In the other executions, a Tennessee man faces death for killing a motel maid and an Alabama man will be executed after dropping all his appeals in the killing of a 5-year-old girl he paid her mother to abuse.

Eleven states carried out executions in 2025 in the U.S. If the Tennessee and Alabama deaths take place, six states will have had executions in 2026.

The last time three executions were held on the same day was Jan. 7, 2010, when Louisiana, Ohio and Texas put inmates to death. Three executions were scheduled on the same day in 2018, but only one went forward after a Texas man was granted a reprieve and prison officials in Alabama had problems with the IV line.

Florida executed two men on the same day in July and has put 31 prisoners to death since the start of 2025.

Oklahoma prisoner says he regrets 2003 killing of girlfriend

Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez, 70, died by lethal injection at 10:13 a.m CDT at the state’s penitentiary in rural McAlester.

He was the third person put to death this year in Oklahoma and the 20th under Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, who leaves office in January after eight years.

Convicted of fatally shooting his girlfriend at their Oklahoma City home in 2003, Cuesta-Rodriguez had said he regretted killing Olimpia Fisher and didn’t ask a board for clemency.

Fisher, 43, planned to leave Cuesta-Rodriguez when he shot her in one eye and then waited about eight minutes as she screamed for help before firing the fatal shot into her other eye.

“He made her suffer because she dared to live beyond his control,” Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond told the state’s Pardon and Parole Board on July 14.

Last month, the board voted 3-1 against recommending clemency for Cuesta-Rodriguez. His attorneys had asked the board to recommend he serve life in prison, saying he had a difficult childhood in Cuba and suffered from brain damage, post-traumatic stress disorder and major depression with psychotic episodes.

Tennessee's last scheduled execution was halted after IV problems

Tennessee plans to execute Anthony Darrell Hines for the 1985 murder of Catherine Jean Jenkins.

Hines stabbed Jenkins to death while the 54-year-old was working as a motel maid in Kingston Springs. He was sentenced to death in 1986, won an appeal for a new sentencing hearing and was again sentenced to death in 1989.

Hines' execution date comes just three months after the attempted lethal injection of another man was called off because of a problem inserting an IV.

Hines, 66, appealed unsuccessfully to the governor and the courts, saying that the doctor who oversaw the May execution was unqualified and likely to botch his execution as well. He said his thinness and muscular atrophy after two strokes mean he could face problems with an IV as well.

During the attempted execution of Tony Carruthers, the IV team established a primary line right away but then worked for more than an hour trying to insert a backup line. Carruthers' lawyer witnessed the attempts and said the team tried to insert an IV in Carruthers’ arm, hand and foot before attempting to insert a central line.

In the end, Gov. Bill Lee called off the execution and gave Carruthers a one-year reprieve.

The state has declined to say whether the same doctor will preside over Hines’ execution. Regardless, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled Hines had not proven the doctor was unqualified and suggested the problems were an isolated mishap.

Alabama inmate pleaded guilty to rape and killing of girl

Alabama is scheduled to execute Jeremy Williams by lethal injection for the 2021 rape and murder of a 5-year-old Georgia girl.

Williams, who pleaded guilty to killing Kamarie Holland, declined to appeal and asked for his death sentence to be carried out.

Williams, 42, raped and strangled Holland after offering her mother $2,500 for the child to perform a sex act, prosecutors said.

Williams filmed his attack on the girl and kept her body to continue to abuse, prosecutors said.

“To see on video what he did to this baby, what a grown man could do to a child, it’s shocking, it’s horrible, it’s disgusting,” Russell County District Attorney Richard Chancey said. “It’s just a level of evil.”

Williams also was a suspect in the 2005 death of his infant daughter in Alaska but charges were not filed until 2022.

Corey Holland, Kamarie’s father, said his daughter was an exuberant 5-year-old who loved princesses and made people laugh.

“She loved playing dress-up, all her little Halloween costumes and her princess stuff I got her. She liked anything girly,” Corey Holland said.

It will be Alabama’s first execution of the year if it goes forward. A nitrogen gas execution was halted in June after a federal judge ruled the method unconstitutional.

The girl's mother is serving a 20-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to sex trafficking.

___

Associated Press writer Jeffrey Collins contributed.

RED SHADED AREA: Central Tropical Atlantic (AL92) is an area of showers and thunderstorms associated with a tropical wave is located about 900 miles west-southwest of the Cabo Verde Islands.

Showers and thunderstorms are showing some signs of organization in association with a tropical wave located in the Central Tropical Atlantic midway between the Lesser Antilles and the west coast of Africa.

Environmental conditions are forecast to be conducive for further development, and a tropical depression will likely form during the next day or two while the system moves westward or west- northwestward across the central tropical Atlantic.

There is high chance for tropical formation in the next 48 hours.

Formation chance through 48 hours...high...80 percent Formation chance through 7 days...high...80 percent

ORANGE AREA: Eastern Tropical Atlantic (AL94) is a tropical wave located a few hundred miles south of the Cabo Verde Islands producing disorganized showers and thunderstorms.

Environmental conditions are forecast to be generally conducive for some development, and a tropical depression could form late this week or this weekend while the wave moves westward or west- northwestward across the eastern and central tropical Atlantic.

Formation chance through 48 hours...low...30 percent Formation chance through 7 days...medium...50 percent

One important reminder

The percentages displayed by the National Hurricane Center represent the chance that a tropical depression or storm will form—not the likelihood of a hurricane, landfall or impacts at a particular location. Right now, there is no reason for alarm in Florida, but we are entering the portion of hurricane season when tropical activity typically increases, so checking the forecast regularly is always a good idea.

Discussion

At 300 PM GMT (1500 UTC), the center of Post-Tropical Cyclone Cristobal was located near latitude 39.4 North, longitude 36.8 West. The post-tropical cyclone is moving toward the northeast near 16 mph (26 km/h) and this motion is expected to continue today.

Maximum sustained winds are near 30 mph (45 km/h) with higher gusts. Cristobal is expected to dissipate later tonight.

The estimated minimum central pressure is 1018 mb (30.06 inches).

Watches and Warnings

There are no coastal watches or warnings in effect.

Land Hazards

None.

Less than four months after he left the White House, in May of 2025, Biden went public with his diagnosis, saying he had an “aggressive form” of prostate ​cancer and that it had spread to ‌his bones.

Dr. Ali Kasraeian, a well-respected urologist, joined us on The Morning Show to explain how an advanced prostate cancer diagnosis in older men is unusual. But the prognosis may not be dire.

“Coyote vs. Acme” was finished. Director Dave Green, inspired by “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” had completed the editing on the Looney Tunes blend of cartoon and live action. The whole project, which takes an Ian Frazier “Shouts and Murmurs” column from The New Yorker as its source material, was an audacious comic gambit that seemed to be paying off.

Hopes were high. Audience test scores were good. But days before Forte, who stars as Wile E. Coyote’s attorney, could see “Coyote vs. Acme,” Warner Bros. canceled it. Not just the screening — the movie. The studio hadn’t delayed it or sent it to streaming. They were canning it altogether.

“I just thought: ‘Well, they’re canceling the movie. It’s gotta be bad,’” Forte recalls.

Forte and his wife, suspecting the movie must have turned out poorly, joined the cast and crew to say goodbye to the film no one else was going to see.

“That was when the real emotions started,” Forte says. “It was everything I wished the movie could have been and more. It was so special, which made it so frustrating and so devastating. The confusion was amped up, then frustration, then just searing anger.

“Then it made even less sense,” he adds. “We all looked around, like, ‘What’s happening here?’”

The abrupt termination of “Coyote vs. Acme” sent shockwaves through Hollywood. Everyone in the movie business is accustomed to sudden, painful twists of fate. But the wholesale elimination of a finished film faster than you can say “Meep! Meep!” was something new.

David Zaslav, chief executive of Warner Bros., was intent on pivoting away from the straight-to-HBO Max projects of his predecessor. The expected marketing spend — roughly $30-40 million — for releasing “Coyote vs. Acme” wasn’t worth it to the studio. It was better, the studio said, to take a tax write-off on the $70 million production. Along with two other releases — “Batgirl” and “Scoob! Holiday Haunt” — “Coyote vs. Acme” was put in mothballs.

But nearly three years after that “funeral screening,” the movie is, like its ever-undaunted protagonist, back from the dead. After an outcry, Warner Bros. put “Coyote vs. Acme” up for sale. Ketchup Entertainment, an independent distributor that last year released the Looney Tunes movie “The Day the Earth Blew Up,” picked it up for about $50 million. On Aug. 28, “Coyote vs. Acme” will finally see the light of day.

It’s been a dizzying turn of events for everyone involved. Eric Bauza, who voices Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny and others in the film, didn’t really believe it until he saw “Obsession” at his local cinema.

“Upon exiting the theater, there in a little marquee box was the poster for ‘Coyote vs. Acme,’” Bauza says. “It hit me: This is going to be seen by people.”

In a recent interview, Green was still in disbelief.

“I must be dreaming,” said Green. “It’s a total surprise I’m sitting here talking to you today.”

Wile E. Coyote has his day in court

The filmmakers and their new distributor have leaned into the project’s tortured history, promoting it as “the film ACME didn’t want you to see.” More than that, “Coyote vs. Acme” now has a newfound meta quality. The premise of the film is that Coyote, after suffering years of defective products, takes Acme to court. Like the drama surrounding the film, it's an underdog victimized by a big corporation.

“I couldn’t help but look at the movie in a completely new way because there are meta crossovers between the story and what the movie had come to represent,” Green says. “It almost felt like we had written the movie after the news had broken.”

When “Coyote vs. Acme” was canceled, its fate became a rallying cry. Filmmakers like Christopher Miller, Phil Lord, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert championed it as too good to disappear. Even politicians, like Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas, urged the Justice Department to investigate Warner Bros.'s decision.

Bauza, a veteran voice actor, pushed the hashtag #ReleaseCoyoteVsACME on social media. His most dramatic effort, though, was at the Annie Awards in 2024. There, he drew hearty applause for making that case from the podium — in the voice of Daffy Duck.

“He’s the go-to cartoon character above anyone else when it comes to begging and pleading,” Bauza says. “It seemed appropriate.”

So many people came out fighting for the film that Green never felt alone throughout the ordeal.

“I would open my phone one day and see someone dressed in a Wile E. Coyote costume outside of the studio protesting with a sign in the rain — these kinds of things you couldn’t believe,” says Green.

‘The pipeline has changed’

At the same time, the entire episode suggested a dark new chapter in the movie business that has left many involved with “Coyote vs. Acme” shaky. This wasn’t a young filmmaker getting turned down on their first film. It was two years of work on one of Warner Bros.’ most iconic franchises — a movie even produced by DC Studios chief James Gunn.

“I don’t know what their judgment was,” says Bauza. “Did they even know or were they just looking at numbers? It’s tough looking in from the outside, thinking: ‘If that’s how the Looney Tunes are being treated, what about my story?’”

“The pipeline has changed,” he adds. “How we get to the finish line is different.”

“Coyote vs. Acme” was greenlit when studios were trying to find their way through the pandemic and theaters were struggling to stay afloat. But Green’s film now arrives at a much different point in time. Theatrical is thriving thanks in large part to the visions of filmmakers, from Christopher Nolan to Curry Barker.

For Green, that “Coyote vs. Acme” is finally having its day in the court of public opinion is a sign of Hollywood returning to its foundations.

“The film business, as much as it might not feel that way, is led and dictated by artists and filmmakers and actors and writers wanting to create,” says Green. “There will be nothing able to take that want away from creators. As long as we keep creating, there will be a movie business.”

Forte is still struggling to find a happy ending. The movie’s initial cancellation felt, he says, “cruel and heartless.”

“The downside is: Trust no one,” says Forte. “And the positive is: Don’t give up hope. And that’s the one I think I will keep.”

One was a hit-and-run involving a child or teen on an e-bike near Clay High School. The kid was taken to a hospital with minor injuries.

Deputies are looking for a silver SUV in connection with that crash.

The other crash involved a school bus on northbound Blanding Boulevard (SR-21) near Howard Road in Middleburg.

The Florida Highway Patrol said the bus had come to a complete stop with its warning lights activated and its stop arm deployed when an SUV failed to slow down or stop, drove onto the right shoulder, then steered back into the right lane and hit the back of the bus.

No students were injured in that incident, Cook said.

News4JAX viewer Danese Terry shared photos from the crash, showing a crumpled white SUV and no visible damage to the bus.

Terry, whose children were not on the bus, praised the Sheriff’s Office and school transportation response.

“Police were on scene very quickly, and transportation notified all parents of students on that bus very promptly. A second bus showed up within minutes to transport kids to school,” Terry said.

Authorities have not indicated which school(s) the students were headed to.

School officials said the district needed extra time to finish electrical work and secure the certificate of occupancy before allowing students back into classrooms. Leaders also said a furniture company needed additional time to assemble and install furniture for classrooms, the cafeteria and office spaces.

The Charlton County School District shared photos on social media last week showing a look inside the updated campus. Teachers were allowed back in to set up classrooms and begin unpacking, and the district asked parents and students to give staff space as they prepared for the first day back.

Parents and staff said they understood the delay if it meant the building would be ready for students.

“We just want time to get in there and work and make it good for them for a first day of school,” teacher Aleshia Sumpter said.

Parent Nikisha Lloyd added, “Kind of the same. We’re just ready. We’re all ready to see a new building.”

Even with students returning Thursday, construction at the school isn’t finished. The next phase of the project includes a new gym and weight room, and district officials expect that work to continue into next year, with full completion not expected until 2027.

The call for quiet was part of last-ditch efforts by search-and-rescue teams to find survivors in the aftermath of the 7.4-magnitude quake that struck the South American country Monday. Aid agencies consider the first 48 to 72 hours after a quake to be the prime window for retrieving survivors. But that time frame can be extended if those trapped have access to food and water.

“There might be two more people alive here, and I’m hopeful,” rescuer Daiana Rojas, 25, told The Associated Press. “We have been hearing sounds since 2:30 a.m., so our hope remains.”

Rojas and her family were unharmed by the quake, the most powerful to hit Colombia in this century. She has been working as a volunteer to help search for survivors in Cali, one of the most affected cities, along with Pereira, Manizales and Quibdó.

“I thought that was going to be my last moment alive,” she said, recalling the terror of the quake. “Seeing this situation in my city breaks my heart.”

The mayor of Cali, Alejandro Eder, told reporters Wednesday that rescue teams continue to find signs of life under the rubble and were racing to save anyone within reach. “The next 20 hours are the most critical to find and rescue people alive,” he said.

The devastation has tested Colombia’s new president, Abelardo de la Espriella, and his government as they scramble to respond while aid groups push to help the most heavily damaged communities.

De la Espriella said Wednesday that nearly 500 people were reported missing, though civilian-run databases put that number at more than 4,200. In total, more than 25,800 families have been affected, de la Espriella said.

Rojas has witnessed two people being pulled alive from the debris, as well as the recovery of bodies.

“They are not a relative or a friend of mine, but it feels as they were,” she said of the survivors who have been found. “Whenever rescuers ask for silence, everyone stays still and tries not to move, speak or whisper. But when signs of life are found, all the teams start to applaud."

___

Suarez reported from Bogota, Colombia. Batschke reported from Santiago, Chile.

Deputies were first called to assist the Florida Highway Patrol after the suspects fled the traffic stop in the Sampson City area. Authorities described the suspects as two Hispanic males — one wearing a blue shirt and black pants, and the second wearing a white shirt and khaki pants with a rose tattoo on his left hand.

Residents in the Sampson City area were initially urged not to approach the suspects.

“If you see these individuals, DO NOT APPROACH and call 911 immediately,” the Bradford County Sheriff’s Office said in an earlier statement.

As of the most recent update, all lanes of US-301 have reopened and traffic is flowing normally. However, a large law enforcement presence remains between the South Bypass Interchange and County Road 227 as the search continues.

“We are asking residents to stay alert and if you see something suspicious please do not approach and call 911,” the sheriff’s office said.

The search involves a broad multi-agency response, drawing cooperation from the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office, Union Correctional Institution and the Florida Highway Patrol.

“We appreciate the collaboration between our law enforcement partners with Alachua County, Putnam County, the Union Correctional Institution, and the Florida Highway Patrol,” officials said.

Western officials have previously warned that Russia has stepped up a campaign of targeted killings since President Vladimir Putin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, saying they have disrupted several plots across Europe. But Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said this incident was unprecedented.

It was the first time that “someone on the order of Russia” sought to attack an American citizen on the territory of another NATO country, Tusk said Thursday.

The suspect, who was allegedly recruited by Russia's secret services, was detained by Polish authorities on Aug. 7.

The American Ukrainian citizen “was uncomfortable for the Putin regime,” Tusk said in a news conference.

The operation was carried out in cooperation with U.S. services, said Tomasz Siemoniak, Poland’s minister overseeing intelligence services. He said the targeted victim was a U.S. citizen “of Ukrainian origin.” Officials did not immediately provide further details.

The Russian Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Western countries believe Russia seeks to undermine Ukraine's allies

Russia has long been accused of targeting its enemies abroad, including by using rare poisons. But intelligence officials previously told The Associated Press that Russia’s security services are now more brazen in their choice of targets, going after Russian activists and foreign supporters of Ukraine as well as military defectors.

Western officials see the campaign as connected to Russia’s broader efforts to undermine European countries that support Ukraine. The AP has mapped about 200 acts of sabotage, arson and other disruption across Europe since the start of the war that officials have linked to Russia. President Vladimir Putin told AP in May that Russia is not waging a sabotage campaign against Europe.

British authorities accused Russia of being behind the killing of former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006 with radioactive polonium and of attempting to kill former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in 2018 with the nerve agent Novichok.

German authorities also said Russia organized the 2019 killing of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a former Chechen rebel commander who was shot in a Berlin park by Vadim Krasikov, a hitman who was later greeted by Putin after he was exchanged in a spy swap.

In June, a Russian artist who was critical of Putin was shot and killed at close range near his home in eastern Poland. Robert Kuzovkov, known by the pseudonym Semyon Skrepetsky was critical of Putin and Tusk said at the time that the killing had the hallmarks of a political assassination. He suggested it was possible Russia was behind it but Polish officials have not yet attributed it to Moscow.

Last year French officials disrupted a plot which they believe was aimed at killing Vladimir Osechkin, a Russian exile who lives under police protection and works to help military defectors flee Putin’s war. Lithuanian officials also disrupted a plot last year to kill a Lithuanian supporter of Ukraine and another against a Russian activist. Officials in Germany have similarly broken up two plots: one to target the head of a German weapons company supplying Ukraine, the other against a Ukrainian military official.

Polish authorities arrested a man in 2024 in what they said was a plot to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. And that same year, a Russian helicopter pilot who defected was killed in Spain — with Russian operatives the prime suspects.

“This campaign is not by accident or chance,” a senior European intelligence official previously told the AP. “There is political authorization.”

___

Burrows reported from London. Stefanie Dazio in Berlin contributed to this report.

In all, three ballistic missiles fired by the Iran-backed Houthis struck the ship in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, just off Yemen’s coast, as it was coming into port, killing six people and injuring at least nine others, according to Yemeni authorities.

It was part of an escalating campaign by the Houthis and their first deadly attack this year on a vessel navigating the strait, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and accounts for roughly 12% of global trade.

“People were burning ... it was a strange scene of doomsday,” said Zaheer Ahmed, a Pakistani crew member recovering at a hospital in the port city of Mokha.

“I shouted for help and a Yemeni soldier came to my aid,” said Ahmed, who was injured in both legs.

All three of the crew members The Associated Press interviewed Wednesday at the hospital described intense fire, panic and damage aboard the ship, which was struck before dawn on Tuesday.

Muhammad Alteno, an Indonesian crew member, said he was in “complete shock” after witnessing another Indonesian crew member — a friend — die in the attack. Alteno said he had tried to rescue his friend, who was trapped inside the room they shared, after the first missile strike.

“But the flames were so intense that I couldn't breathe,” Alteno said. “I managed to escape with some of the (other) crew members.”

Two members of Yemen's government-allied National Resistance Forces were killed in the attack, as were three crew members from Pakistan.

The attack was one of many in recent weeks by the Houthis, who have killed government forces and civilians in an escalating campaign on the government-held city of Mokha and other areas, according to the Yemeni military. The rebel group has also intensified its attacks on troops and oil facilities in neighboring Saudi Arabia, which supports the Yemeni government.

The attacks risk reigniting Yemen’s civil war following a 2022 U.N.-brokered truce, and could open a new front in the Middle East war.

The Houthis declared a blockade several weeks ago on Saudi-linked ships leaving the Bab al-Mandeb strait in retaliation for a yearslong Saudi siege on Yemen and recent attacks on the Houthi-controlled capital, Sanaa. The Houthis had said they would only stop vessels connected to Saudi Arabia or going in and out of its Red Sea ports.

During a similar blockade it announced during the war in Gaza, the Houthis attacked over 100 vessels before a punishing U.S. and Israeli air campaign put an end to the attacks in early 2025.

___

Ezzidin reported from Cairo.

“It happens in a matter of seconds,” said Joshua Moore, a paramedic at HCA Florida Orange Park Hospital.

According to Florida Health, drowning is the leading cause of unintentional death among children ages 1–4, with home swimming pools being the most common location.

Moore encourages parents to take practical steps around the home to reduce the chances of a child reaching the water unsupervised.

“If you have a fence around your pool, [make] sure that the gate is always closed,” Moore said. “You can also set alarms on your sliding glass doors. If your kid goes out and you don’t realize it, it’ll kind of alarm you to let you know that your kid’s gone outside.”

The urgency was felt locally in early August, when a 7-year-old boy with autism was reported missing from his Northside Jacksonville home. He was later found dead in a pond, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.

The boy was non-verbal and had last been seen leaving his home in the early morning hours before being found near Seaside Charter School.

“You wanna make sure that you’re always keeping an eye on your kids,” Moore said.

Moore and other safety advocates point to swim lessons as one of the most effective long-term protections for young children.

Florida residents can now apply for eight free swimming lessons through the state’s Swimming Lesson Voucher program. Lawmakers recently expanded the eligible age range from children ages 0–4 to ages 1–7.

To qualify, a family’s gross income cannot exceed 200% of the federal poverty guidelines. Applications are accepted until early September, or until funding runs dry.

Also, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, the youngest person to hold the role, will leave the Trump administration at the end of the month to spend more time with her young family. Leavitt, 28, called it a “bittersweet decision” in a social media post Wednesday shortly after President Donald Trump announced she would be stepping down.

Here's the latest:

Did you pay tariffs last year? You might be due a refund from FedEx or UPS

If you bought something from an overseas vendor last year, it might be time to check your bank account.

Shippers including FedEx and UPS that acted as customs brokers for imported packages and received tariff refunds from the U.S. government have started to pass on those refunds to the customers that originally paid the tariffs.

The refunds to consumers are the last step in a monthslong process that kicked off in February when the Supreme Court struck down sweeping tariffs implemented by President Trumpin March 2025 under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act on goods from almost every country. The court ordered the government to return the tariffs it collected.

So far, about $100 billion in tariffs have been refunded to companies who paid them under a system set up by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

▶ Read more

US unemployment claims rise but remain at historically healthy levels

The Labor Department reported Thursday that 209,000 people filed jobless claims last week, up from a revised 200,000 the week before and higher than the 205,000 forecasters had expected. The four-week average of applications, which smooths out week-to-week-volatitlity, was unchanged at 199,000.

The overall number of people collecting employment benefits the week that ended Aug. 1 dropped by 22,000 to 1.78 million.

Claims for jobless benefits are a proxy for layoffs, and they’ve been at a historically low range of around 200,000 to 230,000 a week for the past year, suggesting Americans who have jobs enjoy unusual job security. The U.S. unemployment rate is low at 4.1%, as the economy has proven resilient despite a spike in energy prices caused by the fighting with Iran.

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US stocks rise toward records as oil prices drop and inflation gets less bad

The stock market is rising toward an all-time high Thursday following the latest sign that inflation is getting less bad. Stocks also got a lift from easing oil prices in their latest yo-yo move.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.8% and was on track to top its record set last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 185 points, or 0.3%, as of 10:15 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1% higher.

Wall Street relaxed after a report showed prices at the U.S. wholesale level were 4.7% higher last month than a year earlier. While that’s still very high, it’s not as bad as June’s 5.5% inflation rate at the wholesale level, and it was slightly better than economists expected.

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House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries says party is in a moment of ‘generation change’

During an interview at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Atlanta, Jeffries said progressive wins in recent congressional races show generational change.

“I think transition, change, renewal will continue to be an important part of the story, and that energy is being brought to the House in a variety of different ways, including from our progressive members,” Jeffries said.

But he also highlighted his own ascent to Democratic leader and some moderate wins as part of the same trend.

“I think we’ll see what happens in terms of what the caucus looks like on the other side of the midterm election,” Jeffries said when asked if the party’s progressive wing would have greater influence. “Our focus right now is making sure that we win as many seats as we can in November.”

But Trump’s vaccine order is not legally binding

Despite the precedent-breaking nature of Trump’s order, some experts are skeptical it will result in meaningful changes.

Neither the White House nor the FDA can compel drugmakers to develop and seek approval for new vaccines. And from a business perspective, companies have little incentive to develop individual versions of vaccines they already sell in combination shots.

“They’d be competing against themselves, and there’s no reason to do that,” said Dr. Paul Offit, a Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia vaccine researcher and former government adviser.

While Trump’s order calls for more federal research and recommendations, only state governments have the legal authority to require vaccinations for schoolchildren. The order simply advises states to consider updating their laws to reflect the Trump administration’s approach.

“I think states will ignore this,” Offit said. “I think that bottom line is that we don’t need to look to Donald Trump for our medical advice.”

Trump’s vaccine plan would require manufacturing overhaul

Under Trump’s executive order, federal officials are instructed to develop within 90 days plans for breaking up the MMR shot and spacing out other vaccines.

But pharmaceutical scientists and former regulators say those changes would likely take years and require drugmakers to spend tens of millions of dollars on new studies and manufacturing facilities.

Currently, there are no individual vaccines in the U.S. for measles, mumps or rubella. All the vaccines approved for those viruses by the Food and Drug Administration are combination shots. That three-in-one approach has been the standard in the U.S. since the early 1970s.

Dr. Jesse Goodman, a former FDA vaccine chief, said companies would have to conduct large studies showing new individual shots produced immune system-boosting reactions in children similar to the current versions.

US ambassador condemns settler siege of Palestinian homes in the West Bank

Israeli settlers have besieged three homes in the occupied West Bank for several days, including one owned by a Palestinian American, in what the U.S. ambassador called a “horrific act of terror” on Thursday.

Mike Huckabee’s remarks on X represented an unusually sharp rebuke from the Trump administration of the latest episode in a surge of settler violence in the region.

Starting Sunday, settlers gathered around three houses in the village of Qusra, according to local officials, Palestinian American homeowner Loui Ridi, and Ridi’s brother. At times numbering dozens, the settlers threw stones, attempted to bring down a stone wall nearby, and prevented the occupants from leaving as their food and water dwindled.

Israeli troops have intervened to try to restore order. On Thursday morning, Ridi’s brother, Qusai Abu Rida, who had holed up in the house with his own teenage son to defend it, said they were moved by Israel’s military to another home but still cannot leave the area.

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USAID fallout: In Nepal, when the aid workers stopped coming, the women and babies started dying

One baby at a time, the world is marching toward a grim milestone: Because of global cuts to foreign aid, the Gates Foundation has predicted 2025 will be the first year this century where child deaths will increase.

And while global child mortality data for 2025 won’t be available for several months, health officials are already bracing for a surge in deaths among the world’s youngest and most vulnerable.

The decision by President Trump’s administration to dissolve the United States Agency for International Development — once the world’s largest humanitarian donor — gutted maternal and neonatal care, decimated nutrition programs for millions of pregnant women and children and left scores of birthing centers devoid of equipment, medicine and staff.

The U.S. government has repeatedly insisted that no one — and, particularly, no children — have died because of its funding cuts. But The Associated Press has documented the deaths of women and children from Myanmar to Nigeria.

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Reflecting Pool’s botched repairs threaten to tarnish the National Park Service’s reputation

President Donald Trump’s botched repairs at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool have landed the National Park Service in a political predicament.

The beloved federal agency, its iconic park rangers and other employees have been serving the public while managing controversial demands by the Republican president — from revising exhibits at parks and other sites to the demolition of important structures under its stewardship, such as the White House’s East Wing, to arresting visitors for alleged vandalism at the pool.

Critics say the monthslong Reflecting Pool saga and other demands by Trump risk undermining the integrity of a federal agency that’s long been held in high esteem by the American public.

“Never — not once in decades — have I witnessed such systematic degradation, disrespect and dismantling of the National Park Service as I see today under the thumb of President Donald Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum,” said Bill Wade, a former park ranger and superintendent.

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Rubio and Bessent stayed on decoy flight from Turkey as Trump switched planes, official says

The two most senior members of Trump’s Cabinet, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, flew out of last month’s NATO summit in Turkey on what was effectively a decoy plane following an Iranian threat, while Trump was secretly moved to a smaller military jet, a senior U.S. official said Wednesday.

The official, who was briefed on the situation and spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details of presidential travel, said Rubio was aware of the switch and details of the threat behind it but could or would not say why he had stayed on the plane. The official said Bessent was likely aware but did not know for sure.

The official, however, noted that security precautions for the president — especially one who has been the target of several assassination attempts — are more robust than those for even top members of the Cabinet.

Under the U.S. Constitution, the secretaries of State and Treasury follow the vice president and the highest ranking member of each chamber of Congress in the presidential line of succession.

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— Matthew Lee

Kennedy Center board set to vote on whether to move forward with closure

The Kennedy Center’s board is expected to meet Thursday to consider plans for the performing arts venue’s future after a federal judge blocked an earlier move for a two-year closure that would allow for substantial renovations.

Ahead of the meeting, the Kennedy Center’s management said it would present the board with three approaches for consideration.

The options would include a complete closure or a partial closure that would allow “some continued public access and limited programming in spaces unaffected” by the work. A third option would “consider a highly limited series of phased closures to address only the Center’s most serious infrastructure needs while scheduling and maintaining a full slate of programming.”

In blocking earlier plans for closure, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled the board’s March 16 vote backing the move appeared “ill-informed and seemingly preordained.” In moving forward, the board, which is largely made up of President Donald Trump’s allies, may face pressure to prove they’ve thoroughly considered their options.

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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is leaving the Trump administration

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, the youngest person to hold the role, will leave the Trump administration at the end of the month to spend more time with her young family.

Leavitt, 28, called it a “bittersweet decision” in a social media post Wednesday shortly after President Donald Trump announced she would be stepping down. She recently returned to the White House podium after the birth of her second child, a daughter named Viviana, in May. She also has a 2-year-old son.

“The truth is since returning to the White House after the birth of my daughter, I have felt in my heart that I cannot be the best mom my two young children deserve while devoting the constant time, energy, and attention required of the White House Press Secretary — and that is why I have ultimately made the bittersweet decision to depart the White House and embark on a new chapter in my life,” Leavitt wrote.

Trump did not outline plans for who might replace her in the high-profile role.

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The storm is forecast to bring rain to the Hawaiian Islands starting late Friday as well as high winds and dangerous surf, the National Hurricane Center said.

Lala was about 700 miles (1,127 kilometers) east-southeast of Hawaii with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph (64 kph), the Miami-based center said. It's moving west.

Strengthening is forecast, and Lala could be near hurricane strength as it approaches the Big Island. A hurricane watch means that hurricane conditions are possible, and it is typically issued 48 hours ahead of potential tropical-storm-force winds.

The system could bring rainfall totals of 5 to 10 inches (13 to 25 centimeters) in the island chain, with up to 20 inches (51 centimeters) possible, forecasters said. That could produce flooding and mudslides, the center said.

Also in the Pacific, Tropical Storm Hernan formed Thursday but that storm wasn't threatening land.

Hernan was about 1,460 miles (2,350 kilometers) west of the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula of Mexico, the center said. Maximum sustained winds were around 45 mph (72 kph) and it was moving west-southwest.

In the Atlantic Ocean, former Tropical Storm Cristobal weakened and degenerated into a post-tropical remnant low on Thursday, the center said. It was about 500 miles (805 kilometers) west of the Azores and didn't threaten land.

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

Yemeni soldier killed in clashes with Iranian-backed Houthi rebels

At least one government soldier was killed and another critically wounded in clashes between Houthi rebels and the military in the mountainous province of Taiz, Yemeni military officials told The Associated Press.

The fighting came as part of a spate of recent attacks by the Houthis on government-held areas across the country. Dozens of government troops have been killed in attacks since last week, the Yemeni military said.

Elsewhere, several tribal leaders in the central province of Marib said the Yemeni army's artillery targeted overnight Houthi movements.

The Houthis have been hitting government-held areas with drones and missiles, saying they have been targeting military forces and warehouses. They have also been attacking oil facilities in neighboring Saudi Arabia, which supports the Yemeni government, and the kingdom’s shipping in the Red Sea.

On Tuesday, they hit a commercial ship in the Bab el-Mandeb strait, killing six people.

With the Strait of Hormuz effectively shut down by Iran, there has been a renewed focus on the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb strait at Yemen’s southern tip, which is an alternate route for Saudi Arabia to ship its oil.

Three Pakistanis were among the dead in the ship attack, and Indonesia's Foreign Ministry said Thursday that one of its nationals was missing after the attack and two were wounded.

Iran and Oman working to clean oil spills off their coasts

Oil spills spreading off the coasts of Iran and Oman are raising concerns about environmental damage as oil shipments have come under fire in Iran's war with the U.S. and Israel.

Iran said Thursday it's working to clean up an oil spill off Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz. Images distributed by Iran’s semiofficial news agency ISNA showed oil fouling the island's beaches.

While Iran hasn't said what caused the spill, the firm TankerTrackers.com says it appears to have started with an Iranian attack on a bulk carrier off Oman.

Oman is responding to another spill in the Arabian Sea, coming from a tanker grounded off its southern coast. The tanker Caroline Bezengi — a sanctioned vessel believed to be part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” — has been grounded since reporting an explosion in June. No party has claimed responsibility and the cause is unknown.

A British maritime risk and response company said Thursday it has been hired to salvage the tanker and stop the oil leak off Oman. Oil from the ship has been spreading for weeks, reaching shores hundreds of kilometers (miles) north of the vessel.

Israeli strikes kill 2, including a police chief, in Gaza

Israeli strikes killed at least two people in the Gaza Strip on Thursday and injured several others, health officials said.

Jamal Abu Kamil, a Gaza governorate police chief, was killed when his vehicle was struck southwest of Gaza City, according to the territory’s interior ministry and Shifa Hospital, where his body was taken along with a person wounded by the same strike.

The Israeli military didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about that strike.

A separate Israeli strike killed a man and injured another person in Khan Younis, according to Nasser Hospital, where both were taken.

The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas company commander in Khan Younis who “planned to execute terror attacks” against troops.

American ambassador to Israel condemns settlers' siege of Palestinian homes

The U.S. ambassador to Israel condemned a siege by Israeli settlers of a Palestinian-American family’s home in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, calling it a “horrific act of terror.”

Mike Huckabee’s remarks on X represented an unusually sharp rebuke from the Trump administration of the latest episode during a spike in clashes between settlers and Palestinians in the region.

Starting Sunday, settlers targeted three homes in the village of Qusra, throwing stones and preventing occupants from leaving despite dwindling supplies.

On Thursday morning, Qusai Abu Rida — the brother of the Palestinian-American homeowner who had holed up in the house with his own teenage son to defend it — said they were moved by Israel’s military to another home but still cannot leave the area.

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Click here for full AP coverage on developments in the West Bank.

About 8 million people in the southern African country of 22 million were registered to vote in the one-day election. Voters also were choosing members of Parliament and local government councilors. Results were expected Monday, according to the electoral commission.

Voters bundled in thick jackets against the morning chill began forming long lines before dawn outside polling stations across Lusaka, the capital, some of them huddled around makeshift fires as election officials checked voter lists and prepared polling stations.

Hichilema and his biggest rival — opposition candidate Brian Mundubile, who has pledged to lower costs for average people — later cast their ballots in the capital as their supporters cheered them on.

European Union election observers watched the proceedings at one polling station in the capital. A local election observer said confusion over voter rolls, inadequate directions and poor crowd management at some polling stations caused delays and frustration that could discourage some people from voting.

Mathias Ngoma, in his 70s, said he has voted in every election he could because “it’s the only voice I have.”

“I braved the cold to choose leaders I am hoping will make things better in our constituency,” he said.

Economy dominates the vote

The election is widely seen as a referendum on Hichilema’s handling of the economy. He came to power in 2021 and is seeking a second term. He argues he inherited an economy in crisis and has overseen the restructuring of Zambia’s massive foreign debt, presided over economic growth and courted investors.

Hichilema, who is running against 13 other candidates, cast his ballot shortly after midday in Lusaka’s Kabulonga suburb, accompanied by his wife, Mutinta.

Supporters cheered and chanted his nickname, “Bally,” as the president arrived. He paused to take selfies with supporters before entering the polling station. Speaking afterward, Hichilema said the election was a choice between continuing his government’s reforms or reversing course.

“This election is really about the people of Zambia and their future — progress as opposed to regression,” he told reporters. “We have delivered, but there is a lot more to be done.”

About 9 kilometers (6 miles) away, Mundubile cast his ballot at Olympia Park Secondary School where the main opposition challenger urged Zambians to vote peacefully and told them their “second independence” was coming.

Mundubile, who leads an alliance of opposition parties, has campaigned on promises to lower the cost of living, improve agriculture and restore democratic freedoms while accusing Hichilema’s government of undermining democratic institutions.

“This is a revolution,” Mundubile told reporters during a press briefing at his home after voting. “Zambians have decided. The will of the Zambian people will certainly prevail in this election.”

Many still struggle despite recent economic growth

Many Zambians say they don’t feel the benefits of recent economic growth as unemployment, food prices and an unstable electricity supply continue to strain household budgets.

Meki Mulota, 40, an entrepreneur, said she was looking for a government that would make it easier for businesses to grow despite the rising cost of living.

“The cost of living has been high. Almost everyone is complaining,” she said. “I want to see a government that will create an environment where entrepreneurs can sustain their businesses.”

Christopher Banda said he backed Hichilema because he believed the country was moving in the right direction despite economic hardship.

“I’m voting for stability. I’m voting for continuity,” he said. “There’s been a high cost of living ... but I think we’re heading in the right trajectory.”

A presidential candidate must win more than 50% of the vote to avoid a runoff.

Zambian copper production draws international interest

The election is being closely watched abroad because Zambia is a major copper producer seeking to sharply increase production of the metal, which is critical to electric vehicles, renewable energy and power grids.

China is Zambia’s largest foreign investor and has extensive mining interests in the country, while the United States has sought a greater role as Washington looks to diversify suppliers of critical minerals and reduce its reliance on China.

Hichilema has courted investment from both China and Western partners, including the U.S., as he seeks to increase annual copper production to 3 million metric tons by 2031.

Security concerns shadow the vote

Security and political tensions rose in the final days of the campaign. Police deployed additional officers and warned against violence, disruptions at polling stations, and the circulation of false results.

Opposition parties and rights groups, including Amnesty International, accused Hichilema’s government of shrinking democratic space and using state institutions to target critics and political rivals, allegations the government rejects.

Hichilema spent four months in jail on treason charges when he was an opposition leader under former President Edgar Lungu, whom he defeated in 2021.

Lungu remained an influential political figure until his death in South Africa last year. A prolonged dispute between his family and the government over his funeral and burial added to tensions ahead of the election.

Zambia has long been regarded as one of southern Africa’s more stable democracies, with a history of largely peaceful transfers of power. Hichilema’s victory in 2021 marked the country’s third transfer of power to an opposition candidate since multiparty democracy was restored in 1991.

Polls are expected to close at 1600 GMT.

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AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

Shippers including FedEx and UPS that acted as customs brokers for imported packages and received tariff refunds from the U.S. government have started to pass on those refunds to the customers that originally paid the tariffs.

The refunds to consumers are the last step in a monthslong process that kicked off in February when the Supreme Court struck down sweeping tariffs implemented by President Donald Trumpin March 2025 under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act on goods from almost every country. The court ordered the government to return the tariffs it collected.

So far, about $100 billion in tariffs have been refunded to companies who paid them under a system set up by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

That doesn't mean Americans will get anywhere close to what they paid in tariffs, since most were paid indirectly. In 2025, the Trump tariffs amounted to an average tax increase of $1,000 per U.S. household, according to the Tax Foundation, a Washington, D.C., group that studies taxes.

But some consumers are getting some of what they paid directly back from shippers including UPS, DHL and FedEx. The refunds are being rolled out in phases based on what date they were paid. Shippers have said they'll return the refunds on a rolling basis as they receive them.

Tariff refunds from shippers will be directly refunded to credit cards or bank accounts

Most big overseas retailers paid the tariffs themselves and passed them along to retailers with a line item in their invoice that was part of the total bill, or indirectly by raising prices. But some smaller sellers left the tariff to be paid when it reached the U.S. In those cases, shippers paid the bill and charged the recipient of the package.

FedEx said it has begun the process of issuing $800 million in tariff refunds it received from the government back to the customers that paid them. Customers don’t need to apply to receive their refund, but they can enter tracking numbers for purchased items into a portal on the FedEx website to see whether or not they are due a refund.

UPS said in April it had paid $5 billion in tariffs on behalf of clients and would begin the process of applying to the government for refunds. In the first phase, it applied for $500 million in refunds and said customers should get refunds one to three months after it receives reimbursement from the Treasury.

DHL similarly said that it has filed claims for almost all eligible shipments where it served as the importer of record and is returning the refunds it has received.

“The volume and pace of refunds continue to depend on CBP’s processing of claims,” DHL said in a statement.

Major retailers say they could give back some refunds but mostly will use them to lower prices

Unlike shippers who collected tariffs directly from customers, most big retailers passed on tariffs in indirect ways, changing their product lineups or partly absorbing higher costs, making a consumer refund unlikely.

Amazon executives said last week the company received $600 million in tariff refunds in the second quarter.

In a call with investors, Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky said the company isn't the importer of record on most of the goods it sells and that it has absorbed some tariff costs. But he said the company has “identified a limited set of circumstances where we can trace that we pass specific import charges on to customers.” In those circumstances, he added, “we will proactively contact affected customers and automatically issue refunds to them.”

Otherwise, he said, Amazon will use tariff refunds to lower prices for customers.

That echoes what other large retailers have said. In May, Cori Barrie, outgoing CEO of Best Buy, the nation’s largest consumer electronics chain, said the retailer is an importer of record of only about 2% to 3% of what it sells and that the company would use any refund it gets to “deliver value back to our customers.”

And Costco CEO Ron Vachris said the company planned to return “in some form” the tariffs that were passed on to consumers.

“How much we return and when depends on a variety of factors, including how much refund money we receive and when it arrives as well as developments in the lawsuit filed against the company regarding the return process,” he said in a quarterly earnings call in May.

Dozens of class-action lawsuits have been filed

Some shoppers are suing to get the tariffs they paid in the form of higher prices back from companies. More than 80 class-action lawsuits have been filed by customers across the country against retailers including Costco, Nike, Amazon, Walmart and others.

The lawsuits will face difficulty because plaintiffs will have to prove they paid for price increases that were specifically tied to the tariffs, according to Lori Leskin, partner and co-chair of law firm Arnold & Porter’s Consumer Products Practice Group. None of the lawsuits have yet been certified as class action, which would mean they apply to all customers.

“It’s going to be very hard for anyone to establish that the price increase they paid was due to tariffs and not some other market force,” she said. “Most of them are just talking about price increases, and to be able to trace a price increase due to a single factor is going to be really difficult given the multifactorial approach that most companies take.”

“How can you assure us,” the 71-year-old pressed, “that you won't become another John Fetterman?”

As the crowd in the clubhouse of a manufactured home community for seniors jeered the mention of the contrarian Pennsylvania Democratic senator, Jolly, who once critiqued politicians as an MSNBC pundit, made the case for himself.

“Change is part of my journey,” he responded. “What I can tell you is that the values I speak of — that the economy should work, that government can do a little bit to improve our lives and that everyone should have the right to be protected — those are the guideposts for how I'll serve as governor.”

Doyle, an independent who said she's a registered Democrat mostly to participate in primaries, left impressed.

“I believe him,” she said. “I don't believe many.”

Florida spent a generation as America’s prized political battleground, where the interests of big cities, agricultural towns, freshly arrived retirees and diverse Latino communities collided in elections often decided by fractions of a percentage point.

Jolly is bent on proving those days aren't over.

In the course of a single day last weekend, he rallied a chandeliered ballroom in The Villages, a wealthy Republican-leaning retirement community. Then it was off to the fluorescent lights of the Leesburg clubhouse before ending with a rousing speech to Democrats in Hillsborough County, home to Tampa, which backed a Republican presidential candidate for the first time in 20 years in 2024.

Democrats have collapsed in Florida

President Donald Trump's rise has coincided with a Democratic collapse in Florida. He won here three times, with ever-expanding margins. The 19-percentage-point win by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2022 cemented a GOP supermajority in the legislature.

Jolly's path to victory could be blocked by both math and money in his likely race against Rep. Byron Donalds, the Trump-backed candidate in Tuesday's Republican primary. Donalds, who would be Florida's first Black governor, has raised more than $100 million compared to Jolly's $10 million.

Donalds has cast Jolly as an out-of-touch liberal, blanketing the state this week with an ad featuring Jolly referring to “gender-affirming care” and backing communities painting rainbow crosswalks to show support for LGBTQ people. Jolly countered that Donalds is ignoring pressing economic issues.

In an interview over an Outback Steakhouse lunch while his wife and two young children busied themselves with coloring, Jolly acknowledged “there’s not going to be the political will” to reverse the state’s ban on transgender girls and women participating on female teams at public schools and universities.

He said he didn't think governors should decide who plays in what sports even as he described himself as a “girl dad” and noted “I don’t think we should have biologically born men playing in competitive sports."

“But look,” he added, “if a 10- or 12-year-old soccer league in the community has a coed team, I don’t think the governor should be throwing a flag on the field.”

Republicans face tests of their own

For all the headwinds confronting Jolly, Republicans may encounter their own turbulence.

The culture wars that have raged under DeSantis, including a feud with Disney and fights over gender and sexual orientation, have left some exhausted. Karen Kuhn, a 72-year-old resident at The Villages, described herself as in “despair.”

Democrats have won a string of special elections from Miami to Palm Beach and Tampa, adding to their optimism. Former GOP Rep. Carlos Curbelo said Latinos who voted for Trump in 2024 might not support Republicans again, in part because of the administration's immigration enforcement tactics.

“I definitely can see a scenario where it’s a closer race, where it’s a competitive race,” said Curbelo, who narrowly lost his reelection bid in 2018, the last wave election year for Democrats.

A race with implications for 2028

Jolly is telling that to any Democrat who will listen, including those with potential presidential ambitions such as Govs. JB Pritzker of Illinois, Gavin Newsom of California, Andy Beshear of Kentucky and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. If Florida can change, he argues, the national political landscape would change with it.

“All of a sudden the road to the White House looks dramatically different,” Jolly said. “It reshapes the House of Representatives. The structural change from winning Florida is a generational opportunity for Democrats.”

It’s a point echoed by other Democrats, including state Rep. Emily Gregory, who flipped the Palm Beach district home to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago.

“To abandon Florida was deeply, deeply unwise,” she said. “I hope that investment is coming back because it is a purple state and I feel very confident going into November."

Nikki Fried, the Florida Democratic Party chair, acknowledged “the bottom fell out” for Democrats. She has spent the past several years rebuilding the operation. Democrats charged with winning back state legislative and congressional seats are prioritizing some Florida races this year.

But Beshear, who chairs the Democratic Governors Association, isn't making a financial commitment yet.

“David’s working really hard," he said in an interview. “He’s a good candidate, and we’re watching it closely.”

Donalds' campaign remains confident. His communications director, Gates McGavick, said: “Florida voters will reject radical liberal David Jolly because he will make life more expensive.”

“Byron Donalds will make life in Florida more affordable,” he said. “Our campaign will make that case to voters every single day.”

A ‘Bush 41’ Republican's path to becoming a Democrat

Jolly is an unlikely figure cajoling Democrats to think about their future.

He first gained national attention in 2014 as the GOP winner of a Tampa Bay congressional seat that was seen as a bellwether. In a Democratic Party that emphasizes diversity, Jolly regularly refers to himself as a “53-year-old white former Republican with salt-and-pepper hair.” His time in Congress runs counter to voters elevating fresher voices this year.

During stump speeches, he says he was a “Bush 41” Republican. He left the GOP in 2018, spending several years as an independent before registering as a Democrat in 2025.

Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, who challenged Jolly until suspending his campaign in June and announcing he had prostate cancer, acknowledged Florida Democrats have to appeal to independents. But he also said “people don’t want a chameleon.”

“That's the big challenge that he's had, is convincing people that he has stepped away from the Republican policies,” Demings said.

Others were more forgiving.

Sylvia Rieger, a 70-year-old resident at The Villages, said Jolly’s evolution showed “moxie.”

Steven Slyter, an 81-year-old retired handwriting expert, said it was “courageous” for Jolly to leave his party. “He made a decision about what he stands for,” Slyter said. “I like that.”

Florida's last Democratic candidate for governor, Charlie Crist, was also a former Republican. After his drubbing by DeSantis, several Democrats said Jolly was campaigning more effectively.

Facing minimal primary competition, Jolly has largely avoided debates over the party's ideological future. He's won support from progressives including Rep. Maxwell Frost while shoring up his centrist credentials by picking former Rep. Gwen Graham, the daughter of longtime Sen. Bob Graham, as his running mate.

Some Jolly supporters are hoping that his poly-party background will be an asset.

Jeff Adelman is running for a nonpartisan seat on the Coral Springs City Commission in Broward County. As he left a recent meeting of the Coral Springs Parkland Democratic Club, he described Jolly as a potentially unique fit for the state.

“We live in Florida,” he said. “I don't think you're going to get somebody like Bernie Sanders to run for governor in the state of Florida."

The S&P 500 climbed 0.8% and was on track to top its record set last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 185 points, or 0.3%, as of 10:15 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1% higher.

Wall Street relaxed after a report showed prices at the U.S. wholesale level were 4.7% higher last month than a year earlier. While that’s still very high, it’s not as bad as June’s 5.5% inflation rate at the wholesale level, and it was slightly better than economists expected.

If inflation continues to trend that way, the Federal Reserve could decide to hold off on hikes to interest rates. Higher rates would help keep a lid on inflation, but they do so by intentionally slowing the economy and making it more expensive for everyone to borrow money.

Fed officials are split on whether they should have already begun hiking interest rates. But Thursday’s report, following a similar update on inflation at the U.S. consumer level the day before, have traders now betting on just a 35% chance that the Fed will raise rates at its next meeting in September. That’s down from the roughly 50% probability seen two days ago, according to data from CME Group.

Any increase by the Fed would be the first in more than three years. It also could anger President Donald Trump, who has been lobbying for lower interest rates.

Treasury yields sank in the bond market, which eases pressure on stocks and other investments. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.61% from 4.68% late Wednesday and from 4.72% on Monday, though it’s still well above its 3.97% level from before the war with Iran sent oil and gasoline prices surging.

Oil prices eased back on Thursday, helping to limit worries about inflation. The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil fell 3.3% to $86.02.

It’s been swinging sharply recently and pinballed between $72 and $102 last month as hopes rose and fell that a deal in the war could allow oil tankers to freely exit the Middle East again and deliver crude worldwide.

On Wall Street, stocks in the real-estate industry helped lead the way. When interest rates are lower and bonds are paying less in yields, the dividends that many real-estate investment trusts pay look more attractive. Lower mortgage rates could also drive more activity in the housing market.

AvalonBay Communities, which owns apartments across the country, rose 2.6%. Builders FirstSource, which sells countertops and other building materials, climbed 3.4%.

Companies with big fuel bills also benefited from the drop in oil prices, which strengthened hopes for less pressure on their expenses. United Airlines rose 1.7%, and cruise operator Carnival climbed 2.9%.

Jack in the Box jumped 7.3% after the restaurant chain became one of the latest companies to report a bigger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Such reports have helped drive Wall Street to its records because stocks tend to track the path of corporate profits over the long term.

They helped offset a drop for Cisco Systems, which fell 7% even though the tech giant reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than Wall Street expected. Analysts said investors may be worried about its profit margins going forward, and its stock has been shaky through the summer amid worries that AI-related stocks in general shot too high.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe and Asia. South Korea’s Kospi again had one of the world’s biggest moves and jumped 3.6%. Seoul has been home to the world’s sharpest swings for artificial-intelligence stocks because it’s dominated by two tech giants, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

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AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Michelle Chapman contributed to this report.

The ticket that won the jackpot Wednesday night was purchased at a Hy-Vee station in Quincy, about 100 miles (161 kilometers) west of the state capital of Springfield along the Missouri border, Illinois Lottery officials said. The winning numbers were 4-26-66-67-69 with the Powerball number of 9.

It wasn't immediately clear if the winner has come forward yet.

The prize comes in the form of either an annuity of $1 billion paid over 29 years or a lump-sum payment of $450.5 million. Winners almost always take the lump sum.

It was the first Powerball jackpot won since May 2, when the top prize was $20 million, and the first since ticket sales began in the United Kingdom last month. At $2 per play, the odds of winning the jackpot are one in 292 million.

The $1.04 billion grand prize was the eighth-largest in Powerball history, game organizers said. Another lottery game, Mega Millions has also had a $1 billion jackpot winner.

“Congratulations to our newest Powerball jackpot winner in Illinois,” Stephen Durrell, chair of the Powerball Product Group and executive director of the Kansas Lottery, said in a statement. “For more than three decades, Powerball has shown that a winning ticket can be sold anywhere the game is played, giving every $2 ticket the chance to change not only a winner’s life, but generations to come."

Four tickets sold for Wednesday's drawing — in Arizona, California, Florida and North Carolina — hit five of the numbers but missed the Powerball number. They were worth $1 million apiece. A ticket sold in Massachusetts also matched all the numbers except the Powerball number, but won $2 million because of the “Power Play” multiplier option costing an extra $1 per play.

More than 3 million tickets won lesser cash prizes.

The Powerball jackpot resets to $20 million for the next drawing on Saturday.

The record lottery jackpot still stands at just over $2 billion, won with a Powerball ticket purchased in California in 2022.

And one thing that can help them on the path to success is making sure they have the right mentors.

Kenny Stoddart with Iron Mind Advisors, a group committed to helping people reclaim their identity, build resilience, and elevate their profiles, joined us on The Morning Show to discuss the importance of mentoring.

But before you rush to buy the first treatment on the shelf, Consumer Reports says some of the most common remedies may not work anymore.

Summer adventures can leave kids with great memories, and sometimes an unwelcome souvenir: head lice.

Every year, between 6 million and 12 million children get them. The good news is that head lice don’t spread disease.

But treating them properly can save you a lot of time and frustration.

An itchy scalp could be an early warning sign.

In bright light, carefully check the hair and scalp, especially behind the ears and near the back of the neck. Look for live, crawling lice about the size of a sesame seed.

You may also see nits, or eggs, firmly attached to individual strands of hair close to the scalp.

If you see them, think carefully about the treatment plan.

Over-the-counter products like permethrin are unlikely to offer much relief because most lice are now resistant to those chemicals, and prescription pesticide treatments can have concerning side effects.

Wet combing with a fine-toothed metal nit or flea comb is one of the most effective treatments.

Wash hair first, apply conditioner or olive oil, then comb in small sections close to the scalp, and wipe the comb clean after each pass. Keep going until you don’t find any more, then rinse the hair.

The combing method can potentially damage curly or textured hair. To make combing easier, gently blow-dry after applying conditioner.

Prescription Spinosad or over-the-counter topical ivermectin are also effective alternatives to permethrin treatments.

A good general rule is to continue combing for two weeks after the last adult louse is found.

And don’t waste time deep cleaning your entire house. Lice can’t survive very long away from a person’s head. Just wash clothing and bedding in hot water.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says your child does not need to be sent home from school if they’re found to have lice. They can receive appropriate treatment at home and return to school the next day.

Their core focus is primary health, behavioral health, substance use, housing, and HIV/ AIDS testing, counseling and education to both adults and children. Agape Health and Wellness Center is dedicated to the recovery, restoration and promotion of strong and healthy individuals, families and communities.

Beautiful Minds Gala: This elegant formal fundraising gala is more than an event—it is a powerful movement dedicated to bringing awareness, healing, and hope to mental health and community wellness.

Proceeds from the evening will directly support Agape’s mission: “Living Life on Purpose – Transforming Lives from the Inside Out.”

Event Details

Speaker: Dr Karri Bryant, Mental Health Advocate| Author| Speaker

Date: Saturday, August 29, 2026

Time: 3:00 PM – 6:00 PM

Location: Deerwood Castle-7601 Centurion Parkway, Jacksonville, FL 32256

Live Entertainment: The Katz Downstairs

www.ahawc.org 904-661-1592 IG: @agapehealthwc

The company is one of the nation's largest providers of automated license plate readers, which document plate data and other vehicle characteristics as automobiles pass Flock's cameras. The thousands of law enforcement agencies that contract with the company can search and share that data across jurisdictions to inform investigations.

Police have credited the technology as an important crime-fighting innovation that has helped locate missing people and track suspects in violent crimes. But dozens of cities and agencies have nixed their relationships with Flock amid concerns that the data can be accessed for immigration enforcement or used in unauthorized surveillance, after a flurry of examples surfaced of law enforcement officers misusing the technology for personal searches.

CEO says changes will drive accountability

In an interview, Flock CEO Garrett Langley said many of the product changes will make what were once optional guardrails mandatory for its users to implement by Jan. 1.

Among them: All law enforcement customers will have to implement an audit tool that's intended to flag abnormal search behavior. When the system detects abnormal behavior, the user would be locked out pending an internal review, the company said in a description of the changes provided ahead of Thursday's announcement.

Flock, which says its customers own the data that the cameras record, is also shortening the standard data retention window from 30 days to seven. It said it will allow data to be preserved for longer when it is evidence tied to a case number.

Law enforcement users will now also be required to enter a code from their records management system tying each search to a specific case before it is run, something Langley said civil liberties advocates have long been calling for. Overrides for emergencies would be automatically flagged for review, the company said.

Customers will also be allowed to decide which offense types — such as homicide or arson — outside agencies can search their data for, which would allow a customer to block outside searches related to immigration enforcement, the company said.

Langley said that change will give individual cities and departments control to use the system in a manner “consistent with community values.”

Critics say updates still leave room for abuses

Critics of the company reacted skeptically to the changes, which they said appeared designed to address the growing bipartisan anger about the cameras but could still leave room for police to abuse the system.

The American Civil Liberties Union said in a blog post that the shortened evidence retention window could be “a step in the right direction,” but it characterized the other changes as “retreads” of inadequate safety measures.

Robert Frommer, a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm that's led closely watched litigation over the technology, called the changes “window dressing” from a company in “panic mode."

“This is window dressing that doesn’t address the fundamental problem, which is that police officers are the ones deciding who and when to search, and that should be done by judges with real warrants,” he said.

Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, a professor at the George Washington University Law School whose scholarship has focused on policing, big data surveillance and the Fourth Amendment, said he’s been surprised to see the “growing community backlash” against Flock specifically, given the technology is not new and other companies sell it as well.

But Flock and the movement against it have “captured people’s sense that maybe they don’t want to be surveilled all the time,” said Ferguson, a former public defender who earlier this year published a book about policing and surveillance.

More than 50 agencies or jurisdictions canceled, suspended or rejected a contract or deactivated their cameras since the beginning of the year, according to a tracker maintained by DeFlock, a grassroots group formed to track the use of license plate reader technology and push back against it.

In Congress, Republican representatives filed at least two bills aiming to restrict the use of the technology in July.

Ian Adams, an associate professor of criminology at the University of South Carolina currently working on a Flock-related research study, said many of the concerns raised about how the company's data can be used are not new concerns in law enforcement.

“Anyone with policing experience could have reasonably foreseen that what have been termed as ‘curiosity searches’ by officers, searches for private reasons not related to police work, were going to be a problem this technology faced,” he added, noting that other technologies and platforms like the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information had faced those issues.

Successes and failures have captured attention

Flock, based in Atlanta, Georgia, often posts to its website what the company deems to be everyday examples of success stories for its cameras, including finding missing seniors and catching car thieves. But the tech has also been used in high-profile cases that have garnered national attention, such as the search for a suspect in a fatal shooting at Brown University and in tracking and arresting a former North Carolina police officer who authorities say had made threats that he planned to carry out a mass shooting at a festival in Louisiana.

Abuses have also drawn widespread attention. The Washington Post reported earlier this month finding nearly 50 instances of police officers charged or accused of using the cameras for unauthorized purposes, many for tracking current or former romantic partners or family members.

Just this week, six employees — including four officers — of the Savannah Police Department in Georgia were fired after they were accused of searching for friends and family using the tool and allowing an officer from an outside agency to use the city’s cameras.

The Savannah department said it was made aware of the misuse through Flock’s voluntary audit function.

___

Lauer reported from Philadelphia.

The sheriff’s office said a deputy was conducting a traffic stop near Colerain Road and St. Marys Road when three of the four people in the vehicle ran from the scene. One person, the driver, had been apprehended, and deputies were searching for the other three, the agency said.

Camden County Schools said the lockdown was precautionary and that the activity “did not originate on our campus.” District officials said students and staff already on campus were secure inside the building. The district also said students walking to school who were already in the immediate area would be brought safely inside.

School buses for Mary Lee Clark Elementary were temporarily rerouted to St. Marys Middle School while the area was being cleared, officials said.

Later, the district announced law enforcement had given the all-clear and the lockdown was lifted. Camden County Schools said students who remained at St. Marys Middle School would be transported by bus to Mary Lee Clark Elementary, and families of all other students could safely bring their students to the elementary school. The school will resume normal operations for the remainder of the day, the district said, adding that absences related to the incident will be excused.

Police said the blast at Europe’s biggest port happened late Thursday morning and that a crime scene has been set up to try to establish what caused it. In a post on social media, they said the explosion “appears to be a workplace accident for the time being,” without elaborating.

At the scene, Rotterdam police spokesperson Daan Valkenburg told The Associated Press that no definitive conclusions had been drawn and that “we are keeping all possibilities open.”

The explosion occurred at a refinery and fuel terminal operated by Gunvor Energy in an industrial section of the sprawling port. Dutch broadcaster NOS said that a maintenance team had been working on a section of pipes there.

Rotterdam's emergency services coordinator also reported a major power failure in another part of the port and said that a transformer had caught fire under unexplained circumstances. Several companies halted their operations and evacuated workers.

By mid-afternoon, power was fully restored to the area, where a number of oil and gas companies are based. Emergency services later ruled out any link between the blackout and the explosion.

Forecasters in the U.K. are predicting the mercury will rise as high as 38 Celsius (100 Fahrenheit) in central and southeast England, potentially making it the hottest day of the year. The highest temperature this year was recorded on June 26 when the temperature hit 38 C in eastern England.

The U.K.’s Met Office said earlier this week that only average conditions were needed for the rest of August to beat last year’s record for the hottest year.

Temperatures in France, meanwhile, are forecast to go even higher, reaching 40 degrees C (104 F) in central and southern areas and 38 C in Paris.

Britain and France ill-equipped for this sort of heat

This summer has shown that both Britain and France are ill-equipped to deal with these levels of heat. Air conditioning is a rarity outside of shops and offices, for example.

In Britain, it emerged Thursday that working has been particularly difficult in hospitals, where nurses have been known to collapse from heat exhaustion, according to the Royal College of Nursing.

“When nursing staff are collapsing, feeling dizzy, sick or even being admitted to the very hospitals they work in because their workplaces cannot handle the heat, it shows just how badly they are being failed,” said Nicola Ranger, the college's chief executive and general secretary.

Unsurprisingly, drought conditions are spreading

Like many parts of Europe, Britain and France are facing widespread drought conditions that have shriveled crops and drained rivers, heaping pressure on water resources for households, agriculture and the environment, and forcing governments and water users to seek both short- and long-term measures to mitigate the effects of human-caused climate change.

Britain's Southern Water, which oversees supplies in the south of England, has applied for a rare drought order which would ban businesses from nonessential water use, including cleaning cars and filling nondomestic swimming pools, saying an “exceptional” lack of rain has threatened supplies in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Environment Secretary Angela Eagle will decide on the application, which would be the first such ban since May 2006.

Wildfire fears remain a clear and present danger

With the land parched and no sign of any meaningful rain coming, authorities in Britain and France remain on high alert for wildfires.

In Britain, which is increasingly looking sandy brown rather than its traditional luscious green, firefighters have been out in force this week trying to contain a wildfire in the New Forest in southern England.

Some 1,017 wildfires have been recorded in England and Wales this year, according to data from the National Fire Chiefs Council, the same as last year’s record-breaking total.

Though not on the same level as those witnessed in France, Greece and Spain, they provide ample evidence of the need for the U.K. to adjust to a new reality.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said he will consider imposing a ban on disposable barbecues amid the risk of further wildfires as extreme heat continues to grip parts of the U.K.

“I do believe we need to get the message out loud and clear,” he said. “People should not be using those barbecues outside at this moment in time.”

French firefighters were back in action too after a desperate summer and are threatening to go on strike to demand more staff and resources to cope with increasingly extreme weather events.

One broke out late Wednesday in the northern Pas-de-Calais region, and another in Brittany, far from the hotter, drier and more fire-prone regions in southern France. A historic fire devoured forests near Bordeaux last month and pushed a quarter of a million people from their homes.

___

Charlton reported from Paris.

Russia is one of the world’s biggest energy producers, with oil providing an economic mainstay as its military tries to push deeper into Ukraine in a slow and costly advance more than four years after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion.

The attacks have dented Russia’s refining capacity, causing shortages at gas stations. Kyiv officials say the onslaught is meant to compel Russian President Vladimir Putin to seek a peace deal, but there's no sign that strategy is working.

The targeted refinery is one of Russia's biggest

Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces struck the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat oil refining and petrochemical complex in Russia’s republic of Bashkortostan overnight, causing a fire at the facility.

The complex, located southeast of Moscow about 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) from Ukraine’s border, is one of Russia’s largest such facilities, the General Staff said in a Telegram post. The plant processes up to 74 million barrels of oil annually, producing gasoline, diesel fuel and other products, it said.

Bashkortostan Gov. Radiy Khabirov said only that a drone attack wounded two civilians and started a fire in an industrial zone of Salavat.

Wildberries, Russia’s biggest online retailer whose giant warehouses have repeatedly been struck by Ukrainian drones, said a fire started at one of its facilities in the Salavat industrial zone after the overnight attack. The company said the facility was evacuated but that goods were not being stored there.

The attack came a day after Ukrainian missiles and drones blitzed a major Russian naval base on the Black Sea.

Elsewhere, four explosives experts from Russia’s Emergency Ministry and a security guard were killed Thursday after an unspecified Ukrainian weapon blew up in Sevastopol, said Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russian-installed governor for the port city in illegally annexed Crimea.

They were inspecting the site of a Ukrainian attack when “an enemy weapon detonated,” he said.

Also in Sevastopol, a Russian serviceman was killed by an explosion, and a Russian woman, allegedly acting on the orders of Ukrainian intelligence agencies, was detained as a suspect, the Crimean branch of Russia’s Federal Security Service said Thursday.

It was not possible to independently verify either side’s reports.

Russian official says refinery repairs could take 6 months

Meanwhile, a Russian refinery in Orsk that was hit by Ukrainian drones earlier this week has suspended operations, Orenburg region Gov. Yevgeny Solntsev said.

He said that “key infrastructure, which cannot be restored at this time” was attacked, including foreign equipment, and repairs could take up to six months because of international sanctions, Solntsev said in a rare public admission in Russia of the problems Ukrainian attacks are causing.

Ukraine’s General Staff had reported striking the Orsk refinery near the border with Kazakhstan on Tuesday.

Russian drone hits a Ukrainian passenger train, killing 2

Russia has responded by hammering Ukraine with ballistic missiles, jet-powered drones and glide bombs, all of which are hard to intercept. The strikes have killed more than 16,000 civilians since the war began, according to the United Nations.

Russian attacks featuring 133 long-range drones killed at least four people and wounded eight others across Ukraine overnight, officials said.

A jet-powered Shahed drone struck a passenger train in the southern Odesa region, killing the engineer and his assistant, said Ukraine’s state railway company Ukrzaliznytsia.

A Russian drone killed two men Wednesday evening in the southern city of Kherson, regional military administration chief Oleksandr Prokudin said.

Ukraine makes little headway on obtaining Patriot missiles

Ukraine desperately wants more U.S.-made Patriot interceptor missiles that can counter Russia's ballistic missiles, but stocks of the air defense system reportedly are low because of the Iran war.

Ukraine has two and a half times fewer Patriot interceptors than in 2025, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, saying he makes calls every day to try to source some more.

He said he is asking the United States to sell 5% of the interceptor missiles they have in stock to help Ukraine make it through next winter, when Russia’s strikes focus on the power grid, according to an interview with CNN broadcast Wednesday, parts of which he posted online. So far, he said he has obtained only 1%.

In the first half of this year, European countries paid U.S. defense companies at least 3 billion euros ($3.5 billion) for military equipment they sent to Ukraine, according to a report Thursday by Germany’s Kiel Institute, which tracks assistance to Kyiv.

The Trump administration won’t provide its own aid to Ukraine but is allowing other countries to buy U.S. equipment that is sent on.

Military aid provided to Ukraine in the first half of 2026 was close to last year’s level, the Kiel Institute said, but financial and humanitarian aid was 41% lower than in 2025.

___

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

Kaseya said the man had traveled from Isiro in Haut-Uele province to Buta, the capital of Bas-Uele, where he died.

The outbreak in eastern Congo, considered the fastest-growing one yet, is on track to surpass the deadliest one in history, which erupted over a decade ago and killed over 11,000 people, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. There are no approved vaccines or treatments for the rare Bundibugyo virus responsible for the current outbreak.

It has killed over 2,100 people out of more than 4,500 cases, according to the latest government figures. This death toll has been reached almost three times faster than in the 2014-16 Ebola outbreak in West Africa — the worst in history.

The outbreak is unfolding in some of the most challenging conditions imaginable, with strikes by some unpaid health workers, threats by rebel groups, anger from long-traumatized communities and misinformation asserting that Ebola isn’t real.

As of Thursday, six out of 26 of Congo's provinces have been impacted.

Meanwhile, health workers at the Nizi Treatment Center in Ituri province, one of the most affected in the area, went on strike Thursday, leading to the temporary closure of the center after they said they have not been paid for three months.

The real scope of the outbreak remains unknown. It was declared on May 15, but the WHO now says sequencing showed it began months earlier, in February.

Health authorities have said between 60% and 70% of new cases are recorded outside contacts being monitored, and that the disease is spreading at an “alarming” rate.

“We are chasing the virus; the virus is ahead of us,” the WHO regional director for Africa, Dr. Mohamed Yakub Janabi, said this week.

Ebola is rare but highly contagious and can be contracted from bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen, and from contaminated surfaces and materials such as bedding and clothing. The disease it causes is severe and often fatal.

Clinical trials of two possible treatments for this type of Ebola began last month in Ituri, the most affected of the five provinces in Congo where cases have been reported.

Heat Advisory 11 a.m.-8 p.m.: all Northeast Florida, Southeast Georgia counties (minus Camden, Glynn) - feels like 108-112 degrees

Isolated afternoon thunderstorms with wind gusts possible to 55mph along with heavy downpours and frequent lightning.

Areas south of I-10 are more prone to afternoon storms as temperatures rise into the 90s. The east coast sea breeze will likely keep storms pinned closed to I-95 corridor.

Friday: Extreme Heat Watch in place for coastal SE Georgia, Heat Advisory likely in same spots as today.

The Labor Department’s producer price index — which captures inflation before it reaches consumers — rose 4.7% in July from a year ago, down from a much larger 5.5% increase in June. On a monthly basis, wholesale prices were unchanged from June to July, after they ticked down 0.1% the previous month.

The figures follows the government’s consumer price inflation report, released Wednesday, which also showed a modest cooling last month. Still, consumer prices have risen faster than wages for the past four months, underscoring the challenges many Americans have affording necessities such as rent and utilities. If prices continue to outpace wages, many consumers may be forced to dial back their spending in the coming months.

Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core wholesale inflation dropped to 4.2% in July compared with a year earlier, down from 4.7% in June. On a monthly basis, core prices 0.2%, down from 0.4% from May to June.

After falling in early July, gas prices then rose later that month and in early August, threatening to push inflation back up when August figures are reported next month.

“The soft (producer prices) reading for July points to reduced inflationary pressure for businesses in coming months,” said Ben Ayers, senior economist at Nationwide. “While the renewed rise in fuel costs is concerning, input costs beyond energy are cooling.”

Last month’s cooling gives Federal Reserve officials more leeway to avoid a rate hike when it meets next in September. Fed officials are debating whether they should raise their key interest rate to combat inflation, or keep it unchanged in hopes that inflation continues to cool on its own.

Wholesale prices can offer an early look at where consumer inflation might be headed. Economists also watch it because some of its components, notably healthcare and financial services, flow into the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge — the personal consumption expenditures, or PCE, index. That price index will be released in about two weeks.

The PCE index uses data from the consumer price index as well. With both those reports now released, economists forecast that when the Fed's preferred gauge is issued Aug. 26, it will show yearly core inflation likely remained unchanged in July, at about 3.3%, unlike both the consumer and producer price indexes, which have slowed a bit. That could raise concerns among some Fed officials that inflation is too far above the central bank's target of 2% and showing little sign of easing.

Fed officials are considering whether to hike rates after leaving them unchanged so far this year. Last week, the government said employers actually cut jobs in July, a sign of economic weakness that could discourage the central bank from raising borrowing costs.

The jury pool was narrowed to about 80 in Phase 1, with some being dismissed for hardships.

NOTE: News4JAX will live stream what we can from court during jury selection. What we can show from this stage is limited, and the stream may end abruptly. Press play above to watch

Three more jurors were excused Thursday morning before the defense began its questioning. One was sick, another had a medical concern and a third was reported by another juror for possibly breaking the court’s rules and making comments about the case.

Judge London Kite has repeatedly explained to the potential jurors that they can not look up anything about the case or talk about it with anyone.

Attorneys are now using answers jurors provided on a questionnaire to dig deeper in Phase 2 as they work to select an impartial panel to hear the case against Fernandez.

Along with his now-estranged wife, Shanna Gardner, Fernandez is accused of hiring Henry Tenon, a former tenant, to shoot and kill Bridegan in Jacksonville Beach in February 2022.

Bridegan, a 33-year-old father of four, was Gardner’s ex-husband. They were in ongoing custody disputes over their twin children.

Assistant State Attorney Alan Mizrahi spent the morning and afternoon sessions on Wednesday asking jurors questions about their personal backgrounds, any experiences they’ve had with police or the courts, personal beliefs that might be considered controversial, and any issues that might affect their ability to be impartial.

He also asked if they’d ever had to fire an employee, if they or a family member or friend had experienced a bitter divorce involving children, and whether they understand the difference between free speech and someone asking them to commit a crime.

Mizrahi finished around 3 p.m., and Kite dismissed most of the jurors until Thursday morning. A handful of jurors were questioned separately because of specific concerns they wanted to raise with the court, including one juror who ended up being dismissed for financial hardship reasons.

As part of the preparation for trial, Kite previously ordered that the seated jurors’ names be kept anonymous until 60 days after the trial, which is typical in high-profile cases. The jurors are being referred to only by their numbers during questioning to protect their identities.

One potential juror was dismissed on Wednesday before questioning even began after a co-worker reported the woman broke the rules.

Judge London Kite said someone who asked to remain anonymous called the court to say that Juror No. 110 had been bragging at work about being on the Jared Bridegan case and was looking up details about the case.

The judge offered to question Juror No. 110 about the accusations, but both the defense and prosecution opted to just excuse her for cause and move on with the remaining jurors who returned for Phase 2.

RELATED | Who was Jared Bridegan? A father, a creative builder, a believer — and so much more

Gardner, Fernandez and Tenon are all under indictment for first-degree murder and other charges and have each pleaded not guilty. Fernandez is the first of the three to go on trial.

Despite initially being indicted on four charges, Fernandez will now be tried only on first-degree murder and solicitation to commit a capital felony in the case that has garnered national attention.

Prosecutors announced before jury selection that the other two charges Fernandez had been indicted on -- conspiracy to commit murder and child abuse -- had been dropped.

NEW INFORMATION: Prosecutor drops bombshell in Jared Bridegan murder-for-hire case: Accused gunman was not alone on night of shooting | RELATED: Defense attorneys for Mario Fernandez briefly discussed plea deal with state in Jared Bridegan murder-for-hire case

After originally planning to try Gardner and Fernandez at the same time, defense attorneys and state prosecutors have since agreed that they should face separate trials, with two separate jury selection periods.

Fernandez will go on trial first, with jury selection slated to continue through Friday. His trial is scheduled for Aug. 17-28.

Gardner will go on trial after Fernandez, with jury selection from Aug. 31-Sept. 4, and the trial from Sept. 8-25.

Tenon will go on trial in March 2027.

In 2023, Tenon pleaded guilty and admitted to being the gunman who killed Bridegan, but he has since backtracked, and a judge granted his motion to withdraw his guilty plea and go to trial.

Prosecution bombshell

While arguing a motion at a recent hearing, Assistant State Attorney Alan Mizrahi revealed information about the case that was new to the public.

Speaking for the prosecution, Mizrahi said the state has evidence that multiple people were involved in the ambush shooting that killed Bridegan in February 2022 in Jacksonville Beach.

Previously, the state had only said that Tenon, the alleged hired gunman, was at the scene and fired the fatal shots after leaving a tire in the road to force Bridegan to get out of his SUV.

Now, the state has indicated that Tenon was not alone at the shooting scene.

“When the victim was killed, there is a person that fled on foot and a person that fled in a vehicle. We know that Henry Tenon left his DNA behind on that tire. And we know that Henry Tenon was not driving the pick-up truck that fled the scene,” Mizrahi said, arguing that this was proof of a deeper conspiracy in the case.

It’s unclear if the state is implying that Fernandez was driving the truck that night or if it was someone else.

“If we go back to the time that Jared Bridegan was murdered, we know there were so many questions about who could’ve done this,” Schott said. “We know there are months and months and probably pages of data that the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office was able to gather about why and how Jared Bridegan was murdered.”

During the hearing, Mizrahi pointed to the landlord-tenant relationship between Fernandez and Tenon as evidence that the two were connected, but said the state also has evidence of communications between the two in the days, weeks and “on the day of the particular crime.”

Timeline: How we got here

More than four years ago, Jared Bridegan dropped his then-9-year-old twin children off at the home of his ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, after a “date night” with their dad.

He left Gardner’s Jacksonville Beach home on Feb. 16, 2022, with his 2-year-old daughter, Bexley, strapped in her car seat in the back of his dark-colored SUV. They were headed back to St. Augustine.

But the 33-year-old Microsoft employee never made it home.

Following his normal route through the Sanctuary neighborhood, Bridegan suddenly had to stop in the area of Jacksonville Drive, America Avenue and Sanctuary Boulevard.

A tire was in the road.

When Bridegan stepped out of his SUV, he was ambushed by gunfire. At least one bullet missed Bexley by mere inches in her car seat.

RELATED | Murder-for-hire plot included practice run along Jared Bridegan’s normal route home: prosecutors

Bridegan was left lying in the street next to the SUV with the door wide open, and the shooter seemed to melt into the shadows just as quickly as he had launched his ambush attack.

None of the 911 callers that night mentioned seeing a shooter or a vehicle leaving the scene.

The state has since said that the shooter ran off on foot and someone else drove away from the scene in a pick-up truck.

Prosecutors also said they have Tenon’s DNA on the tire that was left in the road.

LISTEN: Press play below to hear 911 calls from night of Jared Bridegan’s murder (WARNING: May include graphic content)

Eventually, detectives tracked down the man they say pulled the trigger.

Investigators say that it was all part of a murder-for-hire plot set in motion by Gardner and her second husband, Mario Fernandez. It was a conspiracy that began in November of 2021, according to court documents.

Interactive Timeline

Alleged murder-for-hire scheme

According to detectives, Gardner was tired of sharing custody of her twin children with Bridegan.

Fernandez, she knew, could “take care of him” because of his military background, Gardner told a friend. At least that’s what the friend told investigators as she detailed the strained marriage between Gardner and Fernandez and the contentious ongoing custody battle between Gardner and Bridegan.

RELATED: A friend of Shanna Gardner said she could help in Jared Bridegan’s murder case. Here’s what she told investigators | How investigators say they untangled conspiracy to kill Jared Bridegan

Investigators say that’s exactly what Fernandez did, hiring Henry Tenon, a tenant at one of his properties, to kill Bridegan.

In his initial interview with police in July 2022, Tenon told investigators that he had been renting a home from Fernandez in Jacksonville’s Biltmore neighborhood for several years.

Tenon’s original court records said he became involved in the conspiracy on Jan. 4, 2022 -- just over a month before Bridegan was killed.

Investigators said when Tenon was arrested on an unrelated felony driving charge in August 2022, they questioned him about Bridegan’s murder and a Ford F-150 truck they had been searching for since the shooting.

RELATED | Follow the money: Checks written to Jared Bridegan’s admitted killer connect him to 2 accused in ‘murder-for-hire plot’ | Jared Bridegan’s wife files wrongful death lawsuit against 3 accused in his murder

Tenon was later arrested in Bridegan’s murder, and investigators said the single link between Tenon and Bridegan was Fernandez.

Again, Tenon initially pleaded guilty, but has since withdrawn his guilty plea.

He is now under indictment for some of the same charges as Gardner and Fernandez.

Gardner is charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, solicitation to commit a capital felony and child abuse.

Tenon is charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, child abuse, possession of a firearm by a felon and accessory after the fact.

State prosecutors initially said they would be seeking the death penalty against Gardner and Fernandez if they were convicted, but they have since taken the death penalty off the table, with the support of Bridegan’s widow, Kirsten, and his family.

Putin visited a fish plant, a hospital and a school on Iturup, one of the volcanic chain's southern islands. He also briefly spoke to local residents and met with the governor of Russia's Sakhalin region, Valery Limarenko.

Japan asserts territorial rights to the four southernmost islands of the chain, which it calls the Northern Territories. The Soviet Union took them from Japan in the final days of World War II, and the dispute kept the countries from signing a peace treaty formally ending their hostilities.

Decades of diplomatic efforts to negotiate a settlement haven’t produced any visible results. Moscow over the years has also bolstered its military presence on the Kurils in moves that appeared to underscore its firm stance in the dispute.

Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said his country “strongly protests” Putin's visit to Iturup, which Japan calls Etorofu.

“The Northern Territories, including Etorofu (Iturup) Island, are Japan’s inherent territory both historically and from the perspective of international law,” Motegi said in a statement.

He summoned Russian Ambassador Nikolay Nozdrev to the ministry in Tokyo and lodged a strong protest over the visit, requesting that he "promptly report the message back to Moscow,” the minister told reporters afterward.

Later Thursday, the Russian Embassy in Japan called Tokyo's protest “unfounded” and said Nozdrev had explained that “the southern Kuril Islands are an integral part of the Russian Federation and became part of it following World War II on legitimate international grounds.”

Putin's travels are “sovereign decisions of the Russian leadership and can't be subject to discussion with foreign states," the statement added.

Japan also protested in 2021 when Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin visited Iturup.

Putin in recent days has visited several regions in Siberia and the Far East. Before coming to Iturup, he stopped on Sakhalin Island to attend the final part of drills by Russia's Pacific Fleet.

Speaking aboard a warship that was participating in the naval exercises, Putin said Wednesday that the current status of the Kuril Islands “is enshrined in international documents as a reality that arose following the outcome of World War II.”

“But even here, Russia was prepared to seek a solution with the goal of concluding a peace treaty with Japan,” he said.

Putin said that in the past, Moscow “had developed constructive relations with a number of Japanese leaders, including the tragically deceased former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who did much to bring Japan and Russia closer together, to align our positions.”

Japan imposed sanctions on Russia after it sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and “listed Russia as a source of primary threats,” a change in that constructive relationship, he added.

Russia remains ready “to cooperate with all its neighbors, including Japan and other states in the region,” Putin said.

Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Putin’s visit is “incompatible with the Japanese position on the Northern Territories” and is “absolutely unacceptable.”

She said the visit was a further blow to the already-strained ties between the two countries over Ukraine, and that Moscow should understand the consequences.

“We must say this visit has further hardened Japanese public sentiment toward Russia and has made it more difficult to restore bilateral relations in the medium to long term,” she said. “We hope the Russian side fully understands the seriousness of this.”

One of the reasons Japan has made the effort to maintain ties with Russia is to allow former Japanese residents to return to the islands and pay tribute at their graves as a humanitarian consideration.

Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's former president and prime minister who now serves as deputy chair of the country's Security Council, responded to Takaichi's remarks on X by saying, “This chatter won't change a thing.”

The Kuril Islands “were, are, and will remain Russian land,” Medvedev, who himself visited the Kuril Islands four times as president and prime minister, wrote. “Anyone who fails to understand this will face the monstrous consequences of their delusion.”

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Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed.

Monday’s announcement by the Republican president calls for separating combination shots — including the measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine — into separate injections. Appointments for that and other vaccinations should be spaced out whenever possible, the order states.

To accomplish that, drugmakers would need to revive a slate of individual vaccines that have not been marketed separately in the U.S. for decades. They would also have to build new manufacturing plants capable of producing millions more vaccine doses than the nation currently uses.

For parents, unbundling the MMR vaccine and spacing out the shots would mean returning to the doctor’s office many more times than is currently needed. Those appointments could also strain pediatricians who typically administer the shots, while driving up costs tied to syringes and other medical supplies.

Studies in the U.S. and other countries have shown that combination vaccines increase the likelihood that children will be fully protected from infectious diseases before starting school.

Health experts say there is no scientific basis for changing course.

“We do things that are less convenient and more expensive if there’s a good reason to do it,” said Dr. Anna Durbin, of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “There is no good justification for this. I think it’s very bad public health policy.”

Trump's plan would require vaccine manufacturing overhaul

Under Trump's executive order, federal officials are instructed to develop within 90 days plans for breaking up the MMR shot and spacing out other vaccines.

But pharmaceutical scientists and former regulators say those changes would likely take years and require drugmakers to spend tens of millions of dollars on new studies and manufacturing facilities.

Currently, there are no individual vaccines in the U.S. for measles, mumps or rubella. All the vaccines approved for those viruses by the Food and Drug Administration are combination shots. That three-in-one approach has been the standard in the U.S. since the early 1970s.

Dr. Jesse Goodman, a former FDA vaccine chief, said companies would have to conduct large studies showing new individual shots produced immune system-boosting reactions in children similar to the current versions.

Companies might also have to demonstrate the safety of new manufacturing facilities and procedures, given that individual measles shots haven't been widely produced in the U.S. for roughly a half-century.

“The question is how much has changed since then and how comfortable will the FDA and the companies be relying on those comparisons?” said Goodman, who is now a professor at Georgetown University.

Designing, constructing and getting federal sign-off for new vaccine plants typically takes about five years, according to industry experts.

Additionally, Goodman said the FDA would have to review and license each unbundled vaccine separately, a process with no precedent.

“I don’t think there’s any comparable example of removing hugely effective public health measures that protect babies for no documented scientific reason,” he said.

Individual shots for measles and related diseases tend to be used by lower-income countries that can’t afford the MMR shot. Merck, GSK and the handful of other companies that supply U.S. childhood vaccines make only the combination shot.

In separate statements, Merck and GSK said they stand by the safety and effectiveness of their products. Neither discussed plans to unbundle their shots.

“To date, there has been no published scientific evidence that shows any benefit in separating the combination MMR vaccine into three individual shots,” Merck said in an emailed statement.

Parents would need to make many more trips to the doctor

The MMR shot is currently delivered in two doses — the first at the age of 1 and the second dose after age 4. Splitting up the shot into its three separate components would mean six office visits. Spacing out other shots for pertussis and other infectious diseases could multiply the number of visits many more times.

As the number of visits goes up, parents are more likely to miss appointments or stop making them, according to Durbin.

“It’s going to be less convenient, more expensive and you’re going to have fewer people getting vaccinated,” she said.

Since last year, Trump has repeatedly expressed concern about the number of vaccinations U.S. children are receiving and called on Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to reduce the number. Kennedy and other officials have pointed to smaller countries, such as Denmark, that recommended slightly fewer vaccines than the U.S.

But breaking up combination shots will result in kids receiving many more individual shots than other comparable nations, Durbin notes.

White House spokesman Kush Desai said the Trump administration’s efforts on the MMR vaccine “will give parents more options on timing and frequency for their children, which ultimately will increase vaccination rates for all three diseases.”

Vaccine order is not legally binding

Despite the precedent-breaking nature of Trump’s order, some experts are skeptical it will result in meaningful changes.

Neither the White House nor the FDA can compel drugmakers to develop and seek approval for new vaccines. And from a business perspective, companies have little incentive to develop individual versions of vaccines they already sell in combination shots.

“They’d be competing against themselves, and there’s no reason to do that,” said Dr. Paul Offit, a Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia vaccine researcher and former government adviser.

While Trump’s order calls for more federal research and recommendations, only state governments have the legal authority to require vaccinations for schoolchildren. The order simply advises states to consider updating their laws to reflect the Trump administration’s approach.

“I think states will ignore this,” Offit said. “I think that bottom line is that we don’t need to look to Donald Trump for our medical advice.”

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AP videojournalist Mary Conlon in New York contributed to this report.

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

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Follow the AP's coverage of immunizations at https://apnews.com/hub/immunizations.

Mike Huckabee's remarks on X represented an unusually sharp rebuke from the Trump administration of the latest episode in a surge of settler violencein the region.

Settlers have targeted three homes for days

Starting Sunday, settlers gathered around three houses in the village of Qusra, according to local officials, Palestinian American homeowner Loui Ridi, and Ridi's brother. At times numbering dozens, the settlers threw stones, attempted to bring down a stone wall nearby, and prevented the occupants from leaving as their food and water dwindled.

Israeli troops have intervened to try to restore order. On Thursday morning, Ridi's brother, Qusai Abu Rida, who had holed up in the house with his own teenage son to defend it, said they were moved by Israel’s military to another home but still cannot leave the area, which is about 16 kilometers (10 miles) from the Palestinian city of Nablus.

The military said that its troops dismantled “two illegal outposts” near the homes on the outskirts of Qusra and a nearby village, and detained one Israeli. It added that additional soldiers were sent to “carry out defensive missions and patrols.”

Mayor Abdel Azim Wadi said that Israeli forces evacuated seven homes in total to take positions in the village. The settlers, though removed from their outposts, remain in other parts of the village, he added. The military said the soldiers have subsequently been instructed to allow families to remain in their homes and not to operate in them, but families have not yet returned, Abu Rida said.

It's still not clear when families in the besieged area will be able to get basic supplies and what would happen to their homes.

“No one is allowed to enter. Even food and water are prohibited from reaching those besieged,” Yasser Ahmad, a resident of a neighboring village, said as he watched the operation unfold from one hilltop over.

Journalists on the outskirts of Qusra said roads into the village were closed on Thursday afternoon. Israeli police did not immediately respond to questions about whether any detained Israelis had been arrested.

Settler violence has surged in recent years

Palestinians and the Israeli opposition accuse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-line government of turning a blind eye to attacks by settlers against Palestinians that have increased in the last few years.

Israeli ministers and Cabinet members have downplayed settler violence and described it as the actions of a few fringe youth acting outside the law. Huckabee is a longtime ally of Israel’s settler movement and in the past has expressed support for Israeli control over the occupied West Bank, while condemning settler violence.

“Actions by those who carried out this horrific act of terror meant to intimidate and harass this family are disgusting,” Huckabee said in his post, noting that the embassy has been coordinating with the Israeli military and police.

The siege began five days ago

Settlers began their siege of the homes five days ago, blocking the doors and preventing inhabitants from leaving, Abu Rida said. Israel’s military condemned the siege as “illegal, reprehensible, and unacceptable” on Tuesday and declared the area a closed military zone. But by Wednesday, dozens of settlers had returned and begun to block the road with rocks.

Speaking to The Associated Press by phone on Wednesday from Ohio, where he lives, Ridi said his 48-year-old brother and nephew had not had access to new food or water supplies for several days.

Ridi said that settlers have been targeting his home for months before the situation escalated in recent days, saying they had cut off the water and electricity to his house and thrown stones, causing damage to the property.

“We are prisoners in our own house, hostages in our own house,” he said.

Qusra is in one of the most violent pockets of the northern West Bank, surrounded by settlements.

Last month, a mosque in Qusra was set on fire in another apparent settler attack. That followed the killing of an Israeli settler, triggering violence that left two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinian villagers dead.

Settlers have been building more outposts in an effort condemned by many in the international community as aimed at dismantling any remaining hopes of establishing a Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinians seek the West Bank, captured by Israel in the 1967 war, as part of a future state. Many settlers and their supporters say the entire area should belong to Israel for historical, religious and security reasons.

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This story has been updated to correct the first name of the homeowner to Loui.

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Metz reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Sam Mednick and Giovanna Dell'Orto contributed from Jerusalem. Koral Saeed contributed reporting from Herzliya, Israel.

It's the same for most runners, as the body can't cool down during exertion, and heat makes that even harder.

“One thing about marathoners is typically we're kind of stubborn,” said Grinvalds, 68, from West Des Moines, Iowa, who finds even temperatures in the 50s F (10 C) a bit warm. “So if we have a goal and it's hot, a lot of times we're still going to try to do that goal, which is just stupid because you're almost guaranteed to have a very painful experience.”

Such an experience can also be dangerous, a reality that marathon organizers are having to confront as climate change, caused mostly by the burning of fuels like coal and gasoline, pushes temperatures up. To improve the chances of having the 26.2-mile (42-kilometer) race in cooler weather, organizers are shifting race dates, starting earlier and even giving options for participants to cut their runs short.

Starting in 2027, the Twin Cities Marathon in Minneapolis-St. Paul will shift its more than 40-year tradition of holding the race on the first Sunday in October to later in the month. That decision comes after cancellation of the marathon in 2023 because of record heat and humidity, and starting temperatures near 70 F (21 C) for the 2025 race.

Organizers of the Sioux Falls, South Dakota, marathon last year similarly moved their annual race from August to September after canceling the 2024 race due to hot conditions. And other races, including the Air Force Marathon in Dayton, Ohio, the Little Rock Marathon in Arkansas, and the Long Beach Marathon in Southern California, all moved their start times to earlier in the morning in search of cooler temperatures.

In Los Angeles in March, warm conditions prompted race organizers to give runners the option of stopping after 18 miles and still receiving a finishers medal. Less than 5% of participants opted for the shorter finish and only 14 of roughly 27,000 runners were treated at a hospital, with all released the same day. Still, the move led to some online derision.

“We welcome the feedback and it's certainly something that caused a lot of discussion, but when we're grading ourselves on it, it has to do with how safe our runners were on the day of the event and we're very happy with the outcome,” said Meg Treat, a spokesperson for the marathon.

At the Twin Cities Marathon, race director Ed Whetham called the decision to cancel the 2023 marathon “devastating” for runners and the organization. Whetham said it prompted an extensive analysis of weather patterns that resulted in the decision to permanently delay the race by a couple weeks.

That analysis showed that by holding the race later in October, runners would have a far greater chance of optimal conditions. Given that snow sometimes falls in the Twin Cities in late October, there is a greater chance of chilly conditions, but Whetham said, “We’ll take a 39-degree (4 C) start over a 70-degree (21 C) start.”

Temperatures are expected to keep rising

The contiguous U.S. just had its warmest July ever recorded, and the Earth had its hottest year on record in 2024. The World Meteorological Organization forecasts that between 2025 and 2030 the Earth's average global temperature will likely rise by more than 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) compared to the 1800s.

The warming is already making conditions worse for most marathons, according to a study of 221 races by the climate research group Climate Central. By 2045, optimal conditions for recreational runners — in the low 40s (6 or 7 degrees C) — would be less likely at 46 of the 51 U.S. marathons analyzed.

“The ability to go outside, to exercise, to take advantage of your human body and being healthy, that’s something that’s getting challenged by climate change,” said Andy Pershing, who led the Climate Central research.

Jessica Murfree leads a University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill lab studying climate change's effect on sports. She said organizers of marathons, bicycle races and other competitions — from tennis to college football — increasingly must consider changing event dates and times and adopting other safety measures, as climate change makes the weather hotter and more volatile.

Murfree said the concern extends beyond organized sports to whether people can even get outside on increasingly warm days, pushing people to exercise indoors or opt for activities like swimming.

“If we can't walk, if we can't exercise or go for runs, it's too hot, can we still stay physically active while remaining cool?” she asked.

Marathons are especially hard in warm weather

Any kind of exercising in the heat can be challenging, but running a marathon in warm, humid conditions is especially difficult because it's hard to prevent overheating when a person keeps pushing themselves for hours. And the faster a person goes, the more heat their body produces.

Chris Minson, a University of Oregon professor who researches how people can adapt to extreme heat and other environmental conditions, said the optimum temperature to run a marathon is about 50 degrees (10 C). As the temperature creeps into the upper 50s and 60s, the body has a tougher time supplying blood to muscles while also keeping the body cool.

“As you get to warmer temperatures you end up having a bigger competition between blood supplying your muscles to keep running, to keep nutrition going, and blood flow to your skin for thermal regulation,” Minson said.

Minson said it takes a tremendous amount of energy to run quickly. But of that energy, only about 25% is used to move the body forward. The rest goes to deal with the heat that is created by rapid movement.

Even worse than high temperatures is high humidity, which prevents sweat from evaporating and cooling the body.

Minson adds, though, that by regularly exercising in warm weather, people can acclimate to high temperatures and perform better in the heat, though likely not as well as they would in cooler conditions. Athletes who acclimate to high heat also can perform better in lower temperatures than if they hadn't exercised in warm weather, he said.

Some athletes like John Seals even run in the midday heat and endure a sauna after a workout to acclimate their bodies. That all forms part of Seals' training for an annual 135-mile ultramarathon held in July in Death Valley, California.

“We had a heat wave this week and for me, that's a great thing,” said Seals, of West Des Moines.

Still, running in the heat can be dangerous without taking precautions.

Douglas Casa, a kinesiology professor who leads the Korey Stringer Institute, which studies sudden deaths in sports, said the Twin Cities Marathon's change was prudent, especially considering the way in which many runners approach races.

“If someone was smart enough to say, 'OK, it's a little hotter today than usual, I'm going to run a 7 minute mile instead of a 6:30 mile,' then they won't get any hotter than normal,” Casa said. “It's just that runners are sometimes very locked into what they normally do and what their goals are.”

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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

But with the major parties refusing to field candidates in the election, voters in a small seaside resort outside London are choosing between a man with eyes on the prime minister’s office and a random assortment of candidates, led by a man wearing a trash can on his head.

Farage triggered the vote last month when he quit his seat in the hope that it would put to bed questions about his finances and result in a resounding victory over his main political rivals from the Labour and Conservative parties. He said he would let voters judge him in a “people versus the establishment” contest.

But his political foes described the move as a stunt and opted not to play ball. Farage is instead facing opponents like Count Binface, a political satirist posing as a comic space alien with a keen interest in earthly matters, including the positioning of a hand dryer in the men’s toilet in a pub in west London.

While Farage is widely expected to win the race, questions about the millions of pounds in donations that he had received will persist.

Record number of candidates standing in Clacton

The election is a novelty with a record 34 candidates, including Howling Laud Hope of The Official Monster Raving Loony Party and Marcus White from the Everyone is God Party. They have pounded the streets of Clacton over the past few weeks as they seek to win the support of around 80,000 voters.

Given the numbers standing, Clacton residents will be presented with a ballot paper around 3 feet long (around 1 meter). That's not going to be easy to navigate.

Turnout is widely expected to be low as it often is in special elections. In the July 2024 general election, Farage faced eight rivals and garnered 21,225 votes, or 46.2% of the total. Turnout was 58.7%.

This election is taking place during the summer holidays when thousands of voters will be far away from Clacton. It's also taking place during another U.K. heatwave, which could prompt many to opt against making the trip to the polling station.

Election isn't the one Farage was planning

Farage, who in 2024 was elected to Parliament at his eighth attempt in the strongly Brexit -backing town, has for months been facing what he considers to be unfair scrutiny of his finances.

Parliament’s standards watchdog is investigating an undeclared donation of 5 million pounds ($6.7 million) to Farage in 2024 from Christopher Harborne, a Thailand-based cryptocurrency billionaire. Farage says he didn’t need to declare the money because it was a personal gift he used to fund his security and came before he was elected.

However, newly elected lawmakers must declare gifts worth more than 300 pounds ($400) received in the previous year if they are related to political activities.

When he stood down on July 7, he described the scrutiny as an “establishment hit job” and a media-driven “witch-hunt.”

His decision to stand down put a pause to the parliamentary investigation, but if he wins on Thursday, as most pollsters expect, it is set to start again.

If he's found to have breached Parliament's rules, then he could face a recall petition in Clacton, which may lead to another special election later this year, costing the British taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds more. The difference is that in that one, the other parties would choose to stand.

Farage's decision came weeks after Andy Burnham returned to Parliament in a special election in the Makerfield constituency near Manchester. That campaign shone a positive spotlight on Burnham, triggering a chain of events that saw him become Britain's prime minister a few weeks later following the resignation of Keir Starmer.

Any hope that Farage had that the Clacton campaign would be similarly positive for him was dashed when the other political parties failed to play ball and he was left standing against the likes of Count Binface.

Binface leads the alternatives

Under Binface’s black cape, trash can and ample body armor that looks straight out of a low-budget sci-fi film, is a middle-aged comedian named Jon Harvey trying to keep his cool during a sweaty summer.

He has been a regular candidate in high-profile elections before, having previously stood against then prime ministers Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak.

He says his repeated candidacies are aimed at promoting the beauties of Britain's centuries-old democracy where even the most high-profile politicians are above no one — including someone from his fictional native planet of Sigma IX.

Joke candidates are a long-standing and cherished tradition in British elections so long as they meet the rules and pay the deposit of 500 pounds ($675) required of all those standing. They only get it back if they muster 5% of the votes cast. In his most recent run, against Burnham in Makerfield, the 5,000-year-old Binface got 95 votes, or 0.2% of the total.

There is an expectation that he will do a lot better in Clacton. Many of the voters of the other political parties have been lending him their support, partly in the hope of embarrassing Farage.

Given the numbers standing, the result is not expected until breakfast time Friday.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that 209,000 people filed jobless claims last week, up from a revised 200,000 the week before and higher than the 205,000 forecasters had expected. The four-week average of applications, which smooths out week-to-week-volatitlity, was unchanged at 199,000.

The overall number of people collecting employment benefits the week that ended Aug. 1 dropped by 22,000 to 1.78 million.

Claims for jobless benefits are a proxy for layoffs, and they've been at a historically low range of around 200,000 to 230,000 a week for the past year, suggesting that Americans who have jobs enjoy unusual job security. The U.S. unemployment rate is low at 4.1%, as the economy has proven resilient despite a spike in energy prices caused by the fighting with Iran.

"The labor market has yet to show any sign of wear and tear from the surge in oil prices since the start of the war with Iran and the global energy supply shock,'' Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics, wrote in a commentary.

The story is less encouraging for those trying to break into the job market and for those who lost their jobs and are looking for new work. Companies, scarred by worker shortages that followed the end of COVID-19 lockups four to five years ago, are reluctant to let go of staff; but they aren't eager to take on new workers. Economists regularly refer to a "no hire, no fire'' job market.

Last month, in fact, companies, government agencies and nonprofits together cut 23,000 jobs instead of increasing them, the Labor Department reported last week. So far this year, employers are adding 61,000 jobs a month. That is an improvement on the 9,700 they averaged last year — the weakest hiring outside a recession since 2002. The lingering effects of high interest rates and President Donald Trump's erratic trade policies discouraged companies from hiring in 2025.

Still, hiring this year remains well below the 166,00 monthly jobs created, on average, in 2023 and 2024, let alone the 491,000 a month recorded during the 2021-2022 hiring boom that followed pandemic lockdowns.

U.S. Magistrate Lauren Louis had been scheduled to hear arguments from both sides on Thursday before determining if the brothers, who have repeatedly denied wrongdoing, should stay in jail or be released during what could be a monthslong extradition process.

Louis granted a defense request to move the hearing to Aug. 27. Lawyers for the Tates said they needed more time to respond to prosecutors’ arguments.

The Tates have remained in a federal detention center in Miami since making a brief court appearance two days after their July 18 arrest. Their attorneys have argued the Tates’ high profile makes it nearly impossible for them to flee and that they regularly post updates about their locations on social media.

The Tates have become some of the world’s most polarizing internet personalities with their promotion of wealth, male dominance and misogyny through their social media empire. The new allegations are the latest in the Tates' long-running international legal saga spanning the U.S., Britain and Romania.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office filing, the Tates should be detained pending their extradition hearing because they cannot overcome the strong presumption against bail in international extradition cases.

The serious pending U.K. charges involving human trafficking and violent rapes and assaults against multiple victims, along with allegations in Romania that the Tates attempted to intimidate witnesses, present a clear public safety concern, prosecutors say.

While prosecutors call the brothers a flight risk, their attorneys said they have proved they are not by complying with all pretrial restrictions in Romania, where they are accused of luring women for sexual exploitation.

The U.K. has until mid-September to provide evidence to the State Department to support extradition, meaning the brothers could spend months in the Federal Detention Center in Miami before the proceedings are resolved, the defense motion says. No date has been set for an extradition hearing. They are being held in a special unit for their own protection.

The beloved federal agency, its iconic park rangers and other employees have been serving the public while managing controversial demands by the Republican president — from revising exhibits at parks and other sites to the demolition of important structures under its stewardship, such as the White House's East Wing, to arresting visitors for alleged vandalism at the pool.

Critics say the monthslong Reflecting Pool saga and other demands by Trump risk undermining the integrity of a federal agency that has long been held in high esteem by the American public.

“Never — not once in decades — have I witnessed such systematic degradation, disrespect and dismantling of the National Park Service as I see today under the thumb of President Donald Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum,” said Bill Wade, a former park ranger and superintendent.

Wade, who now serves as executive director of the Association of National Park Rangers, wrote an op-ed for The Denver Post lamenting what he called the Trump administration's “assault on the people, the mission and the values that have made the National Park Service one of America’s most valued institutions.”

The park service has been at the center of some of Trump's most contentious actions during his second term. An executive order targeted funding and demanded reviews at national parks and other sites that Trump said advanced “divisive narratives” and “improper ideology,” resulting in changes to some exhibits on slavery or climate change.

The president has also ordered sweeping changes to historical monuments and buildings in Washington that fall under NPS' purview, including the creation of a White House ballroom and a 250-foot-tall (76-meter-tall) memorial arch. The agency meanwhile has lost at least one-quarter of its permanent workforce since Trump began his second term, through layoffs, forced retirements and resignations.

Park service employees “are being politicized and drawn into the absurdities and corruption of this administration” on a regular basis, said California Rep. Jared Huffman, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee. He cited the pool project, the proposed arch and the executive order on exhibit materials.

The ongoing political assault on the agency “is unlike anything we’ve seen in this country, and it makes life miserable at agencies like the National Park Service,” Huffman said.

Reflecting Pool saga continues

Trump launched repairs at the Reflecting Pool earlier this year, hoping to address longstanding problems at the iconic site ahead of the America 250 celebrations. But the $16 million project faced immediate problems, including peeling blue sealant and a fierce return of green algae.

Trump blamed the sealant issues on vandalism without providing evidence, and felony charges were brought against a former Olympic canoeist, David Hearn, after he was accused of vandalizing the pool.

The U.S. Park Police, a unit of the National Park Service, arrested Hearn, who denied wrongdoing and said he briefly touched a chunk of the coating.

Charges against Hearn were dropped on July 31 after prosecutors acknowledged that damage was caused by a bungled installation rather than vandalism.

The advice and counsel of career officials and rangers — instantly recognizable by their signature flat hats and green-and-gray uniforms — has been ignored or pushed aside as Trump and Burgum make decisions regarding the failed pool repair, according to an Interior Department employee who was not authorized to discuss internal discussions and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

“It’s tragic,” said Ed Stierli, vice president of government affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association, another advocacy group. “The whole thing is a master class in how not to go about a public rehabilitation project.”

In the days since the dismissal of the charges, Trump has continued to lean on NPS in his repeated claims that vandals damaged the pool’s lining.

“A National Park Service career employee, a highly credible witness, saw David Hearn ... in broad daylight vandalize the Reflecting Pool by ‘violently’ ripping and tugging at the Pool’s somewhat delicate coating,” Trump posted Aug. 9 on his Truth Social site. Hearn's legal team said Trump “is continuing to attack an innocent man.”

Stierli, of the parks conservation group, called Trump’s reference to the unnamed park employee an example of the awkward position agency workers now face under Trump and Burgum, who has publicly backed Trump’s claims about vandalism at the pool.

“I think the public understands that unfortunately, you have the president of the United States directly driving decisions, both here in Washington and around the country,” Stierli said. The park service — and especially its career staff — “has very little control over this,” he added.

The White House and the Interior Department did not directly respond to requests for comment on the park service. The White House defended the pool project, saying Trump “promised to make D.C. safe and beautiful, and he’s delivering."

“For years, the Reflecting Pool sat neglected, plagued with algae and leaking millions of gallons of water,” the White House said in a statement. "Fixing it was common sense.”

Park service morale is at its lowest point, a former official says

Wade, the former park superintendent, called the pool repair “a comedy of errors” and “a continuation of the incompetence” shown by the Trump administration.

“Most people realize the NPS is under the gun and can’t do much about it, even though they’d like to,″ he said, adding that morale at the agency is at the lowest point he can remember.

Edicts from Washington have made clear that speaking honestly about what is going on could cost staffers their jobs, Wade said. “There’s a very strong fear among employees at NPS,″ he said in an interview. “It’s very frustrating for them, as you can imagine.”

Trump’s proposed memorial arch has faced some pushback. A recent report by park service staff warned that the proposed gilded arch could disrupt the historical significance of dozens of sites around its planned location near the Lincoln Memorial.

The arch, which last month received initial approval from a key federal commission, would impact the “integrity” of dozens of historical properties because it would change “character-defining visual and spatial relationships” between them, the report said.

Americans view the National Park Service favorably

The park service is popular with Americans. About three-quarters of U.S. adults — including similar shares of Democrats and Republicans — have a favorable opinion of the agency, according to Pew Research Center polling from 2025. Only about 1 in 10 have a negative impression, and about 15% are unsure.

A Washington Post/Ipsos poll from July found that about two-thirds of Americans say they are “dissatisfied” or “upset” about Trump’s Washington area projects, including construction of a new ballroom at the White House, painting the Reflecting Pool and building his triumphal arch. Republicans are more likely to be “enthusiastic” or “satisfied” with the projects.

About one-quarter of U.S. adults say Trump’s goal is to “make Washington more beautiful,” while about half say he has a “different goal.” In an open-ended question, many respondents speculated that Trump wants to glorify himself or leave his mark.

The pool and other recent controversies including the exhibit reviews jeopardize the agency's credibility, Wade said.

“Whether interpreting the Civil War, discussing climate science or describing the complex stories of Indigenous people, rangers have sought to present evidence, not political ideology,'' he said. ”That is now being lost.”

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Associated Press writer Linley Sanders contributed to this story.

The lawsuit alleges the service offering paying customers sneak peeks of his posts about U.S. policy on war, tariffs and other issues violates the Constitution and that official announcements should be made available to everyone at the same time. The new subscription service rolled out earlier this month is charging Wall Street firms as much as $100,000 a month to trade off the market-moving posts before others.

“A president selling priority access to news he himself generates for the benefit of a private company he controls is so blatantly corrupt and unconstitutional that it would have been hard to even fathom just a few years ago,” said Seth Stern, chief of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, a plaintiff in the case along with news outlet The Intercept.

Truth Social’s parent company, Trump Media & Technology, said selling fast access to traders is common in its industry, and that the plaintiffs are just trying to silence the president.

“Information from President Trump is disseminated by countless platforms and news outlets, many of which offer subscription APIs," it said in a statement, using the acronym for the fast access service. "Now, left wing activists are trying to wrongfully weaponize the courts to censor him again and harm our shareholders.”

The early access service comes as the publicly traded Trump Media loses hundreds of millions of dollars each quarter and its stock has dropped below $10 from $62 shortly after going public two years ago.

The plaintiffs allege the service violates two parts of the Constitution — the First Amendment right to access a president's comments on equal terms with other members of the press and public and the Fifth Amendment prohibitions on charging unreasonable conditions for government benefits.

The lawsuit asks that Trump Media be forced to end the new paid service, called Truth API, which offers access milliseconds faster.

Trump Media also benefits separately from a deal with Trump that gives its Truth Social six hours of exclusive access to his posts before he can distribute them elsewhere. The plaintiffs appeared to take aim at that, too, asking the court to stop him from “posting official government information exclusively” on his own site.

Trump is the largest shareholder of Trump Media, owning more than 40% of its shares through a trust.

Even before the new API service was started earlier this month, ethics watchdogs criticized Trump's posting on Truth Social as a brash attempt to profit off the presidency, similar to other money-making ventures, including ones related to cryptocurrencies. Earlier this year, the president filed a required annual financial disclosure report that showed he took in more than a $1 billion last year from new crypto businesses that his administration regulates.

Among other moves since he was reelected, Trump's digital finance company, World Liberty Financial, got a $500 million investment from a company tied to the government of the United Arab Emirates and sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of special souvenir Trump meme coins to his fans and possible federal favor seekers, including a billionaire fighting a federal lawsuit that was later paused, then settled.

In addition to the president, the lawsuit filed in the Southern District of New York names his deputy chief of staff Daniel Scavino and his executive assistant Natalie J. Harp as defendants.

The headliners, announced Thursday, are a fitting choice. The annual gathering in New York's Central Park rallies attendees to pressure world leaders to fund a range of antipoverty initiatives at the end of the United Nations General Assembly 's yearly high-level meetings. Joining them on Sept. 26 are rocker Lenny Kravitz, R&B-pop singer John Legend, country music star Lainey Wilson, chart-topping Grammy winner Shaboozey and K-pop group TOMORROW X TOGETHER.

The two Fugees are fresh off several performances marking the 30th anniversary of their landmark album, “The Score." They were in London, where Hill also brought her music festival celebrating the sounds of the African diaspora, and Rio de Janeiro, where they closed out Global Citizen's weeklong climate programming.

It's also the first festival since Global Citizen produced the World Cup's first halftime show. That collaboration helped raise more than $60 million for the education fund launched with FIFA. Global Citizen co-founder Hugh Evans hopes to leverage next month's gathering to shore up some outstanding commitments.

Festivalgoers gain entry by taking actions such as petitioning countries to dip into their international development budgets. This year's priorities include mobilizing $100 million to provide 2 million children with access to education, nutritious food and healthcare; gathering $100 million to improve food security for 1.5 million smallholder farmers; and moving $1.5 billion to expand clean energy in the Indo-Pacific region.

The countries facing asks this year include Spain, Norway, Ireland, Kenya, Japan, Denmark and Australia. Evans specifically called on France to support the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, Gavi, Education Cannot Wait, or any of their other education partners. “Macron will often talk a lot about their leadership on issues of education,” Evans said of the French president. "But I think, when the rubber hits the road, are they actually stepping up?”

One country that isn't on the list? The United States. Once the world's single largest aid donor, the U.S. now provides for Evans “an example of a country that should be a leader on the global stage that is such an incredible laggard at this point.” The U.S. wasn't worth targeting, according to Evans, given that the administration "butchered its entire foreign aid budget" and “dismantled the entire apparatus” of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Still, while acknowledging a “world of shrinking foreign aid,” Evans expressed optimism that the pendulum will shift.

“I believe that the future belongs to political leaders who are willing to understand the nuance of how power works," Evans said. "Power doesn’t have to be a negative thing. It can be a very positive thing if you’re wielding it for good. As Spider-Man taught us: with great power comes great responsibility.”

This year's festival offers a new way for people to gain admission. Fans can still enter the free ticket lottery by completing calls to action on the Global Citizen app. But they can also get automatic entry by making a $25 charitable donation. The funds raised will go toward New York's City Parks Foundation and organizations that serve those experiencing homelessness.

Evans hopes that artists such as Wilson and Shaboozey, both country music acts, can bring a new audience to his movement. He noted that Wilson, who expressed interest in the festival's support of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, comes from a family of farmers.

“It’s been quite some time I’d say since we had this level of a country presence in our lineup," Evans said. “So, I’m super excited about that. I’m hoping that the fans are, too.”

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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits 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. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

The backing came from 2030 World Cup co-host Morocco, Qatar, Egypt, Mauritania, Lebanon and Sudan, with four of the signatories being FIFA council members.

“We, the undersigned leaders of our respective football associations, express our full support for Mr. Gianni Infantino, President of FIFA, and reaffirm our confidence in his leadership and continued commitment to the development of football worldwide,” the statement read.

“We deeply appreciate Mr. Infantino’s sustained efforts to advance football globally, expand opportunities across all regions and strengthen the game’s role in bringing people and communities together.”

The statement said the signatories “look forward to continuing our close cooperation with him towards a stronger and more prosperous future for world football, expanding opportunities and further enhancing Arab football’s contribution to the global game.”

Infantino is facing a revolt after his plan to sell stakes in the World Cup to private equity investors. He withdrew the $20 billion proposal after a furious backlash by global soccer officials, including European body UEFA, which has warned of a boycott of all FIFA games and events.

UEFA teamed up with CONCACAF — the confederation for North, Central America and the Caribbean — and the AFC — the confederation in Asia — and issued an open letter Monday saying Infantino’s plan was a “fundamental breach of trust” and described it as “deception.”

And on Thursday, the Football Association of Ireland said in a statement it has withdrawn its support for Infantino to be re-elected as FIFA president in March, saying “recent events have raised significant concerns regarding governance, transparency and the lack of meaningful consultation.”

The soccer federations in England and Wales did the same last week, while Northern Ireland said it was backing UEFA's stance.

Schism in Asian bloc over Infantino support

By expressing support for Infantino, Qatar and Lebanon aligned against the Asian Football Confederation. Infantino’s official Instagram account previously has posted letters of support from several member federations, including Morocco, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

The four FIFA council members among the signatories were Qatar Football Association president Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Egyptian Football Association president Hany Abo Rida, Moroccan Football Federation president Fouzi Lekjaa and Mauritanian Football Federation president Ahmed Yahya.

The other two were Lebanese Football Association president Hashem Haidar and Moatasem Gafar, president of the Sudan Football Association.

Infantino has been FIFA president since 2016 and seemed sure to be re-elected unopposed next year in Morocco.

FIFA has set a Nov. 18 deadline for challengers to come forward.

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See AP’s full soccer coverage here

Some Republicans, including President Donald Trump, swiftly began referring to the nominee by his full name, Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, while depicting him as a danger to America. “Every single Muslim holding public office in America is a Trojan horse, and a threat to both national security and our republic,'' said U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., in a post on X.

El-Sayed says such attacks betray a weakness in those who launch them.

“We all pray for the same things. ... We want what’s good for our kids and our families,” he told MS NOW after his primary victory. “They're going to use Islamophobia, because their ideas are tired.”

The vitriol extends far beyond the political class. Tensions related to anti-Muslim sentiment have heightened in several communities around the country, where some residents have bitterly opposed proposals to build new mosques.

“American Muslims have made incredible political and societal progress in recent years,” said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, national deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR. He cited increased visibility in entertainment and sports and the election of Democrat Zohran Mamdani as New York City's first Muslim mayor.

“But there also is a very concerted backlash to this progress,” Mitchell said. “You've seen this in the resurgence of anti-Muslim hate and rhetoric, the targeting of mosques.”

A Dallas suburb is a flashpoint

McKinney, Texas, a large suburb in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, is one of the flashpoints. Despite angry anti-Islam remarks at a heated city council meeting on Aug. 4, the council voted unanimously to approve a site plan for the McKinney Islamic Association’s proposed new mosque, classroom building and gym.

Among those urging the council to give the plan fair treatment was George Fuller, a former mayor of McKinney, a nonpartisan position. Opponents of the mosque project booed him, and some shouted “traitor” as he left the council chamber. One woman could be seen on video physically accosting him.

“I have never witnessed so much hate, anger and lack of humanity in our beautiful community gathered in one place as I did today at City Hall,” Fuller later wrote on Facebook.

During the hearing, which lasted more than four hours, the speakers included U.S. Rep. Keith Self, a Republican whose district includes McKinney. To loud applause, he urged the council to reject the mosque proposal.

“I know you’re in the accommodation phase, but the intimidation phase follows quickly,” Self said. “Child marriage. Honor killings. Don’t tell me it can’t happen here.”

Fuller also went to the microphone, evoking the broader phenomenon of divisive political rhetoric.

“Sadly, we live in a time when some have discovered that the easiest way to gain attention or win elections is not by offering solutions but by manufacturing fear, dividing communities, demonizing neighbors and turning misinformation into a political strategy,” he said.

In North Carolina, anger flares over approval for a new mosque

The scenario was similar in Mooresville, North Carolina, when town commissioners held a public comment session on Aug. 3 about a proposed mosque that had already been approved, with early phases of construction underway.

Angry residents at the meeting voiced hostility to Islam and assailed the commissioners for not being more forthcoming about the project as it took shape over previous months. One speaker cited violence in Nigeria by Islamist extremists as a reason for concern in Mooresville. Another depicted Islam as “a political regime with the ultimate goal of takeover in regions and nations.”

CAIR’s regional manager, Al Rieder, issued a statement denouncing “the hateful and conspiratorial anti-Muslim rhetoric” that surfaced at the meeting and expressed concern about the safety of Muslims in the area about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Charlotte.

“Muslims are your neighbors, your doctors, your teachers, your local politicians, your police,” he said.

A few hours after the public meeting, the town commissioners released a summary of the mosque project, which calls for a two-building Islamic center on a parcel acquired in 2019 by a local Muslim organization.

The commissioners said that the parcel is in an area zoned to allow religious assembly and that the mosque proposal was handled the same way as a proposal for a new church.

“All decisions must be based on adopted ordinances, objective standards and legal requirements, which do not allow for different rules for different religious groups,” the commissioners said. “We encourage all members of our community to remain respectful in their discussions and interactions as this project moves through the appropriate processes.”

In Oklahoma, Muslim leaders fight against the rebuff of a new mosque

A mosque controversy has been raging for many months in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, Tulsa's largest suburb.

Back in January, at a stormy meeting attended by hundreds of people, the city council voted 4-1 to reject a rezoning proposal by the region's Islamic Society to build Broken Arrow's first mosque. Before the vote, dozens of residents voiced anti-Muslim views while opposing the project.

Council members who rejected the mosque had raised concerns about its potential impact on infrastructure such as roads, sewers and flood plain management.

But the Islamic Society is persisting with its quest. On Aug. 3, it filed a lawsuit against the mayor and four councilors, alleging that the vote reflected “a wave of bigoted opposition from members of the community and local politicians.” The lawsuit contends that the council violated state and federal laws governing religious land use, treating the mosque proposal differently from other comparable rezoning requests.

“They did not want a mosque in their city. They did not want Muslims here,” said Meghan Murphy, an attorney with CAIR’s Legal Defense Fund, at a news conference announcing the lawsuit. ”So they made up a reason, and in doing so they violated the law.”

Some see a terrorism threat while others see baseless scaremongering

Opposition to mosque construction isn't a new phenomenon: In Murfreesboro, Tennessee, an effort launched in 2010 to block a mosque project dragged on for more than three years. The mosque was built anyway as the case moved through the courts, but members of the Muslim community faced public protests, vandalism, arson and a bomb threat during that span.

The latest anti-mosque campaigns coincide with a broad wave of anti-Muslim rhetoric from Republican officeholders over the past year. In Congress, several bills were introduced targeting sharia, the moral and spiritual framework that guides Muslims in prayer and ethical conduct. Some Republicans say they’re concerned about growing Muslim populations in major cities and potential ties to terrorism — fears that CAIR and other civil rights groups say are unfounded and being exploited for political purposes.

Republican governors in Texas and Florida have endorsed efforts to shut down CAIR, saying it has ties to terrorism. CAIR has denied the allegations and filed lawsuits calling the governors' efforts unconstitutional.

Muslim American leaders view the vitriol as political scaremongering.

“Every election year, we expect a rise in anti-Muslim hate,” said CAIR's Mitchell. “It's been worse this year than it has been in years.”

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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.

Proceeds from online donations and ticket sales collected during the “Unidos por Los Nuestros,” or “United for Our Own,” concert will address both immediate and long-term needs, including rebuilding homes, repairing schools and community spaces, supporting children and providing mental health support, among other initiatives.

“Uniting for a common cause — taking action and helping fellow human beings facing hardship — is a duty we all share,” said Anthony, a multiple Grammy Award winner whose nonprofit Maestro Cares Foundation will administer the funds along with the Univision Foundation.

Proceeds from the concert will support the nonprofit groups All Hands and Hearts, CARE, Global Empowerment Mission, Techo and World Central Kitchen.

The concert was expanded after Monday's disaster in Colombia

The event was initially created to benefit Venezuela after magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes rocked northern areas of the country just 39 seconds apart on June 24, killing at least 6,300 people. Those plans changed Monday when western parts of Colombia were hit by a deadly 7.4 magnitude earthquake, spurring event organizers to include the neighboring country.

Authorities and residents are just beginning to comprehend the devastation in Colombia, where at least 265 people were confirmed dead and nearly 500 people were reported missing by Wednesday afternoon, according to President Abelardo de la Espriella. Civilian-run databases put the number of missing at more than 4,100.

For Venezuela, the fundraiser comes at a crucial time as public and media attention fades on a humanitarian crisis that will last years, said Rodner Figueroa, co-founder and vice president of the I Love Venezuela Foundation, which channels resources to nonprofits working in Venezuela and is a Global Empowerment Mission partner.

“The biggest challenge right now is to keep the moment alive,” said Figueroa. “The need in Venezuela continues to be at a scale that is unbelievable.”

Tens of thousands of displaced survivors there need housing, clean water and sanitation and ongoing medical attention. More than six weeks later, people are still searching for missing friends and relatives, often without any official help.

Performers from across Latin America rally to the cause

The benefit concert will take place Sunday at 6 p.m. EDT at Miami’s Kaseya Center and will be shown live on Univision, ViX, WAPA and TelevisaUnivision radio stations, iHeartLatino and Venevision Play in Venezuela.

Viewers can donate by scanning on-screen QR codes, texting UNIDOS to 707070 or visiting univision.org during the broadcast.

Additional music acts include Piso 21, Gente de Zona, Elena Rose, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Ricardo Montaner, Mau y Ricky, Olga Tañón and others. The performers span Latin genres from salsa and reggaeton to pop and come from across Latin America, including Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina, Cuba and Puerto Rico.

Dozens of Latin television personalities, journalists and other celebrities will help host the event, including Don Francisco, longtime host of the TV show “ Sábado Gigante ” and former Miss Universe Dayanara Torres.

“We have all witnessed the devastation that has affected our communities at some point — we have seen it happen time and again in many of our countries and across the globe,” said Anthony, who also advocated and raised funds after Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico in 2017. “The need is immense.”

Some Colombian artists committed to the fundraiser well before Monday's earthquake. The Urbano Latino musician Feid, born in Medellín, has been reaching out to his more than 14 million Instagram followers this week to support aid groups there.

Latin music also shares a special connection with Cali, Colombia, one of the hardest-hit cities and a globally recognized hub for Salsa music and dance.

“Unidos por Los Nuestros” is being organized by Cárdenas Marketing Network, Maestro Cares Foundation, TelevisaUnivision and PIMIENTO Entertainment.

Additional benefits are also planned

Other musicians are also mobilizing relief efforts. The Venezuelan band Rawayana founded Fundación El After shortly following the disaster to support impacted young people. Shakira and other Colombian musicians, including Karol G, Ryan Castro and J. Balvin, rallied support for Colombia on Monday through social media. Metallica’s foundation donated $100,000 for Venezuela through the humanitarian organization Direct Relief.

Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel will host a benefit concert for earthquake recovery Aug. 23 at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, his last performance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic before he joins the New York Philharmonic.

Proceeds from Dudamel's “A Concert for Venezuela” will benefit recovery funds of the United Nations Development Programme and the CAF Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean. Beck, Natalia Lafourcade and Carlos Vives will join Dudamel.

——

Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits 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. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

It's the first time the music extravaganza is held in the Balkan country, which scored its first-ever victory in the contest in May, when Bulgarian singer Dara beat 24 other competitors with her infectious party anthem “Bangaranga.”

Bulgaria’s public TV broadcaster BNT, which will organize the largest live music event, and the European Broadcasting Union announced the location on Thursday. The two semifinals will take place on May 11 and 13, 2027, while the final will be held on May 15.

Bulgaria’s capital city, Sofia, also had applied to host the event.

Eurovision director Martin Green said “Burgas will bring something truly special to Eurovision.”

“It is a dynamic and welcoming city on the Black Sea coast with a strong musical and cultural identity, which possesses the ambition, infrastructure, and passion needed to welcome the big Eurovision family,” he said in a statement.

Milena Milotinova, head of BNT, told a news conference that together with the EBU and Burgas they “will face intensive joint work to organize a contest that will live up to the high expectations of millions of viewers around the world.”

Burgas Mayor Dimitar Nikolov said hosting the contest was a major honor for the city.

On Wednesday, Eurovision organizers introduced new rules barring countries affected by an armed conflict or other security risks from hosting the contest. Under the new rules, the winning broadcaster will be ineligible to host if an armed conflict, sensitive geopolitical situation or other circumstances threaten the security, safety or stability of the country or surrounding region.

The contest has faced security concerns in recent years as tensions rose over the participation of Israel over its conflicts in Gaza and elsewhere. Five longtime participants — Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Iceland and Slovenia — boycotted in protest.

The new rules also raised the minimum age for competitors from 16 to 18. Organizers say the change aims to boost safeguarding and protection of younger artists from the pressures associated with competing.

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Valentina Petrova contributed to this report

The storytelling, that part was easy. He's a natural at that.

But what Rivers wound up learning during the trial-and-error process of speechwriting was that the words he'll say from a stage in Springfield, Massachusetts aren't going to be about him. They're going to be about everyone else who played a role in him getting to that moment.

“You go through this journey of writing it and you realize it has nothing to do with you in a very good way,” Rivers said. “People are happy for you, and I am happy for them because they got me there. You hear all your life, ‘You don’t do anything alone.' When you get in the Hall of Fame, you really understand that you don’t do anything alone. It's all the coaches in your life, your parents, the players. It's a thankful journey and that’s what the Hall of Fame should be about."

The numbers prove he's among the best

A winner of 1,194 regular season games as an NBA coach — and that'll be all, he insists, saying his retirement is a real one — Rivers ranks sixth in league history. The only others ahead of him: Gregg Popovich, Don Nelson, Lenny Wilkens, Jerry Sloan and Pat Riley, all of whom are Hall of Famers, so it was obviously a lock that Rivers would be joining them.

He won a championship with Boston in 2008, won 114 playoff games as a coach, played 13 seasons, was an All-Star once, has been a broadcaster and — if he goes back to work, and his family currently has a pool that he will — he'll be a broadcaster again.

But there's more to life now. The Illinois native and Marquette legend has seven grandchildren, a house on the water and can't play enough golf. He'll still be involved in the game, somehow. It just won't be as a coach. It'll be as a Hall of Famer.

“Doc is a proven, extraordinary leader and communicator during his renowned NBA coaching career,” Milwaukee general manager Jon Horst said when the Bucks hired Rivers in 2024. “As a championship coach, he’s widely respected as an established innovator, and the right coach to lead our experienced and talented team."

He was, until he wasn't.

Injuries derailed every chance the Bucks had at being a winner this past season, and when the season came to its dismal close Rivers was fairly certain it was the end for him as well — after 27 seasons on the sideline, and whole lot of missed moments along the way.

“The one thing that people have no idea about is the toll it takes on you and the family component," Rivers said. "It is rough. You’re never home. You make sacrifices and your family has to make them as well.”

That won't be an issue now.

A hit from the beginning

Rivers won coach of the year in his very first season, taking a team he called “the 301s” in Orlando and leading it to a 41-41 record. On the surface, there's nothing special about going .500. But the Magic were supposed to be bottom dwellers that season and Rivers used a preseason ranking of the league's top 300 players as inspiration — since none of those top 300 were playing for the Magic.

“That season gave me great confidence,” Rivers said.

He has some regrets, of course. Critics have long pointed to the 10 losses that Rivers-coached teams had in Game 7s, by far the most of any coach in NBA history. And his fans will retort by pointing to his 114 playoff wins, fourth-most in NBA history. But the biggest do-over, if Rivers had such an option, would be changing his mind about leaving the Celtics for the Los Angeles Clippers in 2013.

Rivers got to the Clippers not long before the end of Donald Sterling's ownership of the team; Sterling made racist comments and wound up getting banned by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver.

“I underestimated what a great situation I was in, and I took that for granted, like you can just go anywhere and create that," Rivers said. “I messed that one up. But then when I go to the Clippers, the team is pretty damn good. The organization, it was the worst organization in sports with the ownership problem. Within a week there, I remember telling my assistant, ‘We’ve got a lot to do here.'”

The championship with the Celtics in 2008 — Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, the stars of that team, will be together again to present their former coach for his Hall enshrinement — was an obvious high point for Rivers' career. There were other moments he's particularly proud of as well, such as delivering on a promise that he made to someone who barely played for him.

Tyronn Lue succeeded Rivers as coach of the Clippers. Lue played 11 games for Rivers in Orlando during the 2003-04 season; that was all the time it took for Rivers to be convinced that Lue would one day be a coach. He told Lue to call him if he ever wanted a job and Lue took him up on it. Rivers wound up going to the Hall of Fame, and few within the game would be surprised if Lue joins him there one day.

“It's the stories like that that you think about,” Rivers said. "Rajon Rondo played for me in Boston. We had a very tumultuous relationship when I coached him and now, I probably talk to Rondo more than probably than any player that I coached.”

It's what the game does, Rivers said. The lucky ones get guided along the way. He played that role with players like Rondo — who coached with Rivers — and Lue, and in Rivers' own case, it was Riley who gave him the push he needed.

Riley and Rivers clashed at times in their player-coach relationship, and their biggest fights came when Riley was telling Rivers that he belonged in coaching.

Riley was right.

“When I was doing TV, he kept writing and sending me these freaking messages about getting into the fray," Rivers said. “He knew it. And here I am, going into the Hall of Fame.”

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

Once the long days of filming had passed and the fantasy flick had shifted from movie theaters to video cassettes, the farmhouse and ballfield where those idyllic scenes were shot was naturally becoming a tourist attraction.

Rahe lived near the site on the edge of his native small town of Dyersville, with convenient access by way of a back road the Universal Studios crew had made just for the movie shoot. He and his neighbors began showing up to make sure the pitcher's mound and home plate were in place, mingle with the visitors, and play catch.

Then one summer Sunday afternoon in 1990, Rahe persuaded a handful of his friends to put on some old wool uniforms he'd found, walk through the cornfields with him, and see what happened.

The young girl standing nearby sure was surprised.

“Mommy! Daddy! It's the ghost players!” she shrieked as she retreated to her parents in the infield.

After playing catch with and pitching to the tourists for about an hour, Rahe and his pals doffed their caps, waved goodbye and disappeared into the corn. An enterprising newspaper reporter happened to be there, and in the next day's edition of The Gazette in Cedar Rapids there was a headline touting the magical appearance of the “Ghost Players” at the site. Just like in the movie.

The following week, Rahe answered a phone call from Al Ameskamp, the owner of one of the two farms the movie ballfield straddled. He was wondering if they were going to come back and play ball again.

“Well, not really. It was kind of a one-time deal,” Rahe said.

Ameskamp replied, “Well, would you? There are 400 people out here waiting for you.”

Rahe has retold that origin story of the Ghost Players countless times, and now at age 68 he's never been more in demand. His gregarious goodwill band of ballplayers is a recurring feature for the public at the site, which he runs as the executive director of Dyersville Events.

This has been an especially busy summer in this part of northeast Iowa, with the completion of a permanent ballpark next to the filming location that will host a Major League Baseball game on Thursday night between the Minnesota Twins and the Philadelphia Phillies. MLB last staged a game at Field of Dreams in 2022, when the Chicago Cubs played the Cincinnati Reds in a temporary facility. The Chicago White Sox faced the New York Yankees in 2021 in the inaugural event.

“The first time it happened, when we got to go into the stadium, I got goosebumps and kind of teared up while walking through that corn,” said Paul Scherrman, another one of the original Ghost Players. “It's just a great place.”

Baseball has a rich history in Iowa

The Ghost Players have visited 28 countries and dozens of states, Rahe said, mostly by paying their own way and using their vacation time. There are currently about 40 members, with half of those making more regular appearances. Earlier this summer, they traveled to Chisholm, Minnesota, for the “Doc Moonlight Graham Days” festival in honor of the film's heroic physician who chose medicine over sport after getting in one major league game.

“A lot of the ghosts are much more loyal than some of the ghosts,” said Scherrman, who had a brief minor league career and had a cameo in the movie. “The ghosts that come to the events that aren't as popular as Major League Baseball games are the harder-working ghosts.”

The Ghost Player experience, which allowed Scherrman to befriend the family of Roberto Clemente on a trip to Puerto Rico, has been decidedly more rewarding than serving as an extra in the film. He and the other locals spent 21 days on the set for 12 hours at a time just waiting to be called into action. During one scene, Scherrman appears for a few seconds as the catcher in a game interrupted by Timothy Busfield, the disbelieving brother-in-law of Kevin Costner's character Ray Kinsella.

For a state without any major metropolitan areas or a year-round climate favorable to outdoor baseball, Iowa has produced its share of talented players on a list that starts with Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller and his 1936 major league debut at age 17 after training on the family farm in Van Meter. The state is serious enough about the sport to place the high school season in summer to avoid conflicts with spring sports and get better weather.

“I still see all my buddies from that team,” said Cubs pitcher Colin Rea, who's from Cascade, just 15 miles south of Dyersville. “We've loved baseball from the time we started playing, and I think that's how it is for most kids around there.”

Rea, 36, wasn't quite born yet when “Field of Dreams” hit the big screens, but he and his friends regularly watched their area's claim to fame while growing up. The ballfield itself seemed like a fantasy that was impossible to visit.

“Once I got older, I was like, ‘It’s 20 minutes from my house. Why haven't I been there?'” Rea said.

San Francisco Giants pitcher Keaton Winn is from Ollie, in the southeast part of the state. His brother will be at the game, and he knows people on the grounds crew.

“It's really sweet. Iowa's got a lot of baseball fans,” Winn said. “Having the game come there is really special to all of the people.”

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AP Baseball Writers Jay Cohen in Chicago and Janie McCauley in San Francisco contributed.

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Overall predictions record

2025 record: 383-77 (.832).

2024 record: 357-89 (.800).

2023 record: 353-94 (.790).

2022 record: 309-102 (.751).

2021 record: 296-104 (.740).

2020 record: 273-91 (.750).

2019 record: 291-105 (.735).

Week 0 predictions

Friday, Aug. 14

Bishop Snyder at Port Orange Atlantic: Sharks didn’t win a game last year. N4J pick: Snyder 23, Atlantic 17.

Christ’s Church Academy at St. Joseph: Flashes were unbeaten until the playoffs last season. N4J pick: St. Joseph 21, Christ’s Church 20.

Crescent City at Bayside, 7:30 p.m.: Raiders will win early in the season but probably not this week. N4J pick: Bayside 28, Crescent City 21.

Eagle’s View at Old Plank Christian: Defenders start things off with a big win. N4J pick: Old Plank Christian 31, Eagle’s View 20.

(2) Fernandina Beach at Keystone Heights: Pirates are one of the area’s best independent programs. N4J pick: (2) Fernandina Beach 28, Keystone Heights 14.

First Coast Christian at Harvest Community: Warriors match their 2025 win total in Week 0. N4J pick: Harvest Community 27, First Coast Christian 20.

Interlachen at Trenton, 7:30 p.m.: Tigers in a close one. N4J pick: Trenton 21, Interlachen 20.

Lafayette at (3) Union County, 7:30 p.m.: Robby Pruitt era begins with a big win. N4J pick: (3) Union County 34, Lafayette 21.

Stanton at Duval Charter: Blue Devils will be 1-0 after this one, but I do think the Panthers are positioned for a good season. N4J pick: Stanton 27, Duval Charter 20.

(1) West Nassau at (4) Paxon, 6:30 p.m.: Best Week 0 matchup among independent teams. N4J pick: (1) West Nassau 35, (4) Paxon 20.

Westminster Academy at Episcopal: Lions get over in Week 0 over the Eagles. N4J pick: Westminster Academy 30, Episcopal 21.

Learning teamwork and reducing screen time are among the perceived benefits of youth sports, according to the AP-Ipsos survey.

About half of U.S. parents with K-12 school-aged children say their kids play a structured sport, but participation is higher among more affluent families. About 7 in 10 K-12 parents with a household income of at least $100,000 annually say their children play organized sports, compared to about 4 in 10 parents with a lower household income.

The findings point to a key problem in youth sports: parents almost universally see participation as an important part of kids’ childhood, but the out-of-pocket expenses can be significant, particularly for lower-income families.

“There's travel, the uniforms, pitching in on the lunches,” said Tanisha Curry, 51, who lives in Ohio. She has custody of her granddaughter, who plays volleyball through her school. It strains Curry's budget, but the whole family pitches in to keep the costs manageable.

“Kids don't go out and do things anymore,” she said. “Getting them away from a screen, at least for an hour — it's worth it.”

About two-thirds of K-12 parents with at least one child playing sports estimate spending up to $2,000 annually on equipment, fees, training and travel for youth athletics. More affluent sports parents spend about the same amount yearly as less affluent sports parents, which underscores the additional financial burden for lower-income families. Some parents hope the investment will pay off beyond the social benefits, with scholarships or other opportunities.

Despite the demands — and hefty cost — K-12 sports parents overwhelmingly say the benefits of youth sports outweigh the drawbacks.

Most see major benefits to kids playing youth sports

Jon Fassnacht, a 47-year-old dad in Pennsylvania, has seen his 9-year-old daughter push herself physically and mentally through competitive swimming. She got involved in the sport after taking swim lessons, and he has been thrilled to see her build her confidence over multiple seasons as she improves her swim times.

“It’s just so good for her self-esteem to have that goal setting,” Fassnacht said. “And then there’s the social aspect on top of it. She’s kind of shy, so to have these opportunities to meet new people outside of her school is big.”

Soccer, basketball and softball or baseball are among the most commonly played sports, the poll found.

Nearly all U.S. adults say learning to deal with adversity, improving physical fitness, learning teamwork, making friends, reducing technology time and learning about hard work and commitment are “major” and “minor” benefits for children playing organized sports, the poll found.

Some of that perceived benefit may come from adults’ own experiences. About three-quarters of adults who played organized sports as a child say playing sports had a “mostly positive impact” on their childhood, and about 6 in 10 say it positively influenced their adulthood.

About three-quarters of K-12 sports parents say their children have ever played on a recreational sports team, and about two-thirds say their kids have played on a school sports team. Around half say their kids have played in specialized youth sports camps or done independent sports training, while about 4 in 10 say their kids have participated in travel or club sports teams or done private lessons.

Scheduling and costs present challenges for some sports parents

Most K-12 sports parents face challenges when children play organized sports.

About 8 in 10 say that scheduling and logistics — or the time commitment — present a “major” or “minor” challenge for their household. Roughly 7 in 10 say the same about team or club fees, the amount of travel involved and the equipment or uniform costs.

In addition to the roughly two-thirds of sports parents who estimate spending up to $2,000 annually on equipment, fees, training and travel for their children’s athletics, roughly 2 in 10 spend more than $2,000 but less than $5,000. Only about 1 in 10 K-12 sports parents spend more than $5,000 annually.

Kathryn Stuczynski, 37, said she and her husband budget in order to make sure they can afford the activities their 7-year-old and 13-year-old daughters are passionate about, including karate, grappling and wrestling. Stuczynski, from New York, says their household skips buying the latest iPhone or a new TV in order to keep their budget manageable.

“Giving my girls life experiences, it’s priceless,” she said. “I’d rather have the old phone, you know? I’m fine with that.”

In general, more affluent sports parents — those in households that make at least $100,000 annually — spend about the same as sports households with lower incomes. Higher-income households are more likely to say they spend more than $5,000, though that is still atypical. About 1 in 10 households that make at least $100,000 spend over $5,000, compared to almost no lower-income households.

Despite the challenges, the vast majority of sports parents feel good about their children playing organized sports. About 8 in 10 sports parents say “proud” describes how they feel “extremely” or “very” well, and a similar share say that about “happy.”

Some parents hope youth sports will lead to athletic scholarships

Relatively few K-12 athletes will go on to play at the collegiate level or earn athletic scholarships, but the poll shows many sports parents have it on their minds. About 8 in 10 sports parents say the possibility of improving college acceptance odds is at least a “minor” benefit of kids playing organized sports.

Stuczynski has seen her 13-year-old daughter excel at wrestling and believes she has the potential to get a college scholarship in the sport if she sticks with it, but she and her husband are letting their daughter's passion and competitiveness drive her future with sports.

“We would never force it,” Stuczynski said. “We’ll go as hard as she wants to go, basically.”

About 6 in 10 sports parents say the hope of their child earning an athletic scholarship or improving their college acceptance odds plays either “a major role” or “a minor role” in the decision to enroll their kids in sports, though only about 3 in 10 say either played a “major role” in their decision.

Less affluent parents are more likely than more affluent parents to say the possibility of their child improving college acceptance odds, earning an athletic scholarship or earning NIL money played a “major” role in their decision to enroll their child in sports, while more affluent parents are more likely to say it played “no role.”

Fassnacht, from Pennsylvania, hopes his daughter will continue swimming through high school because of the physical and mental benefits, but he’s not expecting her to make a career of it.

“I’m more focused on the benefits to her,” he said. “If she ever stops enjoying it, then we’ll move on to something else.”

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The poll of 1,737 adults was conducted July 21-26, 2026, using a sample drawn from Ipsos’ probability-based KnowledgePanel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. It included interviews with 510 parents of school-aged children who play youth sports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 2.7 percentage points for adults overall and +/- 4.9 percentage points for parents of school-aged children who play youth sports.

“It is a live pitch competition, think a Shark Tank-esque thing, but local to Jacksonville,” said Cheyenne LeMaire of Chang Robotics and the Chang Robotics Fund.

LeMaire says the competition is designed to put founders in front of the kind of feedback—and connections—that can accelerate early-stage companies. “We got a bunch of local companies submitted,” she said. “And then our selection committee goes through those and chooses the six.”

So what separates contenders from the rest? LeMaire said judges focus heavily on the founder first. “Our judges are looking for three things primarily. One, they’re looking to have confidence in the founder,” she said, adding they also look for “high growth potential” and whether the company is “investable from a paperwork standpoint.”

On funding, LeMaire stressed that “eligible” doesn’t mean instant money. “It’s not just a handshake and it’s a done deal,” she said. “You know, there’s legal paperwork … we go through due diligence.”

She also acknowledged why promising startups can still be a pass for investors. “I think the Chang Robotics Fund would pass on a company if they didn’t understand their space,” LeMaire said.

Kent Justice and LeMaire also discussed Jacksonville’s evolving startup ecosystem—and what still needs work. “Jacksonville produces great founders and great companies,” she said, “but… we’re missing the apparatus as a city to support the startups and also missing a sizable pool of capital that understands startup investing.”

Janse's farm on the fertile land of the Netherlands' southwestern Zeeland Province is drying out despite his efforts to make it more drought resistant as accelerated human-caused global warming and a supersized El Nino batter fields across Europe.

The drought that is roasting much of Europe this summer is taking a heavy toll on crops across the continent, from potatoes in the Netherlands to corn in Bosnia and grapes in Italy. Even when farmers try to adapt, the extreme weather is hitting their crops and water supplies.

Triodos, a Dutch bank that has a focus on sustainability, published an analysis this week that estimated the heatwaves and drought could reduce gross domestic product across the European Union by 1% for 2026 or around 180 billion euros ($208 billion). Farmers are among the hardest hit, with their crops set to be badly affected by soaring temperatures and lack of water. In large parts of the Netherlands, farmers are no longer allowed to use water from streams and drainage channels to irrigate fields and orchards.

Just add water? Dutch crops suffer from the drought

Another farmer in Zeeland, Hendrik Jan ten Cate, looks at a field full of withered potato plants that are almost all ready for harvest — a month early and with a significantly reduced crop. His potatoes are used to make French fries for companies including McDonald’s, but they’re likely going to be too small this year.

“People want long fries,” he says as he holds one of the potatoes. “That’s going to be tough this year.”

Ten Cate is one of the lucky farmers because he is allowed to irrigate his crops. But, even so, he estimates his harvest this year will be down by about one-third compared to average years.

“It's not just the drought that is the problem,” he says. “It is also the sun, the dry air and especially the hot days we have had this year. The potatoes just can't handle that combination very well.”

Bosnian agriculture, a key driver of the economy, is suffering

In Bosnia, where agriculture contributes roughly 5% of annual GDP and 10% of all employment, grain farmer Slavisa Lukic stood in one of his corn fields as stalks blew limply in the breeze. His crops have been hit by repeated heat waves and drought conditions. He said this year’s corn yield would be very poor, if he manages to harvest one at all.

Lukic remembers when he grew 6 to 7 tons per hectare on his farm. He expects this year’s corn yield will be around 1.5 to 2 tons per hectare.

Pointing to the drought-stricken land in northeastern Bosnia, Lukic said clover fields that once grew abundantly have all but disappeared. “Now they literally do not exist,” he said. “Nothing.”

Czech brewers fear bad hop harvest

The drought is even hitting one of the Czech Republic's most famous products: beer.

Plzeňský Prazdroj, the country’s largest beer producer, expects to incur losses this year due to a stunted hops yield.

Jakub Zaoral, the brewer’s sustainability manager, said that changes in rainfall patterns — characterized by long periods of dryness with occasional heavy storms — mean that when rain does fall, it runs off the dry soil. That results in inconsistent yields and increasingly low groundwater levels.

“There’s no choice but to simply accept the fact that one year will be great and the next won’t be,” he said. “If it were to happen three times in a row, that could very well become an existential problem for hop growers.”

Drought takes a toll across the Danube region

In Romania, some heat and drought-resistant crops like sunflowers have been less affected by the extreme conditions and yields have been plentiful. But the drought is still hitting home with record-low water levels on the Danube River disrupting grain transport, causing chronically congested terminals and an increasing pileup of crops with nowhere to go.

“In a short time, maximum 10 days, we will enter full blast in sunflower harvest, to be followed by corn,” Cezar Gheorghe, founder of grain consultancy firm Agricolumn, told The Associated Press. “Already farmers are in panic mode. They can’t find a place to store the corn and sunflower seeds.”

Cattle grazing plains in Hungary are turning to dust. No rain has fallen on Sándor Molnár's dairy farm since late May and he is having to buy expensive feed for his 130 cows.

“We’re trying to hang in there and hope for the best, hoping next year will be better,” he added. “To be honest, we’ve been saying that for a few years now, but maybe this time it will be.”

Huge UK farm that invested in irrigation is feeling the heat

Elveden Estate, with more than 10,000 acres of farmland on the Suffolk-Norfolk border in eastern England, has built a reservoir that can hold enough water to fill about 200 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Less than a year after opening, it's almost dry. Another reservoir is at about 20% capacity.

But the farm's water policy is paying off.

“The fact that we’ve invested significantly in reservoir storage and the infrastructure associated with pumping water has meant that we’ve been in a very strong position to continue to irrigate our crops through this growing season,” the farm's managing director, Andrew Blenkiron, said.

But every drop counts.

“We’re very concerned that we haven’t got enough water to see us through this season,” Blenkiron said. “We’ve got probably, if this weather stays as it is, six weeks of watering left to do.”

Diversify and feed the soil

Janse uses no-till farming on his fields — not plowing the soil, planting crops to cover the ground year-round and adding organic matter — to help cope with the whims of the weather as climate change triggers more extremes.

He has also diversified by running a popular campsite on his farm near the picturesque town of Veere. As he tends to his fields, guests walk by toward a lake where yachts and a river cruise ship sail past.

And as dry weather causes an increase in soil salinity in fields, Janse grows samphire, also known as sea asparagus, on a small patch of land. It's a crop that can thrive in salty conditions. But with no rainfall, even that is struggling this year.

“Samphire needs fresh water, and if there is only saltwater it doesn’t grow either,” he said.

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Nadja Lovadinov in London, Mustakim Hasnath in Suffolk, Stanislav Hodina in Prague, Czech Republic, Justin Spike in Budapest, Hungary, and Stephen McGrath in Leamington Spa, England, contributed to this report.

The slowdown Thursday for people in the capital, Taipei, and six other cities and localities was part of the last phase of the island's annual Han Kuang exercises, military drills that began last week and aim to model a response to a possible Chinese military invasion.

Telecommunication operators slowed mobile web traffic to 256 Kbps, making it difficult to exchange anything other than texts. Usually, residents can access 5G in major cities.

Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te apologized to the public for the inconvenience, “We ask for your understanding and support, as this is a necessary drill,” he said.

Taiwan has stepped up the intensity of the Han Kuang drills, incorporating reservists and more civilians into the exercises with a focus on real-world scenarios. Previously, urban resilience drills in Taipei went largely unnoticed as they were not disruptive. For example, air raid drills in the metro station didn’t stem the flow of passengers.

This year, integrating civilians and coordinating with local governments was a key part of the exercises, according to the Taipei Times.

At a Taipei metro station Thursday afternoon, passengers waited to be released after the station's gates were shut for the simulation as part of air raid drills.

Allen Hsieh, a tourist from Hong Kong who was among the passengers who waited 30 minutes to be let out of the station, said he found the exercises to be convincing.

“The exercise did not cause me any inconvenience. I know that Taiwan needs to conduct exercises, given the current situation. I can understand that,” he said. “I did not expect it to be so real. I thought I would only receive text messages.”

Lai also visited a hospital as it simulated how to relocate its critical operations to underground facilities as part of the drills.

Taiwan is ramping up its defense exercises and purchases in response to heightened tensions with China, which claims the island as its own. China sends military planes, as well as Coast Guard ships and other vessels towards Taiwan on a daily basis and carries out large-scale military exercises from time to time.

Between Wednesday to Thursday morning, 18 Chinese warplanes and 11 navy ships operated around Taiwan, the island's Defense Ministry said.

The 24-year-old Hunt won the 100-meter final and hopes it's not her only gold at the meet. She’s also competing in the 200 and is in contention to be in two relay teams.

Hunt will line up in the final of the 200 on Thursday night at Alexander Stadium alongside rivals including teammate Dina Asher-Smith.

The ever-affable Hunt likes to quote a “High School Musical” character when she says “I want it all” on the track. But the University of Cambridge alum can get more serious, too, like when she recently discussed the legacy of colonialism associated with the Commonwealth Games.

Here's what to know about her career:

Medals include silver in 200 at world championships

Hunt was the surprise silver medalist in the 200 at the world championships last September in Tokyo, where she ran 22.14 seconds in the final — U.S. sprinter Melissa Jefferson-Wooden was the winner.

At the 2024 Olympics in Paris, Hunt ran the third leg on the British women’s 4x100 relay team that won silver.

In the youth ranks, Hunt set an under-18 women's world best in the 200 when she ran a 22.42 in June 2019 in Mannheim, Germany.

Hunt juggled academics — studying English Literature — while training and overcame a leg injury to reach world-class levels. After her silver medal in Tokyo last year, she told the BBC she's glad she stayed in school: “You can be an academic badass and a track goddess.”

Hunt quotes ‘High School Musical’ character

When describing her goals, Hunt cites a “High School Musical” character Sharpay Evans and the song called “I Want it All.”

Hunt mentioned it in the pre-championships news conference and again after winning gold in the 100 on Monday night.

“That performance is one step closer to being like Sharpay Evans,” she said after the victory. “I really want to win it all and I’m so happy now I’ve got one out of four done. Hopefully I can take this momentum and the good vibes into the rest of the week.”

Hunt's issue with the Commonwealth Games

Hunt gives fans a behind-the-scenes view of her life as an athlete with video updates on her YouTube page. Her “vlog” touches on everything from meals to sightseeing to anti-doping tests.

The sprinter's most recent video was a review of her time at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow where she won a silver medal in the 100.

Hunt takes a few minutes in the video to discuss the history of the games, saying she doesn't “ethically or morally agree with the kind of notion of a Commonwealth Games.” The games, she added, “used to celebrate a colonial empire.”

“I think the Commonwealth Games provides the opportunity for us to reflect on ourselves and our history with colonialism, also the fact that England as we know it was rebuilt post-war by the Windrush generation, by immigrants,” Hunt said.

Athletes discuss this privately, she said, but that's where it stays.

“I think a lot of people are afraid to speak about it openly. I think as a white athlete, it’s important for me to speak about my thoughts on it. ... I just kind of wish there was more dialogue and more conversation about that.”

She concludes: “You’re more than free to disagree with it and you’re more than free to think that if I have these views it’s hypocritical for me to compete.”

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

The Bald Range wildfire erupted Friday near Summerland, a community of about 12,000 in British Columbia’s Okanagan region. By Wednesday, it had grown to about 184 square kilometers (71 square miles) after destroying homes and killing an 80-year-old woman.

"There’s an important set of lessons for us to take about how quickly this moved and that this may be our new normal for fire speed," Premier David Eby said. He said the blaze outpaced wildfire modeling and left some residents with little time to evacuate.

Officials have begun damage assessments, but the area remained unsafe Wednesday and there was no timeline for residents to return.

Crews were clearing vegetation to help slow the fire’s spread as officials warned that thunderstorms could bring erratic winds and increase fire activity. Highway 97, a major route through the area, remained closed.

Eby visited an evacuation reception center in Penticton, where he said he met people devastated by the loss of their homes.

“A lot of emotions in there, obviously,” he told reporters, calling the woman’s death a “tragic loss.”

Summerland pharmacist Jonathan Kiesman said he was worried about displaced patients getting their medications and said seeing the fire approach the community “almost brought tears to my eyes.”

Officials said they were withholding broader details on property losses until residents could be notified directly.

“The last thing that I would want is somebody to have the shock of finding out on social media or on television about their home being lost,” British Columbia Emergency Management Minister Kelly Greene said.

Eby said the province would review the response, including whether changes are needed to wildfire planning, building standards and vegetation management near communities.

Given the drought and summer heat, he warned, “this is very unlikely to be the last significant fire we see this summer.”

Summerland Mayor Doug Holmes warned that recovery would be long and difficult.

Canada has endured a series of severe wildfire seasons in recent years, with smoke repeatedly drifting into the United States. In record-setting 2023, fires burned more than 14.6 million hectares (36 million acres), an area roughly the size of Illinois.

Canada has warmed faster than the global average in recent decades, while the amount of land burned by wildfires has increased substantially. Much of the country’s forest is remote and dominated by spruce and pine, conditions that can make fires difficult to contain once they become established.

The crowds brought lawn chairs and umbrellas as they eagerly awaited the celestial spectacle, which began early in the evening. As the sky darkened, gradually at first and then quickly, people broke into applause and cheered. It was the country's first total solar eclipse in more than a century.

“It’s simply impossible to imagine,” Rosa Celiberti, a language teacher who watched from Medinaceli, a Roman-era hilltop town in northeast Spain, said with tears in her eyes. “No matter how many photos or videos you’ve seen, nothing comes even close to what it actually feels like."

Across a wide band of northern and central Spain and Portugal, millions of people enjoyed some of mainland Europe's best views of the eclipse. It also passed over slivers of Greenland and Iceland.

Totality — when the moon completely covers the sun’s light — was expected to last less than 2½ minutes, reaching its maximum duration off Iceland’s west coast. By the time it got to a small patch of Portugal and then to Spain, just before sunset, totality dwindled to a minute or so. The total eclipse then ended over the Mediterranean.

The eclipse was expected to draw at least a half-million additional visitors, Spanish authorities said. Demand for hotel rooms along the path of totality, including in the northern cities of A Coruña, Bilbao and Santiago de Compostela, soared.

Rural areas prepared for an influx of visitors

The event unfolded against the backdrop of scorching summer temperatures and wildfires, and Spanish officials rolled out a large public safety campaign.

Temperatures across much of Spain climbed above 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) in many areas where the eclipse was observed. Some 350 official viewing sites were set up across the sparsely populated interior, and more than 33,500 law enforcement officers were deployed to observation areas and access points, the Interior Ministry said.

Only weeks ago, the most destructive wildfire in Spanish history devoured 500 square kilometers (193 square miles) and forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people in Ávila, in central Spain. Several smaller wildfires remain active elsewhere in southern and central parts of the country.

Despite clouds, sky watchers in Iceland witnessed darkness

In Reykjavik, clouds did not prevent hundreds of people from gathering in bright raincoats in front of the landmark Hallgrímskirkja church as the skies darkened.

With rain falling, the disk of the sun was barely perceptible and then, suddenly, the lights went out. Only the glow of phones held aloft could be seen.

The crowd cheered the darkness as it rained harder and roared even louder when the first light returned. They did not wait to watch the remainder of the partial eclipse and quickly cleared out of the square.

Eclipse glasses sold fast

Special eclipse glasses were essential for safe viewing, even if only a sliver of the sun remained visible. The glasses are made with special filters that block solar radiation that can damage the eyes.

For months, supermarkets, department stores, museums and planetariums across Spain had sold or distributed the glasses, with many pharmacies running out of stock ahead of Wednesday.

On Tuesday evening in downtown Madrid, a long line formed outside a photo shop where a sign read, “We carry eclipse glasses.”

One woman emerged triumphantly and reassured those waiting: “He has boxes and boxes of them!”

A ship circles waters near Greenland hoping to catch a glimpse

Sverre Rud, captain of the MS Spitsbergen, was circling the waters of Rypefjord in eastern Greenland trying to make sure he was perfectly positioned for his 126 passengers to view the spectacle. All day, people came up to Rud to ask if he had nailed the right spot, with no clouds.

“I will do my best," Rud said. “I will pull out my superman powers."

The eclipse may have been startling for the passengers, who had been experiencing 24 hours of daylight on a 17-day cruise in locations mostly north of the Arctic Circle.

Suddenly, for two minutes it was dark.

Even so, the mood on the polar ship had been pure anticipation.

“Everyone is very enthusiastic,” Rud said. “When we were down for breakfast earlier, it was almost like a little bit of a Christmas Eve feeling here."

Hotel costs skyrocketed in Spain and Iceland

Rooms in Reykjavík, Iceland's capital, averaged more than $1,000 for Wednesday night as Icelanders prepared for their first total solar eclipse since 1954 and the first visible from the capital since 1433.

Prices were roughly double 2025 rates, according to data group Lighthouse Intelligence. Many tourists made bookings years in advance. But cloudy skies prevailed across much of the island.

Authorities expected up to 20,000 additional overseas visitors during an already busy peak tourist period. Iceland is home to fewer than 400,000 people.

The 70-room Hotel Keflavík in the Reykjanesbaer municipality was fully booked, with guests hoping to see around one minute and 45 seconds of totality.

“Eclipse time, of course, has been very demanding, and many people came to us early, like last year,” said Steinþór Jónsson, the hotel's owner and manager.

Jónsson said he had seen nothing like it since 1986, the year the hotel opened, when U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev held a summit in Reykjavík.

“When I opened the hotel, we had Reagan and Gorbachev meeting. It was very hectic here,” he said with a smile. “Besides Reagan and Gorbachev, the eclipse is the biggest.”

Sun mostly obscured in Britain

Across Britain, where the sun was more than 90% obscured, people flocked to hilltop parks and anywhere with an open view of the sky to see the best eclipse since 1999.

In Greenwich Park, with views of the River Thames and central London, the sky turned an eerie gray as a sliver of light sat atop the moon like a hat.

Veronica Orozco popped open a bottle of champagne to share with neighbors as she witnessed the second eclipse of her life.

“I was in Venezuela and I was young and I thought that the sun would not come back. My dad said, ‘It is science, of course it will come back,’” she recalled. “Now sitting here at the age of 41, it is still magical.”

Aja Lilit, who turned 24 on Tuesday, said the eclipse was like a “birthday present from the universe.”

She said the rare event made her think of how small she was at a “cosmic level.”

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Associated Press journalists Teresa Medrano in Madrid; Danica Kirka and Brian Melley in London; Marco Di Marco in Reykjavik, Iceland; and James Brooks in Snæfellsnes, Iceland, contributed.

Freeman isn't sure whether he'll play when the Dodgers begin an important four-game series with the MLB-leading Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday, but he's grateful his freefall to the dugout floor wasn't worse.

“I didn't hit my head, so that was the key part there,” Freeman said. “I am sore. Kneecaps are sore. Shoulder is sore. Hand sore. Wrist sore. I mean, I fell. (But) I'm in good spirits.”

Freeman stayed in the game and finished the top of the eighth, but Tommy Edman pinch hit for him in the bottom of the inning before Los Angeles closed out a 4-2 victory over the Kansas City Royals, its fourth in five games.

The right side of Freeman's body took the punishment, but the 2024 World Series MVP apparently didn't break any bones. He'll wait to see how he feels in the morning before he decides whether to play Thursday night when the back-to-back World Series champion Dodgers welcome Milwaukee in a reamtch of last year's National League Championship Series.

Freeman said he simply miscalculated the location of the dugout railing while he tracked Isaac Collins' foul pop.

“I went to lean, like I was going to lean against the rail to catch the ball — and obviously there was no rail,” Freeman said with a smile.

Freeman, who turns 37 in one month, said he was fortunate to fall all the way into the dugout, missing the top flight of stairs entirely. That's because when he landed, his head stuck out into the open space above the second flight of stairs that goes down into the visitors' clubhouse instead of banging on the ground.

“Luckily, I was tall, so I missed everything else,” the 6-foot-4 Freeman cracked.

This wasn’t Freeman’s first fielding misadventure: He said he fell into the seats in Arizona roughly a decade ago while he was with the Atlanta Braves.

The Orange County native and childhood Angels fan also said he still remembers the infamous 1999 opening-day dugout fall by Mo Vaughn, who got hurt on the first play of his first game with the Halos.

The Royals rushed to Freeman's side after the fall, urging him to stay on the ground. Freeman decided to get up anyway, and the Dodgers' training staff rushed across the field to check on him.

“I think that we really dodged a bullet,” Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts said. “Very scary visually. For right now, he's in good spirits, which I think is a good sign. Just kind of total body soreness.”

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

The U.S. concluded a dominant night with a world record in the 4 x 100 mixed medley relay.

Ledecky, a two-time Olympic champion in the 1,500, was under her own world-record pace in the early stages of the 30-lap race, with young fans holding signs at the outdoor pool in Irvine, California, on their feet cheering throughout.

Ledecky touched in 15 minutes, 36.09 seconds. Lani Pallister of Australia gave chase early before Ledecky opened a body-length lead over her closest pursuer. Pallister took silver in a personal best 15:38.62. Moesha Johnson of Australia earned bronze.

“Not quite the time that I wanted, but again, you can't complain with gold and getting my hand on the wall first," Ledecky said. “It's great to be in an environment like this.”

In the mixed medley relay, the American team of Will Modglin, Van Mathias, Gretchen Walsh and Kate Douglass won in 3:36.70. They beat the old mark of 3:37.43 set by the U.S. at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Modglin got it started with backstroke before Mathias took over for the breaststroke leg. Walsh handled butterfly and Douglass brought it home on freestyle.

“As we were sitting back there for two hours waiting for this race to come, we kind of threw out the idea of breaking a world record,” Douglass said. “I love anchoring relays like this. They kind of do all the work for me. I get to just give my all at the end.”

Australia took silver in 3:39.30. Canada earned bronze.

Walsh won the 50 butterfly over Douglass to lead four 1-2 finishes by the United States.

Walsh touched in 24.65 seconds, bettering her time of 24.91 from the morning preliminaries. Douglass became the third woman to break the 25-second barrier in the event with a prelim time of 24.99. In the final, she finished second at 25.06.

Walsh was already in the sub-25 club, with the American record of 24.51 seconds. The other member is Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden, who holds the world record of 24.43 seconds.

Canada's Taylor Ruck took bronze in 25.23 in the first Pan Pacs held since 2018. It was the first of three bronzes she won Wednesday.

The once-every-four-years event was canceled in 2022 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year’s event was moved from Canada to Southern California to give the region a major international meet ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, where swimming will be held at SoFi Stadium in front of nearly 40,000 spectators.

Luca Urlando won the 200 butterfly over U.S. teammate Carson Foster. Urlando finished in 1:53.11, breaking the championship record of 1:53.80 set by Michael Phelps at the 2006 Pan Pacs in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Phelps then presented medals to Urlando, Foster and third-place Harrison Turner of Australia.

“That was like a dream come true,” Urlando said.

American teammates Katharine Berkoff and world record holder Regan Smith finished 1-2 in the women's 100 backstroke. Berkoff won in 57.93. Smith was second in 58.11, slower than the time of 57.86 she swam in prelims.

Ruck earned her second bronze in 58.40.

U.S. teammates Luke Hobson and Gabriel Jett finished 1-2 in the men's 200 freestyle.

Hobson touched first in 1:43.85 with a stunned Jett second in a personal-best 1:43.96. Zhang Zhanshuo of China was third.

Pallister won the women's 200 free in a course-record 1:53.67, beating Canada's Summer McIntosh, who was second at 1:53.86. Erika Fairweather of New Zealand was third.

Ben Armbruster of Australia won the men's 50 fly in 22.75 seconds over Van Mathias of the U.S.

The Pan Pacs limit each nation to just two swimmers in every championship final as a way to ensure greater representation among countries. That means swimmers can’t afford to ease through the morning prelims since a full-on effort could be required to make the evening final.

___

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

Glaciers in Switzerland and around the Alps have been retreating rapidly in recent years, among other changes attributed to the impact of climate change caused by human activity. Snowfall has become less frequent and reliable over recent decades.

That's a big issue for a mid-altitude ski resort like the Adelboden-Lenk area, whose roughly 200 kilometers (125 miles) of slopes span an altitude between 1,000 and 2,300 meters (3,280 and 7,545 feet). These days, an estimated 70% of the snow on its slopes is made artificially.

Snow cannons and lances are the visible part of the snowmaking network. But much of it is out of sight: dozens of kilometers of underground water pipes that could prove useful beyond the winter months as the risk of wildfires grows even in places such as Switzerland’s Adelboden-Lenk ski area.

“We can help firefighters with our infrastructure," said Jürg Klopfenstein, who is responsible for the resort's snowmaking operations. "Not primarily with our snow cannons, which can mainly be used to water the fields or aim them at surrounding infrastructure. But firefighters can use our infrastructure, and helicopters can refill their tanks using our water reservoirs.”

Those reservoirs collect rainfall and melting snow in the warmer months, and the water is used to produce snow during the ski season. The pipes and pumps connect 210 snow cannons and 50 snow lances in the Adelboden-Lenk area. In case of fire, the system could be used to create wet buffer areas, slowing the advance of flames and buying time until emergency services and air support arrive.

So far this year, Switzerland hasn’t experienced large-scale fires, unlike some of its neighbors. But the country is suffering from drought and the authorities assess the risk of wildfires as high across almost the entire nation, including the Bern region where Adelboden is located.

Like many other mountain areas, the Bernese Oberland isn't just a winter destination but attracts many mountain bikers, hikers, runners and paragliders in summer.

Stefan Buchs, the operations manager at the Adelboden-Lenk resort, said that different types of vegetation and different levels of soil humidity mean the large and frequent forest fires seen in southern Europe can't be extrapolated directly into a similar risk in the Alps.

But even so, “widespread wildfires are a likely scenario," he said. “We discussed this with the firefighters, and they recognized it already. They see that humidity is a real problem. It gets really dry even in the spring. Not just in the summer.”

Adelboden Mayor Willy Schranz said that “we must be prepared, because I am sure it won’t be the last summer like this one.”

A climate change expert with environmental group Greenpeace, Nathan Solothurnmann, cautioned against overestimating what putting a snowmaking system to work against wildfires can achieve in the long run and in a wider context.

“This watering system that they’re planning in Adelboden might for sure help for a while," he said. “But of course the changes we're facing (are) much worse. All those types of adaptations, they just help for a while.”

"In most parts of Switzerland, there are no pipes buried underground that we can use when a forest is burning,” he added.

ESPN got a copy of the letter that was sent to LSU athletic director Verge Ausberry and said Daniels’ decision stems from the school’s decision to allow cornerback D.J. Pickett to wear a No. 5 jersey. That’s the number Daniels wore during his two seasons at LSU.

This would mark the first time an LSU player has worn No. 5 since Daniels’ departure, though the school hadn’t retired the jersey.

“Jayden made it clear that he did not want his number given to another player, and he believed his wishes would be respected,” the statement from Daniels' spokesperson said. “His Heisman Trophy-winning season and everything he accomplished on and off the field cemented his place in LSU history. To see his number given to another player is incredibly disappointing and feels like a failure to honor the significance of what Jayden accomplished at LSU.”

Pickett wore a No. 3 jersey as a freshman last year but is switching to No. 5 this season. The 6-foot-5 cornerback is a former five-star recruit who had three interceptions as a freshman last season.

LSU coach Lane Kiffin said last week that Pickett was promised the opportunity to wear No. 5 when he signed with LSU in December 2024, when Brian Kelly was coaching the Tigers. Kelly was fired in October 2025. and Kiffin was hired at the end of the regular season.

“When a kid’s promised something to come to a school, he should wear it,” Kiffin said during an Aug. 5 media session. “So at that point, I don’t think it’s really my decision. We should honor what he was told.”

___

AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

Ahead of the meeting, the Kennedy Center's management said it would present the board with three approaches for consideration.

The options would include a complete closure or a partial closure that would allow “some continued public access and limited programming in spaces unaffected” by the work. A third option would “consider a highly limited series of phased closures to address only the Center’s most serious infrastructure needs while scheduling and maintaining a full slate of programming.”

In blocking earlier plans for closure, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled the board's March 16 vote backing the move appeared “ill-informed and seemingly preordained.” In moving forward, the board, which is largely made up of President Donald Trump's allies, may face pressure to prove they've thoroughly considered their options.

During Trump’s second term, the Kennedy Center has become an unlikely — and highly visible — metaphor of presidential power. While he largely ignored the institution during his first round in Washington, Trump moved quickly to oust the institution’s leadership when he returned to office in January 2025 and replaced it with a board of trustees that named him chairman. His name was quickly added to the building, a move that Cooper also declared illegal.

Trump’s name came down from the building in June but the area where it once stood is now covered by a massive tarp. Cooper has asked the Kennedy Center for updates on how long the tarp is expected to stay in place.

Trump's push to remake the nation's capital

The Kennedy Center moves are part of Trump's broader push to reshape the physical landscape of the nation's capital in ways that have few modern parallels.

He demolished the East Wing of the White House and is building a controversial ballroom in its place, though an appeals court ruled last week that construction should stop because Congress didn't approve the project. Trump has said he will take the case to the Supreme Court.

His remodel of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has also stumbled after algae returned and U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro refuted his claims that a vandal was responsible for the damage.

Meanwhile, Trump is planning extensive renovations of a golf course in East Potomac Park, which could significantly reduce the public’s access to running and biking paths. He is also moving forward with a triumphal arch that will sit near Arlington National Cemetery.

Trump has derided the Kennedy Center as “rusted, rotted, and rat and bug infested” and threatened to hand the building over to Congress after Cooper rejected the closure and the addition of the president’s name to the building.

The institution’s leadership has argued that it’s in genuine need of repair and updating.

Matt Floca, the Kennedy Center’s executive director and chief operating officer, guided a group of journalists through the building in April, highlighting severe water damage that he said corroded steel in some places as thin as tissue paper. Some pieces of equipment, including several 800-ton chillers that help cool the building, are decades old and in need of replacement.

At the time, Floca said he considered doing the repairs individually but insisted it was his recommendation to Trump to close the building and move forward with the renovation all at once.

“When the president asked: ‘How do you make these projects the best? How do you make them really excellent and deliver them efficiently?’ my recommendation was you close the building and you do everything over a definite period of time, two years,” he said.

More recently, the legal battles became the subject of barbs and jokes as comedian Bill Maher accepted the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in late June. At the start of the program, Pamella Roland DeVos, a Kennedy Center trustee appointed by Trump, described the institution as a “national cultural center open not just for some but for every American patron who wants to experience the greatest art and expression the world has to offer.”

“The responsibility that comes with it is one our board takes very seriously,” she said.

The Democratic National Committee is expected to vote at its summer meeting in Austin, Texas, on the new order that frontloads states with more diverse populations.

The meeting comes ahead of bitterly contested midterm elections that will decide control of Congress later this year. Democratic voters have delivered mixed messages on the direction they want to see the party go — backing candidates viewed as more left-wing as well as moderates in consequential primaries across several states.

The group also is convening at a time of internal turmoil, with some members calling for DNC Chairman Ken Martin to be replaced. Critics have questioned Martin's leadership decisions and the party's fundraising, which lags well behind Republicans just months before the crucial midterms.

New calendar would cement South Carolina as 1st primary

The party is expected to give final approval to a calendar that has South Carolina's primary first on Jan. 22, followed by Nevada on Feb. 1. New Hampshire, New Mexico, Michigan and Virginia would round out the early states, voting throughout February.

The overhaul shows Democrats’ effort to give greater influence to states reflecting the party’s coalition, particularly Black and Latino voters. It follows years of a calendar led by Iowa and New Hampshire, two states with overwhelmingly white electorates.

The proposed calendar would cement South Carolina at the start of the calendar, reflecting a change former President Joe Biden pushed for after that state revived his struggling 2020 campaign.

South Carolina has long been the first Southern contest and has served as a key test of candidates’ support among Black voters.

Two traditional early states aren't happy

Iowa and New Hampshire officials have expressed disappointment with the decision after the early approval at a committee meeting in July. Rita Hart, the Iowa Democratic Party chair, said it was a sign the party is “out of touch with voters.”

New Hampshire congressional leaders, including Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan, said the decision was wrong for their state and the country. New Hampshire's secretary of state is required by law to schedule its presidential primary at least seven days before any other state holds a similar contest, setting up a potential conflict with the DNC calendar.

The GOP still needs to draw up its calendar. Republicans are expected to stick with their traditional early-state lineup led off by Iowa and New Hampshire.

Questions linger about Democrats' next steps

Democratic primaries already have been testing which direction the party is headed in, through races in states such as Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

While there's been a split between more progressive candidates who buck the party's establishment and those with more moderate views who have backing from party officials, the common thread is that Democratic voters have been looking for change.

Republicans, confronting high prices and the president's sagging approval, have been eager to cast the party as moving too far to the left.

Meanwhile, the DNC's leadership and financial concerns continue.

The gathering also coincides with financial struggles confronting Democrats, including lackluster fundraising and carrying debt. The DNC reported about $16 million cash on hand in its most recent Federal Election Commission filing along with more than $18 million in debt. The GOP, meanwhile, reported nearly $129 million cash on hand in its latest FEC filing.

Martin isn't expected to be replaced before the midterms, as the party has no clear alternative to take over. But members have said the most likely time for a leadership change may be the DNC’s winter meeting after the November contests — and before the 2028 presidential primary process begins in earnest.

___ Associated Press writer Steve Peoples in New York contributed to this report.

While none poses an immediate threat to Florida, AL92 central tropical Atlantic is increasingly likely to become a tropical depression.

TROPCIAL STORM CRISTOBAL: Cool sea-surface temperatures and north-northwesterly shear are taking their toll on Cristobal. Satellite images show that the cyclone has become completely devoid of deep convection. The initial intensity is brought down to 35 kt for this advisory, as a compromise of the data.

Based on the increasingly harsh environmental conditions that the storm is entering as well as the latest model guidance, Cristobal is expected to continue weakening, and it is unlikely that convection will make a comeback.

The NHC forecast now calls for Cristobal to become a remnant low within the next 12 h.

The center of Tropical Storm Cristobal was located near latitude 37.7 North, longitude 39.5 West.

Cristobal is moving toward the east-northeast near 16 mph.

Maximum sustained winds are near 40 mph.

Weakening is forecast, and Cristobal is forecast to dissipate tonight.

RED SHADED AREA: Central Tropical Atlantic (AL92) is an area of showers and thunderstorms associated with a tropical wave is located about 900 miles west-southwest of the Cabo Verde Islands.

Environmental conditions are forecast to be conducive for development during the next couple of days, and a tropical depression will likely form while the system moves westward to west-northwestward across the central tropical Atlantic.

Formation chance through 48 hours...high...80 percent Formation chance through 7 days...high...80 percent

ORANGE AREA: A tropical wave located several hundred miles south of the Cabo Verde Islands is producing disorganized showers and thunderstorms. Environmental conditions are forecast to be generally conducive for some development of this system during the next several days while it moves westward or west-northwestward across the eastern and central tropical Atlantic.

Formation chance through 48 hours...low...30 percent Formation chance through 7 days...medium...50 percent

One important reminder

The percentages displayed by the National Hurricane Center represent the chance that a tropical depression or storm will form—not the likelihood of a hurricane, landfall or impacts at a particular location. Right now, there is no reason for alarm in Florida, but we are entering the portion of hurricane season when tropical activity typically increases, so checking the forecast regularly is always a good idea.

A Heat Advisory will be in effect for northeast Florida and southeast Georgia from 11 a.m. - 8 p.m. An Extreme Heat Warning will be in effect for coastal southeast Georgia from 11 a.m. - 8 p.m.

Showers and thunderstorms will develop with the afternoon heat and spread across the region. Locally heavy rainfall, damaging wind and lightning will be the main hazards.

In the tropics: Tropical Storm Cristobal will be short-lived. The other two areas that we are watching could also be short-lived storms as they approach the Lesser Antilles. www.news4jax.com/weather/2026/08/12/tracking-the-tropics-national-hurricane-center-continues-to-watch-three-spot-for-development/

Tonight: Cloudy, showers and light rain ending.

Thursday: Hot and humid. Heat Advisory 11 a.m. - 8 p.m. Extreme Heat Warning 11 a.m. - 8 p.m. Heat indices up to 110 degrees. Isolated showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 2 p.m., 20-40 percent. Morning lows in the 70s to low 80s. Afternoon highs in the 90s inland, upper 80s to low 90s along the beaches. Wind: W/SW 5-10 mph.

Friday - Weekend: The heat continues with possible heat advisories. Lows in the 70s, highs in the mid to upper 90s inland, upper 80s to 90s along the beaches. Wind: WSW 5 -10 mph.

Looking ahead: The heat and humidity linger with temperatures hovering near advisory levels next week.

Sunrise: 6:52 p.m.

Sunset: 8:11 p.m.

The devastation has tested Colombia’s new president, Abelardo de la Espriella, and his government as it scrambles to respond to the disaster and civil society as it pushes to provide aid to the most affected communities.

De la Espriella said Wednesday evening that at least 265 people died in the 7.4 magnitude earthquake that struck the country's west on Monday. The president said nearly 500 people were reported missing, though civilian-run databases put that number at more than 4,100. In total, more than 25,800 families were impacted, de la Espriella said.

“Our efforts are focused on the disappeared,” he told journalists in Colombia's capital.

Teams continued to pick through the rubble in the hardest-hit cities of Cali, Pereira, Manizales and Quibdo, as time ticked away for victims to be found — and rescued — alive. Aid agencies consider the first 48 to 72 hours crucial for retrieving survivors, though that threshold can be extended if those trapped have access to food and water.

On Wednesday afternoon, Alejandro Eder, the mayor of Cali, told reporters that rescue teams continue to find signs of people alive under the rubble and are racing to save them.

“The next 20 hours are the most critical to find and rescue people alive,” he said. “Every minute is vital.”

Survival takes many forms in hard-hit areas

In Pereira, rescuers pulled Daniela Largo alive from the rubble late Tuesday, capping a complex 12-hour rescue in which crews carved a small opening in the debris to free her pinned arm and a doctor administered IV fluids to stabilize her. Wrapped in a blue blanket, the young woman was carried to an ambulance as firefighters embraced and onlookers cheered.

Another moment was marked by mourning, as a man was pulled from a building in the same city, lifeless and covered in a white blanket.

Across the coffee-growing region, among the areas worst affected by the quake, authorities have converted sports arenas, schools and other public buildings into shelters for thousands of displaced Colombians.

Ebert Jonathan Morales, a Cali resident, said his family lost everything in the earthquake.

“My house was completely destroyed. We can’t live there," Morales said. “It collapsed. The floor collapsed, the walls cracked. The roof came down.”

In Pereira and Cali, families have been sleeping in parks — some fearing aftershocks or the collapse of their damaged homes, others without homes to return to.

Colombia’s geological service has documented 130 aftershocks since the quake.

“We have the most important things: a roof over our heads, food, water and, in my case, medical care,” said Edith Penagos, 48, who was staying with her teenage son in one of the white tents set up in a Pereira park.

Rodrigo León Loya, a seismologist and geosciences professor at the University of the Andes, said the probability of an earthquake of a similar magnitude occurring in the same area is low but he would not rule out more seismic activity.

“Let’s remember that Colombia is full of active fault lines,” he said. “The question isn’t whether it can happen again. The question is rather when an earthquake of similar magnitude will occur at another of Colombia’s seismic sources.”

Aid groups provide humanitarian relief

In many areas, including the epicenter of the quake, Choco, the official response to the disaster has been complicated by the ongoing crises of deep poverty and civil warfare that has created waves of forced displacement for decades. The true impact of the earthquake in the jungled northwest remained largely unknown because cell service has been lost and many of the likely affected communities are remote, accessible only by river.

“This earthquake compounds an already severe humanitarian situation, and there is a need for increased support for the humanitarian response,” said Giovanni Rizzo, Colombia director for the Norwegian Refugee Council.

Many aid organizations were already on the ground in Choco supporting a 2016 peace accord between the government and leftist rebels, and responding to violence in the region involving other armed groups that has persisted since then.

Those humanitarian workers were able to quickly pivot to disaster relief, said María José Torres, the U.N. resident coordinator in Colombia.

“We have a presence on the ground. Therefore, our ability to be there, present with the people, I think, has increased exponentially,” Torres said in a statement Tuesday.

Regional partners promise to help

At the same time, aid from other countries and nonprofits abroad continued to roll in.

The State Department posted on its website that disaster response teams started to arrive in Colombia on Monday. The U.S. has also offered over $15 million in aid.

Mexico, meanwhile, said it had sent two military aircraft carrying 19.5 tons of nonperishable food and 19 members of Mexican security forces to Pereira, and it plans to send another 39 tons of aid in the coming days. A further 255 military specialists and 20 dogs are on standby to be sent to Colombia if needed.

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele offered to send two planes loaded with 100 tons of aid.

On Wednesday, Pope Leo XIV thanked those contributing to recovery efforts and said he is praying for those killed, injured or otherwise affected by the earthquake.

“I want to express my solidarity with my Colombian sisters and brothers who have suffered the effects of the recent earthquake,” he said.

___

Suarez reported from Bogota, Colombia, and Janetsky reported from Mexico City. Associated Press writers Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, Isabel DeBre in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Gabriela Aoun in San Diego and Fabiola Sánchez in Mexico City contributed.

The rapid-fire developments came amid long-term questions about who will represent children in court amid President Donald Trump's push for mass deportations.

The administration last week announced plans to award the contract to the Burke Law Group, a Houston-based firm with little experience in immigration. The contract offer came after the administration let a key contract expire with nearly 100 providers through Acacia Center for Justice.

Unaccompanied migrant children in federal custody are being temporarily represented by another group, but it is unclear how things will shake out after its contract expires in December. A statement from the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement, which oversees the contracts, offered no insight into why Burke declined the offer.

“Burke Law Group has declined to apply and has not been awarded any grant," the agency, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, said in an emailed statement in response to a query about the contract.

Burke Law Group published a short statement on social media Tuesday night saying it had considered applying for a “small portion” of the contract. It did not explain why it decided against it.

Burke Law Group's founder, Marcella Burke, served in President Donald Trump’s first administration as a lawyer with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior.

Others on its roster include Justin Shubow, a supporter of Trump’s efforts to require federal buildings to adhere to classical and traditional architectural styles, and a former Trump appointee to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts. Prominent conservative legal scholar Ilya Shapiro is listed as senior counsel.

The administration awarded another contract worth up to $244 million to Our Rescue, an anti-child-trafficking organization based in Sandy, Utah. The group, previously called Operation Underground Railroad, was made famous by the 2023 movie “Sound of Freedom.”

Founder Tim Ballard resigned in 2023 amid allegations of misconduct. Women accused him in lawsuits of exploiting his position at Operation Underground Railroad and their desire to help combat child trafficking to abuse them.

Derek Benner, Our Rescue's current CEO, welcomed the new assignment.

“These are among the most vulnerable children in the world, and they deserve nothing less than the full weight of our experience,” said Benner, a former senior official at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Migrant children who are detained after entering the U.S. without their parents are usually entrusted to federal government care. Congress created various legal protections for them, including the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, which requires the government to provide legal representation for children put into deportation proceedings.

About 1,800 children were living in shelters and roughly 22,000 facing deportation were living with outside sponsors such as family members, according to the legal service providers whose contract expired.

The Burke Law Group, with fewer than 30 lawyers and only two with relevant immigration experience listed on its website, was one of two groups tapped by the government to fill in the gap.

A temporary contract for $20 million was awarded through the end of the year to the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, a legal aid group whose previous work with the government involved helping resettle Afrikaners.

Attorneys with USCRI started showing up in immigration court last week, unannounced, claiming to represent children they had not yet met and sparking confusion among judges and lawyers from the expired contract still providing representation.

Some legal aid providers whose contracts expired sued the administration after they went without payment since last year. On Aug. 6, a California federal judge ordered the federal government to pay the providers.

“These half-baked plans are not sufficient to comply with this court’s order,” Caelin Moriarity Miltko, an attorney representing the providers, told the judge last week, referring to the interim contracts the government is trying to set up.

“Plaintiffs have ethical obligations to the children they represent today, to continue providing that representation to the best of their abilities, and that representation cannot transfer instantaneously to a new group simply because defendants have changed the contract,” Miltko said.

Bilal Askaryar, director of communications at Acacia Center for Justice, the organization that handled the expired contract with the government, confirmed on Wednesday that the groups started to receive payments covering six out of nine months owed, with the rest in progress.

No injuries were reported. Officials said weather was not a factor in the collapse and that all crews on site were accounted for.

The collapse happened at the new rodeo arena facility, which is currently under construction. The cause remains under investigation.

Residents flock to the scene

News4JAX spoke with residents who made their way to the site after word spread — largely through social media.

Lake City resident Clint Boone was among those who stopped by to see the damage firsthand.

“I just heard about the building failure collapse and had to come by and look in, just speculation, mostly,” Boone said.

He described the scene as something most people never expect to see.

“I’ve never personally seen a building collapse like that,” Boone said. “That was a large building. Never seen that before.”

Boone said social media played a role in drawing people out.

“It’s all over social media, so everybody’s got to come see it for themselves, get their own pictures, and make their own post about it, probably, too,” he said.

‘A blessing that nobody got hurt’

Despite the scale of the collapse, Boone said he was grateful the incident didn’t claim any lives.

“I think that the fact that nobody got hurt is really a blessing,” Boone said. “We’re being watched over — the workers and everybody else on site. It’s a dangerous situation.”

He added: “All the materials, equipment, the headache — all that can be replaced. But people’s safety is very much paramount over that.”

A woman who was in the area when the collapse happened shared that she heard a loud crash and bang before seeing a large plume of smoke or dust rise from the site. She declined to appear on camera.

The cause of the collapse is under investigation.

This is a developing story. News4JAX is working to learn more information.

Zhu died in Beijing at around 11 a.m. on Wednesday, the official news agency Xinhua reported.

Once sent into rural exile to do manual labor for praising reforms in other communist countries, Zhu pushed through a dizzying array of changes as premier, China’s top economic post, from 1998 to 2003 under former President Jiang Zemin.

Zhu clashed with Communist Party conservatives and state industry bosses as he pushed state-owned companies to become efficient and profitable. That cost millions of layoffs, but helped propel China to overtake Japan as the second-largest economy behind the United States in 2010.

Building on former leader Deng Xiaoping’s 1979 reforms, Zhu is credited with supplying the resourcefulness and tenacity to push through history-making changes such as China’s WTO membership, which helped to transform China into the world’s biggest exporter.

Those changes helped to keep economic growth above 8% a year from 2000 to 2010, peaking at 14.2% in 2007.

A spiky personality who fought corruption and conservatives

Named premier in 1998 at age 69, Zhu became a popular figure by criticizing official bungling and graft and accepting blame when the government fell short. His demanding style earned him the nicknames Boss and Zhu Fengzi, or Madman Zhu.

“I have prepared 100 coffins here — 99 for corrupt officials and one for myself,” Zhu said in 1998, according to the party newspaper People’s Daily.

Zhu ranked No. 3 in the party hierarchy behind Jiang and Li Peng, chairman of the ceremonial legislature, the National People’s Congress. But he was a technician without his own power base. Zhu complained that allowed officials to ignore his orders.

Zhu made his name as a deputy premier in the 1990s by crushing inflation. He enforced price controls and cut off loans to money-losing state companies, rebuffing resistance by local leaders — a pattern Zhu would repeat as he fought conservatives over the pace of reform.

Zhu led efforts to secure WTO membership following marathon negotiations that began in the 1980s. That status would enshrine free trade as a national commitment, giving Zhu a tool to force local officials to stop protecting favored companies.

Zhu’s campaign was nearly derailed when he went to Washington in 1999 with market-opening concessions to win U.S. endorsement of the WTO bid. The Clinton administration rejected the offer as inadequate, while his political enemies at home accused him of offering too much, but Zhu survived and China went on to join the body in December 2001.

Zhu launched China’s home ownership boom in 1998 with an initiative to sell apartments owned by state companies. Families rushed to buy, and within a decade the majority of urban housing was privately owned.

Still, Zhu was less an advocate of free enterprise than a skilled bureaucrat who carried out party orders to whip state industry into shape.

Zhu showed no interest in privatizing the economy. He played a key role in drafting plans in the 1990s to turn banks, airlines, oil companies and other enterprises into profit-oriented corporations but to retain government ownership.

Zhu stood out for admitting official failings

Born Oct. 23, 1928, in Mao Zedong’s home province of Hunan, Zhu paid an early price for his willingness to take risks and speak out.

After a start as an economic planner, his career went into a 22-year eclipse when he was labelled a “rightist” in 1957 for praising reforms in Hungary and Yugoslavia. He was banished to the countryside during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution to do manual labor.

Rehabilitated in 1979, Zhu rose swiftly, becoming deputy Shanghai party secretary in 1987 and mayor the next year.

As mayor in 1989, Zhu gained a reputation for moderation when he placated protesters and pledged not to call in the military.

“He managed to defuse, with considerable subtlety, a tense political situation that could have developed into localized violence or worse if the military had felt it necessary to intervene,” wrote Australian diplomat Shelley Warner in the 1991 book “The Pro-Democracy Protests in China: Reports from the Provinces.”

Zhu’s boss, Jiang, would soon be called to Beijing by Deng and made party leader. Zhu was named deputy premier in 1991 and joined the party’s ruling Standing Committee in 1993.

Zhu broke with the leadership’s stance of infallibility by admitting and taking blame for official failings.

In 1998, after summer floods killed 4,150 people and officials were accused of embezzling money meant for anti-flood dikes, Zhu complained some barriers were no stronger than bean curd.

Three years later, he apologized on national television for his Cabinet’s failure to protect the public after an explosion in a schoolhouse in southern China killed at least 42 people, most of them children.

Zhu enlivened the party’s bland image by cracking jokes in public, sometimes at his own expense. Laughter erupted at a 1999 news conference when he said a recent photo “made me look like a dead man.”

One of Zhu’s proudest triumphs as deputy premier was to craft a tax system that required local officials to hand more revenue to Beijing. He said in 1996 that he deserved a Nobel Prize in economics for that.

Zhu rarely appeared in public after leaving office as premier.

Zhu was married to Lao An, a fellow Hunan native. Their son, Yunlai, also known as Levin Zhu, is a former CEO of China International Capital Corp., a government-owned investment bank.

Their daughter, Yanlai, led a charity organization supporting schoolchildren that was backed by Zhu Rongji.

___

A previous version of this report incorrectly stated that Zhu died at 98. He was 97 years old.

___

Leung reported from Hong Kong. McDonald, a longtime Associated Press journalist who retired in 2023, was the main author of this obituary.

Messi started the second half and received a loud ovation from fans at Miami's Nu Stadium. It was his first match since his father, Jorge, died Saturday at 68. Messi shared a tribute to his father on social media earlier Wednesday, saying he wasn't sure about his playing future.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do without you,” the post said in Spanish, shared on Messi’s Instagram. “I don’t know how to keep going. All I ever did was play soccer, and now I have serious doubts about whether I’ll keep doing it for much longer.”

Jorge Messi played a fundamental role in the soccer star’s career, serving as his agent and managing his business affairs. Messi returned to his native Argentina over the weekend, missing Miami's 2-1 loss to Monterrey on Saturday, but was dressed and on the bench before subbing in for Daniel Pinter at the start of the second half.

Juan Pablo Domínguez also scored for León, which used a three-goal second half to overcome a 1-0 deficit after Pinter put Miami ahead in the 42nd on an assist from Ian Fray. It was the second straight blown second-half lead for Inter Miami.

Arcila scored with a right-footed shot from the center of the box in the 50th, then whipped the go-ahead goal past Óscar García for his fourth goal of the tournament.

Yannick Bright also scored for Inter Miami, which was eliminated after winning the Leagues Cup in 2023 and reaching the final last year.

The Herons' chances of advancing were already bleak after entering the match 12th in the MLS standings following their loss to Monterrey. Only the top four clubs from the MLS standings and the top four from Liga MX will advance to the quarterfinals.

León, after winning its first two matches of the tournament, moved to first in the Liga MX standings.

___

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

A 4-year-old boy was killed when a tree fell on a home in Geneva, Indiana, during Tuesday's storms, the Jennings County Sheriff's Office said. In Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine said a resident of Roseville died during a health emergency when first responders, faced with flooded roads, couldn’t reach them. Officials in Portage, Indiana, were investigating whether the severe weather played a role in a reported house explosion that killed a person.

Lightning struck a prison complex southwest of Cleveland on Tuesday, injuring 16 incarcerated people who were hospitalized, according to the Ohio Department of Corrections. DeWine said four remained hospitalized as of Wednesday, including one with severe injuries.

Storm damage was reported from the Chicago area all the way to western Pennsylvania. Three tornadoes in counties south of Chicago were confirmed by the National Weather Service.

Flood warnings on Wednesday stretched from northern Illinois to eastern Indiana, and there were flash flood watches from Indiana to parts of Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia and Tennessee, the weather service said.

“Severe thunderstorm and heavy rainfall threats continue across the Plains, Midwest, Ohio Valley, and central Appalachians the next couple of days,” it said.

People had to be rescued from rising floodwaters

Authorities in Ohio and western Pennsylvania reported numerous water rescues. DeWine sent 40 Ohio Army National Guard members to help in two counties east of Columbus and he said dozens of local departments also responded to help, including from West Virginia.

Floodwaters barged into Kaitlyn Rodgers’ home in Crooksville, Ohio, early Tuesday morning, reaching knee deep as it stranded her and her husband and four children. With the currents too strong to make it out themselves, they were rescued by firefighters in a boat in the predawn darkness.

“Water just started pouring into the house,” she said. “Because of my house being very old, when the water was coming up I was very worried about the electric outlets that were on the floor, because there was water literally coming out of them, so I was afraid that my children were going to get shocked.”

In Athens County, Ohio, nearly 300 people called 911 for help on Tuesday, including 42 involving vehicles stuck in floods, with more calls Wednesday as high waters flowed toward the Ohio River, said the emergency management director, Teresa Fouts-Imler.

DeWine surveyed the hardest hit areas by helicopter on Wednesday and called the extent of the flooding “stunning.”

“These communities have been hit exceedingly hard in a historic way,” DeWine said during an afternoon news conference from Perry County. “They’ve been hit before with water challenges, but this is certainly the worst.”

The storms pummeled a wide swath of the Midwest

More than 650,000 customers were without power Wednesday afternoon in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia, according to poweroutage.us.

Columbus, Ohio-based American Electric Power was still surveying the damage but had already identified more than 100 broken poles, some 650 downed wire spans and another 85 entangled with trees. About 76,000 of its customers remained without power, even after crews had restored electricity for 135,000, it said Wednesday.

To give Ohio's capital city time to grapple with power outages and cleanup, Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther declared an emergency Wednesday.

Heavy rains and high winds damaged homes and inundated neighborhoods

Photos posted on social media from the Chicago area and across the state line in Indiana showed flooded roads, trees tangled in power lines and homes with gashes in their roofs.

“No power. It was very scary. We were down in the basement,” said Javid Jenkins of Homewood, a Chicago suburb. “We’re built for snow. We’re built for cold. We’re not built for this.”

Jenkins, 54, was driving around for gas to fire up a generator to preserve food in his refrigerator.

Forecasters said a wind gust of 99 mph (159 kph) was recorded in Gary, Indiana. Elsewhere there were numerous reports of gusts of 80 mph (128 kph) or more at personal weather stations.

Preliminary information indicated that the intense system that swept from Iowa into Indiana over several hours qualified as a derecho, the weather service's Storm Prediction Center said Tuesday evening. Derechos are prolonged straight-line windstorms that unleash heavy rainfall and travel far. The damage they cause is sometimes comparable to the destructive forces of tornadoes or hurricanes.

“Total devastation. No roof,” said Kerry Hourigan, standing outside her home of 25 years in Tinley Park, another Chicago suburb. “Stupid thing, but my focus was I just bought a new barbecue grill, and I have no idea where that is. It’s disappeared.”

Dayton, Ohio, set a daily rainfall record with 2.07 inches (5.25 cm), shattering a mark set in 1915, the weather service said.

___

Collins reported from Hartford, Connecticut. Associated Press writers Sudhin Thanawala in Atlanta and John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia, contributed.

The vote took place during a hastily convened meeting of Luxon’s center-right National Party lawmakers at Parliament in Wellington, which was held behind closed doors and ran for more than three hours. Luxon then emerged flanked by his lawmakers to give a brief statement and departed without taking any questions from reporters.

“There was a confidence vote in my leadership this morning at our caucus meeting,” he said. “I had the full support of our caucus and our caucus is united and it is determined to win this election.”

Luxon didn’t say how many lawmakers had voted for him to continue in the job, although such ballots are usually a secret.

Hours later, he said in a statement that the vote was prompted by a leadership challenge from his defense minister, Chris Penk, adding that he had removed Penk from his ministerial portfolios. On Wednesday night, Luxon's office distributed a statement from Penk, in which the challenger said he would quit Parliament altogether.

It was Luxon's second confidence vote since April

The vote was the second Luxon had called about his own leadership since April and leaves lingering questions coming so close to the election scheduled for Nov. 7.

The April vote followed drops in polling for National, while this week’s followed recent public remarks Luxon had made on various issues that some in his party saw as gaffes.

On Tuesday, the leader took the rare step of disclosing on social media that he faced renewed rumblings about his leadership, and announcing he would call a meeting of his lawmakers Wednesday to resolve it.

“It is my firm belief that division and disunity are a major distraction only 90 days out from the election,” he wrote on X. “I also believe this distraction is unfair to the New Zealand people, and dedicated National Party candidates, supporters and volunteers, when there is so much at stake.”

National has led a right-wing coalition government since New Zealand’s 2023 election. Luxon, a former airline executive who entered Parliament in 2020, had led the party since 2021.

Defense minister launched showdown

Details of who had prompted the leadership rumblings at first remained a mystery.

Nobody publicly confirmed plans for a leadership bid or expressed intentions to oust their leader, and those whose names were reported speculatively by news outlets denied it.

Several hours after the vote, Luxon named Penk as his challenger and said his now former minister’s position was “untenable.”

Penk, 47, was also the minister for building and construction, and responsible for the security services and space portfolios. A former lawyer who served in Australia’s navy, Penk entered Parliament in 2017.

He didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday, but in the statement Luxon's office attributed to him, Penk said he had “reflected on my political future with my family tonight” and would not seek reelection in November, effectively ending his political career.

“I am proud of the progress I have contributed to as a Minister this term,” Penk's statement said. “However, I have decided it is the time for me to seek other opportunities to serve New Zealand.”

The statement did not criticize Luxon or reference his leadership bid.

Meanwhile, Luxon’s political opponents lambasted him and his party.

“Backstabbing and infighting just means more delay and more distraction for New Zealand,” said Chris Hipkins, the opposition leader and leader of the center-left Labour party. “If National can’t govern itself, how can New Zealanders trust it to govern the country?”

Luxon’s remarks in recent weeks prompted fresh speculation

Among the recent remarks that appeared to prompt renewed leadership murmurings were comments Luxon made to a business audience earlier this month, when he said some business leaders in the country had a “parent-child mentality” and too often looked to the government for direction. Luxon, who was once an executive at Unilever when he lived in the United States, has always sold himself as a business expert and has sometimes pointed out where he sees New Zealand as falling short of global trends.

When elected, he pledged to use his experience to reverse New Zealand’s economic woes of recent years. This month’s remarks were lambasted, including by some in his own party, as being out of touch while the economy remained sluggish.

He later apologized for the comments. In another episode, he was forced to divulge that he had used a military aircraft to return to Wellington after a political party fundraiser.

Luxon also surprised his lawmakers this month when he promised a referendum on New Zealand’s electoral system if reelected – apparently without first telling his caucus. The episodes were seen among some in his party as an unwelcome distraction ahead of the election and revealing of Luxon’s relative political inexperience.

___

This version has corrected that Luxon entered Parliament in 2020, not 2000.

The official, who was briefed on the situation and spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details of presidential travel, said Rubio was aware of the switch and details of the threat behind it but could or would not say why he had stayed on the plane. The official said Bessent was likely aware but did not know for sure.

The official, however, noted that security precautions for the president — especially one who has been the target of several assassination attempts — are more robust than those for even top members of the Cabinet.

Under the U.S. Constitution, the secretaries of State and Treasury follow the vice president and the highest ranking member of each chamber of Congress in the presidential line of succession.

Trump had flown to the annual gathering of NATO country leaders in Ankara, Turkey, in a new Qatari-gifted and retrofitted red, white and navy blue jet. But ahead of departing Turkey, he said he would fly partway home on an older-model baby blue Air Force One plane instead.

The president at the time said the new luxury jet was being flown out ahead of his departure from Ankara to give some U.S. troops based in eastern England a chance to check out the new Air Force One.

The Washington Post reported this week that Trump wasn’t on the old Air Force One on the return flight from Turkey and that he instead was smuggled onto another jet via a catering cart to avoid a possible Iranian assassination plot. The ruse was carried out as journalists and some White House staff members were led to believe they were on the same plane as the president as he began his journey back to Washington.

The New York Times and CBS News had reported last month that intelligence officials had raised concerns about a potential attack on the president or his jet, triggering additional precautions and the decision not to use the newly inaugurated aircraft gifted to Trump by Qatar for the first leg of Trump’s trip home from Ankara.

Trump acknowledged the transfer late Tuesday.

“It’s only up to the Secret Service. I just follow what they’d like to do, so I go by Secret Service and the military,” the president told reporters at Joint Base Andrews. “They wanted me to go on a different flight, a different plane, equal safety, but they wanted me to do it, so I do it, I do what they say.”

A Louisiana grand jury in June declined to indict Christopher Gillum on a state terrorism charge that could have carried up to a 15-year sentence, court records show.

Gillum, who had been held without bond, was released shortly after the grand jury’s decision and is not facing charges in any other jurisdictions, according to his attorney, Dylan Utley. He declined to comment further.

Gillum's release has not previously been reported.

The 45-year-old ex-police officer, who is from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, had been arrested in Florida in April with hundreds of rounds of ammunition and a handgun while on his way to Louisiana to commit a mass shooting, according to the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office. The investigation had involved the FBI and authorities across Louisiana, North Carolina and Florida.

Authorities did not name the event Gillum was allegedly targeting, but his arrest came on the eve of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, which attracts hundreds of thousands of festivalgoers annually.

Gillum, who is white, had “expressed recent threats to harm ‘Black people’ ”, according to authorities. His family had reported him missing in North Carolina and said he had a history of self-harm.

Lester Duhe, a spokesperson for Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, said in a statement that Gillum’s family had taken him “to a treatment facility out of the state” and that he is not facing additional criminal charges.

Duhe said there were “several jurisdictional issues” that complicated the case after Gillum was extradited to Louisiana following his arrest.

“The threat relayed to a family member actually occurred in North Carolina,” Duhe said. “The defendant never entered the State of Louisiana until after his arrest.”

Gillum had been planning to travel to the Florida Keys “during the same period he would have been suspected to travel to Louisiana,” Duhe added.

Gillum was charged under a Louisiana statute for the crime of “terrorizing,” which requires that “a crime of violence is imminent or in progress or that a circumstance dangerous to human life exists or is about to exist.”

Jonathan Guidry, the foreperson for the grand jury, declined to comment on the decision to not indict Gillum.

Katherine Schweit, a former Chicago prosecutor and FBI executive who ran the agency’s active shooter program, said that thwarted acts of mass violence do not always lead to indictments, but prosecutors often seek an array of criminal charges when possible.

“It’s very difficult to convince a jury, or to convince a grand jury, that something might have happened,” Schweit told The Associated Press.

Law enforcement authorities in North Carolina, where Louisiana court records list Gillum as residing, told the AP that they were not aware he had been released from custody.

“If we’ve got an individual that was accused of such an action, we would want to know if in fact he did return to Alamance County,” said Byron Tucker, a spokesperson for the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina.

Nazneen Ahmed, a spokesperson for North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson, said there are no plans for the state to pursue charges against Gillum.

The office of the Florida Attorney General did not respond to a request for comment about whether Gillum may face additional criminal charges in its jurisdiction. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Louisiana also did not return messages seeking comment.

In a statement, the FBI New Orleans office said the decision whether to charge Gillum rested with prosecutors.

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival declined to comment.

___

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

Videos released by the National Search and Rescue Agency showed people wearing life jackets crowding an inflatable life raft in choppy waters during a rescue operation at sea, as thick black smoke billows from the ferry.

The agency said that as of early Thursday, rescuers evacuated 211 people from the burned vessel, including seven foreign tourists, and recovered the body of a 19-year-old Indonesian woman.

The Putri Yasmin ferry was traveling from Bali to the neighboring island of Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara province when the fire broke out at about 4:15 a.m. Wednesday. The ferry was also transporting 44 vehicles and 53 motorcycles.

The Search and Rescue Office in Mataram, the capital of West Nusa Tenggara province, received an emergency report almost half an hour later and immediately deployed personnel and rescue vessels.

“Our top priority is the safety of all passengers and crew members,” said Muhammad Hariyadi, who heads the Mataram Search and Rescue Office.

The search was continuing Thursday. Relatives who gathered in a post command center in the port reported at least five of their family members still unaccounted for. Their names were posted at the center as missing.

Initial reports said the ferry was carrying 131 people, including 17 crew members, based on the manifest, but officials said hours later that more people were aboard.

It is common in Indonesia for the number of passengers to differ from the manifest, but authorities have not said why the number of people evacuated was so much greater. Transportation Minister Dudy Purwagandhi said officials will look into the discrepancy.

“The findings will be thoroughly reviewed as part of the ministry’s evaluation,” Purwagandhi said. “This is a serious issue that will be thoroughly investigated.”

He said the National Transportation Safety Committee investigators were determining the cause of the fire.

Syamsurizal, head of the Lembar Port Authority in Lombok, said that survivors told authorities the blaze appeared to have started in a cargo truck before quickly spreading through the ferry. The heat forced some passengers to jump into the sea, he said.

“The response operation is ongoing, and authorities are continuing to account for all victims,” said Syamsurizal, who like many Indonesians uses a single name. He said at least two injured passengers were rushed to a nearby hospital.

Hariyadi said the rescue effort was supported by six vessels, a helicopter, two inflatable boats and two private yachts. He said rough seas with waves reported as high as 4 meters (13 feet) complicated rescue efforts.

The 62-meter (203-foot) ferry, built in Japan in 1992, can carry up to 220 passengers and 55 vehicles. It is primarily used to transport travelers and cargo between the Indonesian islands of Bali and Lombok, a journey that typically takes four to five hours.

Wednesday's incident happened less than two weeks after another Indonesian ferry, the Mutiara Sentosa 2, caught fire in waters off the main island of Java, leaving at least five people dead.

Indonesia is an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands where ferries are a common method of travel. Disasters occur regularly, with weak safety enforcement often blamed.

___

Associated Press journalists Edna Tarigan and Andi Jatmiko in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

“There are no immediate eligibility matters affecting the WNBA, and we strongly denounce the bad-faith efforts to use these topics to demean or marginalize others,” a league spokesperson said Wednesday in a statement, hours after an anti-hate task force met virtually and discussed a variety of topics, including social media vitriol and transgender athletes.

The league’s collective bargaining agreement states that “only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA,” but it does not include any more specific language about gender identity or sex assigned at birth. Last Friday, two former NBA players, Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White, declared themselves eligible for the WNBA draft, saying they identify as women.

The draft isn’t until next April.

There has never been a transgender woman — a person assigned male at birth who transitions to align with their gender identity — on a WNBA roster. There have been players in the league who were assigned female at birth and later came out as transgender or nonbinary.

The anti-hate committee was formed last year to deal with hateful and abusive online comments directed at players and the league.

“Today’s meeting covered a wide range of topics, including ongoing discussions on transgender athletes and the continued hate and vitriol directed at players online,” the WNBA statement said. “We will continue to engage all league stakeholders in the coming weeks and months. We will approach these important conversations thoughtfully and in alignment with the values of our league.”

WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert sent a memo last Friday to team presidents and general managers saying the league would discuss the subject of transgender women in women’s basketball.

“We recognize that this is a complex and nuanced topic, and we will continue to have important conversations with all of you and the Players Association in the weeks and months ahead,” Engelbert said in the memo. “We also plan to convene additional discussions and offer listening sessions for any team leaders who would like to participate. Your perspectives and feedback are invaluable, and I appreciate those who have already reached out to share their thoughts.”

In an ESPN article published last month, Indiana Fever player Sophie Cunningham voiced support for barring transgender girls and women from girls’ and women’s sports. Cunningham's comments sparked small rallies and protests in Seattle and Portland when the Fever were on the road last week.

Some WNBA players and coaches have come out in support of transgender athletes, including Seattle Storm center Stefanie Dolson and Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve.

“We need to protect trans kids,” Reeve said on Aug. 1. “To me, it’s a human rights issue. Every kid has a right to sports.”

Many players have declined to comment on the subject.

___

AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

This story originally published at GatorsBreakdown.com

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Defendant Tyler Robinson's attorneys say the bullet traveled above the crowd of several thousand people at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10 and “there were no threats to others.” Whether the shooting endangered the crowd is a key issue: Prosecutors cited the risk that other people could have been harmed as an aggravating factor under state law that makes Kirk's killing a capital crime.

“The only evidence presented supports that the bullet traveled above, not through, the crowd,” defense attorneys wrote in documents filed late Tuesday as the defense tries to block the case from proceeding to trial.

Prosecutors have said numerous people were within a “zone of danger” around Kirk, where a stray or ricocheting bullet could have hurt anyone close to the victim.

The defense lawyers also disputed claims that Robinson targeted Kirk over his political views. Prosecutors allege Robinson told his roommate that he killed the activist because he “had enough of his hatred.” But the defense said that was not enough to prove what motivated Robinson, after searches of his apartment, computers and telephone failed to produce anything beyond that one statement.

Prosecutors last month during a weeklong hearing presented what they call “overwhelming” evidence against Robinson, including DNA tests that tie him to the suspected murder weapon and apparent confessions by the defendant.

His attorneys questioned the reliability of the DNA tests and other evidence. They didn't offer any alternative theories for Kirk's assassination, and made no mention of DNA in Tuesday's filing.

Robinson is charged with aggravated murder and has not yet entered a plea. He turned himself in a day after Kirk was killed.

His defense attorneys previously tried to get the death penalty taken off the table after prosecutors were found to be in contempt of court for talking about the case to the media. State District Judge Tony Graf rejected that request.

In documents filed last month, prosecutors said the fact that Robinson loaded his rifle with four bullets showed that he knew he could miss Kirk, “thereby putting others in danger.”

But defense attorneys said “it is just as likely that the shooter did not believe he would miss.”

Robinson faces possible sentence enhancements if prosecutors can prove he targeted Kirk because of his politics. They contend that Kirk’s strong opposition to same-sex marriage and gender transitioning stood in contrast to Robinson, who was in a romantic relationship with a roommate, Lance Twiggs. Twiggs told investigators that he had been considering transitioning around the time that Kirk was killed, according to prosecutors.

Twiggs also told investigators that Robinson sometimes talked about politics, including President Donald Trump. Yet Twiggs said he never heard Robinson talk about Kirk before the shooting. The defendant also did not talk much about gender issues or LGBTQ+ rights, Twiggs said. The AP emailed Twiggs’ attorney seeking comment.

Closing arguments in the preliminary hearing are scheduled for Sept. 1. Graf will then decide if the case can go to trial and on what charges. Lawyers for Kirk’s family have asked Graf to make his decision by or on Sept. 1 so the case can proceed.

Prosecutors have until Aug. 18 to respond to the latest defense arguments. The Associated Press left telephone and email messages with the Utah County Attorney’s Office seeking comment.

Preliminary hearings typically don’t last so long. Legal experts said the slow pace reflects a cautious approach by Graf, the large volume of evidence and a desire by prosecutors to disprove conspiracy theories around the case.

Victim fights back

Around 10 a.m. Tuesday, the woman was jogging along Tynes Boulevard in the Two Creeks area of Middleburg when she passed a man she did not recognize. The man, identified by deputies as 22-year-old Jayson Thomas, grabbed her from behind and dragged her into nearby woods, where he threw her to the ground and began forcibly removing her clothes, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

The victim fought him off and ran to a nearby home, where residents called 911. Deputies and detectives with the Clay County Sheriff’s Office responded immediately and began searching for Thomas.

Suspect caught on camera

In an attempt to evade law enforcement, Investigators say Thomas ran from the woods into a nearby neighborhood, cutting through several backyards. During the pursuit, he changed his clothes — a detail deputies confronted him about directly when he was taken into custody.

Thomas then entered a home in the Pine Ridge area. The homeowners, who did not know Thomas, confronted him and he ran away, according to deputies.

Body camera footage captured the tense moments that followed. Deputies commanded Thomas to come out with his hands up before taking him into custody. When stopped, Thomas claimed he had simply been walking — but deputies quickly noted he was visibly out of breath. Deputies also questioned him about what he had done with the shirt he was wearing earlier.

One deputy could be heard telling Thomas, “I wouldn’t smile, you let a 60-year-old man run you down,” referencing the deputy who helped take him into custody.

The victim was subsequently brought to the scene, where she positively identified Thomas as her attacker.

Charges, school precaution, community response

Thomas was interviewed by detectives and charged with kidnapping, attempted sexual battery, burglary of an occupied residence and resisting without violence.

Investigators noted that Tynes Elementary School was placed on a “hold” status during the investigation as a precaution. Officials emphasized the hold was not related to any threat involving the school or anyone there.

With help from the community, investigators located Thomas within 30 minutes of the initial 911 call. The victim was transported to a local hospital and treated for minor injuries.

“There’s no easy way to describe the courage it takes to fight back during such a horrifying and frightening situation, but our victim found that courage,” Sheriff Michelle Cook said.

“Her strength and bravery is nothing short of remarkable and helped bring our suspect to justice.”

Anyone with additional information is asked to call the Clay County Sheriff’s Office at 904-264-6512. Tips can also be submitted anonymously through the SaferWatch app or by contacting First Coast Crime Stoppers at **TIPS.

ICE plans to spend between $10 million and $20 million to outfit officers and agents with “conductive distraction and de-escalation devices,” according to a notice published Monday and revealed first by The Associated Press.

The devices known as the G.L.O.V.E., which stands for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter, are normal patrol gloves until an officer presses a button to activate its electrical mode. They must be applied directly to someone’s skin to produce a voltage that causes pain, which is intended to gain compliance from people who are resisting. Unlike Tasers, they do not leave burn or contact marks.

New York AG says she is ‘outraged' by plan

The size of the purchase suggests ICE plans to give the device to most or all of its officers. The gloves have been used by local departments more often in jails than in the streets, where ICE officers have increasingly used force to extract people from cars and faced protests over their actions carrying out President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration.

“We are outraged,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said at a news conference Wednesday, where she warned that ICE officers who misuse the gloves in her state could face criminal and civil consequences.

The Department of Homeland Security, ICE’s parent agency, issued a statement that did not mention the product specifically or explain why it had been chosen.

“ICE is constantly assessing the needs of our officers in the field to ensure they have the tools and equipment necessary to safely arrest and remove criminal illegal aliens from our country,” the statement said. “Every decision is made with careful consideration and appropriately reviewed to ensure that any technology ICE utilizes is consistent with all applicable law enforcement policies and standards.”

Lawsuit alleges shocks from gloves contributed to man's death

While the devices are marketed as nonlethal and safe for the heart, a pending lawsuit alleges a 43-year-old man died in 2024 after he was shocked 27 times with the gloves and 13 more times by a Taser at a jail in Richmond, Kentucky. An internal investigation found two of the glove shocks lasted 45 and 99 seconds apiece — far more than the manufacturer’s recommended 15-second limit.

“These actions not only inflicted unnecessary pain but also heightened the risk of serious health complications,” the investigation by the Madison County Detention Center found, according to court documents.

An Associated Press review found two other lawsuits alleging injuries from the gloves, including a man with heart problems who was shocked at a Las Vegas trade show and a defendant who said he was laughed at after he was unnecessarily shocked in court. Both cases have been dismissed.

Several Democrats in Congress, including Reps. Pramila Jayapal, Maxwell Frost and Delia Ramirez, said on social media that ICE did not need another weapon.

“This won’t make anyone safer and in fact just gives ICE another dangerous tool to target citizens and immigrants alike,” Jayapal wrote on X.

Former ICE leader, law professor worry gloves will be misused

The manufacturer warns the devices should not be used against some populations that ICE agents routinely encounter: the elderly, small children, pregnant women and the severely handicapped. The device's user manual also warns it should not be used in response to verbal defiance, or for punishment, torture or horseplay.

“It's too easy for this to get misused, against a population that doesn't pose a threat," former ICE acting director John Sandweg said Wednesday in an interview on MS NOW.

The maker of the Taser recently phased out its drive-stun feature, a similar pain compliance tool that had been misused by some officers.

Michael Mannheimer, a law professor at Northern Kentucky University who has written about police use-of-force and issues in federal law enforcement operations, agreed the gloves raised concerns about officers using disproportionate force.

“One concern I would have is if ICE agents have this at their immediate disposal, will they use it more than they should? Will they jump over lesser force that could be appropriate and successful to attain compliance and instead use this first?" he said.

The notice published in a DHS database indicated the solicitation for a no-bid contract to purchase the gloves could be released as early as Friday, and the contract would last through March 31, 2027. The founder of Compliant Technologies LLC, which manufactures the gloves, declined comment.

___

Associated Press writer Claudia Lauer contributed to this report.

The 41-year-old man fatally shot himself after stabbing his wife and child at their in-home daycare in Hopkins, a suburb of Minneapolis, police said.

All six other children who were at Brown Bear Childcare were not physically harmed, authorities said. Another parent called police after witnessing the attack in the home's basement while dropping off a child, Hopkins Police Chief Brent Johnson said.

“There’s no worse scenario than this, where you drop off your child somewhere you think is safe, and you get that phone call,” Johnson said at a news conference.

“This is a tragic day and horrific scene for little children to witness, if they did witness this,” Johnson later added.

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EDITOR’S NOTE — In the U.S., the national suicide and crisis lifeline is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org

___

More than three hours after the killings, Burnsville Chief Matt Smith said officers were called to a home in his community, 20 miles (32 kilometers) from Hopkins, where they found a woman who had been fatally stabbed. He said investigators believe the two tragedies are linked, and that the man had been living at the home of the “close family relative.”

No names were released. Johnson said no clear motive had been determined yet and there was no history of police calls to the Hopkins address.

Johnson said it will take time for authorities to determine the timeline between the killings in Hopkins and Burnsville.

Amanda Marx, a nurse who lives across the street, didn’t realize anything was wrong until she noticed police officers trying to break down the home’s front door.

She said officers moved behind the house before reappearing and calling for crime scene tape. Later, several young children emerged — one being carried by an officer.

The brown, two-story house has a mural on the garage door of a tree-lined lake and a moose. Photos on the daycare’s Facebook page show kids playing with toys inside and in the backyard, with colorful decorations and artwork on the walls.

Marx said she and her 7-year-old son always referred to it as the “garage house” due to the colorful mural. The longtime resident said she’d never met the home’s owners and was unaware they were running Brown Bear Childcare out of the home. She didn’t recall any prior disturbances.

“I’m just trying to figure out how to explain to my 7-year-old why there’s crime scene tape on our deck,” she said.

Records show the daycare has been licensed by the state since 2019 and has a capacity of 10 children. It was found to be in compliance during visits in 2023, 2024 and 2025.

Johnson said killings are a “rarity” in Hopkins and that his officers were shaken by the scene they found inside the home.

“I could see on the look on their faces that this was one of those ones that you’ll remember for your entire career, if not life,” Johnson said.

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Rico reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writer Ed White in Detroit contributed.

Leavitt, 28, is the youngest person to hold the role. She was a press aide during Trump's first term and has been one of the most visible advocates of his “Make America Great Again” movement. Trump did not outline any plans for who might replace her.

Meanwhile, Trump said he slipped away from Air Force One after a trip last month in Turkey because the Secret Service and military wanted him on a “different plane” due to a threat he insisted did not scare him.

He downplayed the extraordinary nature of the subterfuge involved in his flight, which saw him stow away in an airport catering container to sneak onto another plane while Air Force One was sent into the sky, essentially as a decoy.

Here's the latest:

Pete Hegseth says Colombia president has requested US collaboration in antidrug efforts

The U.S. defense secretary said the recently inaugurated government of President Abelardo de la Espriella requested U.S. collaboration in joint military operations in Colombia to combat “narco-terrorism.”

During a meeting of the Americas Counter-Cartel Coalition in Panama, Hegseth said Colombia would also join the Shield of the Americas initiative, becoming its 19th member. The initiative emerged from a March summit with Trump and Latin American countries that sought to join forces in fighting drug cartels. Colombia’s then-President Gustavo Petro was not invited to that meeting.

“Through the newly inaugurated president, as our president likes to say, President El Tigre, Colombia has already requested that the Department of War join Colombia in its fight against narco-terrorism, authorizing joint military operations to destroy terrorists and terror networks,” Hegseth said.

The government of de la Espriella, who is known as “El Tigre,” or “The Tiger,” did not immediately comment. But the conservative leader has previously said his administration would join the U.S. initiative.

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Officials say US forces on track to complete Iraq pullout by Sept. 30

The U.S. military is on track to pull all of its forces out of Iraq by the end of September, officials said Wednesday, marking the end of a presence that started with the 2003 invasion against Saddam Hussein.

Washington and Baghdad agreed in 2024 to wind down the much smaller U.S.-led operations against the Islamic State group.

U.S. troops pulled out of bases in most areas of Iraq last year but maintained a presence in the semiautonomous northern Kurdish region. Bases there have regularly come under attack since the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Iran on Feb. 28.

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Federal civil rights agency moves to drop subpoena action against Nike in DEI-related investigation

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is dropping the subpoena enforcement action, saying the sportswear giant has complied with requests for information as part of an investigation into its diversity and inclusion policies.

The EEOC filed the motion to dismiss in Missouri federal court Wednesday, seven months after asking the court to order Nike to fully comply with the subpoena. In its court filing, the EEOC said that between March and August, Nike provided “information and documents responsive to the subpoena,” leaving “no remaining controversy” for the court to resolve.

An EEOC spokesperson said the agency is “pleased the company complied without a court order after the filing of our subpoena enforcement action,” but declined to provide more details. Nike declined to comment.

Nike is one of the highest-profile companies targeted by EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas’ campaign against corporate diversity and inclusion policies, which the Trump administration claims discriminate against white men and others.

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Republicans see Minnesota fraud scandal as a chance to go on offense in a blue state

It has been 20 years since a Republican won a statewide race there. But some in the party think a fraud scandal that has engulfed state government will be their ticket back to relevance.

Their enthusiasm was buoyed by Tuesday’s primary, which saw former sportscaster Michele Tafoya win the Senate nomination and state House speaker Lisa Demuth win the primary for governor. Both women defeated rivals seen by some GOP strategists as too extreme for Minnesota’s left-of-center electorate.

Republicans are mostly playing defense as they look to hold on to their narrow congressional majorities. President Donald Trump is unpopular, and voters have a negative view of the state of the economy and the country’s direction.

Most of the competitive Senate seats on the ballot this fall are held by Republicans and in states Trump won by healthy margins in 2024, such as Texas and Iowa. Minnesota presents one of the GOP’s few opportunities to go on offense.

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Law firm with ties to Trump administration declines offer to represent migrant children

A small Texas law firm with ties to the Trump administration declined a $150 million federal contract it was offered to represent migrant children traveling alone to the U.S., authorities said, raising long-term questions about who would represent them.

The administration announced plans last week to award the contract to Houston-based Burke Law Group, which has little experience in immigration. The contract offer came as the administration ramps up its mass deportation campaign and after it let a key contract with nearly 100 providers working with immigrant children around the country expire at the end of July with no replacement.

Unaccompanied migrant children in federal custody are being temporarily represented by another group, but it is unclear how things will shake out after its contract expires in December. A Wednesday statement from the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement, which oversees the contracts, offered no insight into why Burke declined the offer.

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US critical of Israeli defense minister’s comments on keeping troops in southern Lebanon

The Trump administration says Israel Katz’s comments that Israel will not withdraw from certain areas are inconsistent with a framework deal agreed to by Israel and Lebanon.

A State Department official reaffirmed Wednesday that the U.S. “expects all parties to act in a manner consistent with the framework they agreed to,” which does not include a long-term or permanent Israeli presence in the south.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said a permanent Israeli “military presence in South Lebanon is not consistent with the commitments made in the framework or the long-term peace and security of both states.”

Earlier Wednesday Katz said Israel would not withdraw from certain of its current positions: “Under no circumstances do we retreat.”

— Matthew Lee

2 people died in military helicopter crash near Fort Hood, officials say

An Army Apache helicopter crashed in a central Texas field on Wednesday, killing both people on board and sparking a wildfire that forced several homes to be evacuated, officials said.

Officials from nearby Fort Hood announced that the AH-64 Apache helicopter had crashed. Cliff Coleman, spokesperson for the Bell County Sheriff’s office confirmed that both occupants died.

No cause of the crash was immediately announced. Fort Hood’s criminal investigation division was leading the investigation, Coleman said.

The helicopter did not hit any homes or other structures when it crashed, Coleman said.

“Our immediate priority is securing the site and supporting the initial response efforts,” said Brig. Gen. Ethan Diven, acting commanding general. “Our thoughts are with the crew and their families as we await further information.”

Interior Department holds third oil lease sale in Gulf of Mexico

The Trump administration conducted another lease sale Wednesday for oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Sixteen companies submitted 69 bids totaling nearly $100 million.

The sale was the third in the past year under Trump’s big tax and spending law adopted by congressional Republicans.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the sale underscores the administration’s commitment to “an active offshore energy strategy” and continues a tradition of offshore drilling helping to power transportation, manufacturing and small businesses.

An oil industry lobbying group hailed the sale as a “vote of confidence in American energy.”

Environmental groups denounced it as a giveaway to the oil and gas industry, which is already pulling in windfall profits due to the war in Iran.

US strikes targeting Houthis killed 153 civilians in Yemen last year, Pentagon review says

A Pentagon review has found that U.S. airstrikes targeting Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen last year killed more than 150 civilians.

The unclassified assessment was sent to Congress as part of an annual report on civilian casualties and was obtained by The Associated Press.

The Pentagon review focused on three airstrikes in April 2025 that were launched during the U.S. campaign against the Houthis. The militants were attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea as well as Israel. A total of 153 civilians were killed and 243 were injured.

The report comes as concerns rise over civilian casualties by military campaigns under the Trump administration, including a strike on an Iranian primary school in the opening days of this year’s war that killed up to 168 people.

Hegseth pushes Latin American nations to leave ICC

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is urging Latin American countries not to recognize the International Criminal Court as the U.S. military targets alleged drug traffickers in the region.

Speaking at a gathering in Panama of the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition, Hegseth argued that those efforts “are 100% lawful under the laws of armed conflict.” He faces questions at home about the legality of carrying out deadly strikes on small boats accused of trafficking drugs.

It’s not clear from Hegseth’s remarks what, if anything, the ICC has done to stymie U.S. operations in the region. He encouraged the nearly 20 countries assembled “to leave the ICC and reject their attempts to rob your governments and your courts of your sovereignty.”

The Trump administration is pushing a campaign to “dismantle” the world tribunal in retaliation for warrants the court has issued for top Israeli officials over the war in Gaza and investigations into U.S. personnel in Afghanistan.

Leavitt calls the decision to depart the White House ‘bittersweet’

Leavitt recently returned to work after taking a short leave following the birth in May of her second child, Viviana.

She also has a 2-year-old son.

“The truth is since returning to the White House after the birth of my daughter, I have felt in my heart that I cannot be the best mom my two young children deserve while devoting the constant time, energy, and attention required of the White House Press Secretary — and that is why I have ultimately made the bittersweet decision to depart the White House and embark on a new chapter in my life,” Leavitt said in a social media post.

Leavitt leaving job as White House press secretary

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, the youngest person to hold the role, will leave the administration at the end of the month, Trump announced Wednesday.

Leavitt, who served Trump as a press aide during his first term in the White House, has been one of the most visible advocates of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement. The Republican president described her as one of his “most trusted aides” in a social media post announcing her departure.

He said Leavitt “will be departing her role at the end of the month so she can spend more time with her beautiful young children and family, a decision I totally understand and respect! Karoline will now be one of my top outside advisors, and an influential voice within the Republican Party, as we work to defy History, and conclusively win the Midterm Elections.”

Lawsuit seeks to stop Trump from making money off early access to his posts on US policy

The lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court alleges that Trump’s deal with his media company to post first on his Truth Social platform violates the Constitution.

The suit brought by two media groups comes after Truth Social started charging Wall Street firms as much as $100,000 a month for a new service allowing early access to the president’s posts so they can trade off them.

Truth Social says the lawsuit is an attempt by left wing activists to silence the president.

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The duel over the National Guard in DC has entered its second year

The latest volley was a letter coming from the Justice Department to the district council challenging their view that the use of the military is unnecessary because crime was already falling.

That letter counters letters the council sent last month to governors who have troops in town supporting Trump’s 2025 surge. The June letter asked governors to bring their people home, citing $3 million a day costs and the lack of a crime emergency.

Wednesday’s missive disputed that: “D.C. is a much safer place no matter what you say.”

The president activated the guard and pulled in federal law enforcement with a crime emergency declaration on Aug. 11, 2025. The deployment was recently extended until January 2029 and will cost an estimated $1.4 billion.

Trump-supporting pastor warns immigration enforcement risks Latino vote

The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez is warning Republicans that deporting vulnerable people who don’t have a criminal record could lose them the Latino vote in the midterm elections.

Rodriguez is a conservative pastor from California and president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.

In an op-ed for the Christian Post on Wednesday, he said that not everyone the administration is arresting and deporting is a criminal. Many, he said, are “construction workers, healthcare professionals and Sunday school teachers who have been rooted in this country for 20 years or more.”

“This does not mean open borders,” he said. “It means the mechanisms of enforcement must be proportional, just, and morally defensible.”

Rodriguez said there is “still time to course correct.”

“When indiscriminate enforcement becomes the story, it hands the moral high ground to the progressive Left and confirms their most damaging narrative about the Right.”

Forget left vs. center

Primary results in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Connecticut have reiterated that Democratic voters are hungry for change, even as they remain divided over the party’s ideological future.

Progressives secured a major victory in Minnesota but fell short in Wisconsin, while a longtime Connecticut congressman was ousted by a younger challenger.

The results followed similar outcomes this year in places such as Michigan that showed an appetite for turnover that cuts across the party’s ideological divisions.

They also highlighted the growing influence of younger voters, who have been particularly drawn to progressive candidates.

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US resumes leadership role in anti-abortion group abandoned during Biden administration

The Trump administration says it will resume a leadership role in an international bloc opposed to abortion that had been established in Trump’s first term but then abandoned by President Joe Biden.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Wednesday the U.S. would serve as the “secretariat” for the Geneva Consensus Declaration. The Geneva consensus was created in 2020 with great fanfare from then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo “to secure meaningful health and development gains for women; to protect life at all stages; to defend the family as the fundamental unit of society.”

Critics, however, saw it as a way for the U.S. to further push Trump administration goals to limit family planning initiatives and ban abortion.

Participation in Geneva Consensus was one of the first Trump administration actions rescinded by Biden when he took office in early 2021.

Wisconsin gubernatorial primary winner David Crowley ties opponent to Trump

The winner of Wisconsin’s Democratic primary race for governor immediately tied his Republican opponent to President Trump in his first public comments since his razor-thin victory.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley told supporters Wednesday he intends to build a broad coalition to defeat Republican Tom Tiffany, who’s voted 100% in line with Trump.

“The biggest difference between me and the congressman is I’m loyal to the people of Wisconsin. I’m not loyal to MAGA,” Crowley said referring to Trump’s Make America Great Again movement.

Tiffany began the general election campaign with a message connecting Crowley to Francesca Hong, a the democratic socialist Crowley narrowly defeated.

“I’ve said all along that there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between these Democrat candidates,” Tiffany said in a statement.

Sen. Tim Scott says he voted for Sen. Darline Graham and endorses her in runoff

Scott, who also serves as chair of the chamber’s political arm, said on social media Wednesday morning that he’d voted for Darline Graham in Tuesday’s special Republican Senate primary.

Graham has been serving in an interim role since her brother Sen. Lindsey Graham’s death last month. Scott called his fellow South Carolinian “a conservative stalwart” who “represents our beloved state with class, humility, and dignity.”

Graham and Rep. Ralph Norman will go head to head in an Aug. 25 GOP runoff. The winner of that contest faces Democrat Annie Andrews in November.

Rubio sets up task force to combat ‘birth tourism’ as Trump fights birthright citizenship

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced the creation of a State Department task force to combat “birth tourism,” a Trump administration phrase for foreign women coming to the United States with the intention of giving birth to a child on U.S. soil in order to secure their child’s American citizenship.

Trump and his administration have fought unsuccessfully in courts to end “birthright citizenship,” which gives U.S. citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil. Despite those legal setbacks, Trump has continued the fight to end the practice.

In a social media post Wednesday, Rubio said the new task force would “review the activity of visa holders, dismantle illegal birth tourism networks, and put an end to this heinous abuse of our nation’s laws.”

He said that since the task force was created last month, it had already taken action to revoke the visas of more than 600 people suspected of being involved in birth tourism schemes.

Many details about what happened remain unknown

Presidents have regularly tested the confines of their office, pushing their security advisers to visit war zones as a show of American presence and their own leadership. Usually, this happens in the form of trips that aren’t announced until the president is deemed to be out of harm’s way.

What’s different this time is that Trump was covertly separated from the rest of his travelers — including the press pool meant to provide independent coverage of the president — and, instead of informing the public about what occurred once the risk had passed, the White House still hasn’t fully revealed what took place.

Presidents often take secret trips — but not like this

Commanders in chief have sometimes kept overseas trips covert for security reasons, with schedules and logistics kept classified until after for safety reasons. But the fact that Trump’s whereabouts were concealed at the time and for weeks afterward is believed to be unprecedented.

“We have absolutely seen the president fly on unmarked or decoy planes before, into Iraq, Afghanistan, other war-zone-like places,” said Garrett M. Graff, author of “Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government’s Secret Plan to Save Itself — While the Rest of Us Die.”

“But this was an ongoing secret that I don’t think we’ve ever seen before.”

After hiding in the catering vehicle and being moved to the other plane, Trump stopped in Britain, sneaked back aboard the presidential plane undetected, and even later scoffed when asked about potential danger.

“If I go, you go. Right?” he told reporters then — gliding past the fact that if the plane had been shot down, the president wouldn’t have been aboard.

Inflation paused, but higher costs remain an issue for Americans

U.S. inflation slowed last month and a measure of underlying price pressures also cooled, suggesting higher oil and gas prices from the Iran war are only having a limited impact on broader costs in the economy.

Consumer prices rose 3.4% in July from a year ago, down slightly from 3.5% in June, the Labor Department said Wednesday. But inflation is still higher than before the Iran war began in February, when it was 2.4%. On a monthly basis, prices rose just 0.1% from June to July.

Inflation has been pushed higher by a series of shocks to the economy, including President Trump’s tariffs imposed last spring, higher gas prices stemming from the Iran war, and a surge in investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure that has boosted computer chip prices. The key question for the inflation-fighters at the Fed — not to mention for consumers struggling with high gas and grocery prices — is how quickly those one-time effects will fade.

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Trump’s vaccine order hands some MAHA voters a win. It also gives Democrats an attack line

President Trump pivoted the nation’s attention back to vaccines this week with an executive order that aims to scale back the childhood immunization schedule and space out shots into separate visits.

After acting to overhaul the nation’s vaccine policy and guidance, the Trump administration had recently largely stepped back from additional changes to focus on less controversial subjects, raising questions over the political impetus behind and implications of the Republican president’s renewed focus on vaccines.

For well over a decade, Trump has expressed his view — against medical groups’ guidance — that childhood vaccines should be administered in smaller doses over a long period of time. The executive order sought to bear out that discredited theory.

While the move could endear Trump to some “Make America Healthy Again” voters who want more flexibility on immunizations, it’s also already attracting attacks designed to hurt Trump’s aligned candidates in November’s midterm elections.

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During a meeting of the so-called Americas Counter-Cartel Coalition in Panama, Hegseth said Colombia would also join the “Shield of the Americas” initiative, becoming its 19th member. The initiative emerged from a March summit with U.S. President Donald Trump and Latin American countries that sought to join forces in fighting drug cartels. Colombia’s then-President Gustavo Petro was not invited to that meeting.

“Through the newly inaugurated president, as our president likes to say, President El Tigre, Colombia has already requested that the Department of War join Colombia in its fight against narco-terrorism, authorizing joint military operations to destroy terrorists and terror networks,” Hegseth said.

The government of de la Espriella, who was sworn in last week and is known as “The Tiger” or “El Tigre,” did not immediately comment on the announcement in Panama. But the conservative leader has previously said his administration would join the U.S. initiative.

Separately, Hegseth urged the Latin American countries at the meeting not to recognize the International Criminal Court, or ICC. The U.S. under Trump has carried out military strikes against suspected drug traffickers in the region, which have raised questions about their legality.

Hegseth argued that such efforts “are entirely legal under international humanitarian law.”

It remains unclear from Hegseth’s statements what measures, if any, the international court has taken to hinder U.S. operations in the region.

He urged the nearly 20 countries in attendance to abandon the ICC and reject its attempts to strip their governments and courts of their “sovereignty.” The Trump administration is pushing a campaign to dismantle the international court in retaliation for arrest warrants issued against senior Israeli officials over the war in Gaza and investigations into U.S. personnel in Afghanistan.

While it is an exhibition game, it marks another milestone for the venerated wide receiver on his homecoming tour. Coach John Harbaugh expects Beckham to play in the team's preseason opener against Minnesota at home on Saturday.

"I’m looking forward to seeing him play," Harbaugh said Wednesday. “He’s looked good. He’s in shape. He’s taking every rep he’s supposed to take in practice. He’s getting stronger. I feel like he’s getting stronger every day. He’s in a good place.”

Beckham at 33 is in a very different place than he was in December 2018, when he was nearing the end of his rookie contract after surpassing 1,000 yards receiving in four of his first five NFL seasons.

Now, after serving a six-game suspension for failing a performance-enhancing drug test and not playing at all in 2025, he is attempting to show he still belongs in the league. His last game was Dec. 8, 2024, with Miami.

“I kind of had two years off,” Beckham told reporters in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, earlier this month. “Spiritually, mentally, emotionally, physically — whatever it was — I got time to heal, so, I feel good.”

Beckham has shown flashes of his younger self at training camp, including a catch in the back of the end zone from Jameis Winston during the opening week. Behind Malik Nabers ( when healthy ), Darius Slayton and others on the depth chart and with plenty of competition from fellow free agent additions Calvin Austin and Darnell Mooney and rookie Malachi Fields, there is no guarantee Beckham makes the initial 53-man roster.

Games and practices provide an opportunity for him to earn a spot. It is not clear yet who might be throwing him the ball, as Harbaugh dodged a question about whether franchise quarterback Jaxson Dart and the rest of the expected starters will play against the Vikings.

No matter who he's catching passes from, Beckham has the chance to steal the summer spotlight as a returning crowd favorite.

“I can’t wait to hear the fans yell when he run out there and catches a touchdown against the Minnesota Vikings in MetLife Stadium,” Winston said. “I think that is going to be one of the loudest roars. ... I just cannot even imagine just the anticipation that our fans have.”

Harbaugh explains the Giants bringing in Terrion Arnold for a visit

After Terrion Arnold worked out with the Giants, Harbaugh did not rule out them signing the free agent cornerback, who is facing eight felony charges, before the legal process runs its course.

“The legal process could take years, so then his career is gone,” Harbaugh said. “I think you have to decide: ‘Where does the legal process stand? What are we really talking about here? What does it look like?’ And you have to make a judgment along those lines.”

Arnold, 23, was charged in June with counts of kidnapping, armed robbery and conspiracy after allegations he orchestrated the abduction and beating of three men in February. He became a free agent when the Detroit Lions released him a few days after the charges were levied.

New York is the third team to bring in Arnold for a visit this week alone, after New Orleans and defending champion Seattle. Harbaugh explained the reasoning as wanting to be aggressive, while acknowledging there's a risk-reward proposition to the possibility.

“There’s things to be gained and things to be lost, and you just kind of got to balance it out and try to make a decision that’s two-fold,” Harbaugh said. “One aspect is what’s best for your football team. The other aspect is what’s best for your organization and your people and doing the right thing.”

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See AP’s full NFL coverage here

{Warning: The arrest report contains graphic details of child neglect}

The arrests

Keisha Monique Epps, 51, of Georgia, was booked into the Duval County jail on four counts of child neglect. Her co-defendant, Tamra Stewart, 37, also of Georgia, faces capital sexual battery charges.

Each count of child neglect carries a bond amount of $100,003. As conditions of bond, Epps is required to wear a GPS ankle monitor, have no contact with minors, victims, witnesses or co-defendants, and is prohibited from possessing firearms or consuming alcohol and drugs.

Living conditions

Investigators say the four children had been living in the cab of a semitruck driven by Epps — a truck driver for a company operating between Atlanta, Georgia, and Miami, Florida — since December 2019.

The children were reportedly forced to share a single bunk, sleeping side by side and curled up because they could not fit lying flat. They were rarely allowed out of the cab, even to use the restroom. According to the report, the children said they were fed poorly and denied adequate exercise or movement.

Education, medical care denied, according to report

Investigators say the children were not enrolled in an accredited school. The last confirmed enrollment in a recognized school was November 2020. Instead, the children were directed to use an app that is not recognized as a formal educational tool or accredited institution.

The children reportedly did not receive medical or dental care, even in cases of injury or illness. The report states that one of the children burned herself severely with cooked noodles and was not taken for medical treatment, leaving her with a permanent scar.

Abuse allegations

Stewart is accused of sexually abusing the children, with the incidents reportedly occurring while Epps was driving, sleeping or showering. The children told investigators that Epps was informed of the abuse but did not believe them and continued to leave them alone with Stewart.

The report also alleges he physically abused the children by punching them in the head on multiple occasions. Epps is further accused of calling the children derogatory names and blaming them for Stewart’s behavior.

When a JSO Detective first encountered the children, the report notes they were walking with an unnatural gait, attributed to years of confinement in the cab of the truck.

Both Stewart and Epps were both in the Duval County Jail as of Wednesday night.

The two-time scoring champion shared his decision on social media in a post featuring a video narrated by actor Michael B. Jordan where the guard never says a word.

“Sometimes you don’t even know when you’ve already watched the end,” Westbrook wrote. “You had to be there. And now it’s over.”

Westbrook was the No. 4 pick in 2008 out of UCLA by the Seattle SuperSonics, just before they moved to Oklahoma City. He played his first 11 seasons with the Thunder and spent this past season with the Sacramento Kings.

Westbrook led the NBA in assists three times and was a two-time MVP of the All-Star Game. He won an Olympic gold medal in the 2012 London Games.

Westbrook leaves with 209 triple-doubles, the last on March 15. Nikola Jokic ranks second in that category with 198 going into this season. Westbrook also holds the NBA mark for most triple-doubles in a season with 42 in 2016-17, when he earned his only MVP award.

Thunder general manager Sam Presti called Westbrook “the ultimate competitor.”

“His internal belief and unbridled fearlessness helped establish the foundation of our organization from day one in 2008 and he elevated the confidence and inspired our community in every year thereafter,” Presti said in a statement. “Russell will be as successful in his life after basketball as he was during his career because his qualities and gifts transfer. His impact on our community is still felt today, and he is beloved for his devotion as much as his talent.”

Westbrook averaged double figures for points and assists in five of six seasons starting in the 2015-16 season.

Westbrook also played for Houston, Washington, the Lakers and Clippers — splitting the 2022-23 season between the Los Angeles teams and Denver.

Last season, Westbrook started 58 of the 64 games he played for Sacramento. He averaged 15.2 points and 6.7 assists.

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

The grand jury, which had been meeting in secret, returned the indictment on July 20, and it was unsealed Wednesday, when 32-year-old Nick Reiner entered a not guilty plea.

Rob Reiner, a director, actor and Hollywood luminary, and his wife, a photographer and producer, were stabbed to death in their home in the upscale Brentwood section of Los Angeles on Dec. 14. Nick Reiner was arrested within hours and charged two days later.

The grand jury indictment is a major step toward trial and allows prosecutors to skip California’s preliminary hearing process, where evidence is publicly aired.

Lying in wait means a suspect waited for or hid from victims in order to ambush them, and as an allegation it's meant to show premeditation. A finding that he was lying in wait along with a murder conviction would make Reiner eligible for the death penalty, but prosecutors said they haven't decided whether to seek it.

“This was a profound betrayal by someone who was loved and trusted by the very people he is accused of killing,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a statement. “We hope that by having a grand jury return an indictment in this case it will bring us one step closer to a trial and achieving justice.”

Unsealed indictment gives few new details in secrecy-shrouded case

Prosecutors have said nothing about possible motives, and leaks in the case have been virtually nonexistent on both sides.

The Los Angeles County chief medical examiner told The Associated Press he would like to make their autopsy reports public, but a court order has prevented him from doing so.

The unsealed indictment reveals few new details in a case that has been shrouded in secrecy. It does not explain how or why Reiner was lying in wait. Without elaborating, prosecutors have said since December that the parents were stabbed. The indictment includes a special allegation of use of a deadly weapon — a knife — that could also contribute to a stiffer sentence.

Indictment released as Nick Reiner seeks trust funds

The indictment comes as Reiner is seeking unpaid money from a trust his parents established for him, saying he needs it to help in his defense.

Reiner said in a court petition that the trustees who oversee the funds have denied them to him without legal justification. The money was to have gone to Nick Reiner even if his parents were alive, legal filings say. The petition says the trust has at least $1.5 million in assets, but trustees would not share the exact amount.

“Nick loved his parents, and he is devastated by their deaths. But the facts about what did and did not happen to them are not at issue,” the petition says.

He is seeking to hire back high-profile criminal defense attorney Alan Jackson, who initially represented him before Reiner’s siblings would no longer agree to fund his defense and a public defender took over.

A hearing on the petition is set for next week.

The LA County Public Defender’s Office, which is representing Reiner, declined to comment on the indictment.

Grand jury process happens in secret

California prosecutors can charge a defendant and take the case through a preliminary hearing — a sort of trial in miniature where evidence is publicly aired and a judge decides whether it should be sent to trial — as recently happened with singer D4vd.

Or they can use a grand jury to go through the process in secret. They can also publicly file charges and later seek a secret grand jury indictment, essentially creating a new version of the case, as happened here and in the Los Angeles prosecution of Harvey Weinstein.

Rob Reiner had prolific career as actor and director

Rob Reiner began as an actor, starring in the TV sitcom, “All in the Family,” as Michael “Meathead” Stivic, the liberal son-in-law to a much more conservative and bigoted Archie Bunker, played by Carroll O’Connor. Reiner won two Emmy Awards for the role, and last month got a posthumous Emmy nomination for his work as a guest star on “The Bear.”

He became a prolific director whose work included some of the most memorable and endlessly watchable movies of the 1980s and ’90s. His credits included “This is Spinal Tap,” “Stand By Me,” “A Few Good Men,” and “When Harry Met Sally…” during the production of which he met photographer Michele Singer. They wed soon after and were married for 36 years.

Nick Reiner was the second of the three children they had together. He and his father co-wrote the script for the 2015 film “Being Charlie,” which was partly based on the son’s teenage struggles with addiction and homelessness.

His older brother Jake Reiner wrote in April that the experience of losing his parents and having his brother at the center of it was “a living nightmare” that is “too devastating to comprehend.”

The Severe Thunderstorm Warning has since been canceled for Duval County.

A Severe Thunderstorm warning was later issued for St. Johns and Flagler Counties until 4:15 p.m.

A Severe Thunderstorm Warning was also issued for Columbia and Alachua counties until 6 p.m.

A Flood Advisory has been issued for Duval and St. Johns Counties until 5 p.m.

Met Park Marina is now open next to EverBank Stadium on the St. Johns River.

The marina offers 78 slips with power and water hookups. It also offers fuel, Wi-Fi, and other amenities for boaters.

City leaders want this riverfront stretch to become a destination.

“We’ve said it’s our goal to make the riverfront Jacksonville’s front porch, and it certainly is becoming that every single weekend,” Mayor Donna Deegan said.

They’re aiming for more sports, entertainment, dining, and public space.

Well-known Freedom Boat Club Jacksonville owner Lisa “The Boatanista” Almeida is beyond excited about the changes.

“My heart is about to overflow with excitement for this new marina. Not only for myself and all my boater friends but all of my members,” Almeida said. “To be able to come down and dock and go to the city and go to dinner and go to a life, it’s just like we’re finally invigorating our river.”

Reservations opened on Wednesday, with overnight stays starting Wednesday night.

Slips are first-come, first-served, but some dates are already booked. Project managers say Jaguars game weekends are filling up fast.

But this isn’t just about a place to dock; it’s about what’s happening around it.

The stretch of downtown is becoming a major focus of redevelopment, connecting the riverfront with sports, entertainment, restaurants, hotels and public spaces.

Project managers say they are grateful to be involved in the city’s journey.

“I’m just glad to be part of bringing it back to life and being able to make this area useful for the public, making everyone happy,” Eric Jackson, a project manager with Vecellio and Grogan Inc., said.

Next door, the future Four Seasons Hotel and Residences Jacksonville are under construction and are expected to be completed in February 2027.

The development will also include five public restaurants, bringing more dining and activity directly to the riverfront.

And just down the road, the Jacksonville Jaguars are transforming their home, with the new renovation costing $1.4 billion. It is expected to be complete by the 2028 NFL season.

But redevelopment isn’t stopping at sports and hotels.

Shipyard West Park is currently in the design phase, and it’s hoping to bring a riverfront park, giving a place for people to explore nature and Jacksonville’s history.

Just a short walk away, the Museum of Science and History is also relocating and expanding.

MOSH is expected to cost around $131 million and will become another major destination on the riverfront.

And there’s still more to come, including the redevelopment of the Metropolitan Park and other projects that city leaders hope will create one active downtown.

To keep up with ongoing construction downtown and its timelines, click here.

Gross, a former MMA fighter, runs what some call a video vigilante group called Operation 17:2 — named after the Bible verse Luke 17:2: “It would be better for him to have a millstone tied around his neck and thrown into the depths of the sea than for him to cause a little child to stumble.”

How the operation works

Gross uses decoys who create social media profiles and manipulate their image on Face App to look like a teenager.

The decoy sets up a profile on a dating app and waits for an adult to initiate contact. Once contact is made, the two will move to a texting app. Gross says that’s when the decoy will disclose they are 14 years old.

“We don’t solicit anything. We don’t initiate any conversation. They message, and we respond,” Gross said.

Gross says some adults will turn down contact once the decoy discloses they are a minor, but most don’t. The decoy will then suggest an in-person meetup. Instead of a teenager, the suspect encounters Gross.

That is what happened to Caleb Roberts, 26, in March. Gross traveled from his home base in Illinois to Palatka to confront Roberts on camera after Gross says Roberts messaged one of his decoys.

Roberts was a former youth pastor at the time of the confrontation. His father was the pastor of Victory Church in Palatka. Shortly after the video was released, his father stepped down from that role.

Roberts now faces four felony counts, including traveling to meet a minor and soliciting a child or a person believed to be a child. He is out on a $10,000 bond. His next court hearing is Sept. 10.

Law enforcement pushback

Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Director Edwin Cayenne says he understands the intent behind these operations, but he warns they create real obstacles for investigators.

“What we have to do is something called build probable cause to be able to present that to a state attorney,” Cayenne said. “What they don’t work within, a lot of times, is state law. We put guardrails in place, policy and procedures for our specially trained investigators to do the job so that when we apprehend these individuals, we can send them to prison.”

Cayenne’s position: Notify law enforcement and let trained investigators handle it.

Those concerns played out publicly in Jacksonville last year. Video vigilante Alex Rosen confronted David Binz, a previously convicted sex offender, on camera.

Officers with JSO were criticized for not arresting Binz on the spot. The next day, after conducting their own investigation, officers arrested Binz. He later pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to comply with sexual offender requirements and was sentenced to seven years in prison.

The money question

Cayenne also suggested many video vigilantes are motivated by fame and money. Gross does not deny making money from the videos, but says it is not why he does it.

“I make some money from Facebook. Not a lot. A couple grand,” Gross said. “I would do it if I made nothing.”

Gross acknowledged some in the vigilante community cross lines he will not.

“There’s guys that I know that do it for the wrong reasons. Their confrontation is slapping guys and things like that. And they get way more views than I do,” he said. “I don’t agree with their method and how they do things, but they’re catching people. So they’re preventing some kid....that could have been a real person.”

As for why he keeps going, Gross puts it plainly: “I don’t think that our kids are protected enough. People talk, and they want these things stopped, but they don’t do anything about it. I think I’m just built for jobs like this.”

The exact number of vigilante groups operating across the country is not tracked in any central database. Previous reporting suggests there may be more than 150 such groups active online.

District 1 incumbent Beverly Slough made the comments while answering a parent’s question at a recent candidate forum. In a video of the exchange circulating on social media, Slough says a PAC that supported the 2024 millage referendum had access to parents’ email addresses.

A parent, Ami Demii, said she has wanted answers since receiving an email during the 2024 campaign that included voter registration information and the referendum’s ballot language. The email did not explicitly tell recipients how to vote, but Demii said she questioned how her email address was obtained and why she felt it was a one-sided political message.

In the forum exchange, Slough told the parent, “There was a PAC that ran that campaign, that’s how those emails were sent,” prompting questions from some parents about whether private information was provided to an outside political group.

Slough responded to News4JAX by email, saying she misspoke.

“I misspoke at the event. We do not sell the contact information of our parents. I apologize for my misstatement,” Slough wrote.

The St. Johns County School District also issued a statement denying that parent information was provided to a PAC.

“We emphatically deny parents’ information was provided to a Political Action Committee,” the district said.

A district spokesperson told News4JAX that public records searches confirm parental information was never shared.

Some parents said they were unconvinced by Slough’s explanation, including Rachel Hand, who questioned how a board member with decades of experience could be mistaken about a matter involving parent privacy.

Slough’s opponent, Kevin Allen, also weighed in in the final days of the campaign. In a news release, Allen criticized the possibility of PAC involvement in school communications and Slough’s initial statement, saying he would protect parents’ privacy.

The email obtained from 2024 did not explicitly instruct parents how to vote, and it remains unclear who sent it.

Slough and Allen face voters in the District 1 School Board primary next Tuesday.

In a social media post, the restaurant said the reason for the decision is tied to heavy competition, soft consumer spending, cost inflation and its own performance.

The Surf has sat along Fletcher Avenue in Amelia Island since 1957. Future plans for the site haven’t been made clear; however, a proposal submitted to the city’s Technical Review Committee shows a site plan review for 13 home sites on the property.

Plans to close the adjacent motel haven’t been announced at this time.

Florida Highway Patrol said a pickup truck was traveling north on I-95 around 7 p.m. when it left the roadway, traveled down an embankment and onto Lem Turner Road.

The truck then struck a man who was walking on the sidewalk, according to FHP. The pedestrian died at the scene.

Witness Reanna Jackson said the crash happened right in front of her as she was driving with her son.

“I was scared. I was seconds from it,” Jackson said. “I had actually, like, really pressed down on my brakes. It was so much debris. It was so heavy...It was very terrifying.”

Jackson said the crash has stayed with both her and her son in the days since.

She said her son has had trouble sleeping and continues asking what happened to the man who was killed.

“For sure, the pedestrian,” Jackson said when asked what has stayed with her the most. “How he died. How he passed. It was literally, he just blinked. He didn’t see it coming.”

Jackson also said the crash has raised concerns for her about pedestrians who regularly walk along Lem Turner Road.

“They definitely need to put higher walls for the pedestrians, Jackson said. “Like it could have been a woman and her child walking, you know. Anything like that. Now it just feels like nobody’s safe.”

FHP said the 45-year-old pickup truck driver, who is from Fernandina Beach, suffered minor injuries.

FHP did not identify the man who died.

Troopers have not said what caused the driver to leave I-95.

The crash remains under investigation.

That’s the reality for Travis Antienowicz, who graduated from Middleburg High School a year ago and joined a paid apprenticeship with Carlton Construction soon after.

He said he started work a week after graduation and, within three months, he and his then-fiancée (now his wife) bought a house.

“I started a week after I had graduated and then three months later my wife and I … own a house,” Travis said. He is 19 years old.

Travis said he chose the trade route because college didn’t feel like the right fit.

“I kind of thought it wasn’t for me,” he said. “I’d rather learn looking at something. I’m more of a visual person, so it kind of allowed me to amplify that.”

The apprenticeship is part of a partnership between the Northeast Florida Builders Association and Clay County Schools that helps students secure paid positions with local employers.

Travis said the program has him taking classes two nights a week, and “they’ve literally paid for everything. I’ve just showed up and learned.”

Students apply classroom lessons directly on the job during the day and can earn certifications while getting paid.

Employers say programs like this help address a widespread shortage of skilled trade workers.

Matt Carlton, owner of Carlton Construction Inc., said the gap extends across multiple trades and called the need “very critical.”

Carlton, who got his start in high school building portable classrooms for the district, said hiring graduates who are ready to work removes a major hurdle for contractors.

Savannah Sterling, human resources manager for Carlton Construction, said since the company partners with the Clay County School District, CCI is able to meet students through events such as mock interviews.

“Last summer we had a huge success in the graduation class from our local school districts. We brought on five new employees,” she said, noting that many graduates are ready to start work the Monday after graduation.

Travis said the work is hard and often done in the heat, but seeing a finished project gives him a sense of satisfaction.

“It’s rewarding at the end of the day being able to step back and look at what you’ve done with your hands,” he said.

Judge London Kite said someone who asked to remain anonymous called the court to say that Juror No. 110 had been bragging at work about being on the Jared Bridegan case and was looking up details about the case.

Kite had previously explained to the potential jurors that they could not look up anything about the case or talk about it with anyone.

The judge offered to question the juror about the accusations, but both the defense and prosecution opted to just excuse her for cause and move on with the remaining jurors who returned for Phase 2.

Three of the jurors never showed up, and the rest were sworn in at 10:35 am.

Assistant State Attorney Alan Mizrahi spent the morning and afternoon sessions asking deeper questions of the remaining jurors, focusing on their personal backgrounds, any experiences they’ve had with police or the courts, personal beliefs that might be considered controversial, and any issues that might affect their ability to be impartial.

He also asked if they’d ever had to fire an employee, if they or a family member or friend had experienced a bitter divorce involving children, and whether they understand the difference between free speech and someone asking them to commit a crime.

As part of the preparation for trial, Kite previously ordered that the seated jurors’ names be kept anonymous until 60 days after the trial, which is typical in high-profile cases. The jurors are being referred to only by their numbers during questioning to protect their identities.

Mizrahi finished around 3 p.m., and Kite dismissed most of the jurors until Thursday morning, when the defense will begin asking its questions, as both sides select the panel that will hear the case against Fernandez.

A handful of jurors were questioned separately because of specific concerns they wanted to raise with the court, including one juror who ended up being dismissed for financial hardship reasons.

Fernandez, along with his now-estranged wife, Shanna Gardner, is accused of hiring Henry Tenon, a former tenant of Fernandez, to shoot and kill Bridegan in Jacksonville Beach in February 2022.

Bridegan, a 33-year-old father of four, was Gardner’s ex-husband. They were in ongoing custody disputes over their twin children.

RELATED | Who was Jared Bridegan? A father, a creative builder, a believer — and so much more

Gardner, Fernandez and Tenon are all under indictment for first-degree murder and other charges and have each pleaded not guilty.

Fernandez is the first of the three to go on trial, and jury selection began on Monday as the court weeded through the first batch of 100 potential jurors.

Of that group, 49 were retained.

Another 50 possible jurors were brought in on Tuesday morning, and 32 of them were retained, giving attorneys a pool of 82 potential jurors moving on to Phase 2, beginning Wednesday.

Along with individual conversations with Judge London Kite about potential hardships or knowledge about the case or the people involved, juror candidates were asked to fill out a questionnaire to narrow the jury pool.

Despite initially being indicted on four charges, Fernandez will now be tried only on first-degree murder and solicitation to commit a capital felony in the case that has garnered national attention.

Prosecutors announced during a recent hearing that the other two charges Fernandez had been indicted on -- conspiracy to commit murder and child abuse -- had been dropped.

NEW INFORMATION: Prosecutor drops bombshell in Jared Bridegan murder-for-hire case: Accused gunman was not alone on night of shooting | RELATED: Defense attorneys for Mario Fernandez briefly discussed plea deal with state in Jared Bridegan murder-for-hire case

After originally planning to try Gardner and Fernandez at the same time, defense attorneys and state prosecutors have since agreed that they should face separate trials, with two separate jury selection periods.

Fernandez will go on trial first, with jury selection slated to continue through Friday. His trial is scheduled for Aug. 17-28.

Gardner will go on trial after Fernandez, with jury selection from Aug. 31-Sept. 4, and the trial from Sept. 8-25.

Tenon will go on trial in March 2027.

In 2023, Tenon pleaded guilty and admitted to being the gunman who killed Bridegan, but he has since backtracked, and a judge granted his motion to withdraw his guilty plea and go to trial.

Prosecution bombshell

While arguing a motion at a recent hearing, Assistant State Attorney Alan Mizrahi revealed information about the case that was new to the public.

Speaking for the prosecution, Mizrahi said the state has evidence that multiple people were involved in the ambush shooting that killed Bridegan in February 2022 in Jacksonville Beach.

Previously, the state had only said that Tenon, the alleged hired gunman, was at the scene and fired the fatal shots after leaving a tire in the road to force Bridegan to get out of his SUV.

Now, the state has indicated that Tenon was not alone at the shooting scene.

“When the victim was killed, there is a person that fled on foot and a person that fled in a vehicle. We know that Henry Tenon left his DNA behind on that tire. And we know that Henry Tenon was not driving the pick-up truck that fled the scene,” Mizrahi said, arguing that this was proof of a deeper conspiracy in the case.

It’s unclear if the state is implying that Fernandez was driving the truck that night or if it was someone else.

“If we go back to the time that Jared Bridegan was murdered, we know there were so many questions about who could’ve done this,” Schott said. “We know there are months and months and probably pages of data that the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office was able to gather about why and how Jared Bridegan was murdered.”

During the hearing, Mizrahi pointed to the landlord-tenant relationship between Fernandez and Tenon as evidence that the two were connected, but said the state also has evidence of communications between the two in the days, weeks and “on the day of the particular crime.”

Timeline: How we got here

More than four years ago, Jared Bridegan dropped his then-9-year-old twin children off at the home of his ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, after a “date night” with their dad.

He left Gardner’s Jacksonville Beach home on Feb. 16, 2022, with his 2-year-old daughter, Bexley, strapped in her car seat in the back of his dark-colored SUV. They were headed back to St. Augustine.

But the 33-year-old Microsoft employee never made it home.

Following his normal route through the Sanctuary neighborhood, Bridegan suddenly had to stop in the area of Jacksonville Drive, America Avenue and Sanctuary Boulevard.

A tire was in the road.

When Bridegan stepped out of his SUV, he was ambushed by gunfire. At least one bullet missed Bexley by mere inches in her car seat.

RELATED | Murder-for-hire plot included practice run along Jared Bridegan’s normal route home: prosecutors

Bridegan was left lying in the street next to the SUV with the door wide open, and the shooter seemed to melt into the shadows just as quickly as he had launched his ambush attack.

None of the 911 callers that night mentioned seeing a shooter or a vehicle leaving the scene.

The state has since said that the shooter ran off on foot and someone else drove away from the scene in a pick-up truck.

Prosecutors also said they have Tenon’s DNA on the tire that was left in the road.

LISTEN: Press play below to hear 911 calls from night of Jared Bridegan’s murder (WARNING: May include graphic content)

Eventually, detectives tracked down the man they say pulled the trigger.

Investigators say that it was all part of a murder-for-hire plot set in motion by Gardner and her second husband, Mario Fernandez. It was a conspiracy that began in November of 2021, according to court documents.

Interactive Timeline

Alleged murder-for-hire scheme

According to detectives, Gardner was tired of sharing custody of her twin children with Bridegan.

Fernandez, she knew, could “take care of him” because of his military background, Gardner told a friend. At least that’s what the friend told investigators as she detailed the strained marriage between Gardner and Fernandez and the contentious ongoing custody battle between Gardner and Bridegan.

RELATED: A friend of Shanna Gardner said she could help in Jared Bridegan’s murder case. Here’s what she told investigators | How investigators say they untangled conspiracy to kill Jared Bridegan

Investigators say that’s exactly what Fernandez did, hiring Henry Tenon, a tenant at one of his properties, to kill Bridegan.

In his initial interview with police in July 2022, Tenon told investigators that he had been renting a home from Fernandez in Jacksonville’s Biltmore neighborhood for several years.

Tenon’s original court records said he became involved in the conspiracy on Jan. 4, 2022 -- just over a month before Bridegan was killed.

Investigators said when Tenon was arrested on an unrelated felony driving charge in August 2022, they questioned him about Bridegan’s murder and a Ford F-150 truck they had been searching for since the shooting.

RELATED | Follow the money: Checks written to Jared Bridegan’s admitted killer connect him to 2 accused in ‘murder-for-hire plot’ | Jared Bridegan’s wife files wrongful death lawsuit against 3 accused in his murder

Tenon was later arrested in Bridegan’s murder, and investigators said the single link between Tenon and Bridegan was Fernandez.

Again, Tenon initially pleaded guilty, but has since withdrawn his guilty plea.

He is now under indictment for some of the same charges as Gardner and Fernandez.

Gardner is charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, solicitation to commit a capital felony and child abuse.

Tenon is charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, child abuse, possession of a firearm by a felon and accessory after the fact.

State prosecutors initially said they would be seeking the death penalty against Gardner and Fernandez if they were convicted, but they have since taken the death penalty off the table, with the support of Bridegan’s widow, Kirsten, and his family.

Crissy Duncan said she got a call from someone with the State Attorney’s Office just before 4 a.m. Wednesday. They asked if she knows an Asia Bennett.

“I said, ‘I’m her mother. What did she do?’ She goes, ‘No, she had a domestic dispute.’ I said, ‘Is she ok?’ They’re like, ‘No, she’s not OK. Miss Duncan, your... your daughter’s dead. Asia Bennett’s dead. She died.’”

Duncan said she is outraged by the shooting, saying her daughter was not violent or dangerous and only weighed 110 pounds.

“I would have never thought JSO would have killed my kid. She is so tiny… she’s the sweetest. You would never hear nothing from Asia,“ said Duncan. ”They killed my kid. In vain."

According to JSO, officers were called to a home on Westdale Drive near Pine Bluff Drive on Tuesday around 10:45 p.m. for a report of a battery with injuries.

Investigators said a man approached an officer as she arrived and told her he had argued with his girlfriend (Bennett), who was still inside the home and armed with a knife.

As the officer turned toward the home, JSO said, Bennett came outside carrying multiple items.

JSO said the officer told her to drop everything in her hands. The woman put some items down, but still held a large kitchen knife, according to the JSO.

JSO said the officer gave loud, verbal commands for Bennett to drop the knife, but she moved toward the officer. The officer then fired one shot, JSO said.

Bennett fell to the ground but did not drop the knife, and then tried to get up and again moved toward the officer, prompting a second shot, according to JSO.

A backup officer arrived and also gave loud, verbal commands to drop the knife.

Investigators said Bennett eventually dropped the knife, and she was taken into custody. Jacksonville Fire and Rescue treated her at the scene before she was taken to a hospital, where she died.

JSO said five other people were inside the home at the time. The boyfriend was treated for minor injuries.

This is the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office’s 13th officer-involved shooting of the year, JSO said.

The State Attorney’s Office is conducting an independent investigation, and JSO said it will conduct its own use-of-force investigation after that is complete.

Domestic violence resources

Free, confidential support is available 24/7 through Hubbard House’s Hotline at 904-354-3114 and Text line at 904-210-3698.

If you or someone you know is or has been a victim of domestic violence or abuse, here’s a list of other resources available:

• The Florida Domestic Violence Hotline, which will direct you to the nearest shelter, is 1-800-500-1119.
• The National Domestic Violence Hotline is open 24 hours a day. The number is 1-800-799-SAFE.
• The Micah’s Place (Nassau County) Domestic Violence Help Hotline is 904-225-9979.
• The Quigley House (Clay County) hotline is 904-284-0061.
• The Betty Griffin Center (St. Johns County) can be reached at 904-824-1555.

Such refuge was probably never more welcome than on the heels of this past summer.

It was just over a month ago that Kelce exchanged vows with Taylor Swift in a star-studded wedding that tied together one of the best tight ends in NFL history with the biggest pop star on the planet. At the intimate gathering in cavernous Madison Square Garden, Adam Sandler served as the surprise officiant, Stevie Nicks performed to a crowd of sports and entertainment icons, and fans lined the New York City sidewalks outside the historic venue hoping to catch a glimpse of it all.

“The wedding was the best night of my life,” Kelce said Wednesday, speaking for the first time at camp. “I appreciate everybody who came out and celebrated and had fun with us. That's about all I got for that night. It was a crazy night.”

The guest list included actors Bradley Cooper, Zoë Kravitz, Hugh Grant and Ethan Hawke; models Gigi Hadid and Karlie Kloss; comic Chris Rock; film director Steven Spielberg; and plenty of NFL players, including retired quarterback Tom Brady and several of Kelce's teammates with the Chiefs, like his best friend and quarterback, Patrick Mahomes.

The Swift-Kelce relationship began with his failed attempt at giving her a friendship bracelet at a concert. Kelce invited Swift to watch him play at Arrowhead Stadium, she took him up on the offer, and the rest of their courtship has been a celebrity fairy tale.

Right down to the nuptials at Madison Square Garden, which has always captured Kelce's imagination, and where Swift has played to plenty of sold-out shows; she also turned up there to watch the Knicks play the Spurs in the NBA Finals in June.

“I always told myself I'd go for a playoff game when the Knicks were rocking, and my wife went when I was stuck in minicamp,” Kelce said with a wry smile. “It was kind of cool to live out my childhood dream to be in that venue. I can't thank the owners of MSG enough for allowing us the opportunity to do that, knowing we wanted a private event.”

Besides the wedding, Kelce has been busy pursuing several business opportunities since the end of last season, including his decision to buy a small share of David Blitzer's stake in his hometown Cleveland Guardians.

That puts him into rivalry territory with Mahomes, who owns his own small stake in the Kansas City Royals.

Yet on the field, the quarterback and tight end continue in lockstep, and never has it been more important for them to lift each other up. Mahomes is coming off a season-ending knee injury that required surgery in December, and Kelce is trying to prove that at age 36 — he turns 37 in October — he can still get it done in a young man's game.

“I still got a lot of love for this game. I still think I can go out and play at a high level,” Kelce said. “I want to go out there and prove to myself that I can play at a better level than last year. I think that's the biggest thing for me.”

There are few things that Kelce has not accomplished over 13 seasons on an NFL field. He's won three Super Bowl rings, was voted first-team All-Pro four times, and he has been invited to the Pro Bowl each of the last 11 seasons.

He contemplated retirement prior to last year, but the fact that Kansas City had just been blown out by Philadelphia did not sit well with him. So, Kelce came back for another go-round, catching 76 passes for 851 yards and five touchdowns while playing in every game — numbers that would represent a career year for most tight ends.

The Chiefs scuffled to a 6-11 finish, though. And if Kelce wasn't going out on a Super Bowl loss, he certainly wasn't quitting after a season like that.

“The fact that we didn't make the playoffs,” he said, “I moved on pretty quick.”

He moved onto wedding planning, to be sure. But also into preparing for the upcoming season, which most believe will be his last, one way or another. Kelce was ever-present throughout the offseason, whether it was voluntary workouts or mandatory minicamp, and he has been a constant source of energy during the hot, humid practices that are the hallmark of training camp.

“This is always going to be my sanctuary. I think St. Joe has a special place in my heart,” Kelce said. “You need to have these days. You need to have this time of grinding with the guys, being around them all day, starting to create that chemistry and standard for how we are going to do things. This year it's ramped up even more.

“I think that's a big thing,” Kelce added, “just enjoy these moments with these guys I've built this culture with.”

___

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

Heidi Beirich, a political extremism expert who left the law center about six years ago, was named in an indictment unsealed Wednesday.

Beirich, 59, of Palm Springs, California, is charged with wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to submit false statements to a federally insured bank and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering. She was charged in the government’s existing case against the SPLC in Montgomery, Alabama.

In ankle cuffs and wearing a red T-shirt, Beirich made her initial court appearance for a bond hearing in Riverside, California, Wednesday afternoon. She did not enter a plea and U.S. Magistrate Judge David T. Bristow ordered her to surrender her passport and appear in court in Alabama within two weeks.

The judge released Beirich on her own recognizance after prosecutors declined to file a request for detention. Her lawyer, Michael Proctor, said in court that Beirich is a “highly, highly responsible, pro-social and trustworthy” member of society with no criminal history.

Outside the courthouse, Proctor said his client is innocent of the charges and described the case as politically motivated.

“She has dedicated her life to fighting the KKK, neo-Nazi groups, extremists. And for all of that life’s work, we’re all safer. We’re all better as a community," he told The Associated Press. “It is not just ironic, but terrible, that for this work she’s been indicted by the current Department of Justice.”

Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the new charges at a news briefing in Washington, but did not name Beirich. CNN was first to report on the charges against Beirich.

“This is exactly what we said would happen in a case like this,” Blanche said. “Our investigators and the U.S. Attorneys and the agents working the case will keep on working it even after the initial indictment.”

An SPLC spokesperson said the case against it and Beirich “will not shake our resolve.”

“Taking on violent hate and extremist groups is among the most dangerous work there is, and we believe it is also among the most important work we do," the spokesperson said in a statement. "We are confident in our position and look forward to presenting the evidence and making our case in court.”

Beirich led the SPLC’s Intelligence Project, which incurred the anger of conservatives with its annual report on organizations that it classified as hate groups. Critics accused the law center of unfairly tarnishing right-wing groups with the same label that it applied to white supremacists.

Beirich co-founded the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism in 2020 after leaving the SPLC. She has testified before Congress about far-right extremism and is frequently interviewed about the subject by news outlets. Her current organization did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment Wednesday.

A superseding indictment filed in June appears to refer to Beirich as “Employee-2” and by her former title as director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project.

The indictment alleges that between 2007 and 2023, more than $4 million in donated funds were secretly funneled to people who infiltrated or were associated with violent extremist groups. Prosecutors said some of the money was used for recruiting new members and purchasing Ku Klux Klan robes and materials for cross-burning ceremonies.

The indictment says “Employee-2” oversaw the payment of donor money to SPLC informants or “field sources," including KKK members and white nationalists who initially approached the SPLC for help leaving the extremist organizations. The SPLC employee was in a romantic relationship with a source who infiltrated a neo-Nazi group at the direction of the law center, the indictment alleges

Proctor said Beirich “won’t be silenced or intimidated by the government’s false and politicized allegations.”

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Kunzelman reported from Washington and Chandler from Montgomery, Ala. Associated Press writers Eric Tucker, Alanna Durkin Richer and Collin Binkley in Washington and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.