Discussion

At 700 PM CDT (0000 UTC), the disturbance was centered near latitude 27.6 North, longitude 97.3 West. The system is moving toward the northeast near 6 mph (9 km/h), and this general motion with an increase in forward speed is expected over the next couple of days. The disturbance should move offshore the Texas coast in a few hours, move roughly parallel to the upper Texas coast on Wednesday and move back inland in extreme eastern Texas or southwestern Louisiana late Wednesday or early Thursday.

Maximum sustained winds are near 30 mph (45 km/h) with higher gusts. The disturbance is forecast to gradually strengthen and could become a tropical storm early on Wednesday. Weakening is anticipated on Thursday after the system moves back over land. * Formation chance through 48 hours, high, 70 percent. * Formation chance through 7 days, high, 70 percent.

The estimated minimum central pressure is 1004 mb (29.65 inches).

Watches and Warnings

CHANGES WITH THIS ADVISORY:

None.

SUMMARY OF WATCHES AND WARNINGS IN EFFECT:

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for, * Sabine Pass to Morgan City

A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for, * Sargent to Sabine Pass

A Tropical Storm Warning means that tropical storm conditions are expected within the warning area, in this case within 24 hours.

A Tropical Storm Watch means that tropical storm conditions are possible within the watch area, in this case within 12-24 hours.

For storm information specific to your area, including possible inland watches and warnings, please monitor products issued by your local National Weather Service forecast office.

Land Hazards

Key messages for Potential Tropical Cyclone One can be found in the Tropical Cyclone Discussion under AWIPS header MIATCDAT1 and WMO header WTNT41 KNHC.

RAINFALL: Potential Tropical Cyclone One is expected to produce rainfall totals of 5 to 10 inches, with isolated higher totals near 20 inches, through Thursday from the Mid and Upper Texas coast east-northeast into southern and central portions of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, along with western portions of Georgia and the Florida Panhandle. This could generate dangerous to life-threatening flash flooding.

For a complete depiction of forecast rainfall associated with Potential Tropical Cyclone One, please see the National Weather Service Storm Total Rainfall Graphic available at hurricanes.gov/graphics_at1.shtml?rainqpf and the Flash Flood Risk graphic at hurricanes.gov/graphics_at1.shtml?ero

For a list of rainfall observations (and wind reports) associated this potential tropical cyclone, see the companion storm summary at WBCSCCNS1 with the WMO header ACUS44 KWBC or at the following link: www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/discussions/nfdscc1.html

WIND: Tropical storm conditions are possible within the watch area beginning early Wednesday, and are expected within the warning area beginning on Wednesday morning.

STORM SURGE: The combination of a dangerous storm surge and the tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline. The water could reach the following heights above ground somewhere in the indicated areas if the peak surge occurs at the time of high tide,

Port Bolivar, TX to Morgan City, LA, 2-4 ft

The deepest water will occur along the immediate coast near and to the east of the landfall location, where the surge will be accompanied by large and dangerous waves. Surge-related flooding depends on the relative timing of the surge and the tidal cycle, and can vary greatly over short distances. For information specific to your area, please see products issued by your local National Weather Service forecast office.

For a complete depiction of areas at risk of storm surge inundation, please see the National Weather Service Peak Storm Surge Graphic, available at hurricanes.gov/graphics_at1.shtml?peakSurge.

SURF: Swells generated by the Potential Tropical Cyclone are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions along the northwestern Gulf Coast for the next couple of days. Please consult products from your local weather office.

A depiction of rip current risk for the United States can be found at: hurricanes.gov/graphics_at1.shtml?ripCurrents

TORNADO: A tornado or two is possible tonight and tomorrow from the Upper Texas coast across southern Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.

Click through the images above to check out action from the day.

It helps that the guy doing the reading — a victim impact statement in court — is Mark Ruffalo, who is very likely to get an Emmy nomination next month for playing a former priest-turned-FBI agent seeking some kind of redemption for himself and his son who's about to be sentenced for killing his mother, Ruffalo's wife.

“I think that stuff was some of the earliest we wrote,” “Task” creator and showrunner Brad Ingelsby told The Associated Press in an interview. “It was like, 'OK, now, so that’s the emotional journey of the show and then we've got to figure out what the plot is.'”

Ingelsby, who previously took Kate Winslet on a similar journey in similar Pennsylvania terrain in 2021's “Mare of Easttown,” said the idea was “a man of faith and lost his faith in the face of this tragedy that sort of would have to have to find his way back to some belief.” The title “Task” refers both to the police team Ruffalo leads the religious responsibilities that linger in him.

For the court statement, Ingelsby read about experiences of real-life parents of children whose mental disabilities have brought domestic difficulties.

“I specifically remember reading a parent saying, ‘I hate Fridays. I hate going to school and seeing the parents pick up their kids because they’re going off to have a weekend. And for me, that’s the worst day because now I’m home with my child for two days on my own.’”

Ingelsby has been writing films for 15 years, but really hit his professional stride with “Mare of Easttown,” his first foray into television, which won Winslet and her “Delco” or Delaware County, Pennsylvania accent (think “water” as “wooder”) an acting Emmy.

The screenwriter was born and raised in the area outside Philadelphia where urban and rural intertwine both physically and culturally. He moved back around the time of “Mare,” set “Task” there and spoke to the AP from his production office there.

That means he’s been walking around in the place, and among the people, he’s writing about.

“I feel the burden of it when I’m writing things all the time. I feel like if anything, it makes me very vigilant about getting the details right,” he said. “There’s always somebody who says ‘they would never listen to that song or they would ever wear that T-shirt or they wouldn’t drink that beer.’”

He adds, “It’s important to me. I want to do right by them. Even if they don’t like the characters or the decisions of the characters, I want them to feel like we got the place right.”

“Task” was intended as a limited series like “Mare,” but in November HBO announced a second season.

That means that for the forthcoming Emmys, in a move made in recent years by “The White Lotus” and “Shogun,” it shifted from the limited categories to drama.

Along with Ruffalo, Tom Pelphrey, who played the lost-soul criminal at the center of the story, is likely to get a nomination, and “Task” could easily get a raft of others.

Ingelsby has never done a Season 2 of anything before.

“It’s still weird to me that we’re doing another season, because in my head, in many ways, the story had a clear end,” he said.

The idea came from HBO. Ingelsby entertained it simply because the collective cast and crew were such a good hang.

“It really started with just an openness to come back and just work on the show, and that really stemmed from, you know, really loving all of just the time we got to spend together,” he said.

The Season 2 cast includes two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali as a DEA agent. Martha Plimpton, who played against type but felt perfect as Ruffalo’s FBI supervisor, will be among the few returning.

“She was such a find because I just felt like we really need to have some humor in the show,” Ingelsby said, “and Martha’s able to find the humor always.”

___

This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Ingelsby.

Well, not the quarterback’s real hair.

The Jaguars are holding a Win the Wig giveaway for the hairdo worn by Lawrence during the team’s viral schedule release video last month. Entries are open until 5 p.m. on Friday.

You only get one wig! Amaze your friends ✨: https://t.co/kmL5WtT6pM pic.twitter.com/siR8ZFT40K

— Jacksonville Jaguars (@Jaguars) June 15, 2026

To tease the team’s 2026 schedule, the Jaguars put a long-haired blond wig on Lawrence and had a barber cut it short. The result was Lawrence with short hair for the first team in his college or professional career. Trevor’s wife, Marissa, even teased the shorter look on Instagram a night before the schedule release. Arik Armstead went on the show, GMFB, and said the haircut was real.

The schedule release video went viral and had fans and non-fans alike asking the same questions. Did No. 16 shear his trademark blond locks for a new look ahead of the 2026 season?

The Jaguars kept the suspense surrounding Lawrence’s hair play out for a day before announcing the truth. Yes, it was a wig. The stunt worked beautifully.

Front Office Sports posted that Jacksonville’s schedule release drew more than 4.3 million views, a total that ranked tied for fourth with the Jets. The Chargers had 13 million views, followed by the Jets (6.7 million) and Raiders (5.3 million).

The NAACP and other groups say Musk's xAI subsidiary failed to get a permit for its power plant — which is located near homes, schools and churches — creating health risks for families in North Mississippi and nearby Memphis and violating the federal Clean Air Act.

The Justice Department, in a motion late Monday, sought to intervene in the case and dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the plant is needed to power an artificial intelligence data center that is “critical to the economy” and the U.S. military.

The state of Mississippi — not the federal government — is responsible for any permits for the power plant and “decided no permit was required," the Justice Department said in a statement.

“Ultimate responsibility for enforcing federal law belongs to the Executive Branch, not private interest groups,” said Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, who is No. 3 at the Justice Department. The motion to intervene in the case is intended to protect national security and promote American energy and innovation, he added.

Trump wants to assert American leadership in AI

The Trump administration has made AI a top national and economic security priority. It has also upended policies meant to address climate change and has worked to undo environmental regulations on business.

President Donald Trump also has had close ties to Musk, who led his federal government cost-saving initiative, known as the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, early last year. Crowned the world’s first trillionaire Friday when SpaceX went public, Musk financed Trump’s presidential campaign more than any other donor and is pouring money into midterms.

The Justice Department action comes just days after SpaceX, Musk's rocket company and the parent of defendant xAI, pulled off the biggest initial offering of stock ever, partly due to the Trump administration's help supplying it with billions of dollars in federal contracts. SpaceX has a total value of more than $2 trillion, making it bigger than Exxon Mobil, Bank of America and Coca-Cola combined.

The NAACP lawsuit, filed in April, accuses xAI of running dozens of portable natural gas turbines without proper controls to limit emissions and without the permitting required by the Clean Air Act., which requires industrial polluters to obtain air permits before construction or operation.

The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday referred questions on the case to the Justice Department, saying it is not a party in the dispute.

The Justice Department action was not about national security, but instead was a “desperate attempt to protect wealthy tech companies from obeying the laws meant to protect people from pollution,” said Laura Thoms, director of enforcement for Earthjustice, an environmental law firm that represents the NAACP and Southern Environmental Law Center.

“Trump’s Justice Department wants to shield Elon Musk’s data center company, xAI, from being held accountable for its illegal pollution — and it’s attempting to grab power from impacted communities, the courts and Congress to do so,'' she said.

AI data centers are turning communities into ‘sacrifice zones,’ critics say

The data center and its pollution are “turning our communities into sacrifice zones,” Thoms added.

Abre’ Conner, the NAACP's director of environmental and climate justice, said the Clean Air Act was designed to hold polluters accountable for decisions that cause harm to communities. "This should not be up for debate, and the NAACP will continue to stand up for democracy and against federal bullying and authoritarianism,” Conner said.

The NAACP brought the complaint under a provision of the Clean Air Act that allows groups or individuals to sue in “citizen suits” to compel enforcement of the law -- a power that the Trump administration now is saying it can undo.

“This is particularly audacious because it is supposedly grounded in constitutional powers,” said Ann Carlson, a professor at the UCLA School of Law. The Justice Department is saying it “can step in and dismiss a lawsuit on any ground and all grounds.”

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican, said xAI is building a “self-generating power facility” to ensure area residents don't face rate increases from surging demand, an action he said conforms to Trump's Ratepayer Protection Pledge. Tech giants including xAI, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, OpenAI and Amazon signed the pledge in March as a backlash grew against data centers over fears about rising electricity prices and concerns about pollution and water consumption.

The NAACP lawsuit seeks to “materially slow or outright stop the largest private investment in Mississippi's history,” Reeves said in a letter included in the Justice Department filing. The overall project has created thousands of construction jobs and will create hundreds of permanent jobs once it is completed, Reeves said.

The Justice Department, in a statement Tuesday, said the Pentagon is one of many federal agencies that use AI.

"Overly burdensome regulation, including private lawsuits that seek to implement their own environmental enforcement, can threaten technological growth, American energy independence and national security,'' the statement said.

SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment. It has previously said that it is in full compliance with the law and takes its environmental responsibilities seriously.

___

Condon reported from New York.

Mbappé scored twice to move past Pelé and Lionel Messi with 14 World Cup goals, celebrating by mimicking a flautist as he had promised, and Les Bleus beat Senegal 3-1 Tuesday in their World Cup opener.

“He could have scored four or five goals, OK, theoretically, but we’re happy with two goals,” France coach Didier Deschamps said.

Mbappé had 14 touches in the scoreless first half, the fewest of any player, then put France ahead in the 66th minute. He burst past Senegal captain Kalidou Koulibaly, turned onto a diagonal pass from Michael Olise and slid the ball past goalkeeper Édouard Mendy from just outside the 6-yard box.

In a segment with Mbappé taped May 20 and aired Friday by U.S. broadcaster Fox, award-winning actor and television host James Corden suggested the 27-year-old star striker celebrate his next World Cup goal by imitating a flute player. Mbappé practiced the instrument for a year or two as a child at the behest of his parents.

“I’ll do it for you first game,” Mbappé said.

Mbappé ran toward a corner, brought both hands to his lips and air-tooted for a few seconds.

“If he wants to miss the first half again and score two goals in the second half in another match, that’s OK with me,” Deschamps said.

Bradley Barcola doubled the lead in the 82nd, two minutes after entering, and Ibrahim Mbaye cut the deficit in the fifth minute of stoppage time. Mbappé scored just 68 seconds later on a spectacular right-footed shot from 30 yards. The ball dipped perfectly between Mendy's outstretched left arm and the crossbar.

"A crazy goal,” French defender William Saliba said.

Mbappé, who led the 2022 tournament with eight goals, moved one ahead of Messi and fellow Frenchman Just Fontaine on the World Cup career scoring list. He is tied with Germany’s Gerd Müller, trailing only Brazil’s Ronaldo (15) and Germany’s Miroslav Klose (16).

“I’m sure that he will do it," Saliba said of Mbappé setting the record.

Mbappé also became France's career scoring leader with 58 goals, one more than Olivier Giroud.

“He can from time to time miss a game or two but on one action he really is able to tip the scales and bring his team to victory," Deschamps said. "People say he doesn’t defend enough. Well, he’s not here to defend."

Mbappé brushed off critics.

“It’s not about revenge," he said. “If I started playing for all the people who criticize me just to silence them, I’d have to play until I was 80.”

Trying to reach its third straight World Cup final, France plays Iraq on Monday in Philadelphia, then closes Group I on June 26 against Norway at Foxborough, Massachusetts. Senegal meets Norway on Monday at MetLife Stadium and finishes the first round against Iraq at Toronto.

With fans in Senegal denied visas by the U.S. government, supporters of the Lions of Teranga appeared limited to a few sections in MetLife's southwest corner on a sunny 77-degree Fahrenheit (25-degree Celsius) afternoon.

While most of the stadium was filled with a just-under sellout crowed of 80,545, there were empty seats in a mezzanine club level, which has air-conditioned suites behind the outdoor chairs.

Two hours before kickoff, tickets dropped to as low as $69 on FIFA’s resale site. FIFA sold tickets at $220-$620 in December.

France was outshot 5-1 in the first half. Senegal striker Nicolas Jackson’s 25th-minute shot hit a post, rebounded off the heel of goalkeeper Mike Maignan and bounced into touch.

Les Bleus then outshot their opponents 10-1 in the second half, when Olise shifted centrally from the right flank.

“If we had been more efficient, by halftime, we would have been able to lead 1- or 2-nil,” Senegal coach Pape Thiaw said.

___

AP Sports Writer Stephen Whyno contributed to this report.

___

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

He was speaking shortly after Monday's stunning 0-0 draw in Atlanta against the European champions, when he had gone from about 50,000 followers to more than 1 million. Less than 24 hours after the game, Vozinha already had nearly 10 million Instagram followers — more than NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama (6.2 million) and NFL quarterback Patrick Mahomes (6.4 million).

“Crazy, that's crazy,” Vozinha told Brazilian YouTube channel CazéTV after the match that turned him into the biggest new name of the World Cup so far. It was CazéTV, the only channel in Brazil with the rights to all 104 World Cup games, that was taking credit for the huge surge in followers.

CazéTV is anchored by the popular Brazilian streamer Casimiro Miguel, known as Cazé. The channel has more than 31 million subscribers on YouTube and is known for sports broadcasts marked by a more informal and conversational approach, with a focus on community-based fan engagement. While watching Vozinha's performance during the broadcast, Cazé realized that the goalkeeper did not have many Instagram followers and began asking his audience to start following him.

Spain, one of the World Cup favorites, was widely expected to cruise past the tournament debutants. But La Roja could not find a way past Vozinha and a stubborn defense that had an answer to everything Spain’s superstars threw at them.

“Normally we ask for subscribers,” Cazé said. “We are not going to ask for subscribers today, we are going to ask for followers. For Vozinha. He is stopping Spain. He is shocking the world. He is the standout player of the first half. Why not show him some love?”

His followers increased by a few hundred thousand shortly after that, and kept growing and growing throughout the day. Vozinha, who only began playing professionally at 25, is one of the few players 40 or older in the tournament. He made several crucial saves against Spain's powerful attack and was named the man of the match.

The result sparked celebrations in Cape Verde, the group of islands off Africa’s west coast that is home to about half a million people. Cape Verde is the third-smallest nation by population to ever qualify for the World Cup.

Working on mom’s visa

Vozinha said after the game that his mom was not able to make it to the United States to watch him play because of difficulties getting a visa.

In Washington, the U.S. State Department said it had no record of her ever applying for a visa, but that it was working on resolving the situation with Cape Verde authorities. The department said it had notified all players from World Cup countries affected by the $15,000 visa bond requirement that they and their families would be exempt from posting the bond.

“All relatives of players are eligible for visa bond waivers, and the department is actively reaching out to this player’s family to assist with visa services,” the department said.

A person familiar with the situation said that the State Department believes that Vozinha's mother did not apply for a visa because she did not hold a valid Cape Verde passport, but that she is now in the process of getting one.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential visa deliberations. A request for comment was sent to the team Tuesday afternoon. The team's next match is Sunday.

Payne's similar case

A similar case to Vozinha's virality happened last month, with New Zealand defender Tim Payne, after an Argentine influencer called on his followers to make the little-known player a “hero” of the World Cup.

El Scarso, a soccer influencer also known as Valen Scarsini, identified the 32-year-old Payne as the least-known player at the World Cup based on his small social media following.

Payne had around 4,700 followers on Instagram before being singled out by El Scarso. That number quickly rose to more than a million. He had nearly 6 million followers on Tuesday.

Push for new audiences

FIFA has made a push to engage a new generation of fans by giving younger audiences more options to access soccer’s showcase event. For the 2026 World Cup, it reached what it described as a record number of deals with broadcast partners carrying digital-only platforms, and partnered with TikTok and YouTube to allow users to see parts of matches live.

Brazil historically has been one of the countries with the most engagement on social media and digital platforms. FIFA took notice and four years ago did a type of a test run with CazéTV after Cazé's success on Twitch. He broadcast 22 matches during the 2022 Qatar World Cup, leading to a bigger deal for this year's tournament.

“Thank you,” Vozinha told CazéTV. “The Brazilians have always supported us. We felt it during our campaign to qualify for the World Cup and now we are feeling it again at the biggest stage. We are thankful for it.”

___

AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee contributed reporting from Washington.

___

AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

The Washington Monument is once again visible in the refilled pool, but Trump's vision of an azure expanse between the D.C. landmarks has been complicated by the harsh realities of chemistry and biology known to any backyard pool owner. The work has been confounded by the unique challenges posed by the scale of the structure, bigger than 10 Olympic-sized pools — which Trump has called a lake — and the source of its water: the often-fetid Tidal Basin.

Algae has plagued the site since it opened more than 100 years ago, but Trump set his sights on addressing it as part of his aggressive push to beautify Washington as the country approaches its 250th anniversary. Contracts worth at least $14.8 million have been awarded for the project, announced in April by Trump, who said he was inspired by complaints from a friend visiting from Germany who called the pool dark and disgusting.

Teams of National Park Service employees and contractors deployed chemicals and ozone nanobubbles Tuesday in a bid to keep the algae in check, not dissimilar from efforts to clean the pool before Trump's renovation kicked off.

“What do you expect?” asked Cochise Wanzer II, president of the Pool Service Company in Arlington, Virginia. “You’re basically taking natural, untreated river water, pumping it in and expecting it to do something different from what it would do out in the open.”

And the new coat of paint on the bottom of the pool has added an additional twist to ensuring the cleanliness of one of Washington's most memorable destinations: “Now that the bottom is nice and dark, it elevates the temperature and the algae grows better,” said Wanzer.

The chemicals and ozone nanobubbles — a water purification treatment used to avoid some harsh chemicals — were one part of the effort underway to clean the Reflecting Pool. Workers used a swimming pool-type vacuum cleaner to suck up algae from the bottom, leaving behind clean patches of American Flag Blue paint adjacent to enormous swaths of green algae in a pattern familiar to anyone who has ever vacuumed a carpet before.

The park service said in a statement it is also using hydrogen peroxide, a milder treatment than chlorine and one used in spas and natural swimming pools. “There are no harmful side effects to marine life or to the environment,” it said.

As the mitigation work continued, a contractor took off his socks and shoes and rolled up his pants to his knees and proceeded to wade into the pool to place an ozone nanobubble tube as tourists and locals milled about on a sunny morning.

Rick and Ariana Pettit, a couple from Las Vegas who are road tripping in their RV across the United States, posed for photos at the iconic site of protests and marches as cleaning continued. Dressed in American flag-themed leggings and a Make America Great Again leotard, Pettit remarked to her husband, attired in an “Veteran for Trump” American flag button-up: “Look, it’s already looking more blue.”

Wanzer was blunt in his assessment of what it would take to maintain the pool as an algae-free space: “They may want to drain it, hose it all down, and start from the beginning with fresh water and treat it as the water comes in.”

The burning cross was discovered June 9 in Grant Park, where Barack Obama delivered his acceptance speech when he was elected the nation’s first Black president in 2008.

A man identifying himself as a 21-year-old college student told WMAQ-TV that he was the shirtless person in an image distributed by police when they were looking for a suspect. But police did not immediately say Tuesday if he's the person in custody. The man said he was protesting President Donald Trump and not making a racist statement.

“I did know about this historical relevance beforehand. But I didn’t know the severity, how racially motivated it may seem from what I did,” the man told the TV station. “Cause my protest has nothing to do with race, nothing to do with gender.”

Cross burnings in the U.S. have historically been seen as symbols of hate and intimidation against Black people and have often been connected to the Ku Klux Klan.

The Chicago Police Department's communications office confirmed that a person was in custody in connection with the case, but no other details were released. An email seeking comment from the prosecutor's office was sent Tuesday.

“I can’t speak to anyone’s motives. We can only speak to the impact. And the impact was devastating," Mayor Brandon Johnson, who is Black, said when asked about the cross and the man’s remarks to WMAQ.

The man interviewed by the TV station said he was protesting the “ruling class” and Christian nationalists who support Trump. He said he put a red hat on the cross to signify a MAGA hat worn by the president's allies.

The man said he doesn't consider what he did a hate crime.

“I understand why it was interpreted that way, and I apologize for that, but no, the intent was not there,” he said.

Gina Miranda Samuels, faculty director of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture at the University of Chicago, said the man seemed sincere that he was not trying to send a hateful message to Black people.

Nonetheless, she added, “it says a lot about how uninformed people can be” about certain symbols, “and that it would be acceptable to use a symbol of hatred and terror in this way.”

The Rev. Michael Pfleger, senior pastor with the local Catholic church The Faith Community of Saint Sabina, said he doesn't buy that the man went to the trouble of making the cross but didn't know it was a symbol of hate.

“Your Lawyer Schooled you well,” he said in a post on Facebook.

Officials from the church had posted on social media a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in the cross burning. ___ This story has been corrected to show that the man interviewed by WMAQ-TV said the hat on the cross was red, signifying a MAGA hat. It was not an actual MAGA hat.

Around 7:30 a.m., the woman said she was walking her dog through Jennings Forest when a man she did not know approached her and forcefully grabbed her arm, according to the Clay County Sheriff’s Office.

The woman fought back, and her dog helped scare off the suspect. She was not injured.

The sheriff’s office returned to the area to search for the suspect but only recovered the woman’s backpack. The Clay County Sheriff’s Office said it was working with the woman to create a composite sketch of the suspect.

The suspect is described as a white male in his late 40s, about 6 feet tall, with a salt-and-pepper beard with little to no mustache, scruffy hair, yellow teeth and a strong musty odor. He was last seen wearing a dark long-sleeved shirt, dark jeans and hiking boots.

“This is pretty scary, and I wanted to make sure our community is aware of what happened this morning,” Cook said during a Facebook Live on Tuesday.

Cook urged residents to remain vigilant. Anyone who was in the area and saw something suspicious is asked to contact the CCSO at 904-264-6512 or submit a tip through the SaferWatch app.

During a news conference Tuesday, Minnesota U.S. Attorney Daniel N. Rosen said the defendants “violently opposed the enforcement of federal law” by setting up blockades around government buildings, throwing chunks of ice at federal vehicles and “stalking” agents as they moved through Minneapolis.

He said the defendants were part of two groups that he characterized as “antifa,” an umbrella term for a diffuse movement of militant left-wing activists.

Defense attorney Kevin Riach said his client, Isaac Sant, had no affiliation with antifa, which he called “a boogeyman invented by the far-right.”

“The purpose is to intimidate people who came out to observe and protest ICE’s numerous violations of the law,” Riach added. “It’s an affront to the First Amendment.”

President Donald Trump declared last September that he would label “antifa” a domestic terrorist group, urging federal agencies to “investigate, disrupt and dismantle” its members and affiliates.

In March, eight people accused of having ties to antifa were convicted on terrorism charges in a Texas shooting, a first of its kind case that raised concerns among some civil liberties groups.

Asked about the Justice Department’s definition of “antifa,” Rosen said the question was “beyond the scope” of the indictment, but noted that several defendants had self-identified with the term.

The 15 people charged Tuesday were part of “Direct Action Minnesota,” a left-wing coalition of protest groups that trains its members in the “surveillance, operational planning and rapid mobilization against law enforcement,” Rosen said.

The alleged conspiracy began in January, shortly after the Trump administration launched its sweeping immigration crackdown, dubbed Operation Metro Surge, in response to reports of fraud within Minnesota’s Somali community.

The operation — described by the Department of Homeland Security as the largest in its history — brought thousands of federal agents, who often wore masks and traveled in unmarked SUVs, into the Twin Cities and surrounding areas.

Their arrival drew fierce protests from Minnesota residents, who quickly set up a sprawling network of anonymous Signal chats to track the movement of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Protesters then used whistles and car horns to draw attention to detentions as they were happening.

The indictment cites Signal communications between some defendants, who allegedly discussed setting up trailers to block federal vehicles and handing out plastic shields to demonstrators. Rosen declined to say whether any federal agents were injured as a result.

One of the defendants, Kyle Wagner, 37, was previously arrested on charges that he made online threats against ICE officers and their supporters. An attorney listed for Wagner in that case did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Each of the defendants was charged with conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer, which carries a maximum sentence of six years in prison. Three others faced additional charges, including interstate stalking, assault on a federal officer and destruction of government property.

Riach said his client and several other defendants made their initial appearance in federal court in St. Paul on Tuesday afternoon and were released without bail.

Outside the courthouse, dozens of protesters clashed with federal agents, who at one point deployed pepper spray to push the crowd away from the door.

Federal prosecutors said Operation Metro Surge resulted in more than 4,000 arrests.

The administration framed the operation as a response to a burgeoning federal investigation into billions of dollars in fraud within Minnesota programs tied to Medicaid. Dozens of Somali immigrants have been convicted or implicated. Trump has called the state’s Somali population “garbage.”

Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey sought to defend the Somali population and condemned Trump for sending federal officers where they weren’t needed or wanted.

In the months since, federal authorities have sought to prosecute protesters they blame for violence, while state and local Minnesota officials have pursued assault charges against at least two federal officers. The agents who fatally shot two protesters, Alex Pretti and Renee Good, have not been charged.

Walz and Ellison did not immediately respond to email messages Tuesday seeking comment on the federal indictment.

Mbappé scored his 13th and 14th World Cup goals on Tuesday in France's 3-1 tournament-opening victory against Senegal. Those were his 57th and 58th playing internationally, tying and passing Oliver Giroud for the most in the country's rich history.

“I play to make history with my country and help my team win the World Cup," Mbappé said in French, adding that he was thinking of his family, friends and loved ones when he scored.

Mbappé first scored in the 66th minute after having several quality scoring chances denied by goalkeeper Édouard Mendy, including earlier in the second half. He scored again from long range in the sixth minute of stoppage time, mere seconds after Senegal got its first goal.

“It was crazy," France defender William Saliba said. "We just conceded the first goal for Senegal, and just one minute after, we score a banger. I was so happy. Yeah, a crazy goal.”

Mbappé's first goal broke a tie with Pelé and his second with Messi and countryman Just Fontaine. He celebrated by mimicking playing a flute, after comedian James Corden suggested that on his Fox show.

After scoring his second of the afternoon, the 27-year-old playing in his third World Cup is now tied with Germany’s Gerd Müller, one behind Brazil’s Ronaldo and two away from matching the record of 16 held by Germany’s Miroslav Klose.

“Of course I think he has everything to beat the World Cup (record)," Saliba said. "I hope he is going to do it in this tournament because for sure he has everything, and I’m sure that he will do it.”

France coach Didier Deschamps liked what he saw from Mbappé even before putting the ball in the net.

“Before he scored the first two goals today, as a captain and outside of the field he does a lot for the group,” Deschamps said through an interpreter. “He’s got a global aura due to his real talent. He’s a very decisive player at all times.”

Deschamps called Mbappé an iconic player, while acknowledging there will always be criticism. That does not seem to be a problem for a player coming off scoring 25 goals this past season for Real Madrid.

“The critics? It’s not about revenge," Mbappé said. “If I started playing for all the people who criticize me just to silence them, I’d have to play until I was 80.”

Mbappé helped France win the World Cup title in 2018 and reach the final in 2022, when he was awarded the Silver Ball as the second-best player. Joined up front by Désiré Doué and reigning Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembélé, France went into this year’s tournament as the co-favorite along with Spain.

Mbappé had little trouble finding room between Senegal defenders several times in the first 14 or so minutes. But he was sloppy with the ball for much of the rest of the first half before he and his teammates started to mesh.

Then the goals materialized, a good sign for France given the lofty expectations. Mbappé will be counted on to keep scoring to contend to win the World Cup.

“For him, it’s a good thing to achieve this thing to be the best scorer of the French national team,” teammate Adrien Rabiot said. "Great achievement. We are happy for him. And I hope he will continue like this for the tournament.”

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AP Sports Writer Eric Nunez contributed to this report.

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AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/fifa-world-cup

The 41-year-old Ronaldo has scored in each tournament dating to 2006.

His debut comes one day after Lionel Messi opened his sixth World Cup for Argentina.

Messi had 13 goals on 105 shots entering this World Cup, and Ronaldo had eight goals on 103 shots. However, Ronaldo has scored in all five previous World Cup appearances, while Messi failed to find the net in 2010.

“Well, I wish him the best — I hope that he scores but not against us," Congo coach Sébastien Desabre said.

Ronaldo's focus has been on his team's success.

“We go match by match, but not with the expectations of winning it all,” Ronaldo told reporters in Portugal last week before the team’s departure. “It has to be step by step. A good start is the most important thing,”

Some Portugal supporters question whether the aging star will be a help or a detriment to the team.

After scoring just once in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Ronaldo was upset after he subbed off against South Korea and benched for the club's first knockout-stage match against Switzerland. He also failed to score in the 2024 European Championship — the first time that has happened at a major international tournament.

But Ronaldo has also shown signs of his old productivity.

He scored eight goals during Portugal’s 2025 UEFA Nations League title, including an equalizer in the final against Spain. And, he recently won his first Saudi Pro League title with Al-Nassr, scoring a club-high 28 goals.

What to watch on June 17

— Portugal vs. Congo, 1 p.m. EDT in Houston (Fox/Telemundo/Peacock)

— England vs. Croatia, 4 p.m. EDT in Arlington, Texas (FS1/Telemundo/Peacock)

— Ghana vs. Panama, 7 p.m. EDT in Toronto (FS1/Telemundo/Peacock)

— Uzbekistan vs. Colombia, 10 p.m. EDT in Mexico City (FS1/Telemundo/Peacock)

Kane, England seek strong World Cup start vs. Croatia

Harry Kane, one of the world’s dominant goal scorers, leads England into its first match against Croatia with the Three Lions seeking their first World Cup title since 1966, when they won on home soil.

Kane has been a force over the past year with 61 goals in 51 matches for Bayern Munich across all competitions. The 32-year-old striker has eight goals in two previous World Cups and won the Golden Boot in 2018 by scoring six times in Russia.

But he didn’t score in England’s semifinal loss to Croatia in 2018. In 2022, he missed a penalty late against France in a 2-1 semifinal loss in Qatar when he sent the ball over the crossbar.

Kane’s eight World Cup goals are two shy of Gary Lineker's England record.

Ghana to be without Partey for opener after appeal denied

Ghana will play its opening match against Panama without midfielder Thomas Partey after a Canadian judge on Tuesday rejected a bid to allow him into the country as he awaits trial on rape charges.

Partey's visa application was denied last week.

He will remain in the United States while his teammates play in Toronto on Wednesday. He will be eligible to play in Ghana’s next two matches — both in the U.S.

Ghana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs had criticized the visa denial, calling it a “high-handed and extremely unfair decision.” Its appeal was heard by the court earlier Tuesday.

Partay is awaiting trial in Britain while facing allegations from several women dating to his time playing for Arsenal from 2020-25. He has pleaded not guilty.

England's Livramento will miss tournament with injury

England fullback Tino Livramento was ruled out of the World Cup on Tuesday because of a calf injury, forcing coach Thomas Tuchel into a late squad change ahead of his team’s opener against Croatia.

Chelsea defender Trevoh Chalobah was called up as a replacement and due to head to the England training camp in Kansas City. Livramento was injured during training on Sunday.

“A subsequent scan and medical assessment on Monday unfortunately confirmed he could play no further part in England’s tournament,” it said in a statement.

Uzbekistan ready to make World Cup debut

Uzbekistan will mark the biggest moment in the country's soccer history on Wednesday when it participates in its first World Cup, facing Colombia.

Coached by Fabio Cannavaro, Italy’s 2006 World Cup-winning captain and a former Ballon d’Or winner, Uzbekistan finished second in Asian qualifying to earn its way into the expanded 48-team field.

Colombia is back in the World Cup after failing to qualify in 2022.

More World Cup news

— France striker Kylian Mbappé scores 13th and 14th World Cup goals, moving into tie for 3rd all time

— US official says Iran knew team would have to leave shortly after match

— Social media star Tim Payne leaves New Zealand for Paraguay’s Olimpia

— Tunisia fires coach Sabri Lamouchi after 1 match at the World Cup and appoints Herve Renard

— US forward Christian Pulisic practices on his own in calf injury rehab, team says he is ‘day to day’

— This Sweden defender at the World Cup isn’t your typical soccer player: He’s a baron!

— Highlights from Day 6 in photos

Stats of the day

England has struggled against European opposition at the global showcase, losing six of its last eight matches. Its overall record versus UEFA teams at the World Cup includes 14 wins, 12 losses and 13 ties.

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AP Sports Writers Jim Vertuno and Kristie Rieken contributed to this report.

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AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

Trump has been at the center of this year’s midterm campaigns, and his influence will be tested in different ways Tuesday as four states and the District of Columbia hold primaries.

Among Democrats, the primaries will hinge on longstanding divides between progressives and moderates as the party tries to chart the best path forward to November.

Here's the latest:

Polls have closed in Georgia

In-person Election Day voting concluded in Georgia at 7 p.m. ET.

Comparable past elections can offer clues about when to expect the first vote results and how long the vote count might take.

In the May 19 Republican primary for governor, the AP first reported results at 7:13 p.m. ET, or 13 minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 3:13 a.m. ET, with more than 99.9% of total votes counted.

Personal relationships with candidates color Georgia voters’ choices

At a polling place in Griffin, some Republican voters relied on their personal knowledge of candidates when making their selections.

Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who’s running for governor, and U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, who’s running for U.S. Senate, both grew up in Jackson, about 20 miles away.

Joann Colwell-Kinard, 82, said she voted for both Jones and Collins, having known their families for more than 50 years and believing them to be “good, honest people.”

“I just think he’s a very honest person and I think he’ll do a good job,” she said of Jones.

Stephen Tobias, 63, said he voted for former football coach Derek Dooley for Senate, saying he didn’t like Collins. He also backed Rick Jackson over Burt Jones for governor because he doesn’t like data centers.

“They’re putting a data center right in my backyard, so I’m not really a happy camper,” Tobias said.

DC election officials say results may not be known for days

Voters in the District of Columbia will be using ranked choice voting for the first time since they approved the switch in 2024. Ranked choice voting allows voters to choose multiple candidates, ranking them in order.

Election officials have cautioned that the new system, combined with the number of mail in ballots that come in on Election Day, could mean slower results in some races.

Monica Evans, executive director of the D.C. Board of Elections, said results from in person ballots and those cast early will be counted and posted, along with any mail in ballots already received and processed.

“What you will not see election night will be any mail ballots we receive on Election Day,” she said, noting that can be as 30,000 to 40,000 ballots.

In the worst case scenario, the first tabulations of the ranked choice ballots could be Sunday, she said.

Democrats face tough odds to win Alabama US Senate seat

Attorney Everett Wess and business owner Dakarai Larriett are seeking the Democratic nomination for the state’s open Senate seat.

The winner of Tuesday’s runoff will face long odds in November.

Republicans have held the seat for nearly 30 years, with the exception of the three years when it was held by Democrat Doug Jones.

Republicans also hold all statewide offices in Alabama. But Democrats believe frustration with inflation and other issues could give them an opening this year in the deep red state.

The winner will face the Republican nominee in November for the seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who is running for governor.

Longtime DC delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton is retiring

It’s the first time in decades that the Democrat’s name isn’t on the ballot for D.C. delegate.

Norton, 89, is finishing her 18th term as the district’s nonvoting delegate in the U.S. House and is the chamber’s oldest member.

She faced heavy pressure to stand down by critics who said she wasn’t pushing back hard enough against the Trump administration’s intervention into her city.

Norton was a personal friend to civil rights icons such as Medgar Evers and a contemporary of other activists-turned-congressional stalwarts, including Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina and the late Democratic Rep. John Lewis of Georgia.

Council members Brooke Pinto and Robert White Jr. are the top candidates vying for the role.

The top candidates for DC mayor vow to push back on Trump

The two front-runners, D.C. Council member Janeese Lewis George and former member Kenyan McDuffie, both say outgoing Mayor Muriel Bowser should have been less cooperative with federal authorities as they targeted the city’s immigrant communities.

Both candidates also said they would bolster the city’s legal defenses against federal overreach.

Lewis George, a self-described democratic socialist, told The Associated Press that her top priority is addressing “the affordability crisis here in D.C.,” which she said was made worse by the Trump administration “firing federal employees en masse and militarizing our streets.”

McDuffie said his top priority is public safety as crime continues to be an issue. He has said he would add 1,000 police officers over four years, fully staff the 911 call center after years of chronic staffing shortages and take a public health approach to violence reduction.

A presidential threat again hangs over the ballot in DC

Washington voters are headed to the polls as the president is once again threatening to take over the capital — but this time because of his opposition to mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George.

In the past, Trump’s threats have been about crime and cleanliness. His refrain from his campaign to inauguration was the city as a “dirty, crime-ridden death trap.”

He briefly seemed to back off, saying aboard Air Force One that he and Mayor Muriel Bowser “get along great.” But by last August, he was declaring a public safety emergency.

“We’re going to take our capital back,” Trump said.

The National Guard was brought in and remains today. Trump has touted his actions as the reason for historic drops in crime.

Alabama ballot features heated runoffs for statewide offices

Alabama’s primary runoffs Tuesday include heated contests for lieutenant governor and attorney general.

For lieutenant governor, Secretary of State Wes Allen and former Alabama Republican Party Chairman John Wahl are battling for the GOP nomination.

As a state lawmaker, Allen sponsored legislation to ban curbside voting and to criminalize gender transition treatments for minors. The state library board, which Wahl leads, voted to remove books about being transgender from the youth sections of public libraries.

Th lieutenant governor presides over the Alabama Senate and takes over as governor if the governor dies or resigns, but the position has limited power. The winner will face Democrat Phillip Ensler in November.

For the GOP nomination for attorney general, former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Jay Mitchell faces Katherine Robertson, who is chief counsel to current Attorney General Steve Marshall.

Mitchell has emphasized his courtroom experience, while Robertson has emphasized her work in the attorney general’s office. The winner will face Democrat Jeff McLaughlin in November.

Georgia’s governor primary pits Trump’s endorsement against a lot of money

The president’s preferred primary candidates have a strong record so far in 2026. But none have faced a self-funded rival with Rick Jackson’s spending power.

Trump has backed Burt Jones, who, as lieutenant governor, was part of Trump’s attempt to overturn his 2020 defeat to Joe Biden, and the president has repeatedly praised Jones’ loyalty.

Jackson has chipped in more than $93 million of his own money to win the nomination. The 71-year-old businessman amassed a fortune from his company that provides contract healthcare personnel, and he’s used it to blanket television and online platforms with ads.

Trump and the National Guard are on DC voters’ minds

President Trump and the continuing presence of military uniforms in the city were among central themes for voters casting ballots in the Washington, D.C., primary.

Fran Tatu, 69, said she voted for Janeese Lewis George. “Many years she’s been in the streets with us activating, getting out there, with us in the movements standing up for the rights for all.”

Tatu said she also supported current council member Robert White Jr., in his contest to replace longtime non-voting delegate to Congress Eleanor Holmes Norton.

“What’s at stake — many young lives with the surge of federal officers by Trump and all of the troops that are here,” she said, citing one instance where Immigration and Customs Enforcement was detaining riders getting off public transportation. “We called Janeese and she showed up in her purple coat to check on her constituents,” she said.

Republicans fielding largest candidate slate in Washington, DC, since 1992

Although voters in the District of Columbia are overwhelmingly Democrats, the local GOP is fielding its largest group of candidates in more than 30 years.

Those candidates include Manuel Rivera, who's the first Republican ever to seek the Attorney General seat. He's running unopposed in the primary.

Republicans are also running for chair of the D.C. Council and Council members for Wards 1, 5, 6 and at-large, Member of the Council for Wards 1, 5, and 6, and Delegate to Congress, where Denise Rosado is running unopposed and will advance to the general election.

As of May 31, there were about 481,000 registered voters in Washington. More than three-quarters of them, about 363,000, were registered Democrats. Roughly 25,000, or 5%, were registered Republicans and about 18%, or roughly 86,000, were not affiliated with any party.

Georgia GOP chairman says Republicans will be united Wednesday morning

Josh McKoon knows there are differing opinions and a web of endorsements flying around the Georgia Republican Party. Most notably, the outgoing governor, Brian Kemp, and the president are on opposite sides in the Senate.

But they’re now aligned in the race for Kemp’s successor.

“We’ve heard this narrative for so long about Donald Trump Republicans and Brian Kemp Republicans,” McKoon said. But their mutual support for Burt Jones “speaks to the ability of Republicans to come together ahead of a general election.”

McKoon acknowledged Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff and gubernatorial nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms have had a head start. They had no runoffs. But McKoon said Wednesday morning will be a “fresh start.”

Still, in the Senate race, either Derek Dooley or Mike Collins will face a big financial gap. Earlier this spring, Ossoff had $32.5 million on hand. Each Republican had less than $2 million.

These are the Republicans vying to serve out Swalwell’s term

Wendy Huang is a real estate investor with past experience working in Silicon Valley, a background she’s touted while emphasizing that artificial intelligence will be a defining part of the economy. She’s focused on reducing the cost of housing and prescription drugs.

Dena Maldonado, who runs a floral business, says she wants to stop insider trading in Congress, protect the Second Amendment, install term limits and to stop “endless wars.” She has framed her decision to run around bringing transparency to what happens in the nation’s capital and how taxpayer dollars are spent.

The top-two primary is nonpartisan. Any Republican making it through to the special general election will have a tough time pulling out a win in a seat that has been safely Democratic.

These are the Democrats running to serve out Swalwell’s term

Eleven candidates are running in the special primary, which sends the top two voter-getters to a special general election regardless of party affiliation.

Democratic state Sen. Aisha Wahab has focused on housing costs and consumer protections such as banning junk fees. She's endorsed by the state Democratic Party and has leaned into her story of living through foster care and adoption in California.

Another Democratic candidate is Melissa Hernandez, a former mayor of the East Bay city of Dublin, who says she’ll tackle high costs by supporting small businesses and helping create jobs. She’s also emphasized expanding access to healthcare and childcare.

Both candidates also ran in the regular primary election seeking the full two-year term to the House seat.

In Georgia, two original tea party organizers take different sides

Jenny Beth Martin and Debbie Dooley were on the front lines of the early tea party movement during Barack Obama’s presidency.

In Georgia’s GOP Senate runoff, they’re on different sides. Each insists her candidate is the one to defeat Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in the fall.

Martin backs Rep. Mike Collins, a self-declared “MAGA warrior” with Trump’s endorsement. Dooley supports first-time candidate Derek Dooley (no relation).

Martin says energizing the conservative base is necessary to protect Republican majorities that aren’t populated with Republican “anti-Trumpers” or “liberals like Jon Ossoff.”

Debbie Dooley says Collins has too much baggage and hard-right ties to win. “He will drag down the whole Republican ticket in Georgia,” she predicted. “This is about actually winning. It’s not about just following Donald Trump.”

Debbie Dooley and Martin have diverged before. In 2016, Dooley backed Trump from the start. Martin backed Ted Cruz for the GOP nomination.

GOP candidates for Alabama Senate seat feud over military service

The closing days of the Senate runoff between U.S. Rep. Barry Moore and former Navy SEAL Jared Hudson have been marked by a heated back-and-forth over military service.

Some of Hudson’s supporters have accused Moore, a three-term congressman, of inflating his military record.

Moore served in the Alabama National Guard and U.S Army Reserves, and has often emphasized his veteran status. He ran an ad in 2020 saying he knows how to support veterans because he’s been in combat boots.

In a recent video, Moore called it a “garbage swamp tactic” to suggest Guardsmen and reservists aren’t veterans. He said he never claimed to have been in combat.

The two are seeking the Senate seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who's running for governor.

Trump’s status as GOP kingmaker faces another test in Oklahoma

Trump’s early backing of Republican Rep. Kevin Hern for the U.S. Senate seat previously held by Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin kept other potential big challengers at bay in Oklahoma, which hasn’t elected a Democratic senator since 1990.

A bigger test may come in the crowded race to succeed outgoing Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt.

Trump last month endorsed former state Sen. Mike Mazzei. Other prominent Oklahoma Republicans seeking the nomination include Attorney General Gentner Drummond, former Oklahoma House Speaker Charles McCall and Chip Keating, the state’s former public safety director.

District of Columbia’s mayor shows up to vote

District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser greeted supporters as she arrived to cast her primary vote at Shepard Park Elementary on Tuesday morning.

This fall, current council members Janeese Lewis George and Kenyan McDuffie are the front-runners vying to replace Bowser, who was elected in 2014.

Runoffs for Georgia elections chief carry 2028 undertones

Georgia’s secretary of state election is open for the first time since Trump’s attempts to subvert the 2020 election, famously pressuring outgoing Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,800 votes” to overtake Democrat Joe Biden. Raffensperger refused.

For his potential successor, Republicans are left to choose between an outright election denier, Vernon Jones, and a state lawmaker, Tim Fleming, who avoids explicitly disputing the president’s 2020 election lies.

Democrats will choose between Dana Barrett, a Fulton County commissioner, and Penny Brown Reynolds, a former state judge in Fulton County who also served in the Biden administration as deputy assistant secretary for civil rights for the Department of Agriculture.

In Georgia Senate race, Collins supporter likes his immigration stance

Retired software engineer James Haddad emigrated from Jordan and became a U.S. citizen in 1983. He backs Rep. Mike Collins in Georgia’s GOP Senate runoff because of Collins’ hard-line approach on immigration.

“I’m an immigrant, but I’m a legal immigrant,” Haddad said. “Just follow the law.”

Collins hopes to defeat former football coach Derek Dooley and then draw contrasts on immigration with Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in November.

“The congressman is a good American who puts America first,” said Haddad, a 66-year-old from Woodstock.

Collins sponsored the 2025 Laken Riley Act, named for a Georgia nursing student killed by a man in the U.S. illegally. The law requires immigrants charged with certain crimes to be held without bond.

Ossoff voted against an initial version but backed it after Trump returned to power.

“It’s unfortunate that some immigrants have ruined it for others,” Haddad said.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is playing an insider-outsider game

The outgoing Republican governor passed on a Senate bid and recruited his former football coach Derek Dooley. Kemp’s spent months saying it’ll take an “outsider” to defeat Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in November.

Meanwhile, until Sunday, Kemp sat out the Republican tussle to be his successor. That runoff pits the sitting lieutenant governor against a first-time candidate. Rick Jackson, a billionaire businessman, labels himself an “outsider” in his ads and plastered the word on his campaign tour bus.

Yet Kemp opted for Burt Jones, the Capitol insider. Campaigning with Jones on Monday, Kemp said there’s no contradiction in his message.

His reasoning, essentially: Georgia state government has been run by Republicans for a generation and things are great, whereas in Washington, where Dooley would go, Congress is often deadlocked and has atrocious approval ratings. But Kemp did not note that Republicans have a trifecta with Trump as president and GOP majorities on Capitol Hill.

Why are there 2 elections for Swalwell’s California seat?

There’s the regular race in November that will determine who'll be sworn in come January and serve a full, two-year term in the U.S. House.

But since Swalwell resigned early following sexual assault allegations, there’s also the special election that will decide who will serve out the rest of his current term until January.

Tuesday’s primary will decide the top two candidates for the special general election on August 18. But if one candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, they’ll win outright and there won’t be a general election.

Sen. Ted Cruz says he’s not trying to separate himself from Trump

The Texas senator has gotten more active on the Republican campaign circuit.

In Republican governor’s races in South Carolina and Georgia, Cruz finds himself on the opposing side from the president.

Cruz was in Georgia ahead of Tuesday’s runoff to stump for billionaire Rick Jackson. Trump backs Jackson’s rival, Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones.

In the upcoming South Carolina runoff the GOP governor nomination, Cruz backs longtime state Attorney General Alan Wilson over Trump’s pick, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette.

Cruz, who finished second in Republicans 2016 presidential nominating fight, insisted he’s not picking fights with Trump.

“Not remotely,” Cruz said Monday. He noted he and Trump have both endorsed former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu in his U.S. Senate bid.

“The president and I agree on the vast majority of races,” Cruz said. “What I try to do in every race is endorse the strongest conservative who can win.”

Rick Jackson says he’s spending his own fortune to help people

Georgia gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson choked up a bit in the closing hours of his GOP runoff campaign explaining why he’s spent nearly $100 million of his own money on the race.

Jackson called his wealth “God’s money” that he directs “the best I can.” And he compared his campaign spending to his years of philanthropy, especially to help children in foster care, where he spent part of his childhood.

“I want our kids, our foster kids and everybody else, to have hope, you know,” he told a lunch crowd Monday.

“I have lived in poverty,” Jackson continued. “When you, when you have not eaten, you never forget that you don’t forget the people that are struggling.”

It was a stark contrast to Jackson’s tone in some of his television ads, including a promise that migrants who are in Georgia illegally and commit crimes will be “deported or departed.”

Why Tuesday’s elections in Washington, DC, matter

Voters in the nation’s capital are selecting party candidates for mayor and the district’s delegate to Congress.

Mayor Muriel Bowser, who isn’t seeking reelection, has walked a fine line between staying in Trump’s good graces and responding to the concerns of constituents, many of whom said she didn’t push back hard enough on Trump’s actions.

The district’s long-serving congressional delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, is also stepping down.

The election is taking place as Washington undergoes major change under the Trump administration.

Washington has limited autonomy and federal leaders retain significant control over local affairs, including the approval of the budget and laws passed by the D.C. Council.

President Donald Trump is at the center of each contest.

In the Senate race, the president made a late endorsement of Rep. Mike Collins, a second-term congressman who calls himself a “MAGA warrior,” over Derek Dooley, a first-time candidate and former football coach who has the backing of outgoing Gov. Brian Kemp.

Trump picked his candidate for governor 10 months ago, endorsing Burt Jones, the Georgia lieutenant governor who was part of Trump’s attempt to overturn his 2020 defeat to former President Joe Biden. In that race, it was Kemp who made a late-hour endorsement, announcing his support for Jones on Sunday.

The power of Trump's endorsement — and Kemp's — is being tested by billionaire Rick Jackson, whose campaign has spent more than $100 million, mostly out of his own pocket, to win the nomination.

Polls closed at 7 p.m.

Senate contest previews a titanic fall fight

Georgia is key to the national fight for control of Capitol Hill. Ossoff, first elected in the 2020 cycle, is the only Democratic senator running in a state Trump won in 2024; Democrats desperately need to keep his seat if they hope to notch a net gain of four seats in order to have a majority.

Republicans’ choice hinges on a familiar debate over electability, with Dooley, 58, insisting his newcomer status is a benefit.

“We have got to get the best candidate to beat Jon Ossoff,” Dooley said at a campaign stop Monday. “The Republican Party has not won a Senate race in 10 years. … We have to learn some lessons from that.”

Before becoming a college and NFL coach, Dooley hailed from a storied family in Georgia sports lore. His father was legendary University of Georgia football coach Vince Dooley.

The younger Dooley also has criticized Collins for a House ethics complaint accusing the congressman of abusing taxpayer money by paying the girlfriend of a former top aide for a congressional job she allegedly did not perform. An initial inquiry yielded a referral of the matter to the House ethics committee.

Collins, the son of a congressman, celebrated his endorsement from Trump. But he argues that his record actually makes for the best contrast with Ossoff, especially on immigration, and can attract a broader coalition.

“We’ve got a great organization with the right voting record and the right message,” he said.

Collins, 58, sponsored the 2025 Laken Riley Act, which requires immigrants accused of certain crimes to be held without bond. The law is named for a Georgia nursing student killed in 2021 by a man who had entered the U.S. illegally. Ossoff voted against the measure before flipping to back it after Trump returned to the White House.

Collins also emphasizes his ownership of a trucking company, saying it's exposed him to the struggles workers and business owners endure. “We must protect Americans first, protect our people, put them first, get the federal government off the backs of hardworking men and women out there,” he said.

Whoever wins the nomination will face an immediate campaign finance gap and depend heavily on national GOP resources. By the end of May, neither GOP hopeful had reached $5 million in fundraising and both had less than $2 million on hand. Through late April, the last time Ossoff had to file before his uncontested primary, the senator had raised $60.4 million and had $32.5 million on hand.

What voters in Georgia are saying

Voters Jenny Beth Martin and Debbie Dooley — who has no relation to Derek Dooley — were split over which Republican has the best chance of defeating Ossoff.

Martin, who supported Collins, says energizing the conservative base is necessary to protect Republican majorities that aren’t populated with Republican “anti-Trumpers” or “liberals like Jon Ossoff.”

But Debbie Dooley, who voted for Derek Dooley, said Collins has too much baggage and is too closely tied to the far-right to win.

“He will drag down the whole Republican ticket in Georgia,” she predicted. “This is about actually winning. It’s not about just following Donald Trump.”

Gubernatorial primary is a unique challenge for Trump

The president’s preferred primary candidates have a strong record so far in 2026. But none have faced a self-funded rival with Jackson’s spending power.

Jackson, a 71-year-old business owner, amassed a fortune from his company that provides contract healthcare personnel, and he's used it to blanket television and online platforms with ads. Appealing to hard core Trump supporters, he’s pledged that immigrants in Georgia illegally will be “deported or departed.” He promises a slew of tax cuts. And previewing a potential general election argument, he’s played up his biography as a product of the state foster care system and featured his grandchildren advising him on how to make friendlier ads.

Jones, 47, comes from a wealthy family but is running a more modest campaign. Framing himself as a “proven leader,” Jones proposes eliminating Georgia’s state income tax — without detailing how he’d make up the revenue. And he trumpets his presidential seal of approval and time as a University of Georgia football player in the 1990s. As lieutenant governor, Jones pushed legislation that ultimately did not pass but would have disqualified Jackson’s company from receiving taxpayer-funded contracts.

Trump did not travel to Georgia to campaign with Jones but he's given the lieutenant governor a fresh round of support on social media and called in to a telephone rally during the early voting period.

“Burt was strongly committed to my Campaign in 2016, 2020, and 2024, and worked tirelessly to help us WIN. He has been with us from the very beginning,” Trump posted on Truth Social last week.

Runoffs for elections chief could shape 2028

Georgia's secretary of state race is open for the first time since Trump’s attempts to subvert the 2020 election, famously pressuring outgoing Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,800 votes” to overtake Biden. Raffensberger refused.

For his potential successor, Republicans are left to choose between an outright election denier, Vernon Jones, and a state lawmaker, Tim Fleming, who avoids explicitly disputing the president’s 2020 election lies.

Jones, a perennial candidate who was once a Democrat, embraced Trump’s “stop the steal” movement and says he stands “with those who believe there was election fraud.” Fleming, who once served as deputy secretary of state, says there were “irregularities” in 2020, a word choice that has become code for Republicans who want neither to ratify nor call out Trump’s errant claims.

Democrats will choose between Dana Barrett, a Fulton County commissioner, and Penny Brown Reynolds, a former state judge in Fulton County who also served in the Biden administration as deputy assistant secretary for civil rights for the Department of Agriculture.

Republicans faced choices in two high-profile races, to pick the party’s nominees for U.S. Senate and Governor. In addition to those races, voters across the state saw several other state Cabinet races on their ballot. Several U.S. House primaries continued to runoffs, including the Democratic primary in southeast Georgia’s District 1.

Locally, a pair of races in Brantley County required runoffs.

Scroll down to see the results as they come in throughout the night.

The order from Kennedy, one of the nation’s most prominent critics of vaccine mandates, lockdowns and other government public health restrictions, spurred outrage from some advocates and legal scholars, who called it illegal and rooted in politics rather than public health.

Five weeks after she left the cruise ship, the passenger, Angela Perryman, is still symptom-free. She remained in quarantine as of Tuesday.

“I want to be able to walk outside and put my feet in the grass,” Perryman said in an interview. “I want to be able to feel fresh air on my face when I want to. I want to be able to see people that are not in full PPE. I don’t want to be dehumanized anymore.”

Courtney Spencer, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said the state of Florida chose not to comply with federal requirements for how tightly to monitor Perryman if she returned home. Perryman needs to be quarantined to protect both herself and her community, Spencer said.

Because symptoms of hantavirus have taken as long as 42 days to appear in previous outbreaks, the Americans at the Nebraska facility were to be monitored either there or at home for 42 days — a period set to expire at the end of the day on Sunday, June 21.

Lawrence Gostin, a public health law expert who helped shape current federal quarantine regulations, called the decision to keep Perryman in Nebraska “an egregious violation” of a U.S. citizen’s rights.

“She’s being held, deprived of her liberty,” Gostin said, adding that a broad medical consensus supports allowing her to complete quarantine at home.

Kennedy's order strays from the CDC official's recommendation

Kennedy's order keeping Perryman in Nebraska quarantine came Monday. It followed a medical review earlier this month that was overseen by Dr. Michael Bell of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an agency within Kennedy's HHS.

Bell reviewed testimony from CDC officials and an outside medical expert concerning Perryman’s challenge to an earlier order confining her to the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

Bell said federal officials insisted that anyone returning home needed daily in-person monitoring and round-the-clock surveillance by local law enforcement or public officials.

Florida officials refused those conditions — which Gostin called “overkill” and a “waste of resources” — and proposed instead that Perryman simply do once-daily temperature checks and symptom assessments.

Experts at the meeting agreed that Florida's proposal was reasonable. Bell recommended Perryman be allowed to go home, according to a June 11 report obtained by The Associated Press. Kennedy signed the quarantine order anyway.

Perryman says prolonged time in the facility is limiting

Perryman said life in the facility is like being confined in an airport hotel room. Sometimes she can go to its roof for an hour as armed guards watch. Nurses wearing gloves, masks and face shields deliver meals and take her temperature. She said it feels like a “prison.”

The 47-year-old learned that she would be required to stay in the facility until June 21 when Kennedy’s order was slipped under her door on Monday.

“I was appalled,” she said. “I was horrified that the secretary, who is not a physician, would override the doctor and violate the law just to keep me locked up.”

Perryman said she lives primarily in Ecuador but keeps a permanent home with friends in Florida. She said she wants the chance to cook her own food and spend time in more than one room, either in her home or a rental property.

Her quarantine was voluntary, until the order came

Perryman was among 18 Americans aboard the cruise ship who were evacuated to the Nebraska quarantine center on May 11. As of Tuesday, eight of the passengers were still there. The others went home earlier this month, after their states agreed to federal officials' monitoring plan. They'll be watched until June 21.

Hantaviruses usually spread when people inhale contaminated residue of rodent droppings. However, the Andes virus at the center of this outbreak, which killed three people, may spread between people in rare cases.

At first, Perryman said, a CDC official assured her the Nebraska quarantine was voluntary. At his urging, and at the urging of the facility’s medical director, she agreed to stay until May 22 to protect public health because some medical experts say most people who develop symptoms do so within the first three weeks. She was later told she couldn't leave on that date.

Perryman and one other passenger received orders from U.S. health officials requiring them to quarantine at the facility until May 31. Quarantine orders, which can be enforced with fines and prison time, are a rare legal step that can be taken if someone objects to a public health request. The initial orders were signed by the CDC’s acting director, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya.

Perryman said she was told she could leave after May 31 if Florida accepted the federal monitoring requirements. When the state declined, she was ordered to remain in Nebraska.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kennedy questioned universal government-imposed quarantines and argued that the costs of lockdowns should be debated, saying, “quarantines kill people too.”

Gostin said the recent decision clashes with Kennedy’s broader “medical freedom” message.

“This seems to me to drip with hypocrisy,” Gostin said.

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AP video journalist Shelby Lum in New York and AP writer Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, 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.

Huang has been optimistic about AI’s potential to rapidly transform society, creating faster economic growth and more scientific breakthroughs. But as the head of a computer chip company now developing AI systems, he and others are confronting a public increasingly concerned about the potential harm the technology might bring. Huang has felt obligated to respond to critics who warn of job losses and threats to humanity itself.

“We need to create new social norms,” Huang said in an interview. “I would advocate that everybody use AI. Just go engage it.”

Huang made his case as AI has emerged as a political flashpoint, with objections to plans to build more data centers and fears that the speed with which it’s being adopted could spur the layoffs of workers who might not have a safety net. Such questions have threatened public support of the technology at a time when a race has kicked off with China, a contest Huang believes can best be won by a U.S. that is open to competing globally in AI.

His close relationship with President Donald Trump also has been a source of criticism among Democrats, even as he emphasized that the computing power created by AI is vital to adding the factory jobs that have been promised for decades without much enduring success. It was an argument delivered by a 63-year-old man who has watched the technology develop and described himself as “boring” because his own life revolves mainly around work and his family.

Huang said the ability of AI to design a website, analyze complex documents, guide advanced research or even plan a kitchen remodeling has helped to close the technological divide in America. People can now do advanced work on computers without having to know how to program or write software, he added.

Huang contended that there is a need for some government regulation and safety standards for AI, emphasizing that national security also needed to be a priority for the technology that has been powering stock market gains and U.S. economic growth in recent years.

Huang said society will adapt to AI just as it did to automobiles. He said cars were once portrayed as killing children, but the world changed its norms by having sidewalks and crosswalks and stopping kids from playing in the streets.

Huang skeptical of what government ownership of AI companies would achieve

With a market capitalization of roughly $5 trillion, Nvidia has soared in valuation in recent years to become the world’s most valuable company. AI modeling companies OpenAI and Anthropic are potentially set to also clear the $1 trillion mark once their stocks are publicly traded.

That explosive surge in wealth concentrated in AI companies has prompted renewed worries about economic inequality. Trump has tried to defuse those concerns, recently musing about the prospect that the U.S. government could own some shares in AI firms, so any windfalls would be more broadly shared with the public. That idea has also been advanced by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and even OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

Huang expressed skepticism about the idea, saying he expects the country will already benefit broadly from AI advancements.

“I’m not exactly sure what they’re trying to achieve,” he said regarding government ownership. “I haven’t had a dialogue with them about that. But just remember that these are American companies. Their success benefits the stock price, of which many Americans are investors in. It generates taxes, which helps many Americans. It creates a lot of jobs.”

He noted that AI companies could also lead to higher profits for energy, construction and hardware technology firms.

“Americans have a stake in American companies already, naturally, in a whole lot of different ways,” Huang said.

Huang says national security needs to be a priority on AI

The Trump administration has recently reversed course from using a light touch on regulating AI to taking a heavier hand.

It placed export controls on the AI company Anthropic’s latest models, leading the company on Friday to shutter all public access to those models over security concerns. Trump, a Republican, also signed an order to have new AI models voluntarily screened by the government before their release.

Huang said the government was properly focused on national security issues, but it was important to provide clear guidance.

“National security should always be the top concern of all technologies,” Huang said. “But having said that, you know, you have to be very specific about the risk that you’re concerned about, before setting up policies for export controls.”

During the Biden administration, Nvidia pushed back against export controls that were designed to restrict its ability to sell chips to China, rejecting the administration’s premise that a ban would preserve an American edge on AI. Huang had warned that the export controls might limit America’s ability to develop the world’s AI ecosystem, as China would respond with its own advanced chips.

Huang says energy is key problem for America’s AI development

Huang stressed that the U.S. is vulnerable because of its deficient energy supply. The data centers performing the computations used in AI are creating a huge demand for electricity, which could be a strain on the power grid.

Some data centers will be constructed with their own electricity sources, but Huang said the U.S. is starting from a disadvantage on energy. And without more energy, it can be harder to play to American strengths in its AI infrastructure, models and computer chip development.

“The United States is woefully behind in energy production,” Huang said. “We just suffocated energy production for too long.”

Huang complimented Trump on his approach to generating more energy in the U.S.. The president has aggressively supported the use of oil, coal and natural gas, but he has scorned the use of solar and wind power.

The Nvidia CEO was not commenting on Trump's opposition to climate-friendlier energy sources. But the gap he identified goes to some of the fears that U.S. households have about AI increasing their utility bills.

Huang was speaking Tuesday in Sherman, Texas, at an expansion of the Coherent factory to develop a laser for transmitting data among chips, which could cut power use by AI systems by up to 50%.

Trump’s fondness for Huang started at a Mar-a-Lago dinner

Trump, not known for technological expertise, quickly developed a friendship with Huang. The president has called him “smart" and “amazing," insisting that Huang accompany him on foreign trips. Most recently, Trump had Air Force One pick up the leather-jacketed CEO in Alaska while en route to his state visit to China.

Their relationship started last year with an invitation to dinner at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s home and private club in Florida. Huang was in the area to receive the Edison Achievement Award for his AI work.

“He says drop by for dinner, and so I did,” Huang said. He went with his wife, Lori.

“He was incredibly engaging, incredibly charismatic, conversational, asked a lot of questions,” Huang recalled. “From the moment that I met him, the only thing that he’s ever talked to me about is creating more jobs, reindustrializing the United States, protecting national security, winning.” He added that Trump "calls me in the middle of the night and wants to talk about one of these topics.”

But his proximity to Trump has also led to criticism from Democratic lawmakers. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., objected to Huang not testifying before a Senate committee even as “he has time to attend a $1 million-a-head dinner at Mar-a-Lago."

Huang said he wants the U.S. president and other officials — regardless of party — to succeed. “We could differ with politics, but we should want him to succeed," he said. "Because when President Trump succeeds, our country succeeds.”

All eight people aboard were killed in Monday's fiery crash of the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, which was taking part in a routine test mission as part of an overall program to keep the long-running aircraft flying for decades to come. It was not yet clear Tuesday what caused the plane to crash, and officials at Edwards Air Force Base said it could take up to six months to complete the investigation.

The B-52 was airborne for 3 minutes and 15 seconds, according to AirNav Systems, a flight tracking website.

Flight tracking that was available Tuesday shows the bomber turning to the northeast right after taking off and nearly completing a 180 degree turn before crashing on another runway, according to AirNav Systems. The data that comes from a system called “multilateration” doesn’t show precise altitude and speed information, but it does show the plane fell to earth at a rate of descent of 5,056 feet (1,541 meters) per minute.

The airfield remained closed Tuesday. Crews were making the crash site safe for search and recovery teams to enter, after fires flared up overnight, said Mike Paoli, a spokesperson for the 412 Test Wing at Edwards.

The aircraft was supporting a “radar modernization program,” Col. James Hayes, the deputy commander for the 412 Test Wing, said Monday. In 2025, Boeing sent a B-52 to Edwards with a modernized radar system that is key to keeping the bomber in the air through at least 2050, nearly a century after it first entered service.

A test team planned to conduct ground and flight test activities on the aircraft throughout 2026 to feed a production decision, the Air Force said in a 2025 news release. The modern Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar system replaced the aircraft’s antiquated radar. It was unclear if that was the same aircraft involved in Monday’s crash.

AESA replaced 1960s radar technology and offers improved navigation and targeting capabilities, according to a 2023 news release from Raytheon, which designed the new system for the Air Force's entire B-52 fleet.

B-52 began flying in the 1950s

The B-52, a long-range bomber that entered service in 1955, is designed to carry both conventional and nuclear weapons. It has been used in conflicts involving the U.S. military from Vietnam to Iran.

Along with a new radar, the fleet of 76 B-52s are scheduled to receive additional upgrades, including new engines, crew compartments, conventional and nuclear communication systems, avionics and weapons. The military said the goal is to make the B-52 a complement to the Air Force’s newest strategic bomber, the B-21 Raider.

Aerial footage showed virtually nothing left of the aircraft that went down at the base in the Mojave Desert about 100 miles (161 km) northeast of Los Angeles. Officials determined no one could have survived after reviewing footage of the crash, Hayes said at a news conference.

Those on the B-52 included government contractors, Boeing employees and uniformed military.

Edwards is home to the 412th Test Wing, which conducts regular developmental testing of all Air Force aircraft, weapons systems, software and components before purchase by the service as well as throughout their life span. Test missions take place at Edwards daily, Hayes said.

The base is where Air Force test pilot Chuck Yeager reached a speed of Mach 1.05 and broke the sound barrier in 1947.

Investigators will closely examine the flight controls and engines

Aviation safety experts have said their first thoughts about what might have caused the crash were about a malfunction in the flight controls or engines, but it is way too early to know. And investigators will consider a myriad of factors, including the age and maintenance of the plane.

J. Joseph, a retired Marine Corps colonel and airline pilot. said that even in a B-52 with eight engines, a malfunction can make the plane difficult to control if the pilot loses the outboard engines, and the forces pushing the plane get out of balance in a condition Joseph called asymmetric thrust. Although if there is time, the pilots can adjust the other throttles to rebalance the forces.

Heather Penney, a former F-16 combat pilot and aviation expert, said she knew one of the people who died aboard the B-52 personally -- reinforcing how tragic this crash is for the close-knit community of military aviators. She declined to name the person before officials do.

She said it is unlikely that pilot error caused this crash given the expert training and experience of the test pilots on this flight. The age of the B-52 also opens up the possibility of problems with the structure of the plane.

“The youngest B- 52 was delivered to the Air Force in 1962. That was before the Cuban missile crisis, before the first man walked on the moon, before we had personal computers,” said Penney, who is director of Studies and Research at The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. “These are old airplanes. They’re structurally robust, but they are old aircraft. So structural failure can’t be ruled out.”

All the modernization efforts and upgrades that have been made to the B-52s over the decades have extended the life of these planes. At some point, these bombers will have to be replaced, but for now they continue to play a crucial role for the Air Force.

“The B-52 fleet that we have today, is the backbone of America’s bomber force. It’s over 50% of our bomber force, and it can go further, have larger payload, and stay airborne longer without refueling than any of our other bombers,” Penney said. “There’s no other bomber in our force has the attributes of the B-52. It’s been a workhorse. It’s going to continue to be a workhorse.”

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Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska. Associated Press journalist Konstantin Toropin contributed from Washington, D.C.

New statistics released by the U.N. reveal that 2,300 people have been killed across Haiti so far this year, with another 100 kidnapped, while 1.5 million have been displaced. Among those abducted is James Boyard, cabinet director of the Defense Ministry, who was kidnapped last week in one of the few relatively safe areas of the capital.

Guterres’ one-day visit to Port-au-Prince comes after more than 30 people were killed, injured or missing last weekend in Cité Soleil, a seaside slum, according to Cooperative for Peace and Development, a local human rights organization.

His convoy sped past a neighborhood once fully controlled by gangs that left in their wake decimated car dealerships, abandoned homes and dozens of concrete buildings pockmarked with bullet holes. A colorful bus known as a tap-tap rumbled past, its windshield peppered with bullet holes.

Graffiti scrawled on a crumbling concrete wall read: “Down with Viv Ansanm, long live the police.” Viv Ansanm is a powerful gang federation that the U.S. government designated a foreign terrorist organization. It is estimated to control 70% of Port-au-Prince.

Guterres traveled past dozens of Haitians who fled the clashes and now live in makeshift homes under large pieces of canvas strung up with frayed rope.

They are among the more than 300,000 people displaced by gang violence across Port-au-Prince — a record. Among them are more than 18,000 people who fled the Cité Soleil slum in May, according to the U.N. International Organization for Migration.

“Haiti’s displacement crisis is entering an even more alarming phase,” Gregoire Goodstein, IOM chief of mission in Haiti, said in a recent statement.

Guterres’s first stop was the headquarters of the new gang-suppression force, which the U.N. Security Council approved in September. It replaces a U.N.-backed mission led by Kenyan police that aimed to help Haiti’s National Police fight gangs but remained underfunded and understaffed. So far, Jamaica, Chad, El Salvador and Guatemala have deployed troops that number less than 1,000 to form part of the growing force, which is due to start operations in the coming weeks.

They are expected to work with Haiti’s National Police and its growing Armed Forces, with hundreds of Haitian men and a couple of women lining up on a dusty road hoping to interview to join.

Guterres then met behind closed doors with Prime Minister Alix Didier-Fils-Aimé, who is under pressure to hold elections in the country of nearly 12 million people that hasn’t had a president since Jovenel Moïse was killed at his private residence in July 2021.

“We had a frank conversation about what’s happening in Haiti, the vision the government has for the future,” Fils-Aimé told The Associated Press after the meeting.

He said security is a priority so the transitional government can hold elections and “get back to republican rule.” Fils-Aimé added that Guterres can help with that effort by ensuring that the countries backing the gang-suppression force “live up to their engagement.”

Forced to flee to makeshift shelters

Guterres also stopped by a makeshift shelter in a former school where dozens of the people living there crowded around him.

Forced to flee their homes after gangs shot up their community and set fire to it, some had been living there for up to four years.

“Solino is not ready,” 31-year-old Clifford Lala said of going back to his community. It was one of the last holdouts in Port-au-Prince until gangs overran it.

Guterres ducked into a hot classroom and met privately with a group of six women who decried the lack of privacy at the shelter, even to shower or use the bathroom, and said they worried about their young children.

"It’s skin-to-skin and mouth-to-mouth,” said one woman.

The shelter houses more than 1,200 people who sleep side by side, and only one meal a day is guaranteed.

“We’re going to do our best,” Guterres told the women.

Outside, a man began to slap the building’s metal siding and bellowed, “We want to go back home!” His voice grew louder and angrier as security walked into the room and whisked Guterres away.

Wendy Cejour, 26, told the AP that he and his family have been living at the school for a year and a half.

“As long as we’re alive we have hope, but … things are difficult,” he said. “We ask ... to return to our neighborhood to live better, because we don’t have a life here.”

A day before Guterres’s visit, Human Rights Watch published a letter urging him to protect the population and target the root causes of violence and human rights abuses. Guterres said he was deeply impacted by what he saw.

“What I saw will not leave me,” he said. “Each day is a fight to survive. ... The women and the children pay the highest price.”

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

Investigators recovered high-powered firearms from several of the suspects and reviewed encrypted text messages between roughly 20 participants who shared detailed maps and aerial photographs of the area and discussed the need for a “safe house” and escape routes after the intended attack, the documents show.

But it's unclear from the court records how close the would-be attackers could have come to being able to carry out the plan had it not been thwarted.

Several suspects or co-conspirators who were questioned by the authorities said they did not intend themselves to carry out violence but planned to instead observe others. One said he would have traveled to the UFC event as a protester but had to return home after his vehicle malfunctioned. And though the participants spoke of using drones rigged with explosives, charging documents suggest they were still looking to acquire such equipment when the plot was interrupted.

“It didn't even get close to the point of execution,” Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday evening on Fox News Channel, describing the planning as “not that advanced.”

“They weren’t in town. They had not really done that much planning,” he said.

United by conspiracy theories and anger over the country's direction

Law enforcement officials learned about the possible threat on June 10, four days before the mixed martial arts extravaganza on the White House’s South Lawn, “and thanks to the rapid action of the FBI, our partners, and the Department of Justice in a multi-state operation, multiple individuals are now in custody and allegedly planned attacks were stopped cold,” Director Kash Patel said in a post on X on Tuesday.

Five people from states including Ohio, Missouri, Nebraska and California were arrested on federal charges, the Justice Department said.

Asked about the arrests Tuesday, Vance said there was “more violent rhetoric coming from the left than the right these days.” But the charging documents paint a more muddled view of their views, depicting them as espousing a tangled web of anti-government sentiment, antisemitic grievances, fury over the Trump administration's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files and conspiracy theories about a powerful elite that sacrifices and consumes children.

Both Trump and Vance said they had not been briefed in advance of the plot. A top Secret Service official suggested Tuesday the investigation was continuing and an announcement might have been premature.

“Anyone that believes that case was worked in a bubble is naive,” Deputy Secret Service Director Matthew Quinn told reporters at an unrelated news conference. “I'll tell you the Secret Service led that investigation from the beginning. I'll tell you that it's ongoing. In order to maintain the integrity of the investigation and the security plan, we chose not to leak it.”

Communications took place on TikTok and Signal

Among those arrested was Tycen Proper, a 19-year-old Ohio man whose mother contacted law enforcement last week with concerns about his firearms purchases and online communications, according to an FBI affidavit filed in the case.

Proper told officials he participated in the planning of an attack, according to the affidavit, which says some members of the group began communicating with each other last March through a TikTok group called “Vanguard of the Old.”

“The members of the group stated that they wanted to protect the United States, which they believed was headed in the wrong direction,” the affidavit says. “Members of the group believed that the United States needed to be torn down so that it could be rebuilt. Some expressed a desire that people who were involved with Jeffrey Epstein should not govern the country.”

Trump, who celebrated his 80th birthday at the UFC event on Sunday, was friends with Epstein many years ago but has said he ended their relationship before the disgraced financier’s crimes became known. Epstein killed himself in a New York jail cell in 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges.

A lawyer for Proper, who is charged with firearms offenses and crimes including attempted murder of an officer or employee of the United States, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

The logistics were discussed via Signal, an app that uses end-to-end encryption for its messaging and calling services, through a primary chat of “approximately 19 individuals" and smaller side chats, authorities said. Messages obtained from Proper's phone show he identified by name several Republican lawmakers he said should be targeted because they apparently received donations from causes supportive of Israel, the affidavit said.

Proper told law enforcement officials that he had been planning to drive with weapons and body armor to a meet-up spot in Fredericksburg, Virginia, court papers say. He said though he did not intend to shoot people at the White House, others in the group did, the affidavit said.

The plan called for the use of drones that would be detonated over the north side of the White House, prompting an evacuation into the line of fire of waiting snipers in an attack Proper said was designed to “jumpstart” a revolution, authorities said.

Investigators who examined Proper's phone and TikTok account identified additional suspects.

Michael Alan Thomas, 32, of Pinon Hills, California, told officials he viewed himself as “the planner and advisor for the group, and while he was not willing to take action himself, wanted to guide and instruct others on how to carry out attacks" designed to overthrow the government, an FBI agent said in an affidavit.

The agent said Thomas believed the U.S. government was “run by an elite group of individuals who sacrifice and consume infants who also were deeply involved" with Epstein and are now protected by Trump.

Another suspect, Bryan Omar Roa, also of California, told the FBI he had planned to attend the event as a “protester” but he had to return home because his car was broken, an agent said.

It was not immediately clear who their lawyers were.

Two other suspects were identified as Daniel K. Eskridge, 32, of Kidder, Missouri, who officials say said in a group chat that a target of the attack should be “big and someone a majority of the country knows,” and Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez, an Omaha, Nebraska, man who the FBI said posted detailed plans with the co-conspirators.

A lawyer for Alvarez declined to comment and a lawyer for Eskridge did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

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Associated Press writers Darlene Superville in Évian-les-Bains, France, and Michael Kunzelman in Washington contributed to this report.

Now, as Trump tries to finalize a deal to end the war with Iran, he's unloading on Netanyahu with rhetoric that no other American leader has dared to use publicly.

He claimed credit for Israel's existence — “without me, there would be no Israel” — and cursed his judgment in interviews. He even described him as “crazy.”

Netanyahu’s tenure as prime minister spans four U.S. presidents, and he's frustrated all of them at one point or another. But none has voiced that as openly as Trump, who started the conflict in tandem with Netanyahu.

The tension comes as Trump criticizes recent Israeli attacks in Lebanon, which threatened to jeopardize negotiations between Washington and Tehran. Trump has been pushing for a deal as he faces political blowback at home, where the war is unpopular and has driven up gasoline prices.

“If Netanyahu gets in between something Trump really wants, and that’s out of this war, he’s prepared to use the leverage that he has,” said Aaron David Miller, who served as an adviser on Middle East issues to Democratic and Republican administrations over two decades.

An agreement is scheduled to be signed on Friday in Geneva. Speaking on Tuesday at the annual G7 summit in France, Trump said he told Netanyahu that he's been unhappy with his recent moves.

“Without the U.S., there would be no Israel. Without me, there would be no Israel because no other President was willing to do what I did,” Trump said. “I have had a great relationship with Bibi. Now Bibi has to be more responsible with respect to Lebanon.”

There has long been a bipartisan consensus around supporting Israel in Washington, but that has frayed in recent years. Liberals have been increasingly outraged by Israel's treatment of Palestinians, especially during the war in Gaza, and conservatives have questioned the importance of longstanding American support for Israel. There are concerns about antisemitism on the left and the right.

Trump’s latest comments drew swift criticism from left-leaning groups.

“He is framing Israel’s mere existence as contingent on him,” said Halie Soifer, who leads the Jewish Democratic Council of America. “It’s deeply offensive to the vast majority of Jews who care about Israel’s future.”

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris often disagreed with Netanyahu during the war in Gaza, and sometimes they criticized him publicly. But they were more circumspect to avoid facing accusations of being anti-Israel.

Conservative, pro-Israel groups were divided on the seriousness of Trump’s public condemnation of Netanyahu.

Republican Jewish Coalition President Matt Brooks described Trump’s criticism as little more than the inevitable disagreement among family members.

Brooks dismissed that any muted criticism of Trump’s comments from his party represented a political mixed message because Trump has been reliably supportive of Israel as president.

“If Biden or Harris said something critical, it came from the position of someone who was hostile toward or didn’t have the same level of support for Israel that President Trump has,” Brooks said.

He noted the first Trump administration’s role in moving the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and the return of Israeli hostages from Gaza during the president’s second term, among other acts.

Biden had criticized Netanyahu’s handling of the war in Gaza, though Trump’s criticism of Netanyahu comes with a “tremendous reservoir of goodwill on this issue that neither Biden nor Harris ever had.”

Pro-Israel advocate Mort Klein said Trump should have kept the comments private, especially in light of his public praise over the years of authoritarian leaders in Turkey, North Korea and China.

Klein, president of the conservative Zionist Organization of America, said he worried that Trump was making the comments in public to appeal to Israel critics “because he sees that Americans have become more hostile toward Israel than they’ve ever been.”

“That worries me,” Klein said.

“We were clear this was the process,” Andrew Giuliani, the executive director of the White House FIFA Task Force, told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Iran coach Amir Ghalenoei said after Monday's night's 2-2 draw with New Zealand that the team had been ordered to leave the U.S. and return to its training base in Mexico only a few hours later. Ghalenoei said the team had expected to spend the night in California to maximize the normal recovery process after its opening game.

Iran winger Mehdi Torabi's entry visa had also expired after the first game. Team officials confirmed Tuesday afternoon that they had secured him a new, multiple-entry visa allowing him to travel into the U.S. for future matches.

“This issue has been resolved,” the State Department said Tuesday. “As soon as we became aware of the issue, we worked to ensure that the player can participate in every game.”

Giuliani said during an interview broadcast Monday night on CBS News that some of the Iranian team’s support staff and team officials were denied entry into the U.S. But he said that all the players and coaches had received visas. He also outlined the conditions by which the Iranian team would be able to come into the U.S. for their games.

“The team will be allowed to come in, match day minus one, so the day before the match. They’ll be asked to leave the day that the match wraps up, so the evening of the match. And they’ll be able to do that again in Los Angeles. They’ll be able to do it again in Seattle,” Giuliani said.

When asked about why some support staff and team officials had been denied entry, Giuliani wouldn’t go into details but referred to previous comments made by Secretary of State Marco Rubio about denying entry to people with direct ties to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

“Secretary Rubio said very clearly: Anybody with direct ties to the IRGC is not coming into the United States of America, and they’re not going to let the World Cup be the reason why they can come in,” Giuliani said. “So I think it’s very clear why.”

The Iranians’ World Cup cycle has been in upheaval since the U.S. and Israel began a war against Iran on Feb. 28. Iran ultimately decided to compete even after FIFA rejected its request to move its three group-stage matches out of the U.S.

Iran captain Mehdi Taremi said the team endured five hours of travel and security checks during what’s normally a very short trip from Tijuana to the Los Angeles area on Sunday.

“I think FIFA have to help us more than this,” Taremi said.

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Vertuno reported from Austin, Texas. AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee contributed reporting from Washington.

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AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

Mayweather was scheduled for an initial appearance Monday in Las Vegas Justice Court. He was not physically present for the hearing, but an attorney represented him on his behalf, according to the Clark County District Attorney's office. His case is scheduled for a hearing in September.

Mayweather, 49, was charged in April with theft as well as drawing and passing a check without sufficient funds with the intent to defraud, according to court records.

Prosecutors in Clark County allege that in December 2024, Mayweather wrote a $200,000 check through Wells Fargo Bank to Las Vegas designer resale store Gold and Beyond, despite having insufficient funds in his account, according to the criminal complaint.

Mayweather's attorney and representatives did not immediately return requests for comment.

The felony charges come as Mayweather faces other legal battles. He was sued in New York over his alleged failure to pay rent at a Manhattan apartment earlier this year, and he was in financial disputes with multiple jewelers. He also filed a lawsuit in New York against his former business manager, alleging a yearslong fraud scheme.

Mayweather, the former five-division world champion, announced earlier this year that he was coming out of retirement and returning to competitive boxing this summer. Mayweather was scheduled to be in Athens, Greece, for the “Battle of the Legends” boxing match on June 27, according to an earlier press release. In April, Mayweather confirmed he would be at a match in Athens.

The Brewers called the 21-year-old Pratt up from Triple-A Nashville before their Tuesday night game with the Cleveland Guardians while designating third baseman Luis Rengifo for assignment.

Pratt was the Brewers' starting shortstop on Tuesday. He should start getting accustomed to that assignment.

“This is a kid we’ve signed for the long term,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “We feel confident he will be our shortstop of the future. He’s going to play.”

Pratt found out he was going to the big leagues when Nashville manager Rick Sweet notified him during the Sounds' game on Sunday.

“It was magical, man,” Pratt said. “It didn’t quite feel real.”

The news came at an ideal time for Pratt because the Brewers were off Monday, enabling his family to make it to Milwaukee for his Tuesday debut. Pratt's father, Russell Pratt, doesn't travel by airplane.

That meant a 700-mile drive from the Pratt's family home in Oxford, Mississippi. Those long-distance drives were common during Pratt's road to the big leagues.

“We drove in travel ball for like 20 hours sometimes, from like Mississippi to Arizona,” Pratt said. “Arizona to Texas. We drove all over.”

Pratt signed an eight-year deal on April 3 that includes club options for 2034 and 2035. The $50.75 million contract includes escalators that could raise the value by $10 million if he repeatedly finishes high in MVP voting and the team exercises those two options.

In the weeks after agreeing to that deal, Pratt felt pressure to live up to that contract. His batting average in Nashville didn't climb above .200 until April 26.

He has performed better lately. He was hitting .241 with a .349 on-base percentage, six homers, 32 RBIs and 17 steals in 58 games with Nashville at the time of his promotion.

Pratt's defense is ahead of his offense at this point in his development. He won a Gold Glove as the top shortstop in the minor leagues in 2024.

“Now we’re well aware of a guy making his first trip to the big leagues, it could go many different ways,” Murphy said. “When are they ready? When is it a perfect time? Right now, in my opinion, it doesn’t really matter. It matters he gets comfortable in the big leagues, understands it, starts to make his adjustments he needs to make, and then we roll from there.”

Murphy has a connection to Pratt's family. Pratt is the nephew of BYU coach Trent Pratt, who played for Murphy at Arizona State from 1999-2000.

The Brewers can afford to be patient with Pratt’s bat as long as he fields the way he did in the minor leagues.

Milwaukee has received little offensive production from the left side of its infield all season, yet the Brewers still entered Tuesday leading the NL Central by 4 ½ games over St. Louis as they chase their fourth straight division title. The versatile David Hamilton had been splitting time with Joey Ortiz at shortstop and with Rengifo at third base.

Hamilton is batting .231 with a .316 on-base percentage, .320 slugging percentage, three homers, 11 RBIs and 14 steals in 58 games. Ortiz is hitting .207 with a .299 on-base percentage, .262 slugging percentage, one homer, 14 RBIs and five steals in 60 games.

Rengifo was hitting .205 with a .280 on-base percentage, .254 slugging percentage, no homers, 19 RBIs and three steals in 57 games.

Murphy mentioned that he now might have Hamilton and Ortiz splitting time at third base, with Hamilton primarily starting against right-handers and Ortiz getting the call against lefties. Ortiz was Milwaukee's starting third baseman in 2024.

“I've had many meetings with Joey, and he totally understands what's happening," Murphy said. “Six weeks ago, I sat with Joey and said, ‘Joey, this has happened. They signed this guy. Do you understand that? ... But it doesn’t mean you can't have an incredible career in the big leagues, including playing shortstop for us at times.' ”

Pratt was one of two Brewers prospects to sign a lucrative long-term deal this year while still in the minors. Luis Lara, a 21-year-old outfielder playing for Nashville, signed a seven-year deal worth $31 million last week.

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

The Department of Justice will take on enforcement of civil rights in education, while the Department of Health and Human Services will oversee special education, administration officials announced.

The two agencies involved — the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services and the Office for Civil Rights — defend the rights of children with disabilities and those who experience discrimination based on race, sex or religion. Advocates worry the change could mean lapses in communication for families and school officials who need help.

Trump, a Republican, campaigned on shutting down the Education Department, saying he would “move education back to the states where it belongs.” While only Congress can close the department, Trump’s education secretary, Linda McMahon, a billionaire and former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, has formed agreements with other federal agencies to handle much of her department’s work.

McMahon said the agreements align federal responsibilities with the agencies best positioned to support them.

“The Trump Administration has been clear: as we scale back federal micromanagement when it hinders success, we are equally committed to bolstering the efficacy of federal oversight where it is essential,” McMahon said in a written statement.

Critics warn of impacts to student services

Advocates said the changes would create uncertainty around services relied upon by millions of students and families.

“As is too often the case, traditionally underserved students — including students with disabilities, Black and Latino students, multilingual learners, students from low-income backgrounds, and students in rural communities — will bear the greatest burden created by this reckless decision, to which the disability and civil rights communities have already been vehemently opposed,” said a written statement from EdTrust, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that advocates for educational equity.

The Education Department already has offloaded some of its programs through 10 earlier internal agreements, but the agencies affected by Tuesday’s announcement were among the most closely watched.

The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services manages billions of dollars in grants and oversees state compliance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The Office for Civil Rights, which has been thinned by mass layoffs, investigates complaints of discrimination at the nation’s schools and universities.

The Department of Justice also will take over work protecting student privacy and will provide some training and advisory help to schools.

While HHS and the Department of Justice will take over most day-to-day duties of the assigned offices, the Education Department will continue to perform some tasks, such as responding to audits and issuing final determinations in civil rights cases, that it is explicitly required to do by law.

Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., ranking member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, said the announcement Tuesday was a political one intended to fulfill the president's campaign promise. The changes, he said, will likely widen inequities for students of color and students with disabilities.

The agreements are scattering education programs to agencies that do not have the expertise to manage them, said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.

“Instead of helping kids get a great education, this administration is spending its time, energy, and taxpayer resources fixated on where employees sit and illegally trying to shutter the Department of Education,” Murray said in a written statement.

Rachel Gittleman, president of the union that represents department employees, said the moves will create chaos for families, students and schools.

“This will leave our most vulnerable students and families who have been shut out of our education system without the services they need and without protection when they face discrimination,” Gittleman said in written a statement.

Families of students with disabilities opposed the decision

The transfer of special education to Health and Human Services most alarmed disability advocates, who say oversight of whether schools are adequately serving children with disabilities is best handled by education experts — not medical experts.

“The IDEA is intended to equip students as they learn alongside their peers, not cure them — the HHS is not prepared to oversee and administer the IDEA program effectively. Health and education systems speak in entirely different languages, including variations in terminology, training, and disciplines," said Jennifer Coco, interim executive director of the Center for Learner Equity.

The Education Department said McMahon spent over six months in listening sessions with families, advocates and educators to better understand concerns around how the department's dismantling could affect special education. Many families raised concerns about obstacles to obtaining proper services for their children, but Coco said participants in those sessions were united in their opposition to moving special education oversight out of the Education Department.

“I think we agree on the problem,” Coco said. “We have stark disagreement on the solution and these transfers today don’t feel like a solution to that problem.”

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

DeWine, 79, said during a news conference that data indicates the death penalty is not serving as a deterrent to violent crime, which he had always believed was its moral imperative.

“I do not believe that argument today can be successfully made, nor do I believe that there’s any chance in the future the facts that I’ve cited to support that belief will change,” he said. “Therefore, I believe Ohio should abolish the death penalty.”

To bolster his case, DeWine brandished charts and graphs detailing the diminishing number of death sentences meted out by courts and showing the exceedingly long wait times that elapse as legal appeals play out for those on death row. He said condemned murderers are increasingly unlikely to ever be executed, sometimes dying by natural causes or by suicide before their execution date arrives.

“In summary, each decade that the death penalty has been in effect, the chances of a murderer getting executed get more and more and more remote,” DeWine said.

He also cited years of pain brought to victims’ loved ones by the delays and the toll taken on the mental health of state employees who serve on execution teams.

DeWine, facing a term limit in December, said he felt compelled to share his observations now, having had 50 years of experience with the issue from the time he was a young county prosecutor, through being a congressman and U.S. senator, then as Ohio's attorney general. But he said his outright opposition has only crystallized over the past year.

Divided reaction to DeWine’s position

Headed into the announcement, any chance of a legislative repeal of the death penalty appeared unlikely. Republican House Speaker Matt Huffman has said he would oppose such an effort.

In repeatedly extending Ohio’s unofficial death penalty moratorium by postponing scheduled executions, DeWine has cited pharmaceutical suppliers’ unwillingness to provide the drugs used in lethal injections. In January 2025, President Donald Trump ordered then-U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to help states try to resolve that issue.

Interim Ohio Republican Attorney General Andy Wilson expressed relief that DeWine didn’t choose to use commutations and that his office will continue working to uphold the current law.

DeWine has already said he expects no further executions during his term, but he said the compelling nature of the death penalty data remains the same whether you include the past seven years, when executions have been on hold, or not.

Kevin Werner, executive director of Ohioans to Stop Executions, said the governor’s decision is in line with “an evolution on the death penalty” across the political spectrum in Ohio.

“Nobody supports a system that harms victim families, convicts innocent people and wastes millions of dollars without a shred of improved public safety,” Werner said.

Abraham Bonowitz, executive director of Death Penalty Action, said his group had been anticipating DeWine’s announcement, which he called “well-reasoned.”

Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, which supports the death penalty and crime victims’ rights, said DeWine may be right that Ohio’s death penalty isn’t currently serving as a deterrent.

However, "what is needed is the political will and effective leadership,” Scheidegger said.

Death penalty's future being debated nationally

The governor noted that Ohio is far from the only state where such trends exist. Use of and support for the death penalty has been on the decline nationally for two decades.

Currently, 27 states allow the death penalty and 23 do not, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center. Ohio is among four states where executions are paused by executive action. The center reported in 2023 that more Americans now believe the death penalty is administered unfairly than fairly, a first.

Texas has executed 600 people since it resumed the death penalty in 1982. Republican state Rep. Jeff Leach, who has met with death row inmates and advocated for reforms, led a group of state lawmakers last year who successfully halted the first execution in the U.S. tied to a murder conviction for shaken baby syndrome.

Then-Illinois Gov. George Ryan, also a Republican, signed off on the execution of one killer then decided not to carry out any more. In virtually his last act as governor, he emptied death row with pardons and commutations in 2003. Numerous governors have commuted some number of death sentences or granted broad blanket clemency to condemned inmates in the years since to empty portions of their death rows.

But the nation remains divided.

Since 2019, Colorado, New Hampshire and Virginia have eliminated the death penalty, while five states have approved nitrogen gas executions since 2024 to get around issues with lethal injection protocols. Meanwhile, Trump pushes to expand federal executions. During his first term, Trump’s administration carried out 13 federal executions, more than under any president in modern history.

DeWine’s position has evolved over time

Pushing back execution dates has left Ohio with 30 scheduled over the next four years, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. Ohio hasn’t put an inmate to death since July 18, 2018, the year before DeWine took office.

The state reinstated capital punishment in 1981 under a law co-written by DeWine. Ohio resumed death penalties in 1999, and 56 people have since died by lethal injection in the state.

DeWine’s support has slowly shifted since his political career began in 1976. As attorney general, DeWine ordered the Ohio prison system to consider alternative lethal injection drugs. A year later, in 2020, he said lawmakers would have to choose a different method before any more inmates could be executed.

Since then, neither a bipartisan push to ban the practice nor a competing effort to bring nitrogen gas executions to Ohio has gone anywhere. A nitrogen gas execution in Alabama was halted last week, after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to set aside a lower-court ruling that found the method unconstitutionally cruel.

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Associated Press writer John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia, contributed.

The next comparison could come this week.

Not since Woods has anyone completed the career Grand Slam in his first attempt, at least not in the modern era that dates to 1960 when it became a thing in professional golf.

Woods took only 35 days between his epic 15-shot victory in the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach and his eight-shot victory in the British Open at St. Andrews.

Scheffler reached the cusp of the career slam when he overwhelmed yet another field at the British Open at Royal Portrush. Now comes the U.S. Open, the major he has played more than any other, and a Shinnecock Hills test that will be new to him.

Does he want to win? Without question. Does he need to? That goes a little deeper with Scheffler, who cares more about the process than the result.

“For me, would it be a dream to win the U.S. Open? Of course,” Scheffler said Tuesday. “But at the end of the day, the Grand Slam has never been a motivating factor for me. I always just wanted to be the best version of myself, and that got me this far.”

It brought him two Masters titles in 2022 and 2024, the PGA Championship and British Open last year, all of them without drama when he walked up to the 18th green.

“So when it comes to this golf tournament, I'm going to step on the first tee and remind myself I’ve done everything I possibly could in order to play well, and now it’s just a matter of going out there and trying to execute and going back to enjoying the competition versus feeling like you have to win for some reason,” he said.

He didn't go as deep as he did at Portrush last year, when he delivered a remarkable soliloquy asking why he wants to win so badly when the joy lasts only a few minutes.

But it's clear he relishes the challenge, and Shinnecock figures to be every bit of that.

Tuesday brought more wind, this time from a different direction, and there's really no escaping it. Part of the genius of this William Flynn design are three sections of holes that form a triangle, ensuring players face a different wind for each of them.

The USGA has done its part to make sure it doesn't get out of control, keeping the course as green and hydrated as possible in anticipation of a windy week.

“I think it’s the best championship test in the country,” said Rory McIlroy, who last year at the Masters became only the sixth player to win the career Grand Slam. "I think it tests all aspects of the game — driving, iron play, you need to have your wits about you on the greens. It’s a lot of strategy, thoughtfulness.

“Look, it’s a golf course where it can turn very quickly. You get a day like yesterday with a lot of wind and dry, clear conditions like this, and I think we’re just going to have to be mindful of that as the week goes on.”

McIlroy and Scheffler were at Shinnecock on the same day June 1 for a sneak preview, both noticing wider fairways, even though McIlroy was the only one of them who was in the 2018 U.S. Open at Shinnecock, just not for long. He shot 80 the first day, 70 the next and was on his way home.

Adam Scott has his own love-hate relationship with Shinnecock. It's among his favorite courses in the world, so much that he plays it often in social settings — he once set the course record of 63 in one such round — but missed the cut in the U.S. Open in 2004 and 2018.

“I still love the golf course,” Scott said, who is playing his 100th consecutive major this week. “I think it's as good as any test we have at the U.S. Open.”

He has played 15 U.S. Open courses during the streak.

This is the ninth U.S. Open for Scheffler — two of them as an amateur — with his closest call in 2022 at The Country Club, where he finished one shot behind Matt Fitzpatrick.

But he is the favorite, as is the case at every tournament he plays, even though this year has been one in which he has similar numbers except for the trophies he has accumulated. His only victory was his first start of the year, The American Express in the California desert.

There were three straight runner-up finishes, including the Masters. He had an astonishing run of 18 consecutive top 10s end at Riviera in February. His worst result was a tie for 24th at Bay Hill.

But that one win was five months ago.

“I’d say I feel like I’ve been close most of the year,” Scheffler said. “I feel like I just haven’t been as sharp as I needed to be. I think the margins in this game are so small. For me to be winning a lot of tournaments, you’ve got to just be really, really sharp."

One week at Shinnecock can change that. And then for Scheffler, it would be on to the next one.

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

The deal, which is between the U.S. and Iran, has not been made public, and officials have sometimes offered contradictory interpretations of what is in it. While Israel is not party to the agreement, it is part of the war after joining the U.S. in launching strikes on Iran on Feb. 28. Israel has also fought the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon and seized large swaths of that country.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Israel’s continued occupation of southern Lebanon would violate the deal.

“Without the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territories they occupied during this war, the war has not fully come to an end,” Araghchi said.

A U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss outlines of the agreement, has said the deal does not call for an Israeli withdrawal. And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Israel would remain in Lebanon “as long as necessary.”

The negotiations to end the war have been plagued by such disagreements before, leading to a prolonged but uneasy ceasefire that has failed to develop into a permanent end to hostilities and has left the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for the world’s energy supplies, effectively shut.

In other developments, Switzerland’s foreign ministry said the signing ceremony for the deal will take place Friday at the Bürgenstock resort near the city of Luzern. Ministry officials said Tuesday that the location was proposed by Pakistani and Qatari mediators, along with the U.S. and Iran.

Iran's call for an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon complicates any deal

Pakistan has said the deal called for an end to military operations, including in Lebanon, as Iran long insisted. But Araghchi’s call for an Israeli withdrawal adds a new wrinkle.

It puts Israel into a dilemma as it tries to degrade Hezbollah’s military capabilities without undermining an agreement championed by its most important ally, the United States. Israel invaded southern Lebanon after Hezbollah fired missiles across the border during the first week of the war. Since then, it has expanded its military footprint to levels unseen in decades and struck targets deep inside Beirut.

Though Hezbollah has been weakened, it retains the ability to strike Israel, leaving open questions about the effectiveness of Israel’s campaign.

As of Tuesday evening, Netanyahu had not seen the memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran, said a person familiar with the situation, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door details. Another person, who also spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations between Israel and the U.S., said Israeli officials have not asked U.S. negotiators for the memorandum.

Netanyahu’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. The White House declined to comment on whether Netanyahu or Israeli officials have reviewed the agreement.

The Israeli ambassador to the U.S., Yechiel Leiter, told NPR that while Israel does not know the details of the deal, the apparent inclusion of Lebanon is “unnecessary and unhelpful.”

The extent of Israel’s strikes has at times opened a public fracture between its leaders and U.S. President Donald Trump, who told reporters Tuesday that he was “not happy with the way Israel has handled themselves with Lebanon and with Hezbollah.”

“It just goes on forever,” he said of Israel’s strategy. Israeli strikes in Lebanon have killed nearly 4,000 people, including hundreds of civilians, and displaced more than 1 million. “Israel’s fighting Hezbollah too long, and too many people are being killed,” Trump said.

Lebanese government welcomes prospects for a ceasefire

Israel and the Lebanese government have entered into their own U.S.-mediated direct negotiations, of which Hezbollah was not a part. Those talks have yielded several announced ceasefires that were never implemented on the ground.

Lebanese officials initially tried to keep Lebanon separate from the U.S.-Iran negotiations, not wanting to be seen as beholden to Iran, but they have since welcomed the announcement that the deal to end the U.S.-Iran war would include a ceasefire in Lebanon.

Araghchi’s latest comments appear to match the understanding of two regional officials with direct knowledge of the interim deal. The officials, speaking to AP on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations, said it would require Israel to leave nearly all the territory it occupies in Lebanon, minus a few hilltop points along the border seized earlier.

The officials say Iran insisted the accord include Lebanon in the last days of the negotiations.

The U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon known as UNIFIL reported that Israel and Hezbollah are still exchanging fire but at a “significantly reduced level,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said Tuesday.

Many questions loom ahead of ceremonial signing

Lebanon is only one of several major questions hanging over the ceasefire ahead of the planned ceremonial signing.

The agreement is meant to provide a meaningful truce in a monthslong war that has killed thousands across the Middle East, including the top leaders of Iran’s theocracy, and raised the prices of fuel, food and other basic goods far beyond the region.

The agreement provides for the “immediate” opening of the Strait of Hormuz and the lifting of the American naval blockade of Iranian ports, according to a senior U.S. official who spoke to reporters Monday on condition of anonymity to discuss outlines of the agreement.

Pakistani officials who helped broker the agreement also described plans for the simultaneous lifting of Iran’s closure of the strait and the U.S. blockade.

The United States and Iran will then begin 60 days of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program and the potential lifting of sanctions, Pakistani officials who helped broker the interim deal said, speaking on condition of anonymity about the unpublished text.

The pact also includes the possibility of releasing Iran’s frozen funds and a $300 billion fund to help rebuild Iran if Tehran meets certain benchmarks, senior U.S. officials told reporters Monday. Trump later said the United States would not “invest” funds in Iran.

Regarding the timeline, regional officials who spoke to AP about the deal said the release of frozen Iranian assets would be tied to Tehran implementing the deal. Gulf Arab states also have pledged to inject billions of dollars in Iran’s economy, they added, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the negotiations.

U.S. officials have not yet explained how they see the agreement addressing Iran’s nuclear program, including who will be in charge of verifying that Iran is in compliance and who will destroy or remove highly enriched uranium believed to be buried under nuclear sites that were badly damaged by U.S. strikes last summer.

Iran has agreed to discuss ways to possibly “dilute or remove” the uranium, the regional officials said. However, it remains unclear whether Tehran would agree to that, particularly with hard-liners opposing to giving it up.

Trump said he’s open to sending the emerging agreement to the U.S. Congress for review.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit in the French Alps, Trump said, “I like the idea, send it to Congress please.” He added, “I mean who wouldn’t approve it.”

Republicans on Capitol Hill say they want Trump to provide more information about the agreement, with some expressing skepticism that the deal can deter Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon.

___ Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank, and Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Julia Frankel and Koral Saeed in Jerusalem, Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Michelle L. Price in Washington, Aamer Madhani in Geneva, Darlene Superville in Evian-les-Bains, France, and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

As of 5 p.m., the National Hurricane Center has designated this disturbance as Potential Tropical Cyclone 1. What exactly is a potential tropical cyclone, and will this system impact our area?

A potential tropical cyclone is a system that is not yet a tropical cyclone, but which poses a threat of bringing tropical storm or hurricane conditions to land areas within 48 hours.

Once a system has this designation, the National Hurricane Center can issue advisory packages. They include a public advisory, forecast/advisory, discussion, wind speed probability product, along with the forecast cone.

As of early Tuesday afternoon, Potential Tropical Cyclone 1 was located around 35 miles southwest of Corpus Christi, Texas or roughly 330 miles southwest of Lake Charles, Louisiana. The system is moving northeast near 6 mph.

A Tropical Storm Watch has been issued for the northwestern Gulf Coast from Sargent, Texas to Morgan City, Louisiana. This means tropical storm conditions are possible within the watch area within 24 to 36 hours.

The system is forecast to strengthen into a tropical storm on Wednesday. If this occurs, it would be designated as Arthur, which is the first name on the Atlantic hurricane list this season.

The system will eventually weaken and become post-tropical on Thursday.

Regardless if this has a name or not at that point, impacts across the Gulf will be the same (heavy rain and gusty wind).

Additional rainfall totals over 5″ are likely for a large part of the Gulf thanks to the system. This will lead to additional instances of flash flooding.

The flash flood risk is elevated from Texas into Louisiana on Wednesday. The higher risk will shift east on Thursday.

The higher risk will be from Louisiana into Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia.

Through the end of the week into the weekend, we can expect to see higher rain and storm coverage across Florida and Georgia as the moisture from the system passes by to our north.

While it won’t be a tropical system at that point, widespread showers and storms are possible.

The rainfall will be very beneficial for our area due to the widespread drought.

That vision might hinge on a factory groundbreaking an hour north of Dallas.

Nvidia on Tuesday formally unveilied plans for a major upgrade to its AI infrastructure as part of its $2 billion partnership with the factory’s owner, Coherent. The factory will produce the material for a laser to transmit data among computer chips, allowing those chips to work as a single system with more power, speed and efficiency, according to executives who discussed the technology before the public announcement.

“AI factories are the infrastructure of the new industrial revolution," Huang said in a statement.

The factory represents a fundamental test of whether, as Huang believes, AI will be a source of job creation instead of a technology that supplants workers as it becomes possible to write software, analyze a spreadsheet, run an assembly line or even drive an automobile without much human effort.

Huang has led Nvidia as it became the world’s most valuable company, worth roughly $5 trillion, to a point where it's looking beyond chips to developing entire AI systems. The companies expected to rely on those systems to further develop AI models could soon join the elite circle of those with a valuation of more than $1 trillion. Just how that wealth spreads and the consequences of the technology have rapidly evolved into fundamental debates about how America itself is structured.

AI is powering academic breakthroughs and it creates the promise of rapid economic growth. But even if stocks are buoyed by those possibilities, there are voters who see reasons for concern over its use of electricity, the potential for job losses and the newfound national security risks.

A shifting approach on AI

President Donald Trump's administration, which once saw a light regulatory touch as essential for fostering AI’s development, has recently begun to reverse course. It placed export controls on the AI company Anthropic’s latest models, leading the company on Friday to shutter all public access to those models over security concerns.

Trump, a Republican, signed an order to have new AI models voluntarily vetted by the government. He has also mused about the government owning a stake in the companies that develop AI, so that the public could benefit from the expected windfall even if that would blur the lines between the public and private sectors.

Still, Trump depends on the AI boom to fuel economic growth, drive future gains in manufacturing and construction, and push the stock market to new heights. He has insisted on Huang accompanying him on foreign trips, most recently having Air Force One pick up the leather-jacketed CEO in Alaska while en route for the state visit to China.

Trump has called Huang “smart,” a “friend” and “amazing” — and he’s publicly recounted that he once mused about breaking up Nvidia because of its dominance, only to admit that Huang was someone that he needed as an ally.

“We are proud to have you in our country,” Trump told the Taiwanese immigrant last year.

AI buildout creating jobs

Coherent’s factory in Sherman, Texas — which includes Nvidia as a major customer — relied on bipartisan government support. The Biden administration approved $33 million in backing from the CHIPS and Science Act to help fund its buildout, while the Trump administration provided an additional $17 million grant to help ensure a key part of the AI infrastructure would be made in America.

“The reason the award was expanded, and we announced this today, was because we continue to grow capacity,” Coherent CEO Jim Anderson said in an interview. “We saw the opportunity with the tremendous AI demand to grow capacity even more than we had originally planned.”

Including construction workers, Coherent estimates that the factory will create 1,000 jobs, with about 550 of them in advanced manufacturing, engineering and technical roles. Anderson said the floorspace of the plant would double and its output would quadruple with the additions being built.

The factory expansion will increase production of Indium Phosphide, which is used to make a laser that has the optical intensity of the surface of the Sun. Each second, the light pulses a few hundred billion times through a fiberglass straw the width of a human hair. That allows Nvidia’s computer chips to share information and work together as one system in what Huang has dubbed “AI factories.”

Power consumption would be cut up to 50%, enabling computations to occur faster and at a drastically lower price. The prospect of reducing the cost of tokens — the industry’s term for AI usage — would make it easier for AI to expand its reach and abilities.

In a paper published this month, the economists Jessica Wachter and Jonathan Wachter noted that the five largest U.S. technology firms invested $380 billion last year as part of the AI buildout and that sum could roughly double this year. Based on that investment, they estimate the possibility of rapid economic growth as AI accounts for more of U.S. gross domestic product. While AI is roughly 3% of the economy now, that figure could grow to a range of 8% to 39%.

One Nvidia executive, who insisted on speaking on background to describe its industrial strategy, stressed that the company was moving from developing computer chips to providing entire AI systems. That has meant clustering more production in the U.S. with chipmaking increasingly centered in Arizona and the assembly process increasingly located in Texas, so that there is a reliable domestic supply chain.

The executive said that Nvidia was selling brains and a nervous system to its customers, so that the intelligence generated can then be applied to their businesses in ways that create new products and identify new savings and business lines. That could allow manufacturers that depend on foreign suppliers to restore production in the U.S., taking an AI that so far has largely been accessed on laptops onto factory floors where it can, in their words, “move atoms.”

The possibility has not been lost on Trump, who sees the industry as essential to American greatness.

“It’s an amazing industry,” Trump said to reporters last week. “It’s bigger than any industry anyone’s ever seen. We are leading China by a lot. And whoever leads that is going to really lead the world to a large extent, that’s how big it is.”

Members of the development team, including GreenPointe Holdings, Basham & Lucas Design Group, Jax Utilities Management and Smith McKee Construction, gathered recently at the site for a groundbreaking ceremony.

“The Lodge Amenity Center will truly be the heart of Hyland Trail,” Mike Taylor, president of Lifestyle Construction for GreenPointe Developers, said. “Designed as a welcoming, family-friendly destination, it will be a place where neighbors come to relax, connect and enjoy life together.”

The center will include gathering spaces overlooking a beach-entry pool and splash zone, a state-of-the-art exercise facility, and pickleball courts.

The community will also feature miles of multi-use pathways for walking, biking and jogging, an expansive playground and a resident-only dog park called Barks & Rec. The amenity center is slated for completion in 2026.

Hyland Trail offers new homes from the $300s. Dream Finders and Pulte are offering one- and two-story single-family homes ranging from about 1,500 to more than 3,500 square feet.

Jeff Thompson is a longtime Clay resident who sees what’s happening in Lake Asbury and knows everything has changed.

“It’s kind of strange growing up with what you had when you were younger then seeing everything else develop is kind of crazy,” Thompson said.

Another Lake Asbury resident asked if the area could handle all the new development.

“I think they should have done some of the infrastructure before the homes went up,” Carolyn said.

Edenbrooke at Hyland Trail, by Lennar, is the community’s first active-adult neighborhood and is designed for buyers 55 and older, with low-maintenance, open-concept home designs and exclusive on-site amenities.

The community is near Clay County schools, shops and restaurants, and borders Ronnie Van Zant Park, which features a disc golf course, sports fields, nature trails, a fishing pond with piers and pickleball courts. Residents will have easy access to Oakleaf Town Center, Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Cecil Commerce Center and downtown Jacksonville via the First Coast Expressway.

Republican Governor Brian Kemp is term-limited. Former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms won the Democratic primary for governor on May 19, with Rick Jackson and Burt Jones finishing at the top of the Republican primary and advancing to the June 16 runoff. But the race for governor is far from the only statewide race gaining attention: Republicans are lining up for the chance to run for the U.S. Senate in November, and challenge Democrat Jon Ossoff.

RELATED: Mark your calendars: Deadlines, start of early voting approaching for Georgia’s primary election

While many primaries were decided on May 19, there were some races where no candidate got more than 50% of the vote, forcing a runoff on June 16 between the top two candidates.

Scroll down to read about everyone running for statewide offices and the U.S. House and state legislative seats representing Southeast Georgia. To see what’s on local ballots, go directly to voter’s guides for Brantley, Camden, Charlton, Glynn, Pierce, and Ware counties. (Clinch County does not have any local races in the primary election.)

U.S. Senate

DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE

Incumbent Jon Ossoff is the only candidate in the Democratic primary. Joining the Senate after the 2020 elections, Ossoff previously worked as an investigative journalist whose small business produced investigations of corruption and war crimes for international news organization. He grew up in the Atlanta area, studied diplomacy at Georgetown University, and received his Master of Science degree from the London School of Economics. (Campaign website)

REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES

With five candidates on the Republican primary ballot, no candidate earned more than 50% of the vote, forcing a runoff between the top two candidates. The winner of the June 16 runoff will face Ossoff in November.

• Mike Collins currently represents Georgia’s 10th District in the U.S. House. Collins, from Jackson, Ga., started his first trucking business at age 25, and grew it to employ more than 100 drivers. He graduated with a business degree from Georgia State University. (Campaign website)
• Derek Dooley is the son of legendary University of Georgia football coach and athletic director Vince Dooley. Derek Dooley played football at the University of Virginia and received a law degree at UGA. He practiced law in Atlanta before pivoting to coaching football at the college level and in the NFL. (Campaign website)

LIBERTARIAN CANDIDATE

• Allen Buckley has been a Georgia attorney and CPA for approximately 40 years, working in areas of tax, employee benefits, estate planning, and related business law. He is a graduate of the University of Georgia law school and received an LL.M. in Tax from the University of Florida. (Campaign website)

Governor

Republican incumbent Brian Kemp is leaving office due to term limits. While Keisha Lance Bottoms was able to win the crowded Democratic primary in May, no candidate in the Republican primary got more than 50% of the vote, forcing a June 16 runoff.

REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES

• Rick Jackson is a businessman who started his career in a sales job, and later went on to buy the company he worked for. According to his campaign website, Jackson grew up in foster care, and because of that, worked with state leaders to help pass legislation that now allows former foster youth in the state to attend college tuition-free. (Campaign website)
• Burt Jones is a sixth-generation Georgia native who currently serves as the state’s lieutenant governor, having been elected in 2022. He previously served in the State Senate for over a decade. Jones has played a leadership role in his family’s business, Jones Petroleum, and also founded JP Capital & Insurance, Inc.8 (Campaign website)

DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE

• Keisha Lance Bottoms is a former Atlanta mayor, having been elected in 2017 and choosing to not seek re-election in 2021. Before becoming mayor, she served on the Atlanta City Council, and also previously served as a judge. Under President Joe Biden, she served as a Senior Advisor for Public Engagement. (Campaign website)

LIBERTARIAN CANDIDATE

• Chase Oliver is a Libertarian activist living in Atlanta. He ran as a Libertarian for the U.S. Senate in 2022, and was the party’s nominee for president in 2024. (Libertarian Party of Georgia website)

Lieutenant Governor

The current lieutenant governor, Burt Jones, is running for governor, leaving the seat open. With multiple candidates in both the Democratic and Republican primaries, both races will require a June 16 runoff.

REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES

• Greg Dolezal - business owner from Forsyth County (Campaign website)
• John Flanders Kennedy - Attorney from Adrian in Monroe County (Campaign website)

DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES

• Josh McLaurin - Attorney from Fulton County (Campaign website)
• Nabilah Parkes - State Senator from Gwinnett County (Campaign website)

Secretary of State

The Georgia Secretary of State oversees voting, tracks annual corporate filings, grants professional licenses, and oversees the state’s securities market. As current secretary of state Brad Raffensperger is running for governor, this is an open position. Both the Republican and Democratic primaries will require a June 16 runoff.

REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES

• Tim Fleming - Small business owner from Newton County (Campaign website)
• Vernon Jones - Consultant from DeKalb County (Campaign website)

DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES

• Dana Barrett - Fulton County commissioner (Campaign website)
• Penny Brown Reynolds - Attorney from Fulton County (Campaign website)

Attorney General

The Attorney General’s Office provides legal representation to the executive branch & prosecutes violent crime across the state. The seat is open in this election because Chris Carr is running for governor.

REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE

• Brian Strickland - Attorney from Henry County (Campaign website)

DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE

• Tanya Miller - Lawyer from Fulton County (Campaign website)

Agriculture Commissioner

The Georgia Department of Agriculture administers a variety of programs related to the state’s farm industry and the public that consumes its products. The current commissioner, Republican Tyler Harper, is unopposed for his party’s nomination. He will face the winner of the Democratic primary in the general election.

REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE

• Tyler Harper - Georgia Agriculture Commissioner, from Irwin County (Campaign website)

DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES

• Katherine Juhan-Arnold - Farmer / engineering & construction management, from Gwinnett County (Campaign website)

Labor Commissioner

The Georgia Department of Labor provides a wide range of services to individuals and employers. These include administration of Georgia’s unemployment insurance, reemployment services, provision of workforce information to the public and private sectors, and oversight of child labor issues.

The current Labor Commissioner, Republican Bárbara Rivera Holmes, was appointed to the post in April 2025 by Gov. Brian Kemp. She is now seeking a full term and is unopposed for the Republican nomination. She will face the winner of the Democratic primary in the general election.

REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE

• Bárbara Rivera Holmes - Georgia Labor Commissioner, from Dougherty County (Campaign website),

DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES

• Nikki Porcher - Businesswoman from Fulton County (Campaign website)
• Michelle Sanchez - Self-employed, from Hall County (Campaign website)

State School Superintendent

The State School Superintendent leads the Georgia Department of Education, which serves the state’s K-12 public school districts, schools, and students. The current superintendent, Republican Richard Woods, has served in the position since 2015 and is seeking re-election. He does face opposition in the Republican primary, and there are three candidates in the Democratic primary.

REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES

• Fred “Bubba” Longgrear - School superintendent from Candler County (Campaign website)
• Richard Woods - State school superintendent from Tift County (Campaign website)

DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES

• Lydia Powell - Educator from Fayette County (Campaign website)

Insurance & Fire Safety Commissioner

The mission of the Office of the Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner (OCI) is to protect Georgia families by providing access to vital insurance products and safe buildings through fair regulation that creates economic opportunities for all Georgians. The current commissioner, Republican John King, is seeking re-election. He is the only Republican in the race. He will face the winner of the Democratic primary in the general election, as well the Libertarian nominee, Colin McKinney.

REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE

• John King - Georgia Insurance Commissioner, from Fulton County (Campaign website)

DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES

• DeAndre Mathis - Insurance agent from Fulton County (Campaign website)
• Keisha Sean Waites - Former state legislator from Fulton County (Campaign website)

LIBERTARIAN CANDIDATE

• Colin McKinney - Physician from Clarke County (Campaign website)

Public Service Commission, District 3

The Georgia Public Service Commission regulates utilities such as electricity, telephone, and natural gas. Its five commissioners must live within a designated district, but are elected statewide. They serve staggered six-year terms.

The District 3 commissioner, Democrat Peter Hubbard, was just elected in a special election in 2025. He is seeking re-election, and is unopposed for the Democratic nomination.

REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES

• Terrell “Fitz” Johnson, Sr. - Entrepreneur from Fulton County (Campaign website)

DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE

• Peter Hubbard - Public Service Commissioner, from DeKalb County (Campaign website)

Public Service Commission, District 5

The incumbent commissioner, Tricia Pridemore, is not seeking re-election.

REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES

• Bobby Mehan - Business owner from Haralson County (Campaign website)
• Joshua Tolbert - Professional engineer from Cobb County (Campaign website)

DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES

• Shelia Edwards - Business owner from Cobb County (Campaign website)

Supreme Court of Georgia

Three of the nine seats on the Supreme Court of Georgia are up for election this year in statewide, non-partisan races. One of the three justices, Justice Benjamin Land, was unopposed. Incumbents Charles Bethel and Sarah Warren were re-elected to their seats in the May primary.

Judge of the Court of Appeals

The Georgia Court of Appeals is made up of 15 judges, and hears cases from across the state. Five of the seats are up for re-election this year in statewide, non-partisan races, though three of the judges are unopposed: Judges Sara Doyle, David Markle, and J. Wade Padgett. The other judges, Trenton Brown and Elizabeth Gobeil, were both re-elected to their seats in the May primary.

Georgia’s 1st Congressional District

One of Georgia’s 14 congressional districts, this district spans the entire coastline of Georgia, from the border with Florida, up to Savannah. In our area, it includes Brantley, Camden, Charlton, Glynn, Pierce, and Ware counties. As Congressman Buddy Carter ran for the U.S. Senate, there is no incumbent in this year’s election. Republican Jim Kingston won the Republican primary in May, but the Democratic primary will require a June 16 runoff.

REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE

• Jim Kingston - Insurance broker from Chatham County (Campaign website)

DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES

• Joyce Marie Griggs - Retired military, from Chatham County (Campaign website)
• Amanda Hollowell - Chief of campaigns, from Chatham County (Campaign website)

Georgia’s 8th Congressional District

Georgia’s 8th District stretches from Valdosta to north of Macon. In southeast Georgia, the district includes Clinch County. The Republican incumbent, Austin Scott, is unopposed in his party’s primary.

REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE

• Austin Scott - U.S. Representative, from Tift County (Campaign website)

DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES

• Kelly Esti - Analyst from Fulton County (Campaign website)

Georgia State Senate, District 3

Represents Brantley Camden, Charlton, Glynn and part of Ware counties. The incumbent, Republican Michael Hodges, drew no primary challengers, and no Democrats qualified for the election.

Georgia State Senate, District 8

Includes Clinch, Pierce and part of Ware counties. The incumbent, Republican Russ Goodman, is unopposed for re-election. The race will appear on Republican primary ballots as Goodman had drawn one challenger, Greg Tyre. However, Tyre later withdrew from the race. No Democrats qualified for the election.

Georgia State House, District 167

Represents western Glynn County. Republican incumbent Homer “Buddy” DeLoach is seeking re-election but drew no opposition in his party’s primary.

REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE

• Homer “Buddy” DeLoach - Business owner, from McIntosh County (Campaign Facebook page)

DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE

• Nathaniel Hicks, Jr. - Pastor from McIntosh County (Campaign Facebook page)

Georgia State House, District 174

Includes Brantley, Charlton, Clinch and part of Ware County. Incumbent Republican John Corbett is seeking re-election.

REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE

• John Corbett - Self employed/farmer from Echols County (Campaign website)

DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE

• David Hall - Substitute teacher from Brantley County (Campaign Facebook page)

Georgia State House, District 176

Includes part of Ware County. The incumbent, Republican James Burchett, is seeking re-election.

REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE

• James Burchett - Attorney from Ware County (Campaign Facebook page)

DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE

• Marcus Ryan - CDL operator from Lanier County (Campaign website)

Georgia State House, District 178

Includes Pierce County. Republican incumbent Steven Meeks is seeking re-election.

REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE

• Steven Meeks - Farmer from Wayne County (Campaign Facebook page)

DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE

• Barry Dunham - Teacher from Bacon County (Campaign website)

Georgia State House, District 179

Includes the city of Brunswick, St. Simons Island and other parts of eastern Glynn County. Republican incumbent Richard Townsend (Campaign website) is seeking re-election and is unopposed in his party’s primary. The only Democratic candidate withdrew after qualifying for the election.

Georgia State House, District 180

Includes all of Camden County and a strip of southern Glynn County. Incumbent Steven Sainz (Campaign website) was the only Republican to qualify for the party’s primary. No Democrats qualified for this race.

ICE said the standards, which apply to for-profit contractors and jails that hold detainees, were revised with input from partners to “reduce the burden on our detention operators.” Experts said the changes would help contractors limit legal liability, reduce costs and get more operational flexibility while doing little, if anything, to improve conditions for roughly 60,000 people currently detained.

“100% it’s going to result in deterioration of already problematic conditions of detention,” said Michelle Brane, a former Department of Homeland Security ombudsman who oversaw immigration detention practices during part of the Biden administration. “It’s consistent with their general practice, which is to eliminate accountability and oversight. They are not concerned with people’s basic rights or safety of detainees.”

The revisions come as ICE detention facilities are reporting deaths in unprecedented numbers and face accusations of medical neglect, inadequate food and other inhumane conditions. They come as ICE is flush with cash, receiving more than half of the $70 billion immigration enforcement spending bill signed by President Donald Trump last week.

Dr. Sanjay Basu, a public health researcher who has studied ICE custody deaths, said the changes include “genuine improvements” to suicide prevention standards and mental health care. But he said the overall trajectory is “toward weaker standards governing a growing share of the detained population.”

ICE said the changes streamline its rules and move toward more relaxed standards used by the U.S. Marshals Service to hold pretrial federal inmates in jails. The agency said it considered input from operators “alongside operational, legal and policy requirements when making a final decision."

Dr. Homer Venters, an expert on correctional health care, said the changes could curtail access to language assistance by eliminating mandates that required in-person and telephone interpretation and translation services.

New standard allows use of AI

The revised standard says facilities can use artificial intelligence tools such as machine-learning-based translation or generative AI for “noncritical communication” or “informal interactions with detainees.” That communication could include giving and receiving information to or from detainees during intake, having conversations with detainees in housing units and responding to a detainee’s grievance or other concerns, it says.

Venters called the changes alarming because grievances often include “very urgent or even emergent information such as when a patient has been denied lifesaving care.” He said the rule also leaves unclear whether health assessments, crucial to flagging medical and mental health conditions, could be conducted through AI.

ICE said the standards ensure contractors provide interpretation and translation services “at no cost to the detainees.”

Several experts said they were concerned by a change that bars facility operators from refusing to admit any detainee ICE sends them.

The change means facilities may not be able to immediately refer severely ill or disabled detainees whom they cannot accommodate to hospitals or other settings for care — but it could reduce their liability for subsequent deaths. A related rule change requires facilities to request that ICE transfer detainees they cannot serve elsewhere, but that might not happen for several days after they are admitted.

A favor to contractors

New language making clear that detainees who participate in voluntary work programs are not employees and therefore not entitled to wages and benefits “is a favor” to ICE’s for-profit contractors, said Dora Schriro, former director of ICE’s Office of Detention Policy and Planning during the Obama administration.

For years, advocates for detainees have argued in lawsuits that these programs, in which detainees have received a minimum stipend of $1 per work day, amount to forced labor. The lawsuits have sought millions of dollars in unpaid wages from ICE contractors like GeoGroup and CoreCivic, and now they could face tougher odds of success by strengthening their legal defenses, Schriro said.

Another change bars facilities from paying above the longtime $1-per-day minimum stipend, which was allowed under the previous standard and an argument that had been used against contractors in court, said Carmen Iguina Gonzalez, an immigration detention expert at the American Civil Liberties Union. She said the work can include cleaning dormitories, cutting hair and other tasks that keep facilities running.

Claire Trickler-McNulty, a former DHS and ICE official who is an expert on detention standards, said ICE could use its increased budget to improve conditions instead of “lowering standards across the board.” She recalled that under prior administrations, she pushed ICE facilities to add soccer fields and other recreation and visitation improvements with leftover money.

“Their goal is to make it easier for the jail operators,” she said. “No longer are they trying to make sure the focus is on the detainees and their care and the experience in custody.”

Not so fast, experts say.

Even after oil starts flowing again from the Middle East, it could take awhile for consumers to see a difference at local fuel pumps, supermarkets and other places they shop, according to economists and industry analysts.

Fighting over the Strait of Hormuz disrupted not only supplies of crude and refined fuel but also the supply chains for fertilizer, food and even footwear. Businesses expect higher costs to linger, which means their customers might need to prepare for that too.

“It is not clear, despite three months of war, that anything has been achieved that makes the American consumer better off,” Brett House, an economist who teaches at Columbia Business School, said. “In fact, by almost any measure, not just the American consumer, but the world, is worse off as a result of this attack.”

If the deal between the U.S. and Iran holds, here’s how experts see the war's effects receding — or not — in the weeks ahead:

US motorists can expect some gas price relief

Following news of the tentative agreement, oil prices fell Monday to about $80 for a barrel of U.S. benchmark crude. That compares to $67 per barrel before the war and the price of over $120 a barrel reached earlier in the conflict.

Refineries typically pay for crude oil a month or more in advance, so even after oil prices drop, they won’t immediately be processing cheaper products.

“The tendency of gasoline prices to fall slowly is partly because the raw material takes weeks to work through the system until it’s delivered to consumers,” said Michael Lynch, a distinguished fellow at the nonpartisan Energy Policy Research Foundation.

In places without enough refining capacity to meet their needs, such as the West Coast of the U.S., gas prices will take longer to drop, said Mark Barteau, a professor of chemical engineering and chemistry at Texas A&M University.

In some Asian and African countries that rely more on oil from the Middle East, the supply shock led to school and government office closures and instructions to work from home, according to the International Energy Agency.

“The bottom line is that getting back to ‘normal’ will be a lengthy process involving many parties and countries,” Barteau said. “Getting an agreement between the U.S. and Iran to open the strait is just the beginning.”

Flights won't get cheaper right away

Industry experts have spent months warning that even if the war ended, travelers should not expect airfares to go down immediately.

Airlines typically buy fuel in advance, adjust their schedules gradually and price tickets based heavily on demand, meaning lower oil and jet fuel prices can take weeks or months to get factored into the cost of commercial flights.

“I think it’s unlikely that we’re going to see a retreat or reduction in the cost of flying at any point this summer,” Columbia's House said.

Fuel surcharges that some airlines outside the U.S. added are one of the first areas where passengers might get a reprieve, said Gordon Ho, a professor at the University of Southern California’s business school.

“Consumers are going to say, ‘Wait a minute, why are you still charging me a fuel surcharge?’” Ho said.

Pressure on grocery prices will likely continue

Reopening the strait is unlikely to deliver instant relief at the grocery store, according to David Ortega, a professor of food economics and policy at Michigan State University.

Fuel accounts for roughly 15% to 30% of the total cost of food, according to the Independent Grocers Alliance, a grouping of 7,500 global supermarkets.

But it can take months for an energy shock like the one caused by the Iran war to wind through the food supply chain and raise grocery prices. And once prices go up, it takes them a long time to come back down, especially when the future is unpredictable, Ortega said.

“We’re likely still looking at inflationary pressure on food in the coming months,” Ortega said. “There’s still a good deal of uncertainty about how the reopening will unfold, and it will take time for fuel, diesel and retail fertilizer prices to come back down.”

Rabobank, which is based in the Netherlands, said it expected war-related food price inflation to peak sometime next year in Europe. In the U.S., grocery prices are expected to rise 3.2% this year, which compares to a historical average of 2.6%, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Farmers remain strapped for fertilizer

Reopening the Strait of Hormuz would also be a welcome change for farmers and the production of food globally. Roughly 30% of the world’s fertilizer passed through the waterway before the war began. Prices soared as the supply was effectively cut off, and shipments probably will take a long time to return to pre-war levels.

The consequences of the shortage facing farmers now may only intensify down the road, regardless.

Many farmers around the world are going through planting seasons without the fertilizer they need or paying sky-high prices for both fertilizer and fuel needed to produce and transport their products. The World Food Program of the United Nations expects this to have a “devastating impact” on crop yields — and consequently, food prices and the availability of food — for months to come.

Retailers don't anticipate a cost reprieve

U.S. retailers that sell shoes were encouraged to see falling gasoline prices, hoping they would mean Americans have more money to spend on back-to-school shopping, said Andy Polk, senior vice president of the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America trade group.

However, shoe companies anticipate their own costs staying higher for the foreseeable future, Polk said. The group's members keep a two- to three-month inventory of finished products, but their next orders may include suppliers charging more for materials, he said.

Most of the footwear sold in the U.S. is imported, and Polk said he expects shipping costs to remain higher for the rest of 2026 and 2027.

U.S. tariffs imposed last year have made it more difficult for shoe sellers to absorb higher costs or pass them on customers, he said. In May, footwear prices were 5.2% higher than the same month a year earlier, according to government figures.

Shipping industry expects a slow recovery

Judah Levine, head of research at the freight booking platform Freightos, said the Straight of Hormuz closure has affected about 2% to 3 % of the total volume of container ships that are used for global shipping, but higher oil prices and disruption have impacted the shipping industry more broadly.

Josh Steinitz, chief strategy officer of the business logistics platform ShipStation Global, said consumers might notice higher shipping costs and more out-of-stock items online until the end of the year.

“I think fuel surcharges, which then flow into shipping costs, which then get passed along to consumers, are still going to be with us for quite sometime from many of the major carriers,” Steinitz said.

___

Associated Press writers Cathy Bussewitz, Anne D’Innocenzio, and Wyatte Grantham-Philips in New York, Dee-Ann Durbin in Detroit and Rio Yamat in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

They were among a trickle of residents who returned to the city to check on their homes after the announcement of a deal between the U.S. and Iran to end their war. Iranian officials have said the deal will also mandate an end to the Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon.

Although the fighting in southern Lebanon has not stopped, the strikes have been more limited since the U.S.-Iran deal was reached, and many people displaced from the area have taken the opportunity to check on their houses.

Jleilati and her 22-year-old daughter, Sukaina al-Muhtadi, lived on the first floor of a three-story building consisting of six apartments that collapsed as a result of the airstrike.

City subjected to intense airstrikes and shelling

Jleilati managed to pull out most of her husband’s scuba diving equipment, as well as some clothes, while her daughter’s main hope was to find a photo album that had pictures taken when she was a little girl.

“What can I say? All that we have gathered in our life has been wasted,” Jleilati said, adding that they knew that their home was destroyed on May 26, when al-Muhtadi saw the destroyed building on a social media platform.

Since the early days of the latest Israel-Hezbollah war, the ancient city of Nabatiyeh has been subjected to intense airstrikes and shelling that have killed and wounded scores of people.

The once bustling market of Nabatiyeh suffered wide destruction and on Tuesday, several bulldozers were removing rubble and debris as some people returned following the late Sunday deal reached between the U.S. and Iran to end the conflict.

Jleilati and other residents in the city are not sure whether the truce will last since previous ceasefires that first went into effect on April 17 have been fragile with Israel and Hezbollah continuing their attacks.

Over the past few weeks, Israeli troops have pushed deep into southern Lebanon reaching about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) southeast of the city that has been a trade hub for centuries. It's famous for its Monday market when residents of nearby villages came to sell products in the city.

The importance of Nabatiyeh through the centuries

Since the state of Lebanon was created in 1920 after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Nabatiyeh and its surroundings have been a center for religious and cultural activities, with Shiite clerics having strong links with the Shiite holy cities of Najaf and Karbala in modern day Iraq.

Nabatiyeh historically was the capital of the predominantly Shiite Jabal Amel region from where some religious scholars went to Iran in the 16th century and helped its Safavid rulers convert much of Iran’s population to Shiite Islam.

Nabatiyeh is also a main center in Lebanon where Shiite Muslims mark Ashoura, a solemn day marking the 7th-century martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Imam Hussein. The 10-day mourning period that culminates on the 10th of the Muslim month of Muharram, begins on Wednesday.

Widespread destruction in the city as fighting rages nearby

At the center of Nabatiyeh, 75-year-old Kamel al-Kamel looked in shock at his giant business consisting of a supermarket and a coffee roastery burned to ashes while the century-old building housing it crumbled.

Walking with the help of a cane, al-Kamal estimated his losses at $2.5 million. He said that unlike previous wars he has lived through — from the 15-year civil war that broke out in 1975 to Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon to various rounds of Israel-Hezbollah wars — the latest one has been the worst.

“Thank God we are still alive,” he said, adding that he wept as he walked into Nabatiyeh on Thursday.

Samar Zuraik was happy to find that her house is still standing but damaged and will need some repairs. But she said nothing can compensate her for the loss of her son Ali, 27, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the edge of the city.

She said that despite the Iran-U.S. agreement, Nabatiyeh is unlivable at the present time, still subjected to shelling and without electricity, telephones or internet.

“I wish I lost my house and my son stayed alive,” Zuraik said.

Human losses in the city

There are three major hospitals in the Nabatiyeh area the oldest of which is the Najdeh El Chaabiyeh Hospital on the edge of the city, where hundreds of people wounded in the latest war were treated.

The hospital’s medical director, Dr. Shafi Fouani, said the latest Israel-Hezbollah war was similar to the previous war in 2024.

“It was a very harsh war,” he said about the latest one that broke out on March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel two days after the U.S. and Israel launched their attacks against Iran.

He said that during the current war, the hospital dealt with about 500 deaths and treated nearly 1,200 patients, some of whom who were in critical condition and were referred to medical centers in Beirut or the southern city of Sidon.

More than 3,800 people have been killed in Lebanon in the latest fighting, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. Also, 30 Israeli soldiers and a defense contractor have been killed in or near southern Lebanon, and two civilians have been killed in northern Israel, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.

On Tuesday, Israeli troops fired artillery shells toward the outskirts of Nabatiyeh while Hezbollah fired rockets at Israeli positions near the city. Thuds of the blasts could be clearly heard in Nabatiyeh as Israeli troops have fought for days in an attempt to capture the Ali Taher hill that overlooks large parts of the city.

Lebanese troops closed some roads that lead to areas where Israeli troops are inside Lebanon.

As Jleilati and al-Muhtadi searched through the rubble of their former home, the young woman found a watch that her mother gave her when she was a child. The women were planning to head back to a Beirut suburb later Tuesday where they have been staying, saying they are waiting to see if the truce will hold in order to come back to Nabatiyeh and rent an apartment until their building is rebuilt.

“We cannot live outside Nabatiyeh,” al-Muhtadi said.

The primary marks the first time in a generation that D.C. residents will vote for a new mayor and delegate in the same election. And in an overwhelmingly Democratic city, that party's winner is expected to come out on top in the general election in November.

The most prominent race is for mayor after Muriel Bowser, who was first elected in 2014, decided not to seek a fourth term. Democratic front-runners Janeese Lewis George and Kenyan McDuffie are hoping to replace her.

The district's long-serving congressional delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, is also stepping down, with top candidates council member Brooke Pinto and at-large council member Robert White Jr. vying for the role. Republican Denise Rosado, an immigration lawyer, is running unopposed.

The primary will include ranked choice voting for the first time, which D.C. election officials have warned could delay results for days.

Trump looms large over the vote

Central to all the campaigns has been the city's fraught relationship with the Trump administration and the federal government. The city has limited autonomy and federal leaders retain significant control over local affairs, including approval of the budget and laws passed by the D.C. Council.

That autonomy has been further squeezed under Trump, who launched a federal law enforcement surge last summer and sent in the National Guard for an ongoing, open-ended deployment. Trump's efforts to downsize the federal government also roiled the capital region, costing thousands of people their jobs. He has also been reshaping the city by removing or renovating storied landmarks and putting his name or image on buildings.

Trump last week threatened a new federal takeover of Washington when asked about his response to a potential victory by Lewis George, a democratic socialist.

“Maybe we’d take back Washington, run it on the federal basis,” he said.

McDuffie said it was “the most consequential election of our lifetime,” because there is a president who “wants to infringe on our local autonomy. So we have to get this right.”

Bowser found herself walking a fine line between staying in Trump’s good graces and responding to the concerns of constituents, many of whom said she didn't push back hard enough on Trump's actions.

Republicans in Congress, meanwhile, have used their oversight authority to challenge the local government’s limited autonomy.

Federal intervention, affordability among candidates' top priorities

Washington resident Fran Tatu, 69, said the National Guard deployment was a concern for her.

“What’s at stake — many young lives with the surge of federal officers by Trump and all of the troops that are here,” she said, adding that she was voting for Lewis George and White.

Lewis George, in response to questions sent by The Associated Press, said her top priority is addressing “the affordability crisis here in DC, which the Trump administration has only made worse by unjustly firing federal employees en masse and militarizing our streets.”

McDuffie said his top priority is public safety. He would add 1,000 police officers over four years and take a public health approach to violence reduction that would include focusing on mental health.

Other candidates for mayor include former council member Vincent Orange and Hope Solomon, a former federal contractor who lost her job because of cuts by the Department of Government Efficiency.

Five people are seeking to replace Norton, who is finishing her 18th term representing D.C. in Congress. Norton, 89, faced heavy pressure to stand down from critics, including her former chief of staff, who said she was diminished and not capable of mounting the defense the moment called for against Trump.

White told the AP that he had planned to run for mayor but felt the challenge to D.C.'s limited autonomy was best fought in Congress.

“I got to go to the place where that fight is.”

Pinto, who traversed the city on election day, has carried a similar message. She has said she would work to build a broader national coalition around D.C. self-governance. “Home Rule is not just a D.C. issue: it’s a democratic principle,” she told the AP ahead of Tuesday's vote.

Other candidates seeking the Democratic spot on the ticket include Trent Holbrook, a former Norton staffer; Kinney Zalesne, the former Deputy National Finance Chair of the Democratic National Committee; and Gregory Jaczko, former chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

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This story corrects the spelling of Zalesne's first name. It is Kinney, not Kenney.

The 79-year-old Republican cited his expertise on the issue as a former county prosecutor, member of both chambers of Congress and Ohio attorney general, as well as his seven years as governor.

But DeWine’s support for a policy change is far from assured to make waves, even in a state controlled by his own party. That is because DeWine is more moderate than many younger Republicans in the state, whose political aspirations rely on endorsements from President Donald Trump, a staunch death penalty supporter.

Here's a closer look at DeWine and his place in Ohio's political landscape:

Fifty years of experience with the death penalty

DeWine was first elected to public office in 1976, when he became prosecuting attorney in Greene County, where he grew up. He still lives in the historic home there where he and his wife, who had eight children, hosted a summer ice cream social each year to encourage and celebrate GOP candidates and officeholders. The event ended its 50-year run just last weekend.

When DeWine was elected to the state Senate in 1980, Ohio had no death penalty law. The old one had been declared unconstitutional, and DeWine was instrumental in writing the new one, which cleared both legislative chambers with overwhelming bipartisan majorities. It has been in effect now since 1981.

He said Tuesday that he always believed the moral justification for the death penalty was its potential to deter violent crime.

During his four terms in the U.S. House, DeWine supported federal legislation signed by President Ronald Reagan that expanded the number of crimes eligible for the death penalty. As a U.S. senator, he backed a bill signed by President Bill Clinton that attempted to speed up the review of capital cases in federal courts.

In between those positions, DeWine was lieutenant governor of Ohio under storied Republican Gov. James Rhodes.

He took a brief break from politics after losing a Senate reelection bid to Democrat Sherrod Brown in 2006, before being elected Ohio attorney general in 2010. In that role, he said Tuesday, he “vigorously” carried out the state's death penalty law.

Since he became governor in 2019, problems obtaining lethal injection drugs have led to an unofficial moratorium on executions in the state, which last conducted one in 2018.

Uneven relationship with fellow Republicans

DeWine may be the titular head of the Ohio Republican Party, but that doesn't mean his party always listens to him. Particularly in the Trump era, he has presided over a party rife with internal divisions.

Clashes became particularly fierce during the COVID-19 pandemic, when DeWine and then-state Health Director Amy Acton — now the Democratic nominee for governor — presided over one of the most rigorous virus responses in the country in early 2020. Within months, a faction of Republicans had mutinied against DeWine's mandates, particularly over business closures, threatening to pass a bill limiting his powers or even to impeach him.

In 2023, after DeWine struck down a ban on gender-affirming care and transgender athletes participating in girls' sports, the Republican-dominated state Legislature easily overrode his veto.

The divisions have also been seen in this year's critical elections.

DeWine had tried to position popular former Ohio State Buckeyes football coach Jim Tressel as a potential successor, appointing the moderate Republican as lieutenant governor last year. But the state GOP rushed to back Trump-endorsed biotech billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy in the race in May 2025, before Tressel had even made up his mind whether to run. DeWine endorsed Ramaswamy in January.

DeWine said Tuesday that he had not shared his decision to call for an end to the death penalty with Ramaswamy, now the GOP gubernatorial nominee. The recent effort by the Trump administration to take on Medicaid fraud has found DeWine defending his administration's work on the issue, even as Ramaswamy, Ohio-born Vice President JD Vance and GOP lawmakers take aim at Ohio's existing fraud-fighting efforts.

Other Republican voices come to DeWine's side

Among proponents of DeWine's push to end the death penalty in Ohio were a host of fellow Republicans, including some staunch conservatives.

“For many years, I was a proponent of the death penalty," former congresswoman and current state Rep. Jean Schmidt said in a statement. "My views changed because of the risks of executing an innocent person, the exorbitant costs, and my belief in the sanctity of life. The death penalty is no longer a policy worth preserving.”

Former Ohio Auditor and Attorney General Jim Petro cited wrongful convictions among the flaws that make the death penalty no longer tenable.

Former Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, the great-grandson of President William Howard Taft and grandson of “Mr. Republican” Sen. Robert A. Taft Sr., also sided with DeWine.

DeWine “has been thoughtful and given this issue the careful consideration it needs,” Taft said.

The ruling means Partey, whose visa application was denied last week, will remain in the United States while his teammates face Panama in Toronto on Wednesday. He will be eligible to play in Ghana's next two matches — both in the U.S.

Ghana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs had criticized the visa denial for Partey, who awaits trial in Britain, as a “high-handed and extremely unfair decision.” Their appeal was heard by the court earlier Tuesday.

Partey faces allegations from several women dating to his time playing for English club Arsenal from 2020-25. Partey, who played in Spain for Villarreal this past season, has pleaded not guilty.

In March, a lawyer for Partey said the player intends to plead not guilty to two new charges of rape after a woman alleged Partey twice raped her on the same day in December 2020. Partey had separately been awaiting trial on five counts of rape related to two other women and one count of sexual assault involving another woman, and the new allegations arose after the first set of charges were publicized.

Partey’s lawyer, Mackeda Bramwell, told the court Tuesday that as a World Cup host nation, Canada had a “public interest” in allowing the “orderly participation of accredited national team athletes.”

In a statement submitted to the court, Partey had said he would remain under constant supervision of team officials, and will leave Canada when the team does.

Millions of his countrymen are hoping the team advances to the the knockout round, he said.

“I have not been convicted of any offense. I have pleaded not guilty, and I remain presumed innocent,” Partey said.

Canada officials have said immigration decisions are made on a case-by-case basis regardless of the World Cup.

Ghana coach Carlos Queiroz said earlier Tuesday before the ruling that the team would be ready but declined comment on the appeal.

"We have our plan settled," Queiroz said. "It’s not part of my business. My business is to play with the cards that I have in front of me.”

Ghana's base camp for the World Cup is in Smithfield, Rhode Island. Partey remains eligible to play June 23 when Ghana faces England in Massachusetts. Ghana concludes group play June 27 against Croatia in Philadelphia.

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

The study tracked more than 150 financial-stress-related terms people look up online—phrases like “debt help,” “cheap car insurance,” “rent help,” “cash advance,” and “how to get out of debt.” The states with the highest search activity included Louisiana, Texas, Florida, Georgia, and Alabama.

Florida ranked third, averaging 424,507 searches per month, which comes out to about 1,877 searches per 100,000 residents. Georgia ranked fourth with 201,088 average monthly searches, or about 1,823 searches per 100,000 residents.

To see how those findings resonate locally, we spoke with people in our area. One parent told us they have searched for financial help “because I have been very broke.”

A college student said keeping up with rent is a constant struggle with only a part-time, minimum-wage job. Another person said they’ve changed spending habits—like choosing the lowest-priced items whenever possible—just to stay ahead.

For people feeling that financial pressure, local organizations may be able to help. Catholic Charities says it assists with essentials like food, rent support, and even help for people behind on their JEA bill.

The group said requests have increased significantly, including from people who have never needed assistance before. And while housing costs were a major driver a year or two ago, they say the need has broadened—more people are struggling with groceries, gas, and other everyday expenses.

Hear more of what Regional Director Eileen Seuter says Catholic Charities can provide for people needing emergency help.

Top Local Resources in Jacksonville

• Downtown Emergency Services (DESC): Located downtown in the First Presbyterian Church basement, this organization offers direct emergency financial assistance, case management, and a food pantry.
• City of Jacksonville Emergency Financial Assistance: The city’s Parks, Recreation and Community Services department offers the Emergency Financial Assistance Program. You can call their social services line for help with rent, utilities, and other urgent needs.
• JEA Hardship Programs: If you are behind on your electric or water bill, JEA can connect you with local Community Resources to assist with utilities, food, and housing.
• Catholic Charities Bureau: Offers free assistance to people in need, regardless of faith, including help with unpaid rent and utility bills. You can reach out via Catholic Charities Instagram page.

County & State-Wide Programs

• Temporary Cash Assistance (TCA): The Florida Department of Children and Families offers cash assistance to families with children under the age of 18 (or 19 if in high school).
• 211 United Way: Calling 2-1-1 or visiting the United Way 211 site connects you to a local specialist who has real-time data on bill-paying resources in Duval County.

Mental Health Support

Financial stress takes a heavy toll on mental well-being. NAMI Jacksonville provides free support groups, education, and outreach programs to help individuals and families. You can reach out to them via their local helpline at (904) 323-4723 or by dialing 9-8-8 for immediate crisis care.

For a broader, searchable directory of other localized charities and government programs, you can filter by zip code on FindHelp.org.

If you are located in or moving your focus to Southeast Georgia, extensive regional networks offer free financial counseling, emergency bill assistance, and crisis relief.

Region-Wide Crisis Resolution

• Georgia 211 Helpline: Dial 211 from any phone to reach the United Ways of Georgia 211 Service. Specialists connect callers in the Coastal Empire and Southern regions to local food, housing, and utility funds.

Local Community Action Agencies

These organizations handle the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), emergency rental assistance, and financial literacy programs. Reach the agency managing your specific county:

• Coastal Georgia Area Community Action Authority: Serves Glynn, Camden, McIntosh, and surrounding coastal counties. Contact the main office in Brunswick at (912) 264-3281 or explore services through the Coastal Georgia Area CAA Portal.
• Action Pact: Serves inland Southeast Georgia counties (including Ware, Pierce, and Brantley). Reach the Waycross headquarters at (912) 285-6083 or look up local clinic sites on Action Pact Online.

State and Utility Support Programs

• Georgia Gateway: This centralized portal allows you to check eligibility and apply for state cash assistance (TANF), SNAP food benefits, and medical aid. Submit applications directly via the Georgia Gateway Platform.
• Georgia Power Community Assistance: If you are a customer, you can use the Georgia Power Assistance Resources Locator to map out localized income-qualified bill discounts and home weatherization options.

Senators of both parties have have been skeptical of the Trump administration's emerging Iran deal and frustrated by the White House's refusal to share details. They are expecting a briefing from the administration, but nothing has been scheduled before Friday's planned deadline for the two sides to sign the agreement.

The vote was 47-48, with four Republicans joining most Democrats in supporting the war powers resolution. That fell short of the majority needed to advance it.

“Join me in putting a check on this president’s lawless warmongering,” said Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., who proposed the resolution, in a speech before the voting.

“The time is always right to do what’s right,” he said.

The measure was the ninth time the senators have tried to advance a resolution to end the war that U.S. and Israel launched against Iran over the nation's nuclear program. Trump launched the war on his own, without congressional approval, but as it drags on lawmakers have grown concerned over the costs, strategy and end game.

Congress begins to exert influence over the war

The House for the first time approved its own war powers resolution to halt U.S. military action against Iran this month, when a small number of Republicans crossed over to join with the Democrats to pass the measure.

Meanwhile, the Senate has settled into a familiar pattern, one vote short of the tally that would be needed to pass the measure, if all senators are present and voting.

Republicans Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana voted in favor of the war powers resolution. Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania voted against.

Cassidy broke ranks with his party last month, voting for the first time to end the military action against Iran after having lost his own primary reelection bid in Louisiana. Trump had endorsed his challenger.

One Republican to watch, retiring Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, said he supports Trump's actions in Iran, even as he is closely watching the details of the administration's Iran deal.

“I just don’t think that it’s productive for me to cast a protest vote on something that I fundamentally support.” Tillis said. "I support the engagement in Iran. But I have a discerning eye over what the agreement will say.”

More votes ahead on Iran war

Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia has been leading the party's efforts to halt the war in Iran unless Congress has authorized it. He vowed to keep pushing the measures forward on an almost weekly basis.

Kaine has argued that as negotiations are underway to end the conflict, Congress must work to ensure the U.S. does not resume military strikes in what has been a fragile ceasefire.

“If we're really in a period of maybe some stability here, let's not just allow it to start up again without Congress being involved in that decision,” Kaine said.

“If there are deals on the table, I don't know that we want the president to be the sole determinant of whether a deal's a good thing," he said. “He may decide, well that's not a good enough deal, let's go back to war. Well, hold on a second. We might want to weigh in on that.”

Senators are also beginning to discuss what Congress will do, if anything, to provide oversight of Trump's emerging Iran deal. Some senators have said the Senate must vote on any agreement the Trump administration strikes with Iran over its nuclear program. Others have said a vote in Congress is not necessary.

Congress in 2015 approved the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, which spells out out requirements for the administration to submit any deal involving Iran's nuclear program for review by Congress.

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Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

The appearance was notable because it marked a rare foray for a Trump administration official into what they would consider hostile media territory, and it raised eyebrows since the Federal Communications Commission under the Trump administration has launched an investigation into the show over possible violations of the requirement that broadcast stations give equal time to political candidates when they appear on-air.

The long-running morning show, led by veterans Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar, is generally dominated by its liberal hosts. It combines entertainment and political interviews and often features commentary critical of President Donald Trump.

Vance himself acknowledged the uncomfortable terrain, joking with the hosts at the start of the hour: "This is a show of MAGA Republicans, right? That’s what my media team told me.”

He did get a few questions about his new book “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith," which he described as “actually way less political than you might think.” The tentative deal he has worked on to try to bring about an end to the Iran war did not, however, come up.

Vance asked to explain Trump's remarks on affordability

The show's hosts almost immediately began questioning Vance about the country's economic situation, specifically Trump's comments on affordability and inflation. In both circumstances, Vance turned into somewhat of a Trump translator.

Behar asked about Trump's dismissal of the affordability issue as a “hoax” started by Democrats while instead focusing on projects including refurbishing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, building a triumphal arch across the river from Arlington National Cemetery or refashioning the White House South Lawn into a UFC arena for Trump's birthday.

“Why is he doing them when everybody knows that Americans are struggling?" Behar asked. "What is he spending all this money for?”

Vance rejected Behar's characterization of Trump's comment. “What the president said is, the idea that Republicans caused the affordability problem is a hoax, and I think that’s true,” the vice president said.

After co-host Ana Navarro interjected with Trump's recent statement, “ I love the inflation,” Vance offered another Trump translation.

“What he said is that he loves the fact that the inflation is going to come down when this war is over,” Vance said, eliciting cross talk from the table.

“That's not what he said,” Goldberg responded.

"Are you his interpreter, or are you his vice president?” Behar added.

Vance tried to pivot, talking about increases in manufacturing jobs and other economic improvements.

“My view — I’m sure you guys don’t agree with it — is that we inherited a mess and we’re fixing it, but sometimes it takes a long time to fix a mess,” he said.

Vance acknowledges he's an Epstein ‘conspiracy theorist’

Vance was questioned at length about the Epstein files, as well as recent reporting from The New York Times that he had been a major advocate for releasing the materials, including during meetings in the White House Situation Room.

“I am, frankly, kind of a conspiracy theorist on the Epstein stuff,” Vance admitted, acknowledging he agrees with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles on that point.

The vice president said he did want to defend his boss on the issue, referring to Navarro and others' assertions that Trump ejected Epstein from membership in his private club because of a business deal gone wrong and not Epstein's nefarious sexual proclivities.

“He was very frustrated when the Democrats were making this about him,” Vance added of Trump and the fractious political conversation over the files' release and their content.

Pressed repeatedly by co-host Sunny Hostin over other matters related to the files, including millions that have yet to be released, Vance said there are many duplicates, as well as others over whose release a court would need to rule, but that “we're not holding anything back.”

After promising Hostin he'd check on some files that remain unreleased, Vance playfully suggested a return to the purported show agenda when Goldberg shifted to another commercial break.

"Let's talk about the book. I’m here to sell books. ‘Communion!’” he said.

“Eventually, we will," Goldberg said. "But this is a good opportunity for us to get some clarity.”

Vance also dove into Trump's signature issue: immigration

The conversation shifted to Trump's signature issue as Vance explained the evolution of his relationship to the president, whom he once criticized and about whom he now says he — and others, chronicling Trump's political rise — got some things wrong.

“One of the things I underappreciated about Donald Trump is that so many of the things that people said about him weren’t actually true,” Vance said. “I read stories that said, ‘Donald Trump said that all Mexicans were rapists’ — he never said that."

After several hosts queried how Vance as both a Christian and father would explain Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and urged him to visit detention centers, Vance acknowledged the need to “strike a balance, of course,” between enforcing laws and treating people appropriately.

“Law enforcement is always inherently not a very pretty process, especially when you’re dealing sometimes with violent people, with people who are resisting arrest," he allowed.

As the show began to wrap up, Goldberg aimed to try to tie in the book, asking Vance about rationalizing his Catholic faith with a hard-line stance on immigration.

“I think it strikes the right balance here,” Vance said of Catholicism, that “you can have borders, you’re allowed to enforce your borders ... but you also have to take certain precautions and certain care.”

Hosts asked Vance about administration's stance on race

Some of the most impassioned moments of the show were when the hosts questioned Vance about some of the administration's moves when it comes to race.

“What did Black people do to this administration that has allowed it to really stigmatize folks of color?” Goldberg asked. Some audience members reacted negatively as Vance asked for more information.

When Vance responded that the question suggested that "allegedly the administration is holding back the appointments of people based on skin color,” Hostin jumped in with a correction.

“I’m talking about Black history getting erased from public spaces, Black voter districts are being dismantled, Black leaders are being sidelined from our ranks,” she said. “Where do Americans of color fit in this vision? Because it doesn’t seem like we fit.”

Saying that “everybody is welcome in our political coalition,” Vance pointed toward the administration’s efforts to increase safety in Washington, D.C., a heavily Black city, adding, “Black history is not erased.”

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Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.

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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP

The court sentenced him to four years and two months in prison. All five justices considering the case agreed he illegally interfered by lobbying the U.S. government to threaten Brazilian officials to stop the trial.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who also oversaw the former president's coup attempt case, said Eduardo Bolsonaro's job as a federal lawmaker “is not to lobby overseas against his own country.” De Moraes and his wife were sanctioned by the U.S. government in July last year.

Lawyers for Eduardo Bolsonaro disputed the verdict, saying there was not enough evidence to convict him. The former lawmaker has lived in Texas since February 2025.

U.S. President Donald Trump slapped Brazil with a 50% tariff last year in protest of Jair Bolsonaro 's prosecution for trying to overturn his electoral defeat to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2022.

Trump’s relations with Lula seem to have improved in early May, when the Brazilian leader visited the White House, but then in June the U.S. government once again proposed 25% tariffs on imports from Brazil, claiming the world’s 10th-biggest economy engages in unreasonable trade practices.

Lula said that during his visit to Washington in early May, he handed Trump documents showing that the U.S. has a trade surplus with Brazil.

Eduardo Bolsonaro did not make comments about the Supreme Court's decision. He is campaigning for his brother Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, who is expected to challenge Lula in October's elections although his candidacy has faced a recent scandal related to a payment to a disgraced banker.

Eduardo and Flávio Bolsonaro recently visited U.S. officials in Washington, including Trump.

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

Family and friends of the 11 jumpers and pilot killed when their plane crashed shortly after taking off in Missouri said they loved their hobby — whether it was to find personal peace or to share a once-in-a-lifetime experience with others. They remembered the experienced skydivers as people who may have had regular jobs to pay their bills but free falling brought both the thrill and the serenity they craved.

Blake Thacker, 25, jumped for seven years since first skydiving on his 18th birthday. He was set to get his skydiving coach certification over the weekend, his mother Sherry said.

“Skydiving had given him the confidence to do other things in his life, to be successful and reach for things maybe he thought he wasn’t good enough to do," she said.

Thacker was an aviation software engineer and his mother saw that same methodical safety-oriented focus in his hobby.

“He said, ’Mom the danger in skydiving is really not the diving it’s the plane,'” she recalled.

Plane crashed shortly after takeoff

The plane was barely off the ground Sunday — only about 100 feet (30 meters) in the air — when it made an abrupt left turn before crashing on a sunny day. It appeared to be losing power, witnesses said.

Skydive Kansas City operated the single-engine turboprop Pacific Aerospace 750XL built in 2010 out of an airport in the small town of Butler, roughly 65 miles (105 kilometers) south of Kansas City.

The plane arrived in Butler for the first time on June 5, according to data from FlightRadar24.com. Pictures of the aircraft posted on social media showed it still had advertising from Chattanooga Skydiving Co. Its flight history showed it had previously been flying for weeks at a time in Tennessee and Wisconsin.

A woman who answered the phone at the Chattanooga Skydiving Co. hung up Tuesday when a reporter identified himself.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating all factors leading to the crash including how much experience the pilot had with this model of plane and any mechanical or structural problems with the aircraft.

The 12 people killed were identified as Thacker, Kurt John Roy, Michael Shanahan, David Hershberger, Sai Karthik Varma Datla, Matthew Swope, Dustin McKinney, Jen Sharp, Marcus Miller, Nicholas Nash, William Fischer and Dane Cordes, according to the Bates County Coroner's Office.

Skydiving helped one jumper get sober

McKinney’s wife said her husband was meticulous about safety when he jumped after his love for skydiving prompted him to get sober seven years ago.

“It feels like this is the only way that skydiving could have taken out Dustin, because it was such a freak accident,” Kathryn Nold said. “It was the most horrific thing. It’s still very surreal.”

McKinney, 44, worked at a furniture store and played drums in Kansas City-area bands. The father of two also had a part-time paying gig as a videographer for Skydive Kansas City.

“He could just immediately make people feel seen and warm and want to be around him, and I just feel infinitely lucky that we were the center of his world and able to experience that love from him that he gave so effortlessly to everyone,” Nold said of her high school sweetheart.

Honoring his sister by jumping

Shanahan took up skydiving just before his older sister Nikki died from breast cancer in 2016, his mother said Tuesday.

“He wanted to live his life and make it worth having fun, having a good time, doing something he enjoyed, and skydiving was something he had always wanted to do, unbeknownst to us,” Gloria Shanahan told The Associated Press.

Shanahan honored his sister by skydiving on her birthday, Mother’s Day and the anniversary of her death. He then visited her grave.

Shanahan, 54, jumped Saturday just for fun. He booked Sunday's jump as a backup in case the weather was bad but decided to go ahead and jump both days anyway, his mother said.

“We do not regret that he did. He got to live the life that he wanted to,” she said.

Shanahan's skydiving instructor was Hershberger, who was on the plane with him Sunday. The two had another bond. Hershberger taught violin to two of Shanahan’s grandchildren.

Hershberger, 54, also taught orchestra and played trumpet with the Kansas City Wind Symphony. His summers were spent at Skydive Kansas City, often harnessed to inexperienced jumpers exhilarated and nervous to cross something off their bucket lists.

Skydiving to find out more about yourself

Sharp, 55, took her first jump in 1989 when she was 18. Some 6,800 jumps later, she was a legendary instructor at the highest levels of the sport and the coach for Thacker's certification.

On her blog, Sharp wrote about how she jumped into Denver’s Coors Field ballpark while dressed as the queen of England and loved to go tandem with people skydiving for the first time and to see them test their resolve, grow personally and just feel alive.

“Being trained by Jen Sharp was like taking piano lessons from Beethoven,” her friend Greg Upper told The Associated Press, calling Sharp a philosopher. “That’s how big of a deal she was."

Swope, 39, worked in IT, but every weekend he was up in the sky as he searched for any bit of fun, especially something he could share with others, his best friend, Justin Williams, said.

“He loved it. He gets to take people on their once-in-a-lifetime adventure every weekend, multiple times a day,” Williams said.

After Swope's death, Williams said, he’s terrified to go skydiving again but also knows he has to because his friend knew to truly live is to take risks.

“It’s scary to be in the door, but the moment you let go, it dissolves away and induces a state of presence that you will not find anywhere else," Williams said of free falling. "You don’t worry about the future. You’re not sad about the past. You’re just present, and it’s the most peaceful experience.”

The skydiving industry says it has a strong safety record. The United States Parachute Association said that last year nearly 3.5 million jumps were completed and that 16 civilians died, the majority from human error.

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Associated Press reporters Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska; Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia; and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.6% and pulled 1.3% below its record set earlier this month. The market was nearly evenly split between stocks rising and falling, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 328 points, or 0.6%, to set a record for the second straight day. But drops for some influential tech stocks pulled the Nasdaq composite down 1.2%.

Stocks that had benefited from the boom in artificial-intelligence technology weighed on the market in particular following vicious swings over the last couple weeks.

They’ve been leading the market up and down amid worries that their stock prices shot too high in the mania around AI. That’s taken a toll because chip companies, makers of computer memory and other AI winners have grown so massive that they’ve become some of Wall Street’s most influential stocks.

Drops of 2.4% for Nvidia, 4.4% for Broadcom and 6.2% for Micron Technology were the heaviest weights pulling the S&P 500 lower.

Dave & Buster’s Entertainment sank 6.2% after reporting a weaker profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected, while Robinhood Markets fell 1.4% after the investing platform said that it’s laying off about 10% of its full-time employees.

On the winning side of Wall Street was SpaceX, which rose 4.8% for its third straight gain since its debut on the U.S. stock market. It said it’s moving forward with a purchase of Cursor, a popular AI coding assistant, valuing it at $60 billion.

Yum Brands climbed 1.9% after it said it’s selling the Pizza Hut chain for $2.7 billion. Most of the restaurants will go to LongRange Capital, a private equity firm. Those in mainland China will go to Yum China Holdings.

All told, the S&P 500 slipped 42.94 points to 7,511.35. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 328.64 to 51,999.67, and the Nasdaq composite fell 307.60 to 26,376.34.

The strongest action was in the oil market, where optimism continued that a tentative U.S.-Iran deal on their war will reopen the Strait of Hormuz at the end of the week and get the global flow of oil going again. The price for a barrel of Brent crude fell 5.1% to settle at $78.96.

Significant hurdles remain in the negotiations, including what to do with Iran’s nuclear program. But the hope on Wall Street is that this agreement will mean a long-term fix to a conflict that has worsened inflation around the world. The price of Brent has come down sharply from its $100-plus level of a few weeks ago, though it could still take months for the energy industry to get back to full speed.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose in Europe following a mixed performance in Asia.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 briefly topped 70,000 for the first time before ending with a modest gain of 0.1% after the Bank of Japan raised its benchmark interest rate to 1%. That’s its highest level in three decades, and it followed a similar move by the European Central Bank last week.

The Federal Reserve began its own meeting on what to do with interest rates Tuesday, with an announcement on the decision scheduled for Wednesday.

It’s the first meeting under the Fed’s new chair, Kevin Warsh, who was nominated by President Donald Trump. Trump has been pushing for lower interest rates, which would give the economy a boost but also threaten to worsen inflation. The widespread expectation, though, is that the Fed will leave its main interest rate alone again.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.43% from 4.47% late Monday and from 4.56% earlier this month.

High yields in bond markets worldwide caused by expensive oil prices have threatened to slow economies and undercut prices for all kinds of investments, including stocks and cryptocurrencies.

High yields have already sent mortgage rates higher, and a report on Tuesday said construction crews broke ground on far fewer new U.S. homes in May than economists expected.

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AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

In a series of talking points sent to Trump supporters and Republican members of Congress this week, the White House proclaimed major victories, such as Iran agreeing to never have a nuclear weapon, reopening the crucial Strait of Hormuz and fighting in Lebanon ending.

The talking points, on White House letterhead, were obtained by The Associated Press from two recipients of the document and go against some of the realities on the ground, especially regarding what Israel has agreed to in its conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

But the memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran, expected to be signed Friday in Switzerland, is still a closely guarded secret, even among Republican allies in Congress and the Israelis. That has led to confusion, concern and skepticism among all but the most hard-core Trump supporters about what has been agreed to.

Republicans acknowledged that the initial deal, by remaining under wraps, has created a vacuum that is being filled by potential misinformation.

“You don’t know what’s true and what’s not true — is it in there?” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. “My speculation is that it’s probably still being written and fine-tuned, and the administration is not ready to release it until it’s all done.”

Asked why he was not releasing the terms of the initial agreement, Trump told reporters Tuesday at the Group of Seven summit in France that he would “like to get a formal setting first before we do that.”

“I’ll not only release it,” he went on to say, “I’ll probably have a press conference and read it to you word by word, so that the press covers it accurately.”

Comparison with the Obama-era nuclear accord

Trump said he was open to submitting an eventual agreement to Congress for review and approval.

“I like the idea, send it to Congress please,” Trump said. “I mean who wouldn’t approve it?”

Yet submitting a nuclear agreement with Iran to Congress is not optional under a law that was passed following the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement reached by then-President Barack Obama, which Trump abandoned during his first administration. Some congressional aides argue that even the presumed memorandum of understanding to be signed Friday would also be subject to lawmakers' review.

The talking points claim that the Obama-era Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, was never signed, which is partly true but misleading. The foreign ministers who negotiated the agreement did sign a copy of the deal, although it was viewed as an informal document meant to memorialize the occasion.

More important, the JCPOA was endorsed and approved by the U.N. Security Council, which enshrined its provisions into international law.

“President Trump solved a threat Washington spent forty years managing," according to the talking points. “Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.” Copies of the talking points were provided to the AP by a congressional aide and an outside government adviser.

Iran’s position dating back decades is that it has no desire to develop a nuclear weapon. Many Iran critics doubt that pledge because the country has 440.9 kilograms (972 pounds) of uranium that is enriched up to 60% purity, a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90%, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Reopening the Strait of Hormuz

Meanwhile, the talking points say “the Strait of Hormuz is open again, and energy prices American families pay every day are coming down.”

“American Families Are the Big Winners,” the document says. “Start with what this means at home. American families no longer have to fear a nuclear-armed Iran. They are going to feel relief at the pump and at the grocery store.”

The Strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of the world's oil passed before the war began, had been open to all maritime traffic until Feb. 28 when Trump and Israel began attacking Iran. That means that an agreement to reopen the strait would start to return the situation to where it was on Feb. 27 before the U.S. and Israel spent billions of dollars to go to war. It could take weeks or even months for some normalcy to return.

Consumer prices in the United States and elsewhere only spiked after the war began and shipments of oil and other commodities through the strait were interrupted by Iran, which insists it will retain control of access to the crucial waterway no matter what.

Sanctions relief for Iran

The talking points say Iran will not receive any American taxpayer money for its eventual agreement with and adherence to an as-yet unnegotiated nuclear agreement and will only get financial incentives if it meets certain benchmarks.

They suggest that Obama's 2015 nuclear accord cost U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars, when the monetary sanctions relief provided to Iran then actually came from frozen Iranian assets and not the U.S. treasury.

The talking points mention “the pallets of cash” the U.S. sent to Iran after the JCPOA was signed. In fact, the shipment of cash, which came from an Iranian payment for a canceled arms sale to the late Shah of Iran's government, were unrelated to the nuclear deal.

That money was part of a swap that saw the release of several American citizens detained in Iran and of several Iranians imprisoned in the U.S.

Israel-Hezbollah fighting in Lebanon

The talking points trumpet Trump's claim that the agreement will end the Israel-Hezbollah conflict in Lebanon.

“This signed agreement ends military operations on every front," they say. “For the first time, that explicitly includes Lebanon, with a commitment to both Israel and Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

However, Hezbollah is not party to talks that have been taking place in the U.S. between Israel and Lebanon, and the Iranian-backed militant group has rejected any agreements reached during them. Israeli officials also have said they will not be bound by the terms of the tentative Iran-U.S. agreement and do not know the details of it.

“We’re less encouraged about the fact that it seems that Lebanon has been included in the agreement with Iran," Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter told NPR. “And we think that that’s unnecessary and unhelpful.”

A senior U.S. official told reporters that Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon was not a condition of the memorandum of understanding. The official spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity Monday to discuss outlines of the unreleased agreement.

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Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani in Geneva, Darlene Superville in Evian-les-Bains, France, Koral Saeed in Jerusalem, and Michelle L. Price and Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.

Midfielder Sebastian Berhalter gives credit for this tenacity to coach Mauricio Pochettino, who has taken over a team that repeatedly flopped on the international stage and infused it with a stronger mentality grounded in a few core beliefs.

“I think one is that we’re American. We don’t take s—-,” Berhalter said Tuesday.

“I think that’s something that (Pochettino) really put in,” Berhalter continued. “Even though he’s Argentinian, he has that mindset of, like, ‘Look, this is what we do, and this is who we are, and this is what America is about.’ So I think he just, you know, even from an outside perspective, he showed us Americans what we’re about. He really drilled that into us, and I think that’s something that has helped us this last cycle.”

That mentality was partly forged last October when the U.S. faced Australia in what turned into a scrappy 2-1 friendly victory in Colorado. Pochettino lambasted his team at halftime, imploring the players to stand up for themselves after the Socceroos delivered physical tackles and punishing play while U.S. midfielder Christian Pulisic left with an injury.

“Watching that game last year, you could see they were up for it,” said Berhalter, whose father, Gregg, coached the U.S. team before Pochettino. “They were putting in challenges, and I think that’s one of the reasons Mauricio had that halftime rant, and said, ‘These guys can’t kick us around.’ I think he was right.”

The players heard their coach's pleas, and they responded with an increased physicality in a game that ended with a combined 19 fouls and two yellow cards.

The Americans have largely kept it up since then, playing with a confidence and assertiveness that manifested throughout their 4-1 victory over Paraguay last Friday in Inglewood, California. Although they haven't racked up a string of impressive victories since Pochettino took over, the team's improvements in temperament and tactics have been obvious, and the World Cup could be the place where everything blossoms.

“That game in Colorado was fun,” winger Tim Weah said with a grin. “That experience was fun. It was aggressive. I think from that game, we’ve changed a lot. We’ve gotten a bit more aggressive as well.”

Pulisic's health is again a concern for the Americans after he was forced to work out on his own for the second straight training session Tuesday because of the calf injury that limited him to the first half against Paraguay. The team described its playmaking attacker as “day to day” for Friday's match in Seattle.

Even if Pulisic is limited again, the Americans believe they can go toe-to-toe with Australia again. Berhalter could play an important role after he made his World Cup debut by replacing Pulisic for the second half against Paraguay.

“It’s going to be a physical game, but a fun game, and we’re excited,” Berhalter said. "(The Socceroos) are going to fight. We like teams that have that brotherhood, you know? We like teams that you can see they’re hungry, they want to fight.”

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AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/fifa-world-cup

President Donald Trump nominated Blanche to lead the Justice Department this month, shortly after Blanche sparred with Republican senators in a contentious meeting about a $1.776 billion settlement fund. Blanche later testified that the fund would not go forward. But some Republican senators say they want more assurances from Blanche before they vote to confirm him as the nation's chief law enforcement officer.

“It’ll be an issue if the weaponization fund isn’t effectively dead by the confirmation hearing,” said GOP Sen. Thom Tillis, a potential swing vote on the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Because I still have a real problem with it being out there.”

Another member of the committee, Texas Sen. John Cornyn, said Tuesday he had met with Blanche but that he would not make a decision until after the confirmation hearings, which are expected on July 15 and 16.

Trump fired his first attorney general, Pam Bondi, in April, and elevated Blanche to be acting attorney general. Blanche, who worked as one of Trump’s personal lawyers before joining the administration, will need support from all 12 Republicans on the Judiciary panel for his nomination to move forward, if all Democrats vote against him.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Tuesday that Blanche will get a fair hearing, “and if he comes to the floor, we’ll do everything we can to get him scheduled and voted on, and hopefully confirmed.”

“We’ll let the process play out,” Thune said.

Blanche was on Capitol Hill meeting with senators Tuesday as he worked to shore up support.

Republicans seek assurances about fund

The questions over Blanche’s confirmation come at a time of heightened tensions between the Senate and the White House.

Blanche has been a public face of some of Trump’s most controversial actions, most recently the anti-weaponization fund that enraged many Republican senators.

The anger boiled over during a closed-door Senate meeting in May, when lawmakers confronted Blanche over the proposal. Sen. Ted Cruz later described it on his podcast as “one of the roughest meetings I’ve seen in my entire time in the Senate.”

Blanche told a House panel this month that “we are not moving forward with the fund, period.” But Tillis and other Republicans have sought further guarantees that the settlement fund would not survive.

Cornyn said his meeting with Blanche on Tuesday was “positive” and that Blanche had promised an additional briefing on a provision of the IRS settlement that would grant Trump and his family immunity from IRS audits.

Path to confirmation is narrow

A former federal prosecutor in New York, Blanche played a lead on Trump’s defense team, including during the Republican president's hush money trial in New York. Democrats and other critics have long accused him of still acting like Trump’s personal lawyer, particularly as the Justice Department pursues longtime Trump foes.

“Democrats are going to fight this confirmation with everything we have, and if Republicans have any respect for the rule of law, they’ll do the same,” said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

The biggest test for Blanche's nomination is expected to come in the committee. Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., predicted Tuesday that Blanche would be confirmed but that it would be “tough.”

“Read the room,” Kennedy said.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said he expects Blanche to be confirmed, pointing to the overwhelming Republican support he received when he was confirmed as deputy attorney general last year.

The hearings, however, will take place as the Senate races to clear a packed legislative agenda before its monthlong August recess. Among the unfinished business is legislation to restore a key foreign surveillance authority that lapsed last week.

Still, Grassley said he believes Blanche can be confirmed before senators leave town.

“I think we could easily get it done before the August break,” he said.

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Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer contributed.

Jacksonville Beach police reviewed surveillance footage that showed the man arrive at the station about 8:06 p.m., enter the secured rear lot through an open gate and get into a marked 2021 Ford F-150 patrol truck containing a department K-9, police said.

The footage shows him leave the rear lot, return to the department’s front parking area and park for about 13 minutes before driving away.

Officers located the truck and conducted a traffic stop about 8:32 p.m. at 1 9th Street South, taking the man into custody without incident, the report said. Police said department-issued firearms were in the vehicle when it was taken.

The department’s K-9, Furyk, a Belgian Malinois valued at about $15,000, was recovered, along with the patrol truck, which police estimated at roughly $40,000, according to the report.

After being read his Miranda rights, the man acknowledged he had trespassed on police property and taken the vehicle, the arrest report said.

Police noted signs of intoxication and listed cocaine as a drug of abuse in the report; investigators also said the man’s daughter had recently reported a concerning decline in his mental condition.

He was booked into the county jail on charges that include burglary of a conveyance while armed, theft of a motor vehicle, grand theft and trespassing on posted law-enforcement property, according to police

Yum Brands said Tuesday that the private equity firm LongRange Capital will buy Pizza Hut, excluding the mainland China business, for about $1.5 billion.

In mainland China, Pizza Hut will be purchased by Yum China Holdings Inc. for approximately $1.2 billion, the company said. China is Pizza Hut's second-largest market outside the U.S., accounting for 19% of sales. Yum China Holdings Inc. spun off from Yum Brands and became an independent company in 2016.

Yum Brands, which also owns KFC and Taco Bell, began to explore its options for Pizza Hut in November. Last year, Yum Brands' global sales rose 5% but Pizza Hut's sales fell 2%.

In February, Yum Brands announced plans to close 250 U.S. Pizza Hut locations. Pizza Hut had 19,974 restaurants worldwide at the end of last year.

“Pizza Hut has long been the weak link in Yum’s portfolio,” Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, wrote Tuesday. “Despite efforts to revitalize the brand and shut underperforming locations, it has become increasingly clear that pushing the division back into growth will require a level of investment and patience that Yum is just not prepared to commit to.”

Pizza Hut was founded in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas, by two brothers who borrowed $600 from their mother to open the store. They chose the name because their sign only had room for eight letters.

Pizza Hut’s familiar red roof debuted in 1969 and by 1971 it was the top pizza chain in the world by sales. PepsiCo acquired Pizza Hut in 1977 but spun off its restaurant division — which became Yum Brands — in 1997.

By the 1980s, Domino's was the fastest-growing U.S. pizza company, buoyed by its promise of 30-minute delivery. As pizza carryout and delivery grew in popularity, Pizza Hut was saddled with large, dine-in restaurants. In 2020, even as pizza delivery boomed during the COVID-19 pandemic, Pizza Hut closed 300 U.S. restaurants.

The chain has been further pinched in recent years by the growth of DoorDash, Uber Eats and other restaurant delivery companies which marketed access to a slew of cuisines besides pizza.

U.S. pizza sales have slowed considerably since the pandemic, growing less than 1% in 2024 and falling less than 1% in 2025, according to Technomic, a restaurant consulting company. But Pizza Hut performed worse than average, with U.S. sales down 8.2% last year, Technomic said.

By selling Pizza Hut, Yum Brands can focus more on its brands with stronger sales, Yum CEO Chris Turner said.

“Under LongRange and Yum China, Pizza Hut will be well positioned for future growth with ownership that brings deep expertise in the restaurant industry," Turner said in a statement.

Connecticut-based LongRange Capital was founded in 2019 by Bob Berlin, who previously engineered a turnaround at Arby's when he led private equity investments at The Baupost Group. Berlin said Tuesday he looked forward to working with Pizza Hut's executive team and franchisees “to drive its next phase of growth.”

“Pizza Hut is a beloved global brand with a rich heritage and a loyal customer base that few brands can match,” Berlin said in a statement.

Asked Tuesday if LongRange planned to close any Pizza Hut locations, the company said it had no comment beyond Berlin's statement.

Yum Brands, based in Louisville, Kentucky, expects the sale in U.S. and China to close in the third quarter. The company's stock rose nearly 2% Tuesday.

Britain's Defense Ministry launched an investigation after the yacht reported being fired on by a Russian navy vessel about 20 nautical miles (23 miles, 37 kilometers) south of the Isle of Wight, outside U.K. territorial waters.

There were no reports of injuries or damage to the sailing yacht, which continued its journey from the U.K. toward France.

The BBC reported that the yacht, which has no motor, had drifted toward the Russian vessel in foggy conditions.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said the crew of the frigate Admiral Grigorovich tried to contact the yacht when it was seen sailing on a “dangerous course in close proximity with the warship.” It said the ship's crew launched flares and issued sound signals when the yacht did not respond.

“After the distance had closed to 150 meters (500 feet), the frigate’s commander decided to fire warning shots across the vessel’s bow using small arms,” the ministry said. It said the yacht then changed course and sailed away.

The ministry said the ship's crew “acted in strict accordance” with international navigation rules to avoid a collision.

Britain's account of the incident was similar.

“Following attempts to contact a British vessel in the channel, the Grigorovich fired warning shots. These were not aimed at the vessel and were an attempt to prevent a possible collision," Britain's Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Russian warships passing through the English Channel are routinely shadowed by the Royal Navy, and patrol vessel HMS Mersey was monitoring the Russian ship at the time of the reported incident and provided support to the yacht's crew.

The British military said last month that it had monitored the Admiral Grigorovich throughout April as the Russian ship escorted six Russia-linked civilian vessels near the U.K.

The altercation occurred two days after British commandos boarded and detained a sanctioned tanker in the Channel that is suspected of being part of the Russian “shadow fleet.” British defense officials said they don't believe the two events are linked.

The tanker's captain, an Indian national charged with shipping Russian oil in violation of international sanctions over Moscow’s war on Ukraine, was ordered held in jail after appearing Tuesday in court.

The British military has had several close encounters with Russian vessels in the region and warned Moscow in November that it was ready to deal with any incursion into its territory after the spy ship Yantar was detected on the edge of U.K. waters north of Scotland.

In April, Britain and Norway said they had tracked a Russian attack sub and two spy submarines operating north of the U.K. for several weeks.

A Royal Navy frigate, aircraft and hundreds of personnel spent weeks following the Russian vessels and prevented them from carrying out “nefarious” activities against underwater infrastructure, then-Defense Secretary John Healey said.

He accused Moscow of using the distraction of the Iran war to ramp up malign activity against Europe.

Five years ago, Russia said one of its warships fired warning shots and a warplane dropped bombs in the Black Sea to force the British destroyer HMS Defender out of an area near Crimea that Moscow claimed as its territorial waters.

The U.K. denied that account and insisted its ship wasn’t fired upon. It was the first time since the Cold War that Moscow acknowledged using live ammunition to deter a NATO warship, reflecting the growing risk of military incidents amid soaring tensions between Russia and the West. The incident occurred about six months before Russia invaded Ukraine.

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An earlier version of this story said the incident occurred about 20 miles south of the Isle of Wight. It is 20 nautical miles, or 23 miles.

Hit-and-miss showers and thunderstorms have left puddles in some neighborhoods, while others remain dry under cloudy skies. Much like yesterday, scattered showers with isolated storms will leave a trace to an inch and change of rain. Scattered showers and thunderstorms will be possible through sunset, with a few lingering through 10-11 p.m.

Partly cloudy skies and patchy fog will start our Wednesday, with near-seasonal highs and thunderstorms developing in the afternoon and evening. Locally heavy downpours, gusty winds, and frequent lightning will be the main hazards with these storms.

The heat returns Thursday and Friday, with possible heat advisories. The unsettled pattern continues through Saturday. Seasonal temperatures are expected this weekend. The first day of summer and Father’s Day will be a little drier. Late-day storms will be possible, but with much less coverage than previous days.

Tonight: Showers and thunderstorms through around 10-11 p.m.

Wednesday: Scattered showers with thunderstorms will develop along the southwest breeze. Strong to isolated severe storms will be possible. Lows in the 70s, with highs in the 80s and 90s. Rain chance 40-70 percent, mainly from around noon through 10 p.m. Wind: SW 10-15 mph.

Thursday: Possible heat advisories. Showers with afternoon thunderstorms, 40-60 percent. Lows in the 70s. Highs in the 80s to low 90s. Wind: SW 10-15 mph. Feels like temperatures 100-107 degrees.

Looking ahead: Scattered showers with storms expected Saturday, with drier weather expected on Sunday.

Tropics: Potential Tropical Cyclone One has formed. https://www.news4jax.com/weather/2026/06/16/we-could-have-our-1st-named-storm-of-the-atlantic-hurricane-season-by-wednesday/

Sunrise: 6:24 p.m.

Sunset: 8:31 p.m.

Uncertainty lingered over the situation through the team's elimination in Game 6 of the final against Carolina on Sunday night. General manager Kelly McCrimmon announced Tuesday that Tortorella would not be back.

“We thank Torts for the guidance he provided our team since joining the organization in March,” McCrimmon said. “When the decision was made to bring Torts to Vegas, we needed an immediate impact to help us at a pivotal point in the season. Torts’ experience and leadership proved to be the boost that we were looking for, helping guide us to the Stanley Cup Final. We are grateful for Torts’ passion, sincerity, and commitment to our organization, and we wish him and his family the best.”

McCrimmon hired Tortorella on March 30 when he fired Bruce Cassidy with eight games left in the season. The Golden Knights won seven of them and then got through three rounds before losing to the Hurricanes in the final.

Players spoke highly of how Tortorella handled jumping in this spring, and that praise continued on exit day after finding out he would not return. Rasmus Andersson said Tortorella “was a perfect fit at a perfect time for us.”

“Torts was awesome,” fellow defenseman Shea Theodore said. “I think he was really what our group needed at the end to kind of push us in the playoffs. A lot of credit to him. He was a fantastic coach.”

Tortorella, who turns 68 next week, is 22 years removed from coaching Tampa Bay to the Stanley Cup in 2004. After his time with the Lightning, he spent time running the bench for the New York Rangers, Vancouver, Columbus and Philadelphia and was out of the league for roughly a year before getting the call from McCrimmon.

“It’s a tough situation for a coach to come in with that little time left," said Vegas' Noah Hanifin, who won gold at the Olympics when Tortorella was on staff as an assistant. “And just the way he was able to kind of get us back on the right track fast, and give us a chance, was pretty impressive.”

Tortorella took criticism in recent days for deciding to stick with goaltender Carter Hart, whose .863 save percentage was the lowest in the final since Minnesota's Jon Casey in 1991. Hart and Tortorella overlapped with the Flyers from '22-24.

McCrimmon is scheduled to speak to reporters on Wednesday. One avenue Vegas could go with for Tortorella's successor is promoting Ryan Craig, who has been coach of its top affiliate, the Henderson Silver Knights of the American Hockey League, for the past three seasons.

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AP freelance writer W.G. Ramirez in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

The call to action was issued at the 11th Our Ocean Conference in Mombasa, the first time an African nation has hosted the major annual event, which focuses on addressing critical ocean issues, including climate change, biodiversity and pollution.

Hundreds of delegates from Africa, the United States, the European Union, and climate-vulnerable Caribbean and Pacific island nations are taking part in the conference, where leaders have sought to position Africa as a driving force in global ocean governance.

Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in his opening remarks at the Commonwealth Ocean Ministers’ Roundtable that the High Seas Treaty, which came into effect in January after ratification by 60 countries, marked a historic turning point by creating, for the first time, a legal mechanism to establish protected areas in international waters.

But he warned that progress remained too slow.

“We have 10% of the ocean under protection this year,” Kerry said. “That is worth marking. But only 3% is highly or fully protected, and the rest of the protections are, unfortunately, just lines on a map.”

Kerry said that industrial fishing fleets continue to exploit the oceans, with some vessels operating thousands of miles from home and using massive nets that indiscriminately catch marine life.

“Ratify it if you haven’t, and move immediately to implementation,” he urged countries, noting that key decisions on the future of the treaty will be taken next year.

The treaty, formally known as the Agreement on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction, aims to help countries achieve a global target of protecting 30% of the world’s land and oceans by 2030.

The Kenyan Cabinet secretary of maritime affairs, Hassan Joho, said that governments must now shift from promises to tangible action.

“The purpose of this roundtable is not to restate ambition, but to convert such pledges into measurable results for our communities, our economies and our oceans,” Joho said.

Joho noted that since 2014, the One Ocean Conference has generated more than 2,900 pledges worth more than $169 billion. The challenge, he said, is to turn them into effective management of marine ecosystems.

The Commonwealth’s 56 member states collectively account for 36% of the world’s ocean jurisdiction and nearly half of its coral reefs, giving the bloc a unique responsibility in protecting marine resources.

Africa, meanwhile, is increasingly setting itself as a leader in ocean conservation.

Kerry praised African countries for championing transboundary marine protection and pointed to commitments by eight Gulf of Guinea nations to sustainably manage all of their waters by 2030.

“A region long described as a victim of ocean exploitation is now choosing to lead instead,” he said.

The East African nation has adopted integrated coastal management plans, expanded marine protected areas and stepped up efforts to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. Its 640-kilometer (400-mile) coastline and vast exclusive economic zone support fisheries, tourism and other sectors that sustain millions of livelihoods.

As negotiations continue in Mombasa, delegates say the coming months will be critical in determining whether the new treaty becomes a transformative tool for ocean conservation or another set of international promises that fail to materialize.

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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. ___

This story has been corrected to show that the city in the dateline is Mombasa, not Nairobi.

The 28-year-old American sprinter clocked 14.67 seconds to beat a field of runners including Australia’s sprint sensation Gout Gout.

Lyles, who won the 100 at the Paris Games and is four-time world champion in the 200, capitalized on a fast start before using his speed to cruise to the finish line.

He beat the previous best set by Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson at 14.92 in April at Miramar, Florida.

Sinesipho Dambile of South Africa finished second Tuesday in 14.78, also beating the previous best, and Gout was third in 14.96.

The 18-year-old Gout set the under-20 world record time in the 200 that was faster than Usain Bolt’s best at that age in winning the Australian open title in 19.67 seconds in April.

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

The actor may have ended months of speculation triggered by Zendaya’s stylist Law Roach’s claim in March that the couple had already held a wedding. In a very 2026 twist, artificial intelligence played a role in the reveal.

When Holland was asked by Esquire U.K. whether he had to inform family members about AI images that appear to show him and Zendaya at their wedding, the actor replied, “No, because they were all there.”

“That’s all you’ll get on that,” he said of the matter.

Elsewhere, in the story published Tuesday, Holland gushed about how the couple supported each other behind the camera.

"Our business can present very stressful situations and it’s really nice to have a bedrock of a relationship that will stand the test of time,” he said.

“So, for me, I found my person. She’s my best friend, and I’m the happiest I ever have been when I’m with her, but I also have never felt so supported and safe, ever. Period.”

Holland and Zendaya first met when they co-starred in the 2017 movie “Spider-Man: Homecoming.” They star together in big movies this summer: “The Odyssey” and “Spider-Man: Brand New Day.”

A team spokesman described Pulisic as “day to day” after his second straight day doing individual workouts while his teammates practiced at the U.S. training base in Orange County. The Americans' next game is against Australia in Seattle on Friday.

Pulisic was limited to one half of action in the Americans' World Cup-opening 4-1 victory over Paraguay last Friday at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.

The AC Milan forward was stellar in the first match of his second World Cup. He recorded an assist on Folarin Balogun's first goal, and he caused an own-goal by Paraguay with his playmaking from relentless runs down the left side of the U.S. attack.

Pulisic was kicked in the back of his left calf during training last week, and he was removed from the win over Paraguay at halftime when he felt stiffness. The U.S. was already ahead 3-0 after its highest-scoring half in a World Cup match.

Coach Mauricio Pochettino described the decision to shorten Pulisic's appearance as precautionary.

“I’m hoping I’ll be fine the next few days," Pulisic said after the match. "Just the back of my leg, sort of my calf area. I’m staying positive. I don’t think it’s anything.”

After traveling to Seattle, the Americans return to Inglewood on June 25 to conclude group play against Turkey.

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AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/fifa-world-cup

Serena and Venus Williams won a combined 21 titles on the storied grass of the All England Club in their singles and doubles careers and now they're going for one more.

A doubles wild card invitation for the sisters was announced on Tuesday by organizers of Wimbledon, which starts in less than two weeks.

The move comes after 44-year-old Serena recently returned to competition after nearly four years away from professional tennis.

Venus, who has still been competing sporadically, turns 46 on Wednesday.

“I think it’s going to be fun. My daughter, Olympia, told me I should play with Venus. She’s always right,” Serena said after losing a doubles match with another partner, Karolina Muchova, in Berlin on Tuesday. “So I said, “OK Olympia, we’ll see if we can do it.”

The sisters have won 14 Grand Slam titles together in doubles, including six at Wimbledon — the first of them in 2000 and the last in 2016. Their first two doubles titles at Wimbledon, in 2000 and 2002, came as wild cards.

In all, their records at the All England Club look like this: Seven singles titles for Serena and five singles titles for Venus at Wimbledon; those six Wimbledon doubles titles together; a mixed doubles title for Serena with Max Mirnyi at Wimbledon in 1998; plus a singles gold medal for Serena at the 2012 London Olympics and a doubles gold for the sisters at the same Games. Count 'em up and it makes for 21 trophies and medals — because their powerful serves always did more damage on grass than any other surface.

With their six titles, the Williams sisters share the record for most trophies as a pair in women’s doubles at Wimbledon with Suzanne Lenglen and Elizabeth Ryan, who won five consecutive titles from 1919 to 1923 and a sixth in in 1925.

The Williams sisters last played doubles together at the 2022 U.S. Open, where they lost their opening match. That was the first time they played doubles together in 4 ½ years.

In her first competition since 2022, Serena won her doubles match with partner Victoria Mboko at Queen’s Club in London last week and then the pair had to withdraw after Mboko injured her knee in a singles match.

At the Berlin Open on Tuesday, Serena and Muchova were beaten 6-4, 6-4 by Giuliana Olmos and Erin Routliffe.

Singles wild card spot left open

Serena has not ruled out a return in singles, too, and one of the eight wild card spots for women’s singles was left as “to be announced.”

Recent French Open finalist Maja Chwalinska received a singles wild card, as did six British women: Harriet Dart, Alicia Dudeney, Hannah Klugman, Mika Stojsavljevic, Katie Swan, and Mimi Xu.

Wawrinka, Dimitrov and Kyrgios

Men’s singles wild cards went to Stan Wawrinka and Grigor Dimitrov and four British players: Jacob Fearnley, Arthur Fery, Jack Pinnington Jones and Toby Samuel.

Wawrinka, a three-time Grand Slam champion whose best result at Wimbledon was reaching the quarterfinals twice, plans to retire at the end of the year.

Dimitrov led eventual champion Jannik Sinner two sets to none in the round of 16 last year before having to retire early in the third due to an injured pectoral muscle. Dimitrov is now ranked No. 169.

Two more men’s singles wild cards were also left open.

In men’s doubles, a wild card went to the pairing of Alexander Bublik and Nick Kyrgios. Kyrgios was a singles finalist in 2022.

Matteo Berrettini, a Wimbledon finalist in 2021, was left off the list despite a quarterfinal appearance at the French Open. He’s ranked No. 49 but was ranked outside the top 100 when Wimbledon’s entry list was established. Still, Berrettini could get direct entry into the main draw depending on withdrawals.

Wimbledon starts June 29.

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AP Sports Writer Ciaran Fahey in Berlin contributed to this report.

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

The spat reportedly led to the resignation of one of the team’s media officers on Tuesday. The national team has yet to confirm the resignation, which has been reported by some of the media covering the South Korean squad in Guadalajara.

Access for the media had apparently been cut off after the comments against Son were caught on camera. Players reportedly refrained from speaking to South Korean media outside official World Cup commitments, and scheduled interviews with players were canceled.

Mexican media said there was a meeting between the team's media officers and the South Korean media to discuss the incident.

There was no media access scheduled on Tuesday. The pre-match news conference is scheduled for Wednesday.

The South Korean soccer association said it regretted “the inappropriate remarks made by some media personnel during the national football team’s training at the Guadalajara base camp.” The organization added the comments caused “great shock and disappointment” within the squad.

The incident occurred during an open training session on June 7, days before South Korea beat the Czech Republic 2-1 in its first World Cup match.

The 33-year-old Son, running with teammates, was mocked by unidentified media personnel over his military record in footage recorded by broadcaster JTBC, South Korea’s official rights holder for the tournament. The video was later leaked, prompting a strong reaction on social media.

By helping South Korea win gold at the 2018 Asian Games, Son earned an exemption from the mandatory 21-month military service required of able-bodied men.

Son later completed alternative duties, including a three-week military training course in 2020 and community service.

The federation said in Monday's statement that it “will continue to prioritize the protection of the squad and strive to create a healthy media environment.”

Son, who left Tottenham for Los Angeles FC a year ago, missed chances in the victory over the Czech Republic, with Hwang In-beom and Oh Hyeon-gyu scoring in Guadalajara.

South Korea plays again in Guadalajara on Thursday when it faces Mexico in Group A.

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Duerden reported from London.

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

Not just any soccer game, a World Cup match.

The international soccer tournament, held every four years, is ongoing at 16 sites in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Those include 11 markets that are also home to a combined 13 Major League Baseball teams.

Kansas City, where the Cardinals open a three-game series Thursday, is hosting six World Cup matches at the NFL stadium in the same complex with the Royals' ballpark. The Cardinals and Royals will be off Saturday, when Ecuador plays Curaçao.

“That is the goal, yes,” Marmol said when asked if he was going to that match.

Royals first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino and his wife, who played soccer at Old Dominion, plan to be there.

“It’s strange, but it’s special circumstances,” Pasquantino said. “It’s awesome that Kansas City got access to World Cup games. So, however many years until the United States hosts again, we’ll be all right with some off days like that.”

World Cup matches are being played in the United States for the first time since 1994.

Getting their kicks in Texas

A tournament-high nine matches are being played at AT&T Stadium, the home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys that is adjacent to Globe Life Field. The neighboring Texas Rangers will host two split series, but also have a Monday off between home series on July 6, the day of a round of 16 match.

Texas is now in a three-game series against Minnesota that will finish Thursday, after a pause Wednesday when powerhouse England plays its Cup opener against Croatia.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Rangers designated hitter Joc Pederson, who played soccer as a kid in California.

The Rangers completed a road trip Sunday in Boston, with thousands of Scottish fans chanting and singing at Fenway Park the night after Scotland won the opener of its first World Cup appearance in 28 years. That win over Haiti was at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, about 30 miles away.

Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said the presence of the Tartan Army made it feel like a European soccer game. He and members of his staff now want to attend the World Cup.

“It was so much fun that on the off day the majority of our staff is trying to find a way to get tickets to go to a game that they know really nothing about because of the atmosphere that was so incredible,” Schumaker said. “The passion was insane.”

In Philadelphia, the Phillies will be off Friday during their home series against the New York Mets since Brazil plays Haiti at nearby Lincoln Financial Field.

Like for the Rangers, Royals and Seattle Mariners, the home of the Phillies is next to an NFL stadium hosting some of the 104 matches during the nearly six-week tournament with teams from 48 nations. Those stadiums all have shared parking lots.

Texas and Kansas City are both off for round of 32 Cup matches on July 3, a Friday. The Rangers will have already opened a series against Detroit, while the Royals wait to start an unusual Saturday through Monday series against the Phillies.

Not all of the matches are next door

Either the Mets or Yankees have a home game on each of the eight dates World Cup matches are at MetLife Stadium across the river in New Jersey, including the championship finale July 19, when the Yankees also host Shohei Ohtani and the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers. Yankee Stadium is about 14 miles from the Meadowlands, with Citi Field about 24 miles away.

World Cup matches at SoFi Stadium will be about 13 miles from Dodger Stadium and 35 miles from Angel Stadium. Either the Dodgers or Angels play at home on six of the eight match dates in Inglewood. Those other two dates fall on normal off days during a homestand, one for each team.

With separation between stadiums, Atlanta, Boston, Houston, Miami and Toronto all will play multiple home games that concur with World Cup matches in their markets.

Mariners and Red Sox almost played two

There will still be a split series for the Angels when they go to Seattle, with a midweek break July 1 for a round of 16 Cup match.

The Mariners were originally scheduled to have a home doubleheader Saturday against Boston with the United States playing Australia in Seattle. But when match time at Lumen Field was set at noon local Friday, the Mariners and Red Sox switched to a traditional three-game series with the opener that night, instead of playing MLB's first scheduled doubleheader in two years.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national, was arraigned on 17 counts, including first-degree murder, in the new indictment handed up by a federal grand jury in Washington. Lakanwal originally pleaded not guilty in January to nine charges in the November 2025 shooting that killed Spc. Sarah Beckstrom and critically wounded Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe.

Before the Justice Department announces whether it will seek the death penalty against Lakanwal, his defense attorneys can meet with prosecutors and present any evidence that they believe weighs against a death sentence.

Beckstrom, 20, and Wolfe, 24, were deployed with the West Virginia National Guard for the federal law-enforcement surge that began in August in Washington, D.C., at the direction of President Donald Trump.

Lakanwal is accused of driving to the nation’s capital from Bellingham, Washington, while in possession of a stolen firearm and ambushing the two Guard members outside a subway station three blocks from the White House.

Another National Guard member heard gunshots and saw Beckstrom and Wolfe fall to the ground as Lakanwal fired a gun and screamed, “Allahu Akbar!” according to a police report.

Lakanwal, who was shot during the confrontation, was seated in a wheelchair during his arraignment on Tuesday. He didn't speak during the hearing; one of his attorneys entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.

Lakanwal entered the U.S. in 2021 through a Biden administration program that evacuated and resettled tens of thousands of Afghans after the U.S. withdrawal from the country. Lakanwal worked with the American government, including the CIA, “as a member of a partner force” in Kandahar, Afghanistan, CIA Director John Ratcliffe has said.

Lakanwal is due back in court Sept. 16. A trial date for his case hasn't been scheduled yet.

Jim Troupis, a former judge who was Trump’s Wisconsin campaign attorney, Mike Roman, Trump’s director of Election Day operations in 2020, and Ken Chesebro, a former Trump legal adviser, all entered the pleas in Dane County Circuit Court.

Troupis, who lives in the Madison area, appeared in person. Roman and Chesebro appeared via Zoom.

The Wisconsin fake electors case is moving forward even as others in the battleground states of Michigan and Georgia have faltered. A special prosecutor last year dropped a federal case alleging Trump conspired to overturn the 2020 election. Another case in Nevada is still alive.

The fake elector scheme, under which Republican electors in battleground states submitted documentation to Congress attesting that Trump had won their states even though he lost to Joe Biden, originated in Wisconsin.

Troupis, Chesebro and Roman argue that they committed no crime and were just trying to keep their options alive in case a court ruled that Trump had actually won the state.

But prosecutors allege that the three defendants defrauded the 10 Wisconsin Republican electors who cast their ballots for Trump in 2020.

Prosecutors contend that Troupis, Chesebro and Roman lied to the electors about how the certificate they signed would be used as part of a plan to submit paperwork to then-Vice President Mike Pence, falsely claiming that Trump had won the battleground state that year.

A majority of the electors told investigators that they did not believe their signatures on the elector certificate would be submitted to Congress without a court ruling, the complaint said. Also, a majority said they did not consent to having their signatures presented as if Trump had won without such a court ruling, the complaint said.

The arraignment on Tuesday came two years and two weeks after the first charges were brought against the three by Wisconsin Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul. Troupis, Chesebro and Roman face 11 felony forgery charges which are each punishable by up to six years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Troupis and Roman both filed motions seeking to relocate the trial from Dane County, which includes Madison, to neighboring Jefferson County, saying negative publicity had tainted the potential jury pool.

Trump carried Jefferson County by 15 percentage points in 2020. He lost Dane County by nearly 53 points.

“This case is headed to trial,” Troupis attorney Joe Bugni wrote in Troupis' motion. “No question. Neither side is going to blink. And when we get to trial, Troupis has the right to a fair and impartial jury.”

Troupis and Roman also argued that one of the 11 felony counts against them should be dropped because Trump issued a pardon for any federal crimes related to their work on the fake elector scheme. They argued that the state can't prosecute them over the casting of electoral votes, which is a federal process, and therefore Trump's pardon applies.

Trump also pardoned Chesebro.

The judge said Tuesday he would set a schedule to hear arguments on those motions.

The state charges against the Trump attorneys and aide are the only ones in Wisconsin. None of the electors have been charged. The 10 Wisconsin electors, Chesebro and Troupis all settled a lawsuit that was brought against them by Democrats seeking damages.

The demonstration, organized by Indivisible JAX Riverside and joined by groups including Beaches Activist Movement, Indivisible Mandarin, Indivisible St. Johns County, JaxNOW, Take Em Down, the Democratic Women’s Information Network and 50501 Vets, coincided with the first day of a two-day DHS career fair.

Organizers said the protest was a response to what they described as an aggressive nationwide recruitment effort and the expansion of federal immigration enforcement.

“We’re out here today to protest DHS, Department of Homeland Security, having a job fair in our city to increase ICE agents and increase the abuse that’s happening right now,” protester Montessa Bryant said.

Protesters voiced concerns about immigration detention and enforcement practices.

“We’ve seen all of the abuses of ICE,” Bryant said.

Gloria Einstein, another protester, said she felt compelled to speak out against current immigration policies.

“We’re imprisoning people who committed no crimes and making them subject to these awful conditions,” Einstein said. “It’s just intolerable and I feel the need to protest it any way I can.”

The coalition said it opposes what it views as the militarization of interior enforcement, accelerated training models and a lack of accountability within federal agencies. Organizers also raised concerns about alleged racial and language profiling by federal agents and cited reports from advocacy organizations regarding shootings and deaths in ICE custody.

Inside the expo, however, attendees expressed a different perspective.

Many job seekers said they were focused on finding stable employment and opportunities to serve the public.

“We’re just here to better ourselves and hopefully get the career we want,” said Gesco Camile, who attended the event.

Camile said a desire to serve motivated his interest in DHS careers.

“I have a deep sense of justice and integrity, so I want to serve people,” he said. “And the Department of Homeland Security, they serve America, so what a better place to work for.”

Chester Wilson, another attendee, said employment opportunities were his primary concern.

“I think the most important thing is that we could all continue to be employed, all continue to support the country and give all that we can give,” Wilson said.

According to a DHS flyer, the recruiting event includes opportunities with several agencies, including Customs and Border Protection and the Transportation Security Administration.

DHA Spokesperson Daniel Velez said there’s a big focus on hiring TSA agents with another concourse opening soon at the Jacksonville International Airport.

“Anytime an airport grows or we get more security screening lanes or a bigger footprint at an airport, we’re definitely going to look to bring in officers,” Velez said.

The flyer states DHS’s mission includes enforcing immigration laws, securing U.S. borders, safeguarding cyber infrastructure, protecting national leaders and countering terrorism.

“Our priority is securing the homeland and keeping the American people safe,” the flyer says, adding that DHS operates “by air, land, sea, and cyberspace.”

The flyer invites veterans, transitioning service members, military spouses, students and experienced professionals to attend and explore career opportunities across areas such as law enforcement, cybersecurity, immigration services and logistics.

The DHS career expo continues Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Prime F. Osborn III Convention Center. Protest organizers said they plan to return Wednesday morning.

For more information on job opportunities, click here.

The storms threatened to bring heavy downpours that could lead to dangerous floods across southern states including Texas and Louisiana. The system was centered Tuesday afternoon about 55 miles (85 kilometers) south-southwest of Corpus Christi, Texas, according to a hurricane center advisory.

National Hurricane Center director Michael Brennan said meteorologists are expecting the system to strengthen, possibly into a tropical storm by early Wednesday. But coastal areas could experience tropical storm conditions this week, even if the system doesn’t officially get a name, Brennan said.

“The main hazard with these types of systems is largely the flooding from the heavy rainfall,” Brennan said. “And we could see potentially life-threatening flash and urban flooding across the Texas coast eastward into central Mississippi through Thursday. Prolonged rainfall may extend the flood threat into the weekend.”

Tornadoes were possible from the upper Texas coast across southern Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, forecasters said.

The storm's maximum sustained winds were around 30 mph (45 kph) Tuesday, just shy of the 39 mph (63 kph) needed to be named a tropical storm. The system had a 70% chance of forming into a tropical cyclone over the next two days, the hurricane center said.

Houston, where a World Cup match between Portugal and the Democratic Republic of the Congo is scheduled for Wednesday, has been under a flood warning since Monday. The stadium is covered, and no plans have been announced to move or reschedule the match.

By Thursday, the storms could drop 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters) of rain, with isolated totals of a foot (30 centimeters) in coastal areas.

A tropical storm watch was already in effect from Sargent, Texas, to Morgan City, Louisiana. Rough surf could cause rip currents along the Gulf for the next couple of days.

A new Consumer Reports investigation found that someone standing right next to you, requesting the same ride at the same time, could be shown a very different price—and most riders would never know.

Consumer Reports spent months testing Uber and Lyft prices nationwide. The investigation used riders who requested a trip from the same starting point to the same destination at almost the same time—generally within a few minutes of one another and, in many cases, within the same minute.

Watch The Morning Show at 6 a.m. on Wednesday to see the surprising results.

The bill, adopted by the Senate on Monday, would enable a referendum on a new constitution under which Tshisekedi’s previous terms wouldn't count against him — effectively resetting the clock. It has already passed the National Assembly and now awaits the president’s signature.

Tshisekedi, 62, has been in office since 2019. He has said that he would seek a third term, if voters approved of it in a referendum. But no date has been set for one.

Congo's constitution explicitly bars any revision of presidential term limits. The bill works around that provision by allowing the president to amend the constitution in the event of a “major dysfunction” paralyzing state institutions.

The central African country is plagued by multiple crises, including an Ebola outbreak and an escalation of the decades-long conflict with the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels, one of more than 100 armed groups vying for control in the eastern provinces.

Congo's next presidential election is set to take place in 2028. Tshisekedi said last month that Congo won't be able to organize and hold elections unless the conflict is resolved and stability returns.

Both the Senate and National Assembly votes took place without opposition lawmakers, who walked out weeks ago in protest against the bill.

Senate President Jean-Michel Sama Lukondé hailed the vote, saying it gives the Congolese people a framework to “exercise their sovereignty” through a referendum.

Congo’s main opposition parties, which have been divided in recent years, joined forces in May under the banner of C64, or Coalition Article 64, to oppose the bill, describing it as an attempt by Tshisekedi to remain in power.

“Tshisekedi has betrayed his oath to respect the constitution and is therefore worthless,” leading opposition figure Martin Fayulu said Tuesday during a news conference held by the coalition.

He announced a march on July 8 to the presidential palace, demanding Tshisekedi’s resignation.

The vote comes days after violent clashes erupted at a protest against the bill in Congo's capital, Kinshasa, in which several people were injured, including opposition leaders Martin Fayulu, Jean-Marc Kabund and Delly Sesanga.

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Saleh Mwanamilongo reported from Bonn, Germany.

A string of arson attacks targeting a car and two London homes linked to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer had attracted little attention, possibly because the then 21-year-old attacker, a Ukrainian recruited online, was not very good at documenting them.

One video that was supposed to show Starmer’s former car on fire lasted only seconds. The second, filmed in the dark, largely captured the repeated sound of striking matches.

El Money wanted publicity and was prepared to pay.

The attacker, Roman Lavrynovych, was found guilty Monday alongside his accomplice. But the person — or network — behind the online persona of El Money has escaped public blame or punishment.

The plot fits the description of Russian state-backed sabotage, said Cmdr. Dominic Murphy, who has spent two decades investigating such activities — including previous high-profile attacks — and who oversaw the initial investigation into the fires before retiring in March.

But establishing Moscow's involvement is difficult. There is a difference between proving something in court — which could raise public awareness — and assessing such attacks in the context of a wider threat and often classified and incomplete intelligence.

European officials say Moscow is exploiting that space as it carries out a sabotage campaign against European countries that support Ukraine. The Associated Press has tracked at least 192 attacks across Europe since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine that include arson and cyberattacks as well as attempted assassinations.

When asked by AP in June if Russia is waging a covert war against the West, President Vladimir Putin brushed the allegations off.

“What are the specific facts?” he said. “What has been proven?”

The U.K. Home Office called the fires an “abhorrent attack” in a statement and said those responsible have been brought to justice. It did not respond to requests for comment about whether the British government blamed Russia.

Three arson attacks targeted property linked to Starmer

Lavrynovych was tasked with setting and filming the fires over several days in May 2025, according to evidence presented during his six-week trial.

El Money recruited him online and sent detailed instructions, including the locations of the targets and how to mix flammable liquids from a hardware store.

The attacks did not cause injuries or major damage, but the prime minister’s sister-in-law, Judith Alexander, said she was left “struggling to breathe” after smoke filled her house in the third attack. She and her family were staying at the residence, which had been Starmer's home before he became prime minister.

“It’s all dead quiet so far — not a single article or announcement about the incident on this street,” El Money wrote to Lavrynovych on the messaging app Telegram after the fire.

It had, however, attracted the attention of British counterterrorism police.

Jurors heard little about the ‘devil in the background’

At the trial, jurors heard extensive evidence about how Lavrynovych conspired to set the fires — and almost nothing about the person or group of people who ordered them.

He was initially paid to post anti-Islam posters and graffiti in Muslim neighborhoods of London, an apparent attempt to stoke unrest. He told the court he was offered larger sums for the fires — and threatened if he did not comply. His lawyer, James Scobie, said he was a “vulnerable, ignorant” puppet in the hands of a serious operator.

“It must be a bit of a frustration that no part of this case has really looked into the devil in the background,” said Scobie. Without mentioning Russia by name, he said the attacks targeted Starmer over his support for Ukraine, calling them an assault on “the very institutions and fabric of this country.”

Prosecutors, however, did not bring charges under Britain's National Security Act, passed in 2023 to counter state threats, so no evidence was presented of a wider conspiracy linked to Moscow.

El Money is the “central figure in the case but a man or group about whom we know very little,” Justice Neil Garnham said. For that reason, he directed the jury “not to speculate about him.”

There's a gap between evidence and intelligence

Police have “no evidence to suggest that this was a state-backed threat and target on the prime minister,” said Helen Flanagan, the current head of counterterrorism police. She was referring to evidence gathered by police, as opposed to classified intelligence assessments.

European intelligence services say Russia is recruiting people online and paying them relatively small sums of money to carry out sabotage. Last year, a British court found three men guilty in the torching of a London warehouse. Prosecutors said the ringleader was recruited online for a plot masterminded by Russia’s intelligence services.

Murphy said there is a difference between assessing state-level involvement in an attack and using evidence like cellphone data and messages to prove something in court beyond a reasonable doubt.

Sometimes evidence, particularly from intelligence services, cannot be shown to jurors because it would reveal “highly sensitive capabilities and tactics,” Murphy said.

Investigators spend “a huge amount of time and effort” trying to identify the individuals overseas behind attacks, he said. They comb digital devices, online footprints and links among suspected co-conspirators, often working with partner countries.

He said evidence gathered by police showed that El Money spoke Russian and is “likely to be in Russia.” El Money's methods were “very similar” to those known to be used by Russian intelligence services acting in the U.K. Such plots, he said, often have “very senior sign-off.”

But that’s not enough for a jury — or, it seems, to publicly assign blame.

AP asked various departments if the government plans to attribute the attack to Russia or if there was additional evidence suggesting a link to the Russian state that was not shown in court.

The prime minister’s office referred questions to the Home Office, which provided the statement about the case but did not answer questions about Russian involvement. In a statement, U.K. counterterrorism police said a thorough investigation has been carried out and that it does not comment on matters of intelligence.

Officials say the threat from Moscow is growing

British intelligence agencies have accused Russia of probing the U.K. and its European allies with activities just below the threshold of conventional war. Court cases are key to raising public awareness of the threat and can lead to tougher action, such as sanctions, said Murphy.

“We need to keep calling Russia out and we need to ensure our society is as resilient as it possibly can be,” he said, calling for a wider public conversation about the threat from Moscow, including to critical infrastructure.

Murphy was a lead investigator into the attempted killing of Sergei Skripal, a Russian former military intelligence officer, in 2018. The U.K. attributed that attack to Moscow, and it led to a mass expulsion of Russian diplomats — and spies — from Western countries.

Since then, Russia has shifted toward the recruitment of local proxies.

Shortly before police arrested Lavrynovych, El Money wrote to him, promising to pay.

“Don't worry, I won't set you up,” El Money wrote. But Lavrynovych never got the money.

There is “only one winner” in the case, Scobie told the court as he argued for his client, “the anonymous devil who manipulated, used and won.”

According to Feeding Northeast Florida, 1 in 5 children in Northeast Florida goes to bed hungry. That’s more than 93,000 children who do not have enough food at home.

And the struggle only grows in the summer months when children who rely on eating breakfast and lunch at school must find those meals elsewhere.

But one Jacksonville business wants to make things easier.

Tyrica Moore, owner of The Food Doctor food truck, said she created the “Summer on the Block” program to help fill the gap when children lose access to regular school meals.

Moore chose North Myrtle Avenue because it’s a highly visible, easily accessible location in a neighborhood she says is underserved and considered a food desert.

“I know that this area does need that type of assistance, and I’m honored to be the one being a provider,” Moore said.

The Food Doctor’s Summer Lunch Program, funded by donations and sponsorships, currently provides free lunches to an average of 60 children Tuesday through Friday.

But Moore says the need is even greater.

She said some children show up every day right at noon, even before the truck opens, which she says shows families are depending on the program.

More than 200 meals have been served so far, with daily totals ranging from about 40 to nearly 80 meals. Children 16 and younger can pick from six different meal options and leave with lunch in hand.

Among the current options are:

• Shrimp and fries
• Hamburgers and fries
• Hot dogs and fries
• Chicken tenders and fries

Families are certainly grateful for Moore’s program.

“Getting the free lunches for the children helps provide a meal for them and gives us less stress, knowing that they have something to eat,” local mom Sheree Andrews said.

Moore credits community donations for making the program possible, calling it proof that “unity can happen” and that neighbors can come together to support one another.

One customer recently bought $500 worth of meals for kids, and encouraged others to chip in what they can to pay it forward for the children.

To continue the program throughout the summer, Moore is asking for help from the community.

She wants to expand the free meals for kids to Mondays, and she wants to feed more than 75 kids a day, which means she needs to increase her staff for the program.

The ultimate goal is to feed every child who comes to the truck throughout the entire summer. But the estimated cost to operate the program is about $1,200 per day, including food and staffing expenses

The Food Doctor has a GoFundMe account where you can donate to the project. You can also head down to the food truck and tell them you want to sponsor meals for kids.

“Every donation, sponsorship, and meal purchased helps us continue serving local families and making sure no child goes hungry this summer,” Moore wrote on GoFundMe. “Together, we can feed our kids and strengthen our community one meal at a time.”

Moore also emphasized that support isn’t only financial. She said sharing information about the program, praying for the effort, and spreading awareness can also help.

The company said Tuesday it’s bringing back fried apple pies for the first time in more than three decades. They’ll be available at most U.S. restaurants for a limited time starting June 23.

McDonald’s is one of several fast-food companies offering semiquincentennial treats. Burger King recently debuted its Firecracker Cookie Pie, which has a sugar cookie crust and red, white and blue star-shaped sprinkles. Sonic is offering a red, white and blue slush float for $2.50. Hardee's has an iced Star-Spangled Biscuit with red and blue sprinkles.

Here’s a look at McDonald’s fried apple pies by the numbers:

— 1968: The year McDonald’s introduced both its fried apple pie and the Big Mac hamburger. Litton Cochran, a McDonald's franchisee in Tennessee, developed the rectangle-shaped pie, which was served in a cardboard sleeve. 1968 was a momentous year that included the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis and Robert F. Kennedy in Los Angeles, protests against the Vietnam War and the signing of a federal law prohibiting housing discrimination.

— 1992: The year McDonald’s replaced the fried apple pie with a baked version in most of the U.S., responding to growing consumer awareness of fat and cholesterol consumption. The U.S. Department of Agriculture first published its food guide pyramid the same year. Fried apple pie remained on McDonald's menus in Hawaii and is still sold in some other countries, including the United Kingdom, Mexico, Greece, Australia and China.

— 230: Number of calories in McDonald’s baked apple pie. That’s 10 more calories than the fried version, according to the company’s website. A cup of boiled lentils, a single almond Snickers bar and a grande Frappucino from Starbucks have the same calorie count, according to publicly available nutrition information.

— 130: Number of members of the Facebook group “Bring Back the Original McDonald’s Fried Apple Pie.” By comparison, there are 1,100 members lobbying McDonald's in the “Bring Back the McRib” Facebook group and 928 members of the “McDonald's, Bring Back the Szechuan Sauce” Facebook group.

— 170 million: Number of American-grown apples that McDonald’s says it serves every year at its U.S. stores.

— 35: Height, in feet, of a giant fried apple pie that McDonald’s is installing on Route 66 in Joliet, Illinois, near McDonald's Chicago headquarters. That's about the height of a three-story house and some species of palm trees. The giant apple pie will stay in place until July 4, the company said.

The Iran war has recently overshadowed Ukraine, but Trump said he wants to shift the focus following the announcement of an agreement to end the 3 1/2-month-old conflict in the Gulf.

Trump said Iran will soon be “back in the rearview mirror.”

Trump said the sanctions on Russia that were eased during the Iran war to help lower oil prices can go back in place as more oil moves through the Strait of Hormuz.

“Soon we’ll be able to do that because the oil is now flowing,” Trump told reporters in Evian, the French spa town close to the Swiss border that is hosting the summit. “We’re in a position to do that soon.”

The U.S. in March temporarily eased some sanctions on some Russian oil shipments as crude prices sharply increased. The waiver has been extended.

Zelenskyy joins G7 leaders for talks

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy joined the G7 leaders for talks on the war in his country. They wrapped quickly, after just 75 minutes.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine is serious about peace while Russia toys with world leaders. “The entire ‘Seven’ supports Ukraine unanimously today,” he said.

Zelenskyy added that G7 leaders supported Ukraine’s need for more Patriot missiles and discussed how to increase production by licensing production. Patriot missiles are able to counter Russian ballistic missile attacks on Ukraine’s power grid and cities.

As the U.S. under Trump has cut back aid to Ukraine, France and its European allies are now the biggest providers of military and financial support to Kyiv.

Trump downplayed the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war on the U.S. but lamented the death toll.

“The whole thing is ridiculous,” Trump said. “So, yeah, I’m going to do whatever I can.”

Meanwhile, the U.K. announced new sanctions targeting the “ shadow fleet ” Russia uses to ship oil and gas, and the finance networks used by Moscow to evade Western sanctions. The ships targeted include several recently purchased by Russia to transport liquefied natural gas from its sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 project.

Russia fires again at Ukraine's biggest cities

Hours before the summit began Monday, Russia fired hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles at Ukraine’s biggest cities in a barrage that killed 11 people and set fire to a religious landmark.

The attacks came after Zelenskyy and Putin spoke separately by phone with Trump on Sunday, the U.S. leader's 80th birthday.

While campaigning in 2024 for a return to the White House, Trump claimed he could end the Russia-Ukraine war within 24 hours of taking office. However, negotiations have faltered and Trump has acknowledged it has proved much harder than he thought.

Ukraine on Monday officially started European Union membership negotiations, launching a process that will require its government to commit to years of political reforms even as it fights the Russian invasion.

Ukraine sees EU membership as a security guarantee for a stable future once the war ends. Its best guarantee would be membership in the NATO military alliance, but the Trump administration insists that cannot happen, and others are wary of Ukraine joining while the war continues.

Trump says he may send Iran deal to Congress

The U.S.-Iran ceasefire deal got plenty of attention at Tuesday’s sessions, with Trump voicing his openness to sending the deal to Congress for review. The text has not been made public.

“I like the idea, send it to Congress please,” Trump said at the start of a meeting with United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on the summit's sidelines. He added, “I mean who wouldn’t approve it?”

Republicans on Capitol Hill say they want Trump to provide more information about the agreement, with some expressing skepticism that the deal can deter Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon.

Trump also met with the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani. The Gulf nations are not part of the G7, but French President Emmanuel Macron extended invitations to their leaders at a fraught moment for their region.

Trump also expressed frustration over Israel’s continued hostilities with the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah in Lebanon, telling reporters he’s “not happy with the way Israel has handled themselves with Lebanon and with Hezbollah.”

Trump said Israeli operations to target Hezbollah “should have been able to deal with them faster,” adding: “It just goes on forever. And when that happens, it throws a negative light on the big deal. And that’s the deal with Iran.”

Macron said France and other Western partners are “ready to take action very quickly” to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz peacefully to ease the economic impact of rising oil prices. France and the U.K. have championed a mission to restore maritime security there as soon as conditions allow.

The G7 comprises France, the United States, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom. Other guest nations, including Brazil, India, Kenya and South Korea, were invited to participate in some discussions.

___

Madhani reported from Geneva. Jill Lawless and Samuel Petrequin in London, Collin Binkley in Washington and Illia Novikov in Kyiv contributed to this report.

The case against Hannah Dugan, who resigned from the Milwaukee County Circuit Court following her conviction, was an early test of how the courts would respond to President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown.

Trump allies branded Dugan as an activist judge, while her supporters said she was unfairly targeted.

U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman postponed Dugan's sentencing on June 3 to consider arguments about whether he should overturn her conviction. But Adelman said in his ruling Tuesday that Dugan's conviction would stand. He did not immediately set a sentencing date.

“The court’s decision is wrong,” Dugan’s legal defense team said in a statement.

Questions about a similar case in Virginia

Dugan’s attorney had argued that her conviction in helping Eduardo Flores-Ruiz leave the courthouse was invalid and should be overturned. He said that was necessary because a federal appeals court in April overturned a key Virginia immigration case that the judge and prosecutors had cited in Dugan's case.

In the Virginia case, an immigrant who was in the country illegally was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and later escaped. He was recaptured and indicted on a charge of obstructing a pending immigration proceeding.

The federal appeals court found that the ICE action did not constitute a “pending proceeding,” as is required under the federal obstruction law.

Dugan’s attorneys argue that she should not have been charged because there was no “pending proceeding” against the immigrant in her courtroom being sought by ICE agents, only a warrant filed for his arrest. The filing of a warrant does not constitute a “proceeding” under the law, Dugan's attorneys argued.

Prosecutors countered that the facts in the Virginia case are different and don’t apply to Dugan’s. They also argued that other cases support Dugan’s conviction.

Adelman said the attempted arrest of Flores-Ruiz did count as a “pending proceeding,” in part because it was a planned and targeted operation rather than an arrest resulting from a random encounter.

“Defendant argues that ICE was acting as a law enforcement agency here,” Adelman wrote. “But this ignores the fact that, unlike, say, the FBI, ICE can issue its own warrants and adjudicate and effectuate a removal, as it did with Flores-Ruiz, without the involvement of a court. This makes a difference."

Dugan faces 5 years in prison, but will likely get probation

Dugan, 67, faces up to five years in prison after a jury convicted her on Dec. 19, but she is unlikely to be sentenced to time behind bars. Federal sentencing guidelines generally call for probation for defendants like her, who have no criminal history and are convicted of a nonviolent crime.

Dugan resigned from her position as a Milwaukee County circuit judge two weeks after her conviction amid threats of impeachment from Republican state lawmakers. She had been a judge for nine years.

The Trump administration brought the case against Dugan as the president pressed ahead with his sweeping immigration crackdown. Trump’s administration and his allies branded Dugan as an activist judge, while Dugan’s attorneys said she was being unfairly targeted and argued, unsuccessfully, that she was immune from being charged because she was a judge.

Dugan’s case marked the first time that a state judge in Wisconsin went to trial on charges of obstructing immigration agents. She was acquitted of concealing an individual to prevent arrest, a misdemeanor.

Dugan helped an immigrant wanted by ICE agents

On April 18, 2025, immigration officers went to the Milwaukee County courthouse after learning Flores-Ruiz had reentered the country illegally and was scheduled to appear before Dugan for a hearing in a state battery case.

Dugan confronted agents outside her courtroom and directed them to the chief judge’s office because she told them their administrative warrant wasn’t sufficient grounds to arrest Flores-Ruiz.

After the agents left, she led Flores-Ruiz and his attorney out a private jury door. Agents spotted Flores-Ruiz in the corridor, followed him outside and arrested him after a foot chase. A week later, FBI agents arrested Dugan in the courthouse, leading her outside in handcuffs.

Flores-Ruiz was deported in November.

Philadelphia acquired goaltender Joseph Woll and defenseman Simon Benoit in a trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday. They sent goalie Samuel Ersson, defenseman Emil Andrae and a third-round pick in the draft next week to the Leafs.

The swap gives Philadelphia a dependable backup to prospective starter Dan Vladar, who is coming off a career year that included a strong first round of the playoffs to beat Pittsburgh before losing to eventual Stanley Cup champion Carolina.

“We thought it was a chance to improve the team, help them take another step,” Flyers general manager Daniel Briere told reporters at a previously scheduled predraft news conference in Voorhees, New Jersey. "We felt that Woll is a step forward for us and will be able to help Vladdy in a tandem role.”

Vladar is eligible to sign an extension July 1. Briere said the team and Vladar's camp were working to get that deal over the finish line, and the hope in adding Woll is it allows for a better sharing of the crease than when Ersson struggled early this past season.

“The better you can have both of them going, I think it helps,” Briere said. "It prevents injuries and (Vladar) stays fresh and he can, I think, perform better. We hope that they can push each other that way.”

Benoit is a bit older than Andrae at 28 and makes the Flyers bigger and stronger on the back end. Briere said having smaller defensemen Cam York and Jamie Drysdale led him to want someone like Benoit, who is 6-foot-4 and over 200 pounds.

“It’s going to probably be a little easier for the coaches having a guy like Simon Benoit back there to use,” Briere said. “We like the physicality that he brings, and we like the size and the skating aspect, too. He’s a really good skater.”

The move to add Ersson, Andrae and a pick for Woll and Benoit is new Toronto general manager John Chayka’s first change to the roster since taking over in early May. He framed it as a salary cap-saving move, along with getting a defenseman in his mid-20s.

“What we like about this opportunity was it allowed us to create some flexibility,” Chayka said on a video call with reporters. "We think flexibility and optionality are assets to any great organization, and certainly this allows us to be in a better spot as we think about the entire offseason plan.”

Woll counts $3.67 million against that cap the next two seasons, while Benoit is under contract one more year at $1.35 million. Andrae and Ersson are restricted free agents.

Given the Leafs already have Anthony Stolarz and Dennis Hildeby expected to be atop their goaltending depth chart, Chayka was noncommittal when asked if the club would tender Ersson a qualifying offer to retain his rights.

“He’s a good, young goaltender,” Chayka said. “He’s someone that we identified as having some upside and someone that our staff could work with.”

___

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

The first full day of the G7 summit of leading industrialized nations is being held in the French town of Evian-les-Bains.

Shortly before his arrival, Trump announced an agreement to end the 3 1/2-month-old U.S. war against Iran.

“Now that this (Iran) is finished, we’re going to be focusing on that,” Trump said, referring to efforts to end Russia's war in Ukraine.

A working session is aimed at ensuring stability in the Middle East, with discussion expected on the global economic crisis resulting from the war's closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

The G7 includes France, the United States, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom. Guest nations at this summit include Brazil, Egypt, India, Kenya, South Korea, Qatar, Ukraine and the UAE.

Here is the latest:

Vance says he was late for radio show because Trump called to check on ‘progress’ of Iran deal

Megyn Kelly was ready to bring Vice President JD Vance live onto her radio show, but she told listeners that they’d have to wait because Vance was on the phone with Trump.

Once he’d gotten mic’d up with Kelly, Vance said Trump — who is in France for the G7 conference — “just called me to check in on how things are going” and on “the progress of the deal” concerning the Iran war.

Vance told Kelly he has been trying to correct misinformation about what is and isn’t part of the deal.

Details of the agreement announced by Trump have not been made public.

The deal is centered around reopening the Strait of Hormuz and lifting the United States’ naval blockade in the region, along with financial incentives for Iran, if it meets certain benchmarks.

For the second consecutive day, Vance flubbed the name of the Gulf alliance, referring to it as the Gulf Coast Coalition instead of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Modi, Carney aim to reach Canada-India trade deal before December G20 summit

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi says he would like to conclude a trade deal with Canada before he visits Canada later this year.

And Carney says he would like it done by the Group of 20 summit in Florida in mid-December.

Carney met Modi at the G7 summit and noted Modi wants to double Canada-India trade. Carney wants to double non-U.S. trade in the next decade after Trump imposed tariffs on Canada.

The ties between India and Canada were strained under Carney’s predecessor in the wake of the 2023 killing of a Sikh activist in Canada.

G7 explores alternatives to Strait of Hormuz for global energy supplies

The leaders’ discussions about the vital waterway at their summit in France have included looking at other supply routes that could be opened to bring oil and gas out of the Persian Gulf, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Pascal Confavreux said in an interview with The Associated Press.

“There were discussions to see how we can depend less on the strait,” he said. “This has to change for the future.”

Before the Iran war, a fifth of the world’s crude oil passed through the maritime chokepoint.

“Part of the discussions were, ‘OK, how can we imagine, finance, and build infrastructures, sometimes on the terrestrial part, that will be able to go outside of the track of the Strait of Hormuz?’” Confavreux said.

Has Netanyahu seen the US-Iran memo?

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had not seen the memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran as of Tuesday evening, said a person familiar with the situation, who requested anonymity to discuss closed-door details. Netanyahu’s office did not immediately respond to request for comment from The AP.

Though Israel is not party to the agreement, it is directly implicated. Iran’s top diplomat has said that the agreement requires Israel to withdraw from Lebanon, where it is fighting the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon and where its troops occupy a large southern swath of the country. Israeli officials have said they do not plan to withdraw.

— By Julia Frankel

G7 leaders sound concerns about Ebola

They say they want “a strong and coordinated response” to the month-old Ebola outbreak centered on Congo, and that their countries will work more closely together on “appropriate and effective travel, quarantine, and isolation procedures” for people who have been to affected regions.

Their statement, issued on day 2 of the G7 summit notes that globally, millions of people will be traveling in coming weeks for the World Cup and other reasons.

“We must ensure that they can do so safely,” they said. They pledged support to help develop and deliver vaccines.

They also issued statements about aid for developing countries and committing to accelerate the fight against cancer.

Chuck Schumer calls for briefing on tentative agreement with Iran

The Senate Democratic leader is calling on Trump to brief Congress and the American people on the memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the war in Iran.

Schumer says Americans have been told dozens of times over the course of the conflict that it was over, only to be disappointed.

“Trump has yet to give Americans a reason to believe that this latest peace deal won’t leave them disappointed again,” Schumer said Tuesday on the Senate floor.

Schumer says the conflict has left America worse off, with gas prices dramatically higher and an Iranian regime he says is more extreme than before.

“Trump needs to reveal the deal and end this war once and for all,” Schumer says.

Iran war makes energy security a top priority in Southeast Asia

An International Energy Agency report released Tuesday says the Iran war could cost Southeast Asia billions of dollars if it doesn’t diversify sources of energy more quickly.

The energy shock from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz sent the region into a state of energy triage, leading to higher energy bills and rising inflation. In response, the region has seen rising sales of electric vehicles, a renewed interest in nuclear power and a boom in rooftop solar and other renewable energy installations, the report says.

But without more sweeping reforms, the region’s energy import bill could triple from $80 billion in 2024 to $245 billion by 2035, the report warns. And meanwhile, the conflict has reinforced the need for coal in times of crisis, a setback for efforts to phase out fossil fuels.

“Diversification of energy sources and supply routes is now a central priority,” said Fatih Birol, the IEA executive director.

▶ Read more

Officials say Zelenskyy showed Trump photos of bomb-damaged Kyiv cathedral

European officials said Zelenskyy showed Trump some photos of the damage at the Dormition Cathedral, a revered religious landmark in Kyiv that was set ablaze in a Russian bombing.

Three officials with knowledge of the matter spoke anonymously, because they were not allowed to disclose details about leaders’ talks at the G7 meeting.

Without confirming Zelenskyy’s use of photos, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Pascal Confavreux said in an Associated Press interview that the strike was discussed at the leaders’ meeting and that “everyone” was shocked.

Asked whether Zelenskyy showed photos of the church attack to Trump and other leaders, Confavreux said “the discussions remain in the room.” But he confirmed that they discussed the latest strikes “and how unacceptable they were for everyone, because they were against international law.”

Secret US-Iran memorandum to be signed in Swiss resort

Switzerland’s foreign ministry says a signing ceremony for a deal between the United States and Iran will take place Friday at the Bürgenstock resort near the city of Luzern.

The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs says the location was proposed by Pakistani and Qatari mediators, along with the U.S. and Iran. It said it has been in close contact with the four countries about the possible signing of the “memorandum of understanding.”

Details of the agreement announced by Trump have not been made public. The deal is centered around reopening the Strait of Hormuz and lifting the United States’ naval blockade in the region, along with financial incentives for Iran if it meets certain benchmarks.

The resort, which sits atop a mountain and features breathtaking views of Lake Lucerne, hosted an international conference on Ukraine two years ago.

Iran says the US war deal requires Israel to withdraw from Lebanon

Iran’s top diplomat said Tuesday that the tentative deal to end the war with the United States would require Israel to withdraw from Lebanon — a condition Israel has already rejected. The contradictory interpretations could sink the agreement and lead to the resumption of all-out war.

The deal between the U.S. and Iran has not been made public, and while Israel is not party to the agreement, it is part of the war: It joined the U.S. in launching strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, and has since fought the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon and seized large swaths of that country.

“Without the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territories they occupied during this war, the war has not fully come to an end,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said.

A U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the deal’s outlines said it did not call for an Israeli withdrawal. And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Israel would remain in Lebanon “as long as necessary.”

▶ Read more

— By Jon Gambrell, Sam Metz and Samy Magdy

Trump’s Iran deal greeted with skepticism on Capitol Hill

Republicans on Capitol Hill are expressing skepticism and asking the White House for details about Trump’s announced deal to end the war in Iran. Responding to a reporter’s question at the G7 summit on Tuesday, Trump said he’s open to a congressional review of the agreement, which is set for a ceremonial signing Friday in Switzerland.

The deal is centered around reopening the Strait of Hormuz and lifting the United States’ naval blockade in the region, along with financial incentives for Iran if it meets certain benchmarks. But Senate Republicans and Democrats said Monday that many questions remain unresolved and they need thorough briefings before it is finalized.

“I just don’t know enough about it,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters in the Capitol.

“If it’s a secret deal then how can I take it seriously?” asked Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina.

▶ Read more

UK-EU summit date announced at last

Britain and the European Union have announced the date for a summit seen as a key step in rebuilding their relationship.

European Council President Antonio Costa says the meeting will be held in Brussels on July 22. Costa met British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the G7 summit on Tuesday.

There has been a question mark over the date due to uncertainty about Starmer’s future. He is facing calls to resign and a potential leadership challenge this summer.

Trump says he’s hasn’t been briefed on alleged plot to attack UFC event

“I haven’t heard about it, no,” Trump said when asked by a reporter about the alleged plot to target the high profile event. “The attack that I watched were the fighters.”

FBI director Kash Patel announced earlier Tuesday that law enforcement officials had disrupted “planned attacks” meant to target the UFC cage-fighting show staged at the White House this past weekend, and that multiple people were in custody.

▶ Read more

Why Trump said yes to dinner at Versailles

The president said the opulent setting of his scheduled one-on-one dinner with Macron was a factor in his decision to extend his stay after the summit — the two are scheduled to dine at the Palace of Versailles.

“I’m a fan of beautiful places, and I was leaving in the afternoon, and then the French president who happens to be a very nice man, invited me to dinner at Versailles,” Trump said. “And Versailles is not gold leaf — Versailles is the real deal. And I said I’d like to do it.”

Trump said it will have little impact on his schedule, noting that he’s “not a big sleeper anyway” and will get home early in the morning: “I won’t lose any time in the Oval Office.”

Zelenskyy says Ukraine is serious about peace while Russia toys with world leaders

“The entire ‘Seven’ supports Ukraine unanimously today,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters at the doorstep of the G7 summit today.

He said that all G7 partners of Ukraine recognize Ukraine’s readiness to meet with the Russian side to establish a ceasefire, its active engagement on the battlefield, and its effective capabilities in mid- and long-range strikes.

The Russian side, meanwhile, is failing to show any serious activity toward peace, he said, calling Russia’s actions “a game.”

“It’s important that at the G7 meeting everyone realizes that. It’s important.”

Trump says US plans to resume sanctions on Russian oil shipments

Asked if he would reinstitute sanctions that were eased to help lower oil prices, Trump said the restrictions can resume as more oil moves through the Strait of Hormuz.

“Soon we’ll be able to do that because the oil is now flowing,” Trump told reporters. “We’re in a position to do that soon.”

The U.S. in March temporarily eased some sanctions on some Russian oil shipments as crude prices sharply increased. The waiver has been extended as the war stretched on.

Trump tells Carney he likes Canada’s cap on Chinese EV imports

A microphone recorded them talking about how less than three percent of Canada’s market, 49,000 cars, will be allowed to enter from China.

“It’s a cap, we capped, a hard line,” Carney said. “I thought you’d actually like that.”

“That’s good, I like it,” Trump responded.

Breaking with the United States, Canada agreed to cut its 100% tariff on Chinese electric cars earlier this year in return for lower tariffs on Canadian farm products. Carney said then that an initial annual cap of 49,000 vehicles on Chinese EV exports coming into Canada at a tariff rate of 6.1% would grow to about 70,000 over five years.

Trump says he’d send Iran deal to Congress for review

The president voiced his openness to making the move at the start of a meeting with United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on the sidelines of the G7 summit in the French Alps.

“I like the idea, send it to Congress please,” Trump said. He added, “I mean who wouldn’t approve it.”

Republicans on Capitol Hill say they want Trump to provide more information about the agreement between the United States and Iran, with some expressing skepticism that the deal can deter Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon.

Trump speaks to EU leader about Greenland in another hot mic moment

Sitting down before a meeting about Ukraine, Trump was caught on a hot mic speaking about Greenland with European Council President António Costa.

“You understand?” Trump said before pausing and eyeing Costa. “Greenland.”

The start and end of the conversation is unclear.

European politicians across the continent were infuriated when Trump threatened in January to seize the large Arctic island, a territory of EU-member Denmark. The idea raised fears of splitting up of the NATO military alliance, and spurred Denmark to increase its military presence there.

Several European partners — including France, Germany, the U.K., Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands — sent small, symbolic numbers of troops to the island.

Trump jokes about stealing Macron’s watch

In a lighter moment, a microphone caught Trump joking about stealing Macron ’s watch.

After one of the leaders asked where Macron went during the working lunch, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said, “He’s left his watch here. We’ve got his watch.”

“Give me it if he left, gimmie,” Trump responded, followed by laughter by the group.

Spouses of foreign leaders tour lakeside town near G7 summit

France’s Brigitte Macron led a tour of spouses of world leaders to the lakeside town of Yvoire during the G7 summit in France.

With security in tow, Macron led the group — Canada’s Diana Fox Carney, Britain’s Victoria Starmer, Germany’s Charlotte Merz, Kenya’s Rachel Kimetto, Brazil’s Janja Lula da Silva, and Heiko von der Leyen, husband of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen — on a walk through the town on the shores of Lake Geneva.

Children gave the spouses bouquets of flowers and locals gawked at the small group of dignitaries.

Starmer senses a ‘mood change’ on Ukraine

Starmer said G7 leaders share a sense that “things are changing” and Ukraine is regaining the initiative in its war with Russia.

Speaking to British broadcasters, the U.K. prime minister said “there was real unity in the room” when Trump and the other G7 leaders discussed the conflict.

He said they agreed “that Ukraine is doing better now, regaining territory, that the sanctions are having a real impact on Russia, and a real sense that now is the moment for all of us as a G7 to ramp up the pressure.”

Zelenskyy says G7 supports boosting Patriot missile production

Zelenskyy said he had a positive meeting with G7 leaders who supported Ukraine’s need for more Patriot missiles and discussed how to increase production by licensing production.

Speaking during a bilateral meeting with Carney after earlier meeting with the all the G7 leaders, including Trump, Zelenskyy said his allies agreed that Russia is not winning and that they have to push Putin to end the war.

Patriot missiles are able to counter Russian ballistic missile attacks on Ukraine’s power grid and cities.

Papier mache heads of state gather at the summit

Oxfam activists wearing papier mache heads depicting the G7 leaders made an appearance near the summit location for a satirical, but sedate, protest.

Oxfam has used the outsized eye-catching heads — depicting Trump, Meloni, Merz, Carney, Takaichi, Macron and Starmer — for several protests around the summit.

The demonstration outside the security bubble thrown around the summit, in a park overlooking the clear-blue waters of Lake Geneva, was intended to draw attention to a lack of clean water for the people of Gaza.

No G7 invite received for Putin-Zelenskyy talks, Kremlin says

Russian President Vladimir Putin did not receive an invitation from Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy to attend the G7 summit through official channels.

Asked whether such an invitation had been made, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “Of course there wasn’t. As you know, there aren’t even any official channels between Moscow and Kyiv.”

Peskov said Putin has repeatedly said Zelenskyy could go to Moscow. “If Zelenskyy is ready to talk responsibly and seriously … he can always come to Moscow, where he will be received,” Peskov said.

Zelenskyy and Trump meet on sidelines of G7 summit

Zelenskyy and Trump have held talks on the sidelines of the G7 summit in France.

Zelenskyy posted photos of the meeting on social media, writing that “it is always important to coordinate positions.”

Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council chief, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also took part, the photos showed. In one image, the two leaders sat close enough that their knees nearly touched.

The encounter between the two presidents “was in the context of the general meeting at the summit,” Zelenskyy’s communications adviser Dmytro Lytvyn told reporters, suggesting a separate meeting would take place later.

G7 leaders meeting with leaders of Egypt, Qatar and UAE

The leaders of the G7 are holding a meeting with the leaders of Egypt, Qatar and the UAE.

They are attending a working lunch dubbed “Addressing Crises and Ensuring Stability in the Middle East.”

The Middle East countries are not G7 members, but were invited to the summit at a tumultuous moment for the region and beyond because of the Iran war.

Ceasefire should ‘mean a definitive end' to Iran’s nuclear program, EU says

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen met with Trump at the G7 summit and then took to social media to congratulate him on striking a ceasefire with Tehran.

“We both agree that it should mean a definitive end to Iran’s nuclear programme. The Strait will reopen. Oil prices are falling. And that’s how diplomacy delivers,” von der Leyen said in a post.

Economies across the European Union have been rattled by rising fuel and fertilizer prices.

Trump says Syria could handle Hezbollah better than Israel

Trump said he proposed asking Syria to help against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“I suggested to Israel to let Syria take care of Hezbollah,” Trump said. “Because to be honest with you, I think they’d do a better job.”

Syria has a long complicated relationship with Lebanon, with Syrian troops maintaining a military occupation in the country from 1976 to 2005.

The short answer, according to local attorney Millicent Daniels, is yes.

Daniels joined us for Tuesday’s “Justice 4 All” segment on The Morning Show to break down Florida’s dog bite laws and explain the dual criminal and civil exposure dog owners and caretakers face when an attack occurs.

The conversation was sparked by two high-profile local incidents.

On Jacksonville’s Westside, Melvin Suffrant was arrested in connection with a deadly dog attack that killed a 59-year-old man two years ago. Suffrant now faces manslaughter charges.

Separately, 80-year-old Carl Graham is recovering and learning how to walk again after being mauled by two pit bulls at his daughter’s Westside home while picking up his grandson.

Animal care officials deemed the dogs dangerous and called for their removal, but a judge allowed the family to keep them — citing that Graham had entered the property without first calling the owner, as he had been advised to do.

Criminal vs. civil liability

Daniels explained that dog bite cases like these fall into two distinct tracks: criminal and civil.

“If a dog owner understands and knows that their dog is dangerous — in that situation, the owner has now been criminally charged with manslaughter because the owner knew or should have known that the dog was very, very dangerous and that this was bound to happen,” she said.

On the civil side, Florida law imposes strict liability on dog owners when their animal bites someone in a public place or while the victim is lawfully on private property.

“If your dog bit someone, and it causes injury, and they’re either in a public place or lawfully on private property, you are strictly liable for damages,” Daniels said.

Daniels acknowledged that the Graham case may leave some feeling the system fell short, but she explained the judge’s reasoning.

“The owner of the dogs told the judge that she had instructed her dad or her uncle to go ahead and call prior to actually entering the property,” she said. “I believe that those are the items that influenced the judge not to temporarily remove the animals from the property.”

Still, Daniels said Graham has a viable path to civil recovery under Florida’s strict liability statute.

“He was injured, he has a significant injury, and it’s very clear that he was lawfully on private property,” she said. “He can pursue a claim for damages under Florida strict liability statute that would take care of his medical expenses, pain and suffering, loss of income, and any other items that he wishes to compile in that claim.”

You don’t have to own the dog to be liable

Another case out of Brevard County raised different questions when a woman was killed in May, and someone other than the dog’s owner is now facing manslaughter charges.

Daniels said that the scenario is more common than people may realize.

Florida law looks at two things when assigning liability: control and custody of the animal.

“Even if you are not the owner — let’s say you’re the dog sitter, a caretaker or a dog walker — if that dog actually injures someone and your carelessness or negligent actions contributed to that injury, you still may be on the hook, either criminally or civilly, for the actions of the dog,” Daniels said.

Her bottom line: “Control can equal responsibility for a dog’s actions and behavior.”

One more thing: Your insurance

Daniels also noted that the type of dog an owner keeps can affect their homeowners’ insurance policy — something many people may not consider until it’s too late.

“Whenever I’m kind of re-upping my homeowners’ insurance, I always get this question about what pets and animals are in the home,” she said, underscoring that the financial exposure for dog owners extends well beyond the courtroom.

The complaint filed in Franklin, Tennessee, by the “Hard Fought Hallelujah” singer lists the reason for divorce as irreconcilable differences. The couple were married in Las Vegas in 2016. The filing lists the date of separation as May 9.

Jelly Roll, whose given name is Jason DeFord, won three Grammys earlier this year, including best contemporary country album for “Beautifully Broken.”

In his acceptance speech for the album award, Jelly Roll thanked his wife, Alisa DeFord, who goes by Bunnie Xo, saying, "I would have never changed my life without you. I would have ended up dead or in jail.”

The Nashville native's songs often explore overcoming adversity and his long road back from drugs and prison, and he speaks about his redemption arc to diverse audiences, from people serving time in correctional centers to concert crowds and even in testimony before Congress.

In December, Tennessee's Republican Gov. Bill Lee issued a pardon for Jelly Roll after friends and civic leaders joined in an outpouring of support.

In a memoir released in February, Xo wrote that Jelly Roll is her “soulmate” and said a true connection kept the couple together through ups and downs. A message to her attorneys seeking comment was not immediately returned on Tuesday. A representative for Jelly Roll also did not immediately respond to messages.

It’s summer in Jacksonville, and as your meteorologist here at News4JAX’s The Weather Authority, I want to let you know—our classic season pattern is in full swing.

We’re looking at temperatures climbing into the 90s, but it feels even hotter outside. The real headline today: strong to possibly severe storms are expected this afternoon.

Right now on Exact Track 4D, we’re seeing heavier batches of rain focused around Fruit Cove, Pine Bluff, the Greenland area, and stretching toward Bayard and Clarksville. Farther south, some of the heaviest rainfall is tracking through Black’s Ford, with other downpours moving into the Manning, Hue, Lodi, Saxton, and Pleasant Grove areas. Rain will keep pushing from west to east, so you might find sunshine one moment, then find yourself under a dark cloud the next.

Wind gusts are already in the teens and are forecast to pick up more as storms move in. Humidity is high, so even quick trips outside will feel steamy.

Tropical system watching from The Gulf

I also want to give you the latest on a potential tropical cyclone out in The Gulf. Right now, it’s not a threat to Jacksonville.

The 11 a.m. advisory puts the system moving slowly—about 6 miles per hour. When these storms linger over warm water, there’s always a chance for development, but this one is tracking away from us, according to our model “spaghetti plots” on Exact Track 4D.

What’s most likely is that Texas and Louisiana will see a huge amount of rainfall from this system. It could earn the name “Arthur” if it strengthens, but for those of us here in north Florida, I don’t expect it to affect our weather at this point.

Your weekly outlook: Hot and stormy

Locally, expect current temperatures in the mid to high 80s by midday, quickly jumping to the 90s through the rest of the week. Wind gusts will rise alongside scattered afternoon storms.

The 7-day forecast from News4JAX’s The Weather Authority keeps us in those 90s, feeling every bit as hot and humid as you’d expect this time of year. Rain chances stick around each day, with storms most likely in the afternoons.

If you catch unusual weather in your neighborhood—cloud formations, flash flooding, or brilliant sunsets—I’d love to see them. Share your photos through SnapJAX!

The U.K.'s charity regulator in 2024 disqualified Campbell, 56, as a charity trustee for five years after finding serious financial mismanagement at the Fashion for Relief charity she founded.

The Charity Commission said at the time that thousands of pounds worth of the charity's funds were used to pay for a luxury hotel stay in Cannes, France, for Campbell as well as spa treatments, room service and even cigarettes.

Only 8.5% of the charity’s overall expenditure went to charitable grants in a six-year period from 2016, the regulator said.

Campbell launched an appeal against her ban last year, claiming she was a “victim of fraud and forgery.”

On Tuesday, she told a tribunal that she was deceived by her fellow trustee Bianka Hellmich, who she alleged forged her signature and lied about her credentials as a charity lawyer.

Campbell said she “did not do a check on Bianka,” adding that she had assumed Hellmich was “acting within the law.”

The Charity Commission had also disqualified Hellmich as a charity trustee for nine years after its investigation found she received around 290,000 pounds ($385,000) of unauthorized funds for consultancy services.

Campbell's lawyer, Andrew Westwood, said Hellmich advised her that she could effectively act as a “figurehead” for the charity, while Hellmich “carried out a long-term and consistent scheme of mismanagement and deception in relation to the running of the charity.”

In a written statement ahead of the hearing, the model said she has “never undertaken philanthropic work for personal gain, nor will I ever do so.”

Fashion for Relief was set up in 2005 in the U.S. and registered in the U.K. in 2015, with the aim of uniting the fashion industry to relieve poverty and help those affected by natural or other disasters around the world. The organization was dissolved and removed from the register of charities in 2024.

A third trustee of the charity, Veronica Chou, was barred for four years after the charity watchdog's investigation.

Other witnesses were expected to give evidence on Wednesday.

There were slightly fewer than 5.4 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in 2025, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While that appears to be a small decline from about 5.5 in 2024 and 5.6 in the two years preceding, researchers say it is statistically meaningful and translates to hundreds of fewer infant deaths per year.

It's difficult to pinpoint what's driving the recent developments, but “this is an encouraging data point, and we hope that this trend will continue,” said Dr. Michael Warren, chief medical and health officer for the March of Dimes.

Infant mortality is the measure of how many babies die before reaching their first birthday. Because the number of babies born in the U.S. varies year to year, researchers calculate rates to compare infant mortality over time.

The overall numbers, too, have been going down. U.S. infant deaths fell to about 19,350 last year, according to provisional CDC data that may rise a little as additional analysis is completed. The final tally is still expected to be down from about 20,050 in 2024 and about 20,160 in 2023, according to the agency.

The U.S. rate has inched down over the decades — it was at 7.5 per 1,000 three decades ago — thanks to medical advances and public health efforts.

But it has remained worse than other high-income countries, which experts have attributed to poverty, inadequate prenatal care and other problems. A study published last year found the U.S. infant mortality rate in 2022 — when the rate rose — was nearly twice as high as what was seen in several other high-income democratic nations, including Italy, Japan, Spain and Sweden.

That was the year of the first statistically significant jump in the U.S. rate in about two decades. Experts attributed that rise to a rebound in RSV and flu infections.

In 2023, U.S. health officials began recommending two new measures to prevent the toll on infants: one was a lab-made antibody shot for infants that helps the immune system fight off the virus, and the other was giving an RSV vaccine to women between 32 weeks and 36 weeks of pregnancy. A March of Dimes expert last year said the effort likely contributed to the improvement in 2024.

Meanwhile, a decline in sudden infant death syndrome could be connected to an increase in education around safe sleeping for infants, Warren said in a statement.

The CDC posted the 2025 provisional data in late May. On Tuesday, the agency released a more in-depth analysis of 2024 infant mortality data, offering details not yet available for 2025. Among that report's highlights:

— Death rates declined both for the youngest infants, less than 28 days old, and for older infants. Those declines continued last year, the 2025 provisional data indicate.

— In 2024, infant mortality continued to differ by race, sometimes dramatically. Death rates for infants born to Black women were more than twice as high as those for the infants of Hispanic, white and Asian American women.

— Researchers noted a decline in the mortality rate for infants born at full term, at 39 to 40 weeks. But rates did not change significantly for other gestational age groups.

— Mississippi had the highest infant mortality rate, at 9.65 deaths per 1,000 births, and New Hampshire had the lowest, at just under 3 per 1,000.

“These differences are reflective of a variety of reasons related to access to care, community factors, and policies that improve health and outcomes,” Warren said.

___

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.

That bill — SB 382 — was originally filed all the way back in November by state Sen. Keith Truenow (R-Tavares), and it aims to bring forth new E-Bike safety rules.

Lawmakers OK’ed the bill back in March, and on Monday, it was officially presented to Gov. Ron DeSantis for consideration.

For starters, the bill limits people on electric bicycles to 10 mph on sidewalks and other paths if there are any pedestrians within 50 feet.

Anyone who breaks this rule could face a fine of $30.

The bill also creates the Micromobility Device Safety Task Force to recommend improvements to state law when it comes to public safety for devices like e-bikes.

Furthermore, SB 382 requires law enforcement to start tracking crashes that involve E-Bikes and other micromobility devices.

SB 382 also originally had a provision that would have required a driver’s license for Class 3 E-Bikes. That rule was ultimately scrapped from the bill, though.

If signed by DeSantis, SB 382 is set to take effect on July 1.

“You start to realize that the way the tour was before LIV came along was actually pretty good,” McIlroy said Tuesday, as he prepared for the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills.

The six-time major champion, once seen as the frontline defender of the PGA Tour when it was fighting to rebuild itself in the wake of the LIV startup, is now waiting to see what the tour does next.

He recognizes that LIV's injection of billions into the sport “created a false economy” that forced the tour to respond. Though it has made the rich richer with the creation of “signature" events with $20 million purses, McIlroy isn't so sure that — or whatever comes next — is better than what came before it.

One potential casualty of the shift: events like last week’s Canadian Open — a tournament with a national title on the line that McIlroy has won twice in the past seven years but skipped this year. It has been relegated to second-class status on the current schedule and could fall even further if it ends up part of what is being called “Track 2” in the tour's next model, expected to kick off in 2028.

Last week’s Canadian Open, won by 40th-ranked Bud Cauley, featured four players in the top 10.

“Track 2 is a glorified Korn Ferry event,” McIlroy said of what essentially is the tour's current minor league. “That’s what Track 2 is going to be. So I don’t think the Canadian Open should be one of those.”

Anything McIlroy says carries more weight, in part because of his resume and in part because when LIV started up, he was its biggest critic among the players.

As time passed, McIlroy grew weary of being a frontman and eventually settled into the idea that, while he preferred the PGA Tour and its connection to tradition and history, others made their decisions and that didn't mean they couldn't get along.

Now, LIV is looking for funding after the Saudis announced they were pulling out of the investment. The PGA Tour: still revamping.

Next week, the tour will unveil more details about tweaks to its new model. It is expected to increase fields to up to 130 players (from around 72) and restore the 36-hole cut in so-called Track 1 events.

The lesser events would be mostly for players to work their way into the top. It makes the futures for those events less certain, in part because sponsors won't pay as much to put their names on tournaments where they know the top players will be absent.

“I just think there’s going to be certain events that might lose their stature if a sponsor doesn’t pony up $30 million,” McIlroy said. “So that’s the tough thing.”

A return to New York under different circumstances than the Ryder Cup

The trip to Shinnecock Hills on Long Island marks McIlroy's first tournament in the New York area since last year's Ryder Cup, where his R-rated exchanges with fans marked a low point in that event's long history.

There is, of course, an “Us vs. Them” nature to the Ryder Cup that doesn't exist in week-to-week golf, where McIlroy plays most of his rounds in front of appreciative galleries.

There was one moment at the PGA Championship last month outside of Philadelphia where a fan shouted “U-S-A!” after McIlroy hit a bad shot; McIlroy shouted a profanity at the fan, but nothing more came from the episode.

Now, he's back in New York — ready for whatever the golf course, and the gallery, throws at him.

“Was it a rough week for me at times? Absolutely,” he said of the Ryder Cup. “But it is what it is. If that’s a price to pay to live the life that I’m living, then I’m OK with that.”

Return to the past isn't possible; McIlroy lives the good life either way

Now 37 and one of only six players to capture the career Grand Slam, McIlroy is one of those rare players who had it good both before and after LIV came along and disrupted the game.

He said he is not a decision-maker and, regardless of what the tour rolls out for 2028 and beyond, “I’ll continue to play my schedule, which is getting less and less as the years go on.”

He said the tour had to adapt to retain talent when LIV came along and grabbed Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka, a five-time major champion who has since returned to the PGA Tour.

Now, their futures are in flux and McIlroy views the tour he never left in a different light.

“Now that LIV looks like it’s less of a threat," he said, “I think the old ways of the PGA Tour weren’t actually that bad.”

___

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

Following his Oscar-winning performance in “One Battle After Another,” Penn will direct the as-yet untitled film from his own script. Bradley Cooper is in talks to star, though no deal has been finalized.

Representatives for Penn and Warner Bros. didn't comment Tuesday on the movie's protagonist but said he's based on a real person.

When Penn attended the 2022 hearings of the House Select Committee investigating the deadly attack on the Capitol, he sat between Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police officers Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges, both of whom responded to the attacks.

Fanone testified that he rushed to the scene and was “grabbed, beaten, tased, all while being called a traitor to my country.” The assault, which stopped only when he said he had children, caused him to have a heart attack. Hodges also testified about his harrowing experience.

At the hearings, Penn said he was attending as “just another citizen” to observe and see if justice would be served.

The film is described as being about “an unexpected friendship.” Production is expected to start mid-2027.

The movie's announcement comes just days after the U.S. Justice Department said it will not challenge Paramount Skydance's proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. The $111 billion deal, agreed to in February, will put the Warner Bros. film studio under the control of David Ellison, Paramount’s chief executive.

Ellison and his father, the Oracle founder Larry Ellison, have strong ties to President Donald Trump. On Sunday, Ellison attended the Ultimate Fighting Championship event at the White House.

“One Battle After Another,” hailed as a timely political film, won best picture at the Academy Awards in March. Penn won his third Oscar for his racist military zealot Col. Steven J. Lockjaw, but skipped the ceremony to instead visit Ukraine.

This time Hilton was speaking in support of two families who filed lawsuits Monday alleging that their children were mistreated at Provo Canyon School, the same facility where Hilton spent almost a year in the late 1990s. The hotel heiress and media personality alleges staff members beat her, watched her shower, fed her unknown pills and locked her in solitary confinement without clothing.

“I dreamed of becoming strong enough, successful enough and powerful enough to come back and be the hero that I needed when I was a little girl locked inside,” Hilton said. “Today is that day, and I am not backing down.”

The school is now under new ownership, and the administration has said it can’t comment on anything that came before the change, including Hilton’s time there.

Hilton, 45, called on Utah licensors to shut down the school. She has testified about her experiences there in Congress and state legislatures around the U.S., helping pass laws to protect teens in Utah and 15 other states. Utah has long played an outsized role in the troubled teen industry, a network of private, for-profit residential centers for children with behavioral issues.

State health officials imposed temporary restrictions on Provo Canyon School in May, saying the staff did not seek immediate medical care for a student with serious injuries. The restrictions, which include a prohibition on accepting new clients, are set to end Thursday.

Aleah Corona, the mother of the injured student, alleged in Monday's lawsuit that the school did not immediately help the 13-year-old after another resident slammed his head on the ground. The boy ended up with a fractured jaw and a traumatic brain injury, she said. Another family alleged their daughter had severe stomach pain and nausea for more than a week before the school sought proper medical attention. She then experienced kidney failure, their lawsuit alleges.

The school said it could not comment on specific cases due to patient privacy laws.

“At Provo Canyon School, the safety, dignity, and well-being of those entrusted to our care are our highest priorities,” the school said in a statement.

Hilton strutted toward the campus in Springville with her middle fingers raised, telling The Associated Press she refused to be intimidated by a place where she once feared for her life every day.

She warned that parents, like her own, can fall victim to misleading marketing tactics that portray teen facilities as safe.

“These places really just prey on parents who are just looking for help for their children,” Hilton said. “I wasn't a bad kid, I was just sneaking out at night, getting bad grades. I had ADHD, so I wasn't doing well in school, but this was definitely not the place that I should've been sent. My parents had no idea.”

Georgia does have open primaries, meaning voters can choose which party’s primary ballot they want when they vote.

But for the runoff, voters must stick with the ballot they chose during last month’s primary.

So that means:

• Voters who chose a Democratic ballot in the general primary can only vote a Democratic ballot in the primary runoff.
• Voters who chose a Republican ballot in the general primary can only vote a Republican ballot in the primary runoff.
• Eligible voters who did not vote in the general primary or who voted a Nonpartisan ballot can choose a Democratic or Republican ballot in the primary runoff.

Georgia voter George Kramer said he views participating in elections as both a responsibility and a privilege in a democracy. He said casting a ballot is something he does not take for granted.

“Voting is a great honor. We’ve got the freedom in this country to vote, and I think that’s a great, great asset to our country,” Kramer said. “A lot of people want change, you know? And one way to get it is at the ballot box. So I encourage people to come out and vote and do their freedom of choice to vote for who they think would be the best candidate.”

Kramer also pointed to the stakes of the races on the ballot Tuesday, saying the decisions will help shape leadership at both the state and local levels.

“Very important positions, powerful positions for our state,” Kramer said." I look forward to seeing the results and hope it turns out well for our area and our state."

Governor

With Republican incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp term-limited, Georgia voters will decide Tuesday whether to send healthcare billionaire Rick Jackson or current Lt. Gov. Burt Jones to face off against former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms in November.

Bottoms easily cruised to victory in the Democratic primary last month.

Jackson spent more than twice as much as any other primary candidate in Georgia history, but it’s Jones who has earned an endorsement from President Donald Trump.

U.S. Senate

Democratic incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff will soon learn who his opponent will be in November.

The top two finishers in last month’s Republican primary -- Rep. Mike Collins and former college football coach Derek Dooley -- have advanced to Tuesday’s runoff.

Georgia voters have had a week to cast an early, in-person ballot, but for those who have yet to

U.S. House

In a key race for Southeast Georgia, longtime Rep. Buddy Carter left the seat in coastal Georgia’s 1st District that he’s held for a decade open when he opted to run for U.S. Senate.

The 1st District includes Brantley, Camden, Charlton, Glynn, Pierce and Ware counties.

Jim Kingston, the son of longtime U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston, won the Republican primary, but the Democratic primary went to a runoff between Joyce Griggs and Amanda Hollowell.

Carter finished third behind Collins and Dooley in the U.S. Senate Republican primary and did not qualify for the June runoff in that race.

In the 11th District northwest of Atlanta, Republican U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk announced his retirement and endorsed staffer Rob Adkerson, who will now face a runoff against neurologist John Cowan for the Republican nomination.

The winner will face Democratic candidate Chris Harden.

Casting a ballot

On General Primary Runoff Day, polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. You must vote at your assigned precinct, which is the same as any other Election Day, and show one of the following forms of identification:

• Any valid state or federal government-issued photo ID, including a free ID card issued by your county registrar’s office or the Georgia Department of Driver Services. 
• A Georgia driver’s license, even if expired
• Student ID from a Georgia public College or University
• Valid employee photo ID from any branch, department, agency, or entity of the U.S. Government, Georgia, or any county, municipality, board, authority or other entity of this state 
• Valid U.S. passport ID 
• Valid U.S. military photo ID containing a photograph of the voter
• Valid tribal photo ID containing a photograph of the voter

News4JAX has compiled information about all of the races on the primary ballot in our 2026 Georgia Voter’s Guide.

You’ll notice mostly clear skies and that familiar warmth building through the morning.

Our Exact Track 4D radar shows we’re starting off in the mid to upper 70s across town.

That warm start is just setting the stage for a hot and sunny day ahead, even with a few clouds drifting by.

Afternoon storms and wind picking up

Don’t let the sun fool you—all signs point to some afternoon showers moving in.

I’m expecting those to be a bit stronger than what we saw yesterday, with the chance they’ll roll in alongside gusty winds.

Right now, winds are calm, but gusts are forecast to pick up as we get into the afternoon.

Most spots will likely see gusts between 12 mph and 17 mph.

So, if you’re planning anything outdoors, keep an eye on the clouds this afternoon—some pop-up storms are likely.

Gardening forecast and handy rain relief

I’ll be honest, I’m not a fan of yard chores. Luckily, these afternoon showers will help out if you’re hoping for the garden to get a break from the watering can!

The gardening forecast shows rain chances up to 60% today. For the rest of the week, you’ll still see rain possibilities, so let Mother Nature take some of that work off your plate.

As for tonight, we’ll see mild conditions stick around—mostly cloudy and around 75 degrees.

Looking ahead to tropical updates

And keep your eyes on what’s coming next—later this week, I’ll have the latest on the tropics. There’s nothing specific to watch yet, but The Weather Authority is tracking everything so you’re ready for whatever develops.

Got any cool weather photos or dramatic storm shots to share? Send them in at SnapJAX and help us tell Jacksonville’s weather story!

The caffeinated beverage that is ubiquitous in some South American countries has spread alongside the multicultural appeal of soccer, including in the United States, where it's become a drink of choice for star athletes on the pitch and off.

When reigning World Cup winners Argentina arrived at their hotel in Kansas City, Missouri, fans were outside pouring and sharing yerba mate in gourd cups with metal bombillas, the straw that acts as a filter for the steeped leaves. At Cafe Corazon, one of the biggest importers of yerba mate in the Midwest, a line of fans wearing sky blue-and-white striped jerseys was nearly out the door on Monday, the day before Argentina played their first match of the World Cup.

“Our mate has been flying off the shelves,” said Dulcinea Herrera, one of the co-owners of Cafe Corazon. “So a lot of people have been coming in to try it. People who aren’t Argentinian want to just have that experience. And we have a lot of Argentinians coming in saying, ‘Oh, this reminds me of home.’”

Plenty of the World Cup's most famous stars are avid drinkers, from Uruguay's Luis Suarez to Argentina's Lionel Messi. The latter posted a photo of himself holding a mate cup in one hand and the World Cup trophy in the other after his team won in 2022, cementing the drink's place in the hall of famous sport beverages.

Mate, your way

The drink that dates back to Indigenous people and the gauchos — South American cowboys — is sipped around the world, with other nations and cultures adding a different spin or flavor, says Christine Folch, a cultural anthropologist at Duke University and author of “The Book of Yerba Mate.”

People of certain regions, such as Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil, prefer their mate in different types of vessels and prepared certain ways, which can be a cultural identifier when those fans meet up at a friendly match. Fulch has a large collection of mate cups, including ones made of cow hooves and horns, alongside hand-stitched, leather-wrapped metal cups and gourds.

In the early 20th century, mate became popular in Syria and Lebanon, which is why one the main places to get the traditional dried leaves in the U.S. is at Middle Eastern grocery stores, Folch explained. In the U.S., it's often sold in refrigerated cans, marketed to an American audience as a natural energy drink and mixed with fruit flavors. Some Cuban Americans drink a version of mate that's sweetened and carbonated. In Berlin, Club Mate is a popular carbonated drink that often gets mixed with alcohol.

Traditionally, the leaves of the trees are smoked during preparation, so the mate can have a smoky overtone as well as a strong grassy, earthy flavor that people say makes them feel less jittery than coffee.

And if you want to sound knowledgeable when ordering, it's pronounced like MAH-teh, not as in your soccer teammate.

Sip and share

It's a drink made for social settings, like a sporting event, because traditionally people will share the same cup or bring enough to share, says Folch.

“When somebody offers you mate and you accept, what you have done is you have stepped into a relationship. So it’s a way of bonding with people,” says Folch.

Sebastian Cufre and his father Rene, who was born in Argentina, drove to Kansas City from Albuquerque trying to score last-minute tickets to the match. They met other Argentina fans at Cafe Corazon and shared a cup of mate around their tables.

“It’s like something that you pass around during the games,” said Cufre.

He's tried the canned American version, but isn't a fan.

“Honestly, I don’t even consider that to be mate,” Cufre said. “That’s like a completely different class of beverage.”

Whatever the preference, fans of mate want their North American friends to give yerba mate a chance if they see a cup being passed around while at a cafe, a restaurant or a watch party.

“It’s not only a drink, but a social thing,” said Fernando Villagran, originally from Salta, Argentina, who traveled from California to cheer on Argentina's team. “It is about friendship.”

___

AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

Smith died Saturday hours after delivering pizzas to a homeless charity in the San Francisco Bay area.

No cause of death was given and Smith's family has hired attorneys Harry Daniels, Bakari Sellers and Wayne Kendall to investigate Smith's death.

“As with anyone who dies so suddenly at such a young age, we understand that there is a great deal of interest in and speculation about Aldon Smith’s passing and we intend to get to the bottom of it," the attorneys said in a statement released Tuesday. "To that end, we have taken a number of steps including sending his brain to Boston where medical experts will examine it for CTE as well as other damage caused by years of concussions and additional trauma.

“In the meantime we simply ask you to keep Aldon’s family in our prayers and respect their privacy as they struggle to come to grips with this terrible loss.”

Smith’s friend, Amir Shirazi, told the San Francisco Chronicle, that he found Smith slumped over in the front passenger seat of his car after delivering the pizzas on Saturday. Smith was taken to a hospital and was declared dead.

“He was a creative mind, so smart, so fierce, so real, so powerful, his presence, his passion and his aura meant a lot to me as a brother and I wish I could’ve did more to help him and pray to God he doesn’t have to hurt anymore,” his former teammate, Anthony Dixon, wrote on social media.

Smith was drafted by the 49ers with the seventh pick out of Missouri in 2011 and made an immediate impact on the team, helping San Francisco snap a playoff drought and reach the NFC title game his first three seasons with one trip to a Super Bowl.

He had 14 sacks as a rookie when he finished second to Von Miller in voting for the AP Defensive Rookie of the Year and had a franchise-record 19 1/2 sacks in 2012 when he was named a first-team All-Pro.

His 33 1/2 sacks in his first two seasons are the most in NFL history. He kept that pace up with 4 1/2 sacks in the first three games in 2013 before the off-field issues started with an arrest for DUI and a stint in rehab for substance abuse that sidelined him for five games.

He was released by San Francisco in August 2015 after another drunken driving charge — his fifth arrest in three years. He signed with Oakland just before the start of the 2015 season and had 3 1/2 sacks in nine games before being suspended again.

Smith applied for reinstatement to the NFL in 2016, but was not allowed back initially. The Raiders released him in 2018 following a domestic violence arrest. A plea agreement was reached in that case.

He eventually was reinstated in 2020 and played 16 games for Dallas that season and had five sacks.

He signed with Seattle the next season but was arrested again for battery and was released in training camp. He served a six-month jail sentence for DUI in 2023 and never played again in the NFL.

Smith finished his career with 52 1/2 sacks in 75 games.

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL

Indiana's plan will consolidate $50 million in federal money from five funding streams into one with fewer spending restrictions, similar to exemptions over federal spending granted to Iowa and Louisiana earlier this year. State officials said the waiver would reduce the costs associated with compliance and documentation by about $20 million.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon approved the state's plan at an event Tuesday in Indiana, appearing with state Secretary of Education Katie Jenner and Gov. Mike Braun, a Republican.

Jenner said the state welcomes the expanded control over federal money.

“As states, we have significant control over education in that we set the standards, we can choose our curriculum, we can design our assessments,” Jenner said. “But when it comes to federal funding, our hands have always been tied. Until now.”

The Education Department sends billions of dollars each year to American schools, based on funding levels set by Congress. The money makes up a small but critical part of most school district budgets, arriving in dozens of separate grants and funding streams set aside for specific purposes.

Waivers from the federal government have been offered for years, and were widely used during the pandemic. Under the Trump administration, which has vowed to dismantle the federal Education Department, they have gained traction as a new way to reduce the federal footprint in state and local education decisions.

Indiana's waiver is also the first granted by the Trump administration that allows a change in accountability systems, allowing Indiana to reduce how heavily academic indicators are weighted in school performance scores.

Still, the department can grant only so much flexibility. Indiana's request sought to create a school choice program by giving money set aside to improve low-performing districts to higher-performing ones that enroll students from other schools, but that was denied.

An Education Department official said that proposal was not approved because it would have changed how funds are allocated to recipients, an explicit restriction on the secretary's waiver authority.

Iowa's plan faced similar hurdles. The state originally sought flexibility for major grants like Title I, which sends more than $100 million to Iowa schools with high percentages of low-income students, and to consolidate 10 funding streams into a single grant. The department approved a much smaller waiver — collapsing four funding streams totaling $9.8 million for programs that fund teacher training, English learners, after-school programs and academic enrichment.

More waivers are likely to come, as a handful of conservative-led states have either expressed interest or submitted their own proposals for expanded flexibility.

President Donald Trump's administration has described the waivers as an effort to empower state leaders and minimize administrative burden.

At the same time, Trump has lent support to a growing school choice movement. States are using taxpayer money to finance kids' private school or homeschooling expenses, encouraging them to leave public school. The federal government is set to launch its own school choice program next year.

Programs supported by federal money often support disadvantaged students, such as additional funding for rural schools, low-income schools and English-language learners.

Without these explicit designations, critics say, money for vulnerable populations may be rolled into more general spending initiatives that do not specifically address the challenges those students face. The three waivers approved so far roll funding set aside for English-language learners into a broader spending pool.

The Education Department also approved Indiana's request for a unified school accountability system that relies on benchmarks developed by the state. The new system places a greater focus on college and career readiness.

Denise Forte, CEO of EdTrust, a group that advocates for educational equity, criticized the waiver and the new accountability system for limiting transparency and accountability and for de-emphasizing reading and math scores.

“The Department of Education will allow Indiana to rewrite its accountability system in a way that will mask student performance and move millions of dollars in dedicated funding away from students who need it most,” Forte said in a statement.

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

The 26-year-old Rice had been booked into the jail on May 19 after testing positive for THC. Upon his release, Rice made a quick dash past a handful of reporters and into a waiting SUV, which whisked him away from the facility.

Rice had surgery about a week before he was sentenced to clean up debris in his right knee, which had been causing inflammation. A judge approved a request from his lawyers to allow him to receive treatment at Parkland Hospital while serving his sentence.

Rice missed all of the Chiefs' voluntary offseason workouts and their mandatory minicamp, which concluded last week. But Chiefs coach Andy Reid said recently that he expects him to report on time to training camp at the end of July.

“(Chiefs trainer) Rick (Burkholder) has talked to him more than what I have,” Reid said, “just making sure that everything was set there where he could do some rehab with it and still do the time that he needed to take care of. So he's on top of that, and thank goodness that they're allowing him to do that. So, they've been great with that.”

The Chiefs are counting on Rice to help an offense that often struggled during a disappointing 6-11 finish last season.

He's been valuable when he's been available, catching 156 passes for 1,797 yards and 14 touchdowns and helping the Chiefs win the Super Bowl in the 2023 season. But he's also missed games because of suspension and injuries, resulting in just 28 played in three seasons.

“We’re moving forward as normal as we go here,” Reid said during voluntary workouts. “When he gets back, we’ve got to get him caught up in doing what he needs to do, and make sure he gets it. It’s not an easy thing he’s going through.

“Life lessons are important,” Reid added, “but we’re all given chances to learn, and he’s in that position now.”

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

Judge Gregory Carro had scheduled the hearing for Tuesday but adjourned it about a half-hour after it was supposed to start when Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann told him that prosecutors had failed to send required paperwork to the jail.

“It's on us,” Seidemann said. “We got the writ signed but we failed to serve it.”

“That's unfortunate,” Carro replied.

Seidemann noted that the judge in Mangione's federal case, Margaret Garnett, had sent an order to the jail authorizing him to wear a suit to court, but the prosecutor acknowledged that alone wasn't enough to get him brought to court.

Mangione, 28, is being held at a federal jail in Brooklyn while awaiting trial in state and federal trials in the Dec. 4, 2024, killing. He has pleaded not guilty in both cases and could spend his life in prison if convicted in either case.

Carro had been expected to rule Tuesday on an unspecified matter after holding a secret hearing two weeks ago. Carro said he sealed the virtual proceeding at the request of the defense but provided no other details at the time.

Any ruling from Carro would now come on Wednesday.

Mangione is set to go to trial in the state case on Sept. 8. His federal trial, which involves stalking charges, is set to begin on Oct. 13.

Thompson, 50, was killed as he walked to a Manhattan hotel for UnitedHealth Group’s annual investor conference. Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting him from behind. Police say “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.

Mangione, an Ivy League graduate from a wealthy Maryland family, was arrested five days later at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of Manhattan.

At a hearing last month, Carro ruled that a gun and notebook that prosecutors say link Mangione to the killing can be used as evidence against him.

The gun, a 3D-printed pistol, matches the one used to kill Thompson, prosecutors said. The notebook describes wanting to “wack” a health insurance executive and rebelling against “the deadly, greed fueled health insurance cartel.”

The Hollywood & Entertainment Signature Auction presented by Heritage Auctions announced Tuesday and held July 13-17 also includes hats from “The Wizard of Oz” and “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” hoverboards from “Back to the Future II,” rugs from “The Big Lebowski” and a pair of Rocky's boxing boots.

A major Beatles artifact will also be up for sale: John Lennon's handwritten lyrics for “If I fell,” written on the back of a Valentine card while he was in New York for the Fab Four's first appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1964. The bidding for it will open at $500,000.

The lightsaber, used onscreen by Mark Hamill in the climactic Cloud City fight in the 1980 “Star Wars” sequel, where Darth Vader declares “I am your father,” includes a severed hand effects rig. It’s never been up for auction before and bidding opens at $1 million.

Bidding starts at $100,000 for a Wicked Witch of the West hat worn by actor Margaret Hamilton in 1939's “The Wizard of Oz” and at $50,000 for the brown top hat worn by Gene Wilder as the title character in 1971's “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.”

The auction will also include a pair of boxing boots worn by Sylvester Stallone in “Rocky III.” Stallone wears the showy boots featuring tassels and a Nike swoosh in the opening montage of the 1982 film. Bids will begin at $100,000.

Also up for sale are the two rugs that are essential to the plot of “The Big Lebowski,” including the rug belonging to Jeff Bridges' the Dude that is soiled at the beginning of the 1998 film that “really tied the room together,” and the other that he takes from his wealthy namesake. Bidding on them opens at $15,000 apiece.

“This auction represents the full spectrum of entertainment history, from Hollywood’s Golden Age to modern blockbuster cinema and the most influential moments in popular music,” Joe Maddalena, executive vice president of Heritage Auctions, said in a statement.

Many other items including a Paul Newman hockey jersey from “Slap Shot,” a necklace worn by the title character in “The Bride of Frankenstein” and the inflatable “Otto the Autopilot” from “Airplane” will be up for auction.

Candles in hand and poster boards filled with handwritten messages for his mother, the community came together to grieve, share memories, and support one another.

Carson’s mother, Megan Farias, confirmed her son’s identity in a Facebook post, writing: “There are no words that can truly express the pain our family is feeling right now. Carson was deeply loved and will forever remain in our hearts.”

Courtney Bailey, a parent whose daughter attends Lake Asbury Junior High, helped organize the vigil after reaching out to some of Carson’s friends.

“Whether you knew him or knew his family — just seeing all the rest of the kids grieve, it’s definitely tough,” Bailey said. “It’s been an emotional week for everybody.”

Bailey said she did not know Carson personally but felt compelled to create a space for his closest friends to come together.

“I didn’t know Carson personally, but my daughter goes to the junior high and they have a lot of mutual friends,” she said. “I just wanted to set something up for his close friends to write a message on a poster board to his mom.”

Two days after Carson’s death, a neighbor posted in a local Facebook group asking the community to show up at Lake Asbury Junior High to light candles, share memories, and support one another. The response online translated directly into the crowd that gathered Saturday evening.

“It just started as something for all his friends to come together — to show each other that they’re supported and that they’re loved,” Bailey said. “And it just grew within the community.”

The poster boards filled with messages will be delivered to Carson’s mother, Megan.

The Clay County School District also responded to our request for a statement on Monday, June 15th.

Statement from Clay County District Schools

“Clay County District Schools is deeply saddened to learn of the tragic passing of a student who attended Lake Asbury Junior High School. Our hearts, thoughts, and prayers go out to the student’s family, friends, and the entire Lake Asbury community during this unimaginably difficult time.

To support our school community as they process this devastating news, the district has deployed grief counselors and student support resources. Counselors will be available on-site at Lake Asbury Junior High School starting on Monday, June 15th, to assist any students, staff, or family members in need of comfort and guidance."

The gathering also became a rallying point for neighbors who have long raised concerns about safety along Sandridge Road — the dark, unlit stretch where Carson was killed.

“More than half the kids here are on e-bikes and e-scooters,” Bailey said. “So I feel like it’s really important to raise awareness.”

Bailey pointed to rapid residential growth in the area as a factor that has outpaced road infrastructure.

“A lot of people are constantly talking about the lights — we don’t have lights on this road,” she said. “We’ve got a lot of new communities and a lot of new houses going in. I don’t think anybody was fully prepared for the traffic that was about to hit Sandridge.”

With schools out for the summer and more families on the road, Bailey had a direct message for drivers.

“Slow down. Get off your phones. Be aware of your surroundings. Watch out for these kids,” she said.

What Happened

The Florida Highway Patrol says Carson had stopped his e-bike — described as a small electric dirt bike — in a westbound travel lane on an unlit stretch of Sandridge Road when a 16-year-old driver coming up behind him never saw him in time. The e-bike had no lights. Carson was not wearing a helmet.

The 16-year-old’s sedan struck the e-bike. Seconds later, a 17-year-old girl in an SUV rear-ended that sedan. Carson was thrown from the bike and died at the scene. The two other teen drivers were not injured.

The crash remains under investigation by the Florida Highway Patrol.

Funeral Services

A GoFundMe has been created to help the family with funeral expenses.

Funeral services for Carson Farias are scheduled for Friday at 2:00 p.m. at Russell Funeral Home in Green Cove Springs.

“We have increased our statewide prosecutions by over 50%. We’ve secured 30% more convictions than the year before. Over 40% more human trafficking convictions. We’ve arrested a record more than 1,700 child predators, and we are putting bad guys away like never before,” Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said.

DeSantis said the measures put “the criminal on the defensive” and give law enforcement new tools to protect communities.

“If you attack a law enforcement officer in the state of Florida, prepare to be held accountable,” he said.

Among the measures signed:

• Senate Bill 432: Expands trafficking penalties and targets retailers that package or market dangerous substances to appeal to young people. The bill also includes provisions known as “Meg’s Law,” named for a young Florida woman officials said died after struggling with nitrous oxide addiction. The measure makes it a felony for gas stations, convenience stores and vape shops to sell nitrous oxide to minors.
• Senate Bill 1332: Strengthens the Career Offender Registration Act by requiring designated career offenders to register in person with local sheriff’s offices, provide more identifying information, report changes in residence, employment, vehicles and phone numbers, and complete annual in-person registration.
• House Bill 429: Modernizes Florida’s criminal gang statutes to allow prosecutors to use online admissions of gang affiliation, gang-related social media activity and other contemporary indicators to establish gang involvement.
• Senate Bill 156, the Officer Jason Raynor Act: Increases protections and penalties for crimes against law enforcement, clarifying that force cannot be used to resist officers acting in good faith and enhancing penalties for battery on officers and manslaughter of officers.
• Senate Bill 436: Broadens circumstances under which a second battery offense can be elevated to a felony by adding a prior conviction for resisting an officer with violence to the list of qualifying prior offenses.

State officials and law enforcement leaders at the event praised the bills as necessary updates to keep communities safe and to address new forms of criminal behavior. Law enforcement leaders urged parents to monitor social media activity that can signal gang involvement.

DeSantis said Florida’s approach contrasts with policies in some other states that he said release offenders early. He recounted a case he described in which a man released pre-sentencing later murdered a 5-year-old, using the example to argue for tougher enforcement and sentencing.

The bills take effect July 1 unless otherwise noted. Supporters at the signing included legislators, law enforcement officials and family members of victims and fallen officers.

Roupp started the 5-1 loss to the Chicago Cubs on Friday night with “Gen 9:12-16” written on his cap. A portion of the Bible verse overlapped the rainbow SF logo players wore for the Pride Night. San Francisco relievers JT Brubaker and Ryan Walker also added Bible verses to their caps.

Another Giants pitcher, left-hander Sam Hentges, wore the team's standard black cap with the orange logo instead of the Pride Night version.

MLB issued a warning about future violations of the league's uniform policy.

“The writing on the cap violates our rules and consistent with normal practice we have warned the players about future violations,” MLB said in its original statement.

The league issued another statement Tuesday to elaborate.

“To be clear, this routine verbal warning not to wear the hat in future games is not disciplinary and had absolutely nothing to do with the content of the message," MLB said.

"We respect players’ right to free expression. However, writing of any kind, with any message, is prohibited per Major League Baseball’s Uniform Regulations which provides in part that, ‘(a) Player may not write, attach, affix, embroider or otherwise display nicknames or messages on apparel or playing equipment…’. We have given the same warning numerous times in the past to players for messages such as ‘Dad’, ‘Happy Mother’s Day, I Love Mom,’ and names of family members.”

MLB teams sometimes host Pride Nights during the regular season to support their LGBTQ+ fans. The league has been a leader among the four major U.S. pro sports in hosting Pride Nights, in part because its regular season overlaps with Pride Month in June. Many adopt rainbow-colored uniforms patches or logos, set up special signage around ballparks and invite guests including community leaders and drag performers.

The portion of the Genesis verse cited by Roupp on his hat included God's promise to never again send a worldwide flood and the rainbow in the sky is the sign of that covenant.

“That’s just kind of something I believe in, and I stand firm in that, and I’m thankful we live in a country where, you know, we have the freedom to believe what we want … and express what we want,” Roupp told reporters.

Giants manager Tony Vitello told reporters nothing was discussed with the pitchers before the game. Vitello said it was “just kind of a general knowledge" that players "have the freedom to do what they think is best.”

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

“We’ve lowered our rates multiple times over the past year, and this latest decrease reflects our commitment to offering competitive, affordable insurance coverage for Floridians,” said Jennifer Pintacuda, president of AAA’s Florida-based insurance companies.

Auto insurance rate cuts

AAA implemented an average 5% decrease for monoline auto policies through Auto Club South Insurance Company (ACSIC) and an average 4% decrease for package auto policies through Auto Club Insurance Company of Florida (ACICF). AAA says together, those reductions deliver more than $16 million in annual savings to more than 133,000 policyholders statewide.

AAA says policyholders began seeing the changes reflected in new policies June 1. Renewal policies will reflect the changes beginning Aug. 1. Drivers with full coverage may see greater savings due to deeper reductions in physical damage coverages.

Homeowner insurance rate cuts

Earlier this year, AAA adjusted rates on its Select Package Home program, resulting in an average 5% reduction. AAA says the changes translate to more than $12 million in annual savings across 86,000 Florida policies.

Updated rates took effect March 1, 2026, for new business and May 1, 2026, for renewal policies.

Other ways to save on insurance

While rates are declining, AAA says drivers and homeowners can take additional steps to manage their insurance costs. Premiums vary based on factors such as driving history, location, coverage selections, property characteristics and statewide claims trends.

AAA recommends the following to help reduce premiums:

• Maintain a safe driving record
• Consider usage-based programs
• Take advantage of available discounts
• Reduce risk at home through maintenance and improvements
• Bundle home and auto policies
• Review coverage to optimize savings

The initial quake was centered inland about 43 kilometers (27 miles) east-southeast of Palu, and the U.S. Geological Survey said it was about 10 kilometers (6 miles) deep.

The strong shaking sent people fleeing into open areas in and around Palu, a city of about 400,000 people and the capital of Central Sulawesi province. Several hospitals evacuated patients, some with IV drips, outdoors as a safety measure.

Four regencies close to the epicenter — with a combined population of 1.3 million — have yet to be fully assessed, but a preliminary report said at least 109 people have been displaced by the powerful earthquake. At the same time, 32 people were reported injured and rushed to a nearby hospital, including eight with serious injuries in the hardest hit Sigi regency, according to Abdul Muhari, the National Disaster Management Agency's spokesperson.

He said the earthquake also caused widespread damage to buildings and infrastructure, including 64 houses, four places of worship, four public facilities, two bridges, two government office buildings, a cafe and a hotel. A section of a provincial road linking Palu city and its neighboring regencies of Sigi and Poso was cut.

The agency also said that at least 55 aftershocks continued throughout the day, raising concerns among residents shaken by memories of a devastating 2018 earthquake and tsunami in the region. The aftershocks prompted residents to flee buildings and gather in open areas.

Images from the area showed heavily damaged structures with partially collapsed roofs, shattered walls and debris scattered across the streets.

“We have evacuated all guests from the hotel, including several guests who remained in their rooms,” said Effendi Natali, a general manager of a four-star hotel in Palu.

“They all panicked, which is a natural reaction during an earthquake, but everyone is safe,” Natali said, adding that the hotel sustained only minor damage.

People also moved away from coastal areas as a precaution in case the quake set off a tsunami. Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysical Agency said there was no danger of a tsunami but warned aftershocks could continue.

“The earthquake shaking was extremely strong,” Palu resident Muhtar Ahmad said. “We are still traumatized by the previous earthquake, so we chose to remain outside because we are afraid that aftershocks may continue.”

Many Sulawesi residents are haunted by the magnitude 7.5 earthquake that devastated Palu in 2018, setting off a 3-meter (10-foot) high tsunami and a phenomenon called liquefaction in which soil collapses into itself. More than 4,000 people were killed, including many who were buried when whole neighborhoods were swallowed in the falling ground.

In January 2021, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake near the city of Mamuju on Sulawesi island left at least 100 people dead, with thousands sleeping outdoors for days out of fear of aftershocks.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity because of its location on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.

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Associated Press journalists Niniek Karmini and Edna Tarigan in Jakarta contributed.

Starting Tuesday, visitors to Italy’s most popular museum will be able to view “The Birth of Venus” in one room and then turn around to see “Primavera” in an adjoining space on the opposite wall.

The update by Uffizi director Simone Verde, who took over in January 2024, marks a new phase in the ongoing renovation of the museum.

The Botticelli rooms “seek to present visitors with the Uffizi of the future, while keeping its feet firmly on the ground and its roots deeply planted in the history of this extraordinary museum,” Verde said.

Most recently, “The Birth of Venus” and “Primavera” were displayed on adjacent walls, allowing visitors to view both paintings at once. In previous decades, they hung on opposite walls in the same room, contributing to crowding and a difficult viewing experience.