.

But as soon as Clementine gets on the Wi-Fi-enabled school bus, her day takes a turn for the digital.

For the 30-minute ride to school, Clementine watches YouTube videos on her school Chromebook.

In Spanish class, assignments are on the app Duolingo, but many students use Google Translate for answers, Clementine said. Often, kids are playing games on their phones, which are supposed to be locked away. In algebra, Clementine writes with her finger on a touch screen to solve equations. In history, quizzes, tests and writing assignments are on the computer.

Almost all homework is online. Until recently, Clementine would come home and read a book, her mother said, but not anymore. On her daughter’s device history, Pace sees she spends hours a day streaming music, making Spotify playlists, and watching makeup tutorials and cat videos on YouTube.

“It makes me furious,” said Pace, a member of Schools Beyond Screens. “My daughter went to middle school and was sent home with a screen addiction in her backpack.”

The pandemic supercharged student access to devices

A push to put a device in every child’s hand and close the “digital divide” started over a decade ago, but it accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Overnight, education shifted online in March 2020. Schools raced to get kids the devices needed to connect to school. When the 2021-2022 school year started, 96% of U.S. public schools reported they had given digital devices to students who needed them, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Many schools switched funding away from textbooks, workbooks and paper printouts to digital alternatives. Educational technology, or “edtech,” exploded into a multibillion-dollar industry.

“During the pandemic, getting kids devices was a lifeline. Now, it’s time that we reset,” said Nick Melvoin, the LAUSD school board member who drafted the new resolution.

Melvoin estimates that few Los Angeles classrooms are using screens effectively in ways that benefit learning. Too often, he said, teachers are replacing instruction with online apps and using screens “as a crutch.”

Some schools are introducing new limits

The challenge, educators say, is that technology has become so entwined with learning, especially for older students, that unplugging from screens at school is complicated.

In the affluent Philadelphia suburb of Lower Merion, parents launched a petition campaign for the right to opt their children out of digital devices during school, citing questions about edtech’s benefits. The district has said that opting out is not possible.

“If there’s really no evidence that it helps, and in fact there’s evidence that it’s harmful, what are we doing? Test scores are at their lowest point,” said Alex Bird Becker, one of the founders of the group PA Unplugged.

Other schools are finding that it makes financial sense to stop sending a device home with every child.

Fresno Unified School District, the third-largest in California, is spending $4 million a year to repair and replace laptops. Partly to cut costs, the district has told its 40,000 elementary school students to return their take-home laptops and it will shift computer access to in-class only in the fall, spokesperson AJ Kato said.

The Simi Valley Unified School District, near Los Angeles, stopped sending devices home for its younger students this year, partly because of costly repairs but also because they were being used for “inappropriate Google searches” and video games, according to a memo to parents. The district now stores the devices in carts at school.

A group of parents in Arlington, Virginia, gathered on a recent Saturday night to share their children’s struggles with screen addictions and other side effects of school-issued devices.

“None of us are Luddites. I know that technology adds value, but I also don’t want my son on YouTube all the time,” said LuAnn Oliver, who hosted the group in her living room. Her sixth grade son struggles to keep track of online assignments and resist the temptation the iPad offers for video games. “We get reports on websites he’s visited. He’s visiting a game site in nearly every class.”

The Arlington School District has stopped giving iPads out before first grade and is setting new limits in elementary school, but students in 6th to 12th grades will still be required to have school-issued devices.

Another mother, Jenny Sullivan, said she has noticed her fourth grade son capitalizing random letters and not getting corrected because there is so little work on paper. She also worries about social implications: Her sixth grader doesn’t want to go to the after-school program because everyone is on their iPad. “I’d rather be home,” he tells his mother.

After a three-hour gathering, the parents made a plan to approach the school in the fall with a unified request to “opt out of technology and opt in to textbooks and paper.”

“Ten years from now,” said one of the mothers, Kristina Jackson, “I can’t imagine us looking back with any other reaction than: How could we have been so naive that we just handed these devices to our kids.”

___

Associated Press writer Sharon Lurye contributed to this report from Philadelphia.

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The Associated Press’ education 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 S&P 500 rose 0.5% after trading resumed following Monday’s holiday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 53 points, or 0.1%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.8% higher. All three are near their all-time highs.

The gains came even though fighting continued in the region, and the U.S. military said it carried out “self-defense” strikes in southern Iran, including on missile launch sites and boats placing mines. Markets have rallied in the past on hopes for a coming end to the war with Iran, only to see the conflict drag on.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, rose 3% to $96.25, but that reclaimed only a bit of its 7.1% plunge from Monday. The price for a barrel of U.S crude oil, meanwhile, fell 3.8% to $92.99 after resuming trading following the Memorial Day holiday.

Oil prices have been at the center of the action for financial markets since the United States and Israel attacked Iran in late February. The ensuing war has closed the Strait of Hormuz to most oil tankers, keeping crude pent up in the Persian Gulf instead of flowing to customers worldwide. That in turn has driven up oil’s price and sent a wave of painful inflation around the world.

Hopes for a deal to end the war helped lift stocks of companies with big fuel bills. United Airlines rose 4.5%, and cruise operator Carnival steamed 3.7% higher.

The lower oil prices also helped pull yields lower in the U.S. bond market, which eased the pressure on all kinds of investments. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell 4.48% from 4.56% late Friday.

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

Big technology stocks also continued their big runs, driven by hopes for continued profits because of the boom around artificial-intelligence technology. Micron Technology jumped 11.2% and was the strongest force lifting the S&P 500 after analysts at UBS led by Timothy Arcuri raised their 12-month price target for the stock to $1,625 from $535.

That helped offset a drop of 8.2% for AutoZone, which reported slightly weaker revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, though its profit topped expectations. CEO Phil Daniele said performance for the retailer’s stores in Brazil and Mexico was below its plan.

Most big U.S. companies have been reporting both profit and revenue for the start of 2026 above what analysts expected. The strong performances have helped vault U.S. stocks to records, even with all the uncertainty around oil prices and the war with Iran.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed. South Korea’s Kospi jumped 2.5% as it also caught up with other markets following a Monday closure for a holiday.

London’s FTSE 100 added 0.7% even though British petroleum giant BP fell 4.7% there. It ousted its chairman over what it called serious concerns related to “important governance standards, oversight and conduct.”

Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.2% and fell back from its all-time high set the day before.

___

AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.

The Texans are also re-signing linebacker and Conroe native K.C. Ossai, who was with the team last year as an undrafted rookie before being released, per a league source. Ossai was released from the Miami Dolphins this spring after spending time on their practice squad and the Texans’ practice squad last year.

Jackson was part of a five receiver workout a week ago as the team sought depth at the position, per league sources.

The audition included former Miami Dolphins wide receiver River Cracraft, former Seattle Seahawks wide receiver D’Wayne Eskridge, former Green Bay Packers wide receiver Samori Toure, Jackson and former Marshall wide receiver Demarcus Lacey.

Jackson is represented by Aura Sports Group’s David Canter and Ness Mugrabi.

Jackson played in 12 games for the Tennessee Titans in 2024, catching one pass for eight yards He returned 28 punts for a 7.7 average and 16 kickoff returns for a 25.8 average.

Jackson (5-9, 188) has run the 40-yard dash in 4.42 seconds.

Jackson, 26, has also played for the New Orleans Saints. He played collegiately at Tulane.

He was waived last year by the Titans and signed with the Saints practice squad and was then waived a day earlier. He spent time this year with the St. Louis Battlehawks in the United Football League and was waived on March 19.

Jackson’s uncle is former Baltimore Ravens safety Ed Reed, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

At Tulane, he has 109 career receptions for 1,743 yards and 17 touchdowns.

Ossai is a Conroe native and the younger brother of Joseph Ossai.

Last year, he signed a three-year deal that includes a $15,000 signing bonus, plus $160,000 of his base salary fully guaranteed for $175,000 total guaranteed after going undrafted out of Louisiana.

Ossai (6-foot-2, 241 pounds) is an Oak Ridge graduate who was named All-Sun Belt Conference. As a junior, he had 95 tackles, 4 1/2 for losses and one sack with two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery. In high school, he had 93 tackles, 10 for losses, two forced fumbles and one fumble recovery.

He chose Louisiana over Arizona, Army, Air Force, UTSA and Nevada.

Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com

The U.S. military has characterized Monday's strikes in southern Iran as defensive, saying targets included missile launch sites and boats placing mines, and said the U.S. acted with “restraint" in light of the weekslong ceasefire.

Iran's foreign ministry called the strikes a ceasefire violation and warned that Washington would bear responsibility for “all consequences,” without details.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran will leave no act of aggression unanswered,” it added in a statement.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard on Tuesday said it had shot down and deterred drones and a fighter jet that entered its airspace, according to Iran’s official Mizan news agency, which did not specify when the incident occurred.

It wasn't immediately clear what the developments would mean for negotiations. The strikes came after Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf went to Qatar as part of the talks, which U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday were “proceeding nicely.”

The strikes were the latest flare-up in the fragile ceasefire that began April 7 and has largely held.

Negotiations center in part on the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial waterway off southern Iran through which a fifth of the world's crude oil and natural gas passed before the war began with U.S.-Israeli strikes in February. Tehran retaliated by effectively closing the strait, stranding hundreds of ships and shocking the global economy.

The U.K. Maritime Trade Operations Center said an explosion was reported Tuesday morning aboard a tanker in the Gulf of Oman, which lies near the strait. No one was injured in the blast; there was no immediate information on the cause.

Besides disrupting energy markets, the strait's closure is also squeezing fertilizer supplies worldwide. The full impact might not become clear until harvests that are months away. U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization Director-General Qu Dongyu, warned at an event in Rome Tuesday that “the decisions we make now will determine whether this remains a manageable shock or evolves into a deeper global food security crisis in 2026 and 2027 and beyond."

The strait has become a powerful lever for Tehran in talks, joining the long-running issue of Iran's nuclear program and highly enriched uranium. Iran, in turn, wants the U.S. to lift its military blockade of Iranian ports that began on April 17.

“What we are witnessing today is not only a geopolitical crisis, it is a systemic shock to the global agrifood system,” Qu said Tuesday.

Trump has introduced a new angle in negotiations for a deal on the war, saying any agreement to end the war should include a requirement for several additional countries, including Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, to join the Abraham Accords, a series of U.S.-brokered diplomatic, economic and security agreements aimed at normalizing relations with Israel.

Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates became the first countries to join in 2020; Sudan, Morocco and Kazakhstan have followed. Egypt and Jordan already formally recognize Israel and have long-standing peace treaties. Turkey first recognized Israel in 1949.

Israel’s conduct against Palestinians, including in the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, has alienated Gulf Arab states and the wider Muslim world, but Trump has been keen to build on the Abraham Accords, forged during his first term. He has even suggested that Iran eventually could sign on.

The injured children were hospitalized in serious condition, said Lisa De Wilde, spokeswoman for the East Flanders public prosecutor’s office. The collision happened at a level crossing during the morning rush hour near the town of Buggenhout, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) northwest of the capital, Brussels.

The minibus driver and an escort were killed along with two children, De Wilde said at a news conference. She said that the cause of the crash hadn't been established. Investigators were questioning witnesses and checking security camera footage.

“What we do know is that the barrier was closed and the red light was on,” she said.

An Associated Press reporter at the scene said that the badly damaged bus lay toppled on its side, its front section crushed flat. Forensic experts in protective white suits and wearing gloves were taking photos of the scene. A forensics tent was erected nearby. The train was relatively unscathed.

The train was estimated to be traveling at about 120 kph (75 mph) as it approached the crossing and had “no time to brake," said Frédéric Sacré, a spokesman for Belgian rail operator Infrabel.

“The impact was extremely violent,” Sacré told RTBF public broadcaster.

Federal Police spokesperson An Berger said that the bus driver appeared to have ploughed through the train barrier. Infrabel said that the crossing was working correctly. A security camera there showed that the bus, which had a total of nine people aboard, was still moving when the train hit it.

It’s believed that about 100 passengers were aboard the train and that none of them were hurt. Rail traffic in the area was halted and bus services provided for travelers. Local officials stood for a minute's silence after the news conference.

Children played basketball and rode bicycles at a school not far from the scene in this bucolic town.

In a social media post, Interior Minister Bernard Quintin expressed “great sadness” over “the tragic accident in Buggenhout, where a school bus was struck by a train. My thoughts go out to the victims and their loved ones.”

——

Lorne Cook reported from Brussels. Mike Corder contributed to this report from The Hague, Netherlands.

Daniil Medvedev struggled, though, in a five-set loss to 97th-ranked Australian opponent Adam Walton.

Sabalenka beat 50th-ranked Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 6-4, 6-2 on Court Philippe-Chatrier with an array of approaches to the net and volley put-aways.

“That’s the most enjoyable part of the game right now -- that I’m able to come to the net to play points there,” Sabalenka said. “I’m super proud that I was able to improve that part of the game.”

The unusually hot conditions at Roland Garros make net-rushing — usually better reserved for hard and grass courts — a viable option because the court is drying out quicker and playing faster.

For a third consecutive day, the temperature in Paris was forecast to rise to at least 32 degrees Celsius (90 Fahrenheit).

“Let’s hope that this is the perfect condition for me,” Sabalenka said. “It suits my game really well.”

Sabalenka reached the final in Paris last year, losing to Coco Gauff. She has won the Australian Open and the U.S. Open on hard courts.

Gauff was opening her title defense later against fellow American Taylor Townsend.

Also advancing was 17th-seeded Iva Jovic, who beat good friend Alexandra Eala 6-4, 6-2.

Walton, who received a wild card invitation from tournament organizers, beat Medvedev 6-2, 1-6, 6-1, 1-6, 6-4.

Stefanos Tsitsipas, the 2021 runner-up to Novak Djokovic, was leading 6-2, 3-0 against Alexandre Muller when his French opponent retired. Muller wiped away tears as he left the court and later said he injured his right calf, three months after injuring his left calf.

Later, top-ranked Jannik Sinner looks to extend his 29-match winning streak when he opens against French wild card Clement Tabur in the night session.

Rising star

French teenager Moïse Kouamé made the perfect start to his French Open career with a 7-6 (4), 6-2, 6-1 win against veteran Marin Cilic.

The 17-year-old Kouamé won one day after the 39-year-old Frenchman Gael Monfils made his last appearance at Roland Garros.

He raised his arms in triumph and tilted his head back after defeating the 37-year-old Cilic, who won the 2014 U.S. Open, finished runner-up at two other majors, and reached the French Open semifinals in 2022.

The ATP Tour said No. 318-ranked Kouamé became the first man born in 2008 or later to win a Grand Slam match, and the crowd on a sun-baked Court Simonne-Mathieu showed their appreciation by chanting “Mo-ïse! Mo-ïse! Mo-ïse!" and clapping in-between.

“It's not easy to stay in the present without thinking of the score,” Kouamé said. “It wouldn’t have been possible without the huge help you (the crowd) gave me.”

In March, he became the youngest winner in Miami Masters history when he beat Zachary Svajda in the first round — earning a congratulatory message from Djokovic.

___

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

London recorded a rare “tropical night,” defined as one in which the temperature does not fall below 20 Celsius (68 Fahrenheit), and Britain’s Met Office weather service said the temperature in southern England could reach 35 C (95 F) on Tuesday.

Monday was the U.K.’s hottest May day on record, with the temperature hitting 34.8 C (94.6 F) at Kew Gardens in London, smashing the previous record of 32.8 C (91.4 F) set in 1922 and 1944. Records also fell in France, where temperatures reached 36 C (97 F) on Monday in the country's southwest and widely remained above 20 C (68 F) at night.

The national weather service, Météo-France, said a “heat dome,” with heat held in place by a high-pressure weather front, was producing temperatures more than 10 degrees Celsius above what used to be usual for this time of year.

Unpredictable and extreme weather are becoming more frequent as Earth’s warming builds. Experts say unprecedented and deadly weather extremes that sometimes strike at abnormal times and in unusual places are putting more people in danger.

After a U.K. long weekend that sent people flocking to beaches, pools and shady parks, London commuters sweltered on Tuesday in subway carriages without air conditioning. Trains to and from the busy Waterloo station were disrupted by a report of smoke on the tracks.

In Scotland, firefighters worked through the night to douse a grass fire that sent smoke billowing from Arthur’s Seat, the rocky hill that looms over Edinburgh.

The U.K. Health Security Agency issued an amber health alert for large parts of the country through Thursday, warning of a potential health risk, particularly among older people, at the hottest times of the day. The U.K. is used to moderate temperatures, and many homes, schools and businesses do not have air conditioning.

At least three teenagers died in apparent drownings in U.K. lakes and reservoirs, and a 60-year-old man died in the sea in southwest England, authorities said.

French government spokesperson Maud Bregeon said there have been reports of at least seven deaths potentially related to high temperatures, including five drownings and two deaths in sports competitions.

The early heat wave has struck before the annual summer window when lifeguards watch over bathers at popular beaches, increasing risks.

On France’s Atlantic seaboard, where magnificent beaches have powerful riptides, officials reported a rash of emergencies in the surf, with two drowning deaths on Sunday at popular resorts in the Gironde region in the southwest.

The top regional administrator, Sophie Brocas, urged beachgoers “to exercise the utmost caution.”

The unseasonable heat extended to Spain, where weather service spokesperson Rubén del Campo said "we find ourselves with temperatures we normally see in the middle of the summer now in the month of May.”

He said Seville hit 38 C (100 F) over the weekend, while large parts of the Iberian Peninsula saw temperatures 5 to 10 degrees Celsius higher than normal.

And in Rome, temperatures were expected to reach 32 degrees C (89.6 F) on Tuesday.

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Associated Press writers John Leicester in Paris and Joseph Wilson in Barcelona, Spain, contributed to this report.

The departure was abrupt and unexpected, with Albert Manifold having been appointed to the position late last year.

“Albert has helped bring a welcome focus and pace to BP’s transformation," Amanda Blanc, senior independent director, said in a statement Tuesday. "However, the board has been surprised and disappointed to learn of governance oversight and conduct issues it deems unacceptable and has taken decisive action.”

BP's board named Ian Tyler as interim chair, effective immediately.

The search for a new chair is underway, BP said.

BP, based in London, is a “supermajor,” one of the five largest oil production and exploration companies in the world by when measured by revenue and profit.

The company maintains operations in about 60 countries.

Manifold, who had been the top executive at the global building materials company CRH, based in Dublin, for 10 years, became the chair at BP in October.

Last year there were media reports that British oil giant Shell was in talks to buy rival BP. Shell denied the reports at the time.

Industry analysts have suggested that BP would be an attractive takeover target after a plan to shift its focus to renewable energy, which was abandoned earlier last year.

The company recently did a hard reset and returned to its roots after it had shifted its focus to renewable energy in 2020. The decision has been criticized by some shareholders and environmentalists.

CEO Murray Auchincloss said last year that optimism over opportunities in renewable energy was misplaced, with the company moving “too far and too fast.”

Auchincloss stepped down in December, and the company named Meg O'Neill as his successor.

BP has also struggled to recover from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon tragedy, one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history. The explosion killed 11 workers and forced the company to pay billions of dollars for environmental damage in the Gulf of Mexico.

More recently, like other oil companies, BP has struggled with falling demand in recent years.

BP’s 2025 earnings fell 16% from a year earlier to $7.49 billion as the price of Brent crude, a benchmark for international oil prices, dropped 16.9%. The company’s preferred measure of earnings is underlying replacement cost profit, which adjusts for one-time items and fluctuations in the market value of inventories. Net income plunged 86% to $55 million.

Shares of BP Plc slid 4% before the opening bell on the NYSE.

____________

Danica Kirka in London contributed to this report.

Russia on Monday urged foreign citizens, including members of diplomatic missions, to leave the Ukrainian capital as quickly as possible and told residents to steer clear of military and government facilities. It said that “systemic strikes” on Kyiv were being prepared.

Russia has regularly bombarded Kyiv, often causing dozens of civilian casualties with every attack, since it launched an all-out invasion of neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio by phone Monday that the U.S. should evacuate its diplomatic staff from Kyiv, a foreign ministry statement said. Rubio didn’t say whether the U.S. State Department would take that step, but expressed concern during a trip to India that the “terrible” war in Ukraine could escalate further.

The Trump administration has tried for more than a year to stop the war. But its efforts yielded no significant breakthrough and are now on ice as Washington focuses on the Iran war.

No diplomats say they are leaving Kyiv

There were no announcements of diplomatic departures from Kyiv. The European Union, French and Polish delegations publicly said that they would not leave.

The European Union summoned Russia’s representative in Brussels to convey its concerns Tuesday, with European Commission spokesperson Anitta Hipper accusing Russia of “trying to sow panic.”

French Foreign Ministry spokesman Pascal Confavreux called the Russian threat “new intimidation from Moscow.”

The level of security threats posed by Russia to Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities “remains the same as in previous years and months,” Ukraine’s foreign ministry said in a statement late Monday.

Russia has continuously launched missile and drone attacks on the capital, it pointed out, adding that Ukraine was prepared to assist diplomatic missions seeking additional security measures.

Russia could target bunkers, official says

Andrei Kartapolov, head of the defense affairs committee in Russia's State Duma, said that the Ukrainian parliament and presidential office aren’t among potential targets.

Kartapolov said that possible attacks could aim at underground bunkers used by various branches of Ukraine’s armed forces, security agencies and other government structures.

“Those are well-concealed and fortified facilities, and our task is to spot and target them with the weapons we have,” Kartapolov said in remarks carried by Parlamentskaya Gazeta, the official publication of the Russian parliament.

Russia said its biggest missile attack of the year last weekend was in response to Friday’s deadly Ukrainian drone strike on what Moscow said was a college dormitory in Starobilsk, a city in Ukraine’s Russia-occupied Luhansk region.

But the Ukrainian General Staff said that its strike in Starobilsk hit the local headquarters of the Russian military’s special drone unit.

Ukraine remains short of air defense missiles

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that sophisticated American-made air defense systems that Ukraine needs in order to stop Russian ballistic missiles are in short supply because of the Iran war.

“Unfortunately, there has been no progress for a long time with America on expanding the production of anti-ballistic capabilities,” Zelenskyy said on social media late Monday, adding that Kyiv is working with Europe to improve its own anti-ballistic capabilities in sufficient quantities.

He said that Ukrainian battlefield gains in recent months have enabled it to “stabilize” the 1,250-kilometer (780-mile) front line in eastern and southern Ukraine, suggesting that Kyiv's forces are holding their own against Russia's bigger army.

Russia’s spring offensive is floundering as Ukraine’s midrange drone strikes disrupt its rear supply lines, according to the Institute for the Study of War.

Moscow’s warning of major strikes aims to distract public attention from its “poor battlefield performance” and an economic pinch caused by war costs and international sanctions, the Washington-based think tank said late Monday.

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Barry Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal. Elise Morton in London, John Leicester in Paris, and Lorne Cook in Brussels, 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

KPRC 2 habló exclusivamente con la familia de Ryan Maziol, de 15 años, quien fue descrito por sus seres queridos como un joven amable que amaba la programación, los videojuegos y la jardinería.

La madre de Ryan dijo que su hijo era autista y que asistieron a múltiples reuniones con funcionarios escolares sobre su progreso académico. Sin embargo, asegura que nadie de la escuela ni del distrito mencionó posibles preocupaciones relacionadas con bullying.

• Huffman ISD family says they were never told about possible bullying before autistic teen’s death

Padres de la comunidad de Huffman ISD dijeron a KPRC 2 que creen que el distrito no notifica consistentemente a las familias cuando se reportan casos de acoso escolar.

Según la ley de Texas, los distritos escolares deben contar con procedimientos para reportar, investigar y responder a denuncias de bullying. La Texas Education Agency informó a KPRC 2 que los distritos también están obligados a notificar a los padres cuando se presenta un reporte de bullying.

La madre de Ryan dijo que nunca recibió una llamada del distrito sobre presuntas situaciones de acoso relacionadas con su hijo.

KPRC 2 también habló con uno de los amigos de Ryan, quien afirma que Ryan sí habló con maestros sobre el bullying, pero que, según él, nada cambió.

Familiares aseguran que Ryan era el tipo de persona que trataba de manejar los problemas por sí solo.

Su hermana, Ashley Maziol, contó a KPRC 2 que ella fue quien encontró a su hermano menor después de que se quitó la vida.

La familia asegura que no supieron de posibles problemas de bullying hasta después de la muerte de Ryan.

En un comunicado enviado a KPRC 2, Huffman Independent School District indicó que está revisando lo que describió como “reportes no verificados” de que el bullying pudo haber contribuido a la muerte del estudiante.

KPRC 2 también habló con una experta en salud conductual de Memorial Hermann Health System, quien explicó que muchos niños muestran señales de advertencia mucho antes de expresar abiertamente que están sufriendo emocionalmente.

Expertos en salud mental señalan que algunas señales de alerta pueden incluir:

• Aislamiento de amigos o actividades
• Cambios en el estado de ánimo o comportamiento
• Mayor ansiedad o tristeza
• Bajo rendimiento escolar
• Hablar sobre desesperanza o sentirse aislado

Más tarde este martes, padres de familia y miembros de la comunidad planean manifestarse frente al edificio administrativo de Huffman ISD.

Aseguran que buscan más transparencia por parte del distrito y acciones más firmes cuando los estudiantes reportan bullying.

Si usted o alguien que conoce está pasando por una crisis o necesita ayuda emocional, puede llamar o enviar un mensaje al 988, la línea nacional de ayuda para crisis y suicidio, disponible las 24 horas del día y de manera confidencial.

The next big storm chance arrives late Tuesday night into Wednesday, bringing a higher chance for showers and thunderstorms across the region. Some storms could produce locally heavy rainfall, and we’ll continue monitoring the potential for isolated flooding concerns where repeated downpours develop.

You can check radar here if you’re headed out today:

Tuesday’s Forecast:

Tuesday brings another mostly dry day for much of Southeast Texas. We’ll see a mix of sun and clouds with afternoon temperatures climbing into the upper 80s.

A few isolated showers and thunderstorms could develop during the afternoon, but rain coverage should remain limited through most of the day.

Clouds begin increasing Tuesday night as our next weather system approaches from the west. Rain chances will begin increasing late Tuesday night, especially after midnight.

Wednesday’s Wet Forecast:

Wednesday is shaping up to be the most active weather day of the week.

A disturbance moving into Southeast Texas will bring a widespread chance for showers and thunderstorms throughout the day. Deep tropical moisture will also be returning, allowing some storms to produce heavy downpours.

It’s still too early to pin down exact locations or timing, but right now it looks to be in the morning. We’ll be watching for the potential for localized flooding and a few stronger storms as we move closer.

Current forecast rainfall amounts generally range between 1 and 2 inches for many areas, although some isolated spots could pick up locally higher totals where storms repeatedly move over the same location.

10-Day Forecast:

Rain chances should begin decreasing Wednesday night into Thursday, with a less active pattern expected for the second half of the week. It will continue to feel like summertime through the weekend with hot afternoons and pop-up thunderstorm chances.

Have you captured a dramatic rain photo or video? Share your weather moments with the KPRC 2 community through Click2Pins at Click2Houston.com/pins.

Now, as parents and students in the community speak out, mental health experts are warning families to pay attention to signs that children may be suffering in silence.

KPRC 2 spoke exclusively with the family of 15-year-old Ryan Maziol, described by loved ones as a kind teen who loved coding, video games, and gardening.

Ryan’s mother says her son was autistic and attended multiple meetings with school officials regarding his educational progress. However, she says no one from the school or district ever raised concerns about possible bullying.

Parents in the Huffman ISD community told KPRC 2 they believe the district does not consistently notify families when bullying concerns are reported.

Under Texas law, school districts are required to have procedures for reporting, investigating, and responding to bullying complaints. The Texas Education Agency told KPRC 2 that districts are also required to notify parents after bullying reports are made.

Ryan’s mother says she never received a call from the district about any alleged bullying involving her son.

KPRC 2 also spoke with one of Ryan’s friends, who claims Ryan told teachers about bullying, but said nothing ever changed.

Family members say Ryan often tried to handle problems on his own.

His sister, Ashley Maziol, told KPRC 2 she was the one who found her younger brother after he took his life.

The family says they did not learn about possible bullying concerns until after Ryan’s death.

In a statement to KPRC 2, Huffman Independent School District said it is reviewing what it described as “unverified reports” that bullying may have contributed to the student’s death.

KPRC 2 also spoke with a behavioral health expert from Memorial Hermann Health System, who said children often show warning signs long before they openly talk about emotional distress.

Mental health experts say warning signs can include:

• Withdrawal from friends or activities
• Changes in mood or behavior
• Increased anxiety or sadness
• Declining school performance
• Talking about hopelessness or isolation

Later Tuesday morning, parents and community members plan to protest outside the Huffman ISD administration building.

They say they want more transparency from the district and stronger action when students report bullying.

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free and confidential support 24 hours a day.

A previously reached ceasefire appeared more nominal by the day, complicating efforts at a broader peace in the Iran war, as Tehran wants an end to the fighting to include Lebanon.

The Litani River has been a de facto boundary in Lebanon, with large areas to the south under Israeli military control despite the Washington-brokered ceasefire in place for over a month.

One Israeli strike kills 12, including several relatives

Tuesday's intensified strikes and clashes came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had authorized more intensive strikes targeting Hezbollah across Lebanon.

Meanwhile, an Israeli security official said the military had called up an additional battalion to Lebanon, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Israel's military said it struck more than 100 Hezbollah sites across southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley area overnight, saying it targeted storage facilities, command centers and observation points used to attack Israeli troops and residents in northern Israel.

One strike hit the eastern village of Mashghara, killing 12 people including several members of a family, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said.

Israel in recent days has intensified strikes in Nabatieh city and province, just north of the river. On Tuesday it warned city residents to leave.

Hezbollah meanwhile said it launched several rocket, artillery and exploding drone attacks on Israeli troops and vehicles mobilizing along the river toward the Nabatieh villages of Yohmor al-Shaqif and Zawtar al-Sharqieh.

Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV said the militant group repelled attacks along the river banks.

Since the ceasefire, the Lebanese capital of Beirut has been spared from strikes, but Israel's latest moves have caused fear.

“By just saying a few words on TV, (Netanyahu) causes everyone to panic and flee their homes,” said Tony Aboud in Beirut’s bustling Hamra district. “I don’t know what’s going to happen and how long we can live like this.”

Lebanon hopes for an agreement that sees Israeli withdrawal

The Lebanese government, which came to power on a platform of reform and disarming Hezbollah and other armed groups, hopes that the direct talks with Israel, opposed by Hezbollah, will lead to a permanent ceasefire and withdrawal of Israeli troops.

Israel says it will not withdraw until Hezbollah no longer poses a threat to residents of its northern towns.

Hezbollah has vowed to continue fighting until Israel stops its daily airstrikes and withdraws its troops from Lebanon.

In recent weeks, Hezbollah has boasted that it is using new fiber-optic drones that Israeli troops have struggled to intercept, hitting both Israeli forces and northern Israeli villages.

Israel has told people there not to gather in large numbers.

“What this requires of us now is to increase the blows, to increase the intensity. We will smite them hip and thigh,” Netanyahu said Monday.

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

At least 3,185 people in Lebanon have been killed in Israeli strikes since the start of the war, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. Over 9,600 others have been wounded.

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

___

Associated Press writers Sam Mednick and Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, and senior video producer Malak Harb in Beirut contributed to this report.

Election leaders are encouraging residents to make their voices heard after Harris County saw significantly lower turnout during early voting.

According to election officials, early voting turnout in Harris County dropped roughly 56% compared to the March primary election, despite record participation earlier this year.

Voters in Harris County can cast their ballot at any of the county’s 160 polling locations, regardless of precinct.

Several closely watched races are on the ballot, including:

• The Republican nomination for U.S. Senate
• The Democratic runoff for Texas’ 18th Congressional District
• The Republican runoff for the newly created 9th Congressional District
• The Democratic primary runoff for Harris County judge

Election officials remind voters to bring an approved form of photo identification before heading to the polls.

Polling locations will remain open until 7 p.m. Tuesday.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the average retail price for beef reached a record $9.64 per pound in April, up about 13% from the same time last year.

The American Farm Bureau Federation says strong consumer demand and historically low cattle inventories are driving prices higher heading into peak grilling season. Economists say the U.S. cattle herd is currently at its lowest level in 75 years after years of drought and rising operating costs forced many ranchers to reduce herd sizes.

Despite the higher prices, Americans are still buying meat in large numbers. Industry data shows meat sales topped $112 billion in 2025, with more than 98% of U.S. households purchasing meat for meals.

Experts say beef remains the centerpiece of many summer cookouts, but shoppers looking to save money may want to consider cheaper alternatives.

Chicken continues to be one of the most affordable options, with prices remaining relatively stable compared to beef and pork. The USDA says boneless chicken breast averaged about $4.17 per pound in April, slightly lower than a year ago.

Consumers can also cut costs by:

• Choosing lower-cost meats like hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, or pork
• Looking for grocery store promotions and holiday sales
• Checking markdown sections for discounted meat nearing sell-by dates
• Buying in bulk and freezing meat for later summer cookouts

Economists say grocery stores often increase promotional discounts around major summer holidays, which could help families save ahead of Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day gatherings.

The new screenings are part of a directive issued by the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection in coordination with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Under the order, all flights to the United States carrying passengers who recently traveled from or were present in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, or South Sudan within the last 21 days must arrive at one of three designated airports for enhanced health screening.

• ‘We are okay’: Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo addresses Ebola concerns ahead of FIFA World Cup 2026 in Houston

Beginning after 11:59 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time Tuesday, Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport officially joins the list alongside Washington Dulles International Airport and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

Federal officials say travelers arriving from those countries will be escorted to a separate screening area.

According to the CDC, the screenings will include:

• A questionnaire about travel history and symptoms
• A temperature check using a non-contact thermometer
• Additional evaluation by a CDC public health officer if a traveler has a fever or other symptoms

Officials say travelers who do not show symptoms will receive instructions to monitor their health upon arrival. Their contact information will also be shared with state and local health departments for follow-up monitoring.

The federal order applies to anyone who has been in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, or South Sudan within 21 days before entering the United States.

Cargo-only flights and flight crews are exempt from the restrictions.

Authorities describe the enhanced screenings as a proactive safety measure to protect the American public during the ongoing Ebola outbreak overseas.

Travelers heading to Bush Airport for summer travel should be aware of the additional screening measures, though officials have not announced any broader impacts to airport operations or domestic travel.

According to police, officers responded to a 911 call around 12:40 a.m. in the 10200 block of West Bellfort near Dover Street.

When officers arrived, they found a 40-year-old man suffering from multiple gunshot wounds inside a pickup truck.

Investigators say the man may have been shot 30 to 40 minutes before the 911 call was made.

The victim was transported to a hospital in critical condition.

At this time, police say they do not know who shot the man or what led up to the shooting. No weapons were recovered at the scene.

The investigation remains ongoing, and no arrests have been made.

The government earlier confirmed seven women and 12 children were heading home on Qatar Airways flights, less than three weeks after a group of 13 people in similar situations returned to Australia’s two largest cities.

Two women with seven children flew to Melbourne. Four women with six children landed about an hour later in Sydney, a joint police and intelligence agency statement said.

No one had been charged on arrival, but investigations into their activities in Syria were continuing, the statement said. Three of four women who returned home earlier were charged with slavery and terrorism offenses and remain behind bars.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said anyone among the 19 on their way to Australia who has committed crimes "can expect to face the full force of the law.”

“The government has not and will not provide any assistance to this group,” Burke said in a statement.

“These are people who have made the horrific choice to join a dangerous terrorist organisation and to place their children in an unspeakable situation,” he added.

Australian law enforcement and intelligence agencies have been preparing for their return since 2014 and have long-standing plans in place to manage and monitor them, Burke said.

“The priority of the government, as always, is the safety of the Australian community,” he said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had earlier told Parliament: “I have nothing but contempt for anyone who has any sympathy for ISIS,” referring to IS by an acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

The bid by general practice doctor Jamal Rifi, a community leader in Sydney’s Lebanese Muslim diaspora, to return 34 Australian women and children from Syria failed in February. Syrian authorities blocked their convoy's route to Damascus and turned them back to Roj camp, a location in northeast Syria near the Iraq border where people linked to IS have been held since IS forces in the Middle East were defeated in 2019.

Riji told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. on Tuesday that Syrian authorities had since been persuaded that the majority of Australians in Roj were children who had a legal right to grow up in Australia.

“These women are caring mothers,” he said of the 19 women who just landed in Australia.

“Definitely joining willingly the death cult of the un-Islamic caliphate, it’s a terrible decision. Some of these women, I believe they were tricked to go there. Some of them are victims of the death cult and others are not," Riji said.

After the departure of the latest group, at least two Australians remain in Roj camp, including a mother who was prevented from returning to Australia in February by a temporary exclusion order.

Exclusion orders were created by laws introduced in 2019 to prevent defeated IS fighters from returning to Australia for up to two years.

The woman, aged around 29, had remained at Roj with her daughter, who had been disabled by shrapnel wounds, The Australian newspaper reported. She left her Sydney home at the age of 18 in 2015 to marry an IS fighter in Syria, the newspaper reported.

Her family has engaged a Sydney lawyer to challenge the order, which bars the mother from Australia until February 2028.

The last Australian cohort returned from Syria on May 7, similarly without government help.

Kawsar Ahmed, also known Kawsar Abbas, 53, and her daughter Zeinab Ahmed, 31, were arrested when they landed in Melbourne over allegations that their family had bought a female Yazidi slave.

Janai Safar, 32, was arrested at Sydney Airport when she arrived with her 9-year-old son on charges of being a member of a terrorist organization and of entering or remaining in a region controlled by a terrorist organization.

Australian governments have repatriated Australian women and children from Syrian detention camps on two occasions. Other Australians have returned quietly without government assistance.

The girls’ aunt, who now has guardianship of both children, is speaking out and urging others to stay alert and report warning signs of child abuse.

Jamesha Wilson and her girlfriend, Kevonnisha Jones, are charged with injury to a child and injury to a child with serious physical and mental harm.

Both are in the Harris County Jail.

The arrests came roughly eight months after the 3-year-old was found barely breathing.

KPRC 2 News spoke with the girls’ aunt, Asherah Henderson, about the night everything changed and the road ahead for the two toddlers.

“My girls almost didn’t make it. It’s hard,” Henderson said.

Henderson says she received a call from a social worker one night in September. She recorded the call on her cell phone when her 2-year-old niece’s small voice was audible in the background, saying “I don’t know” when her aunt asked, “What is this?”

“That’s where she was, in the fetal position. There was a little small bowl of chicken next to her, like she was a stray animal,” Henderson said. “She crawled to me once she saw me, and once I picked her up, she did not let me go.”

Henderson says the home was in disarray, and her other niece, the 3-year-old, was fighting for her life in the hospital.

The Harris County Sheriff’s Office says the 3-year-old had a brain bleed and a skull fracture so severe that doctors were forced to remove part of her skull. The 2-year-old also had broken ribs, a broken wrist, bruising, and possible liver damage.

“From head to toe, it was bad,” Henderson said.

Investigators say Jones called 911, claiming the 3-year-old fell off a bed. But doctors determined the injuries were far too severe to be caused by a fall.

“One of the doctors said it was close to a child falling off a two-story building,” Henderson said.

Jones later admitted to disciplining the girls with a belt and forcing them onto their knees with their hands behind their backs. Court records show the 3-year-old had a pattern of bruising and scars resembling marks from a looped cord and a possible belt buckle.

Detectives also uncovered text messages showing Wilson allegedly instructing Jones on what to say about who cared for the children.

People who lived at the home told KPRC 2 News they rarely saw the girls and that the children were often kept away from others inside the house.

“These bruises were in stages of healing. So you’re telling me that nobody knew something was going on with these kids?” Henderson said.

Officials with Children at Risk say warning signs of abuse can include children being isolated from others, sudden behavioral changes, and unexplained bruising or scars.

KPRC 2 News asked the Harris County Sheriff’s Office why it took eight months before Wilson and Jones were arrested. A spokesperson explained the complexity of such cases.

“These types of cases are very long and complex. They require extensive interviews, medical records of all proceedings, all hospitalizations, doctor notes, and all forensic interviews. Also, electronic evidence takes a while to get, and then it’s all presented to the DA, who reviews everything before accepting charges. The Institute of Forensic Science, also CPS, is all involved,” the spokesperson said.

The 3-year-old now relies on a feeding tube and a wheelchair. Despite their difficult road to recovery, Henderson says both girls are in good spirits.

Henderson, who had not seen the girls in months before the night she was called, now has guardianship of both children.

She hopes their story inspires the community to stay watchful and speak up.

“These bruises were in stages of healing. You’re telling me nobody knew something was going on with these kids?” she said.

Let’s jump straight into the news of the morning.

It’s Election Day! Voters who did not vote during the early voting times last week will head to the polls today.

Republican primary voters will decide whether to nominate U.S. Sen. John Cornyn or his challenger, Attorney General Ken Paxton.

There are also heated races for attorney general on the Republican and Democratic sides. And on the Democratic ticket, Houston voters will pick between U.S. Reps. Al Green and Christian Menefee for the city’s newly redrawn 18th Congressional District.

The winners of the primaries will go on to represent their party on the November midterm election ballot.

Voters can only participate in one party’s runoff election, and it must align with the party they chose in the March 3 primary, if they participated in that election.

To read more, click here.

➡️ Love our morning newsletter? Share it with your family and friends!

YOUR MORNING FORECAST ☀️

TODAY: 89° TONIGHT: 72°

KPRC 2 Meteorologist says:

“Today will be mostly dry, with a mix of sun and clouds as afternoon temperatures climb into the upper 80s. A few isolated showers and thunderstorms could develop during the afternoon, but rain coverage should remain limited through most of the day.”

Get your forecast details here.

TOP STORIES

1 dead, 2 injured after overnight shooting in west Houston parking lot, police say

One person is dead, and two others are injured, including a woman, after a shooting in west Houston Tuesday morning. The shooting happenedin a parking lot along South Highway 6 near Westheimer Road.

Investigators say dozens of young people had gathered in the area and were preparing to head to a nearby lounge when someone started shooting, sending people running for cover.

According to police, two men in their late teens or early 20s were shot during the incident. One man was pronounced dead at the scene. The second victim was shot several times and transported to the hospital in critical condition.

Man found shot multiple times inside pickup truck on Houston’s southwest side

A man in his 40s was found shot multiple times while sitting inside his vehicle in southwest Houston Tuesday morning.

The man was found in the 10200 block of West Bellfort just before midnight. It’s not clear why the man was shot or by whom.

Texas’ raucous primary runoffs end today. Here’s what to watch.

Texans are returning to the polls Tuesday to pick their party’s nominees in an array of runoffs, capping one of the liveliest primary seasons in the state’s recent political history.

Several statewide, congressional and legislative contests required an overtime round between the top two finishers in various races after no candidate received a majority of the votes in the March primary.

ARE YOU A KPRC 2 INSIDER? HERE’S SOME EXCLUSIVES

SUMMER SWEEPSTAKES: Enter to win 3 weeks of free airport parking from The Parking Spot

CLICK2PINS: SHOW US WHAT YA GOT 📷

See a news story in your neighborhood? Capture a great weather moment? Just want to share a photo of your pet? Send your photos and videos to Click2Pins, and you may see them on air and online!

Let’s jump straight into the news of the morning.

If you’re headed out this morning, make sure you grab your umbrellas, because although it’s not raining right now, it’s set to begin sometime this morning.

And unfortunately, we are not done with the rain after today; it looks like we will be seeing rain pop up on our radar throughout the weekend into next week.

To read more, click here.

➡️ Love our morning newsletter? Share it with your family and friends!

YOUR MORNING FORECAST ☀️

TODAY: 80° TONIGHT: 71°

KPRC 2 Meteorologist says:

“Houston is waking up to a dry start, but don’t let that fool you. Rounds of rain and storms will move in from the west later this morning and continue through the afternoon. The concern with these storms is the speed. The trend over the last few days has been storms slowing down and not moving out of our area quickly. There is a flood watch that starts Thursday morning, lasting through Memorial Day. This pattern is with us through at least Tuesday of next week.”

Get your forecast details here.

TOP STORIES

TIMELINE: Stormy weather, heavy rains expected in Houston through Memorial Day weekend

We are tracking a multi-day period of heavy rain that began Monday night and continues through Friday, possibly into Memorial Day Monday. A series of storm systems will move across Southeast Texas, bringing the potential for significant rainfall totals. The forecast indicates widespread amounts of 2 to 4 inches, with isolated areas north of I-10 potentially receiving over 7 inches. Because we expect multiple rounds of rain, the ground will become saturated quickly, increasing the risk for runoff and street flooding.

Houston woman says road rage incident on Katy Freeway ended with gunshot caught on camera

A road rage shooting is now under investigation after a Houston mother said she and her teenage daughter were shot at while driving on the Katy Freeway. The mother said she was driving when she was all of a sudden cut off by another driver, who then pointed a gun and released a single gunshot.

Houston says 99% of reported potholes are patched within a day. KPRC 2 put that claim to the test

Umm, are you tired of potholes around the city? Well, according to Houston Public Works, the city is fixing reported potholes pretty fast.

“We resolve 99% of resident-reported pothole problems within the next business day,” Houston Public Works Director Randy Macchi said in a podcast hosted by the Houston Mayor’s office.

So, what did we do? We tested that claim by reporting a pothole on Monday through Houston’s 311 system.

ARE YOU A KPRC 2 INSIDER? HERE’S SOME EXCLUSIVES

Houston ISD students pitch businesses at NRG Arena in ‘Hustle Tank’ competition

CLICK2PINS: SHOW US WHAT YA GOT 📷

See a news story in your neighborhood? Capture a great weather moment? Just want to share a photo of your pet? Send your photos and videos to Click2Pins, and you may see them on air and online!

Police say the shooting happened just before midnight in a parking lot along South Highway 6 near Westheimer Road.

Investigators say dozens of young people had gathered in the area and were preparing to head to a nearby lounge when someone started shooting, sending people running for cover.

According to police, two men in their late teens or early 20s were shot during the incident. One man was pronounced dead at the scene. The second victim was shot several times and transported to the hospital in critical condition.

Authorities say a woman driving nearby was also hurt when a stray bullet shattered her car window, causing glass to fly into the vehicle. She was taken to the hospital and is expected to recover.

Detectives spent hours overnight collecting evidence and interviewing witnesses as they worked to determine where the shots came from.

At this time, investigators do not know whether the gunfire came from someone inside the parking lot or from a passing vehicle in a possible drive-by shooting.

Houston police say they are continuing to canvass the area for surveillance video and additional witnesses as they work to piece together what led up to the shooting.

No arrests have been made.

And the 2024 Olympics were held in July and August.

Temperatures for the opening two days of the clay-court Grand Slam have soared to 33 degrees C (91 F) — far beyond normal for late May in the French capital. And it’s forecast to stay that way for the entire first week.

Besides making it uncomfortable for fans and players alike, the sultry conditions have also created faster conditions on court — changing the pace of the game.

“It is much different. Maybe it was that hot in the Olympics but the balls were different, so I wouldn’t treat it as the same tournament,” four-time French Open champion Iga Swiatek said after routing Emerson Jones 6-1, 6-2 in the first round on Monday.

Players have been putting bags of ice around their necks on changeovers to stay cool, while fans refreshed themselves under sprinklers.

When workers water the clay courts between sets, they have taken to directing their hoses at spectators begging to be doused, too.

“I don’t remember the last time it was so hot at Roland Garros,” Russian-born Australian player Daria Kasatkina said after beating Zeynep Sonmez 6-4, 6-4. “Maybe one day. But we’re going to have it for the whole week.”

Kasatkina said the energy-sapping temperatures made for more up-and-down matches.

“You can suddenly just get out of the bench and feel that your focus dropped,” she said. “So this is a battle which you have to also win. … Whoever adapts better to today’s conditions gets it.”

A retirement and medical timeout

Canadian player Gabriel Diallo said the heat was the main reason why he retired midway through his match against James Duckworth on Sunday.

Both Andrey Rublev and opponent Ignacio Buse called for the trainer on separate occasions during the second set of their 3-hour, 39-minute match on Monday, which Rublev won in four sets.

Buse took a medical timeout and had salts and minerals added to his water bottle as a stethoscope was placed on his chest. Rublev received treatment a few games later.

Also during the same match, a weary looking ball girl had to be helped off the court and received medical attention.

Heat protocol

The French Open is usually cool compared to the heat at the Australian Open and U.S. Open.

But like in Australia and New York, the French Open has adopted an extreme weather policy.

If the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) — which takes into account temperature, humidity, sun, wind and other factors — reaches 30.1 degrees C (86 F) or higher, 10-minute cooling breaks can be installed between the second and third sets for women’s matches and between the third and fourth sets for men’s matches.

If the WBGT hits 32.2 C (90 F), play is suspended. It would require an air temperature of about 38 C (100 F) for play to be suspended.

Fast-court players like the heat

Some players were embracing the hotter air.

“I’ve always preferred hot and lively conditions to chilly on a clay court, because I feel like I can bring a little bit more of my all-court tennis on this type of surface,” Australian player Alex de Minaur said after beating Toby Samuel 6-4, 6-4, 6-2.

“It’s easier to be a little bit more aggressive. The ball is jumping. I don’t necessarily have to use as much spin or heaviness, and I can let the conditions do the job for me. And it’s quite physical. I don’t mind the heat,” De Minaur added.

Same goes for American player Alex Michelsen, who eliminated Alexander Shevchenko in straight sets.

“It’s definitely good for us Americans,” Michelsen said. “Generally we’re big serve, big forehand, big ground game and like to play offense. When it’s super hot, the ball is moving through the air very fast. … I was so happy when I saw the forecast.”

___

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

Several statewide, congressional and legislative contests required an overtime round between the top two finishers in various races after no candidate received a majority of the votes in the March primary.

The most closely watched race will be the GOP runoff between U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton, the latter of whom is favored to win after landing an eleventh-hour endorsement from President Donald Trump. Also on the ballot are the Democratic and Republican runoffs to decide who will succeed Paxton as Texas’ attorney general.

Here are three things we’re watching Tuesday.

Marquee Senate race

The bruising Republican primary for U.S. Senate between incumbent John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will finally come to an end tonight, after more than $135 million in ad spending and a buzzer-beating endorsement from President Donald Trump.

The two Republicans — neither of whom has ever lost an election — have been locked in a heavyweight bout for over a year. Cornyn, a four-term senator seeking a fifth, beat Paxton in the primary by a narrow margin, but a runoff period was triggered when neither candidate cleared the 50% mark.

In the months since March 3, Trump pledged to endorse swiftly but then kept both campaigns on ice, despite repeated overtures — especially from the Senate Republican establishment, who see Cornyn as the safer (and less expensive) bet in the general election. At the last minute, the president weighed in for Paxton, giving the loyal attorney general his stamp of approval one week before election day.

Cornyn and Paxton have fought bitterly over their records, electability, levels of conservatism, allegiance to Trump and personal character. Cornyn, who calls himself a Reagan Republican, says GOP control of Texas is at stake. Paxton, who has pledged to take a sledgehammer to the Republican establishment, says he is the fighter better aligned with Trump’s Make America Great Again base.

The winner will go on to face Democratic nominee James Talarico, an Austin state representative and fundraising powerhouse.

Texas’ next top lawyer

The race to replace Ken Paxton as attorney general has been expensive and contentious, especially on the GOP side.

Galveston state Sen. Mayes Middleton finished first in the March 3 primary but did not clear 50%, so he is facing U.S. Rep. Chip Roy in the runoff. Middleton has put almost $17 million of his own money into pushing his “MAGA Mayes” message, touting his allegiance to President Donald Trump and conservative causes. Middleton and his slate of powerful endorsers, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, have criticized Roy for his tempestuous relationship with Trump and Paxton.

Roy has hit Middleton for his thin legal resume — Middleton is a lawyer, but has worked exclusively for his family oil and gas company, while Roy was a federal prosecutor and first assistant at the attorney general’s office. He’s gotten a surge in funding to get that message out in the homestretch, including $2.75 million from Amarillo billionaire Alex Fairly.

The Texas attorney general’s office has become the engine room for the national effort to push conservative causes through the courts, and the GOP is expected to fiercely protect this seat against any incursions from the Democrats.

Democratic state Sen. Nathan Johnson of Dallas nearly won his party’s nomination outright, but fell just short of the 50% threshold. He is facing former Galveston Mayor Joe Jaworski to determine who will vie for the chance to reclaim the office for the blue team. Each promises to restore the strength of the office’s apolitical functions and use the agency to support Democrats’ litigation aimed at reining in Trump.

A big test for Texas’ hard right

Primaries for a seat on the state’s Railroad Commission, the regulatory state agency that oversees Texas’ oil and gas industry, are typically sleepy affairs.

But this year, the GOP primary has exploded into a million-dollar contest that is testing the limits of the majority party’s far right flank and caused apprehension among some that a victory for the far-right candidate could create an opening for a Democrat to win statewide office.

Former Tarrant County GOP Chair Bo French, who has long made controversial, racist and antisemitic statements, is challenging Commissioner Jim Wright, who is entering election day with endorsements from top GOP officials including Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

French’s campaign has been bankrolled by some of the biggest hardline conservative donors in the state: oil billionaire Tim Dunn, his son Luke Dunn, and Farris Wilk, according to campaign finance reports filed with the state.

Wright, meanwhile, received a massive $500,000 donation from casino magnate Miriam Adelson. Dallas real estate giant Harlan Crow also gave the incumbent $10,000.

French has often come under scrutiny, including from his GOP peers, for his remarks like asking on social media last summer whether Jews or Muslims posed a greater risk to the nation. At a conservative conference this spring, he called for the deportations of 100 million people.

Wright knocked French for campaigning on social issues — like the “Islamification” of Texas — that the commission has no authority over.

Whoever wins will face Democratic state Rep. Jon Rosenthal of Cypress.

The team will still play its group stage matches in the U.S. but its base has been moved to Tijuana, Mexico, just south of San Diego, California, a move that Iran's soccer federation announced recently and that was formally confirmed by FIFA, the sport's governing body, on Monday.

Moving the training base comes against the backdrop of the war in Iran, which the U.S. and Israel launched on Feb. 28.

Sheinbaum said at a news conference Monday that she was told by a FIFA representative the U.S. was reluctant to have the Iranian soccer team spend time outside the games on U.S. territory.

“The United States doesn’t want the Iranian national team to stay overnight in the United States,” Sheinbaum told reporters. She said a FIFA representative had then asked, “Can they stay overnight in Mexico?”

“And we said, ‘Yes, no problem. We have no issue with that',” she said.

Iran's soccer team is slated to play matches in Inglewood, California, against New Zealand on June 15 and against Belgium six days later, before facing Egypt on June 26 in Seattle.

Before the war broke out, the team was originally planned to set up its base in Tucson, Arizona. But with tensions simmering, Iran's team moved its base to Tijuana in Mexico, Sheinbaum said, confirming an announcement by the Iranian federation over the weekend. The federation said the Iranians had received approval from FIFA, which made the move official on Monday when it released the lists of all 48 base camp sites.

Teams use base camps to train before and after matches. This year’s World Cup runs from June 11 to July 19 and will be co-hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

The possibility of a move had simmered for months in the uncertainty surrounding the war in the Middle East and security concerns. U.S. sanctions on Iran were likely to only make the team’s stay in the U.S. more complex.

The U.S. State Department said in a statement on Monday that President Donald Trump had made it clear the Iranian team was welcome to participate in the tournament.

The department’s statement did not address where the team might stay, or Sheinbaum's comments.

Sheinbaum said that her government was working with FIFA to hash out all the details before the competition.

___

AP Sports Writer Tim Reynolds in Miami contributed to this report.

___

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

Chung, chairman of Shinsegae Group, which owns a 67.5% stake in Starbucks Korea, bowed three times during a televised statement as he pleaded for forgiveness from the families of democracy activists killed by the country's former military dictatorship and from the broader public.

The coffee chain sparked public outrage when it attempted to promote a large size of tumbler it calls a “tank” by declaring May 18 to be “Tank Day.” That's the anniversary of a democratic uprising in the southern city of Gwangju that was brutally suppressed by troops, tanks and helicopters, killing or injuring hundreds.

The campaign compounded outrage by using the slogan “Thwack it on the table!,” which many read as a reference to a notorious 1987 police statement that attempted to cover up the torture death of student activist Park Jong-chol. Police claimed that Park died suddenly after investigators “hit the desk with a thwack.”

The promotion was met with immediate outrage and within hours Shinsegae canceled it and fired the chief executive of Starbucks Korea. Police also opened an investigation based on complaints by families of people killed at Gwangju.

“I take it very seriously the fact that many people felt deep pain and anger because of Starbucks Korea’s inappropriate marketing campaign,” Chung said Tuesday.

He also asked people not to take out their frustration on staff at Starbucks shops, saying the responsibility lies with management. There were no immediate reports of major incidents at stores.

Chung issued his first apology on May 19, saying in a statement that the campaign caused “deep pain to the victims and bereaved families of the May 18 Democratization Movement as well as to the public.”

Jeon Sangjin, a senior Shinsegae Group executive, said the company has yet to find conclusive evidence that Starbucks Korea marketing employees intended to mock the pro-democracy movement, an accusation the employees have denied.

However, he said some employees refused management requests to hand over their smartphones during a weeklong internal review. Jeon said the company would look at results from the police inquiry and any employee found to have intended to ridicule protesters would be fired.

The anger over the campaign has triggered public calls for boycotts, amplified by government officials, including Interior and Safety Minister Yoon Ho-jung, who said Starbucks products will no longer be used at government events and lamented the chain’s “anti-historical behavior.”

President Lee Jae Myung said on X last week that the campaign displayed “inhumane and disgraceful behavior by cheap profiteers who deny the values of the South Korean community, basic human rights and democracy.”

The crackdown in Gwangju came months after General Chun Doo-hwan seized power in a coup in late 1979. Government records show about 200 people died in Gwangju, but activists say the true death toll was much higher. Chun’s government also imprisoned tens of thousands, saying it was rooting out social evils.

Public anger over Chun’s dictatorship led to massive nationwide protests in 1987, forcing him to accept a constitutional revision introducing direct presidential elections, which is widely seen as the start of South Korea’s transition to democracy.

The missile fired from Jongju, a city near the North's west coast, flew about 80 kilometers (50 miles), South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. North Korea launched other kinds of projectiles, it said, but didn't elaborate.

South Korean media, citing the military, reported the other weapons systems mobilized included multiple rocket launch systems. The reports said that the simultaneous launches of different kinds of weapons were likely meant to test an ability to evade South Korean and U.S. defenses.

South Korea's military said that it closely monitors activities in North Korea. It said that South Korea, with a solid alliance with the U.S., maintains a readiness to repel any provocations by North Korea.

It was North Korea's first weapons launch event since April 19, when the country fired multiple short-range missiles in what state-media described as a demonstration of cluster bomb warheads.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has focused on modernizing his nuclear and missile arsenals since his nuclear diplomacy with U.S. President Donald Trump collapsed in 2019. In recent years, Kim has expanded ties with Russia by sending troops and conventional arms to support its war efforts against Ukraine. Kim has also pushed to cement cooperation with China, North Korea's economic pipeline.

In their summit in Beijing last week, Russian President Vladmir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed their opposition to “foreign policy isolation, economic sanctions, military pressure and other methods of creating threats to the security” of North Korea, according to a statement from the the Kremlin.

Russia and China, both veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council, have previously frustrated the U.S. and others' efforts to toughen international sanctions on North Korea, despite its banned weapons tests.

Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to resume talks with Kim, but Pyongyang has responded that Washington must first drop demands for the North’s nuclear disarmament as a precondition for talks.

Kim has taken an increasingly hard-line stance toward South Korea, calling it his country’s most hostile enemy and taking steps to terminate all ties with its neighbor. In a meeting with military commanders last week, Kim discussed efforts to strengthen military units along the border with South Korea in line with a state objective to turn the border line into “an impregnable fortress,” according to state media.

On Tuesday, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung called for stronger efforts to advance the country’s military. In televised remarks during a regular Cabinet meeting, he emphasized artificial intelligence and drone capabilities, and the potential acquisition of a nuclear-powered submarine, an issue that has been part of his diplomacy with Washington.

Lee, a liberal who espouses improved ties with North Korea, didn't specifically comment on the threats posed by the North. But he stressed the importance of South Korea demonstrating the “resolve to take responsibility for and protect our own security ourselves,” saying such a posture would also strengthen the country’s alliance with the United States.

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Elise Morton contributed to this report from London.

The announcements by the group of nations known as the Quad came after talks in New Delhi between India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong.

Speaking after the meeting, Rubio announced a new Indo-Pacific maritime surveillance initiative to integrate the four countries’ surveillance capabilities and strengthen real-time information sharing across the region. He said the Quad would work with Fiji to upgrade port infrastructure in the Pacific islands, marking its first joint regional infrastructure project.

The ministers also launched an Indo-Pacific energy security initiative aimed at strengthening regional fuel and energy supply chains, with the U.S. set to host a Quad fuel security forum later this year, Rubio said.

“We are deeply committed to this partnership. It is a linchpin in a cornerstone of our global strategy as a nation,” he said.

Separately, India and the U.S. signed a deal to strengthen cooperation on critical minerals as global concerns grow over reliance on China-dominated supplies.

Asked about the Quad agreements, China said that cooperation among countries should promote regional peace and stability and not target third parties.

“We do not support forming exclusive small groupings or bloc confrontation. Any cooperation should not undermine mutual trust and cooperation among regional countries," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said in Beijing.

The Quad group is a key strategic partnership for cooperation on maritime security, supply chains and regional strategy as China expands its military and economic influence in the Indo-Pacific.

Its members have repeatedly accused China of flexing its military muscles in the South China Sea and aggressively pushing its maritime territorial claims. Beijing maintains that its military is purely defensive to protect what it says are China’s sovereign rights and calls the Quad an attempt to contain its economic growth and influence.

The Quad meeting comes days after U.S. President Donald Trump visited China, a trip closely watched in New Delhi for signs of any shift in Washington’s approach toward Beijing.

Ahead of Tuesday's talks, Rubio said that Washington wants the Quad to move beyond being a dialogue platform and take more concrete action on issues including maritime security and critical minerals. He also said officials were working toward a summit of the four leaders later this year, although no date has been announced.

The four countries had hoped to hold a leaders’ summit in India last year, but the plan was delayed because of strains in U.S.-India relations, including disagreements over tariffs.

Jaishankar described the talks as “an exercise of considerable value,” saying the ministers also discussed maritime trade, energy and fertilizer supplies, as well as critical minerals. He added that as economic activity, energy, trade and maritime commerce in the region grow, “the responsibilities of the Quad will grow commensurately, and we must prepare for that.”

The leaders also discussed the Iran war and halted energy shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.

Australia's Wong said the Indo-Pacific was facing “acute economic stress” and warned that any closure of the strait would have serious consequences for regional energy security.

“We recognize the importance of maintaining the principle of freedom of navigation and our opposition to any tolling proposition,” Wong said, referring to Iran’s plan to charge vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

She said the Quad reflects a shared commitment among four sovereign nations to a free and open Indo-Pacific.

“There is great alignment between our interests. We all share a vision for the Indo-Pacific, a region that is free and open,” she said.

——

Associated Press journalist Eduardo Castillo in Beijing, China contributed to this report.

One is the rare Bundibugyo type of Ebola, with no vaccine or treatment. The other is the anger and suspicion of residents who have pelted her with stones and verbal abuse in Bunia, a city at the heart of the outbreak.

“We continue to tell them that the disease is out there. Some accept, and others don’t,” Birungi told The Associated Press on Monday as she and colleagues spoke with groups of people in a working-class neighborhood under the scorching sun.

Aid workers are especially at risk in this volatile region where residents, like Birungi, have long been under threat of armed groups that have killed thousands of people and displaced many more in recent years.

Trust is hard to find among the traumatized population that is wary of outsiders, even those trying desperately to contain the rapidly spreading outbreak that experts say was discovered weeks late. Surveillance for such diseases has been weakened by U.S. and other aid cuts.

The World Health Organization says that a family of fruit bats is believed to be the natural hosts of the viruses that cause Ebola. But some people don’t believe the virus exists, or are skeptical about its origins.

“These people should stop bothering us. They just want to get rich. Let’s not forget that Ebola is a white man’s invention,” declared Pierre Basola, a 56-year-old resident of Bunia, who added: “Stop talking to me anyway.”

Cases are nearing 1,000 but health centers are burned

Three times in the past week, healthcare facilities have been attacked. On Sunday, angry young men stormed a hospital treating Ebola patients, forcing medical staff to evacuate them as gunfire rang out.

On Saturday, a group of residents set fire to a tent for suspected and confirmed Ebola cases run by Doctors Without Borders in Mongbwalu, and more than a dozen people suspected to have the virus fled. On Thursday, a center in Rwampara was burned after relatives were barred from retrieving the body of a man suspected to have Ebola.

Anger is amplified as virus prevention practices keep loved ones from handling bodies in final rites following an illness some have described as sudden and dramatic, with vomiting and bleeding.

The Ebola virus is spread through close contact with sick or deceased patients’ bodily fluids, such as sweat, blood, feces or vomit. Experts say healthcare workers and family members caring for patients face the highest risk.

“Trust is almost as important as the health response, because if you get this massive distrust in the communities, they’re not going to go to the health centers,” said Heather Kerr, country director for the International Rescue Committee in Congo.

Armed conflict in the region poses another challenge. To travel from Bunia, the capital of Ituri province, to Mongbwalu, aid groups risk potential attacks in a region more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from Congo’s capital, Kinshasa.

Meanwhile, the outbreak now has more than 900 suspected cases and more than 220 suspected deaths, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday.

“We are now playing catch-up with a very fast-moving epidemic,” he said.

‘We leave everything to God’

Mado Nditamba, a 70-year-old Bunia resident, said that she has seen students running away from aid workers.

“The last time Ebola came, it was not on the scale that we see today,” Nditamba said. “But this epidemic today is worse. We go to the doctors in the hospitals, but they also die. That’s what worries us. We don’t know what to do and we leave everything to God.”

Congo has had 17 Ebola outbreaks, and WHO says the country is equipped to respond. But early tests in this outbreak were conducted for a more common type of Ebola, losing valuable time. Experts are still trying to determine when this outbreak began.

There are few places to test for this Bundibugyo type in a region where clinics can run on generators, and a major airport serving as a humanitarian hub has been in the hands of rebels for more than a year.

Health workers on the ground have told the AP that they are underprepared and underprotected. An unknown number of responders have been infected, and some have died.

A Congolese doctor was reported dead on Sunday in Rwampara, Rubens Dhedgia, coordinator of the Ebola response in the region, told the AP. In neighboring Uganda, where a far smaller number of cases has begun to spread after Congolese traveled there, at least three health workers have been infected.

And perhaps most worryingly, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies says three volunteers died in Mongbwalu, after it believes they handled bodies on March 27 during work unrelated to Ebola.

If confirmed, that would significantly push back the timeline of the outbreak from the first confirmed death in late April in Bunia.

Some residents still believe Ebola is a myth

Even as at least one funeral home manager dusted off coffins for sale alongside a road in Bunia, experts reported a lack of trust among some residents of the region who don't believe the virus exists.

Action Aid, another of the international humanitarian groups responding, said that a high level of skepticism and lack of understanding remains, citing residents it questioned in mid-May in Ituri province just after the outbreak was announced.

"The only way to go, as far as this particular virus is concerned, is community engagement,” said Yakubu Mohammed Saani, country director for Action Aid in Congo.

How that will be improved, and quickly, is still not clear. Meanwhile, both WHO and Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believe the outbreak is larger than the cases reported so far.

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Ope Adetayo reported from Abuja, Nigeria. Jean-Yves Kamale contributed to this report from Kinshasa.

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For more on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse

___ The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Japanese right-hander Tatsuya Imai threw six spotless innings after walking three of the first four batters he faced Monday night. Steven Okert then got three outs before Alimber Santa made his major league debut and fired two perfect innings to complete the Astros' 17th regular-season no-hitter — four of them combined efforts — in a 9-0 win over the Texas Rangers.

“The first inning, you never thought that this was going to be the outcome of the game,” manager Joe Espada said. “Imai, he continued to compete. ... He continued to pound the zone, he fought through it. Six strong innings, and then the rest is history."

It was the first no-hitter in the major leagues since Shota Imanaga and two Chicago Cubs relievers combined for a 12-0 win over Pittsburgh on Sept. 4, 2024. No pitcher has tossed a complete-game no-hitter since Blake Snell for the San Francisco Giants against Cincinnati on Aug. 2, 2024.

The 23-year-old Santa became the first pitcher since 1900 to participate in a no-hitter during his big league debut, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

“Yeah, there was some adrenaline,” Santa said through a translator. “I was aware of the no-hitter, but I was just trying to calm myself down from the bullpen.”

Ronel Blanco tossed the previous no-hitter for the Astros in a 10-0 victory over Toronto on April 1, 2024, which also marked Espada’s first win as manager. In fact, Houston has authored three of the past seven and five of the last 11 major league no-hitters — including one in the 2022 World Series when four pitchers combined against Philadelphia.

Okert worked the seventh after Imai got 16 outs over the last 16 batters he faced. He benefited from a double play in the first, then settled into a groove after issuing his third walk.

“During pregame, our focus was attacking the zone,” Imai said through a translator. “But in the first inning, I felt unbalanced, the timing was off. But after that inning, I was able to adjust the timing, all the rhythm and stuff.”

Santa entered in the eighth and retired all six batters he faced. His 24th pitch was a called third strike against Brandon Nimmo, ending the game with his first career strikeout. That was confirmed after an ABS challenge by Nimmo of the final pitch.

“I wasn't sure,” Santa said, but catcher Christian Vázquez was already on the mound telling him, “`Hey stud, that's a strike.'”

Texas was held without a hit for the sixth time, and third at home since moving into Globe Life Field in 2020. The previous one was Corey Kluber's no-hitter for the New York Yankees on May 19, 2021, about six weeks after San Diego right-hander Joe Musgrove threw one in Texas for his hometown team on April 9.

These Rangers, hitting .232 with 201 runs through 53 games, have two of their best players on the injured list in two-time World Series MVP shortstop Corey Seager (lower back inflammation) and outfielder Wyatt Langford (right forearm strain). Plus, third baseman Josh Jung (.302 batting average) missed his second game in a row because of left shoulder soreness.

“When you get no-hit, it’s a team thing,” first-year Texas manager Skip Schumaker said. “It’s not just the players who feel it, all of us feel it. ... I have to find different ways to message on the offensive side to get this team going, to get this offense going."

The Rangers struck out only four times, a night after whiffing 16 times in a 2-1 loss to the Angels.

Imai’s fourth walk was to Nimmo leading off the fourth inning, but Ezequiel Duran then grounded into a double play.

Imai (2-2) threw 57 of his 97 pitches for strikes. He struck out two.

The 28-year-old Imai, who said his only previous no-hitter came in middle school, is in his first big league season after coming over from Japan. He was 1-2 with an 8.31 ERA in his first five starts for Houston.

Imai agreed in January to a $54 million, three-year contract. He was a three-time All-Star during eight seasons in Japan, and went 10-5 with a 1.92 ERA last season for the Pacific League’s Seibu Lions.

Joc Pederson was retired on a nifty play in the third when Astros shortstop Jeremy Peña made a backhanded stop on a hard one-hopper and a twisting throw to first. Justin Foscue and Danny Jansen had deep flyouts into the left-center gap in the Texas fifth.

Okert walked Nimmo leading off the seventh before retiring the next three batters.

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

They weren't ready for the Knicks or the big stage.

The lights were too bright again.

Cleveland's season ended with a resounding, demoralizing and embarrassing 130-93 loss on Monday night in Game 4 to the New York Knicks, who swept the series and advanced to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999.

Playing on tired and wobbly legs after failing to put Toronto and Detroit away before seven games in the earlier rounds, the Cavs, whose fate was sealed when they blew a 22-point lead in the fourth quarter and lost Game 1 at Madison Square Garden, had no answer for anything the Knicks threw at them.

They got out-played, out-shot, out-rebounded and out-coached.

“We did this to ourselves,” said Mitchell, who scored 31 in the close-out loss. "We didn't give our team a chance because we didn't take care of business. You can't play with your food. We had an opportunity in Game 1 and we blew that.

“We had an opportunity, but give credit where credit is due.”

And now that they've fallen short, the Cavs head into what will likely be a tumultuous summer that will trigger a major roster overhaul and perhaps other moves.

This wasn't the plan. Cleveland made a blockbuster trade at the deadline in February, sending guard Darius Garland, part of its “Core Four” to the Los Angeles Clippers for James Harden, who was supposed to take pressure off Mitchell.

It never happened.

Cleveland's top player approved the Garland swap, but other than a few games here and there, he and Harden never truly meshed as intended. The Cavs, who shot just 28.9% (48 of 166) on 3-pointers in the series, never outgrew their growing pains.

“This was the first time going through what we were going to go through,” said Harden. “Now we have to take another two steps and get even better. ... I feel like we didn't have a fair chance. We did play one quarter of Cavs basketball offensively. If you're not making shots, you're not going to beat anybody."

Harden has a $42.3 million player option for next season that he's expected to decline to re-sign with the Cavs as a free agent. But the 36-year-old didn't perform up to offensive expectations and was a virtual turnstile on defense.

Mitchell's future is more complicated. He can be offered a five-year, $350 million super-max extension by the Cavs as early as this offseason, but the team will likely wait due to several financial factors, and still must decide if the seven-time All-Star is worth the investment.

With the Knicks up by 33 in the fourth, Mitchell and Cleveland's other starters were mercifully replaced. The 29-year-old went to the bench and watched a team he once cheered for as a kid win its 11th straight playoff game.

Mitchell feels the Cavs took a significant step this season, and he's determined to get Cleveland a title.

“I love it here,” he said when asked about the extension. “I don't know how else to say it. I have no doubt these guys can get there. We have unfinished business.”

Cleveland's stunning flame-out in the conference finals is only going to fuel more speculation about coach Kenny Atkinson's future. He guided the team to a No. 1 seed in his first season a year ago before a disappointing, second-round exit against Indiana.

Atkinson helped the Cavs take a step deeper into the postseason, but it's not certain that will be enough to satisfy demanding owner Dan Gilbert, who has dropped more than $400 million on a team that hasn't delivered him a second title.

Not long after the game, Gilbert went on social media to give a brief assessment of the season.

“We took a step ahead this spring, but we are nowhere near where we need to be,” he posted. “I can’t thank the fans enough for the support this year. We will dig in all summer and do everything we possibly can to take the next step. We will grind until we get there.”

Harden and Mitchell staunchly defended Atkinson.

“We did something we haven't done since 2018,” Mitchell said. “I love Kenny. We love Kenny. We ride with Kenny. That's all that matters. We're in this together.”

New York exposed all of Cleveland's on-court flaws and may have set the stage for Gilbert to make even bolder moves. There's little doubt that seeing his team get completely overwhelmed in Game 4 — with thousands of New York fans chanting “Knicks in 4!” — stung badly.

The Cavs will closely monitor superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo's unsettled situation in Milwaukee. The Bucks have reportedly had past interest in 24-year-old Cleveland forward Evan Mobley.

And then there's LeBron James and the possibility the NBA's all-time scoring leader could bring his storied career full circle by coming back home a second time. He's a free agent, currently at odds with the Los Angeles Lakers and surveying the landscape.

At the moment, Cleveland appears to need him again.

When asked, Mitchell wouldn't even entertain the possibility of joining forces with James. His primary concern was what went wrong against the Knicks.

“We got swept,” he said. “We've got to own it.”

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

This weekend the University Interscholastic League will host the best softball programs in all of Texas as state champions are set to be crowned.

The Houston area will be well represented and many are favored to win the state titles in their respective classifications.

Here is a look at the matchups this week!

6A Division 1: Pearland (37-6) vs Waco Midway ( 35-5-1) / Saturday 1pm

6A Division 2: Katy ( 38-5) vs Forney ( 37-3) / Saturday 4pm

5A Division 1: Barbers Hill ( 39-5) vs. Aledo (30-10) / Friday 4pm

5A Division 2: Lake Creek ( 39-1) vs. Brewer (27-9) / Friday 7pm

4A Division 2: Liberty ( 38-6) vs. Brock (32-10) / Friday 1pm

Utilityman Kiké Hernández made his season debut in a 5-3 win against the Colorado Rockies on Monday night. He went 2 for 2 with an RBI double down the third base line while batting ninth and starting at third base in place of injured Max Muncy in the series opener. He was lifted for a pinch hitter in the seventh, when the Dodgers rallied with four runs to pull out their 18th comeback win.

“It was good to have him back,” manager Dave Roberts said. “There’s a lot of emotion and adrenaline and anticipation. That’s probably the thing you got to guard against, but he did a good job managing those emotions.”

Hernández, 34, missed the first 53 games of the season recovering from offseason elbow surgery.

“It’s fixed and I’m feeling pretty good right now,” he said in the dugout before the game.

Hernández will see playing time at second and third base and possibly relieve an outfielder at times. He'll also be available off the bench to pinch hit. Muncy is sidelined with a right wrist injury, but could return Wednesday.

Hernández had surgery to repair a torn muscle and torn extensor tendon in his left elbow during the offseason. The operation was done to fix an injury he originally suffered during the season and subsequently worsened.

“He’s a tough competitor, tough player,” Roberts said. “I don’t think anyone appreciated how severe the injury was.”

Despite the tear, Hernández gritted through the pain and helped the Dodgers win their second consecutive World Series. He appeared in all 17 playoff games, batting .250 with nine runs, one homer and seven RBIs. However, the extended play caused the tendon to detach from the bone, forcing him to undergo corrective surgery.

“It was a rough year,” he said. “The best description that I can put on it is every time I would get in my batting stance I would feel like I had a blowtorch on.”

After the World Series, an MRI revealed a lot of swelling and Hernández was left with the option of either rehab or having surgery. Not knowing what choice to make, he left the final decision to his family and his agent.

They reminded him that he'd try to play through a core injury for three years and ended up blowing out the other side of his body, leading to multiple surgeries. They urged him to make another trip to the operating room with Dr. Neal ElAttrache.

“I woke up with ElAttrache telling me, ‘This is the worst injury I’ve ever seen of this kind and I don’t know how you played,’” he said. “I told him, ‘Thank you, I take it as a compliment.’”

In a post-surgery narcotic haze, Hernández FaceTimed with Andrew Friedman and urged ElAttrache to repeat to the president of baseball operations what he had just told his patient.

Before his phone was taken away, Hernández told Friedman: "I did this for you so you better bring me back.”

Hernández signed a $4.5 million, one-year contract in February to return for his 10th season with the Dodgers.

Because of the surgery and his recovery timeline, Hernández missed the World Baseball Classic for his native Puerto Rico.

“That hurt my soul a little more than I was in pain physically last year just because I’ve been dreaming about playing in the WBC in Puerto Rico since I was 13 years old and it kind of felt like it got taken away from me," he said. ”You got to find a way to look at positives in life. I was like, it would have sucked a lot more if we’d lost the World Series and I still didn’t get to play in the WBC. It was a fair trade."

Last October, Hernández became the franchise leader in postseason appearances with his 87th game. He ranks eighth all-time in major league history with 103 postseason games.

He's the fourth player of Puerto Rican descent with 100-plus career postseason appearances, joining Jorge Posada (125), Bernie Williams (121) and Yadier Molina (104).

“Doing that as a Latino is very important, especially in the city where there’s such a big Latino community and we’re living in some rough times,” he said. “Especially in this city, the last two years there’s been a lot of weird things going on, so I take the responsibility to not only represent this organization but the Latino community, the Puerto Rican community. It’s something that’s very touching to my heart.”

Starting the season on the IL was a blessing in disguise. Hernández was able to spend time with his son born in February and his daughter.

When he wasn't waking up in pain anymore, he realized he could be back at the end of his IL stint.

“It didn’t feel like I had to rush, it didn’t feel like I was going to lose my spot,” he said. “That was very key.”

He played in 12 rehab games with Triple-A Oklahoma City, batting .214 with two doubles and three RBIs.

“I had lot of fun with those guys,” he said. “Now I'm back with my guys here and I'm ready to go.”

As the Dodgers chase a third consecutive World Series championship, Hernández will have his eye on his younger teammates when he's not cracking everyone up.

“I’m in charge of checking guys,” he said. “I think guys know if I’m on them, and I’m tough on them, it means I care a lot about them.”

To clear a spot for Hernández, utilityman Santiago Espinal was designated for assignment.

The 31-year-old former All-Star hit .220 with three doubles, one home run and four RBIs in 26 games for the Dodgers.

“I'll lob a call to him in the next couple days to thank him for everything he did for us,” Roberts said. “He was fantastic. Obviously, we had a tough decision to make. We were very forthright up front about the expectations. I think he respected that.”

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

“'What about the stock trading in Congress? What about people getting rich in Congress?’” Allred said they ask him regularly. “And I have to say to them, you’re absolutely right about that, too. We need to be better.”

He's challenging Rep. Julie Johnson in the Democratic runoff for a Dallas-area House seat on Tuesday, and he's one of several candidates trying to harness populist anger over congressional stock trading. Allred has denounced Johnson for trades involving companies like Palantir, a data analytics firm with ties to President Donald Trump's administration.

Johnson said her trades were handled by a financial manager, and she accused Allred of being “only out for himself.” She pointed to financial disclosures that showed Allred's wealth nearly doubling during his own time in Congress, although Allred said his assets were in a blind trust and the money came from his wife's income as a partner at a law firm.

“To be clear, the sum total I made on that trade was only $90,” Johnson said of her Palantir stock. “My opponent is trying to make it seem like it was hundreds or thousands.”

The bitter campaign is emblematic of broader debates within the Democratic Party over the role of money in politics. Long a refrain of strident progressives and good-government reformers, accusations that political rivals are self-dealing or bought by special interests have become a mainstay of Democratic primaries. The heightened criticism of lawmakers’ personal wealth comes as the party looks to sharpen its anti-corruption message against Trump and to develop a platform for overhauling Washington if Democrats take power in the midterms.

Some are tracking congressional stock trading

Trump campaigned on a promise to “drain the swamp,” capitalizing on Americans' disdain for the Washington establishment. Now that his family is profiting while he's back in the White House, Democrats are eager to regain the upper hand on an issue that could prove potent with voters.

“The difficulty is that right now, no party has the mantle on anti-corruption,” said Daniel Lobo-Lewis, a political consultant in Washington. “Many voters outside of the beltway see both parties as corrupt, because they see all politicians as bought by the donors or by their own self-interest.”

Lobo-Lewis and Nico Agosta founded the Political Integrity Project last year to track stock trading and corporate donations involving members of Congress.

The organization asks candidates to sign an “integrity pledge” to refrain from trading stocks or accepting corporate donations while in Congress and vow not to work as a lobbyist after they leave office. So far, about 90 challengers and seven sitting lawmakers have taken the pledge.

“If we want to, in any way, start rebuilding trust in our political institutions, it starts with no-brainer changes like this that have an approval rating above and beyond any other issue you could imagine,” Lobo-Lewis said.

Congress has yet to enact a stock trading ban for its members, though insider trading is already illegal for members just like it is for anyone else. There are multiple proposals on Capitol Hill, but none have gained traction.

A bipartisan bill to ban congressional stock trading stalled this year despite receiving Trump’s blessing during his State of the Union. And Democrats remain divided over the number of alleged loopholes in their competing proposals.

Anti-corruption messages spread in Democratic primaries

A crowded race in a Democratic-leaning Utah congressional seat has featured attacks over candidates’ personal wealth. State Sen. Nate Blouin criticized his main rival, former Rep. Ben McAdams, for having equity in a Utah data center firm, and excoriated others in the race for past investments and jobs.

McAdams said the equity of several thousand dollars was payment for a past contract completed by his government consulting firm while he was a private citizen. His campaign defended the data center project by saying it would use no water and run on clean energy.

A spokesperson for McAdams also claimed Blouin “is currently hiding his corporate donations” by removing them from campaign disclosure reports, which McAdams' campaign claims “is not only deceitful, it breaks campaign finance law.”

In an interview, Blouin rejected the claim that he broke the law, and said that he removed the donations because he returned the money to each donor.

“It was actually quite uncomfortable to return some of those,” said Blouin, because some of the firms included local firms and clean energy companies. “But there is a perception that campaign contributions from lobbyists and companies influence votes, and I think there is some truth to that.”

In a New York City congressional district that includes both Wall Street and the Democratic Socialists of America’s headquarters, the city’s former comptroller, Brad Lander, has accused Rep. Dan Goldman of trying to buy another term by using his own wealth to match campaign contributions. Goldman, an heir to the Levi Strauss family fortune, says he entered all of his assets into a blind trust after taking office in 2023.

A spokesperson for Goldman said Lander is “running a deceitful campaign based on absurd lies that Dan is beholden to special interests” and that Goldman has raised more campaign funds than Lander “without taking a dime of corporate PAC money.” Goldman has spent his own money on the race, the spokesperson said: “To ensure that the NY-10 voters can be sure that he is beholden only to them and his principles.”

Lander said Goldman's spending is “not illegal, but it is certainly anti-democratic when a quarter-billionaire like Dan Goldman not only dumps millions of his own inherited wealth into his elections but also solicits money from the same forces who are rigging the economy and worsening the affordability crisis.”

More candidates are fighting over stocks in California

Even representatives who support a ban on congressional stock trading are feeling the heat.

Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman of California is facing multiple primary challengers who have criticized the congressman for holding stocks while serving in Congress. Sherman does not trade individual stocks and supports a ban on stock trading.

“I only own three individual stocks, which I inherited from my mother when she passed away, which were originally acquired by my grandmother,” Sherman said. “I have never sold them because I made a promise to my constituents that I would not buy and sell individual stocks.”

One of Sherman's primary challengers is Jake Levine, a former climate adviser to President Joe Biden, who signed the pledge from the Political Integrity Project. But Sherman said Levine “refuses to disclose key elements of his $18 million stock portfolio, and actively bought and sold stocks while serving on the National Security Council.”

Levine said in a statement shortly after midnight on Tuesday that Sherman “knows he’s losing because voters are sick of politics as usual and ready for a new generation of leadership.”

He added: “He’s chosen to close his campaign with desperate, unfounded attacks against me rather than make a real argument of why he deserves to be reelected. We look forward to the results next week.”

In the race to succeed former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California State Sen. Scott Wiener has critiqued his progressive opponent, Saikat Chakrabarti, over his personal wealth. Chakrabarti is a former software engineer who earned millions as an early employee at the tech firm Stripe. He later served as the first chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.

Wiener said that Chakrabarti “has enormous investments” and “is trying to buy this seat” while “spreading bogus conspiracy theories” with his own wealth. He criticized Chakrabarti for not disclosing the last decade of his stock trades.

“If you’re making a ban on stock trades a central part of your campaign — as Saikat is doing, running around saying that everyone under the sun is corrupt — how about you tell the voters about your own stock trading history,” Wiener said.

Chakrabarti retorted that his wealth as a private citizen is not relevant to his future time in office and that he would place all of his assets into a blind trust should he be elected. He critiqued Wiener for being supported by super PACs funded by the AI firm Anthropic and other major corporations.

“This is all part of a larger problem, which is just the whole idea of corruption in our politics,” Chakrabarti said. “If you’re in Congress, you sit on committees that oversee a lot of these industries, and it’s unethical to be using that insider information, that knowledge to make stock trades. But that doesn’t apply to a private citizen.”

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This article has been updated to correct the last name of the co-founder of the Political Integrity Project. It is Agosta, not Agosto. The article was also updated to correct that Jake Levine did not say that his family manages his financial assets.

Landry Shamet scored 16 off the bench while Mikal Bridges and Jalen Brunson had 15 apiece for the Knicks, who became the fourth team to have an 11-game winning streak during their postseason run. The last to do it was Golden State, which had a 15-game run en route to its second title in three seasons in 2017.

All but one of the Knicks’ wins have been by double digits, with an average margin of victory of 23.7 points.

“I feel like the word ‘hope’ has been gone from the New York Knicks name for a long time and for me to be part of this team that revives hope is something special,” Towns said.

The Knicks pulled their starters with 7:47 remaining and a 35-point lead as their large contingent of fans loudly chanted “Knicks in four!” New York fans easily outnumbered Cleveland fans as die-hard celebrity fans director Spike Lee, comedian Tracy Morgan and actor Timothée Chalamet and his girlfriend, Kylie Jenner, made the trip.

“Our guys played great. You’re in the conference finals and score 65 points off of offensive rebounds and fast break points. I don’t know if I’ve seen that at this point of the year. We wanted to push the pace," coach Mike Brown said.

The Knicks dominated in second-chance points, outscoring the Cavaliers 32-5. They also had a 33-9 advantage in fast break points.

New York will play the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder or San Antonio Spurs in the finals. The Western Conference finals is tied at two games apiece with Game 5 to be played in Oklahoma City on Tuesday. The Thunder or Spurs will have homecourt advantage when the finals start on June 3 because of a better regular-season record.

This will be the Knicks third appearance in the finals since winning their last title in 1973. They lost in seven games to Houston in 1994 and in five to San Antonio in 1999.

Knicks legends Walt “Clyde” Frazier and Patrick Ewing presented the Bob Cousy Trophy to the Knicks on the court.

It is the 15th time since the NBA-ABA merger in 1976 that a coach has reached the finals in his first year with a team. The Knicks hired Brown after parting ways with Tom Thibodeau after they reached the Eastern Conference finals last year, but lost in six games to Indiana.

It will be Brown's second trip to the finals as a coach. His last trip was with Cleveland in 2007.

The Knicks have won all three of their clinching games during the playoffs by at least 30 points. They routed the Atlanta Hawks by 51 in Game 6 of the first round (140-89) and then defeated the Philadelphia 76ers by 30 (144-114) in Game 4 of the second round to complete a sweep.

Brunson was named the MVP of the series after averaging 25.5 points and 7.8 assists.

Donovan Mitchell had 31 points for Cleveland, which was swept in a postseason series for the first time since the 2018 NBA Finals against Golden State.

“They’re playing better basketball. You got to give them credit. They’re on a heater. I don’t want to detract from what we’ve done, but sometimes you’ve got to give the other team credit," Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson said.

Mitchell scored the Cavaliers first eight points as they jumped out to an 8-2 lead. Cleveland led for most of the first six minutes before New York took control.

Evan Mobley's putback dunk gave the Cavaliers a 17-14 advantage before the Knicks scored nine straight points.

A floater by Mitchell got Cleveland within 30-26 with 2:12 remaining in the first quarter when New York went on a 20-0 run over a five-minute span. The Knicks were 8 of 14 from the field, including four 3-pointers. The bench scored 15 points, including a pair of 3-pointers by Shamet. The seventh-year guard was 11 of 12 from beyond the arc during the series.

Cleveland was 0 for 9 from the field during its drought, including missing all three shots from beyond the arc, and committed four turnovers.

The Knicks led by as many as 29 in the first half and were up 68-49 at halftime. It was the fourth time this postseason the Knicks were up by at least 19 after 24 minutes.

Knicks already had four players in double figures in the first half. Towns had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

New York's largest lead was 45 points in the fourth quarter.

James Harden, who finished with 12 points but was 2 of 8 from the field, lamented Cleveland's missed opportunities. Besides not making open shots throughout the series, the Cavaliers blew a 22-point lead in the fourth quarter in Game 1 before losing 115-104 in overtime.

“Yes, it was 4-0, but we didn’t give ourselves a chance. Genuinely, I think we are the better team. but series wise we didn’t show it," he said.

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

The French sports minister, Marina Ferrari, posted condolences to the loved ones of a runner who died Sunday in a Paris race. Le Parisien newspaper reported that the 53-year-old man suffered a heart attack during the run in the capital’s 20th arrondissement, and that firefighters were unable to revive him.

It wasn’t yet known if the cause of the runner's death was heat-related, but Ferrari suggested a possible link. Temperatures in Paris went as high as 32 C ( 90 F) in the afternoon.

“The events that occurred today (Sunday) during running races are a reminder that practicing sports in extreme heat requires absolute vigilance,” Ferrari said in an X post. “My thoughts are with the family and loved ones of the runner who died in Paris, as well as with the people who were treated by emergency services.”

In the southeastern city of Lyon, local media Actu Lyon on Monday reported the death of a woman who suffered heat stroke there during another sports competition, also on Sunday.

The national weather service, Meteo France, said temperatures are breaking records for the month of May, soaring past 30 C (86 F) in many parts of the country and forecast to last into the week.

The United Kingdom broke its record Monday for the hottest temperature recorded in May, after a heat wave was declared in several parts of the country.

Residents and tourists sought relief at beaches, parks and searched for shade on the holiday as the temperature hit 34.8 C (94.6 F) at Kew Gardens in southwest London, breaking the previous record of 32.8 C (91.4 F) set in 1922 and matched again in 1944.

The U.K. Health Security Agency has issued its first amber health alert of the year, warning of a rise in deaths, particularly among the elderly, at the hottest times of the day.

Next-level weather wildness is occurring ever more frequently as Earth’s warming builds. Experts say unprecedented and deadly weather extremes that sometimes strike at abnormal times and in unusual places are putting more people in danger.

Trump's endorsement of state Attorney General Ken Paxton over four-term Sen. John Cornyn gives the challenger a late boost and puts Cornyn at risk of becoming the first Republican senator in Texas history to seek the party's nod and lose.

That's despite Cornyn's campaign and allied groups spending roughly $90 million in advertising since last year, the vast majority of it attacking Paxton.

It's the latest GOP contest where Trump has sought to punish a Republican he sees as insufficiently loyal. This month, he has successfully backed challengers to incumbents in Louisiana, Kentucky and Indiana, a sign of his enduring influence among primary voters.

Paxton's campaign and a pro-Paxton super PAC began airing ads promoting the endorsement within 24 hours of Trump's announcement. Cornyn acknowledged Trump's move would have an impact but said he wasn't giving up.

“I know who gets to choose our senators, and it’s the people of Texas,” he said hours after the endorsement.

The winner will run in November against Democratic state Rep. James Talarico.

Tuesday's runoffs also will decide Democratic U.S. House nominees for districts in Dallas and Houston that overwhelmingly support Democrats, and a San Antonio-area seat the party hopes to flip.

The primary has been long, bitter and costly

Cornyn led Paxton in the March primary but failed to win a majority in the three-way contest that also included U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt, who finished in a distant third.

That was after Cornyn's campaign and allied groups waged a monthslong ad campaign, mostly attacking Paxton for ethical and personal questions. The two-term attorney general was acquitted in a 2023 impeachment trial when allegations of extramarital affairs surfaced. Last year, Paxton’s wife filed for divorce, citing “biblical grounds.”

The alliance of pro-Cornyn groups have continued its attack, outspending Paxton's campaign and two allied super PACs $16.5 million to $5.9 million since March 3, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact.

Trump promised to endorse immediately after the primary, asking the unchosen candidate to withdraw. But he didn't act until after early voting began on May 18.

“Ken Paxton has gone through a lot, in many cases, very unfairly, but he is a Fighter, and knows how to win,” Trump wrote in a social media post endorsing him. “Our Country needs Fighters, and also Loyalty to the Cause of Greatness.”

Pro-Cornyn groups lately have been airing ads criticizing the attorney general office’s handling of a Waco sex abuse case. Pro-Paxton groups had seized on Cornyn’s awkward relationship with Trump.

Trump snubs Cornyn amid retribution campaign

The negative tenor could diminish turnout in an election already complicated by coming a day after Memorial Day, Texas Republican strategist Tyler Norris said. About 2 million of Texas’ 18.7 million voters participated in the GOP primary.

The dynamic could favor Paxton, whose support draws from more of the most loyal Trump base in Texas, said Norris, who isn't affiliated with either campaign.

“The defining battle lines are based around hyper-negative messaging, which dampens turnout to begin with,” he said. “So who is going to show up is the hardest of the hard core.”

Trump in his endorsement also poked at Cornyn, as he has done with other Republicans who are not in lockstep with the president.

He blasted Republican Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy as “a Disloyal Disaster” on May 16, before Cassidy lost a GOP primary for the office he has held since 2015. The two-term senator had voted to convict Trump after his 2021 impeachment trial over the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Trump backed U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, who advanced to a runoff with John Fleming, the state treasurer. Cassidy finished well behind them.

Last week, Trump celebrated as Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, a critic of the Trump administration's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, lost his primary to Ed Gallrein. Trump called Massie "the worst congressman in the history of our country.”

In endorsing Paxton, Trump said Cornyn “was not supportive of me when times were tough" and that “John was very late in backing me."

Cornyn suggested in 2023 that Trump could not win the presidency again in 2024 and that his “time has passed him by.” He also was an early critic of Trump’s plan for a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico — a project he now supports.

Senate GOP leaders backed Cornyn, saying he would be stronger in the general election. Some GOP strategists have argued a Paxton nomination would cost millions of dollars more to promote in the fall, when money could be spent defending Republican seats in more competitive states. Democrats need to gain a net of four seats to take the majority.

Democrats also will choose US House nominees

Newly elected Rep. Christian Menefee and veteran Rep. Al Green are vying for the party nod in Texas' 18th District, which the Republican-led Texas Legislature redrew last year to help the GOP. The new map led to a contest between incumbents and marks the end of a dizzying series of elections in the Houston area. Menefee was elected in a special runoff in January to the seat that had been held by the late Rep. Sylvester Turner, who died in March 2025.

Menefee finished narrowly ahead of Green in the March 3 primary but didn't win a majority to avoid the runoff.

Former Rep. Colin Allred and U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson are competing in the Dallas-area 33rd District. Johnson was elected to the seat in 2024, the year Allred lost his U.S. Senate challenge to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. Allred was running for Senate again this cycle but dropped his bid and instead is looking to return to the House.

Near San Antonio, Democratic leaders are trying to prevent Maureen Galindo, who has expressed antisemitic views, from winning the party's runoff with Johnny Garcia. While Texas lawmakers redrew the 35th District to help Republicans, Democrats view it as within reach and don't want Galindo's past comments to impede them.

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Bedayn reported from Austin, Texas.

For now, she remains the sole Democrat on the Federal Communications Commission, where she's on an increasingly urgent mission to press media companies to more forcefully combat an administration she says is cracking down on free speech.

Her immediate focus is Disney, the parent of ABC. It is the subject of investigations launched by the FCC under Chairman Brendan Carr, a Trump ally.

In an extraordinary four-page letter earlier this month to Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro, Gomez outlined what she described as the FCC's “sustained, coordinated campaign of censorship and control” against the company. She noted probes touching on everything from diversity practices to ABC's moderation of a 2024 presidential debate and the guests booked on “The View” along with the administration's calls for late-night host Jimmy Kimmel to be fired.

She's particularly worried that the FCC's move for early reviews of ABC's broadcast licenses in the markets where it owns local stations is an effort to intimidate the network. She called it “the most egregious assault on the First Amendment this FCC has taken to date.”

Her message was simple: Fight back. She argued that Disney's controversial decision to pay a $15 million defamation settlement shortly before Trump returned to office did the company little good and set a bad precedent for the rest of the industry

“That settlement did not buy you peace,” she wrote in the letter, which she also posted to social media. “It only bought you time.”

D'Amaro hasn't publicly responded to Gomez. But he has signaled a new approach in a filing this month, accusing the FCC of taking actions that could “chill critical protected speech.”

In an interview from her Washington office, Gomez said she was heartened by Disney's response and encouraged other broadcasters to prepare for similar fights. She's an exceedingly rare figure in the nation's capital, one of just a few Democrats who have held onto their seats at federal agencies after Trump fired most of them in a bid to bend the bureaucracy to his will.

The Supreme Court is considering the constitutionality of Trump's moves and could issue a decision in the coming weeks.

While that plays out, Gomez's term is slated to end June 30. But unless Trump fires her, she's likely to remain at the agency, where her presence allows for a quorum that gives Carr the opportunity to keep enacting his agenda. Given the Senate's narrow divide and dwindling calendar ahead of the midterms, it would be hard for Trump to muscle through a replacement.

Here are highlights of the interview, edited for length and clarity.

A letter to Disney ... and a warning

AP: What prompted you to write the letter to Disney?

GOMEZ: At the beginning of this administration, I was growing increasingly alarmed by what I saw as this administration’s campaign to control and censor speech. And so I embarked on a tour across the country where I was talking to journalists, local broadcasters, legal scholars, press freedom advocates. And what I came back with was more of a conviction that we really needed to do something.

Then I started watching the capitulation. We saw CBS settle its lawsuit with the president and then agree to terms that basically require an ombudsperson to oversee the content of the network in order to get its transaction approved by the FCC. We saw ABC, of course, settle its lawsuit and I grew more and more and more concerned about the fact that this capitulation breeds capitulation.

And so I wrote the letter and the letter had two goals in mind. One was to basically put on the record and call out everything that this FCC has done to try to bring Disney to heel but also to encourage it and other broadcasters to stiffen their spine. We know, based on the record of this administration, every time it gets taken to court for these violations of the First Amendment and against the freedom of the press, it loses.

AP: Is your ultimate goal to get a court to rule against the FCC?

GOMEZ: In the end, what I want is for companies to push back because if this gets to court, any entity that challenges what this FCC is doing is going to win.

Regulation in a changing media environment

AP: The media landscape has changed so dramatically from when the FCC was founded. What is the government’s role in this space now?

GOMEZ: Traditionally, the FCC has licensed the local broadcast stations, and what we license is actually their spectrum, their airwaves over which they broadcast their television, their radio. And it has done so with three basic principles in mind. Competition, because competition’s always good for consumers and for viewers and for the market. Localism, which really means serving your local market, whether that means actually airing 24 hours a day the content, but truly local content. And finally, viewpoint diversity. We want to encourage more voices, not fewer.

And that is, I think, the right role for the FCC. Being a censor is not the right role for the FCC.

Life as the FCC's sole Democrat

AP: You’ve been in and out of the FCC for decades. You’re a lawyer, some might even say a technocrat. When you look back at your career, did you think you would take such a vocal stand against the actions of the agency and ultimately an administration?

GOMEZ: No, never in my entire career did I think that I would be having to speak up this strongly for the First Amendment in our Constitution and our democracy.

As you said, I’m a bit of a technocrat. I’m used to talking about the airwaves and I’m used to talking about broadband and how important it is for everyone to have access to broadband. I'm used to talking about really boring things like how to attach to light poles. But media wasn’t something that I particularly thought I would have to really delve into. But, like I said, this administration has just been alarming me so much and so I’ve had to pivot.

AP: You and Chairman Carr have a cordial relationship even though you disagree quite intensely. Is there a secret you want to share with the rest of Washington on how to do that?

GOMEZ: You know, we do have a collegial relationship and we do work well together. He has been in my position and he understands my need to speak out and I do so freely, knowing that some day I may face the consequences for it. But we do work at maintaining a cordial relationship.

AP: You're talking about the potential of being fired by the president?

GOMEZ: Yes, especially when I saw last year when the administration was firing all the Democratic members of different independent commissions and bodies. I just checked my email every day. Literally every day I pick up my phone and I say, “Am I going to work today?” And so far, so good.

AP: Your term lasts through June 30 and you're needed for a quorum. Absent an email that you wake up to in the morning, what are your plans?

GOMEZ: I can continue serving for another year and a half-ish after my term expires as long as no one else is nominated and confirmed for my particular slot. So I intend to continue working and to continue speaking out as long as I can.

The denial of bond for many held on immigration charges has unleashed tens of thousands of lawsuits since July, alleging violations of constitutional rights against illegal confinement. The Trump administration suffered a legal setback this month when an appeals court knocked down its policy after two other appeals courts had agreed with it, setting up a likely showdown at the Supreme Court.

The practice had already played out for years in Tacoma, where immigration judges at the Northwest ICE Processing Center started denying bond early this decade. Few people noticed outside the immigration attorneys there. But when the Trump administration adopted the theory last year, it echoed the judges' reasoning.

The Tacoma judges decided Congress never authorized them to grant bond

Neil Floyd, the only one of the four Tacoma judges who agreed to talk to The Associated Press, said clerks researched the issue for about six months before the judges decided Congress never authorized them to grant bond.

“We made the decision that we were going to do it collectively because it was too big a decision for someone to step out that far on their own,” said Floyd, who became the top federal prosecutor in Seattle during President Donald Trump’s second term.

The judges took their cue from a 1996 law that states that “applicants for admission” to the United States must be detained. The law was long interpreted as affecting people recently crossing the border without legal permission. People living here for years were categorized under a different statute that allowed bond hearings.

The Tacoma judges may seem like unlikely figures to spearhead such radical change. While all four — Theresa Scala, the chief Tacoma judge at the time; John Odell; Tammy Fitting; and Floyd — started their careers as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement lawyers, they each granted asylum at rates slightly higher than the national average.

Floyd, who left Tacoma after Trump took office last year to advise the FBI on immigration law before moving to his current position, said the judges' conclusion was a matter of fairness based on the law.

“It is the right interpretation of the law, and it’s the only fair one, because if you enter the United States the right way, by coming and knocking on the door to ask for asylum at a port of entry, the law is 100% clear,” Floyd said. “And it has been from the beginning that you are detained until we decide whether or not we’re going to let you in.”

Immigration lawyers in Tacoma were stunned. They scoured the nation for anything similar and found nothing.

“It was from our perspective, a pretty blatantly prosecutorial push to keep people locked up,” said Matt Adams, an attorney for Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, which sued over the practice. The case has not yet been scheduled for trial.

The lawsuit, filed in March 2025, alleges that the Tacoma judges ignored decades of precedent.

The Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, which operates more than 70 immigration courts nationwide, did not respond to requests for comment.

The Trump administration adopted the judges’ legal theory

In July, ICE announced a major change that mirrors the Tacoma judges' view, stating that immigrants who have been in the U.S. for years are “applicants for admission” if they didn’t enter the U.S. legally and, as a result, were subject to mandatory detention.

It began arguing against all bond hearings. The Justice Department’s Board of Immigration Appeals, which sets policy for courts, agreed with ICE’s arguments in September.

The number of people in ICE custody roughly doubled last year, peaking at about 75,000 in January. ICE plans to spend $38.3 billion to increase detention to 92,300 beds by the end of November, largely by opening warehouses, or “megacenters,” that house up to 10,000 people each. Judges say massive ICE raids have compounded the strain.

Once eligible for bond consideration, some 2 million immigrants now face mandatory detention if arrested. Immigrant detainees have filed more than 40,000 lawsuits since Trump returned to office 16 months ago, according to an AP tally.

Immigrants’ lives are disrupted

Despite the Trump administration's stance, many immigrants have succeeded in the courts. Some federal judges have ordered immediate freedom, while others send cases back to immigration court for bond hearings.

Victor Cruz, a handyman in Portland, Oregon, spent 24 days in the Tacoma detention center after ICE agents arrested him without a warrant. An immigration judge granted him a bond hearing, and he was released in October. He won his immigration case in February.

Cruz, 56, has U.S. citizens in his immediate family and spends weekends playing with his grandchildren. He keeps a folder in his car with all his immigration documents, wary that immigration authorities could detain him again. He said that he met people in detention who had “been there six months, nine months.”

On a recent Friday in Tacoma, Fitting — one of the original four judges — held bond hearings under orders of a federal judge.

She denied bond for an Oregon dishwasher with a 2002 drunken-driving conviction. But she granted $14,000 bond to another immigrant with no criminal record, while saying that his pathway to legal status is tenuous.

___

Attanasio is a former Associated Press reporter.

The strikes were done “to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces,” but the military was “using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire,” Capt. Tim Hawkins, the spokesman for the U.S. military's Central Command, said in a statement.

Further details were not immediately available, including more specifics on the threats from Iran and what this means for negotiations. There was no official response from Iran, which had sent its parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf to Qatar for negotiations over the possible deal with the U.S.

Qatar, which faced intense attacks from Iran during the war, holds billions of dollars in frozen Iranian funds.

In Iran, the news website Tabnak, believed to be close to former Revolutionary Guard chief Mohsen Rezaei, identified four dead Guard troops it said had been killed in American strikes on boats. Iranian state television separately reported blasts around Bandar Abbas, a city on the Strait of Hormuz home to a military port and a dual-use airport.

The strikes were the latest attacks to shake the weekslong ceasefire in the war. The Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of all crude oil and natural gas traded once passed, remains effectively in Iran's chokehold, disrupting global energy markets.

Trump brings up recognition of Israel

Earlier, Trump said any agreement to end the Iran war should include a requirement for several additional countries, including Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, to join the Abraham Accords, the U.S.-brokered agreements from Trump’s first term aimed at normalizing relations with Israel.

The proposal came as the emerging Iran deal faced criticism from fellow Republicans who favor a harder line on Iran, and it could add new diplomatic complications to the negotiations.

Trump pointed to Saudi Arabia and Qatar as countries that should “immediately” sign on. Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates became the first countries to join in 2020, diplomatically recognizing Israel.

He wrote that “after all the work done by the United States to try and pull this very complex puzzle together, it should be mandatory that all of these Countries, at a minimum, simultaneously, sign onto the Abraham Accords.”

Trump has long hoped Saudi Arabia would join. Saudi Arabia in particular has for decades called on Israel to return to its 1967 borders and allow the formation of a Palestinian nation with east Jerusalem as its capital. Israel’s conduct in the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip also has alienated Gulf Arab states and the wider Muslim world as well.

Pakistan remains key mediator

Recognition of a Palestinian state also remains key for Pakistan, which is among the countries that do not have diplomatic relations with Israel.

Islamabad-based analyst Syed Mohammad Ali said Pakistan’s position on Israel remains unchanged despite Trump’s latest proposal.

The president said he brought up the Abraham Accords plan with leaders during negotiations on Saturday. He said he would accept “one or two” countries declining to sign, but said most should be willing. Egypt and Jordan already formally recognize Israel and have long-standing peace treaties. Turkey first recognized Israel in 1949.

Masood Khan, Pakistan’s former ambassador to the United States, said it remains to be seen how workable the proposal might be for the countries on Trump's list.

“The invocation of the Abraham Accords at this stage gives an altogether new dimension to the diplomatic and mediatory processes because this issue was not on the agenda,” he said, pointing to the domestic pressure Trump is facing to strike a favorable deal.

Still, Khan said, “the diplomatic track is still working, and I believe Pakistan is very much at the center of it, supported by regional countries.”

It remains unclear when or how any deal with Iran might be completed. Trump suggested even Iran could eventually sign on to the accords, if an agreement is reached.

The accords are a series of diplomatic, economic and security agreements created with U.S. influence during Trump’s first term, which also saw Sudan, Morocco, and, more recently, Kazakhstan, join.

___

Ahmed reported from Islamabad. Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

Savannah Dansby said she was shopping Sunday night at Pyburns, located at 12675 Fondren Road near Fonmeadow Boulevard, when something felt unusual as she swiped her card.

“When I went to go swipe my food stamp card, something snugged my food stamp card,” Dansby said. “That’s when I found out it was a skimmer.”

Dansby said she pulled on the device and it came off the machine.

“It wasn’t really that hard,” she said. “I kind of pulled down and then it popped off.”

According to Dansby, the store was busy at the time with shoppers preparing for the holiday weekend.

“This is real,” she said. “A lot of people come to this location, and they were especially really busy yesterday, people trying to get their food for the holidays.”

Dansby said she alerted store employees and later posted photos of the device on Nextdoor before contacting Houston police the next day.

During a 911 call, Dansby told dispatchers she believed the device was attached to a payment terminal inside the grocery store and said she had already notified a manager.

Houston police were dispatched to the store Sunday, according to the call log.

Credit card skimmers are devices designed to fit over legitimate payment terminals and capture card information from unsuspecting customers. While skimmers are commonly associated with gas pumps, authorities say they can also be installed on grocery store checkout machines and ATMs.

Last week, the U.S. Secret Service announced investigators found more than a dozen skimmers across the Houston area during a large scale operation targeting card fraud devices.

Experts recommend customers inspect payment terminals before using them by checking for loose parts, unusual attachments or anything that appears tampered with. Customers who suspect a skimmer is attached to a machine are advised not to use the terminal and to contact law enforcement immediately.

Dansby said she checked her account after discovering the device and planned to lock her card.

“I was shocked,” she said. “I’ve never seen anything like this, especially at a grocery store.”

If you think you’ve found a skimmer, call police immediately. You can also file a report with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation on their website.

The Astros threw a combined no-hitter, cruising to a 9-0 victory over the cross-state rival Texas Rangers in the road series opener.

Rookie Japanese phenom Tatsuya Imai (2-2) got the start for Houston. Across 6.0 innings, he threw 97 pitches while recording two strikeouts and four walks.

Steven Okert pitched the seventh inning for Houston, tallying one walk and one strikeout in his lone frame.

To begin the eighth inning, Alimber Santa, a 23-year-old right-hander from the Dominican Republic, made his MLB debut. Santa was selected from Triple-A Sugar Land last Friday and sported a Santa Claus belt during his first major league appearance.

Santa threw 24 pitches across the game’s final 2.0 innings. He recorded one strikeout and did not allow a baserunner, completing the no-hitter in historic fashion in his MLB debut.

Houston got on the board in the opening frame when a sacrifice fly from Yordan Alvarez brought Jeremy Peña home. Alvarez added a solo homer in the fourth inning to extend the lead to 2-0.

The Astros added two more runs in the fifth before Christian Walker blew the game open with a three-run homer to left-center field in the seventh inning.

A single by Nick Allen later in the inning plated the game’s final run, making the score 9-0.

Kumar Rocker (2-5) started for Texas, recording five strikeouts while allowing four hits, four earned runs and two walks across 5.0 innings.

The win lifts Houston to 24-31 on the season, while Texas falls to 24-29.

Game 2 of the series in Arlington is scheduled for Tuesday, with first pitch set for 7:05 p.m.

Its new report is the latest by an international rights group accusing the wealthy Gulf monarchy of financially and militarily aiding the Rapid Support Forces that have been widely accused of committing atrocities amounting to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

The United Arab Emirates denied the latest accusations in response to questions from The Associated Press.

Report adds to a ‘growing body of evidence’

“The recruitment of Colombian private military contractors adds to a growing body of evidence that the UAE provides military support to the Rapid Support Forces, which have repeatedly carried out heinous atrocities in Sudan,” said Mausi Segun, executive director of HRW’s Africa Division.

Sudan’s war broke out on April 15, 2023, when a power struggle between the military and RSF exploded into fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the sprawling northeastern African country.

The RSF was born out of feared Arab Janjaweed militias that were notorious for atrocities in the early 2000s against people identifying as East or Central African in Sudan’s western region of Darfur.

In the new report, Human Rights Watch said hundreds of Colombian mercenaries were trained by Emirati nationals at a military base in Al Dhafra region, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) west of the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi, and at another facility in Abu Dhabi, before being deployed to Sudan to fight alongside the RSF.

The rights group quoted an unnamed Colombian mercenary as saying he trained RSF recruits at camps around Nyala, the provincial capital of South Darfur, in April last year.

Many recruits were “young children,” the mercenary was quoted as saying. The rights group said it interviewed another Colombian mercenary and other sources, including former Colombian military officers.

A United Nations panel of experts in a report to the U.N. Security Council in September said Colombian mercenaries fought in multiple areas across Sudan, including in Khartoum, its sister city of Omdurman and the regions of Darfur and Kordofan, among other areas. The experts said the mercenaries’ combat roles included the operation of RSF drones, artillery and armored vehicles, as well as participation in direct attacks.

RSF commander Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo acknowledged in video comments in February that Colombian mercenaries have aided his group to operate drones.

Report urges countries to press the UAE to end RSF support

The mercenaries were hired by Abu Dhabi-based Global Security Services Group, a private security firm, Human Rights Watch said. According to the U.N. experts, the firm was chaired by Mohammed Hamdan Al-Zaabi, an Emirati national.

Human Rights Watch said Emirati authorities and the firm didn’t respond to its requests for comment. The UAE’s Foreign Ministry, however, denied the allegations in an email to the AP.

“The UAE does not permit its territory to be used for the recruitment, training, financing or transit of foreign fighters to any conflict, including Sudan,” the ministry said.

It said any private individual or entity, Emirati or foreign, that provides support to non-state armed groups “would be doing so without state authorization, in violation of Emirati law, and would be subject to criminal investigation and prosecution.”

Human Rights Watch said it verified videos showing mercenaries, apparently Colombian, fighting alongside the RSF when it captured the Darfur city of el-Fasher in October in an offensive the U.N.-commissioned experts said bore “ the hallmarks of genocide. ” At least 6,000 people were killed in three days, according to the U.N.

The rights group called for the international community, including the European Union, to press the UAE to end its support to the RSF though suspending military cooperation and arms sales.

“Other countries need to stop accepting the UAE’s blanket denials of support to the RSF which fly in the face of the facts, and should put an end to its impunity for war crimes and crimes against humanity,” Segun said.

The U.S. has imposed sanctions on many people and firms based in Colombia’s capital, Bogota, over allegedly recruiting and deploying Colombian mercenaries to fight with the RSF. But it hasn't addressed reports of the UAE’s alleged support to RSF which it accused of repeatedly carrying out “summary executions, ethnically motivated attacks, sexual and gender-based violence, and torture throughout areas under its control” during the war.

At least 59,000 people have been killed over the three years, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, known as ACLED. The U.S.-based tracking group, however, said its toll was almost certainly an underestimate given the difficulty in reporting.

Spokesperson Terri Hinte told The Associated Press that Rollins died at his home in Woodstock, New York. She cited no specific cause of death, but said he had been largely housebound over the past couple of years because of various physical problems.

From his early days as a teen phenom to his more measured solo work and experimentation with free jazz, Rollins was revered for his improvisational skill. He was one of the last living greats of the bebop era and — along with John Coltrane and Charlie Parker — one of the most influential saxophonists of his time.

Rock fans got a dose of his music with the Rolling Stones’ 1981 album “Tattoo You,” which features’ Rollins’ wistful sax solo on the ballad “Waiting on a Friend," devised after watching Mick Jagger dance.

Despite his enduring success, Rollins was never quite satisfied with his art, occasionally taking lengthy hiatuses from playing and consistently adopting eclectic new styles.

He always referred to himself as “a work in progress,” saying he wasn’t one of those artists who settle into one way of playing.

While his early bebop work was the most popular with his fans, Rollins never looked back, saying he found it “excruciating” to even listen to the flaws in his older recordings.

“I don’t consider myself a musician that has learned as much as I want to learn,” he told The Associated Press in 2007.

Enduring achievements

In the 1990s and 2000s, Rollins released a string of critically acclaimed albums. He maintained a rigorous practice regimen, and continued to tour, into his 80s. Pulmonary fibrosis, a thickening and damaging of the lungs, would eventually force him into retirement. He played his last concert in 2012 and stopped playing altogether in 2014.

While he missed the adoration of crowds, he missed the actual playing more.

“I played a couple of concerts early on where I was out in the open in the afternoon,” He told the New York Times in 2020. “I was able to look up in the sky, and I felt a communication; I felt that I was part of something. Not the crowd. Something bigger.”

His 2001 album “This is What I Do,” earned him a Grammy award for best jazz instrumental album. He won again in 2006 for best jazz instrumental solo for “Why Was I Born?”

“Why Was I Born” was from the album “Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert,” a live recording from a performance in Boston just four days after the Sept. 11 attacks. Rollins, who had been evacuated from his apartment a few blocks from ground zero, had gone ahead with the concert at the urging of his wife and manager, Lucille. She died in 2004.

His survivors include a nephew, Clifton Anderson, and nieces Vallyn Anderson and Gabrielle DeGroat.

Meeting the greats

Rollins had gotten his first major break in his late teens when he was invited to join Thelonious Monk’s band. He soon was jamming with Miles Davis and Bud Powell, who introduced him to the recording world even before he finished high school.

But like many jazz musicians in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Rollins’ rising star almost faded when he became hooked on heroin at the age of 19. As his addiction grew steadily worse, Rollins served two stints in jail — 10 months in 1950 and three months in 1953 — and ultimately found himself living on the streets in Chicago. In 1954, Rollins checked himself into a hospital in Lexington, Ky., to undergo drug treatment.

He left underwent a spiritual awakening as he kicked drugs.

“I began to have a deeper philosophy of what life was about,” he told the AP in 2007. “From that point on is when my consciousness awoke.”

After being discharged, he returned to Chicago and signed on as a member of the Max Roach-Clifford Brown quintet. In 1956 he recorded a solo album, “Saxophone Colossus.” Its stripped-down, hard bop sound announced him as one of jazz’s premier sax players and remained one of his most influential works.

In the following two years Rollins hit upon a different approach, switching to a pianoless trio on three more landmark albums: “Way Out West,” “A Night at the Village Vanguard” and “Freedom Suite.”

Then, at the peak of his popularity, Rollins went into seclusion, spending the next two years practicing alone on a solitary niche above the East River on a Williamsburg Bridge walkway.

“The thing that I am most proud of in my career is that fact that I was able to see beyond being popular and all that stuff," he told the AP in 2007, “and do what my inner self told me to do.”

During his absence, jazz moved away from the fast-paced, tightly woven sound of bebop to the more frenetic and chaotic free jazz. When Rollins chose to return to the scene in 1961, he embraced the new sound — a move that divided his fans. In the mid-’60s, Rollins toured heavily in Europe, switching back and forth between more traditional and avant garde approaches. He contributed original music to the soundtrack of “Alfie,” the 1966 British film that made Michael Caine a star.

It was during a trip to Japan when Rollins discovered Zen Buddhism, prompting another lengthy sabbatical that would last into the early 1970s.

A living legend

When he chose to record again in 1972, he was now regarded as a legend and gained mainstream acceptance. He was granted a Guggenheim fellowship that year, and was inducted into the Downbeat Hall of Fame the next. He appeared on the “Tonight Show” and began playing in concert halls instead of nightclubs.

Theodore Walter Rollins was born into a musical household in Harlem on Sept. 7, 1930. His father, a naval petty officer, played the clarinet, his sister played the piano, and his older brother was a violinist.

When he was eight, his parents insisted he study the piano, but, as he recalled, “it didn’t take.” Instead, he said, he’d rather be outdoors playing baseball. But by age 11, Rollins became fascinated with the saxophone, and persuaded his parents to buy him one — an alto.

He had difficulty affording lessons and was largely self-taught, but Rollins quickly became an all-star, switching to tenor sax and playing the clubs at night.

He leaves behind many unreleased recordings, and said he didn't plan to leave behind instructions for what to do with them.

“After I get out of this planet I’m not going to have any say about what’s going on, so I’m not worried about that,” he told the New York Times in 2020. “And, boy, I agonize over my music; I won’t have to agonize about it anymore. Thank God.”

The next big storm chance arrives late Tuesday night into Wednesday, bringing a higher chance for showers and thunderstorms across the region. Some storms could produce locally heavy rainfall, and we’ll continue monitoring the potential for isolated flooding concerns where repeated downpours develop.

Tonight’s Forecast:

Only a few isolated showers or thunderstorms remain possible through the evening, mainly before midnight, but most areas should stay dry.

Skies will become partly cloudy overnight with temperatures falling into the low 70s.

You can check radar here if you’re headed out tonight:

Tuesday’s Forecast:

Tuesday brings another mostly dry day for much of Southeast Texas. We’ll see a mix of sun and clouds with afternoon temperatures climbing into the upper 80s.

A few isolated showers and thunderstorms could develop during the afternoon, but rain coverage should remain limited through most of the day.

Clouds begin increasing Tuesday night as our next weather system approaches from the west. Rain chances will begin increasing late Tuesday night, especially after midnight.

Wednesday’s Wet Forecast:

Wednesday is shaping up to be the most active weather day of the week.

A disturbance moving into Southeast Texas will bring a widespread chance for showers and thunderstorms throughout the day. Deep tropical moisture will also be returning, allowing some storms to produce heavy downpours.

It’s still too early to pin down exact locations or timing, but right now it looks to be in the morning. We’ll be watching for the potential for localized flooding and a few stronger storms as we move closer.

Current forecast rainfall amounts generally range between 1 and 2 inches for many areas, although some isolated spots could pick up locally higher totals where storms repeatedly move over the same location.

10-Day Forecast:

Rain chances should begin decreasing Wednesday night into Thursday, with a less active pattern expected for the second half of the week. It will continue to feel like summertime through the weekend with hot afternoons and pop-up thunderstorm chances.

Have you captured a dramatic rain photo or video? Share your weather moments with the KPRC 2 community through Click2Pins at Click2Houston.com/pins.

Sen. John Cornyn and state Attorney General Ken Paxton had no public campaign events scheduled for the final day of their more-than-yearlong quest for the GOP nomination. Instead, their fight for Tuesday's runoff continued as it has for months — intense and unabated — through advertising that has topped $109 million, heavily from Cornyn's side.

Cornyn hosted an annual, non-campaign event in San Antonio to recognize high school graduates attending the nation's service academies. The senator seeking a fifth term held his last public campaign event in Corpus Christi on Friday, ahead of Tuesday’s voting.

Paxton headlined his last events Thursday in the Austin area and in San Antonio, content to let his campaign and a super PAC carry his primary message: that President Donald Trump endorsed him on May 19.

Trump's announcement and accompanying dismissal of Cornyn, who has had an awkward public relationship with the president, came on the second day of early voting, which ended Friday.

Though the candidates' campaigns were quiet over the weekend, Trump reaffirmed his support for Paxton on Sunday, and disparaged Cornyn as insufficiently loyal to him.

Paxton, Trump posted on social media, “was also very loyal to your favorite President, ME,” while calling Cornyn “VERY disloyal to me.” It was Trump's strongest rebuke of Cornyn, who had dismissed his 2024 comeback chances, and echoed the president's reproach of Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy before he lost in the May 15 GOP Senate primary.

After Trump's jabs, Cornyn still leaned into his support for the president just before Monday's event. The senator said that 99.3% of his votes aligned with Trump, that he “wants him to be successful” and then he referenced Trump’s previous comments “where he called me a good man and a friend.”

As for endorsing his opponent, “obviously the president is entitled to make his pick," he said, but “Texans are a pretty independent breed and people will be making their own choices.”

Following Trump's call for retribution, Republican voters in Indiana and Kentucky have also chosen GOP primary challengers over incumbent GOP officeholders who have crossed the president or opposed his agenda.

For a contest that is expected to draw a fraction of Texas’ 18.7 million voters, the two candidates’ campaigns and supporting groups were continuing to bombard all Texans with advertising, though more by Cornyn's backers than Paxton's.

"It’s just a slug fest, with the campaigns and third-party groups slugging it out,” said Wayne Hamilton, a former executive director of the Texas Republican Party.

The combination of Cornyn's campaign and supporting super PACs has far outspent pro-Paxton groups over the past year, by almost nine-to-one. But the gap has shrunk as the runoff has approached. In the final week of the campaign, the combination of pro-Cornyn ad spending was less than twice that of Paxton's group.

Cornyn's network continued to air spots attacking Paxton over ethical and personal questions that have shadowed him with little effect throughout the campaign. The senator's consequent argument to voters is that Paxton would struggle in the general election and threaten to flip the seat blue.

“Paxton’s flaws and the baggage he brings to the general election is going to be exploited to the fullest by James Talarico,” he told reporters, before heading into Monday's ceremony and giving a speech devoid of campaign politics to the assembled graduates.

Cornyn’s campaign also had reprised an ad noting his tendency to vote in the Senate for Trump’s priorities.

Paxton's campaign and groups supporting him transitioned midweek to all ads noting Trump's endorsement, though Paxton's primary super PAC, Lone Star Liberty Fund, began airing one over the weekend aimed at raising questions about state Rep. James Talarico, the Texas Democratic Senate nominee.

Thousands of flags lined the grounds, each representing a veteran, and the family left behind to carry their memory forward.

SEE ALSO: Local volunteer groups host flag planting at Houston National Cemetery ahead of Memorial Day

For Kristi Capuano, the visit was doubly personal. Her father’s birthday falls on Memorial Day, making the annual trip to the cemetery both a holiday observance and a family celebration.

“We try to come out for his birthday, and for Memorial Day, which happens to be on the same day, so 2 in 1,” Capuano said.

She remembered her father not just for his service, but for the humor he passed down through generations.

“We get the humor from him, try to pass that onto my kids. They think I’m goofy at times,” she said.

Capuano also reflected on the weight that each flag on the grounds carries.

“Every single one of these flags is a story,” she said.

Bruce Wright came to honor both his mother and his father, a Korean War veteran, buried at the cemetery.

“This is my mom and dad buried here. My father was a veteran, he served in the Korean War,” Wright said.

For Wright, the true meaning of Memorial Day is something he worries is slipping away in modern culture.

“In my personal opinion, I think a lot of it’s lost in the celebration. You know? People think of barbecue, or days off from work and everything like that. But, this is it. This is my memorial celebration right here, thinking about my father and all the veterans that I passed,” he said.

Wright didn’t confuse why that matters.

“We have the freedoms we have, because of the people that are here,” he said. “This is important. This can’t be forgotten.”

Officials say the efforts have now shifted towards recovery. Lahai’s shorts have been recovered by search crews early Monday evening.

Police said the child disappeared around 5 p.m. Sunday while in the water near the beach. Lahai was last seen in the water, wearing multi-colored shorts.

Last night, Texas EquuSearch founder Tim Miller confirmed to KPRC 2 that he was heading to Surfside Beach to assist with the search. Monday morning, he said his team is still working.

“We’ve been here all night,” Miller told KPRC 2’s Michael Horton. “Nobody’s gotten any sleep. We’re doing what we’re doing.”

Officials confirmed the child had been visiting Surfside Beach with a little league football team from Richmond, Texas, along with family members and friends.

According to authorities, the boy was with another child approximately 150 yards offshore when a large wave came through.

Police said the 11-year-old went underwater and did not resurface, while the other child was able to make it safely back to shore.

Multiple agencies have joined the search effort. Miller said his Texas Equusearch team consists of roughly 30 people at the scene. They are joined by members of Surfside PD and Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office.

The United States Coast Guard was also called in to assist Sunday night, deploying a fixed-wing aircraft, helicopter and boat crews to aid in the search. Miller confirmed that the helicopter was going back up again in the next few minutes.

Surfside police officers walked the shoreline while using drones to search the water from above.

This is a developing story.

Misiorowski threw 57 pitches at least 100 mph — the most by any individual in a game since pitch tracking began in 2008 — while getting 12 strikeouts to match his career high Monday in a 5-1 win against the St. Louis Cardinals.

“That's what I do,” Misiorowski said. “I throw hard.”

The previous record for 100 mph pitches in a game was 47 by Cincinnati’s Hunter Greene against St. Louis on Sept. 17, 2022.

Misiorowski reached 101 mph on 40 of his 96 pitches. He got to 102 mph on 22 pitches and had nine of at least 103. His top velocity was 103.4 mph, which he reached three times.

Nine of his strikeouts came on pitches that reached 100 mph, tying the record Greene set in that 2022 game against the Cardinals.

Misiorowski (5-2) allowed two hits and one walk in seven innings while improving his ERA to 1.83.

“Magnificent,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “One of the best performances I've seen in a long time.”

Yet it wasn't much different from all of the 24-year-old's other recent efforts.

In five starts this month, Misiorowski has allowed just one run and 11 hits while striking out 49 and walking six over 31 1/3 innings. When the Cardinals scored their lone run in the sixth, it snapped Misiorowski's streak of consecutive scoreless innings at 29 1/3.

That represented the third-longest streak of shutout innings in Brewers history. Teddy Higuera had 32 straight scoreless innings in 1987 and Freddy Peralta had 30 last year.

Misiorowski hasn't allowed an extra-base hit in six straight starts since giving up a double to Miami's Kyle Stowers on April 19.

“For him, I think the biggest thing is throwing strikes, and he's doing that,” Brewers first baseman Andrew Vaughn said. “That fastball's probably the best in the game. It's awesome to watch.”

Indeed, Misiorowski's control is one of the biggest ways in which he has improved since going 5-3 with a 4.36 ERA as a rookie last season.

Misiorowski had 87 strikeouts and 31 walks in 66 innings last year. This season, he's walked 19 in 64 innings while getting a major league-leading 100 strikeouts.

He started Monday's game by walking JJ Wetherholt on a 3-2 pitch inside before retiring the next 15 batters he faced. The Cardinals didn't get a hit until Pedro Pagés delivered a bloop single to lead off the sixth.

Misiorowski ended up allowing a run in the sixth, then came back out in the seventh and retired the side in order. He ended his day with a strikeout of Masyn Winn in which six of the seven pitches he threw exceeded 100 mph.

“It was just one of those things you go in the dugout, they tell you the inning before, ‘Hey, this is it. Go get it,’” Misiorowski said. “And kind of trust that the bullpen's going to have your back behind you.”

Misiorowski also has greater endurance from the conditioning work he did in the offseason. Murphy noted that it's about more than just arm strength.

“You can tell all those young pitchers out there, you have to have a lower half,” Murphy said. “He’s put together a great lower half.”

Misiorowski said working on his lower half was a focus in the offseason. The results are apparent in the way he's working deeper into games while maintaining his status as the hardest-throwing starting pitcher in the majors.

According to MLB.com, Misiorowski has thrown 22 career pitches of at least 103 mph as a starter, including in the postseason. No other starting pitcher has thrown more than two pitches 103 mph or faster during the pitch-tracking era.

No wonder Misiorowski said he wasn't taken aback Monday when each of his first six pitches went at least 103 mph.

“I feel like that’s how it should be every day," Misiorowski said. “I feel like that’s where I’m at. I feel like that’s just my normal.”

___

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

In Houston’s newly constructed 18th Congressional District, longtime U.S. Rep. Al Green faces freshman U.S. Rep. Christian Menefee in a race centered on experience versus a new generation of leadership.

Green defended his decades in Congress during an interview with KPRC 2 on Monday, pointing to federal funding he helped secure for flooding relief and small businesses.

“I am not running to say what I will do, I am running on what I have done,” Green said.

The congressman also emphasized the value of seniority in Washington.

“Because I have seniority and I have experience… I’m in the top 50 in Congress,” Green said.

Menefee, meanwhile, said voters across the district are ready for change.

“Folks are ready for change. Everywhere I go throughout our communities I hear people saying it’s time to pass the baton, it’s time to pass the torch,” Menefee said.

Menefee also said his campaign is focused on lowering costs for working families.

“My goal is to lower costs and to put more money back in people’s pockets,” he said.

The winner of Tuesday’s Democratic runoff will advance to the November general election.

Meanwhile, the Republican Senate runoff between John Cornyn and Ken Paxton is also drawing national attention. The winner will face Democrat James Talarico in November.

In a statement to KPRC 2, Cornyn campaign spokesman Matt Mackowiak said:

“Senator Cornyn has fought for Texas in the US Senate. The stakes could not be higher in the midterms and Ken Paxton would be a disaster as the nominee. Senator Cornyn will continue representing Texas with honesty and integrity if given the chance and he’s asking for your vote on Tuesday.”

KPRC 2 has also reached out to Paxton’s campaign and is still awaiting a response.

Polling locations across Texas open Tuesday morning and close at 7 p.m. Election results and continuing coverage will be available on air and online at click2houston.com

Madison Square Garden, that is.

With New York one win from sweeping the Cleveland Cavaliers and earning its first NBA Finals appearance since 1999, thousands of Knicks fans — and some of their well-heeled celebrity backers — descended upon Rocket Arena on Monday night.

Based on the decibel level and “Let's Go Knicks!” chants during pregame warmups, New York fans seemed to outnumber Clevelanders, who are holding out hope that the Cavs can somehow overcome an 0-3 deficit in the series. That's never happened in the NBA as teams are a collective 164-0 when leading 3-0 in a best-of-seven series.

Among the New York A-list celebrities on hand were actor Timothée Chalamet and his girlfriend, Kylie Jenner, director Spike Lee, comedian Tracy Morgan and rappers along with former Knicks players Walt “Clyde” Frazier and Allan Houston.

The Cavs, who hosted pop music superstar Taylor Swift and her fiance, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce in Game 3, were represented by rapper Machine Gun Kelly. Cleveland also brought back beloved guard Matthew Dellavedova, a member of its 2016 championship team for some karma.

Knicks fans were boisterous during New York's win in Game 3, and Cavs guard Donovan Mitchell lamented that was mostly because Cleveland gave its towel-waving crowd nothing to cheer about.

“I’m from New York, this doesn’t shock me. They do it in every arena,” Mitchell said. “That’s how Knicks fans are. I was one back in the day.”

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

Joshua Lahai of Richmond went missing Sunday at approximately 5 p.m. while at the beach with his family and his youth football team. Surfside Beach Police Chief Philip Hester told KPRC 2 Monday evening that the effort shifted from a rescue to a recovery mission.

OUR FIRST REPORT: Recovery efforts underway at Surfside Beach after 11-year-old boy from Richmond swept under water by wave Sunday evening

Police say Joshua was swimming with a friend when he went under and was swept away. The U.S. Coast Guard, multiple law enforcement agencies and Texas EquuSearch have been searching for him ever since

Tim Miller, the founder of Texas EquuSearch, has been on the ground since Sunday night. He told KPRC 2 he spoke with Joshua’s family several times.

“We just met with the family again and let them know that we’re not giving up. Conditions aren’t nearly as good as we’d like them to be. The family actually seen him out there and seen him go down. And so they’re devastated,” Miller said.

When asked about what may have pulled Joshua under, Miller pointed to multiple factors.

“They think it’s a combination of currents, the sandbar, the waves and not knowing,” Miller said.

Despite the dire circumstances, Miller says he is holding onto hope.

“We believe in miracles and it has to be a hell of a miracle, but I think from witness sightings and everything, the most we can hope for is to get him recovered before the day’s over,” Miller said.

The search has been complicated by the Memorial Day holiday, which drew hundreds of people to the beach — many unaware of the ongoing operation just steps away.

ALSO READ: Teen rushed to hospital after being bitten by shark on offshore boat near Galveston Beach

Surfside Beach Police Chief Hester is urging anyone planning a trip to the beach to take the water conditions seriously.

“The water is not safe. I can’t tell what’s under the water, so you’re out there walking and you might be in water that’s two-foot deep and then fall into a hole that’s 10-foot deep. It’s just not safe,” Hester said.

He also warned about a false sense of security that beach conditions can create.

“People look at the waves and think it’s safe and they go further out. But once you get to the third sandbar, you’re 200, 300 feet out there and we can’t even see you anymore,” Hester said.

Miller says he made a promise to Joshua’s family — he will remain at Surfside Beach until Joshua is found.

Around 3:50 p.m., the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office received a call regarding the emergency and contacted the Coast Guard for assistance.

Details surrounding the incident remain limited, but officials confirmed the teen was boating with his father and a third person when the emergency unfolded.

According to information confirmed by the Coast Guard, the group was returning toward the Galveston Yacht Basin when their boat became disabled near the jetties.

Sources reported the boat may have been several hours offshore before turning back, though the Coast Guard said it could not independently confirm how far out the vessel had traveled.

Authorities said the teen had a tourniquet applied before rescue crews arrived in an effort to stop severe bleeding from the bite.

Coast Guard crews responded to the scene, where officials said they applied a second tourniquet and transported the teen and his father to awaiting EMS personnel.

Despite the severity of the situation, officials said the 17-year-old was conscious and alert during the rescue. Sources later confirmed the teen was transported to the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston for treatment.

No additional information about the teen’s condition or the exact nature of the injury has been released.

During a livestream update posted Sunday night, Hidalgo emphasized that while the situation is being taken seriously, officials are not sounding the alarm.

“We are okay,” Hidalgo repeatedly reassured residents throughout the briefing. “Right now, it is a time to inform.”

Houston is scheduled to host seven FIFA World Cup matches at NRG Stadium beginning June 14, while also serving as a base camp location for the Democratic Republic of Congo national team.

The concern comes after the federal government announced that George Bush Intercontinental Airport will become one of only three U.S. airports designated to receive travelers arriving from Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and South Sudan amid an Ebola outbreak in the region.

According to Hidalgo, seven Harris County residents who had recently been in Uganda arrived in the Houston area over the last several days.

Two arrived Sunday, while five more arrived Monday.

She said all seven travelers were screened by federal authorities in Dallas and Washington, D.C., before continuing on to Houston.

“To be clear, none of them have tested positive for Ebola,” Hidalgo said. “In fact, none of them are showing any symptoms of illness.”

The World Health Organization has declared the current outbreak a public health emergency. Hidalgo said there are currently 10 confirmed Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with suspected cases estimated to be much higher.

How screening works at IAH

Hidalgo walked viewers through the current screening and monitoring process for travelers arriving from at-risk countries.

According to the county judge:

• Travelers are screened by the CDC upon arrival in the U.S.
• Officials conduct temperature checks and health questionnaires.
• Passenger information is shared with local health departments.
• Harris County epidemiologists are assigned to monitor local residents returning from those regions.
• Travelers are asked to take their temperature twice daily for 21 days.
• Health officials conduct daily check-ins and can perform home visits if necessary.

Hidalgo also noted that travelers showing symptoms or those with known exposure to Ebola patients could be isolated or quarantined.

She said two hospitals in the Houston area have already been designated for isolation treatment if needed.

“Nowhere near as transmissible as COVID”

A major point of Hidalgo’s message focused on calming fears about transmission during the World Cup.

“The likelihood of you or I getting Ebola from someone in airport security or by sitting next to somebody on the Metro on your way to the World Cup is extremely low,” she said.

Hidalgo stressed that Ebola spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids from someone who is severely ill — not through casual public interaction.

“This is not a virus that’s transmitted person-to-person unless you’re taking care of a very sick person with Ebola or even a corpse,” she explained.

She also referenced the 2014 Ebola case in Dallas, noting that despite a patient spending time at home with family members while symptomatic, only two ICU nurses later contracted the virus.

“Magnifica Humanitas” (Magnificent Humanity), Leo’s first encyclical, has been eagerly awaited ever since history’s first U.S.-born pope announced days after his election that he considered AI to be the biggest challenge facing humanity today.

In the text, Leo denounced the “culture of power” driving the AI race, especially in developing ever more sophisticated methods of remote warfare. He declared that it was “not permissible” to entrust irreversible, lethal decisions to AI systems, setting up another flash point between the American pope and the Trump administration, which has worked aggressively to deregulate AI development.

“Artificial Intelligence now demands to be disarmed, freed from logics that turn it into an instrument of domination, exclusion and death,″ the pope told a special Vatican presentation of the encyclical, one of the most authoritative types of teaching documents a pope can issue.

Experts in the tech industry, academia and Catholic morality said the document will likely become a benchmark in the debate over AI, a point of reference for policymakers, researchers and ordinary folk alike. It comes as the near-daily developments in the technology trigger concerns over AI replacing human jobs and even human intelligence.

Taylor Black, a Microsoft AI executive and director of Catholic University of America’s AI institute, said the document would prompt people “at the forefront of these tools” to ask questions such as “What does it mean to be human?”

Pope calls out AI companies even as he hosts Anthropic

The Vatican launch also included remarks by the co-founder of Anthropic, which is currently locked in a legal battle with the Trump administration over access to its AI technology. The Vatican decided to involve Anthropic as part of its decade-long effort to engage Silicon Valley in dialogue over the human cost of AI.

And yet in his text, Leo repeatedly blasted the concentration of power and data in the hands of so few people in the private sector as a danger, especially to children and the most vulnerable, and called for external regulation of their work.

“It is not enough to invoke ethics in the abstract; robust legal frameworks, independent oversight, informed users and a political system that does not abdicate its responsibility are required,” he wrote. “A more moral AI is not enough if that morality is determined by a few.”

Leo appealed to AI developers and political leaders responsible for regulating them to slow down and reflect on what they are doing. He urged them to use ethical and spiritual guidelines to make the choice to work not for their own profit or power, but the betterment of humanity.

AI competitors OpenAI and Anthropic are the second- and third-most valuable U.S. private companies, each valued at hundreds of billions of dollars, more than the GDP of many nations. Both companies are heading toward near-trillion dollar IPOs.

Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah welcomed Leo's criticism and concern. He said such external checks were fundamental to the technology “going well” for humankind since there is so much at stake — “a real possibility that AI will displace human labor at a very large scale.”

“We need more of the world — religious communities, civil society, scholars, governments — to do what His Holiness has done here: to take this seriously, to look closely, and to push events in a better direction,” Olah said. “We need moral voices that the incentives cannot bend.”

Experts say the text will become a benchmark

In a methodical text, the math major pope traced the history of the Catholic Church’s social teaching and applied its core concepts — justice, solidarity, the dignity of work and the universal destination of resources — to the digital revolution.

“I am convinced that this will prove to be a defining document for our era, a profound and prophetic document,” said Paolo Carozza, law professor at Notre Dame Law School and chair of the Meta Oversight Board.

“Pope Leo is offering a clear, comprehensive, and coherent voice urging us to take responsibility for constructing a world in which technology will serve humans rather than degrade them,” he said.

In its strongest chapters, Leo denounced how AI had helped accelerate the “normalization of war” by desensitizing people to its cost. He didn’t name specific conflicts, but cited “opposing imperialisms, between powers that wish to preserve their supremacy, and those that aspire to seize that supremacy.”

He demanded transparency and accountability by AI developers so that the chain of decision-making command in ordering strikes with AI weaponry is always known. He declared that the Catholic Church’s “just war” theory, which provides specific criteria for when force can be justified, was now “outdated” given the technological advances of warfare.

A text in the church’s social justice tradition

Leo signed the text May 15, the 135th anniversary of the publication of “Rerum Novarum” (Of New Things), the most important teaching document of Leo’s hero and namesake, Pope Leo XIII. That document addressed workers’ rights, the limits of capitalism, and the obligations that states and employers owed workers as the Industrial Revolution was underway.

It became the foundation of modern Catholic social thought, and the current pope cited it at the start of his pontificate in relation to the AI revolution, which he believes poses the same existential questions that the Industrial Revolution posed over a century ago. “Magnifica Humanitas” thus becomes the latest chapter in a century-long history of popes adapting “Rerum Novarum” to the social questions of their times, often dwelling on the dignity of work for human flourishing.

AI is evoking both existential fears and utopian vision amid an intensifying debate on whether it will become a catalyst that enriches humanity or a technological toxin that dulls human intelligence while wiping out millions of high-paying jobs.

“The pursuit of greater profits cannot justify choices that systematically sacrifice jobs, because the human person is an end, not a means, and the economic order must remain subordinate to human dignity and the common good,” Leo wrote.

Leo extended his concern for upholding human dignity in labor to issue the first-ever papal apology for the Holy See’s own role in legitimizing slavery by giving European sovereigns explicit authority to subjugate and enslave “infidels.”

A decade-long dialogue with Silicon Valley

Vatican officials declined to say who contributed to Leo’s encyclical. But Vatican and church officials have been engaged in a dialogue with Silicon Valley tech firms for a decade.

The decision to include Anthropic at the Vatican launch was criticized by some who considered it a papal stamp of approval of the AI firm, which is currently suing the Trump administration after it ordered all U.S. agencies to stop using Anthropic’s technology for its refusal to allow the U.S. military unrestricted use of it.

Brian Boyd, U.S. faith liaison for the nonprofit Future of Life Institute, read the inclusion of Anthropic’s co-founder Olah as a recognition of its prominence in the field and as similar to a papal audience with a head of state: not an endorsement.

Anthropic is an “enormous corporation that is taking onto itself an enormous risk and responsibility,” Boyd said, adding that the company has “demonstrated genuine goodwill and integrity and interest in dialogue.”

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Winfield reported from Middletown, Connecticut, and Huamani reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writers Kelvin Chan in London and Colleen Barry in Milan contributed to this report.

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

The curtain fell on Gael Monfils just before midnight when he lost to French countryman Hugo Gaston 6-2, 6-3, 3-6, 2-6, 6-0.

It was the 39-year-old Monfils' final appearance at Roland Garros. Same went for the 41-year-old Wawrinka, who earlier lost to Jesper de Jong 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 on another sweltering day.

Monfils and Wawrinka are retiring at the end of the year.

They made their French Open debuts 21 years ago.

Wawrinka went on to win three Grand Slam titles, and while Monfils has not reached a major final his popularity remains high.

Monfils walked out to chants of “Ga-el! Ga-el!” on Court Philippe-Chatrier. He received loud encouragement throughout, demanding applause when he hit spectacular winners and raising his arm when he won the third set.

But he also looked tired, often hunching over with his hands on his knees. After clawing back a two-set deficit he had little energy left against an opponent 14 years younger.

Monfils was joined in an on-court ceremony by his former Davis Cup teammates Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Richard Gasquet and Gilles Simon, and also praised by his peers.

“For me you were a true inspiration. A great athlete,” two-time reigning French Open champion Carlos Alcaraz said in video featuring several players. “But the most important thing, a great person off the court.”

Monfils thanked his wife, Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina, who looked tearful as she listened.

"Without her I might not be here tonight,” Monfils said. "We’ve been together for eight years, eight beautiful years ... (You) gave me the greatest gift in the world, our daughter. I love you.”

Wawrinka bows out

De Jong finished off Wawrinka, the 2015 French Open champion and 2017 finalist, with a whipped forehand winner, then urged the fans to applaud Wawrinka, whose face was almost as red as the baking-hot clay. Temperatures in sun-soaked Paris hit 33 degrees C (91 F).

“It’s hard, it’s hard to say goodbye to you here,” an emotional Wawrinka said. “It’s because of Roland Garros that I wanted to become a tennis player.”

He was given an ovation at Court Simonne-Mathieu, where he was scheduled to face Arthur Fils but the rising French star pulled out of the tournament with a hip issue.

Wawrinka knows it will be hard to let go — although he still has Wimbledon and the U.S. Open to come.

“For more than 20 years I experienced these emotions, you never want it to stop," Wawrinka said. "I have given everything for this sport.”

His stunning 2015 run to the title saw him defeat heavy favorite Novak Djokovic in the final after downing another all-time great, Roger Federer, in the quarterfinals. Wawrinka stood out that year as much for his eye-catching pink-checkered shorts as for his destructive backhand.

Those shorts fed his happy-go-lucky appearance and he reinforced that image by celebrating with Champagne long into the night. But as cavalier as he sometimes seemed, Wawrinka was anything but casual and always trained fiercely hard.

He was hugged on court by tournament director Amelie Mauresmo, before sitting and watching footage of his matches down the years. He was shown video messages from Federer, Rafael Nadal, Djokovic, men’s No. 1 Jannik Sinner, reigning champion Carlos Alcaraz, and Monfils.

At his physical peak, the barrel-chested Wawrinka had huge stamina and was one of the few who beat Nadal, Djokovic, Federer and Andy Murray at the Grand Slams.

Wawrinka beat Nadal in the the Australian Open final in 2014 and downed Djokovic again in the U.S. Open final in 2016, meaning all three of his majors were won against the No. 1 player. Nadal, however, dispatched him in straight sets in the 2017 French Open final.

He was an Olympic champion in doubles alongside Federer in 2008 and they won the Davis Cup for Switzerland in 2014.

“You are a legend of our sport,” said Monfils, who also lost his first-round match at the Australian Open in January.

Monfils falls short

Monfils reached the semifinals at the 2008 French Open and the quarterfinals on three other occasions.

But ultimately he fell short after being touted for a great career following junior titles at the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 2004.

He never won better than an ATP 500 among his 13 titles, and lost 22 finals — including three at Masters level. His reputation as a showman took precedence over his modest results.

“One of most likeable, fun guys out there,” Djokovic said. “There’s no one that doesn’t like you, Gaël. I think that’s your biggest victory.”

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

Cowser's 425-foot blast off Jesse Scholtens (5-3) was just his third homer of the season and punctuated a wild victory in which the Orioles rallied three times in extra innings. Cowser becomes Baltimore’s first player to hit walk-off homers on consecutive days since Fred Lynn on May 10-11, 1985, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Pete Alonso and Jeremiah Jackson each singled in a run to tie it at 4-all in the 11th. Cowser scored the game-tying run to make it 5-all in the 12th on Gunnar Henderson's grounder to first, a sequence originally called an out by plate umpire Ryan Additon before a replay challenge showed the sliding Cowser snuck an arm under Nick Fortes’ tag.

Then, Leody Taveras doubled and Jackson Holliday hit a sacrifice fly to tie it a 7 in the 13th, setting up Cowser's drive that landed in the seats in right-center, mirroring his game-winning homer in Sunday's 5-3 victory over Detroit in the first game of a doubleheader.

Jonathan Aranda hit his ninth home run in the sixth and added a sacrifice fly in the 12th for the Rays, who lost consecutive games for the first time since dropping three straight April 19-21 in their second 13-inning game — and first such loss —this season.

Victor Mesa Jr. hit his second career home run, a two-run shot in the 12th inning of his Tampa Bay debut. And, Cedric Mullins and Richie Palacios each singled in the top of the 13th off Dietrich Enns (3-0).

Mullins received an approximately 10-second standing ovation while in the on-deck circle in the second inning. It was his first game in Baltimore as visitor after playing with the Orioles from 2018-25.

Up next

Orioles right-hander Shane Baz (1-5, 4.87 ERA) face Rays RHP Griffin Jax (1-2, 3.54) on Tuesday.

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

Judge José Antonio Núñez, in his decision, considered that Franco had been the victim of extortion and blackmail by the minor's mother, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for sexually trafficking her daughter.

“It seems contradictory to declare criminal responsibility and at the same time exempt him from punishment. The court has granted Wander Franco a judicial pardon due to the particular circumstances that made him a material victim, but not a legal one,” explained Núñez.

The judge justified the judicial pardon as a “logical and legal reasoning.”

“Thank God for everything,” Franco expressed as he effusively embraced his mother, Nancy Aybar, and other family members who accompanied him in court.

Franco was arrested in January 2024 after being accused of having a four-month relationship with a girl who was 14 at the time and transferring thousands of dollars to her mother to consent to the illegal relationship.

After the ruling, Franco left the courthouse alongside his lawyer, Teodosio Jáquez, and briefly answered reporters’ questions, saying, “I feel calm,” and asking his fans to “continue supporting me and trusting in me.”

Franco also said he personally had not contacted the Rays but that his lawyers surely had.

“We are aware of today’s verdict in the Wander Franco trial and will conclude our investigation at the appropriate time,” Major League Baseball said in a statement.

Franco attorney Jáquez said: “We don’t have the physical sentence in our hands, but he was exempted from punishment because the president of the court established that he was also a victim and because he is exempted from punishment through judicial pardon."

The full sentencing will be June 16.

“When we have the full sentence in hand, we will give you more details," Jáquez said. "He was exempted from punishment and we think that’s fine, but we need to have the sentence in hand.

In November 2021, Franco signed an 11-year, $182 million contract with the Rays, but his career was upended when authorities in the Dominican Republic announced in August 2023 that they were investigating him for an alleged relationship with a minor. Franco was 22 at the time.

Six months after his arrest, Tampa Bay placed him on the restricted list, which cut off the pay he had been receiving while on administrative leave.

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

And the events of Sunday and Monday surely add at least a bit of intrigue to Argentina's plans.

Messi underwent testing on Monday — which almost certainly means an MRI exam, though the team did not divulge what procedures were involved — and was ultimately diagnosed with “an overload associated with muscle fatigue in his left hamstring" that kept him from finishing Inter Miami's match on Sunday night.

Typically, the timeframe for recovery from such issues is varied depending on the severity.

"The timeline for his return to physical activity will depend on his clinical and functional progress," Inter Miami said in a release.

Messi was subbed out of Inter Miami's match against the Philadelphia Union in the 73rd minute on Sunday. He essentially stopped playing a couple of minutes earlier and was seen grabbing at the back of his left leg at least once before he could be removed for a sub.

Messi walked off the field without any assistance and went directly to the team's locker room. Inter Miami, the defending MLS champion, won the game 6-4 and Messi had a pair of assists in the first half.

Heavy rain fell during the second half, leaving the field slippery. It was unknown if Messi took a misstep at any point during the storm or if the conditions were involved in the decision for him to leave the match. All the team said Monday was he was subbed out because of “physical discomfort.”

Argentina has a pair of friendlies scheduled in advance of the World Cup, first on June 6 in College Station, Texas, against Honduras and then on June 9 in Auburn, Alabama, against Iceland. Those games will be played in college football stadiums — the home fields of Texas A&M and Auburn — with a combined capacity of about 180,000.

Argentina is in Group J for the World Cup. Its group stage matches: Algeria, at Kansas City, on June 16; Austria, at Arlington, Texas, on June 22; and Jordan, back in Arlington, on June 27.

Messi has already appeared in five World Cups, winning the Golden Ball as the tournament’s best player twice — first in 2014, then again in 2022 when he led Argentina to the title. That award has been given out only since 1982, but he is the lone player to win it twice.

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

The list of candidates capable of challenging top-ranked Jannik Sinner, who enters the French Open on a three-month-long 29-match winning streak, has been dwindling.

Enter Rafael Jodar, the 19-year-old Spaniard who has been making waves on the ATP Tour.

Jodar continued to impress in his Roland Garros debut, dropping just five games in a 6-1, 6-0, 6-4 rout of American opponent Aleksandar Kovacevic on Monday despite boiling heat at the clay-court Grand Slam. The last man to concede fewer games in a French Open debut was Novak Djokovic, who allowed three to Robby Ginepri in 2005.

“I did the things very well from the start,” Jodar said. “It’s just my first year (on tour) and I’m experiencing a lot of things in these past few months.”

Mostly, Jodar has been experiencing victories: He’s won 16 of his last 19 matches, raised a trophy on clay in Morocco, reached the semifinals in Barcelona and had a run to the quarterfinals in Madrid ended by Sinner.

A year ago, Jodar was ranked No. 707 and playing challengers — tennis’ minor leagues — in the U.S. after he competed at the University of Virginia. Now he’s No. 29 and is seeded 27th in Paris.

“It was obviously another chapter of my life but I think that chapter also helped me to develop a lot and to be a better player now,” Jodar said.

Going to college also helped.

“Living there alone, it was great to develop and to do things by myself,” Jodar said. “It was a new chapter, new culture for me, actually a new life.”

Jodar appears destined to become a top-10 player and a serious contender for the biggest trophies.

And Jodar is in the bottom half of the draw in Paris — meaning he could meet Sinner only in the final.

Swiatek making no assumptions

Four-time champion Iga Swiatek eliminated 136th-ranked debutant Emerson Jones 6-1, 6-2 in her opener.

The only real issue for the third-ranked Swiatek came when she needed a trainer to re-tape the middle finger on her tennis-playing right hand for an apparent blister after the first set.

Swiatek has not won a title on clay this season and recently made a coaching change. She hired Francisco Roig, who previously worked with 14-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal.

“Nothing comes easy,” Swiatek said. “With more titles it’s even a bit harder because everyone expects you to be ready always and play perfectly. So you need to stay humble and not take anything for granted and work your way from the beginning of the tournament.”

She improved to 28-1 in first-round matches at Grand Slams.

Also advancing were Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina, who beat Veronika Erjavec 6-2, 6-2; and recent Italian Open winner Elina Svitolina, who rallied past Anna Bondar 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (3).

In men’s action, 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka was beaten by Dutch qualifier Jesper de Jong 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to end his 21st and last French Open.

Gael Monfils also bowed out for the last time after losing to fellow Frenchman Hugo Gaston 6-2, 6-3, 3-6, 2-6, 6-0 just before midnight.

Eighth-seeded Alex De Minaur defeated Toby Samuel 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 and No. 15 Casper Ruud — a two-time French Open runner-up — won against Roman Safiullin 6-2, 7-6 (5), 5-7, 0-6, 6-2.

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

The tournament opens Friday with 16 double-elimination regionals. Winners advance to eight best-of-three super regionals. Those winners move on to the College World Series in Omaha beginning June 12.

"The committee believed this year's championship field was deep and very balanced from top to bottom," said NCAA selection committee chairman Michael Alford, the athletic director at Florida State. “Throughout the process we remained focused on applying the selection principles pretty consistently across all conferences and regions and I hope that is noticed. Every decision was based on a full body of work, not just single metrics."

UCLA (51-6), which swept the Big Ten Conference regular-season and tournament titles, was No. 1 by Baseball America in each of its weekly rankings since the preseason and has the most wins entering regionals since Tennessee came in with 53 in 2022.

The Bruins' ace, Logan Reddeman, and closer, Ethan Hawk, are among the best in the nation and lead a staff that has a 3.31 ERA. Shortstop Roch Cholowsky is widely projected to be the No. 1 pick in the Major League Baseball amateur draft and he, Will Gasparino and Big Ten Tournament MVP Mulivai Levu have combined for 57 homers.

Georgia Tech (48-9), which swept the Atlantic Coast Conference championships, features the nation's most prodigious offense. The Yellow Jackets lead Division I in scoring (10.8 runs per game), batting average (.358) and slugging (.636). Jarren Advincula is batting .431 to rank second nationally and Vahn Lackey is sixth at .410.

The national seeds following UCLA and Georgia Tech are Georgia (46-12), Auburn (38-19), North Carolina (45-11-1), Texas (40-13), Alabama (37-19) and Florida (39-19). Top-eight national seeds, if they win their regional, are assured of hosting a super regional.

Seeds Nos. 9 through 16: Southern Mississippi (44-15), Florida State (38-17), Oregon (40-16), Texas A&M (39-14), Nebraska (42-15), Mississippi State (40-17), Kansas (42-16) and West Virginia (39-14).

The Southeastern Conference had the most teams selected, with 12. The ACC has nine teams in the field, followed by the Big 12 with six, Sun Belt with five and Big Ten with four.

The last four teams to get at-large bids were Liberty (41-19), Kentucky (31-21), Texas State (36-24) and Troy (32-29).

The first four teams left out were Mercer (44-15), Michigan (34-24), Pittsburgh (33-24) and TCU (33-21).

LSU (30-28), the 2025 national champion, became the seventh program to win the title and not make a regional the following year since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1999.

Been there, done that

Texas is in the tournament for a record 65th time and Miami for a 51st. Florida State is a regional host for a record 38th time.

Florida has the longest active streak with 18 straight appearances. Other notable consecutive streaks include Oklahoma State (13), Southern Mississippi (10), Arkansas (9) and East Carolina, North Carolina and Oregon State (8).

Vanderbilt (33-25) is missing regionals after making 19 straight appearances.

First timer

Western Athletic Conference champion Tarleton State is the only first-time participant. The Texans began their transition to Division I in 2021 and weren't eligible for the tournament when they won the WAC in 2024. Their most recent postseason appearance was in the 2018 Division II tournament.

Losing, but winning

South Dakota State takes a 24-31 record into its second regional, and first since 2013, after winning the four-team Summit League Tournament as the No. 4 seed.

Holy Cross is 25-28 after winning the Patriot League Tournament and has its first back-to-back regional appearances since 1962-63.

Horizon League champion Milwaukee is 25-31 entering its first regional in 16 years.

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Around 12:40 a.m. on May 25, Houston Police Department officers responded to reports of multiple vehicles doing donuts in a parking lot near 430 West Parker Road.

According to scanner audio, one of the vehicles involved was described as a white Ford pickup truck.

Authorities said the driver was allegedly brandishing an AR-15-style rifle while performing dangerous maneuvers and striking other vehicles in the parking lot.

When officers attempted to stop the truck, the driver fled the scene, leading police on a chase northbound on Interstate 45.

The pursuit eventually came to an end near 149 West Road, where officers took the driver into custody. Video from the scene appeared to show police recovering an AR-15-style rifle as well as a pistol from the vehicle.

No injuries were immediately reported, and it is unclear what charges the suspect may face.

Houston police have not yet released the identity of the driver or additional details about the incident. The investigation remains ongoing.

Russia and ally Belarus held joint nuclear drills last week, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned in recent days that Belarus could provide a launchpad for Russia to open a new front in northern Ukraine. Some Russian troops entered Ukraine from Belarusian territory in Moscow's invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.

In a further sign of concern, French President Emmanuel Macron spoke by phone with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Sunday about the war in Ukraine, their first call since the invasion began.

Russia warns of more 'systemic strikes'

Further “systemic strikes” on Kyiv are in store, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Monday. It urged foreign citizens, including members of diplomatic missions, to leave the city as quickly as possible and told residents to stay away from military and government facilities.

The ministry said Friday’s deadly Ukrainian drone strike on a college dormitory in Starobilsk was “the final straw.” Ukraine said it hit only targets supporting Russia’s invasion.

The Russian army is locked in a hard and costly slog on the 1,250-kilometer (780-mile) front line that mostly snakes through eastern and southern Ukraine.

“Russia hit a dead-end on the battlefield, so it terrorizes Ukraine with deliberate strikes on city centers,” Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, said on X, after the weekend barrage that killed two people and damaged buildings across the Ukrainian capital.

With U.S.-made air defense missiles in short supply because of the Iran war, Russian missiles are harder for Ukraine to stop. Meanwhile, U.S. efforts to stop the fighting have stalled.

Countries keep a wary eye on Belarus

In his call with Lukashenko, Macron “underscored the risks for Belarus of allowing itself to be dragged into Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine,” according to a presidential aide in the French leader’s office who spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with the presidential palace’s practices. Macron also spoke Sunday with Zelenskyy.

A terse readout released by the Belarusian presidential press service said the call with Macron took place “on the French side’s initiative” and the leaders discussed “regional issues” and Belarusian relations with the EU and France.

Belarusian opposition leader Tsikhanouskaya on her first visit to Kyiv, told The Associated Press on Sunday that “Lukashenko’s regime knows well what needs to be done to improve ties with the European Union, but it isn’t happening. Instead, hybrid attacks, nuclear blackmail and threats to the entire region.

Speaking after meeting with Ukrainian officials in Kyiv, Tsikhanouskaya said that “Ukraine is defending not only its independence but also the right of our peoples to live without imperial dictatorship, without violence and fear.”

"I am convinced that Ukraine’s victory will open the way to Belarus’s freedom,” she told a news conference.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, who appeared alongside Tsikhanouskaya, emphasized that “Ukraine consistently differentiates between the regime that has dragged Belarus into Russian aggression and the Belarusian people," adding that "we appreciate the contribution of Belarusian volunteers, journalists, human rights advocates and activists who are fighting for freedom, both ours and yours.”

Lukashenko, who has governed his country of some 9.5 million people with an iron fist for more than three decades, relies on the Kremlin for cheap energy, loans and other support. Western countries have repeatedly slapped sanctions on Belarus, including for its crackdown on human rights and for allowing Moscow to use its territory to invade Ukraine.

More recently, Lukashenko has been trying to improve ties with the West. Since U.S. President Donald Trump returned to the White House, Lukashenko has released hundreds of political prisoners as part of deals that lifted some U.S. sanctions.

Russia fires hypersonic missile at Ukraine

Sunday’s bombardment included Russia’s powerful hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile, which can carry multiple warheads. Russian President Vladimir Putin has boasted it can travel up to 10 times the speed of sound and evade air defense systems.

Zelenskyy said Ukrainian intelligence services had received tipoffs from the United States and European countries that Russia was preparing to launch an Oreshnik.

In addition to the two deaths, at least 91 people were wounded in Sunday's barrage, according to Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the Kyiv City Administration.

Shattered glass littered sidewalks on Monday after Ukrainian authorities said the assault damaged buildings across the city, including near government offices, residential buildings, schools and a market.

Sybiha, Ukraine's foreign minister, led ambassadors from more than 70 countries on a visit to the sites of the strikes. He urged the international community to step up pressure on Moscow and ensure Ukraine gets more air defense assets.

In other developments:

Russia’s Federal Security Service said divers found magnetic mines attached to the hull of a liquefied petroleum gas tanker in the Russian Baltic port of Ust-Luga. The tanker Arrhenius was bound for Samsun, Turkey, it said, adding that the limpet mines were made in a NATO member country. Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment.

Meanwhile, a Russian missile hit a business in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Derhachi, killing two people and wounding 19 others Monday, Kharkiv regional administration head Oleh Syniehubov said. Seventeen people were hospitalized.

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Associated Press writer John Leicester in Paris 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

According to HPD, officers responded shortly after 8 a.m. to a report of a body found near the bayou in the 8900 block of Country Creek Street, near Club Creek Drive.

When officers arrived, they located the deceased individual near the waterway.

HPD Homicide detectives and investigators with the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office were called to the scene to begin the investigation.

KPRC 2 captured a police presence still working near the scene Monday afternoon.

Authorities have not yet released the identity of the deceased or provided details on the circumstances surrounding the death.

The investigation remains ongoing.

He broke his foot in the Texans’ season opener against the Los Angeles Rams, returning to play in the final nine regular seasons games.

He twisted his knee awkwardly in a playoff loss to the New England Patriots while trying to catch an off-target throw from quarterback C.J. Stroud, but avoided any serious injury.

A magnetic resonance imaging exam confirmed the anterior cruciate ligament was intact and Stover suffered a mild partially torn medial collateral ligament and posterior cruciate ligament and he didn’t have to undergo knee surgery this offseason, per league sources.

Stover has made a full recovery from an offseason hernia surgery, per sources, and has been a full participant in the Texans’ conditioning program and Phase 2 workouts.

Stover is cross-training as a blocking fullback in offensive coordinator Nick Caley’s system, per sources, while continuing to play tight end.

Stover, 25, a former fourth-round draft pick and Big Ten Conference Tight End of the Year from Ohio State, caught 12 passes for 76 yards last season. This shapes up as a pivotal third NFL season for Stover. If he can improve his durability, he could carve out a versatile role as Caley is expected to heavily utilize tight ends.

He has 27 career catches for 209 yards and one touchdown in two seasons. He rushed for three yards and two first downs on four runs out of a Wildcat formation last season in short-yardage situations.

Fully healthy again, Stover is part of a highly competitive tight end room led by veteran Dalton Schultz, who caught a team-high and career-high 82 passes, second-round pick Marlin Klein, former New Orleans Saints starter Foster Moreau and Brevin Jordan, who’s making a sound recovery from a torn patellar tendon that sidelined him for the entire season one year after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament.

The battle for playing time, especially for the second and third tight end positions on the depth chart, and the fourth tight end roster spot is already afoot, as general manager Nick Caserio outlined before drafting Klein out of Michigan with the 59th overall pick.

“With our group, we’ve got a lot of guys in some different categories,” Caserio said prior to the draft. “Brevin had a couple of years, unfortunately, where he’s had injuries set him back. He’s a player that we’d like to have in the building. Honestly, it’s probably to be determined with him a little bit. But he’s a great kid, great attitude. He’s been here working his tail off. He’s got a great spirit. Everybody’s rooting for Brevin. There’s a little bit of an unknown there, of what we actually have.

“Cade has played decent football at different points. He’s going into year three. There’s certainly some areas that he can improve. Foster has played pretty good football at different points in his career. Dalton has probably been our most consistent, probably the most steady player that we’ve had at that position over the last two to three years. He had a career year. But there’s some question marks (at tight end), if we’re just being real. But we think there’s some players there that potentially can help us. What other opportunities that leads to in the draft, we’ll kind of see what that looks like.”

Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com

Lapid, who is part of an alliance attempting to unseat Netanyahu in elections this year, said details of the emerging deal are “disturbing.”

“The deal is bad for Israel, bad for the region, bad for the citizens of Iran,” Lapid told reporters in Jerusalem.

Israel and the U.S. launched the war on Feb. 28 vowing to destroy Iran’s ballistic missile program, end its support for proxy militant groups across the region and end Iran’s ability to pursue a nuclear bomb. Both Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump also said they hoped to create conditions to topple Iran’s government.

According to regional officials, under the current deal being discussed Iran would give up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium and reopen the strategic Strait of Hormuz in exchange for ending a U.S. blockade of Iranian ports and the lifting of sanctions against Iran. Key details on Iran’s nuclear program would then be negotiated during a 60-day period. It is unclear if the deal will address Iran’s missiles or support for regional militant groups.

Lapid expressed gratitude to Trump for launching the war with Israel, but criticized Netanyahu for allowing Washington to negotiate a potential deal with little coordination with Israel.

“The Israeli government is at an all-time low in its ability to influence decisions in Washington,” he said, noting that Trump said last week: “Netanyahu will do whatever I want him to do.”

Netanyahu has repeatedly stressed to Trump that Israel maintains “freedom of action” against threats in any arena, according to an official familiar with Israel prime minister's conversations with Trump, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

“Israel is a sovereign state, we are not a vassal state and we are not a protectorate,” Lapid said.

Lapid, head of the centrist “Yesh Atid” party, briefly served as prime minister in 2022 under a rotation agreement with Naftali Bennett, leader of a small conservative party. Their coalition government ended 12 years of Netanyahu’s rule.

They have once again merged their parties into a single faction headed by Bennett as they attempt to unseat Netanyahu in elections that will be held by the end of October.

Lapid has served as Israel’s opposition leader since Netanyahu returned to power in late 2022, while Bennett took a break from politics. Their alliance is aimed at uniting a fragmented opposition with a shared hostility toward Netanyahu.

Lapid, one of a shrinking number of Israeli politicians who supports the idea of Palestinian independence, said the issue would not be on the next government’s agenda. He said the conditions are not right following the trauma of the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, and wars that have followed.

“There will be no two-state solution in the coming years, because Israelis now understand this will become just another failing terrorist state on our borders,” said Lapid, adding that the Palestinian Authority does not have the ability to effectively prevent attacks against Israel.

But Lapid said he would oppose unilateral steps that would make a future Palestinian state impossible and had received assurances from Bennett, a former West Bank settlement leader, that Israel will not move toward annexing the occupied territory.

Lapid also ruled out cooperation with Arab parties to build a coalition to unseat Netanyahu.

Opinion polls indicate that Bennett and Lapid might not be able to form a governing majority coalition without the support of some Arab lawmakers, as they did in their previous government. They broke a longstanding taboo in 2021 when they invited Mansour Abbas, leader of a small Arab faction, into Israel’s governing coalition for the first and only time in Israel’s history.

Lapid said his previous cooperation with Abbas was “the right government for the moment,” but that Israel is in a very different place after nearly three years of wars and that he and Bennett will not build a coalition with Abbas’ party in the next elections.

According to Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, deputies were first called around 5:20 a.m. to a home on Beeson Road in Conroe after a 911 caller reported that a family member was threatening people inside the residence with a firearm.

While deputies were responding, dispatchers received another emergency call about a nearby vehicle crash involving a man matching the suspect’s description.

Investigators say the suspect, identified as Michael Levi Flores, 23, fled the home before crashing his vehicle a short distance away.

Deputies located Flores near the crash scene, where authorities say he resisted arrest and fought with responding deputies.

During the struggle, deputies used non-lethal weapons to take Flores into custody. It’s unclear what specific methods were implemented.

No law enforcement officers were injured during the incident.

As additional deputies responded back to the Beeson Road residence, they discovered 50-year-old Jana Flores suffering from an apparent gunshot wound. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Officials identified Jana Flores as the suspect’s mother.

Michael Flores was transported to a local hospital for medical evaluation following the altercation. Authorities said he will be booked into the Montgomery County Jail once he is released from medical care. He is expected to face a murder charge.

Major Crimes detectives and Crime Scene Investigators with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office remained at the scene Monday as the investigation continued.

Authorities said preliminary findings indicate the incident was isolated to family members and that there is no ongoing threat to the public.

According to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded Saturday evening to reports of gunfire in the Kings Colony neighborhood near I-69 and SH 99.

• Man charged in shooting that killed romantic partner

The active shooter scene in Kings Colony is now secure. The suspect is in custody. Media stage at the Swift gas station on FM 1485 and Forest Dr. Public: continue to avoid the area. pic.twitter.com/5qY7kV5vDj

— MCTXSheriff (@MCTXSheriff) May 24, 2026

Investigators say 39-year-old Juan Ayala-Montero fired multiple rounds during an altercation involving the 17-year-old.

Newly-released video from the sheriff’s office shows chaotic moments as residents came face-to-face with the gunman before law enforcement arrived.

• Recovery effort underway in search for 10-year-old boy at Surfside Beach

When deputies reached the scene, authorities say Montero barricaded himself before eventually surrendering and being taken into custody.

Investigators recovered more than 30 shell casings from the scene. The injured 17-year-old was transported to a hospital and is expected to recover.

Montero is now charged with deadly conduct and is being held on an $80,000 bond.

• Spotting red flags when using dating apps in Houston

The sheriff’s office also revealed Montero has a criminal history, an active federal ICE detainer, and had previously been deported from the United States.

Authorities said the 17-year-old victim was also charged with filing a false report to a peace officer after investigators determined he initially misled deputies into believing there were multiple victims involved in the shooting.

The investigation remains ongoing.

The incident occurred around 10:40 p.m. Saturday night, in the 5300 block of El Buey Way. According to Houston Police Department Lieutenant Pulido, the man knocked on the door of the victim’s house. When the homeowner opened the door, the stranger immediately opened fire and fled the scene.

• Recovery effort underway for 10-year-old boy at Surfside Beach

Following the shooting, the man ran through the neighborhood, sparking panic among residents. Multiple neighbors dialed 911 to report a man erratically banging on their doors and screaming.

HPD officers flooded the area and used descriptions from witnesses to find the man just a few blocks away from the active crime scene. Officers quickly detained him, though authorities note that no gun has been recovered at this time.

Houston Fire DepartmentDivision paramedics treated the homeowner at the scene -- he was shot in the hip and one of his hands. He was taken to a local hospital and remains in stable condition.

• Man charged in shooting that killed romantic partner

Investigators confirmed that the victim and the suspect do not know each other. The detained man is currently classified as a person of interest, and the case has been referred to the HPD Major Assaults Division for further investigation.

Past popes have apologized for Christians’ involvement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. But no pope had ever publicly acknowledged, much less apologized for, the role that past popes played in giving European sovereigns explicit authority to subjugate and enslave “infidels.”

History’s first U.S.-born pope, whose family history includes both enslaved people and slave owners, delivered the apology in his first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas,” (Magnificent Humanity), which was released Monday.

The sweeping manifesto is about safeguarding humanity in an era of increasing reliance on artificial intelligence. Leo raised the slave trade in relation to what he called the new forms of slavery and colonialism that the digital revolution is fueling.

Black American Catholics, activists and scholars have long called for the Holy See to atone for its role in the colonial-era trade in human beings, beyond generic apologies for the involvement of individual Christians.

“It is impossible not to feel deep sorrow when contemplating the immense suffering and humiliation endured by so many in stark contrast to their immeasurable dignity as persons infinitely loved by the Lord,” Leo wrote. “For this, in the name of the church, I sincerely ask for pardon.”

Shannen Dee Williams, historian at the University of Dayton and author of the 2022 history of American Black Catholic nuns, “Subversive Habits,” welcomed the apology as a "monumental step toward the kind of essential truth-telling and reparation that many Catholics have prayed and worked to witness.”

“The Catholic Church has never been an innocent bystander in the history of white supremacy," said Williams. “Black Catholics have waited a long time to hear the Vatican speak honestly about the church’s leading roles in the trans-Atlantic slave trade and chattel slavery--and thus by extension the enduring systems of anti-Black racism in the world today.”

Centuries of legitimizing slavery for European colonizers

The Vatican has insisted that it always upheld the dignity of all human beings as children of God. But a series of 15th-century directives from the Vatican authorized Portuguese sovereigns to conquer Africa and the Americas and enslave non-Christians.

In 1452, for example, Pope Nicholas V issued the papal bull Dum Diversas, which gave the Portuguese king and his successors the right “to invade, conquer, fight and subjugate” and take all possessions — including land — of “Saracens, and pagans, and other infidels, and enemies of the name of Christ” anywhere.

The bull also gave the Portuguese permission “to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery.”

That bull and another issued three years later, Romanus Pontifex, formed the basis of the Doctrine of Discovery, the theory that legitimized the colonial-era seizure of land in Africa and the Americas.

Nicholas V’s permissions to the Portuguese were confirmed or renewed by Pope Callixtus III in 1456, Pope Sixtus IV in 1481 and Pope Leo X in 1514, according to the Rev. Christopher J. Kellerman, a Jesuit priest and author of “All Oppression Shall Cease: A History of Slavery, Abolitionism, and the Catholic Church.”

Spanish kings received the rights for the Americas.

In 2023, the Vatican formally repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery, but it never formally rescinded, abrogated or rejected the bulls themselves. The Vatican insists that a later bull, Sublimis Deus in 1537, reaffirmed that Indigenous peoples shouldn’t be deprived of their liberty or the possession of their property, and weren't to be enslaved.

Holy See late to condemn slavery, Leo says

In his encyclical, Leo recalled that his namesake, Pope Leo XIII, was the first pope to explicitly condemn slavery in 1888, long after many countries had abolished it. Before that, in antiquity and the Middle Ages, church institutions and even popes — Gregory the Great — had slaves, Kellerman said.

In acknowledging the 15th century papal bulls, Leo wrote in his encyclical: “Already in the early modern period, the Apostolic See of Rome, responding to the requests of sovereigns, intervened several times in order to regulate and legitimize forms of subjugation, and, in certain cases, including the enslavement of ‘infidels.’”

Leo said it wasn't possible to judge the morality of the decisions with today’s standards.

“Yet neither can we deny or diminish the delay with which both society and the church came to denounce the scourge of slavery,” he said.

The pope said that the church has long affirmed the dignity of every human being as the basis of its doctrine, “even if it took eighteen centuries for its full incompatibility with slavery to be explicitly recognized.”

“This constitutes a wound in Christian memory, one from which we cannot consider ourselves detached,” he said.

Leo said that the church must firmly condemn all forms of trafficking related to the digital technological revolution “if we want to avoid the need to ask for pardon again in the future for having failed to respect the treasure of human dignity that is required by our faith.”

Anthea Butler, senior fellow at the Koch History Center, Oxford University, said Leo needed to acknowledge and atone for the church's complicity in historic slavery if he wanted to credibly “speak to the current issues of technological enslavement.”

“For descendants of enslaved persons, this is once again a much needed apology from the pope,” said Butler, who is Black.

Leo’s own family history and past apologies

Kellerman, the scholar, welcomed Leo’s apology but said more needs to be done to further acknowledge how the Catholic Church legitimized and expanded slavery.

“Pope Leo has strengthened the moral credibility of the church with this admission and apology today,” he told The Associated Press. “Hopefully a future document will explain in more detail the church’s involvement with slaveholding. As a scholar I have some quibbles with the wording, but this is a truly remarkable moment.”

During a 1985 visit to Cameroon, St. John Paul II asked forgiveness of Africans for the slave trade on behalf of Christians who participated in it, but not the popes. In a 1992 visit to Goree Island, Senegal, which was the largest slave-trading center in West Africa, he denounced the injustice of slavery and called it a “tragedy of a civilization that called itself Christian.”

According to genealogical research published by Henry Louis Gates Jr., 17 of Leo’s American ancestors were Black, listed in census records as mulatto, Black, Creole or a free person of color. His family tree includes slaveholders and enslaved people, Gates wrote in The New York Times.

During a visit to Angola last month, Leo prayed at a Catholic shrine at the site of an important hub of the African slave trade during Portugal’s colonial rule. While at the Sanctuary of Mama Muxima, Leo recalled the “sorrow and great suffering” Angolans endured for centuries, but he didn’t refer specifically to slavery.

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Winfield reported from Middletown, Connecticut.

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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.

According to Harris County election data, more than 330,000 ballots were cast during early voting for the March primary.

For the current runoff election, early voting totals have reached just over 145,000 ballots — a roughly 56% decrease.

Still, some voters say showing up to the polls remains an important responsibility.

“It’s important that we get out to vote and make sure that these elections are part of our civic responsibility,” Houston voter Rhonda Sepulveda said.

Sepulveda said she was not surprised turnout numbers were lower this time around.

“I think that they need to pay attention,” she said. “People just need to pay attention to our civic responsibility. It’s not just a right, but it’s a responsibility.”

Rice University political science fellow Mark Jones said the lower turnout largely comes down to differences in the races appearing on the ballot compared to March.

“Really what we have is a tale of two parties,” Jones said. “Republican early voting numbers are only down about 25% from where they were in March, whereas on the Democratic side, they’re down about 75%.”

Jones said the March Democratic primary featured a high-profile U.S. Senate race that energized turnout. This runoff election, he said, lacks a comparable statewide Democratic contest driving voters to the polls.

Instead, Jones said turnout in Harris County is being driven largely by a handful of local races, including the Congressional District 18 primary race and the Harris County judge race.

On the Republican side, Jones said several statewide races — including the U.S. Senate contest between John Cornyn and Ken Paxton — are helping maintain stronger turnout numbers.

Jones said he expects Republican turnout to remain relatively steady compared to March, while Democratic turnout could see a much steeper decline.

“If Democrats have really good Election Day turnout, they could get somewhere around maybe 150,000, 160,000,” Jones said.

He also noted that many races in Texas are effectively decided during primary elections and runoff contests because many districts heavily favor one political party.

“Anyone who doesn’t turn out to vote in the primary runoff is effectively delegating their right to choose who represents them,” Jones said.

Sepulveda said she hopes more people decide to vote before polls close Tuesday.

“It’s not just a right, but it’s a responsibility,” she said.

Polls for Election Day open Tuesday.

Four people were inside the home when a suspect forced his way inside and threatened them, according to the Houston Police Department. K-9 and patrol units took the suspect into custody, and no one was hurt.

HPD says the suspect had previously met one of the occupants on a dating site before showing up at the home unannounced. The people inside were able to get out safely.

Red flags to watch for

Martine Desmolieres, founder of Going Out Divine runs an organization that works to protect women from domestic violence.

“One of the red flags I’d say is people who want to rush intimacy — people who overshare information too quickly," Desmolieres said.

She offered safety advice for anyone using dating apps.

“They pressure you, mostly early on. Those are red flags. They are love-bombing, right? They’re providing way too much attention very early, and their controlling behavior is disguised as concern,” Desmolieres said

“We want to make sure we pay attention to these red flags, inconsistencies. I suggest if you do use your dating app, take your time and don’t rush it,” she added.

Tips before meeting up

Desmolieres also recommends doing a video chat with a potential date before agreeing to meet in person.

She says it is also important to let a friend know where you are going, especially when meeting someone for the first time.

Dallas Cowboys team doctor Dan Cooper, a widely renowned orthopedic surgeon, is expected to perform the procedure, per sources.

The medical outlook for Speed is at least a three-month recovery followed by rehab and some hope he can return to play during the season with no exact timetable.

Speed got injured training in the Texans’ offseason workout program while lifting weights.

Speed, a key linebacker and special-teams contributor, signed a two-year $13 million maximum value contract rather than head to free agency after his original one-year, $5 million contract expired.

Speed emerged as an important part of the defense, recording 62 tackles, three for losses, two quarterback hits and one pass defensed in 16 games with nine starts for a playoff squad. He played 44 percent of the defensive snaps and 52 percent of the special teams snaps last season.

With Speed out on a long-term injury, the Texans will lean heavily on Pro Bowl middle linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair and Henry To’oTo’o. They have Jake Hansen, Jamal Hill, Marte Mapu and Jake Hummel on the roster along with rookie draft picks Wade Woodaz and Aiden Fisher.

Speed received a $4 million signing bonus and $7.5 million of the deal is guaranteed, with base salaries of $1.75 million (fully guaranteed), another $250,000 total available through per game active roster bonuses and an additional $1.5 million in incentives.

His total first-year payout has a base value of $5.75 million and a max value of $7.5 million. In the second year, he has a $3.75 million base salary with $1.75 million of that guaranteed and identical playtime per game and incentives as this season.

Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com

Also on the ballot are primary runoffs in more than a dozen congressional districts, plus state contests for lieutenant governor, attorney general and others.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn was the top vote-getter in the March 3 primary, but strong showings by two GOP challengers forced the four-term incumbent to Tuesday’s head-to-head matchup with state Attorney General Ken Paxton, the second-place finisher who received President Donald Trump’s endorsement on May 19.

The contest is Trump’s next opportunity to purge the party of incumbents he views as insufficiently loyal to him and his agenda. It also sets the stage for a general election where Democrats are increasingly optimistic about their chances to score an upset in the heavily Republican state as they look to retake control of the U.S. Senate. Historically, voters have tended to punish the incumbent president’s party at the ballot box in midterm election years.

The winner will face Democratic state Rep. James Talarico in the general election.

Trump seemed open to endorsing Cornyn following the primary, and he did not excoriate the incumbent in his endorsement of Paxton, as he’s done recently with Republican incumbents in Indiana, Louisiana and Kentucky. But he said Cornyn “was not supportive of me when times were tough.”

Cornyn was critical of Trump ahead of the president’s 2024 campaign.

Since much of the Texas primary campaign has focused on the candidates’ loyalty to Trump, the counties where the president has the most support could play a decisive role. Although many of the counties Trump won in 2024 with 80% or more of the vote are rural and sparsely populated, collectively they made up about a fifth of the GOP primary vote. Paxton beat Cornyn in these counties, 45% to 40%, while Cornyn performed better than Paxton in the rest of the state.

In counties Trump carried with between 50% and 80% of the vote, Cornyn received about 42% of the vote, edging Paxton by a percentage point. Republican primary voters in the 12 counties Democrat Kamala Harris carried in 2024 preferred Cornyn, 44% to 40%. These counties made up 25% of the overall primary vote, larger than the share of Trump’s 80%-plus counties.

Only two incumbent U.S. senators from Texas have lost a primary in the last 100 years.

In 2025, Republicans redrew the state’s congressional districts at Trump’s urging as part of an effort to maintain control of the U.S. House.

Among the notable primary runoffs that resulted from the new congressional map, Democratic U.S. Reps. Christian Menefee and Al Green will face each other in the redrawn 18th Congressional District. In the new 33rd Congressional District, Democratic U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson faces a challenge from her predecessor, former Democratic U.S. Rep. Colin Allred.

Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:

When do polls close?

Polls close statewide at 7 p.m. local time, which is 8 p.m. ET and 9 p.m. ET. Most polls are in Central time and close at 8 p.m. ET, while polls in the westernmost part of the state are in Mountain time and close at 9 p.m. ET.

What’s on the ballot?

The AP will provide vote results and declare winners in Republican primary runoffs for U.S. Senate, U.S. House, railroad commissioner, Court of Criminal Appeals, state Senate and state House and in Democratic primary runoffs for U.S. House, lieutenant governor, attorney general, state Board of Education and state House.

Who gets to vote?

Voters who did not participate in a party primary on March 3 may vote in the runoff for either party. Voters who did cast a ballot in a party primary may only vote in the runoff of the same party as they did in the primary. In other words, Democratic primary voters may not vote in a Republican primary runoff or vice versa. Voters in the non-partisan primary may vote in either party’s runoff.

How many voters are there?

As of the March 3 primary, there were nearly 19 million registered voters in Texas.

How many people actually vote?

About 2.2 million Republican primary votes and about 2.3 million Democratic primary votes were cast in the March 3 Texas primary.

In the 2022 Republican primary for Texas Attorney General, turnout was about 1.9 million voters in the primary and about 932,000 in the primary runoff.

How much of the vote is cast early or by absentee ballot?

About 63% of the vote in the March 3 Republican primary was cast before primary day.

As of Thursday, about 621,000 Republican primary ballots and about 262,000 Democratic primary ballots had already been cast in Tuesday’s election.

When are early and absentee votes released?

Counties tend to release all or nearly all results from early and absentee voting in the first vote update of the night, before any in-person Election Day results are released.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

In the U.S. Senate primary in March, the AP first reported results at 8 p.m. ET just as polls closed in most of the state. By 11:39 p.m. ET, 75% of the vote had been counted. Vote results were released continuously until about 5:58 a.m. ET, with about 98% of the total vote counted.

When will the AP declare a winner?

The Associated Press does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

How do recounts work?

Texas requires an automatic recount only in cases of a tie vote. Losing candidates may request and pay for a recount if the margin is less than 10% of the leading candidate’s vote. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

Are we there yet?

As of Tuesday, there will be 161 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

More than 1.5 million pilgrims have arrived in Saudi Arabia from outside the country, Saleh bin Saad Al-Murabba, commander of the Hajj passport forces, said Friday. The faithful have been pouring into the country for the Hajj against the backdrop of a tenuous ceasefire in the Iran war and related regional tensions and uncertainty.

Egyptian pilgrim Samya Abdul Moneim said she was grateful to God that she made it to the Hajj, which is required once in a lifetime of every Muslim who can afford it and is physically able to make it.

“I am in a state of blessing and happiness,” she said in Mecca on Sunday. “It’s an indescribable feeling, truly. I mean, thank God, I am in a blessing.”

Typically on the first day, many pilgrims in Mecca converge on a vast tent camp in the nearby desert. Ahead of that, pilgrims have been circling the cube-shaped Kaaba in the Grand Mosque in sweltering temperatures. For pilgrims, Hajj can be a deeply moving spiritual experience and a chance to seek God’s forgiveness and the erasure of past sins. Pilgrims perform the Hajj rituals over several days.

This Hajj "is, in effect, a hard reset for me,” Youssef Chouhoud, a political scientist at Christopher Newport University in Virginia, said Monday from the tent city of Mina. “I pray that I emerge on the other side of this journey with a new sense of purpose and the discipline to see it through.”

Around him, many pilgrims were resting and refueling, he said via WhatsApp, noting how demanding the pilgrimage is.

“It is for many pilgrims the most difficult thing they will ever do in their lives,” he said. “But nothing this meaningful is ever going to be easy.”

He found it inspiring “to see so many who have sacrificed so much to be here ... only to compete with one another in giving charity and helping each other along the way," he said. “All this in the hope that their intentions and actions may be accepted by their Lord.”

Pilgrims brave intense heat

Many spend years hoping and praying to one day perform the Hajj or saving up money and waiting for a permit to embark on the trip.

As they brave the intense heat to perform religious rituals, many pilgrims have been using umbrellas for shade and carrying handheld fans. Volunteers hand out water bottles to help them stay hydrated and fans spray fine mists of water.

On Saturday, U.S. President Donald Trump said a deal with Iran on the war, including opening the Strait of Hormuz, has been “largely negotiated” after calls with Israel and other allies in the region. He described it as a “Memorandum of Understanding pertaining to PEACE” that still must be finalized by the United States, Iran and the other countries that participated in the calls. That capped a week in which the U.S. weighed a new round of attacks on Iran.

Ahead of the trip for Hajj, some have said they were leaning on their faith as they embark on the journey amid the tensions and that they were feeling immense gratitude for the opportunity to go.

Hajj brings together large numbers of Muslims of diverse races, ethnicities, languages and economic classes, creating a sense of unity for many.

Regional tensions and Hajj travel plans

With uncertainty and global concerns high, authorities in Indonesia, home to the world’s largest Muslim population, have in the run-up to the Hajj season emphasized contingency planning for the pilgrimage and issued instructions to ensure that additional travel costs not be passed on to Indonesian pilgrims.

In India, home to a large Muslim minority, pilgrimage planning has proceeded largely as normal, but high fuel prices have pushed up travel costs for pilgrims.

A reopening of the strait would begin to ease a worldwide energy crisis sparked by the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran on Feb. 28, which led Tehran to effectively close the waterway. Prices have spiked for oil, gas and several related products, jolting the world economy. The U.S. has blockaded Iranian ports for over a month, and Trump on Sunday said the blockade “will remain in full force and effect until an agreement is reached, certified, and signed.”

In response to the U.S.-Israeli attacks, Iran has launched retaliatory strikes and the conflict widened. A fragile ceasefire was reached in April.

In Saudi Arabia, pilgrims have been doing the ritual circuit around the Kaaba since arriving in Mecca over recent days. Pilgrims in Mina will camp there and pray and worship.

On Tuesday, in what is considered the pinnacle of the pilgrimage, the pilgrims will stand on the plain of Arafat, where they praise God, plead for forgiveness and make supplications. Many carry prayer requests from loved ones and raise their hands in worship with tears streaming down their faces.

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Fam reported from Winter Park, Florida. Associated Press writers Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Sheikh Saaliq in New Delhi contributed to this report.

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

“I’ll stay in the European Parliament because it would be good for the Direct Democracy party to have a European Parliament member,” Fidias, who goes by his first name, told reporters before a proclamation ceremony.

“We could’ve done better but we’re happy with what has happened, this is a small victory.”

Fidias whipped up much speculation by being coy about his political future throughout his campaign.

It was only six months ago that Fidias, 26, founded the Direct Democracy party. He said that the party was intended to upend the established political order in Cyprus and abroad by enabling ordinary citizens to have a say in formulating party policy and declare themselves party candidates through an online application.

Direct Democracy received 5.4% of total votes in Sunday’s parliamentary election and four seats in the 56-member House. Fidias, who garnered the most votes out of all of his party’s candidates, ceded his seat to runner-up Yiannis Laouris.

Even though it’s a remarkable result for a group that eschewed the traditional way of wooing voters by outlining its policies, the result didn’t live up to Fidias’ own expectations. That’s because nearly one in five voters cast their ballots for him in the June 2024 European Parliament election, even though he took no political positions, made no promises and didn't present a program for his time in office.

“It seems now that people are hungry not for political positions, but for true people that are not lying, (but) saying the truth,” he told The Associated Press in an interview shortly after the 2024 poll.

Fidias spent years boosting his popularity with outrageous video posts of him spending wads of cash in Vietnam, living a week in an airport for free, and burying himself alive for 10 days.

His online breakthrough came after he relentlessly pursued and succeeded in getting a hug from billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, who also became a fan.

Fidias has acknowledged that his online antics had offered many Cypriot voters — who are deeply disenchanted with the perceived corruption of a party system that has operated on a favors-for-votes basis for decades — a way to express their frustrations.

Fidias has used online media as his primary tool to communicate with his supporters the inner workings of the European Parliament, the reasoning for his voting on issues as well as to answer his growing number of detractors who consider him and his trial-by-error decision-making politically infantile.

He has also courted plenty of controversy for his perceived support for negotiations with Russia over the war in Ukraine, and for casting doubt on what the International Criminal Court said was the “unlawful deportation” of Ukrainian children to Russia.

Sunday’s parliamentary election saw the ultranationalist National Popular Front, or ELAM, party make major gains, receiving nearly 11% of the vote and eight seats — up from just under 7% and four seats in the previous poll.

Kylian Mbappé and Mohamed Salah have recovered from injuries ahead of the tournament co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Now the focus will switch to Messi, the Argentina great who left the field after reaching toward his left hamstring in a game for Inter Miami in Major League Soccer on Sunday.

Yamal, Spain's new superstar, missed the final weeks of the season for Barcelona because of a muscle injury in his left leg but should be healed in time to play at the World Cup.

Others have not been so fortunate.

France striker Hugo Ekitike sustained an Achilles injury in April that could take more than six months to heal, ruling him out of the tournament and probably the start of next season with Liverpool.

Brazil stars Rodrygo and Éder Militão are definitely out. So is Bayern Munich and Germany forward Serge Gnabry after injuring his adductor in training.

Players and coaches have increasingly warned about the impact of an ever-packed schedule, and the expanded World Cup comes a year after the relaunched, supersized Club World Cup. The Champions League has also been expanded in recent years.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta describes the demand on players as “an accident waiting to happen."

With the World Cup just around the corner, players are walking a tightrope to avoid injury before the tournament kicks off.

Players definitely ruled out of the World Cup

Argentina: Joaquín Panichelli (ACL)

Brazil: Éder Militão (hamstring), Rodrygo (ACL)

England: Ben White (medial ligament)

France: Hugo Ekitike (Achilles)

Germany: Serge Gnabry (adductor)

Netherlands: Xavi Simons (ACL)

United States: Cameron Carter-Vickers (Achilles), Patrick Agyemang (Achilles)

Ones to watch

Algeria: Goalkeeper Luca Zidane, son of France icon Zinedine Zidane, is a doubt after suffering a facial injury during an on-field collision last month.

Argentina: Cristian Romero has a knee injury. It has not yet been confirmed if he is out of the World Cup, with Tottenham not giving a timeframe for his recovery.

Canada: Star left back Alphonso Davies injured his hamstring with just over a month to go before the tournament starts, after he was hurt during Bayern Munich's defeat by Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League semifinals.

Croatia: Veteran midfielder Luka Modrić broke his cheekbone last month but was back playing for AC Milan well in time for the World Cup. Defender Joško Gvardiol returned to training for Manchester City in early May after four months out with a broken leg.

Morocco: Paris Saint-Germain defender Achraf Hakimi has been sidelined with a right thigh injury.

United States: Midfielder Johnny Cardoso sprained his right ankle five weeks before the World Cup while training with Atletico Madrid. Center back Chris Richards tore ligaments in his ankle playing for Crystal Palace.

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

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

All the cases are linked to the outbreak in neighboring Congo, which appears to have started several days or weeks before Congolese authorities declared it on May 15.

A 59-year-old Congolese man was admitted to a hospital in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, on May 11, and died three days later, before it was known he was suffering from the Ebola virus. Two other Congolese nationals who sought medical care in Uganda later tested positive for Ebola.

Ugandan health authorities on Saturday confirmed the first local infections: a driver and a health worker exposed to the Congolese patient who died on May 11. Two more health workers at a private hospital in Kampala have since tested positive, the Ministry of Health said Monday.

“Both patients have been admitted to the designated treatment unit and are now receiving care,” Dr. Charles Olaro, the national director of health services, said in a statement.

President Yoweri Museveni has urged Ugandans to “ stop shaking hands ” as part of measures to avoid infection. He also ordered the postponement of an annual religious event that attracts thousands of pilgrims, from Congo and elsewhere, who converge around a Catholic basilica just outside Kampala by June 3.

Other measures include the temporary suspension of all public transportation and flights between Congo and Uganda.

In Congo, suspected Ebola cases have topped 900, mainly in eastern Ituri province where the ongoing outbreak is centered, authorities said Sunday. The response has been hampered by fear, anger and frustration among locals including attacks on treatment centers, as well as distrust of authorities in a region long plagued by armed violence.

Congo has had more than a dozen Ebola outbreaks over the decades. Health experts say international aid cuts last year by the United States and other rich nations are devastating for eastern Congo because of the region's unique problems.

Aid groups fighting this Ebola outbreak say they don’t have the equipment they need, such as face shields and suits to protect health workers from infection, testing kits, and body bags and other materials needed to safely bury the bodies of victims, which can be highly contagious.

The Bundibugyo type of Ebola virus responsible for the outbreak has no approved vaccine or treatment. The outbreak has been declared a global health emergency.

Tracing and isolating Ebola contacts is seen as key to stopping the spread of the disease, which usually manifests as hemorrhagic fever.

A family of fruit bats is believed to be the natural hosts of the viruses that cause Ebola, according to the World Health Organization. Ebola is spread by contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person or contaminated materials.

France's CAC 40 edged up 1.1% to 8,203.32, while the German DAX rose 1.0% to 25,148.39. Britain's FTSE 100 added 0.2% to 10,466.26. Trading will be closed in the U.S. for the Memorial Day holiday.

In Asia, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 surged 2.9% to finish at 65,158.19. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 0.4% to 8,692.00. The Shanghai Composite gained nearly 1% to 4,152.57. Trading was closed in South Korea and Hong Kong for holidays marking Buddha's birthday.

Trump said negotiations with Iran were “proceeding in an orderly and constructive manner.” Meanwhile, regional officials told The Associated Press on Sunday that the United States is close to reaching a deal with Iran that would end the war, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and see Iran give up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium,

Reopening the Strait of Hormuz will help decide the direction of oil prices. Its closure due to the war has prevented oil tankers from exiting the Persian Gulf and delivering crude to customers worldwide. Japan, for instance, imports almost all its oil, most of it through the strait.

“Markets are rapidly transitioning from pricing geopolitical fear toward pricing a potential peace dividend as Hormuz reopening expectations pressure oil and the dollar lower,” analyst Stephen Innes said in a commentary.

On Friday, the S&P 500 added 0.4% and the Dow industrials climbed 0.6%. The Nasdaq composite gained 0.2%.

Benchmark U.S. crude oil declined $4.77, or more than 4%, to $91.83 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, sank $4.86 to $98.68 a barrel.

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar declined to 158.95 Japanese yen from 159.16 yen. The euro cost $1.1644, up from $1.1605.

Recent earnings reports from U.S. companies that topped analysts’ expectations are helping markets, though concerns over inflation have risen as the war has dragged on.

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Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@yurikageyama

As a quick refresher, on Memorial Day, we remember those who died while serving our country. Veterans Day is intended to honor the service of all people who have worn armed services uniforms.

So, what do you say on Memorial Day to someone who might be struggling -- a widow, a veteran or anyone who’s been affected by a military member’s death? What do you say to someone who served?

The website DiversityInc wrote about this very topic.

“This common misconception, that Memorial Day is a time to thank veterans, is not in fact what the holiday is intended for,” the site says.

Here are some ideas on what you can say instead. Try something like:

• “Enjoy your weekend, but I want you to know that I will be remembering what this holiday is about.”
• “Enjoy your weekend, and I will be thinking about those who are no longer with us.”
• “I will be taking a moment this weekend to honor those who served our nation and are no longer with us.”
• NPR simply suggests, “I hope you’re having a meaningful day.”

Those seem preferable to:

• “Thank you for your service.”
• “Happy Memorial Day.”
• “Is this a difficult weekend for you?”
• “How many friends did you lose on your deployments?”

It might be hard to approach any veterans you might know, but saying something meaningful really could make all the difference for someone having a difficult day.

Before you think this is splitting hairs, consider that what you say matters.

While it’s certainly not “wrong” to wish someone a “Happy Memorial Day,” and it’s safe to assume most people are well-intentioned, it seems as though taking a few minutes to say the right thing will mean that much more.

After all, the day is about more than backyard parties and barbecues. Let’s prove it by taking a moment to examine our words.

This story was first published in 2019. It has since been updated.

Two of the men were dead, while emergency personnel struggled in the early morning hours to revive one in an ambulance near the pile of concrete slabs, twisted iron bars and aluminum scaffoldings that was all that remained of the building in Angeles City of Pampanga Province. They eventually gave up and drove away.

The poignant scene was witnessed by a small group of journalists, including from The Associated Press, who watched hundreds of rescuers led by firefighters and police scrambling for hours to extricate the men, who were at the time alive but trapped under concrete slabs and iron bars.

Rescuers tried to provide water and medicine intravenously to one of the trapped men in a desperate effort to keep him alive in the scorching summer heat, regional police chief Brig. Gen. Jess Mendez told the AP.

“He never made it despite all the efforts,” he said.

One of the three people pulled out from the rubble on Monday was unidentified and was not on the list of the 17 missing, who were mostly construction workers, according to Angeles city information chief Jay Pelayo.

The fourth dead victim was a Malaysian tourist trapped in a budget inn that was partly hit by the avalanche of debris from the collapsed building. Another guest at the inn was injured but managed to dash out, officials said.

A day after the unfinished building collapsed with a loud crashing sound after a fierce thunderstorm, Angeles City Mayor Carmelo Lazatin said rescue efforts would still not be shifted to a body retrieval operation.

“My best hope is that we can rescue more people alive,” Lazatin told the AP. “We don’t want to give the families of the trapped workers any bad news.”

Anxiety and fear among relatives of the trapped workers, who are waiting in sheds near the rubble, have deepened.

“I’m losing hope because of what I see — slow rescue work,” said Lea Mendoza Casilao, a 47-year-old sardine factory worker whose boyfriend, a mason, was among those still trapped in the rubble.

She brought a week’s supply of rice and sardines for him at the construction site, but she said they would never meet as scheduled over the weekend after the building where he was sleeping crumbled before dawn on Sunday.

Lazatin said rescuers were moving carefully because huge slabs of concrete were being held up precariously by a tangle of aluminum scaffolding and could crash down on rescuers.

Twenty-six workers were either rescued or managed to run out of the collapsing building, where they slept on pieces of plywood on the ground floor.

National police chief Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. said his force will support an “ongoing investigation to determine the cause of the incident and possible violations of safety and building regulations.”

Angeles City hosted one of the largest U.S. Air Force bases outside of the American mainland, helping turn Angeles and outlying cities and towns into entertainment and commercial hubs in the main northern Philippine region of Luzon.

Clark Air Base, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Manila, closed in the early 1990s. The former base has become a bustling industrial and tourism enclave called the Clark Freeport Zone, and is still surrounded by remnants of U.S. base-era red-light strips, bars, nightclubs, tattoo shops and budget hotels.

Mike Burgess, director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, the nation’s main domestic spy agency known as ASIO, was testifying at a government inquiry into the spread of antisemitism in Australia ahead of the attack at Bondi Beach on Dec. 14.

ASIO reduced Australia’s National Terrorism Threat Level from “probable” to “possible” — the second-safest level on a five-tier scale -- in November 2022, after the Islamic State group in the Middle East had been defeated and was no longer recruiting fighters.

ASIO then shifted to increase its focus on foreign interference and espionage investigations, but left the organization’s “counterterrorism mission” with sufficient resources, Burgess said.

“Because terrorism has the potential to cause people to lose their lives or get harmed, it always remained a priority for us. There was just less activity that we were investigating because the nature of the environment had changed and the number of tasks we were looking at had reduced,” Burgess said.

“At the same time, every rock we lifted up we found espionage or foreign interference that needed to be inquired and investigated and so resources were moved over there,” Burgess added.

Spy boss had sounded alarm after the Hamas Oct. 7 attack

Five days after the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Burgess said he took an unprecedented step for an ASIO boss by making a public statement warning that inflamed language could lead to violence.

“Before the Israeli government responded to that horrific attack, we saw the strong emotions appear in this country where we had people celebrating the Hamas terrorist attack,” Burgess said.

ASIO saw threatening and intimidating behavior directed at Jewish Australians through the end of 2023. That behavior escalated to target Jewish businesses and places of worship in October 2024, he said.

ASIO elevated Australia’s terrorism threat level again to “probable” in August 2024. ASIO's resources became stretched as antisemitic cases mounted, Burgess said.

'We knew we were busy and had a lot on our plate, but ... at no time did we have serious matters that we knew about that we were leaving untreated," Burgess said.

Hanukkah event was given the lowest security priority

Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, the highest form of inquiry in Australia, must report to the government before the first anniversary of what was the nation’s worst mass shooting since 1996.

The father and son gunmen, Sajid and Naveed Akram, were inspired by IS and brought handmade IS flags to Bondi, prosecutors allege.

Both were wounded in a gunfight with police, the father fatally, less than eight minutes after the shooting began. The son has been charged with committing a terrorist act, 15 counts of murder and 40 counts of attempted murder. He has entered no pleas.

Richard Lancaster, who leads a team of lawyers in his role as the Senior Counsel Assisting the Royal Commission, said only four police officers were at the event when the gunmen opened fire on a crowd of around 1,000 people.

Within 29 seconds of the start of the shooting, 10 people had been fatally shot and an 11th had been wounded, Lancaster said.

Within five minutes, 11 police officers were at the scene. Three of those officers were wounded, he said.

A Jewish security organization, the Community Security Group, had requested the New South Wales Police Force post officers at the beachfront park for the duration of the Hanukkah event, Lancaster said. Instead, officers were instructed to attend from time to time.

Police gave the Hanukkah celebration the lowest security priority on a three-tier scale, with police resources managed by a local commander, Lancaster said.

Jewish High Holy Days in September and October were top-tier events in which police resources were managed by the specialized Police Force Major Events Group in liaison with the paramilitary Police Force Counter Terrorism and Special Tactics Command.

“There is no evidence that any intelligence agency or law enforcement agency had any actual knowledge or specific information to suggest there might be an armed attack on the Hanukkah celebration,” Lancaster said.

“In that sense, it was a surprise attack,” he added.

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This story has been corrected to show that Burgess said the agency’s counterterrorism mission was left with sufficient resources.

It was not immediately known if anyone was hurt in the attack on the Mongbwalu General Hospital but Dr. Richard Lokudu, the hospital’s medical director, told The Associated Press the attackers demanded that two bodies of their kin be handed over to them.

There was gunfire and the medics were trying to evacuate the patients and the staff, Lokudu said over the phone.

“Mongbwalu General Hospital is on general alert,” he added. He did not have any further details of the unfolding turmoil.

The attack — the third in a week’s time on healthcare facilities where medical workers struggle with lack of resources to treat suspected Ebola cases — underlined the challenges of the outbreak, which the World Health Organization has declared a public health emergency of international concern.

Bodies of those who died of Ebola can be highly contagious and lead to further spread when people prepare them for burial and gather for funerals.

In response to the outbreak, Congolese authorities have mandated that the dangerous work of burying suspected victims be managed wherever possible by authorities, which can be met by protests from families and friends. On Friday, the government said funeral wakes and gatherings of more than 50 people would be banned in northeastern Congo in an effort to curb the spread of the virus.

On Saturday, a group of residents of Mongbwalu, located in Ituri province, attacked and set fire to a tent set up for suspected and confirmed Ebola cases by the Doctors Without Borders humanitarian group.

During that attack, 18 people with suspected Ebola infections left the facility and were now unaccounted for, Lokudu had said earlier.

On Thursday, another treatment center, in the town of Rwampara, was burned down after family members were banned from retrieving the body of a local man suspected to have died of Ebola.

WHO has said the outbreak poses a “very high” risk for Congo — up from a previous categorization of “high” — but that the risk of the disease spreading globally remains low.

Earlier on Sunday, the Congolese Ministry of Communication said on X that there were 904 suspected cases of Ebola, mostly in northeastern Ituri Province — a significant jump from the previously announced more than 700 suspected Ebola cases.

The ministry also said the total suspected Ebola deaths stood at 119, but the numbers it released separately for each region added up to 220. Officials could not immediately be reached to explain the discrepancy.

There is no available vaccine for the Bundibugyo virus, a rare type of Ebola, which spread undetected for weeks in Ituri following the first reported death — in late April in the town of Bunia, the provincial capital — while authorities tested for another, more common, Ebola virus and came up negative.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said on Saturday that three of its volunteers had died from the outbreak in Mongbwalu. The agency said it believed the three healthcare workers contracted the virus on March 27 while handling dead bodies as part of a humanitarian mission unrelated to Ebola.

If confirmed, this would significantly push back the timeline of the outbreak.

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Pronczuk reported from Dakar, Senegal.

That made his crown jewel Cup Series victory Sunday night all the more special.

Suarez benefited from a crucial pit call, then caught a break from Mother Nature to win the rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600, capping an emotional day in which the racing world remembered the late Busch.

Suarez became the first Mexican-born driver to win the Coke 600. It was his third Cup Series win and first since 2024.

The victory was especially emotional for Suarez, who previously raced for Kyle Busch Motorsports.

“Kyle, he was special,” Saurez said as he teared up. “I was doing this for Kyle, for (his wife) Samatha, for (his children) Brexton and Lennix and for all of his family.”

A non-factor for most of the race, Suarez gambled and took two tires during a late pit stop, then held off Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin on restarts before the race was called when the sky opened up and rain drenched the track shortly before midnight Eastern time.

NASCAR quickly made the decision to call the race with 27 laps remaining.

Bell finished second; Hamlin was third.

The two Joe Gibbs Racing teammates had a chance to catch Suarez on the two restarts, but couldn't clear his No. 7 Chevrolet.

“It’s a bummer," Bell said, who won the rain-shortened 2024 Coca-Cola 600. "It wasn’t meant to be today. That's 2026 for us.”

Hamlin said he was “just a little unlucky.”

“The 20 car (Bell) and us were just really battling because we knew whoever could clear him (would win the race),” Hamlin said. "We were really good all day. We just didn’t get to see it through.”

The race came just three days after Busch’s death sent shockwaves throughout the motorsports world and beyond. The 41-year-old Busch died after severe pneumonia progressed into sepsis, resulting in rapid and overwhelming complications, according to a statement released by his family.

The two-time Cup Series champion and winner of a record 234 races across NASCAR’s three national series had become unresponsive while practicing in a Chevrolet simulator Wednesday, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because no details were released by the family.

Busch's family attended the race and NASCAR CEO Steve O'Donnell told them they are part of the NASCAR community and “we got you.”

NASCAR and CMS honored Busch with his No. 8 and signature on the frontstretch grass and a highway billboard near the main entrance of the track. The U.S. Army Golden Knights carried a Busch flag prior to the race and each of the 39 cars in field carried a small, black No. 8 decal.

Kyle Larson won the first stage race. Hamlin won the second stage and Bell the third.

Crashing out

Defending champion Ross Chastain crashed out when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. clipped his car in Turn 2 with 81 laps remaining in the race.

Connor Zilisch and Austin Cindric only made it 52 laps before getting caught up in a crash. Cindric got turned around and Zilisch came crashing in to the side of his No. 2 Ford, ending both drivers’ day.

Chase Elliott, a two-time winner this year, hit the outside wall and ping-ponged into the inside wall on Lap 90. That car was beyond repair and he finished 37th.

“I was trying to make something happen and I stepped over the line,” Elliott said.

Replacing Busch

Austin Hill, a regular driver in the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series for Richard Childress Racing, took Busch's spot in the race and finished 26th. He drove the No. 33 car after RCR temporarily retired the No. 8 until Busch's 11-year-old son Brexton is ready to drive.

Austin Dillon, went behind the wall with damage to the front of his car with 56 laps to go, ending any hope of an emotional win for RCR. He finished 32nd.

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

Kerley, who predicted Usain Bolt's world record of 9.58 seconds would get “destroyed,” ran a time that would have placed him last at the Paris Olympics two years ago, where he ran 9.81 and won bronze.

The only athlete to win the $1 million bonus for going faster than the world record over the four hours of swimming, weightlifting and track in the specially built stadium on the Las Vegas Strip was Kristian Gkolomeev, who closed the night by swimming the 50-meter free in 20.81 seconds.

That record won't go into the books, however, because the Enhanced Games, true to its name, allows performance-enhancing drugs that are banned in mainstream sports.

The men’s 50-meter freestyle world record of 20.88 seconds was set two months ago in a sanctioned event by Cameron McEvoy.

Gkolomeev had also won a $1 million bonus from Enhanced last year for swimming faster than the world record during a “trial.”

“Another million, it’s not bad at all,” he said. “It’s going to change my life to the good, for sure.“

The most iconic marks in Olympic sports, though, are in track, and when Kerley called out Bolt’s 17-year-old record, it made headlines and even got Bolt involved with a short post on social media: “OK,” he said.

By the time the starting gun sounded (or maybe long before that, depending on who you ask) it was clear there wouldn't be much to worry about.

Kerley was in a line of six runners who had to be called out of the blocks three times — an energy sapper — first for a sprinter to re-tie his shoe, then twice more when the false-start signal went off, but early motion was, apparently, undetectable and nobody was disqualified.

“A lot of false starts, a lot of jumping, a lot of people who didn’t want to run their heats,” Kerley said of the less-than-full field for a basically meaningless prelim race in which he false started but wasn't DQ'd. “Got to do better than that. I’m ready to run fast.“

Kerley, who said he is not using performance enhancers, still pocketed $250,000 — the first-place prize for all the events.

Most athletes are making money they could only dream of in mainstream Olympic sports.

The real stakes, however, could be for the investors in the company that brought the world the Enhanced Games with the idea of turning it into a new-age online pharmacy that peddles performance enhancers under medical supervision.

“It's just the beginning,” CEO Max Martin said in front of a specially curated crowd of around 2,500.

Tickets were not on sale to the general public.

The women’s sprints didn’t have anywhere near the star power Kerley injected into the men’s.

What the two races did have in common were winners who claimed not to be taking drugs — results that force questions about both the effectiveness of performance enhancers and the level of the athletes who signed onto the league that began with mega investments from the likes of Peter Thiel and is now a publicly traded company.

Tristan Evelyn’s winning time of 11.25 seconds in the women's sprint was more than three-quarters of a second slower than FloJo's 38-year-old world record (10.49). It would have been .21 seconds behind the seventh-place finisher at the Paris Games two years ago.

In all, Enhanced said there were 14 personal bests set by 12 athletes, all of them swimmers and weightlifters.

Among those who made runs at world marks was Ben Proud, the British Olympic silver medalist, who finished .05 off the 50-meter fly mark of 22.27.

“I think I am,” he said when asked if he was happy after winning $250K. “But I think we all know what we came here for, and that’s a world record.”

Kerley didn’t come close to it. When it was over, he seemed to be blaming everyone but himself.

“Man, they gotta do better than that,” he said. “Gotta train a little harder, train on that (expletive) a little more.”

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Vegas coach John Tortorella had his own description.

“This is a game where we showed some balls,” the man known as Torts said after the Golden Knights' latest Houdini act.

Tomas Hertl weaved his way toward the slot and broke a tie at 8:21 of the third period as the Golden Knights overcame a three-goal deficit Sunday night to beat Colorado 5-3 and move within a victory of their third Stanley Cup Final appearance in nine years.

“It obviously feels really good right now, but we’re playing a hell of a hockey team,” Golden Knights forward Mitch Marner said. “We know that the next game is going to be even tougher now. Enjoy this for the next 10 minutes, 30 minutes, go home and then try to take care of yourself, and do what you got to do to be ready tomorrow.”

The Golden Knights go for what would be a stunning sweep over the Presidents' Trophy winners on Tuesday night. Chicago in 2013 was the last team to win the Presidents' Trophy and the Stanley Cup in the same season.

Colorado will try to become just the fifth team to win a series after falling behind 3-0. Los Angeles in 2014 was the most recent team to accomplish that in eliminating San Jose in their first-round series.

Vegas, which trailed 3-0 after the first period, was 0-19 in the playoffs when behind that many goals. The Avalanche were 74-1 when holding such a lead.

“As low as it can get,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said of the team's emotions. “It’s a big hill to climb. The next 24-to-36 hours is for … you’ve got to find a way to get over it, regroup and go again.”

Colorado has other concerns because front-line center Nathan MacKinnon might not be fully healthy going forward. MacKinnon, who has 15 points this postseason and led the league in the regular season with 53 goals, took a puck to his right knee in the second period and played through the injury.

That comes just as the Avalanche got back star defenseman Cale Makar, who missed the first two games this series because of an upper-body injury.

Vegas keeps finding aways, going this deep into the postseason despite being outshot in 11 of 15 games, including now nine in a row. The Golden Knights erased deficits the past two games against Colorado, though Game 2 was just 1-0.

“We’ve been all season long many times down,” Hertl said. “We’ve come back so many times. Even after the first when we were down 3-0 we knew we could do it.”

Hertl, Mark Stone and William Karlsson each had a goal and assist. Keegan Kolesar and Brett Howden scored the other Golden Knights goals, and Mitch Marner and Kaedan Korczak each tallied two assists. Carter Hart made 32 saves.

Stone’s goal came on his first appearance since suffering a lower-body injury in Game 3 of the second-round series against Anaheim. Kolesar, who had gone 37 playoff games without a goal, picked up his first point of the postseason.

Gabriel Landeskog, Nazem Kadri and Jack Drury scored for the Avalanche, and Devon Toews had two assists. Scott Wedgewood stopped 18 shots.

The Avalanche dominated the first period by taking a 3-0 lead, but the Golden Knights thought they had cut the deficit to 2-1 when Pavel Dorofeyev appeared to score a power-play goal with 7:26 left. Officials immediately waved it off and the decision was upheld on video review.

Colorado then made the Golden Knights pay when Drury found himself alone on a breakaway, deking Vegas goalie Hart to score the short-handed goal with 6:45 left for the three-goal lead.

But the Golden Knights didn't let the two-goal swing trouble them too much, with Stone's power-play goal 19 seconds into the second period sparking a three-goal answer to tie the game heading into the final period of regulation.

Then Hertl broke the deadlock — and now the Golden Knights just need to win one of four games.

“I want them to feel it for a little bit, as far as what they just did against a really good hockey club,” Tortorella said, “but then we get back to work tomorrow.”

There was a moment of silence before the game for two-time NASCAR champion driver and Las Vegas native Kyle Busch. He died Thursday at 41 after severe pneumonia developed into sepsis, according to a statement from Busch's family.

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“The highlight will be when I can finally lay down because I'm so tired,” Legge said.

Legge's quest to become the first woman to complete “The Double” — racing 1,100 miles spread out over two tracks on one day — ended quickly Sunday when she crashed out in the Indianapolis 500.

She flew to North Carolina and finished in 31st at the Coca-Cola 600 and 12 laps back after losing a tire mid-race.

Legge said now it is time to regroup after what she called “a calamity of errors.”

The English driver completed just 17 of the scheduled 200 laps at Indianapolis Motor Speedway's iconic 2.5-mile oval before she ran into the car of Ryan Hunter-Reay, knocking both cars out of the race. Hunter-Reay started spinning in the second turn and braked hard to keep his car off the wall, and the trailing Legge steered inside to try to avoid the 2013 Indy 500 winner. But as smoke emerge from both braking cars, Legge's car hit the inside wall.

“I’m fine, just gutted more than anything,” she said after being checked and released at the track's infield medical center. “Ryan spun in front of me, I think he was battling his car for a minute, I was just chilling, trying to save fuel and he spun down the track and started coming up the track, so I tried to go low and just didn’t make it.”

Legge was the sixth driver ever to attempt “The Double." The only driver to complete it is three-time NASCAR champion Tony Stewart in 2001.

It's been a week full of bad luck for Legge.

Her flight from New York to Indianapolis was delayed, causing her to miss Indy's annual media day. Then she had communications trouble in Friday's final 500 practice, and after flying to Charlotte on Saturday, Coca-Cola 600 qualifying was rained out.

“Hopefully, we get all of the travel woes out of the way now before the weekend, and this weekend goes smoothly,” Legge told The Associated Press on Thursday. “My management has been speaking with Kyle’s management about how to get the logistics sorted out, how they did it and we’re trying our best to copy and paste what they had and they’re just keeping me in the loop.”

Her fortunes briefly looked like they might have changed when the speedway dodged the predicted prerace rain, allowing the race to begin on time. Then came the tangle with Hunter-Reay, who was also was checked and released by IndyCar's medical team.

“It was super tough out there,” Hunter-Reay said. “The whole time I was trying to keep it off the wall. Just super disappointing. That’s the busiest I’ve been around here in 16 years. I was trying to keep it off the wall the whole time and finally, one of those wiggles didn't come back in Turn 2.”

At the 500, crashes and bad weather have been a theme in each of the last three “Double” attempts. A rain-delayed Indy start prevented two-time NASCAR champion Kyle Larson from making it to Charlotte in time for the start in 2024, and Larson crashed out of both races last year after another rain-delayed start in Indy.

But Legge was hoping to avoid all of it.

“She’ll stay here throughout,” her father, Derek Legge, said before the first race while texting from a golf cart outside her garage. “We’re keeping an eye on the weather. It might even be delayed here an hour at a time.”

By then, Legge’s car was already on the Brickyard as the sold-out grandstands filled in and hundreds of people surrounded the cars on the track.

The English driver started from the No. 26 spot, the middle of the ninth row, at Indy, where she drove for HMD Motorsports with A.J. Foyt Racing team.

The other five drivers who previously tried "The Double” had months to prepare, but Legge's teams didn't announce her attempt until last week. Since then, those behind the scenes helped Legge line up the helicopter ride she planned to take from the speedway to Indianapolis International Airport and the private jet that would take her to Charlotte.

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The Golden Knights, instead, put the setback behind them and rallied to beat the Colorado Avalanche 5-3 and take a 3-0 series lead in the Western Conference Final.

Vegas forward Pavel Dorofeyev appeared to score a power-play goal with 7:26 left in the first period, but officials immediately waved it off and the decision was upheld on video review. The Golden Knights immediately celebrated despite the initial call with a run through the high-five line, believing the call would be changed after officials checked the video.

Officials ruled on the ice that the puck went off Dorofeyev's glove, according to the ESPN broadcast, and found the video inconclusive.

Dorofeyev's stick also might have been above the cross bar, but it was at least even with it.

The Avalanche then made the Golden Knights pay when Jack Drury found himself alone on a breakaway, deking Vegas goalie Carter Hart to score the short-handed goal with 6:45 left for the three-goal lead.

A lead that didn't last.

“Not super ideal, obviously, but I think we got a pretty big penalty kill after that and it kind of settled us down and the period ends,” Golden Knights captain Mark Stone said. "That’s probably the best thing that could happen to us, the period ends.”

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He had three Oklahoma City defenders in front of him. He took three dribbles. He got three points.

And he made it look easy, too.

A swished 3-pointer from the midcourt stripe to close the first half brought maybe the loudest roars of his night, but it was hardly the only moment in which Wembanyama was unstoppable in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals on Sunday.

He got most of the fourth quarter off and still finished with 33 points, eight rebounds, five assists and three blocked shots as the Spurs beat the Thunder 103-82 to tie the West title series at two games apiece.

“The truth is that we had never been in this kind of situation before,” Wembanyama said. “It was our first deficit in a playoff series and we just responded. It was nothing amazing. It wasn't magic. We just did what we needed to do.”

In other words, he wasn't surprised. A 62-win team in the regular season — and a team that has now beaten Oklahoma City six times in nine opportunities this season — shouldn't be surprised by anything anymore.

Game 5 is Tuesday in Oklahoma City.

It was Wembanyama who pointed the finger of blame at himself following San Antonio's loss in Game 3, saying that the Spurs were “going to see what we're made of” in Game 4 and that he had to do more to get teammates involved.

He delivered on every level.

“I saw a lot and I'm not surprised," Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “I think our competitive response all year has been pretty good — and he's been at the forefront of that more often than not. I think tonight, not speaking for him, he felt an obligation to set a tone for us in a variety of ways.”

Wembanyama had 11 points in the first quarter, 11 more on 10 shot attempts in the second quarter and capped all that with the beat-the-clock 3-pointer going into halftime.

And on the other end, he might have been even better.

The unanimous Defensive Player of the Year — who was announced on Sunday night as a first-team All-NBA selection for the first time — led an effort that held Oklahoma City to a season-low in points and a season-high-tying 20 turnovers.

The Thunder had at least 108 points in every game in these playoffs entering Sunday.

“We've played 12 playoff games. When you play 12 playoff games, they're not all going to be masterpieces,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “As much as you want to win, there's nights where you just don't have it for whatever reason.”

On Sunday, that reason might have been Wembanyama. The Thunder were outscored by 29 points when he was on the floor. They shot 18 of 41 inside the paint, with Wembanyama a big reason for that, so more things got forced outside — where they shot 12 of 50.

He was asked how the Spurs bottled up the Thunder so well.

“I'm not going to get into details, but in general, being more disciplined and just trusting the game plan even more,” Wembanyama said.

There's a flight for the Spurs to Oklahoma City on Monday for a game on Tuesday, and the winner of that contest will be one game away from the NBA Finals. It's clear that Wembanyama knows that even after a big win, the job only gets tougher now.

“The series is far from over,” Wembanyama said. “We've got six more wins before we can rest.”

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