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

The Latest:

FCC’s sole Democrat warns media companies against yielding to Trump

Anna Gomez wakes up every morning and checks her phone to see if Trump has fired her yet.

The sole Democrat on the Federal Communications Commission is urging urge media companies fight back against efforts to silence free speech. In an extraordinary four-page letter to Josh D’Amaro, the CEO of Disney, which is the parent company to ABC, Gomez described the FCC’s “sustained, coordinated campaign of censorship and control” against the company under Chairman Brendan Carr, a Trump ally.

She noted probes touching on diversity practices, ABC’s moderation of a 2024 presidential debate, guest bookings on “The View” and calls for late-night host Jimmy Kimmel to be fired. She said the FCC’s move for early reviews of ABC’s local broadcast licenses is “the most egregious assault on the First Amendment this FCC has taken to date.”

▶ Read more from her Q&A with the AP

Iranian World Cup team will play in US but sleep in Mexico

The Iranians will return each night to a base in Tijuana, Mexico, after their U.S. group stage matches, President Claudia Sheinbaum has confirmed.

Sheinbaum said at a news conference Monday that she was told by a FIFA representative that the U.S. was reluctant to have the Iranian soccer team spend time in the U.S. outside the stadiums while the war launched by the U.S. and Israel continues.

“The United States doesn’t want the Iranian national team to stay overnight in the United States,” Sheinbaum said. A FIFA representative then asked, “Can they stay overnight in Mexico?” “And we said, ‘Yes, no problem. We have no issue with that’,” she said.

A U.S. State Department statement Monday said Trump made it clear the Iranian team is welcome to participate. The statement did not address where the team might stay, or Sheinbaum’s comments.

Lebanon hopes for an agreement that sees Israeli withdrawal

Israel’s military clashed with Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants Tuesday along the strategic Litani River in Lebanon as Israeli troops tried to push farther north, just three days before Lebanese and Israeli military delegations are set to meet for direct talks in Washington.

A previously reached ceasefire appears more nominal by the day, complicating efforts at a broader peace in the Iran war, as Tehran wants an end to the fighting to include Lebanon. Israel says it will not withdraw until Hezbollah no longer poses a threat to residents of its northern towns. Hezbollah has vowed to continue fighting until Israel stops its daily airstrikes and withdraws its troops from Lebanon.

▶ Read more:

Trump turns 80 next month as more Americans express concerns about his age

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

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

Kuhlman said a complete physical would include advanced heart testing, screening for common cancers and a cognitive assessment. The White House has not disclosed what Trump’s checkups will entail.

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

US consumer confidence is dented as gas prices remain high

U.S. consumer confidence declined slightly as gas prices remained at or above a national average of $4.50 a gallon in May and inflation remained elevated, a sharp contrast to soaring stock prices that have neared record levels.

The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index slipped 0.7 points to 93.1 in May, the first decline after three months of gains.

The index follows a separate gauge of consumer sentiment compiled by the University of Michigan, which fell to a record low this month. Spikes in gas prices as well as higher food costs have worsened inflation, which has outpaced the growth in average paychecks in recent months, reducing most Americans’ purchasing power. Polls show Americans have soured on Trump’s economic policies, which could harm Republicans in this year’s elections.

Iran denounces US strikes as a sign of bad faith, with impact on peace talks unclear

Iran on Tuesday denounced U.S. strikes a day earlier as a sign of “bad faith and unreliability” as negotiations continue toward a possible deal to end the war.

The U.S. military said it acted with restraint in defensively targeting missile launch sites and boats placing mines. Iran’s foreign ministry called the strikes a ceasefire violation and warned that “The Islamic Republic of Iran will leave no act of aggression unanswered.”

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

Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf went to Qatar as part of the talks. The U.K. Maritime Trade Operations Center said an explosion was reported Tuesday morning aboard a tanker in the Gulf of Oman. No one was injured and there was no immediate information on the cause.

Federal court blocks Alabama’s plan for new US House map

The new congressional map would give Republicans an advantage in a key House race this November. But the preliminary injunction issued by a three-judge panel requires the state, at least for now, to instead use the same court-ordered districts under which congressional representatives were elected in 2024.

Lawyers representing Black voters argued that Alabama’s map intentionally discriminates against Black voters and that trying to change lines in the middle of an election year creates chaos.

The state could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Republicans want to use a new map that will give the GOP a chance to reclaim the seat now held by Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures.

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

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

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

Congressional Black Caucus presses US corporations to oppose Republican redistricting push

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

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

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

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

Trump arrives at Walter Reed military hospital for his latest physical

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

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

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

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

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

Presidents aren’t required to disclose health information

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

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

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

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

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

▶ Read more:

Former long‑term DOJ lawyers say the departures — many with an average tenure of about 14 years and hundreds who held leadership roles — have hollowed out institutional knowledge across tax, narcotics, national security, environmental enforcement, civil rights and other units.

Reporting shows units shrank or were reorganized, including the near collapse of the Civil Rights Division, the dissolution of the Tax Division, and mergers that left some policy teams down to a single person.

At the same time, the department redirected resources to aggressive immigration prosecutions, producing a surge of immigration cases but a measurable drop in other types of prosecutions and civil enforcement actions, according to ProPublica and Earthjustice analyses.

Judges and watchdogs have flagged missed deadlines and compliance problems in multiple courts, and former officials warn that the credibility of DOJ attorneys in courtrooms is eroding.

The department counters that it retains more than 10,000 lawyers and has improved efficiency while prioritizing public safety and immigration enforcement.

Summary

A rapid, high‑profile exodus of experienced DOJ attorneys has drained legal expertise, shifted enforcement priorities, strained remaining staff, and prompted growing concern from judges, former officials and legal observers about the department’s capacity and credibility.

Key Points

• 3,300+ DOJ attorneys left from January 2025 to Feb 2026; about 800 were hired.
• Departures averaged roughly 14 years of DOJ service; ~740 held leadership roles.
• Major impacts: Civil Rights, Environment and Tax divisions heavily affected.
• Immigration prosecutions surged while many other enforcement areas dropped.
• Courts reported frequent compliance problems and missed deadlines.
• DOJ argues it remains staffed and focused on core priorities.

Why this matters

A department stripped of experience risks weaker prosecutions, poorer legal representation of the government, and damaged trust in federal courts.

Rebuilding institutional independence and morale takes years, and gaps now could mean fewer successful investigations, longer case backlogs, and diminished deterrence.

Bottom line

Staffing shifts and politicized priorities have produced immediate operational strains and a potential long‑term erosion of DOJ capacity and credibility that will be hard to reverse.

Our conversation

Jeremy Rosenthal, a nationally renowned prosecuting and defense attorney and legal analyst, joins me on this week’s episode of Politics & Power to discuss:

• How the DOJ should balance immigration priorities with other criminal and civil enforcement
• What reforms would restore institutional independence and recruit top talent?
• Whether court sanctions and judicial skepticism are adequate checks
• If organizational changes can be reversed in a single administration
• What the practical effects are on public safety and corporate enforcement
• How Congress or the courts should respond

Catch our encore presentations at 7 p.m. or 9 p.m. Tuesday on News4JAX+. You can also catch up any time on demand on News4JAX+, News4JAX.com or our YouTube channel.

The justices rebuffed an appeal from the league, which wanted the case handled through its arbitration process rather than open court in New York. Justice Brett Kavanaugh dissented from the decision not to hear the case.

Flores, who's Black, sued the league and three teams in February 2022, alleging the league was “rife with racism” regarding its hiring practices when it comes to Black coaches. He was later joined in the lawsuit by fellow Black coaches Steve Wilks and Ray Horton.

Flores, who was fired by the Dolphins shortly before the suit was filed, is now the Minnesota Vikings' defensive coordinator.

The NFL has argued Flores should go through arbitration rather than the legal system, but lower courts have sided with the plaintiffs. The league said it respected the Supreme Court decision, which allows lower-court rulings to stay in place, but is "fully prepared to defend ourselves as this matter proceeds.”

David Gottlieb and Douglas Wigdor, attorneys for the plaintiffs, said they were pleased with the decision. “The NFL must now accept that its commissioner cannot be the arbitrator over discrimination claims against the league and its teams. We look forward to litigating these claims in court,” they said in a statement.

Flores was fired after posting a 24-25 record over three years without a playoff appearance. The Dolphins did have back-to-back winning seasons before Flores was dismissed.

Flores sued the NFL as well as the Denver Broncos, the New York Giants and the Houston Texans. He interviewed with the Broncos in 2019 and the Giants and Texans in 2022.

Wilks, who was fired as the New York Jets' defensive coordinator in December, joined the lawsuit by claiming the Arizona Cardinals in 2018 hired him as a “bridge coach” — promoting him to interim coach after they fired another coach but then passing over him for the full-time role. He said the Cardinals didn’t provide him with a realistic chance to succeed.

Horton, who last coached in the NFL in 2019, alleged the Tennessee Titans didn’t offer him a genuine interview for the head coaching position in 2016.

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Associated Press writer Michael R. Sisak in New York contributed to this story.

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Follow the AP's coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court and the NFL at https://apnews.com/hub/nfl.

Officials began ordering residents of Garden Grove near Los Angeles to evacuate their homes on Thursday after the tank overheated. About 16,000 residents out of the 50,000 evacuees were still waiting for the all-clear.

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

The tank at GKN Aerospace Transparency Systems contains 6,000 to 7,000 gallons (22,700 to 26,500 liters) of methyl methacrylate, which is highly flammable. Exposure to the chemical can cause serious respiratory problems, neurological problems and irritation to the skin, eyes and throat, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

An evaluation of the tank showed a reduction of pressure inside, thanks to a crack that was discovered Sunday. The tank’s interior had cooled to 93 degrees F (33.9 degrees C), the county's fire division chief Craig Covey said Monday, down from 100 degrees (37.7 degrees C) a day earlier.

Health officials have sought to reassure people who are returning to homes near the plant.

“There was no contamination. There were no fumes. There were not vapors that came from this incident,” Orange County Health Director Regina Chinsio-Kwong said at Monday's news conference. “There was not a leak. So it should be, you should feel comfortable going home even if you’re across the street from that new zone line.”

Relief among residents

Kim Yen, a retiree who had to evacuate her home two blocks from the plant, said she’s ready to go back but wants to be sure it’s safe first.

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

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

Yen added that she’s been worried about the emergency crews.

“They are really our heroes,” she said.

Environmental risks remain

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

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

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

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

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

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

GKN is a British company that supplies aircraft manufacturers

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

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

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

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

It remained unknown when the operation would reopen.

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

Aircraft manufacturing is vulnerable to supply chain disruptions

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

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

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

——

This story has been corrected to attribute a quote to TJ McGovern, interim fire chief of the Orange County Fire Authority, not to division chief Craig Covey.

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

Inspired by Gisèle Pelicot ’s decision to make her harrowing drug and rape trial public, the parents of the children agreed to open the proceedings. In France, trials involving minors are usually held behind closed doors.

According to their lawyers, some parents said they were following the example of Pelicot and her motto that “shame must change sides” to abusers, not victims.

The Paris case emerged in April 2025 after several children told their parents they allegedly had been sexually abused at a nursery school.

The defendant, 36, who has not been publicly identified, is accused of assaulting children while supervising them in bathrooms, during lunch breaks and in after-school care between August 2024 and April 2025. He has denied any sexual abuse against children.

The children were between 3 and 5 years old at the time. They do not have to attend the trial. A judge has read their testimonies to investigators.

The defendant is also accused of sexually harassing two co-workers and sexually assaulting one of them. He faces up to 10 years in prison. His lawyer would not speak with The Associated Press before the trial.

Barka Zerouali, co-founder of parents' group MeToo Ecole, or MeToo School, said at a protest outside the courthouse that “there needs to be a national wake-up call at some point." Protesters carried a banner reading: “Because no child should be afraid to go to school.”

Families said the trauma of the alleged assaults was compounded by what they described as a struggle to be taken seriously by authorities. An initial warning raised by a mother months earlier was apparently ignored by the school.

Rebecca Royer, a lawyer representing several families, said that “what we are expecting is a real turning point in child protection, meaning we expect the government and municipalities to implement real measures to protect children, but also to provide real resources."

Similar cases in Paris and across France have drawn media attention in recent months.

Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau last week said investigations were underway involving 84 nursery schools, about 20 elementary schools and about 10 daycare centers in the capital.

Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire said 78 school and after-school staff members have been suspended in the city since the beginning of 2026, including 31 over suspicions of sexual violence.

While teachers in France are employed by the government in state-run schools, school assistants and after-school activity leaders are hired by city authorities.

Grégoire, elected in March, has made combating child abuse an “absolute priority” and unveiled a 20 million euro ($22 million) plan to address what he described as “major dysfunction” in the city’s school supervision system. He pledged to immediately suspend any school employee suspected of abusing children.

Before being elected, Grégoire publicly revealed that he had been sexually abused as a child while attending elementary school between the ages of 9 and 10.

Child abuse became a major issue in the mayoral campaign after a series of allegations involving public schools emerged earlier this year.

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Associated Press journalists Nicolas Garriga and Masha Macpherson contributed to this report.

A temperature of 35 Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) was recorded at London's Kew Gardens and Heathrow Airport, Britain's Met Office weather service said, breaking the 34.8 C (94.6 F) record set a day earlier at Kew. The provisional readings smashed the long-standing record of 32.8 C (91.4 F) set in 1922 and matched in 1944.

London also recorded a rare “tropical night,” defined as one in which the temperature does not fall below 20 C (68 F).

Records also fell in France, where temperatures reached 36 C (97 F) on Monday in the country's southwest and widely remained above 20 C at night.

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

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

“We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that heat wave events such as this have been made more likely and more severe due to climate change arising from our emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases,” said Peter Thorne, director of the ICARUS Climate Research Centre, at Maynooth University, in Ireland. “But, nevertheless, many of the records being set, particularly in the U.K. and France, are mind-bogglingly crazy.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The S&P 500 rose 0.8% after trading resumed following Monday’s holiday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 25 points, or 0.1%, as of 10:50 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.3% higher. All three indexes are near all-time highs.

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

The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, rose 3.8% to $99.80, but that reclaimed only some of its 7.1% plunge from Monday. The price for a barrel of U.S crude oil, meanwhile, fell 3% to $93.74.

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

Hopes for a deal to improve the flow of oil helped lift stocks of companies with big fuel bills. United Airlines rose 6.6%, and cruise operator Carnival steamed 3.5% higher.

The lower oil prices also helped pull yields down in the U.S. bond market, which eased the pressure on Wall Street. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.49% from 4.56% late Friday.

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

Big technology stocks also continued their big runs. Micron Technology leaped 17.7% to top $880 and was the strongest force lifting the S&P 500 after analysts at UBS led by Timothy Arcuri raised their 12-month price target for the stock to $1,625 from $535. They're forecasting continued strength in demand for computer memory, and Micron's stock has already tripled so far this year.

That helped offset a drop of 11.6% for AutoZone, which reported slightly weaker revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, though its profit topped expectations. CEO Phil Daniele said performance for the retailer’s stores in Brazil and Mexico was below its plan.

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

U.S. households have been feeling discouraged about the economy because of accelerating inflation, and a report on Tuesday said consumer confidence edged downward in May, though the number was not as bad as economists expected. It followed a report on Friday that said sentiment among U.S. consumers hit its lowest level on record.

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

London’s FTSE 100 added 0.5% even though British petroleum giant BP fell 5.1% there. BP ousted its chairman over what it called serious concerns related to “important governance standards, oversight and conduct.”

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

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AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.

A three-judge panel in the state’s long-running redistricting case issued a preliminary injunction that prevents the state from switching maps, ruling that the Republican-backed plan “intentionally discriminated based on race” by including only one Black-majority district. The judges instead required Alabama to continue using a court-ordered map in place for the 2024 elections that includes two districts where Black residents comprise a majority or close to it.

“Ultimately, we cannot see our way clear to requiring Alabamians to cast their votes in the 2026 elections under a districting plan tainted by intentional race-based discrimination,” the judges wrote.

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

Figures said he is pleased with the ruling but expects an appeal. “This is a significant step in the right direction, but there is still a long way to go before this fight is settled,” Figures said.

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

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

Alabama court fight stretches back several years

The three-judge panel in 2023 ruled that a map drawn by Republican state lawmakers intentionally diluted the voting power of Black citizens. The court said the state, which is about 27% Black, should have two districts where Black voters are the majority or close to it. The court-selected map was used in 2024.

After the Supreme Court's recent ruling in the Louisiana case, Alabama officials moved to implement the 2023 state-drawn map. The Supreme Court’s conservative majority agreed to lift the injunction that had blocked the map's use and sent the case back to the three-judge panel for reconsideration in light of the Louisiana ruling.

In the meantime, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey set Aug. 11 special primaries using the new map.

Upon further review, the panel said there was “undisputed evidence” of intentional racial discrimination. It said the special congressional primaries should instead proceed under the previous court-approved districts.

The decision to temporarily block the map switch came after a seven-hour court hearing Friday in which judges sharply questioned state lawyers about the timeline and the impact of the Louisiana ruling.

Using the same districts that had been in place for the previous election would prevent “an expensive, aggressive, and perhaps logistically impossible voter reassignment effort,” the judges wrote.

“Candidate and voter confusion is troublesome and warrants significant consideration, but we do not see that a preliminary injunction will worsen it. To the contrary, we expect a preliminary injunction to lessen it,” the judges said.

Deuel Ross, director of litigation for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said the court ruling “again vindicated the constitutional rights of voters in the Black Belt, and our clients look forward to voting under a fair map this fall.”

Redistricting changes affect primaries in several states

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

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

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

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

The tennis star walked onto Court Suzanne-Lenglen in a ceremonial black skirt and sleeveless beaded bodice, which she removed to reveal a sequined gold playing dress for her opening match.

Osaka said on Saturday that she enjoys fashion since “I don’t talk a lot, so that way I can talk through my clothes.”

She added “I am a little dramatic when it comes to my fashion sense.”

Osaka entered wearing the embellished bodice structured to recall armor, and a long pleated skirt over her playing attire for her debut in Paris this year. She then removed the over-garments before beginning to play against German opponent Laura Siegemund.

Earlier this year at the Australian Open, Osaka walked on wearing a wide-brim hat, a veil and holding a white parasol.

The four-time Grand Slam champion also recently wore a show-stopping outfit at the Met Gala in New York.

Earlier on Court Philippe-Chatrier, top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka wore two necklaces with diamonds for her opening win.

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

“He is a charming older gentleman who recently found his way back to us through no fault of his own,” said Chantel Scherer of the Nassau Humane Society. “His previous adopter was moving and couldn’t take him along. Now he’s ready for a fresh start and a forever home to call his own.”

More than just good looks

Redd may be a senior, but don’t let his age fool you. He’s smaller than a typical Labrador, making him an easy, manageable fit for most households. He’s housetrained, dog-friendly, and loves everyone he meets.

If you’re looking for a happy, handsome dog with a smile that instantly melts your heart, Redd is your guy, he’s affectionate, playful, and always ready to bring joy and fun into your day.

His red coat, Scherer says, is something that has to be seen in person.

The challenge facing senior dogs

Redd’s story is not unique at the Nassau Humane Society. The Nassau Humane Society currently has 12 senior dogs like Redd available for adoption. According to Scherer, senior dogs stay in shelters an average of five to seven times longer than younger puppies — a sobering statistic for animals that often have so much to offer.

“They are often better behaved, calmer, and have a lot of love to give,” Scherer said.

Mega Adoption event coming in June

The Nassau Humane Society will participate in a Mega Adoption event at the end of June, and Scherer says the organization plans to make senior dogs a priority.

“We’ll be taking part in the Mega Adoption event at the end of June and will be making a point of bringing all our senior dogs,” she said.

Anyone interested in adopting Redd or learning more about the Nassau Humane Society’s available animals can visit nassauhumane.org/

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

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

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

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

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

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

Parents say school-issued devices undermine screen limits at home

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The pandemic supercharged student access to devices

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

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

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

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

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

Some schools are introducing new limits

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

___

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

___

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.

But prosecutors can use the sworn statement Henry Tenon made as part of his earlier plea deal, Kite said. That sworn statement included what Tenon originally agreed to testify to against his co-defendants.

DOCUMENT: Judge order granting part of motion & denying part

Tenon initially pleaded guilty on March 16, 2023, to second‑degree murder with a weapon in the shooting death of the 33-year-old St. Johns County father of four.

The plea was made as part of a deal that required Tenon to testify against his alleged co‑conspirators -- Bridegan’s ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, and her now estranged husband, Mario Fernandez.

RELATED: Timeline of the Jared Bridegan murder-for-hire case

Fernandez and Gardner are also charged with the killing of Bridegan, who was gunned down in an ambush while driving home with his toddler daughter. They have pleaded not guilty.

Tenon’s plea deal carried a sentencing range beginning at 15 years, but he has since withdrawn his guilty plea, recanting the statements he made to the State Attorney’s Office on March 15, 2023, during the negotiations.

Tenon’s attorneys filed a motion to have those statements suppressed so that jurors will not hear them in court during Tenon’s first-degree murder trial.

Tenon’s defense said that Tenon believed those conversations were protected as part of plea negotiations and said no one warned him that those statements could be used against him later if he backed out of the deal.

Prosecutors pushed back, arguing that the plea agreement had already been finalized by that point and that Tenon understood he was becoming a witness in the case.

Kite opted to grant Tenon’s motion in part and deny it in part, agreeing to block the conversations Tenon had with prosecutors during a proffer meeting (plea negotiation) on Feb. 17, 2023, but denying the request to also block his sworn statement made on March 15, 2023.

Both sides agreed that the trial date will be set at Tenon’s next pre-trial hearing, which is June 17.

Currently, potential trial dates would be in late March, early April or mid May of 2027.

Other motions being considered

Gardner’s defense attorneys are also asking Kite to throw out two court-authorized wiretaps placed on her cellphone, Apple Watch and her sister’s cellphone, arguing that police lacked the legal basis to capture the conversations in the first place.

A Jacksonville Beach Police Department detective submitted a probable cause affidavit in support of the wiretap application. According to the defense, that affidavit was loaded with evidence against others — surveillance footage, location data, financial records and a Google search for a 10 mm pistol by J.B. — but offered very little when it came to Gardner herself.

“The January Affidavit provided scant information against Ms. Gardner,” the motion states, noting it was limited to her relationship with the victim and with Fernandez, an alleged motive tied to a dispute that occurred years earlier, and three checks written to Tenon — checks signed by Fernandez Saldana, not Gardner.

Gardner’s defense argues there was no surveillance footage, no location data, no controlled calls and no incriminating statements tying Gardner to the crime.

Gardner’s attorneys also filed a motion to block testimony from Bridegan’s daughter, Bexley, arguing that she was only 2 years old at the time of the shooting.

Gardner will be in court again on June 1, when she could learn whether the judge will grant her attorneys’ motions. Fernandez will also be in court again on June 1.

Kite previously granted a request to sever their cases, and the estranged couple will be tried separately.

The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index slipped 0.7 points to 93.1 in May, the first decline after three months of gains.

The index follows a separate gauge of consumer sentiment released last week by the University of Michigan, which fell to a record low this month. Spikes in gas prices as well as higher food costs have worsened inflation, which has outpaced the growth in average paychecks, reducing most Americans’ purchasing power. Americans have soured on President Trump’s economic policies, polls show, potentially creating problems for Republicans heading into the midterm elections.

Gas prices have soared to a nationwide average of $4.49 a gallon from $2.98 just before the war began at the end of February, and have been at or above $4.50 a gallon for nearly all of May.

This month, the Conference Board added special questions to its survey, which found rising prices have caused most Americans to change their spending habits. Two-thirds of respondents said they are cutting back spending in response to the increases, with most of those reducing overall purchases and delaying more expensive acquisitions.

Many consumers are also planning to economize on clothes, shoes, hobby items, and toys and games, the survey found.

Inflation jumped to 3.8% in April, the highest in three years and far above the Federal Reserve's 2% target. In addition to more expensive gas, grocery prices have also started rising more quickly, likely driven by higher shipping costs. Beef prices have also risen sharply, as drought and other factors have reduced cattle herds.

The higher prices are, on average, reducing Americans' inflation-adjusted incomes. Average hourly earnings, adjusted for price changes, shrank in April from a year earlier for the first time in three years.

Top-ranked Sabalenka looked light on her feet on Court Philippe-Chatrier, despite wearing two thick necklaces in a 6-4, 6-2 win against Jessica Bouzas Maneiro.

“Diamonds, I don’t really feel the heaviness, but I can imagine how it looks from the outside,” said Sabalenka, the tournament runner-up last year. “So I feel pretty comfortable. For me, it’s important to look good.”

The four-time major winner was initially going to wear three necklaces but said she thought that might be too much.

“It probably sounds a bit crazy, but when I feel good about what I’m wearing, how I look on court, I tend to perform much better,” she said. "I like to bring a little bit of a fashion on the tennis court. I know the dress that I will wear on the Grand Slam, and I just try to come up with something to match the outfit."

Sabalenka said she wasn't worried over her jewelry away from Roland Garros.

“I have my fiancé. He’s kind of like my security,” she said, smiling. “My physio does jujitsu, so I feel pretty secure walking around. If I go somewhere, I don’t go alone.”

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

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

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

Daniil Medvedev usually thrives in such conditions but he struggled in a five-set loss to 97th-ranked Australian opponent Adam Walton.

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

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

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

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

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

Rising star

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

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

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

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

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

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

___

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

It appeared that the minibus drove through the closed crossing barrier, officials said. A security camera showed the bus, carrying nine people, was moving when the train hit it. The collision happened during morning rush hour near Buggenhout town, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) northwest of the capital, Brussels.

The bus driver and an escort were killed along with two children aged 12 and 15, said Lisa De Wilde, spokesperson for the East Flanders public prosecutor’s office. She said the injured children were hospitalized in serious condition.

De Wilde told journalists the cause of the crash hadn't been established.

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

Federal Police spokesperson An Berger said the minibus driver appeared to have plowed through the barrier. Infrabel said the crossing was working correctly.

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

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

An Associated Press journalist at the scene said the bus was toppled on its side with its front section crushed. The train was relatively unscathed.

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

In a post on social media, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever said he was “deeply moved by the horrific accident in Buggenhout. My thoughts go out to the affected families.”

Children played basketball and rode bicycles at a school not far from the scene.

——

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

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

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

One Israeli strike kills 12, including several relatives

The latest strikes and clashes came after Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had authorized more intensive strikes targeting Hezbollah across Lebanon.

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

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

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

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

Hezbollah, meanwhile, said it launched several rocket, artillery and exploding drone attacks on Israeli troops and vehicles mobilizing along the river toward the Nabatieh villages of Yohmor al-Shaqif and Zawtar al-Sharqieh. Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV said the militant group repelled attacks along the river banks.

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

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

Lebanon hopes for an agreement that sees Israeli withdrawal

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

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

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

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

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

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

Over 1 million people in Lebanon have been displaced in the war, sparked when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel on March 2 in solidarity with Iran, two days after the Iran war began.

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

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

___

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

POSITION OVERVIEW

The News Anchor/Reporter will be a central figure in our newsroom, engaging our communities with accurate and compelling storytelling. This role demands a professional with a dynamic on-air presence, strong news judgment, and the versatility to cover impactful news both on the anchor desk and in the field. We’re looking for a leader who can liaise with producers, mentor reporters, and immerse themselves in the community to enhance our connection with our consumers across multiple platforms.

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Interested candidates, please submit your resume and cover letter detailing your relevant experience to Robert Brown rbrown@wjxt.com.

The case stems from a crash in Florida last year that killed three people. The driver, Harjinder Singh, is accused of making an illegal U-turn that caused the accident. Singh, who is from India, was carrying a valid commercial driver's license from California and had earlier been granted one by Washington state.

Republican-led Florida has accused the Western states, led by Democrats, of openly defying immigration laws and asked the justices to rule that states lack the authority to issue CDLs to people who are not citizens or legal permanent residents.

The Supreme Court typically hears appeals of lower-court decisions, but it sometimes takes on what are known as original lawsuits in which states sue each other in the nation's highest court.

Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented from Tuesday's order, as they often do when the court rejects an original lawsuit, saying that the court has no choice but to hear such cases.

Separately, a federal appeals court has blocked a Trump administration proposal to impose new restrictions that would severely limit which immigrants can get commercial driver’s licenses to drive a semitrailer truck or bus.

The interactive map from FloridaDisaster.org below is a large file that will take a while to load. It will allow you to zoom in to view your community’s flood zone. Type in your ZIP code to see the flood zone and evacuation routes in that area.

Florida Department of Emergency Management offers this interactive map of Florida that allows you to zoom in to see your neighborhood or type in your address and it will take you directly to your street, but if you go directly to your street, you’ll have to zoom out a click or two to see which zone your home falls within and the nearest evacuation routes -- roads highlighted in pink.

The county-by-county maps listed below -- provided from the counties or state -- are based upon the most up-to-date regional evacuation studies. Please note: there are no designated evacuation zones for many inland counties, including Alachua, Baker, Columbia and Union counties. If an evacuation is ordered, you will be directed to specific information from county emergency officials.

Clay County | Duval County | Flagler County | Nassau County | Putnam County | St. Johns County

Nassau County: To see exactly in which zone your address is in go to the Property Appraiser’s detailed Nassau County Map website, click on “Map Layers” at the top of the page, check the Public Safety box and the Evacuation Zones box in the menu that pops up, then use the “Search By” feature to select “Address” and enter your street address.

St. Johns County residents can search for evacuation zones by simply typing an address at this link.

Putnam County: To see exactly in which zone your address go to this website, click below “Find Your Zone” at the top right of page to enter your address.

Georgia residents can visit GeorgiaDFIRM.com to find the flood status of their property.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

No law requiring presidents to disclose their medical records

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

'Nothing should be hidden'

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Challenging conditions hamper rescue efforts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Villagers were reportedly mining

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

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

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

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

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

Cave rescues are risky business

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The iconic online payments company is facing its biggest challenge in nearly three decades of existence. Its core business of customers using the app to check out when shopping online is barely growing and new management has bluntly warned investors that “significant changes” will be needed to fix the company’s problems.

One of the biggest success stories of the original dot-com era, PayPal has seen its territory steadily conquered by new and existing competitors, particularly Apple, Shopify, the buy now, pay later companies like Affirm and Klarna, and peer-to-peer money transfer services like Cash App and Zelle, particularly in the past five years.

As a result, PayPal’s stock has fallen nearly 40% in the past 12 months. The stock, which soared during the pandemic as millions of Americans started shopping online for groceries and other necessities, has plunged roughly 80% in the past five years as investors worried that PayPal missed an opportunity to leverage its name recognition and dominance in online payments and allowed its competitors to take market share that will be hard to recover.

Investors’ concerns are not about profitability, although PayPal did warn investors that 2026 profits would be down from the previous year. The concerns lie more with how will PayPal grow and maintain its market with increasing competition.

PayPal said in its first-quarter earnings report that branded checkout — the company’s most profitable business by margin — grew just 2%. While the company noted there had been a slowdown in its European division and other discretionary purchases, a growth of only 2% in one of the fastest growing industries alarmed investors and shares dropped nearly 8%.

The pressures on PayPal's business have led to some dramatic changes at the top of the company. The board ousted CEO Alex Chriss in February and replaced him with Enrique Lores, the former president and CEO of HP Inc., and a member of PayPal’s board. Lores announced a cost-cutting plan that includes reorganizing the company into three divisions and relying more on artificial intelligence. He told investors at May’s shareholder meeting he expects to update them on the company’s turnaround plan “in a few months."

The biggest threat to PayPal’s dominance has been Apple and its Apple Pay service. Apple rolled out Apple Pay in 2014, which allowed Apple customers to store virtual credit and debit cards on their devices to pay online. The company also integrated tap-to-pay technologies into iPhones and the Apple Watch to allow Apple users to pay for items at stores in person.

So, while PayPal has embedded itself as a checkout button on countless merchant websites, that checkout button has become less useful when a customer can store their payment information on their phone and pay using a fingerprint or a glance of their face, analysts said.

This has caused customers to drift away from PayPal as a default payment method. PayPal in 2019 controlled roughly 9% of e-commerce in the U.S. and globally, with Apple Pay having a 3% market share, according to analysts at UBS. Six years later, Apple overtook PayPal as the dominant checkout option, and its market share is expected to continue to grow as Apple rolls out Apple Pay to non-iOS users.

There is also the growing popularity of buy now, pay later companies such as Klarna and Affirm. While PayPal now offers buy now, pay later services like its pay-in-four plan, and longer-term monthly payment plans, it lags its major competitors including Affirm, which was founded by one of PayPal’s founders, Max Levchin.

“PayPal has had a lot of trouble evolving from being just a way to pay on your desktop computer,” said Sanjay Sakhrani, an analyst who covers credit cards and payment methods at investment bank Keefe Bruyette & Woods.

Going forward, investors worry that if the branded checkout business continues to lag behind it competitors, it could spell future trouble for PayPal. Wall Street analysts have questioned whether Venmo or Braintree may be spun off from the company, noting that Lores was previously responsible for spliting HP into two separate companies.

Earlier this year, PayPal's stock jumped briefly on unconfirmed reports that the payments company Stripe was interested in acquiring all or parts of PayPal.

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

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

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

Why dancing helps balance, strength and more

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

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

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

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

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

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

Meeting people by dancing together

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The fun of performing

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

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

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

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

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

How to begin dancing when you're older

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Environmental risks remain

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

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

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

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

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

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

Relief among residents after hearin

g the latest update

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

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

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

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

“They are really our heroes,” Yen said.

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

GKN is a British company that supplies aircraft manufacturers

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

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

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

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

It remained unknown when the operation would reopen.

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

Aircraft manufacturing vulnerable to supply chain disruptions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How can I watch the Scripps National Spelling Bee?

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

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

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

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

What are the rules of the Scripps National Spelling Bee?

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

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

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

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

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

Who is competing in the Scripps National Spelling Bee?

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

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

Other possible contenders:

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

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

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

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

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

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

— Second place: $25,000.

— Third place: $15,000.

— Fourth place: $10,000.

— Fifth place: $5,000.

— Sixth place: $2,500.

— All other finalists: $2,000.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The seizure took place on April 26 at Ezeiza International Airport near Buenos Aires in an operation involving Argentina’s Environmental Control Brigade, customs officials, the agricultural health agency, wildlife conservation group International Fund for Animal Welfare and rehabilitation group Fundación Temaikèn.

Authorities said the shipment included tropical marine fish and invertebrates commonly sought for aquariums and exotic collections, including surgeonfish, puffer fish, lionfish, butterflyfish, octopuses, crabs and starfish.

Many of the animals arrived dead after 120 hours in transit from Kenya, while others showed severe signs of stress and shock, conservationists said.

The scale of the seizure forced Fundación Temaikèn, the only institution in Argentina equipped to receive confiscated marine wildlife of this kind, to rapidly establish an emergency rescue operation at its facilities in Escobar, north of Buenos Aires.

Veterinarians and wildlife specialists worked for more than 28 hours to stabilize surviving animals. Workers adapted existing facilities and installed 10 additional tanks equipped with heating, filtration and water-conditioning systems for tropical marine species.

“Many of these animals were extracted from reef ecosystems and arrived at the limit of survival, after spending days inside transport bags and boxes before the rescue could be carried out,” Cristian Gillet, wildlife director at Fundación Temaikèn, said in a statement.

Because the animals were packed individually in hundreds of plastic bags, rescue teams carried out drip acclimation procedures one by one to gradually adjust them to new water conditions and reduce physiological shock caused by sudden temperature and salinity changes.

Specialists also used a triage system to prioritize critically weakened animals for treatment while other teams identified species and separated living specimens from dead ones.

Wildlife trafficking experts say the global trade in ornamental marine species is expanding as demand grows for exotic pets and home aquariums. Conservation groups warn that the trade can damage fragile reef ecosystems and expose animals to high mortality during capture and transport.

“This is an industrialized crime,” said Christian Plowman of IFAW. "Moving 709 animals comprising 102 species across international cargo routes, packed in bags for 120 hours of transit, is not something done casually. It requires coordination along every link of the chain.”

Plowman also said that this is the third seizure in a year by the Argentine authorities at the same entry point, which is not a coincidence but an established commercial route.

“Traffickers identify and exploit corridors that work until enforcement disrupts the model. This interception — and the two before it — should be understood as intelligence, not just seizures. They are telling us something important about where the networks are operating and how.”

The animals remain under specialized care while Argentine authorities determine their long-term fate. Officials have not said who was responsible for the shipment or whether arrests were made.

Officials from the Kenya Wildlife Service did not immediately respond to The Associated Press’ requests for comment.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The company maintains operations in about 60 countries.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

____________

Danica Kirka in London contributed to this report.

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

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

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

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

No diplomats say they are leaving Kyiv

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

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

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

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

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

Russia could target bunkers, official says

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

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

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

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

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

Ukraine remains short of air defense missiles

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

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

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

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

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

___

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

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

To fight off predators of the humpback chub, a threatened fish native to the river, Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona would need to do what is known as a “cool mix flow,” where cold water is released from deep in its reservoir to cool the river below. But there are no hydropower turbines in the cool, deep section, so significant power generation would be lost.

The proposal comes after the worst snowpack on record for the Colorado River Basin, relied upon by farmers, industries, wildlife and more than 40 million people in seven U.S. states, tribal nations and Mexico. It also comes as those states fail to reach a long-term agreement on how to share the river's dwindling resources beyond this year, when the guidelines expire.

“There is a limited water supply. It’s getting even lower. And with that, a lot of hard decisions need to be made,” said John Berggren, regional policy manager for the environmental nonprofit Western Resource Advocates.

Utilities that buy this hydropower say the cool water releases would be costly because they would have to spend millions to buy alternative energy and would increase financial hardship for customers. But supporters say that without cool releases, the warm waters projected downstream this summer would allow non-native predatory fish to spawn, further threatening the humpback chub, and would destroy a world-famous trout fishery nearby.

The Bureau of Reclamation, which is expected to announce a decision in the next couple of weeks, said in a statement that it is weighing several factors including the ecological health of the river and the hydropower production of the dam. The Interior Department, which oversees the bureau, declined to comment. If the cool water release is approved, it would likely happen from June to October through jet tubes, bypassing the turbines near the warmer surface.

How mixing cool water protects fish

Lake Powell, one of two massive reservoirs on the Colorado River, is just 23% full after decades of overuse and evaporation of water as average temperatures rise because of climate change. A record low inflow is expected this summer. With such a low reservoir, warm water near the surface gets sucked through the generators and sent downstream.

Smallmouth bass, introduced in Lake Powell in the 1980s for sport fishing, live at that warm surface, and also get sucked through the hydropower generators and into the river below. That's a problem for the humpback chub and other federally protected fish in the Grand Canyon, a 278-mile (447-kilometer) stretch farther south on the river that's world-famous for its geologic formations. A recent study shows that roughly half the bass survive the generators. If the river below is warm enough, they spawn.

Smallmouth bass already feast on humpback chub in the river’s upper section, where agencies spend millions of dollars annually to keep the intruders in check. Native fish have been safer below Glen Canyon Dam because it blocks the path to the Grand Canyon — but that may not be true for long.

Water temperatures just downstream of the dam are expected to shatter records set in 2022, when smallmouth bass were first found there. Officials project that water will consistently exceed 60 degrees Fahrenheit (15.5 Celsius) by mid-June due to the warm water being pulled in from Lake Powell. Any higher than that, and non-native predatory fish that pass through the dam could reproduce.

Officials say cool water releases from Lake Powell in 2024 and 2025 successfully prevented spawning.

It’s critical to consider the cost of not doing the cool mix, Heather Whitlaw, field supervisor with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said during a recent meeting on managing the issue. “We are certainly just giving up on the future for any kind of recovery for humpback chub and all of the other pieces of the system that rely on those cooler water temperatures.”

With no long-term solution to keep the predators from passing through the dam, withholding cool water would force officials to rely solely on manually removing them downstream.

More hydropower loss could further impact utilities

Utilities reliant on hydropower from federal generators are worried.

If the cool water releases are approved, it could mean bypassing about half the generation at Glen Canyon Dam, forcing utilities to buy power elsewhere that would likely be more expensive, according to the Utah utility group Heber Light & Power.

“We keep hearing comments that we must continue Cool Mix because the cost of not doing it will be even greater,” the Colorado River Energy Distributors Association, which represents about 155 customers who buy federal hydropower generated from the river and opposes the releases, said this month in a letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. “We would like to understand what remediation would consistently cost more than $20 to $30 (million) per year.”

The association said the releases are not a sustainable solution to prevent smallmouth bass from reproducing and threaten a critical fund used to operate, maintain and invest in hydropower and transmission facilities.

During the cool water releases in 2024, nearly 900,000 acre-feet of water bypassed the generators, costing $19 million in replacement energy costs, according to the Bureau of Reclamation. It’s unclear how much water would bypass the generators this year, although the cost to replace it is anticipated to be around $25 million — roughly the total cost to hydropower users from the prior two years.

The ongoing loss of hydropower due to Lake Powell's decline has brought challenges to Heber Light & Power as the population grows, said Emily Brandt, the utility’s energy resource manager. The overall decline has led to rate hikes the past five years.

Ann Moulton, who lives in Heber City, has seen her residential electricity bill from Heber Light & Power steadily rise. Her bill this April was $125.98, up from $103.24 and $86.14 for the same month in the previous two years. That's impacting her budget, she said.

Other customers are struggling to pay. So far this year, the utility has seen a jump in late payments over the past two years, from 10% to 12%.

Brandt said the utility supports caring for fish, “but this particular experiment seems unnecessary.”

“We’re already seeing reduced generation from drought, and now we’re seeing even further reduced generation because of this environmental experiment,” Brandt said.

Fisheries downstream are also in limbo

Dave Foster still remembers the 2022 trout die-off in Marble Canyon, a remote stretch of river between the dam and the start of the Grand Canyon. Warm water killed nearly half the rainbow trout the world-renowned fishery relies on, said Foster, who has been working on or around that stretch of river since age 13.

He and other guides are still recovering from the die-off, he said, as “the population has simply not rebounded.” But cool water releases in recent years have offset more negative impacts, and more this year would get them through the fall and winter.

Foster has warned customers booking trips after mid-June that he might cancel if the water gets too warm, which can stress fish. Without cool water releases this year, “that's it for the trout fishery,” he said. “There's no ambiguity about it. It will destroy it.”

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The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

A 50-year-old known mostly for his work with European orchestras, Harding agreed to a six-year contract starting with the 2027-28 season, the LA Phil announced Tuesday. His first appointment by an American orchestra is with the ensemble that engaged him for his U.S. professional debut in 1997.

“It couldn’t have come a day sooner. I’m very glad it didn’t come a day later,” he said in a telephone interview from his home in Paris. “The perfect timing, the right moment, and here we go.”

Harding will conduct eight weeks in his first season, then expand his commitment to 12 weeks annually. He also is in his second season of a five-year contract as music director of Italy's Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.

Kim Noltemy, who became the LA Phil’s president and CEO in 2024, reached an agreement with Harding during dinner at Rome's Portrait Hotel overlooking the Trinità dei Monti.

“He’s an incredible musician and an inspiring leader, a devoted educator,” Noltemy said. “He has a global perspective. He's committed to working with the students. So he has all of the different pieces which we really hope to get in one person.”

Piloting long an interest for Harding

Harding has been interested in aviation since he was young and started piloting in 2014. He joined Air France in 2021 and flies Airbus A320s in Europe and North Africa. He hopes to become a first officer on either a Boeing 777 or Airbus A350, wide-body planes that fly trans-Atlantic.

“It’s absolutely the most logical thing that at some point in my first couple of years in my role in LA I will also start coming to LA with my other uniform on,” he said.

Conductor Simon Rattle, an early mentor, said Harding is restless and “he needs something to do with the second brain.”

Deborah Borda, who headed the LA Phil from 1999 to 2017, said Harding's second job gives him “a fascinating take on the world.”

“He talked about how he had to study, how much of it was technical, how much pleasure he got from concentrating on that rather than just on music,” she said.

Relationship with American orchestra took time

Harding first conducted the LA Phil at the Ojai Music Festival in June 1997. He's also performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony and Cleveland Orchestra.

Harding developed a reputation as a conductor who irked some U.S. orchestras by talking too much.

“Because Daniel is an impatient and fast person by nature, that can be more difficult,” Rattle said. “He’s very self-aware and he realized that a lot of the things that are not going right are because he wasn’t able to physically show them in the best way.”

Harding's manner stemmed from a need to show his worth.

“I wanted the musicians to understand that I wasn’t there just to profit from their expertise, that I’d done my work, I’d prepared myself, I had an opinion,” he said. “And if I spoke too much, it wasn’t because I thought I knew better than them, it was because I wanted them to know that I was trying to earn my place being there.”

Harding hired renowned conductor coach Mark Stringer to work with him.

Harding's early career and influences

A trumpet player as a child, Harding's big break came when he was 15 and a teacher at Chetham’s School of Music sent a recording of him in a performance of Schoenberg's “Pierrot Lunaire” to Rattle, principal conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

“When he left school early and was a year too young to go to Cambridge, basically his parents gave him to us, so he kind of lived in and out of our house for that year,” Rattle said.

Harding became Rattle's assistant in 1994, then was hired as Claudio Abbado's assistant and debuted at the Berlin Philharmonic in 1996. He gained prominence when he led Mozart's “Don Giovanni” in a Peter Brook production in 1998 at France's Aix-en-Provence Festival.

Harding's other prominent musical appointments include serving as music director of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, principal conductor of Norway’s Trondheim Symphony, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre de Paris.

Dudamel transformed the LA Phil during a tenure that started in 2009 and ends this summer when he leaves to become music director of the New York Philharmonic. LA is adopting an unusual musical leadership model that includes Dudamel as artistic and cultural laureate with a mostly four-week annual commitment, creative director Esa-Pekka Salonen (six weeks) and conductor-in-residence Anna Handler (three weeks).

“It's a long commute,” Harding said of his new job, “but I have a particular easygoing relationship with airplanes, so that doesn’t bother me.”

Research shows that only 1 in 10 children with high-risk symptoms and conditions are being tested for celiac disease. Now, for Celiac Awareness Month, experts say that recognizing the signs early can make a difference.

Dr. Maricruz Crespo, a pediatric gastroenterologist at Orlando Health, spends her day helping kids with digestive diseases.

“I think that the gut is very important in the kids’ health,” she told Ivanhoe.

But one day, the doctor found herself on the other side of the diagnosis.

Crespo’s son Julian was diagnosed with celiac disease at 3 years old.

“I started crying because I couldn’t believe it,” she recalled.

“I remember I had a rash across my face. I didn’t remember all of them, but my mom told me that I was bloating and I had a lot of diarrhea,” said Julian.

Celiac disease in kids is often undiagnosed. A study found that only 10% of 200,000 children who had a symptom or condition that should have led to celiac disease testing were tested.

“They come with belly pain or diarrhea, constipation, and the first thing you think is not celiac disease,” explained Crespo.

She says red flags to watch for: Not gaining weight, having diarrhea, and not growing taller.

At first, Julian thought he could resist celiac. Then he ate a Twizzler…

“Thirty to 45 minutes later, I started having stomach pain really badly. I started throwing up, and I couldn’t stop it at all,” Julian recalled.

Luckily, he’s got a mother who taught him everything he needs to know.

“Milk, eggs, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, and soy are used. So, then you need to be concerned about cross-contamination,” Crespo said.

Julian is more than prepared to deal with celiac. His advice to any kid dealing with this?

“Keep your head up and don’t give up,” Julian says.

His next goal is track season, readying himself to be the best.

While it is difficult to keep track of gluten-free options, one app that Julian uses is the “Find Me Gluten Free” app. It helps you track restaurants that serve gluten-free options.

When checking the nutrition label, Crespo says to watch out for wheat, barley, and rye, as those three always contain gluten. However, she says oats are still controversial.

And that responding to things with a sense of humor goes a long way in helping deal with life’s realities.

This goes back to when I still had my hair but started losing it strand by strand.

I started wondering what my follicle-less reality was going to be like.

Would I look like that dude in the kids’ game Wooly Willy, or some Hollywood star who rocks the bald pate?

Watch my transformation in the video above and share your best comparisons for me in the comments below (have fun but behave!)

By Saturday and Sunday, you’re looking at a 60% chance of rain each day.

Before you cancel your weekend plans, keep in mind that the rain is expected to be scattered, not widespread. Most showers will move out pretty quickly, but quick heavy downpours could definitely pop up during those higher chance hours.

Timing of showers and lightning concerns

The best chance for showers and storms is expected during the afternoon and early evening, especially during the hottest part of the day.

These pop-up storms are kind of like what we saw yesterday — short but intense, lasting about 15 to 20 minutes before clearing up.

The severe weather risk today is low, but you should still watch for a few stronger pop-up storms, and don’t forget about lightning.

There is a fire danger with any lightning, so it’s best to play it safe if you hear thunder.

Weather patterns

Much of this rain is moving in from the west, especially areas like Live Oak and Valdosta near I-75 and I-10, but some showers could also arrive off the Atlantic coast and cause a few brief issues.

Temperatures are running warm for late May, with Jacksonville sitting at 77 degrees this morning and coastal spots already close to 80 degrees. It’s a little breezy too, with wind out of the south at 5 miles per hour.

Remember, your Exact Track 4D radar and the latest updates are just a tap away anytime you need them.

If you capture any weather action this week, share your photos or videos with us at SnapJAX! We love seeing what’s happening in your neighborhood.

This concern is understandable given so many Americans are now responsible for not only  building their retirement savings  but also deciding how much they should pay themselves annually in retirement.  It’s a problem many don’t feel adequately prepared to solve, especially when failure means a funding shortfall at the end of life.

Limit your spending, limit your lifestyle

Recent research from Morningstar’s Behavioral Insights Group finds half of retirees opt for highly simplified approaches for determining their retirement spending, such as calculating their current expenses, just spending dividends, or anchoring on required minimum distributions.

A set-it-and-forget-it approach may sound like a prudent solution to a common fear, but these simplified methods don’t account for factors such as your total wealth, life goals, or economic events like inflation. The resulting number tends to be inflexible and overly conservative.

In fact, contrary to our fears, retirees who have at least the median amount of assets  tend to underspend relative to how much they could spend safely. Indeed, across retirement, many retirees  see their wealth increase  instead of decrease. These findings hold true even when accounting for retirees who are planning to leave a bequest or who anticipate a long postretirement period.

This issue persists even among retirees who are using more complex spending strategies like a safe withdrawal rate.  “Even the retirees  who spend in line with our ‘base case,’ which in 2025 meant taking 3.9% initially and inflation-adjusting withdrawals each year thereafter, will tend to have significant remaining balances after 30 years of withdrawals,” says Christine Benz, Morningstar’s director of personal finance and retirement planning.

What’s at stake for these retirees, then, is not becoming destitute, but rather not fully enjoying the fruits of their labor.

How do you know if you’re spending enough of your retirement savings?

If you’re a retiree, you may be underspending relative to your capacity if you:

1. Rely on simple, hands-off strategies like withdrawing only dividends and interest, basing calculations on your current lifestyle, or pulling just your RMDs.

2. Find your retirement savings portfolio barely declines or even grows year after year.

3. Defer essential or discretionary expenses that are reasonably affordable.

If this describes you, you are not alone. It’s natural to think, “The worst thing that could happen is running out of money, and I know I won’t if I just use this simple spending rule.” However, by creating a more personalized plan to determine your retirement income, you can avoid underspending and possibly generate a more comfortable and meaningful retirement lifestyle for yourself.

Goal-setting can make spending feel approachable

Our research suggests that to engage with more complex ways of determining their retirement income, many retirees may need the motivation of personal goals. When you’re working, goals help motivate you to save. In retirement, your goals can help  motivate you to spend.

To define your retirement goals, we first recommend examining which values you want to live in line with throughout your retirement. A framework like the  PERMA-V model  can help you articulate what matters to you. From there, you can build out financial goals that reflect the life you want to live.

For example, you may find that you value spending time in nature because when you hike, you feel happy and engaged in the world around you. Then, you might develop a list of the top 10 national parks you want to see and set a goal of visiting them all in the next 10 years. This new goal provides you with an exciting opportunity to spend your retirement savings in a way that feeds your values.

Armed with your new motivation, you should then begin to think about your retirement spending strategies. Do your current, simple strategies help you reach your new goals? If not, you may consider looking at some other (slightly more complicated) guidelines for retirement spending like a  safe withdrawal rate.

If engaging with more complicated strategies on your own is still intimidating, consulting a financial adviser can help you determine how to draw on your retirement savings while meeting your goals.

It can feel daunting to get more involved with determining your retirement spending, but don’t let that fear dictate whether you live the retirement you’ve dreamed of.

_____

This article was provided to The Associated Press by Morningstar. For more retirement content, go to https://www.morningstar.com/retirement.

Danielle Labotka, Ph.D., is a behavioral scientist for Morningstar.

RelatedLinks

3 Big Questions to Ask Your Aging Parents: https://www.morningstar.com/personal-finance/3-big-questions-ask-your-aging-parents

Here’s How You Can Spend More During Retirement: https://www.morningstar.com/retirement/heres-how-you-can-spend-more-during-retirement

You Just Retired (or Are About to). Now What?: https://www.morningstar.com/retirement/you-just-retired-or-are-about-now-what

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And the 2024 Olympics were held in July and August.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A retirement and medical timeout

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

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

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

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

Heat protocol

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

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

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

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

Fast-court players like the heat

Some players were embracing the hotter air.

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

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

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

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

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

In a letter sent to more than 250 companies, members of the Black Caucus urge them to condemn the redistricting efforts, which the lawmakers describe as “coordinated efforts to silence Black voices at the ballot box.” Some of the companies had co-signed their own message to Congress five years ago urging lawmakers to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, a Democratic proposal to restore and update the Voting Rights Act.

That 2021 coalition, Business for Voting Rights, was backed by many of the country’s most valuable and influential companies, including Apple, Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Tesla, Salesforce, Target, PayPal, Intel and Starbucks.

Tuesday's letter is the latest effort by the Congressional Black Caucus and its allies to gather support for preventing more Republican-led states from redrawing their legislative maps in ways that would dilute Black political representation. Several states have moved to eliminate congressional districts represented by Black Democratic lawmakers after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last month that severely weakened a key provision of the Voting Rights Act.

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

Clarke described the letter as “putting corporate America on notice,” but she said the caucus was not seeking an adversarial relationship with corporations. Among those receiving Tuesday's letter were companies based overseas that have a significant presence in the U.S.

The caucus last week called for Black athletes to boycott public universities in states that are gerrymandering their congressional maps to eliminate districts held by Black lawmakers. The 59-member Congressional Black Caucus consists entirely of Democrats, including more than a third from Southern states.

Some lawmakers have said mass protests and federal legislation might be necessary to undo the efforts underway in Republican-led states. Any new federal voting rights law would almost certainly require Democrats to secure majorities in both chambers of Congress and win the presidency.

It is unclear how companies will respond to the demands. The Associated Press was making efforts to contact them.

“Many companies that previously issued statements after the murder of George Floyd, pledged billions toward racial equity initiatives, and spoke forcefully in defense of democracy following January 6 now face a defining test of whether those commitments were rooted in principle or convenience,” the caucus' letter states.

It also represents the latest instance of the caucus expressing frustrations with corporate America. A 2024 Black Caucus report noted that lawmakers were “troubled that some corporations that made pledges in 2020 have taken several steps in the opposite direction,” such as rolling back or failing to follow through on pledges to diversify their workforces.

“We understand who the occupant in the White House is and the reality of Republicans being in charge,” Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford of Nevada said of the caucus’ message. “But what corporate America also understands is that there will be a shift at some point.”

The letter calls on companies to publicly condemn the redistricting plans, meet with Black Caucus members to discuss corporate America's role in protecting voting rights and disclose their political donations to Republican politicians in states that are redistricting their congressional maps.

President Donald Trump last year kicked off the unusual mid-decade round of congressional redistricting when he pushed Texas lawmakers to redraw their maps in a way that would add Republican seats. Democratic-led California responded, but it has been mostly Republican states redrawing their lines since as the party tries to maintain its majority in the U.S. House during this year's midterm elections.

The effort was supercharged by the Supreme Court decision, which allowed even more Republican states to redraw congressional maps that previously had protected minority communities.

Horsford, who chaired the Black Caucus during President Joe Biden's Democratic administration, said the caucus is demanding that companies “stand on the side of democracy, fairness and equal representation.”

“This is about power, who holds it and what it’s used for," he said. "And when you’re diluting Black economic and political power, we need to know where these companies stand in this moment, and what side of history they’re on.”

Her cousin, 24-year-old Linton Alejandro Munguía Martínez, stepped up, giving the family a place to stay at his apartment in the St. Nicholas area of Jacksonville.

But tragedy struck Sunday at the Landon Imperial Apartments on Art Museum Drive.

RELATED: Brother, community mourn 24-year-old man who died in St. Nicholas apartment fire | 1 dead, 1 injured in St. Nicholas apartment fire Sunday morning; Red Cross helping 12 people: JFRD

An early morning fire not only left Sandra and her children without a home once again, but also took the life of the cousin who had been so generous to her family.

“I was in my room with my kids, and there was a lady in the other room and a guy that slept in the living room, and when he yelled, I walked out and saw a lot smoke and flames,” Sandra said. “I grabbed my kids and broke the window along with the other guy who was staying with us. And I yelled for him to exit through the window, but the smoke was so heavy.”

Fabiola Marmolejo, a family friend, said Munguía Martínez was trying to help others escape when the fire broke out.

“The victim that died was helping Sandra Martinez and her kids and two other guys,” Marmolejo said.

She said the fire has shaken the neighborhood.

“As a community, you know, we need to get together. It could happen to me, it could happen to anybody,” Marmolejo said.

Margarita Weber, a local community member, purchased food for Sandra and her family at Publix. She encourages anyone who can to step in and help the family.

“Please, whether you speak Spanish or you speak English, help. If you are human, you know what the word human means. Help them because today could be them, tomorrow could be you,” she said.

A GoFundMe has been set up to help Linton’s family in the wake of the tragedy.

The new records outline how investigators shifted focus from a 23-year-old driver, who was originally arrested in the case, to 47-year-old Alisa Lee Montalvo, who now faces nine charges connected to the crash.

The October 2025 crash in Volusia County killed Flagler County Deputy Administrator Jorge Salinas, his wife and a motorcyclist. A fourth victim survived with serious injuries.

According to an arrest affidavit, investigators now believe Montalvo was driving a maroon Dodge Durango the night of the crash. However, witnesses initially described the SUV as black.

That detail became critical to the investigation.

FHP investigators originally focused on the 23-year-old because she owned a black Dodge Durango matching witness descriptions and appearing on nearby Flock cameras around the time of the crash, records show.

On Oct. 10, troopers obtained a search warrant for the 23-year-old’s vehicle after investigators reported finding smudges they believed were consistent with the crash. She was arrested on April 16 and booked into the Volusia County Jail.

But after her arrest, the State Attorney’s Office requested assistance from FHP’s Specialized Investigation and Reconstruction Team, or SIRT, after identifying discrepancies in the original investigation.

According to the affidavit, the SIRT investigation determined the crash occurred on a dark stretch of I-4 with little lighting, and investigators concluded witnesses could have easily mistaken Montalvo’s maroon Dodge Durango for the 23-year-old’s black SUV.

The affidavit also reveals new details about the moments leading up to the crash.

Investigators say a witness told them Montalvo had been with a group of motorcycle riders and friends in Sanford before everyone eventually traveled onto I-4 that night.

According to investigators, the witness said Montalvo later left alone in her maroon Dodge Durango and traveled eastbound alongside the group of motorcycles.

A 911 caller later reported seeing the maroon SUV driving recklessly and dangerously close to one of the motorcycles moments before the crash, according to the affidavit.

The caller told investigators he saw the SUV and motorcycle disappear in front of a large truck before coming upon the crash scene seconds later.

Investigators say Montalvo briefly pulled onto the shoulder after the collision before driving away.

Montalvo is charged with three counts of vehicular homicide, three counts of leaving the scene of a crash involving death, leaving the scene of a crash involving serious bodily injury, reckless driving causing serious bodily injury and tampering with physical evidence.

According to court records, the tampering charge stems from allegations that Montalvo attempted to repair damage to the SUV days after the crash.

Investigators say Montalvo brought the Dodge Durango to a man in Altamonte Springs for repairs. The man later provided investigators with photos of the damage, pictures of an airbag found in the backseat and receipts showing Montalvo paid for repairs, records state.

In a motion for pretrial detention, prosecutors wrote, “While this case received extensive media coverage, the Defendant failed to contact law enforcement to report the crash, and instead took steps to conceal it.”

Montalvo is being held in the Volusia County Jail without bond and is expected back in court within the next five days.

Meanwhile, prosecutors formally declined to pursue charges against the 23-year-old after she spent 13 days in jail.

Her attorney, Patrick McGeehan, criticized FHP investigators and called for accountability.

“The person that should be here is Col. Gary Helm, who’s the director of FHP,” McGeehan said. “He should be here explaining to you how this happened, how an innocent woman was put in the county jail for 13 days on a crime when she wasn’t even on the scene.”

The 23-year-old also spoke publicly after her release.

“I feel there’s really no way of correcting what they did to me,” she said. “It will always hurt me, my reputation, when I’m still receiving death threats and hate. It’s very hard.”

McGeehan said his team is now exploring possible legal action against FHP.

WKMG reached out to FHP asking whether investigators believe mistakes were made in the 23-year-old’s arrest and what changes, if any, may be implemented moving forward.

FHP did not answer those questions but said the case remains an active and ongoing criminal investigation.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

___

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

Minutes after the Knicks finished their four-game sweep of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference finals, the DJ at Radio City Music Hall played Prince's “1999.”

That was the last time the Knicks had reached the NBA Finals. And as fans sang along to, “So tonight I’m gonna party like it’s 1999,” they could forget the more than a quarter of a century of mostly bad years since and enjoy the record-setting run the current team is on.

“There is no precedent right now as far as point differential. That’s how good this Knicks team is,” said Ari Levine, who was carrying part of a broom as the Knicks swept their second straight series.

He's right. The Knicks have outscored Atlanta, Philadelphia and Cleveland by a combined 262 points during their playoff winning streak, the largest margin in any 11-game span in NBA history.

They will try to continue it against Oklahoma City or San Antonio in the NBA Finals. Fans seemed to have a clear preference for Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs as they poured out of the famous Manhattan venue onto city streets, chanting “We want Wemby! We want Wemby!”

But whether it's him or the defending champion Thunder, Knicks fans believe the run will continue.

“We're taking everything! We're taking the whole thing!" rapper Fat Joe posted on Instagram from the court in Cleveland, where he was one of the Knicks' celebrity fans who made the trip.

It wasn't that long ago when fans had no reason for such confidence. The Knicks went 17-65 in 2018-19, the worst record in the league, during a stretch when they had a losing record for seven straight seasons.

“That year we won 17 games I thought we had reached rock bottom,” longtime fan Anthony Mills said at the Radio City party. "I wasn’t sure that we could ever get this back again."

He became a Knicks fan when Bernard King was playing for them in the mid-1980s, a decade removed from their second and most recent championship in 1973. The drought is now so long he believes if the Knicks end it this season, star guard Jalen Brunson would earn a spot among New York's most fabled champions.

“If Jalen Brunson wins this championship, he should be Joe Namath. And if you’re old enough, you understand what Joe Namath means," Mills said, referring to the iconic quarterback who guaranteed the New York Jets would beat the favored Baltimore Colts in the third Super Bowl in 1969, and then delivered.

Brunson's team, like Namath's, will be the underdog. But the Knicks sure aren't playing like one.

“This team is hungry and they know what it would mean to this city,” Mills said. “They’re going to win the championship.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Elise Morton contributed to this report from London.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cases are nearing 1,000 but health centers are burned

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘We leave everything to God’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some residents still believe Ebola is a myth

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Brunson proved they made the right decision by leading them to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999.

The All-Star point guard averaged 25.5 points and 7.8 assists during New York's sweep of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference finals, earning the Larry Bird Trophy as the series MVP. He had 15 points and five assists Monday, when the Knicks crushed Cleveland 130-93 in Game 4.

“It's an honor to be here in this city and this organization,” Brunson said, sitting side-by-side with former Villanova University teammates Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges. "I wouldn't trade it for the world.

“We're still writing our story, but I like the journey that we're on right now.”

Skepticism abounded around the league when New York extended a four-year, $104 million contract to the then-Dallas Mavericks guard in 2022. Brunson silenced many critics when he averaged 24.0 points in his first season, then added three straight All-Star selections.

After helping the Knicks reach the East finals in 2025, when they lost to the upstart Indiana Pacers, Brunson was the best player in the series from start to finish against the Cavaliers. In Game 1, his 38-point masterpiece fueled New York's comeback from a 22-point hole in the fourth quarter.

“He just puts in the work. He’s a testament of that,” Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns said. “He believes in that, and he showcases that every single day to all of us and it drives us to be better.”

Brunson’s work ethic instantly impressed New York coach Mike Brown when he was hired last summer, then forced him to change his sleep habits during the season as the 29-year-old went all out in morning shootarounds. It prompted Brown to compare his determination to basketball legends Stephen Curry and Tim Duncan.

“Their quiet strength, all the time, is what they all have in common,” Brown said. “Jalen's work ethic is off the chart and he makes me adjust because he goes so hard every day. When your leader is that way, it's easy to be a coach.”

The Knicks subsequently brought in Bridges and Hart via trades, and acquired Towns from the Minnesota Timberwolves as the final piece of the puzzle. That core four is now just four wins away from delivering the franchise its first NBA title since 1973.

“There is no player, no other guard I'd want to be in this position with than J.B.,” Bridges said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The lights were too bright again.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It never happened.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Harden and Mitchell staunchly defended Atkinson.

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

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

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

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

At the moment, Cleveland appears to need him again.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some are tracking congressional stock trading

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anti-corruption messages spread in Democratic primaries

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More candidates are fighting over stocks in California

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Paxton's campaign and a pro-Paxton super PAC began airing ads promoting the endorsement within 24 hours of Trump's announcement. Cornyn acknowledged Trump's move would have an impact but said he wasn't giving up.

“I know who gets to choose our senators, and it’s the people of Texas,” he said hours after the endorsement.

The winner will run in November against Democratic state Rep. James Talarico.

Tuesday's runoffs also will decide Democratic U.S. House nominees for districts in Dallas and Houston that overwhelmingly support Democrats, and a San Antonio-area seat the party hopes to flip.

The primary has been long, bitter and costly

Cornyn led Paxton in the March primary but failed to win a majority in the three-way contest that also included U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt, who finished in a distant third.

That was after Cornyn's campaign and allied groups waged a monthslong ad campaign, mostly attacking Paxton for ethical and personal questions. The two-term attorney general was acquitted in a 2023 impeachment trial when allegations of extramarital affairs surfaced. Last year, Paxton’s wife filed for divorce, citing “biblical grounds.”

The alliance of pro-Cornyn groups have continued its attack, outspending Paxton's campaign and two allied super PACs $16.5 million to $5.9 million since March 3, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact.

Trump promised to endorse immediately after the primary, asking the unchosen candidate to withdraw. But he didn't act until after early voting began on May 18.

“Ken Paxton has gone through a lot, in many cases, very unfairly, but he is a Fighter, and knows how to win,” Trump wrote in a social media post endorsing him. “Our Country needs Fighters, and also Loyalty to the Cause of Greatness.”

Pro-Cornyn groups lately have been airing ads criticizing the attorney general office’s handling of a Waco sex abuse case. Pro-Paxton groups had seized on Cornyn’s awkward relationship with Trump.

Trump snubs Cornyn amid retribution campaign

The negative tenor could diminish turnout in an election already complicated by coming a day after Memorial Day, Texas Republican strategist Tyler Norris said. About 2 million of Texas’ 18.7 million voters participated in the GOP primary.

The dynamic could favor Paxton, whose support draws from more of the most loyal Trump base in Texas, said Norris, who isn't affiliated with either campaign.

“The defining battle lines are based around hyper-negative messaging, which dampens turnout to begin with,” he said. “So who is going to show up is the hardest of the hard core.”

Trump in his endorsement also poked at Cornyn, as he has done with other Republicans who are not in lockstep with the president.

He blasted Republican Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy as “a Disloyal Disaster” on May 16, before Cassidy lost a GOP primary for the office he has held since 2015. The two-term senator had voted to convict Trump after his 2021 impeachment trial over the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Trump backed U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, who advanced to a runoff with John Fleming, the state treasurer. Cassidy finished well behind them.

Last week, Trump celebrated as Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, a critic of the Trump administration's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, lost his primary to Ed Gallrein. Trump called Massie "the worst congressman in the history of our country.”

In endorsing Paxton, Trump said Cornyn “was not supportive of me when times were tough" and that “John was very late in backing me."

Cornyn suggested in 2023 that Trump could not win the presidency again in 2024 and that his “time has passed him by.” He also was an early critic of Trump’s plan for a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico — a project he now supports.

Senate GOP leaders backed Cornyn, saying he would be stronger in the general election. Some GOP strategists have argued a Paxton nomination would cost millions of dollars more to promote in the fall, when money could be spent defending Republican seats in more competitive states. Democrats need to gain a net of four seats to take the majority.

Democrats also will choose US House nominees

Newly elected Rep. Christian Menefee and veteran Rep. Al Green are vying for the party nod in Texas' 18th District, which the Republican-led Texas Legislature redrew last year to help the GOP. The new map led to a contest between incumbents and marks the end of a dizzying series of elections in the Houston area. Menefee was elected in a special runoff in January to the seat that had been held by the late Rep. Sylvester Turner, who died in March 2025.

Menefee finished narrowly ahead of Green in the March 3 primary but didn't win a majority to avoid the runoff.

Former Rep. Colin Allred and U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson are competing in the Dallas-area 33rd District. Johnson was elected to the seat in 2024, the year Allred lost his U.S. Senate challenge to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. Allred was running for Senate again this cycle but dropped his bid and instead is looking to return to the House.

Near San Antonio, Democratic leaders are trying to prevent Maureen Galindo, who has expressed antisemitic views, from winning the party's runoff with Johnny Garcia. While Texas lawmakers redrew the 35th District to help Republicans, Democrats view it as within reach and don't want Galindo's past comments to impede them.

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Bedayn reported from Austin, Texas.

For now, she remains the sole Democrat on the Federal Communications Commission, where she's on an increasingly urgent mission to press media companies to more forcefully combat an administration she says is cracking down on free speech.

Her immediate focus is Disney, the parent of ABC. It is the subject of investigations launched by the FCC under Chairman Brendan Carr, a Trump ally.

In an extraordinary four-page letter earlier this month to Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro, Gomez outlined what she described as the FCC's “sustained, coordinated campaign of censorship and control” against the company. She noted probes touching on everything from diversity practices to ABC's moderation of a 2024 presidential debate and the guests booked on “The View” along with the administration's calls for late-night host Jimmy Kimmel to be fired.

She's particularly worried that the FCC's move for early reviews of ABC's broadcast licenses in the markets where it owns local stations is an effort to intimidate the network. She called it “the most egregious assault on the First Amendment this FCC has taken to date.”

Her message was simple: Fight back. She argued that Disney's controversial decision to pay a $15 million defamation settlement shortly before Trump returned to office did the company little good and set a bad precedent for the rest of the industry

“That settlement did not buy you peace,” she wrote in the letter, which she also posted to social media. “It only bought you time.”

D'Amaro hasn't publicly responded to Gomez. But he has signaled a new approach in a filing this month, accusing the FCC of taking actions that could “chill critical protected speech.”

In an interview from her Washington office, Gomez said she was heartened by Disney's response and encouraged other broadcasters to prepare for similar fights. She's an exceedingly rare figure in the nation's capital, one of just a few Democrats who have held onto their seats at federal agencies after Trump fired most of them in a bid to bend the bureaucracy to his will.

The Supreme Court is considering the constitutionality of Trump's moves and could issue a decision in the coming weeks.

While that plays out, Gomez's term is slated to end June 30. But unless Trump fires her, she's likely to remain at the agency, where her presence allows for a quorum that gives Carr the opportunity to keep enacting his agenda. Given the Senate's narrow divide and dwindling calendar ahead of the midterms, it would be hard for Trump to muscle through a replacement.

Here are highlights of the interview, edited for length and clarity.

A letter to Disney ... and a warning

AP: What prompted you to write the letter to Disney?

GOMEZ: At the beginning of this administration, I was growing increasingly alarmed by what I saw as this administration’s campaign to control and censor speech. And so I embarked on a tour across the country where I was talking to journalists, local broadcasters, legal scholars, press freedom advocates. And what I came back with was more of a conviction that we really needed to do something.

Then I started watching the capitulation. We saw CBS settle its lawsuit with the president and then agree to terms that basically require an ombudsperson to oversee the content of the network in order to get its transaction approved by the FCC. We saw ABC, of course, settle its lawsuit and I grew more and more and more concerned about the fact that this capitulation breeds capitulation.

And so I wrote the letter and the letter had two goals in mind. One was to basically put on the record and call out everything that this FCC has done to try to bring Disney to heel but also to encourage it and other broadcasters to stiffen their spine. We know, based on the record of this administration, every time it gets taken to court for these violations of the First Amendment and against the freedom of the press, it loses.

AP: Is your ultimate goal to get a court to rule against the FCC?

GOMEZ: In the end, what I want is for companies to push back because if this gets to court, any entity that challenges what this FCC is doing is going to win.

Regulation in a changing media environment

AP: The media landscape has changed so dramatically from when the FCC was founded. What is the government’s role in this space now?

GOMEZ: Traditionally, the FCC has licensed the local broadcast stations, and what we license is actually their spectrum, their airwaves over which they broadcast their television, their radio. And it has done so with three basic principles in mind. Competition, because competition’s always good for consumers and for viewers and for the market. Localism, which really means serving your local market, whether that means actually airing 24 hours a day the content, but truly local content. And finally, viewpoint diversity. We want to encourage more voices, not fewer.

And that is, I think, the right role for the FCC. Being a censor is not the right role for the FCC.

Life as the FCC's sole Democrat

AP: You’ve been in and out of the FCC for decades. You’re a lawyer, some might even say a technocrat. When you look back at your career, did you think you would take such a vocal stand against the actions of the agency and ultimately an administration?

GOMEZ: No, never in my entire career did I think that I would be having to speak up this strongly for the First Amendment in our Constitution and our democracy.

As you said, I’m a bit of a technocrat. I’m used to talking about the airwaves and I’m used to talking about broadband and how important it is for everyone to have access to broadband. I'm used to talking about really boring things like how to attach to light poles. But media wasn’t something that I particularly thought I would have to really delve into. But, like I said, this administration has just been alarming me so much and so I’ve had to pivot.

AP: You and Chairman Carr have a cordial relationship even though you disagree quite intensely. Is there a secret you want to share with the rest of Washington on how to do that?

GOMEZ: You know, we do have a collegial relationship and we do work well together. He has been in my position and he understands my need to speak out and I do so freely, knowing that some day I may face the consequences for it. But we do work at maintaining a cordial relationship.

AP: You're talking about the potential of being fired by the president?

GOMEZ: Yes, especially when I saw last year when the administration was firing all the Democratic members of different independent commissions and bodies. I just checked my email every day. Literally every day I pick up my phone and I say, “Am I going to work today?” And so far, so good.

AP: Your term lasts through June 30 and you're needed for a quorum. Absent an email that you wake up to in the morning, what are your plans?

GOMEZ: I can continue serving for another year and a half-ish after my term expires as long as no one else is nominated and confirmed for my particular slot. So I intend to continue working and to continue speaking out as long as I can.

The denial of bond for many held on immigration charges has unleashed tens of thousands of lawsuits since July, alleging violations of constitutional rights against illegal confinement. The Trump administration suffered a legal setback this month when an appeals court knocked down its policy after two other appeals courts had agreed with it, setting up a likely showdown at the Supreme Court.

The practice had already played out for years in Tacoma, where immigration judges at the Northwest ICE Processing Center started denying bond early this decade. Few people noticed outside the immigration attorneys there. But when the Trump administration adopted the theory last year, it echoed the judges' reasoning.

The Tacoma judges decided Congress never authorized them to grant bond

Neil Floyd, the only one of the four Tacoma judges who agreed to talk to The Associated Press, said clerks researched the issue for about six months before the judges decided Congress never authorized them to grant bond.

“We made the decision that we were going to do it collectively because it was too big a decision for someone to step out that far on their own,” said Floyd, who became the top federal prosecutor in Seattle during President Donald Trump’s second term.

The judges took their cue from a 1996 law that states that “applicants for admission” to the United States must be detained. The law was long interpreted as affecting people recently crossing the border without legal permission. People living here for years were categorized under a different statute that allowed bond hearings.

The Tacoma judges may seem like unlikely figures to spearhead such radical change. While all four — Theresa Scala, the chief Tacoma judge at the time; John Odell; Tammy Fitting; and Floyd — started their careers as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement lawyers, they each granted asylum at rates slightly higher than the national average.

Floyd, who left Tacoma after Trump took office last year to advise the FBI on immigration law before moving to his current position, said the judges' conclusion was a matter of fairness based on the law.

“It is the right interpretation of the law, and it’s the only fair one, because if you enter the United States the right way, by coming and knocking on the door to ask for asylum at a port of entry, the law is 100% clear,” Floyd said. “And it has been from the beginning that you are detained until we decide whether or not we’re going to let you in.”

Immigration lawyers in Tacoma were stunned. They scoured the nation for anything similar and found nothing.

“It was from our perspective, a pretty blatantly prosecutorial push to keep people locked up,” said Matt Adams, an attorney for Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, which sued over the practice. The case has not yet been scheduled for trial.

The lawsuit, filed in March 2025, alleges that the Tacoma judges ignored decades of precedent.

The Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, which operates more than 70 immigration courts nationwide, did not respond to requests for comment.

The Trump administration adopted the judges’ legal theory

In July, ICE announced a major change that mirrors the Tacoma judges' view, stating that immigrants who have been in the U.S. for years are “applicants for admission” if they didn’t enter the U.S. legally and, as a result, were subject to mandatory detention.

It began arguing against all bond hearings. The Justice Department’s Board of Immigration Appeals, which sets policy for courts, agreed with ICE’s arguments in September.

The number of people in ICE custody roughly doubled last year, peaking at about 75,000 in January. ICE plans to spend $38.3 billion to increase detention to 92,300 beds by the end of November, largely by opening warehouses, or “megacenters,” that house up to 10,000 people each. Judges say massive ICE raids have compounded the strain.

Once eligible for bond consideration, some 2 million immigrants now face mandatory detention if arrested. Immigrant detainees have filed more than 40,000 lawsuits since Trump returned to office 16 months ago, according to an AP tally.

Immigrants’ lives are disrupted

Despite the Trump administration's stance, many immigrants have succeeded in the courts. Some federal judges have ordered immediate freedom, while others send cases back to immigration court for bond hearings.

Victor Cruz, a handyman in Portland, Oregon, spent 24 days in the Tacoma detention center after ICE agents arrested him without a warrant. An immigration judge granted him a bond hearing, and he was released in October. He won his immigration case in February.

Cruz, 56, has U.S. citizens in his immediate family and spends weekends playing with his grandchildren. He keeps a folder in his car with all his immigration documents, wary that immigration authorities could detain him again. He said that he met people in detention who had “been there six months, nine months.”

On a recent Friday in Tacoma, Fitting — one of the original four judges — held bond hearings under orders of a federal judge.

She denied bond for an Oregon dishwasher with a 2002 drunken-driving conviction. But she granted $14,000 bond to another immigrant with no criminal record, while saying that his pathway to legal status is tenuous.

___

Attanasio is a former Associated Press reporter.

The strikes were done “to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces,” but the military was “using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire,” Capt. Tim Hawkins, the spokesman for the U.S. military's Central Command, said in a statement.

Further details were not immediately available, including more specifics on the threats from Iran and what this means for negotiations. There was no official response from Iran, which had sent its parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf to Qatar for negotiations over the possible deal with the U.S.

Qatar, which faced intense attacks from Iran during the war, holds billions of dollars in frozen Iranian funds.

In Iran, the news website Tabnak, believed to be close to former Revolutionary Guard chief Mohsen Rezaei, identified four dead Guard troops it said had been killed in American strikes on boats. Iranian state television separately reported blasts around Bandar Abbas, a city on the Strait of Hormuz home to a military port and a dual-use airport.

The strikes were the latest attacks to shake the weekslong ceasefire in the war. The Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of all crude oil and natural gas traded once passed, remains effectively in Iran's chokehold, disrupting global energy markets.

Trump brings up recognition of Israel

Earlier, Trump said any agreement to end the Iran war should include a requirement for several additional countries, including Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, to join the Abraham Accords, the U.S.-brokered agreements from Trump’s first term aimed at normalizing relations with Israel.

The proposal came as the emerging Iran deal faced criticism from fellow Republicans who favor a harder line on Iran, and it could add new diplomatic complications to the negotiations.

Trump pointed to Saudi Arabia and Qatar as countries that should “immediately” sign on. Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates became the first countries to join in 2020, diplomatically recognizing Israel.

He wrote that “after all the work done by the United States to try and pull this very complex puzzle together, it should be mandatory that all of these Countries, at a minimum, simultaneously, sign onto the Abraham Accords.”

Trump has long hoped Saudi Arabia would join. Saudi Arabia in particular has for decades called on Israel to return to its 1967 borders and allow the formation of a Palestinian nation with east Jerusalem as its capital. Israel’s conduct in the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip also has alienated Gulf Arab states and the wider Muslim world as well.

Pakistan remains key mediator

Recognition of a Palestinian state also remains key for Pakistan, which is among the countries that do not have diplomatic relations with Israel.

Islamabad-based analyst Syed Mohammad Ali said Pakistan’s position on Israel remains unchanged despite Trump’s latest proposal.

The president said he brought up the Abraham Accords plan with leaders during negotiations on Saturday. He said he would accept “one or two” countries declining to sign, but said most should be willing. Egypt and Jordan already formally recognize Israel and have long-standing peace treaties. Turkey first recognized Israel in 1949.

Masood Khan, Pakistan’s former ambassador to the United States, said it remains to be seen how workable the proposal might be for the countries on Trump's list.

“The invocation of the Abraham Accords at this stage gives an altogether new dimension to the diplomatic and mediatory processes because this issue was not on the agenda,” he said, pointing to the domestic pressure Trump is facing to strike a favorable deal.

Still, Khan said, “the diplomatic track is still working, and I believe Pakistan is very much at the center of it, supported by regional countries.”

It remains unclear when or how any deal with Iran might be completed. Trump suggested even Iran could eventually sign on to the accords, if an agreement is reached.

The accords are a series of diplomatic, economic and security agreements created with U.S. influence during Trump’s first term, which also saw Sudan, Morocco, and, more recently, Kazakhstan, join.

___

Ahmed reported from Islamabad. Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

Police said they were called just after 5:30 a.m. to a home on Hazel Lake Drive, off Old Middleburg Road South, in the Plum Tree neighborhood, where they found the man suffering from a gunshot wound and a stab wound.

He was taken to an area hospital, where his injuries were listed as non-life-threatening and he was last reported in a stable condition.

Neighbors told News4JAX they normally spend time in their garages or walking around the neighborhood. They were shocked by the news of violence.

“It’s crazy. This is really a quiet neighborhood,” Machalia Bates said.

Briyona Rich said her family has lived nearby for years and had never seen anything like this.

“Nothing ever like this has taken place over here,” Rich said. “So it’s very shocking that it happened.”

JSO said investigators learned the man was sitting inside his garage, when two men -- one heavy set and the other skinny -- walked up to him.

They spoke briefly before the two men started shooting and then also stabbed the man in the garage.

“I was so scared because I didn’t know what was happening,” Jazmine Gourgue said.

Gourgue said she lives nearby and heard what she believes were gunshots before seeing the victim collapse outside.

She said she was relieved to learn the man is expected to survive.

“I’m glad he’s doing okay, but something like that should never happen to nobody,” Gourgue said.

“At this time, investigators believe the incident is isolated, but the suspects are still outstanding,” JSO said in a news release about the attack.

Investigators said the attackers were in a black or dark gray SUV, which drove off in an unknown direction.

Detectives with the Robbery and Violent Crime Unit are actively interviewing witnesses, canvassing for surveillance video, and following up on investigative leads.

The community’s assistance is critical in this investigation, JSO said.

Anyone with information related to this incident is encouraged to contact the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office at 904-630-0500, email JSOCRIMETIPS@JAXSHERIFF.ORG, or contact Crime Stoppers at 1-866-845-TIPS.

Its new report is the latest by an international rights group accusing the wealthy Gulf monarchy of financially and militarily aiding the Rapid Support Forces that have been widely accused of committing atrocities amounting to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

The United Arab Emirates denied the latest accusations in response to questions from The Associated Press.

Report adds to a ‘growing body of evidence’

“The recruitment of Colombian private military contractors adds to a growing body of evidence that the UAE provides military support to the Rapid Support Forces, which have repeatedly carried out heinous atrocities in Sudan,” said Mausi Segun, executive director of HRW’s Africa Division.

Sudan’s war broke out on April 15, 2023, when a power struggle between the military and RSF exploded into fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the sprawling northeastern African country.

The RSF was born out of feared Arab Janjaweed militias that were notorious for atrocities in the early 2000s against people identifying as East or Central African in Sudan’s western region of Darfur.

In the new report, Human Rights Watch said hundreds of Colombian mercenaries were trained by Emirati nationals at a military base in Al Dhafra region, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) west of the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi, and at another facility in Abu Dhabi, before being deployed to Sudan to fight alongside the RSF.

The rights group quoted an unnamed Colombian mercenary as saying he trained RSF recruits at camps around Nyala, the provincial capital of South Darfur, in April last year.

Many recruits were “young children,” the mercenary was quoted as saying. The rights group said it interviewed another Colombian mercenary and other sources, including former Colombian military officers.

A United Nations panel of experts in a report to the U.N. Security Council in September said Colombian mercenaries fought in multiple areas across Sudan, including in Khartoum, its sister city of Omdurman and the regions of Darfur and Kordofan, among other areas. The experts said the mercenaries’ combat roles included the operation of RSF drones, artillery and armored vehicles, as well as participation in direct attacks.

RSF commander Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo acknowledged in video comments in February that Colombian mercenaries have aided his group to operate drones.

Report urges countries to press the UAE to end RSF support

The mercenaries were hired by Abu Dhabi-based Global Security Services Group, a private security firm, Human Rights Watch said. According to the U.N. experts, the firm was chaired by Mohammed Hamdan Al-Zaabi, an Emirati national.

Human Rights Watch said Emirati authorities and the firm didn’t respond to its requests for comment. The UAE’s Foreign Ministry, however, denied the allegations in an email to the AP.

“The UAE does not permit its territory to be used for the recruitment, training, financing or transit of foreign fighters to any conflict, including Sudan,” the ministry said.

It said any private individual or entity, Emirati or foreign, that provides support to non-state armed groups “would be doing so without state authorization, in violation of Emirati law, and would be subject to criminal investigation and prosecution.”

Human Rights Watch said it verified videos showing mercenaries, apparently Colombian, fighting alongside the RSF when it captured the Darfur city of el-Fasher in October in an offensive the U.N.-commissioned experts said bore “ the hallmarks of genocide. ” At least 6,000 people were killed in three days, according to the U.N.

The rights group called for the international community, including the European Union, to press the UAE to end its support to the RSF though suspending military cooperation and arms sales.

“Other countries need to stop accepting the UAE’s blanket denials of support to the RSF which fly in the face of the facts, and should put an end to its impunity for war crimes and crimes against humanity,” Segun said.

The U.S. has imposed sanctions on many people and firms based in Colombia’s capital, Bogota, over allegedly recruiting and deploying Colombian mercenaries to fight with the RSF. But it hasn't addressed reports of the UAE’s alleged support to RSF which it accused of repeatedly carrying out “summary executions, ethnically motivated attacks, sexual and gender-based violence, and torture throughout areas under its control” during the war.

At least 59,000 people have been killed over the three years, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, known as ACLED. The U.S.-based tracking group, however, said its toll was almost certainly an underestimate given the difficulty in reporting.

Tuesday will feature more of the same. We will see a partly to mostly cloudy sky with highs near 90 degrees. Isolated showers and storms are likely in the afternoon and evening.

Heavy rain, gusty wind and frequent lightning will be possible in any storm. Make sure to keep an eye to the sky as showers and storms could develop rapidly in the afternoon and evening.

Tropical moisture will continue to move into our area this week. This will keep widespread showers and storms in the forecast through this weekend. It will be warm and humid with temperatures near 90 degrees.

A front will approach our area later this week and at the same time an area of low pressure could develop to our south. This pattern would favor more tropical moisture over our area and will likely keep widespread rain and storm chances in the forecast later this week into the upcoming weekend.

Temperatures will drop into the low to mid 80s during this period due to more cloud cover and storm coverage.

In terms of rainfall, accumulation will depend highly on where storms develop. Several inches of rain are possible during this period. Any rainfall will be very beneficial due to the ongoing drought across our area.

Regarding the drought, the latest drought monitor reflects the overall pattern over the past few months. Most of our area remains in an extreme drought. An exceptional drought classification remains over the same locations.

Portions of Nassau and Camden Counties in FL/GA were downgraded to a severe drought due to the rainfall received over the past week.

TONIGHT: Mostly Cloudy. Patchy Fog. Low 75.

TUESDAY: Sun & Clouds. Scattered Rain & Storms. High 90, Low 75.

WEDNESDAY: Sun & Clouds. Scattered Rain & Storms. High 90, Low 74.

THURSDAY: Sun & Clouds. Scattered Rain & Storms. High 90, Low 74.

FRIDAY: Sun & Clouds. Scattered Rain & Storms. High 88, Low 73.

SATURDAY: Sun & Clouds. Scattered Rain & Storms. High 86, Low 72.

SUNDAY: Sun & Clouds. Scattered Rain & Storms. High 84, Low 70.

Spokesperson Terri Hinte told The Associated Press that Rollins died at his home in Woodstock, New York. She cited no specific cause of death, but said he had been largely housebound over the past couple of years because of various physical problems.

From his early days as a teen phenom to his more measured solo work and experimentation with free jazz, Rollins was revered for his improvisational skill. He was one of the last living greats of the bebop era and — along with John Coltrane and Charlie Parker — one of the most influential saxophonists of his time.

Rock fans got a dose of his music with the Rolling Stones’ 1981 album “Tattoo You,” which features’ Rollins’ wistful sax solo on the ballad “Waiting on a Friend," devised after watching Mick Jagger dance.

Despite his enduring success, Rollins was never quite satisfied with his art, occasionally taking lengthy hiatuses from playing and consistently adopting eclectic new styles.

He always referred to himself as “a work in progress,” saying he wasn’t one of those artists who settle into one way of playing.

While his early bebop work was the most popular with his fans, Rollins never looked back, saying he found it “excruciating” to even listen to the flaws in his older recordings.

“I don’t consider myself a musician that has learned as much as I want to learn,” he told The Associated Press in 2007.

Enduring achievements

In the 1990s and 2000s, Rollins released a string of critically acclaimed albums. He maintained a rigorous practice regimen, and continued to tour, into his 80s. Pulmonary fibrosis, a thickening and damaging of the lungs, would eventually force him into retirement. He played his last concert in 2012 and stopped playing altogether in 2014.

While he missed the adoration of crowds, he missed the actual playing more.

“I played a couple of concerts early on where I was out in the open in the afternoon,” He told the New York Times in 2020. “I was able to look up in the sky, and I felt a communication; I felt that I was part of something. Not the crowd. Something bigger.”

His 2001 album “This is What I Do,” earned him a Grammy award for best jazz instrumental album. He won again in 2006 for best jazz instrumental solo for “Why Was I Born?”

“Why Was I Born” was from the album “Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert,” a live recording from a performance in Boston just four days after the Sept. 11 attacks. Rollins, who had been evacuated from his apartment a few blocks from ground zero, had gone ahead with the concert at the urging of his wife and manager, Lucille. She died in 2004.

His survivors include a nephew, Clifton Anderson, and nieces Vallyn Anderson and Gabrielle DeGroat.

Meeting the greats

Rollins had gotten his first major break in his late teens when he was invited to join Thelonious Monk’s band. He soon was jamming with Miles Davis and Bud Powell, who introduced him to the recording world even before he finished high school.

But like many jazz musicians in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Rollins’ rising star almost faded when he became hooked on heroin at the age of 19. As his addiction grew steadily worse, Rollins served two stints in jail — 10 months in 1950 and three months in 1953 — and ultimately found himself living on the streets in Chicago. In 1954, Rollins checked himself into a hospital in Lexington, Ky., to undergo drug treatment.

He left underwent a spiritual awakening as he kicked drugs.

“I began to have a deeper philosophy of what life was about,” he told the AP in 2007. “From that point on is when my consciousness awoke.”

After being discharged, he returned to Chicago and signed on as a member of the Max Roach-Clifford Brown quintet. In 1956 he recorded a solo album, “Saxophone Colossus.” Its stripped-down, hard bop sound announced him as one of jazz’s premier sax players and remained one of his most influential works.

In the following two years Rollins hit upon a different approach, switching to a pianoless trio on three more landmark albums: “Way Out West,” “A Night at the Village Vanguard” and “Freedom Suite.”

Then, at the peak of his popularity, Rollins went into seclusion, spending the next two years practicing alone on a solitary niche above the East River on a Williamsburg Bridge walkway.

“The thing that I am most proud of in my career is that fact that I was able to see beyond being popular and all that stuff," he told the AP in 2007, “and do what my inner self told me to do.”

During his absence, jazz moved away from the fast-paced, tightly woven sound of bebop to the more frenetic and chaotic free jazz. When Rollins chose to return to the scene in 1961, he embraced the new sound — a move that divided his fans. In the mid-’60s, Rollins toured heavily in Europe, switching back and forth between more traditional and avant garde approaches. He contributed original music to the soundtrack of “Alfie,” the 1966 British film that made Michael Caine a star.

It was during a trip to Japan when Rollins discovered Zen Buddhism, prompting another lengthy sabbatical that would last into the early 1970s.

A living legend

When he chose to record again in 1972, he was now regarded as a legend and gained mainstream acceptance. He was granted a Guggenheim fellowship that year, and was inducted into the Downbeat Hall of Fame the next. He appeared on the “Tonight Show” and began playing in concert halls instead of nightclubs.

Theodore Walter Rollins was born into a musical household in Harlem on Sept. 7, 1930. His father, a naval petty officer, played the clarinet, his sister played the piano, and his older brother was a violinist.

When he was eight, his parents insisted he study the piano, but, as he recalled, “it didn’t take.” Instead, he said, he’d rather be outdoors playing baseball. But by age 11, Rollins became fascinated with the saxophone, and persuaded his parents to buy him one — an alto.

He had difficulty affording lessons and was largely self-taught, but Rollins quickly became an all-star, switching to tenor sax and playing the clubs at night.

He leaves behind many unreleased recordings, and said he didn't plan to leave behind instructions for what to do with them.

“After I get out of this planet I’m not going to have any say about what’s going on, so I’m not worried about that,” he told the New York Times in 2020. “And, boy, I agonize over my music; I won’t have to agonize about it anymore. Thank God.”

The sheriff’s office reported the closure around 6:15 p.m.

A News4JAX crew on the scene could see an upside-down silver pickup truck surrounded by police tape.

JSO said no one was injured in the crash.

It’s unclear how long the lanes will remain closed.

Seek alternative routes.

Sen. John Cornyn and state Attorney General Ken Paxton had no public campaign events scheduled for the final day of their more-than-yearlong quest for the GOP nomination. Instead, their fight for Tuesday's runoff continued as it has for months — intense and unabated — through advertising that has topped $109 million, heavily from Cornyn's side.

Cornyn hosted an annual, non-campaign event in San Antonio to recognize high school graduates attending the nation's service academies. The senator seeking a fifth term held his last public campaign event in Corpus Christi on Friday, ahead of Tuesday’s voting.

Paxton headlined his last events Thursday in the Austin area and in San Antonio, content to let his campaign and a super PAC carry his primary message: that President Donald Trump endorsed him on May 19.

Trump's announcement and accompanying dismissal of Cornyn, who has had an awkward public relationship with the president, came on the second day of early voting, which ended Friday.

Though the candidates' campaigns were quiet over the weekend, Trump reaffirmed his support for Paxton on Sunday, and disparaged Cornyn as insufficiently loyal to him.

Paxton, Trump posted on social media, “was also very loyal to your favorite President, ME,” while calling Cornyn “VERY disloyal to me.” It was Trump's strongest rebuke of Cornyn, who had dismissed his 2024 comeback chances, and echoed the president's reproach of Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy before he lost in the May 15 GOP Senate primary.

After Trump's jabs, Cornyn still leaned into his support for the president just before Monday's event. The senator said that 99.3% of his votes aligned with Trump, that he “wants him to be successful” and then he referenced Trump’s previous comments “where he called me a good man and a friend.”

As for endorsing his opponent, “obviously the president is entitled to make his pick," he said, but “Texans are a pretty independent breed and people will be making their own choices.”

Following Trump's call for retribution, Republican voters in Indiana and Kentucky have also chosen GOP primary challengers over incumbent GOP officeholders who have crossed the president or opposed his agenda.

For a contest that is expected to draw a fraction of Texas’ 18.7 million voters, the two candidates’ campaigns and supporting groups were continuing to bombard all Texans with advertising, though more by Cornyn's backers than Paxton's.

"It’s just a slug fest, with the campaigns and third-party groups slugging it out,” said Wayne Hamilton, a former executive director of the Texas Republican Party.

The combination of Cornyn's campaign and supporting super PACs has far outspent pro-Paxton groups over the past year, by almost nine-to-one. But the gap has shrunk as the runoff has approached. In the final week of the campaign, the combination of pro-Cornyn ad spending was less than twice that of Paxton's group.

Cornyn's network continued to air spots attacking Paxton over ethical and personal questions that have shadowed him with little effect throughout the campaign. The senator's consequent argument to voters is that Paxton would struggle in the general election and threaten to flip the seat blue.

“Paxton’s flaws and the baggage he brings to the general election is going to be exploited to the fullest by James Talarico,” he told reporters, before heading into Monday's ceremony and giving a speech devoid of campaign politics to the assembled graduates.

Cornyn’s campaign also had reprised an ad noting his tendency to vote in the Senate for Trump’s priorities.

Paxton's campaign and groups supporting him transitioned midweek to all ads noting Trump's endorsement, though Paxton's primary super PAC, Lone Star Liberty Fund, began airing one over the weekend aimed at raising questions about state Rep. James Talarico, the Texas Democratic Senate nominee.

According to the arrest report obtained by News4JAX, on May 6, just before 10 p.m., a JSO officer spotted the woman’s vehicle weaving in and out of traffic on Interstate 10 west, just before Chaffee Road.

The report said the woman flew past the officer’s vehicle, hitting 120 mph, prompting the officer to pull her over.

The officer reported a strong odor of marijuana coming from the car and another strong odor of alcohol coming from the woman’s mouth as police spoke with her, the report said.

“You think that’s a safe way of driving with him?”

Our officer pulled over a mother after they saw her driving 120 miles per hour on I-10. When he caught up to her, he saw her three-year-old in the backseat. And that was just the start of her problems.

Our officer enlisted the… pic.twitter.com/ZfzCvauirh

— Jax Sheriff's Office (@JSOPIO) May 26, 2026

JSO said the woman’s words were slurred, and her eyes were bloodshot red as well. According to the report, she told police that she was speeding because she needed to get home to feed her children.

The 3-year-old in the backseat was buckled in a car seat, and a 10-year-old child was home alone because the woman said her husband had left for work, the report said.

She told police, according to the report, that she was not drinking while driving, but had two glasses of wine at home before she went to pick up the food from a restaurant on Park Street.

After the field sobriety test, a breathalyzer measured her blood alcohol level at 0.15 and 0.14, nearly twice the legal limit.

Officers also found marijuana and open bottles of alcohol in the vehicle, including empty bottles.

She was arrested and charged with a DUI accompanied by a minor, three other misdemeanor charges and two citations.

Misiorowski threw 57 pitches at least 100 mph — the most by any individual in a game since pitch tracking began in 2008 — while getting 12 strikeouts to match his career high Monday in a 5-1 win against the St. Louis Cardinals.

“That's what I do,” Misiorowski said. “I throw hard.”

The previous record for 100 mph pitches in a game was 47 by Cincinnati’s Hunter Greene against St. Louis on Sept. 17, 2022.

Misiorowski reached 101 mph on 40 of his 96 pitches. He got to 102 mph on 22 pitches and had nine of at least 103. His top velocity was 103.4 mph, which he reached three times.

Nine of his strikeouts came on pitches that reached 100 mph, tying the record Greene set in that 2022 game against the Cardinals.

Misiorowski (5-2) allowed two hits and one walk in seven innings while improving his ERA to 1.83.

“Magnificent,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “One of the best performances I've seen in a long time.”

Yet it wasn't much different from all of the 24-year-old's other recent efforts.

In five starts this month, Misiorowski has allowed just one run and 11 hits while striking out 49 and walking six over 31 1/3 innings. When the Cardinals scored their lone run in the sixth, it snapped Misiorowski's streak of consecutive scoreless innings at 29 1/3.

That represented the third-longest streak of shutout innings in Brewers history. Teddy Higuera had 32 straight scoreless innings in 1987 and Freddy Peralta had 30 last year.

Misiorowski hasn't allowed an extra-base hit in six straight starts since giving up a double to Miami's Kyle Stowers on April 19.

“For him, I think the biggest thing is throwing strikes, and he's doing that,” Brewers first baseman Andrew Vaughn said. “That fastball's probably the best in the game. It's awesome to watch.”

Indeed, Misiorowski's control is one of the biggest ways in which he has improved since going 5-3 with a 4.36 ERA as a rookie last season.

Misiorowski had 87 strikeouts and 31 walks in 66 innings last year. This season, he's walked 19 in 64 innings while getting a major league-leading 100 strikeouts.

He started Monday's game by walking JJ Wetherholt on a 3-2 pitch inside before retiring the next 15 batters he faced. The Cardinals didn't get a hit until Pedro Pagés delivered a bloop single to lead off the sixth.

Misiorowski ended up allowing a run in the sixth, then came back out in the seventh and retired the side in order. He ended his day with a strikeout of Masyn Winn in which six of the seven pitches he threw exceeded 100 mph.

“It was just one of those things you go in the dugout, they tell you the inning before, ‘Hey, this is it. Go get it,’” Misiorowski said. “And kind of trust that the bullpen's going to have your back behind you.”

Misiorowski also has greater endurance from the conditioning work he did in the offseason. Murphy noted that it's about more than just arm strength.

“You can tell all those young pitchers out there, you have to have a lower half,” Murphy said. “He’s put together a great lower half.”

Misiorowski said working on his lower half was a focus in the offseason. The results are apparent in the way he's working deeper into games while maintaining his status as the hardest-throwing starting pitcher in the majors.

According to MLB.com, Misiorowski has thrown 22 career pitches of at least 103 mph as a starter, including in the postseason. No other starting pitcher has thrown more than two pitches 103 mph or faster during the pitch-tracking era.

No wonder Misiorowski said he wasn't taken aback Monday when each of his first six pitches went at least 103 mph.

“I feel like that’s how it should be every day," Misiorowski said. “I feel like that’s where I’m at. I feel like that’s just my normal.”

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

Madison Square Garden, that is.

With New York one win from sweeping the Cleveland Cavaliers and earning its first NBA Finals appearance since 1999, thousands of Knicks fans — and some of their well-heeled celebrity backers — descended upon Rocket Arena on Monday night.

Based on the decibel level and “Let's Go Knicks!” chants during pregame warmups, New York fans seemed to outnumber Clevelanders, who are holding out hope that the Cavs can somehow overcome an 0-3 deficit in the series. That's never happened in the NBA as teams are a collective 164-0 when leading 3-0 in a best-of-seven series.

Among the New York A-list celebrities on hand were actor Timothée Chalamet and his girlfriend, Kylie Jenner, director Spike Lee, comedian Tracy Morgan and rappers along with former Knicks players Walt “Clyde” Frazier and Allan Houston.

The Cavs, who hosted pop music superstar Taylor Swift and her fiance, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce in Game 3, were represented by rapper Machine Gun Kelly. Cleveland also brought back beloved guard Matthew Dellavedova, a member of its 2016 championship team for some karma.

Knicks fans were boisterous during New York's win in Game 3, and Cavs guard Donovan Mitchell lamented that was mostly because Cleveland gave its towel-waving crowd nothing to cheer about.

“I’m from New York, this doesn’t shock me. They do it in every arena,” Mitchell said. “That’s how Knicks fans are. I was one back in the day.”

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

And again.

Cowser hit a walk-off home run for the second consecutive day on Monday to complete the Baltimore Orioles’ 9-7, 13-inning victory over the Tampa Bay Rays, one he said was one of his "favorite complete team wins.”

The fifth overall selection in the 2021 draft is hitting .333 with all three of his home runs over an eight-game stretch. The third homer, Monday’s two-run shot, followed Sunday’s three-run drive to decide a 5-3 victory over Detroit to open a split doubleheader.

He became Baltimore’s first player to hit walk-off homers on consecutive days since Fred Lynn on May 10-11, 1985, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

“It’s one of those things where … you get to see guys who are not getting the results they want, but the work they’re putting in and the collaboration with our hitting coaches, trying to problem solve an approach or a swing adjustment, a stance, whatever it is,” Orioles manager Craig Albernaz said. “To see it come through at the biggest moment on the biggest stage, against a really good team. Yeah, I couldn’t be happier, prouder for Colton.”

Cowser also made a pivotal head-first slide in the 12th inning for the Orioles, who rallied from two down in the 11th and 13th and one down in the 12th for their first victory in four tries against the AL-leading Rays.

Originally called out by plate umpire Ryan Additon, a successful replay challenge showed Cowser’s arm snuck beneath the tag of catcher Nick Fortes as he sprinted home on Gunnar Henderson’s grounder to first.

“I didn’t know where he tagged me,” Cowser said. “I just felt contact kind of on this arm. I didn’t know what it was. It turned out it was his leg.”

Cowser homered 24 times in 2024 and finished second in AL Rookie of the Year balloting, but followed that with a .196/.289/.385 slash line in 2025. Even after his recent uptick, he's posting similar .200/.287/.316 numbers in 2026 through Monday.

But his teammates think his holiday weekend could be the start of the return to the guy they knew two seasons ago.

“I mean, we all know what he’s capable of,” said O’s starter Kyle Bradish, who allowed a run in six innings long before the drama unfolded. “And I think he’s starting to get out of whatever he was in and starting to be the player that he is.”

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

But there is a rip current risk at Jacksonville Beach today, and Ocean Rescue is encouraging beachgoers to have fun and be safe about it.

Especially on holidays, when a lot more people will be out and about, parents are urged to keep an eye on their kids and remember that water safety is always a priority, like always swimming near a lifeguard.

Lifeguards and surf instructors in Jacksonville Beach say parents losing sight of children happens more often than they’d like to admit. In fact, Jax Beach Ocean Rescue reunited 74 missing people in 2024.

They hear parents asking if they’ve seen their kid, or they’ll find kids panicking and not knowing where their parents are, and they don’t know phone numbers or where they last saw their parents.

Here are some tips to keep in mind, especially with young kids:

Set up a perimeter, stay off phones and pay close attention. Consider having them wear lanyards or wrist bands with phone numbers on them. Have them wear bright colors (orange, yellow) to make them easier to spot.

Another good idea is to keep a recent photo of the child for identification purposes.

The Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department pointed out that the Memorial Day holiday weekend falls within National Water Safety Month, making water awareness a top focus for JFRD and the Emergency Preparedness Division.

“Memorial Day weekend marks the unofficial start of summer, and with that comes an increase in outdoor activity, water recreation, and grilling, said Director/Fire Chief Percy Golden II. “We want everyone to enjoy this holiday. That starts with making smart choices before an emergency ever happens.”

Water safety

Duval County is home to more than 1,100 miles of shoreline, making water safety one of JFRD’s most critical public safety priorities.

From the beach to the river, and even backyard pools, residents and visitors have no shortage of places to enjoy the water.

JFRD urges anyone taking advantage of these resources to treat that access with respect. If you plan to spend time in the water, keep these safety tips in mind:

• Never swim alone.
• Designate a responsible adult as a Water Watcher to monitor children.
• Swim near a lifeguard. Accidents can happen even to strong swimmers.

JFRD Ocean Rescue Lifeguards will be stationed at Hanna and Huguenot parks to help keep everyone safe.

Ocean Rescue says it’s always a good idea to keep an eye on the color of the flag flying at the beach.

• Yellow = medium hazard.
• Red = high hazard.

The National Weather Service put out a rip current statement on Monday, which lasts through the day.

They recommend swimming near a lifeguard and not swimming against the current if you get caught in it. Make sure to relax and float.

RELATED: How to escape a rip current

Boating safety

If you are planning on boating this weekend, JFRD urges you to use the following tips to stay safe:

• Wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved life jacket. (Wear it, don’t carry it!)
• Designate a sober skipper before you leave the dock.
• Make sure someone onshore knows your route and expected return time.

Grilling safety

Grilling is a Memorial Day tradition, but it can be dangerous if you don’t take proper precautions. JFRD suggests that residents follow these simple steps to keep their cookouts from taking a wrong turn:

• Keep grills at least three feet away from structures, deck railings, and overhanging branches.
• Never leave a lit grill unattended.
• Keep children and pets away from the grill area at all times.
• Allow charcoal to cool completely before disposing of it. Never place hot coals in a trash can or near anything that can burn.
• Keep a fire extinguisher nearby and know how to use it.
• Never use a charcoal or propane grill indoors, in a garage, or under a covered patio.

Due to ongoing drought conditions, JFRD also reminds everyone to use extreme caution when cooking outdoors. It only takes one spark to ignite a fire that could quickly get out of control, dampening your holiday plans.

Holiday safety

With increased travel and outdoor activity expected throughout the weekend, JFRD and the Emergency Preparedness Division also remind the public to take precautions against heat and traffic-related hazards:

• Stay hydrated. Drink water throughout the day, especially if you are spending time outdoors during peak heat.
• Never leave children or pets in parked vehicles. Temperatures inside a car can reach dangerous levels within minutes.
• Know the signs of heat illness and when to seek medical help.
• Protect your skin from dangerous UV rays with sunblock, UV protective clothing, and hats.
• Designate a sober driver and plan your return trip before you head out.

JFRD’s Emergency Preparedness Division encourages all Jacksonville residents to visit JaxReady.com/ALERTJAX to sign up for Duval County ALERTJAX emergency notifications.

“Magnifica Humanitas” (Magnificent Humanity), Leo’s first encyclical, has been eagerly awaited ever since history’s first U.S.-born pope announced days after his election that he considered AI to be the biggest challenge facing humanity today.

In the text, Leo denounced the “culture of power” driving the AI race, especially in developing ever more sophisticated methods of remote warfare. He declared that it was “not permissible” to entrust irreversible, lethal decisions to AI systems, setting up another flash point between the American pope and the Trump administration, which has worked aggressively to deregulate AI development.

“Artificial Intelligence now demands to be disarmed, freed from logics that turn it into an instrument of domination, exclusion and death,″ the pope told a special Vatican presentation of the encyclical, one of the most authoritative types of teaching documents a pope can issue.

Experts in the tech industry, academia and Catholic morality said the document will likely become a benchmark in the debate over AI, a point of reference for policymakers, researchers and ordinary folk alike. It comes as the near-daily developments in the technology trigger concerns over AI replacing human jobs and even human intelligence.

Taylor Black, a Microsoft AI executive and director of Catholic University of America’s AI institute, said the document would prompt people “at the forefront of these tools” to ask questions such as “What does it mean to be human?”

Pope calls out AI companies even as he hosts Anthropic

The Vatican launch also included remarks by the co-founder of Anthropic, which is currently locked in a legal battle with the Trump administration over access to its AI technology. The Vatican decided to involve Anthropic as part of its decade-long effort to engage Silicon Valley in dialogue over the human cost of AI.

And yet in his text, Leo repeatedly blasted the concentration of power and data in the hands of so few people in the private sector as a danger, especially to children and the most vulnerable, and called for external regulation of their work.

“It is not enough to invoke ethics in the abstract; robust legal frameworks, independent oversight, informed users and a political system that does not abdicate its responsibility are required,” he wrote. “A more moral AI is not enough if that morality is determined by a few.”

Leo appealed to AI developers and political leaders responsible for regulating them to slow down and reflect on what they are doing. He urged them to use ethical and spiritual guidelines to make the choice to work not for their own profit or power, but the betterment of humanity.

AI competitors OpenAI and Anthropic are the second- and third-most valuable U.S. private companies, each valued at hundreds of billions of dollars, more than the GDP of many nations. Both companies are heading toward near-trillion dollar IPOs.

Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah welcomed Leo's criticism and concern. He said such external checks were fundamental to the technology “going well” for humankind since there is so much at stake — “a real possibility that AI will displace human labor at a very large scale.”

“We need more of the world — religious communities, civil society, scholars, governments — to do what His Holiness has done here: to take this seriously, to look closely, and to push events in a better direction,” Olah said. “We need moral voices that the incentives cannot bend.”

Experts say the text will become a benchmark

In a methodical text, the math major pope traced the history of the Catholic Church’s social teaching and applied its core concepts — justice, solidarity, the dignity of work and the universal destination of resources — to the digital revolution.

“I am convinced that this will prove to be a defining document for our era, a profound and prophetic document,” said Paolo Carozza, law professor at Notre Dame Law School and chair of the Meta Oversight Board.

“Pope Leo is offering a clear, comprehensive, and coherent voice urging us to take responsibility for constructing a world in which technology will serve humans rather than degrade them,” he said.

In its strongest chapters, Leo denounced how AI had helped accelerate the “normalization of war” by desensitizing people to its cost. He didn’t name specific conflicts, but cited “opposing imperialisms, between powers that wish to preserve their supremacy, and those that aspire to seize that supremacy.”

He demanded transparency and accountability by AI developers so that the chain of decision-making command in ordering strikes with AI weaponry is always known. He declared that the Catholic Church’s “just war” theory, which provides specific criteria for when force can be justified, was now “outdated” given the technological advances of warfare.

A text in the church’s social justice tradition

Leo signed the text May 15, the 135th anniversary of the publication of “Rerum Novarum” (Of New Things), the most important teaching document of Leo’s hero and namesake, Pope Leo XIII. That document addressed workers’ rights, the limits of capitalism, and the obligations that states and employers owed workers as the Industrial Revolution was underway.

It became the foundation of modern Catholic social thought, and the current pope cited it at the start of his pontificate in relation to the AI revolution, which he believes poses the same existential questions that the Industrial Revolution posed over a century ago. “Magnifica Humanitas” thus becomes the latest chapter in a century-long history of popes adapting “Rerum Novarum” to the social questions of their times, often dwelling on the dignity of work for human flourishing.

AI is evoking both existential fears and utopian vision amid an intensifying debate on whether it will become a catalyst that enriches humanity or a technological toxin that dulls human intelligence while wiping out millions of high-paying jobs.

“The pursuit of greater profits cannot justify choices that systematically sacrifice jobs, because the human person is an end, not a means, and the economic order must remain subordinate to human dignity and the common good,” Leo wrote.

Leo extended his concern for upholding human dignity in labor to issue the first-ever papal apology for the Holy See’s own role in legitimizing slavery by giving European sovereigns explicit authority to subjugate and enslave “infidels.”

A decade-long dialogue with Silicon Valley

Vatican officials declined to say who contributed to Leo’s encyclical. But Vatican and church officials have been engaged in a dialogue with Silicon Valley tech firms for a decade.

The decision to include Anthropic at the Vatican launch was criticized by some who considered it a papal stamp of approval of the AI firm, which is currently suing the Trump administration after it ordered all U.S. agencies to stop using Anthropic’s technology for its refusal to allow the U.S. military unrestricted use of it.

Brian Boyd, U.S. faith liaison for the nonprofit Future of Life Institute, read the inclusion of Anthropic’s co-founder Olah as a recognition of its prominence in the field and as similar to a papal audience with a head of state: not an endorsement.

Anthropic is an “enormous corporation that is taking onto itself an enormous risk and responsibility,” Boyd said, adding that the company has “demonstrated genuine goodwill and integrity and interest in dialogue.”

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Winfield reported from Middletown, Connecticut, and Huamani reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writers Kelvin Chan in London and Colleen Barry in Milan contributed to this report.

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

Karen and Jean Kirsten — identical twin sisters and former Army officers — are now preparing for careers in medicine at Nova Southeastern University’s Jacksonville campus through the school’s Military to Medicine pathway program.

After years of military service, overseas deployments and one life-changing cancer diagnosis, the sisters are beginning a new chapter together: training to become Certified Anesthesiologist Assistants, also known as CAAs.

“We joined the military in 2009,” Jean Kirsten said.

The sisters built parallel careers in the Army, often following similar paths despite serving at different duty stations over the years. Both working as officers both retiring around the same time.

Both say they always felt drawn to healthcare.

“Ever since I was young, I had kind of like a passion for the medical field,” Karen said. “It’s always been just wanting to help others and kind of make a difference in people’s lives.”

That passion eventually led them to NSU’s Certified Anesthesiologist Assistant program, a rigorous 27-month master’s program designed to prepare students to help administer anesthesia and monitor patients during surgery.

The fast-paced program includes a year of classroom instruction followed by clinical rotations across the country.

But for Karen, the decision to pursue medicine became deeply personal.

Near the end of her military career, she was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer while still serving on active duty.

“I went through all the treatment and recovery,” Karen said. “And I’m actually five years cancer free today.”

The diagnosis ultimately changed the direction of both sisters’ careers.

Jean became one of Karen’s caretakers throughout her treatment and recovery, bringing the sisters even closer together.

Now, Karen hopes to eventually work in a cancer center helping patients facing challenges similar to her own.

“I would like to work in a cancer center and help through that way since I will also a cancer survivor myself,” she said.

Their transition into healthcare was made possible in part through NSU’s Military to Medicine pathway — a program designed to help veterans and active-duty service members navigate the often difficult transition from military life into civilian healthcare careers.

Awilda Carozza, director of Military Affairs at NSU, said the university created the program after recognizing a growing need among veterans interested in medicine.

“The military to medicine pathway program was created because we wanted to help our transitioning service members and our veterans transition into healthcare careers,” Carozza said. “We saw that a lot of veterans exiting the military were lacking a clear pathway into healthcare education after their service.”

The program helps veterans with admissions, academic planning, financial aid and using military education benefits such as the Post-9/11 GI Bill and Yellow Ribbon Program.

Carozza said veterans already possess many of the qualities needed to succeed in healthcare settings.

“They have discipline, leadership, real-world experience and the ability to work under pressure,” she said. “Those qualities transition very well and fit perfectly into healthcare.”

According to NSU, dozens of service members are currently enrolled or moving through the program’s pipeline into careers ranging from medicine and physician assistant studies to anesthesia and physical therapy.

The initiative also comes at a critical time for Florida’s healthcare workforce.

The state is projected to face significant shortages of healthcare professionals over the next decade, increasing demand for trained workers in hospitals and healthcare systems statewide.

For the Kirsten twins, the program represents more than just career training — it represents another opportunity to serve.

During interviews at the Jacksonville campus, the sisters laughed about being built-in study partners and support systems for one another.

“It’s kind of like a built-in support system and study buddy,” Karen said.

Although classes have not officially started yet, both admitted they are already studying in preparation for the demanding coursework ahead.

“A little nervous,” Jean said with a laugh. “But excited.”

The sisters said adjusting to civilian life after the military came with challenges, especially after years of structure and routine. But they say this next phase feels rewarding because they are pursuing something they are genuinely passionate about.

“Now we can do what we want to do and actually find what our passion is,” Karen said.

As they prepare to enter operating rooms instead of military bases, the twins say the mission remains the same: helping people during some of their most vulnerable moments.

The curtain fell on Gael Monfils just before midnight when he lost to French countryman Hugo Gaston 6-2, 6-3, 3-6, 2-6, 6-0.

It was the 39-year-old Monfils' final appearance at Roland Garros. Same went for the 41-year-old Wawrinka, who earlier lost to Jesper de Jong 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 on another sweltering day.

Monfils and Wawrinka are retiring at the end of the year.

They made their French Open debuts 21 years ago.

Wawrinka went on to win three Grand Slam titles, and while Monfils has not reached a major final his popularity remains high.

Monfils walked out to chants of “Ga-el! Ga-el!” on Court Philippe-Chatrier. He received loud encouragement throughout, demanding applause when he hit spectacular winners and raising his arm when he won the third set.

But he also looked tired, often hunching over with his hands on his knees. After clawing back a two-set deficit he had little energy left against an opponent 14 years younger.

Monfils was joined in an on-court ceremony by his former Davis Cup teammates Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Richard Gasquet and Gilles Simon, and also praised by his peers.

“For me you were a true inspiration. A great athlete,” two-time reigning French Open champion Carlos Alcaraz said in video featuring several players. “But the most important thing, a great person off the court.”

Monfils thanked his wife, Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina, who looked tearful as she listened.

"Without her I might not be here tonight,” Monfils said. "We’ve been together for eight years, eight beautiful years ... (You) gave me the greatest gift in the world, our daughter. I love you.”

Wawrinka bows out

De Jong finished off Wawrinka, the 2015 French Open champion and 2017 finalist, with a whipped forehand winner, then urged the fans to applaud Wawrinka, whose face was almost as red as the baking-hot clay. Temperatures in sun-soaked Paris hit 33 degrees C (91 F).

“It’s hard, it’s hard to say goodbye to you here,” an emotional Wawrinka said. “It’s because of Roland Garros that I wanted to become a tennis player.”

He was given an ovation at Court Simonne-Mathieu, where he was scheduled to face Arthur Fils but the rising French star pulled out of the tournament with a hip issue.

Wawrinka knows it will be hard to let go — although he still has Wimbledon and the U.S. Open to come.

“For more than 20 years I experienced these emotions, you never want it to stop," Wawrinka said. "I have given everything for this sport.”

His stunning 2015 run to the title saw him defeat heavy favorite Novak Djokovic in the final after downing another all-time great, Roger Federer, in the quarterfinals. Wawrinka stood out that year as much for his eye-catching pink-checkered shorts as for his destructive backhand.

Those shorts fed his happy-go-lucky appearance and he reinforced that image by celebrating with Champagne long into the night. But as cavalier as he sometimes seemed, Wawrinka was anything but casual and always trained fiercely hard.

He was hugged on court by tournament director Amelie Mauresmo, before sitting and watching footage of his matches down the years. He was shown video messages from Federer, Rafael Nadal, Djokovic, men’s No. 1 Jannik Sinner, reigning champion Carlos Alcaraz, and Monfils.

At his physical peak, the barrel-chested Wawrinka had huge stamina and was one of the few who beat Nadal, Djokovic, Federer and Andy Murray at the Grand Slams.

Wawrinka beat Nadal in the the Australian Open final in 2014 and downed Djokovic again in the U.S. Open final in 2016, meaning all three of his majors were won against the No. 1 player. Nadal, however, dispatched him in straight sets in the 2017 French Open final.

He was an Olympic champion in doubles alongside Federer in 2008 and they won the Davis Cup for Switzerland in 2014.

“You are a legend of our sport,” said Monfils, who also lost his first-round match at the Australian Open in January.

Monfils falls short

Monfils reached the semifinals at the 2008 French Open and the quarterfinals on three other occasions.

But ultimately he fell short after being touted for a great career following junior titles at the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 2004.

He never won better than an ATP 500 among his 13 titles, and lost 22 finals — including three at Masters level. His reputation as a showman took precedence over his modest results.

“One of most likeable, fun guys out there,” Djokovic said. “There’s no one that doesn’t like you, Gaël. I think that’s your biggest victory.”

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

Cowser's 425-foot blast off Jesse Scholtens (5-3) was just his third homer of the season and punctuated a wild victory in which the Orioles rallied three times in extra innings. Cowser becomes Baltimore’s first player to hit walk-off homers on consecutive days since Fred Lynn on May 10-11, 1985, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Pete Alonso and Jeremiah Jackson each singled in a run to tie it at 4-all in the 11th. Cowser scored the game-tying run to make it 5-all in the 12th on Gunnar Henderson's grounder to first, a sequence originally called an out by plate umpire Ryan Additon before a replay challenge showed the sliding Cowser snuck an arm under Nick Fortes’ tag.

Then, Leody Taveras doubled and Jackson Holliday hit a sacrifice fly to tie it a 7 in the 13th, setting up Cowser's drive that landed in the seats in right-center, mirroring his game-winning homer in Sunday's 5-3 victory over Detroit in the first game of a doubleheader.

Jonathan Aranda hit his ninth home run in the sixth and added a sacrifice fly in the 12th for the Rays, who lost consecutive games for the first time since dropping three straight April 19-21 in their second 13-inning game — and first such loss —this season.

Victor Mesa Jr. hit his second career home run, a two-run shot in the 12th inning of his Tampa Bay debut. And, Cedric Mullins and Richie Palacios each singled in the top of the 13th off Dietrich Enns (3-0).

Mullins received an approximately 10-second standing ovation while in the on-deck circle in the second inning. It was his first game in Baltimore as visitor after playing with the Orioles from 2018-25.

Up next

Orioles right-hander Shane Baz (1-5, 4.87 ERA) face Rays RHP Griffin Jax (1-2, 3.54) on Tuesday.

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

Judge José Antonio Núñez, in his decision, considered that Franco had been the victim of extortion and blackmail by the minor's mother, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for sexually trafficking her daughter.

“It seems contradictory to declare criminal responsibility and at the same time exempt him from punishment. The court has granted Wander Franco a judicial pardon due to the particular circumstances that made him a material victim, but not a legal one,” explained Núñez.

The judge justified the judicial pardon as a “logical and legal reasoning.”

“Thank God for everything,” Franco expressed as he effusively embraced his mother, Nancy Aybar, and other family members who accompanied him in court.

Franco was arrested in January 2024 after being accused of having a four-month relationship with a girl who was 14 at the time and transferring thousands of dollars to her mother to consent to the illegal relationship.

After the ruling, Franco left the courthouse alongside his lawyer, Teodosio Jáquez, and briefly answered reporters’ questions, saying, “I feel calm,” and asking his fans to “continue supporting me and trusting in me.”

Franco also said he personally had not contacted the Rays but that his lawyers surely had.

“We are aware of today’s verdict in the Wander Franco trial and will conclude our investigation at the appropriate time,” Major League Baseball said in a statement.

Franco attorney Jáquez said: “We don’t have the physical sentence in our hands, but he was exempted from punishment because the president of the court established that he was also a victim and because he is exempted from punishment through judicial pardon."

The full sentencing will be June 16.

“When we have the full sentence in hand, we will give you more details," Jáquez said. "He was exempted from punishment and we think that’s fine, but we need to have the sentence in hand.

In November 2021, Franco signed an 11-year, $182 million contract with the Rays, but his career was upended when authorities in the Dominican Republic announced in August 2023 that they were investigating him for an alleged relationship with a minor. Franco was 22 at the time.

Six months after his arrest, Tampa Bay placed him on the restricted list, which cut off the pay he had been receiving while on administrative leave.

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

And the events of Sunday and Monday surely add at least a bit of intrigue to Argentina's plans.

Messi underwent testing on Monday — which almost certainly means an MRI exam, though the team did not divulge what procedures were involved — and was ultimately diagnosed with “an overload associated with muscle fatigue in his left hamstring" that kept him from finishing Inter Miami's match on Sunday night.

Typically, the timeframe for recovery from such issues is varied depending on the severity.

"The timeline for his return to physical activity will depend on his clinical and functional progress," Inter Miami said in a release.

Messi was subbed out of Inter Miami's match against the Philadelphia Union in the 73rd minute on Sunday. He essentially stopped playing a couple of minutes earlier and was seen grabbing at the back of his left leg at least once before he could be removed for a sub.

Messi walked off the field without any assistance and went directly to the team's locker room. Inter Miami, the defending MLS champion, won the game 6-4 and Messi had a pair of assists in the first half.

Heavy rain fell during the second half, leaving the field slippery. It was unknown if Messi took a misstep at any point during the storm or if the conditions were involved in the decision for him to leave the match. All the team said Monday was he was subbed out because of “physical discomfort.”

Argentina has a pair of friendlies scheduled in advance of the World Cup, first on June 6 in College Station, Texas, against Honduras and then on June 9 in Auburn, Alabama, against Iceland. Those games will be played in college football stadiums — the home fields of Texas A&M and Auburn — with a combined capacity of about 180,000.

Argentina is in Group J for the World Cup. Its group stage matches: Algeria, at Kansas City, on June 16; Austria, at Arlington, Texas, on June 22; and Jordan, back in Arlington, on June 27.

Messi has already appeared in five World Cups, winning the Golden Ball as the tournament’s best player twice — first in 2014, then again in 2022 when he led Argentina to the title. That award has been given out only since 1982, but he is the lone player to win it twice.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/soccer

On this Memorial Day, we honor the sacrifices of all those who have died while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces.

Below is a list of local observances happening around the area on Monday:

Duval County

City of Jacksonville Memorial Day Observance: The City of Jacksonville’s Military Affairs and Veterans Department along with Wounded Warrior Project will hold its annual Memorial Day Observance beginning at 8 a.m. at the Veterans Memorial Wall on East Adams Street. This is a free event with free parking in Lot P.

Clay County

Green Cove Springs Riverfest: The day’s highlight is the memorial and veterans’ recognition ceremony. Event runs from 10 a.m.-9 p.m. at Spring Park in Green Cove Springs.

Orange Park Memorial Day Service at Magnolia Cemetery: The Orange Park Fire Department & the Town of Orange Park will host its annual Memorial Day Service starting at 9 a.m. at Magnolia Cemetery on Kingsley Avenue. Parking is available across the street at Clarke House Park.

St. Johns County

St. Augustine National Cemetery Memorial Day Observance: The ceremony from 10-11 a.m. at the St. Augustine National Cemetery begins with music and the presentation of massed flags from area veterans organizations. Speakers will also read the names of local veterans who have died in the past year.

Nassau County

Fernandina Beach Memorial Day Service: Event host by American Legion Post 54 begins at 11 a.m. near the “Monument To Our Fallen” at the Fernandina Harbor Marina.

Alachua County

Annual Memorial Day Ceremony: ​Alachua County Veteran Services, in partnership with the City of Gainesville, VyStar Credit Union and Milam Funeral Home, invites the community to attend the annual Memorial Day ceremony, starting at 10 a.m. at the historic Evergreen Cemetery (401 SE 21st Ave., Gainesville).

Baker County

Wreath Laying Ceremony: Heritage Park Village and American Legion Post 83 are hosting a wreath-laying ceremony at 10 a.m.

Bradford County

Memorial Day Ceremony: Begins at 10 a.m. at Veterans’ Park in Downtown Starke at the Square.

Flagler County

Memorial Day Ceremony: Join the City of Palm Coast as it remembers America’s heroes, starting at 9 a.m. at Heroes Memorial Park on Palm Coast Parkway.

Camden County

St. Marys Memorial Day Ceremony: Honor and Remember this Memorial Day by attending this annual event presented by local James Jarret Brown VFW Post 8385. Event begins at 10 a.m. at Oak Grove Cemetery.

Glynn County

Brunswick Memorial Day Ceremony 2026: The Veterans Council of the Golden Isles invites the community to gather at Veterans Memorial Park in Downtown Brunswick as we honor the men and women who sacrificed their lives in service to our country. Even begins at 10 a.m. at I Street and 341.

If you know of a ceremony happening Monday that we should add to this list, email webteam@wjxt.com.

The list of candidates capable of challenging top-ranked Jannik Sinner, who enters the French Open on a three-month-long 29-match winning streak, has been dwindling.

Enter Rafael Jodar, the 19-year-old Spaniard who has been making waves on the ATP Tour.

Jodar continued to impress in his Roland Garros debut, dropping just five games in a 6-1, 6-0, 6-4 rout of American opponent Aleksandar Kovacevic on Monday despite boiling heat at the clay-court Grand Slam. The last man to concede fewer games in a French Open debut was Novak Djokovic, who allowed three to Robby Ginepri in 2005.

“I did the things very well from the start,” Jodar said. “It’s just my first year (on tour) and I’m experiencing a lot of things in these past few months.”

Mostly, Jodar has been experiencing victories: He’s won 16 of his last 19 matches, raised a trophy on clay in Morocco, reached the semifinals in Barcelona and had a run to the quarterfinals in Madrid ended by Sinner.

A year ago, Jodar was ranked No. 707 and playing challengers — tennis’ minor leagues — in the U.S. after he competed at the University of Virginia. Now he’s No. 29 and is seeded 27th in Paris.

“It was obviously another chapter of my life but I think that chapter also helped me to develop a lot and to be a better player now,” Jodar said.

Going to college also helped.

“Living there alone, it was great to develop and to do things by myself,” Jodar said. “It was a new chapter, new culture for me, actually a new life.”

Jodar appears destined to become a top-10 player and a serious contender for the biggest trophies.

And Jodar is in the bottom half of the draw in Paris — meaning he could meet Sinner only in the final.

Swiatek making no assumptions

Four-time champion Iga Swiatek eliminated 136th-ranked debutant Emerson Jones 6-1, 6-2 in her opener.

The only real issue for the third-ranked Swiatek came when she needed a trainer to re-tape the middle finger on her tennis-playing right hand for an apparent blister after the first set.

Swiatek has not won a title on clay this season and recently made a coaching change. She hired Francisco Roig, who previously worked with 14-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal.

“Nothing comes easy,” Swiatek said. “With more titles it’s even a bit harder because everyone expects you to be ready always and play perfectly. So you need to stay humble and not take anything for granted and work your way from the beginning of the tournament.”

She improved to 28-1 in first-round matches at Grand Slams.

Also advancing were Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina, who beat Veronika Erjavec 6-2, 6-2; and recent Italian Open winner Elina Svitolina, who rallied past Anna Bondar 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (3).

In men’s action, 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka was beaten by Dutch qualifier Jesper de Jong 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to end his 21st and last French Open.

Gael Monfils also bowed out for the last time after losing to fellow Frenchman Hugo Gaston 6-2, 6-3, 3-6, 2-6, 6-0 just before midnight.

Eighth-seeded Alex De Minaur defeated Toby Samuel 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 and No. 15 Casper Ruud — a two-time French Open runner-up — won against Roman Safiullin 6-2, 7-6 (5), 5-7, 0-6, 6-2.

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

Or, at least, will have a highly limited MacKinnon, which was what he was after taking a puck to his right knee in Sunday night's 5-3 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights.

It's been that kind of series for the Avalanche, the Presidents' Trophy winners going down 3-0 in the Western Conference Final. With the possibility of being swept Tuesday night, coach Jared Bednar will take MacKinnon in any form he can get him.

“For him to be able to come back out, get some work done late in the second period and intermission and be able to come out and even help us on the power play and empty-net situations, if that’s all he can do, we’ll take it," Bednar said. "It’s better than anything else, in my opinion, we can put on the ice.”

That comment could get plenty of attention in the Avalanche locker room, but as it is, the Golden Knights have Colorado's full focus.

The odds might have been in the Avalanche's favor before the series began — the team with the league's best record going against one so desperate to make the playoffs that it fired its coach with eight games remaining — but not now.

The numbers, in fact, are daunting.

This is the 50th time in the conference finals or league semifinals that a series has gone to 3-0. All previous 49 teams with that advantage went on to make the Stanley Cup Final, with 47 ending the series in six games or fewer.

Only four teams have erased 3-0 deficits in any round. Los Angeles in 2014 was the most recent team to accomplish that in eliminating San Jose in their first-round series.

And then there's the so-called Presidents' Trophy curse. Chicago in 2013 was the last team to claim that and the Stanley Cup in the same season. Colorado already had firsthand knowledge of the difficulty of pulling off the double, winning the Presidents' Trophy in the 2021 COVID-shortened season before going out in six games in the second round ... to the Golden Knights.

“There’s going to be a sense of urgency, but it’s got to be smart urgency,” defenseman Josh Manson said. "It’s got to be desperation. It’s got to be our best style of play the whole night. You’ve got to maintain that sense of do or die, while playing up to the edge. That’s what makes it so difficult.

“The margin of error is so thin now, and you’ve got to be able to balance that for at least 12 periods.”

It will take at least that many periods for the Avalanche to accomplish what no other team has done this deep into the playoffs. They will have to play like the team that looked like the NHL's best for six months and then the first two rounds of the playoffs when they went 8-1.

“We know where we’re at,” wing Martin Necas said. “We know it doesn’t happen very often, but we still feel confident in this group. It’s not like we’ve been outplayed every game and their team is better than ours. We had a lot of stretches this season where we won four in a row. So we just focus on the next game and take it home and anything can happen.”

Getting it back to Denver for Game 5 would be a start.

“Our team's played with more intensity and more desperation as the series (has) gone on,” Bednar said. "Hasn’t worked out for us yet. I think with the hill to climb, it’s definitely a tough one. It just doesn’t happen very often, and we’re certainly understanding of that, but I think we have a lot of pride and a lot of character in our room that displayed that time over time throughout the course of the year,

"This will be our most difficult challenge, but I believe that we will show up and we will be ready to play.”

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

The seaweed is called sargassum — and it’s washing up in droves along Florida’s east coast.

“I think that it is a really bad smell, but once you pass it, it’s all good at the beach,” said Cat Nye, a beachgoer.

RELATED | Seaweed City: Sargassum washing up in piles on local beaches - and it stinks

Not everyone loved it. Dee Broom, who was at the beach with her dog Laney, put it simply.

“I don’t like it,” Broom said.

But she and her dog are dealing with it well and having a nice time.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), sargassum is technically an algae. Free-floating sargassum has long been common off the U.S. eastern seaboard, where it plays a critical role in ocean ecosystems — providing food, shelter, nursery areas and breeding grounds for fish, sea turtles and birds.

But in recent years, the situation has changed dramatically. Since 2011, sargassum has been appearing in significantly greater abundance across the tropics, stretching from Africa to the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of America. The problem isn’t just visual. When sargassum decomposes on the beach, it releases hydrogen sulfide gas — a foul-smelling compound that reeks of rotten eggs — and attracts flies and other insects, creating an unpleasant experience for beachgoers.

To help track the issue, NOAA developed the Sargassum Inundation Risk (SIR) tool, which provides daily reports on sargassum location and inundation risk for coastal areas across the Caribbean, Florida, the Gulf of America and northern South America.

According to the SIR tracker, Northeast Florida is currently in the warning zone, while South and Central Florida are experiencing even higher concentrations along their coastlines.

The intersection is just about 30 feet long and over the past six years, there have been 21 crashes there.

The most recent happened this month and involved a motorcyclist who nearly died.

A Pine Lakes resident named Ashley reached out to News4JAX asking for help after she said she contacted the Florida Department of Transportation to request a traffic light because she believes the intersection is dangerous and she’s worried a fatal crash could happen.

She said FDOT responded and indicated their study does recommend installing a traffic signal to improve safety, but funding is not yet available.

Residents who live nearby say drivers frequently exceed the posted speed limit.

“They say it’s 50 miles an hour,” said Wendy Triviets. “I can guarantee you on any given day or time they are going by here 60 plus.”

Another resident said visibility is limited when trying to turn out of the neighborhood.

“There’s a blind spot right there because of the turning lane into the neighborhood,” said Alethea Preston. “You can’t see around the car so you don’t know when you can turn out. That I think has caused most of the accidents.”

The resident said the situation creates constant stress.

“I don’t like the anxiety of just pulling out of my own neighborhood, for all these years has been just horrible,” Preston said. “I’ve thought about moving just simply because of this; we want our kids to be safe.”

When asked about the lack of funding for a traffic light, Triviets reacted with frustration.

“Really?” the resident said. “You mean it’s all about a political bullcrap?”

The resident said the community needs action.

“You could put a light up here or do something. Do something with that 50 miles an hour. Because if you look, do you think that guy’s really doing 50? No.”

Another resident said a signal would provide peace of mind for families.

“Having that safety to drive in and out without having to worry about an accident every other day,” Preston said.

Community members also said growth in the area is likely to add more traffic.

“We have a charter school coming up. Now we got more apartments up there,” said Triviets. “How many more drivers are coming out of that complex?”

News4JAX received a statement from FDOT about the intersection.

The agency said its study recommends installing a traffic signal, but funding depends on the city of Jacksonville prioritizing the potential project through the North Florida Transportation Planning Organization, also known as the TPO.

News4JAX contacted TPO.

A representative said the agency cannot select potential projects for funding on its own and needs the city of Jacksonville to identify that intersection as a priority.

That means the City Council member representing the district would need to show interest to the TPO.

The council member for the area is Reggie Gaffney Jr.

Gaffney has confirmed he will do an interview with News4JAX about the issue, but we are still finalizing the date and time.

Netanyahu's warning came as Hezbollah has been firing fiber optic drones — a weapon used widely in the war in Ukraine — at Israeli forces in southern Lebanon and northern Israel in recent weeks.

“We will hit them. It’s true that they are shooting drones at us, fiber optic drones. We have a special team working on that and we will solve that too,” Netanyahu said in a video posted on social media. “What this requires of us now is to increase the blows, to increase the intensity. We will smite them hip and thigh.”

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said that after Netanyahu's post, some residents started leaving Beirut’s southern suburbs where Hezbollah has large presence. The agency also said several airstrikes hit the eastern town of Mashghara in the Bekaa region on Monday night.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah said that it carried out eight attacks earlier in the day, including a drone attack on Israeli troops in Misgav Am in northern Israel.

The daily attacks between Israel and Hezbollah have been ongoing despite a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in place since April 17.

A U.S. State Department official said earlier on Monday that Hezbollah has ignored repeated requests to stop firing at Israel, including a recent ultimatum. The official, who was not authorized to talk to the media and therefore spoke on condition of anonymity, added that Israel will never be expected to passively absorb attacks on its forces and civilians.

Since the ceasefire went into effect, Hezbollah has fired over a thousand drones and over 700 rockets to try and derail ongoing negotiations between Lebanon and Israel, the official said, adding that “the status quo is untenable.”

Last month, Lebanon and Israel began their first direct talks in more than three decades with meetings held in Washington. Lebanese and Israeli military officials are to meet again on Friday, at the Pentagon, to discuss the ceasefire. Israel and the United States are seeking to have Hezbollah disarmed.

The State Department official said the direct Lebanon-Israel talks and the implication that Lebanon stands to get significant support from the U.S. is a threat to the Iran-backed Hezbollah, along with a challenge to its narrative of resistance against Israel.

“A successful ceasefire led by the government of Lebanon would strip Hezbollah of their power and their narrative,” the official said.

Earlier Monday, an Israeli airstrike on the southern village of Kfar Rumman killed four people and wounded three, the Lebanese NNA reported. It said Israeli drone strikes on other parts in the south — including one on a road near the municipality of Kfar Rumman — killed three people.

The Israel military said that throughout the day, it struck more than 70 Hezbollah infrastructure sites.

The latest Israel-Hezbollah war began on March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel, two days after the U.S. and Israel began their attacks on Iran.

More than 3,000 people have been killed in Lebanon in the latest fighting, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. Also, 22 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 Netanyahu’s office.

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Lee reported from New Delhi. Associated Press journalists Isaac Scharf in Jerusalem and Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel contributed to this report.

The tournament opens Friday with 16 double-elimination regionals. Winners advance to eight best-of-three super regionals. Those winners move on to the College World Series in Omaha beginning June 12.

"The committee believed this year's championship field was deep and very balanced from top to bottom," said NCAA selection committee chairman Michael Alford, the athletic director at Florida State. “Throughout the process we remained focused on applying the selection principles pretty consistently across all conferences and regions and I hope that is noticed. Every decision was based on a full body of work, not just single metrics."

UCLA (51-6), which swept the Big Ten Conference regular-season and tournament titles, was No. 1 by Baseball America in each of its weekly rankings since the preseason and has the most wins entering regionals since Tennessee came in with 53 in 2022.

The Bruins' ace, Logan Reddeman, and closer, Ethan Hawk, are among the best in the nation and lead a staff that has a 3.31 ERA. Shortstop Roch Cholowsky is widely projected to be the No. 1 pick in the Major League Baseball amateur draft and he, Will Gasparino and Big Ten Tournament MVP Mulivai Levu have combined for 57 homers.

Georgia Tech (48-9), which swept the Atlantic Coast Conference championships, features the nation's most prodigious offense. The Yellow Jackets lead Division I in scoring (10.8 runs per game), batting average (.358) and slugging (.636). Jarren Advincula is batting .431 to rank second nationally and Vahn Lackey is sixth at .410.

The national seeds following UCLA and Georgia Tech are Georgia (46-12), Auburn (38-19), North Carolina (45-11-1), Texas (40-13), Alabama (37-19) and Florida (39-19). Top-eight national seeds, if they win their regional, are assured of hosting a super regional.

Seeds Nos. 9 through 16: Southern Mississippi (44-15), Florida State (38-17), Oregon (40-16), Texas A&M (39-14), Nebraska (42-15), Mississippi State (40-17), Kansas (42-16) and West Virginia (39-14).

The Southeastern Conference had the most teams selected, with 12. The ACC has nine teams in the field, followed by the Big 12 with six, Sun Belt with five and Big Ten with four.

The last four teams to get at-large bids were Liberty (41-19), Kentucky (31-21), Texas State (36-24) and Troy (32-29).

The first four teams left out were Mercer (44-15), Michigan (34-24), Pittsburgh (33-24) and TCU (33-21).

LSU (30-28), the 2025 national champion, became the seventh program to win the title and not make a regional the following year since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1999.

Been there, done that

Texas is in the tournament for a record 65th time and Miami for a 51st. Florida State is a regional host for a record 38th time.

Florida has the longest active streak with 18 straight appearances. Other notable consecutive streaks include Oklahoma State (13), Southern Mississippi (10), Arkansas (9) and East Carolina, North Carolina and Oregon State (8).

Vanderbilt (33-25) is missing regionals after making 19 straight appearances.

First timer

Western Athletic Conference champion Tarleton State is the only first-time participant. The Texans began their transition to Division I in 2021 and weren't eligible for the tournament when they won the WAC in 2024. Their most recent postseason appearance was in the 2018 Division II tournament.

Losing, but winning

South Dakota State takes a 24-31 record into its second regional, and first since 2013, after winning the four-team Summit League Tournament as the No. 4 seed.

Holy Cross is 25-28 after winning the Patriot League Tournament and has its first back-to-back regional appearances since 1962-63.

Horizon League champion Milwaukee is 25-31 entering its first regional in 16 years.

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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

James Mulvey, 47, who has taught at the school since October 2016, was taken into custody by JSO. He briefly resigned for personal reasons in June 2022 before being rehired by the district in October 2022.

School Principal Mike Townsend notified families of the arrest with the following message:

This is Principal Townsend. I regret having to end the week with difficult news, but I want to inform you of a serious situation involving one of our staff members.

This individual, James Mulvey, was arrested this morning on multiple charges, including Authority Figure Solicits or Engages in a Romantic Relationship with a Student. While the presumption of innocence applies, the allegations are deeply concerning.

In addition to these criminal charges, the individual is also the subject of an internal human resources investigation. He has been removed from the school and reassigned to a role without student contact while both internal and external investigations are ongoing.

I understand that this information is upsetting, but I believe it is important to keep our families informed. Please know that the safety and well-being of our students remain our highest priority. We also want to be clear that any individual who violates the trust placed in them to protect and support students will be held accountable.

Thank you for taking the time to listen to this message. I appreciate your partnership and support. Goodbye.

After the message was sent to families, Duval County Public Schools said the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office confirmed the exact charge was “offenses against students by authority figures.”

The circumstances leading up to the arrest are unclear.

“While the presumption of innocence applies, the allegations are deeply concerning,” Townsend said in the message to families.

In addition to the criminal charges, Mulvey is the subject of an internal Professional Standards investigation. The school did not provide details as to why he’s under investigation.

He has been reassigned to a position outside the school and will have no contact with students while both investigations are ongoing.

Townsend addressed the seriousness of the situation directly with families in his message.

“We also want to be clear that any individual who violates the trust placed in them to protect and support students will be held accountable,” he said.

The district emphasized that student safety remains its highest priority.

According to jail records, Mulvey bonded out of jail on Saturday.

We’ve reached out to JSO to learn more about the arrest.

Russia and ally Belarus held joint nuclear drills last week, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned in recent days that Belarus could provide a launchpad for Russia to open a new front in northern Ukraine. Some Russian troops entered Ukraine from Belarusian territory in Moscow's invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.

In a further sign of concern, French President Emmanuel Macron spoke by phone with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Sunday about the war in Ukraine, their first call since the invasion began.

Russia warns of more 'systemic strikes'

Further “systemic strikes” on Kyiv are in store, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Monday. It urged foreign citizens, including members of diplomatic missions, to leave the city as quickly as possible and told residents to stay away from military and government facilities.

The ministry said Friday’s deadly Ukrainian drone strike on a college dormitory in Starobilsk was “the final straw.” Ukraine said it hit only targets supporting Russia’s invasion.

The Russian army is locked in a hard and costly slog on the 1,250-kilometer (780-mile) front line that mostly snakes through eastern and southern Ukraine.

“Russia hit a dead-end on the battlefield, so it terrorizes Ukraine with deliberate strikes on city centers,” Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, said on X, after the weekend barrage that killed two people and damaged buildings across the Ukrainian capital.

With U.S.-made air defense missiles in short supply because of the Iran war, Russian missiles are harder for Ukraine to stop. Meanwhile, U.S. efforts to stop the fighting have stalled.

Countries keep a wary eye on Belarus

In his call with Lukashenko, Macron “underscored the risks for Belarus of allowing itself to be dragged into Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine,” according to a presidential aide in the French leader’s office who spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with the presidential palace’s practices. Macron also spoke Sunday with Zelenskyy.

A terse readout released by the Belarusian presidential press service said the call with Macron took place “on the French side’s initiative” and the leaders discussed “regional issues” and Belarusian relations with the EU and France.

Belarusian opposition leader Tsikhanouskaya on her first visit to Kyiv, told The Associated Press on Sunday that “Lukashenko’s regime knows well what needs to be done to improve ties with the European Union, but it isn’t happening. Instead, hybrid attacks, nuclear blackmail and threats to the entire region.

Speaking after meeting with Ukrainian officials in Kyiv, Tsikhanouskaya said that “Ukraine is defending not only its independence but also the right of our peoples to live without imperial dictatorship, without violence and fear.”

"I am convinced that Ukraine’s victory will open the way to Belarus’s freedom,” she told a news conference.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, who appeared alongside Tsikhanouskaya, emphasized that “Ukraine consistently differentiates between the regime that has dragged Belarus into Russian aggression and the Belarusian people," adding that "we appreciate the contribution of Belarusian volunteers, journalists, human rights advocates and activists who are fighting for freedom, both ours and yours.”

Lukashenko, who has governed his country of some 9.5 million people with an iron fist for more than three decades, relies on the Kremlin for cheap energy, loans and other support. Western countries have repeatedly slapped sanctions on Belarus, including for its crackdown on human rights and for allowing Moscow to use its territory to invade Ukraine.

More recently, Lukashenko has been trying to improve ties with the West. Since U.S. President Donald Trump returned to the White House, Lukashenko has released hundreds of political prisoners as part of deals that lifted some U.S. sanctions.

Russia fires hypersonic missile at Ukraine

Sunday’s bombardment included Russia’s powerful hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile, which can carry multiple warheads. Russian President Vladimir Putin has boasted it can travel up to 10 times the speed of sound and evade air defense systems.

Zelenskyy said Ukrainian intelligence services had received tipoffs from the United States and European countries that Russia was preparing to launch an Oreshnik.

In addition to the two deaths, at least 91 people were wounded in Sunday's barrage, according to Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the Kyiv City Administration.

Shattered glass littered sidewalks on Monday after Ukrainian authorities said the assault damaged buildings across the city, including near government offices, residential buildings, schools and a market.

Sybiha, Ukraine's foreign minister, led ambassadors from more than 70 countries on a visit to the sites of the strikes. He urged the international community to step up pressure on Moscow and ensure Ukraine gets more air defense assets.

In other developments:

Russia’s Federal Security Service said divers found magnetic mines attached to the hull of a liquefied petroleum gas tanker in the Russian Baltic port of Ust-Luga. The tanker Arrhenius was bound for Samsun, Turkey, it said, adding that the limpet mines were made in a NATO member country. Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment.

Meanwhile, a Russian missile hit a business in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Derhachi, killing two people and wounding 19 others Monday, Kharkiv regional administration head Oleh Syniehubov said. Seventeen people were hospitalized.

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Associated Press writer John Leicester in Paris contributed to this report.

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

After gulping the traditional swig of milk and dumping the rest over his head Sunday, the winner of the closest race in Indy 500 history started making the winner's rounds. He spent two hours answering questions in his fire suit before heading to another photo shoot. Then there was a short celebratory night before hitting the early morning television shows, enduring additional photo shoots and, yes, Monday night's annual postrace dinner where he'll find out how much money he won.

Never mind that there's another race next weekend in Detroit.

But the 34-year-old Swede who endured so much heartbreak at Indianapolis and in IndyCars wasn't about to start complaining. No, he was too busy savoring the spoils of victory.

“I can sit here for 24 hours and do this, whatever you want,” Rosenqvist said with a smile. “It's funny, someone asked me to sign their beer bottle a minute ago and writing Indy 500 winner was like, it kind of struck me that I've done it. I still feel like it's a dream. I feel like I could wake up at any point and it's like, ‘Oh, it’s race day, we haven't run yet.' I still hope I don't wake up.”

Rosenqvist probably didn't get much shut-eye Sunday night and not just because his newborn daughter, Stella, is less than a month old.

This was the moment Rosenqvist's family dreamt about from the moment it started scraping together money for his karting career.

While he barely remembers the effervescent, guitar-playing Kenny Brack becoming the first Swede to win “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” back in 1999, he does remember his father telling him how great Brack was and how great a victory it was for the country.

Twenty-three years later, Marcus Ericsson replicated Brack's feat on Indianapolis Motor Speedway's 2.5-mile oval. Ericsson celebrated his 500 win by taking the iconic Borg-Warner Trophy on tour across his home country, which has a population of less than 11 million.

The Meyer Shank Racing driver isn't sure if that will be in the plans this time, but he was grateful for Ericsson welcoming him to the club.

“I'm pretty proud to be one of three Swedish (winners), which is a pretty small nation in the grand scheme of things, to have won the biggest race in the world,” he said. “(Marcus) came up to me when we were drinking the milk in victory circle and he said I earned it, that I deserved it. That meant a lot to me.”

Rosenqvist certainly earned his place in history with his unforgettably daring move — hurtling down the front straightaway behind David Malukas on the final lap, making a perfectly timed swing outside, catching a tow and edging his car across the yard of bricks, barely ahead of Malukas.

The victory margin of 0.0233 seconds was even smaller than Al Unser Jr.'s 0.043-second victory over Scott Goodyear in 1992, and even in the moment, Rosenqvist understood the significance of what happened.

“I thought I was second, to be honest. I was like, this is — this sucks, now we’re second in the 500,” said Rosenqvist, who made his fifth straight start in the top nine and placed fourth twice in the previous four years. “I thought I didn’t have it, and then I shifted up, and it was just kind of sucking up to David, and it was just enough to get me over the finish line, half a foot ahead of him. You can’t even dream up that stuff. It was just so cool. I’ll watch it a million times.”

But before Rosenqvist became a winner here, he was there in the shoes of Malukas and Pato O'Ward — two-time Indy runner-ups who have been unable to bask in their own milk bath. Rosenqvist's advice: Never give up.

“That's what I've done,” he said. “If you're knocking on the door, it will happen.”

This year, it did thanks in part to this first-time father understanding that there's more to life than racing. His wife, Emille, and his new daughter helped him learn that lesson heading into the biggest race of the IndyCar season, and one day, when old enough, Stella will see her father's image on the trophy and understand what he did and how she helped.

And, to Rosenqvist, that will be the sweetest victory of all.

“It's funny because if you go to our house, we don't have any pictures of racing, you wouldn't know I'm a race car driver because I tried to separate work and home,” he said. “But I think, yeah, this kind of changes that. I hope she'll be proud of it, and for her to be our little lucky charm for the rest of her life.”

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

A nearby traffic camera showed multiple vehicles in the median.

According to the Florida Highway Patrol, there were injuries involved.

As of 1:25 p.m., the left lane was blocked.

The roadway was cleared and back open an hour later.

Lapid, who is part of an alliance attempting to unseat Netanyahu in elections this year, said details of the emerging deal are “disturbing.”

“The deal is bad for Israel, bad for the region, bad for the citizens of Iran,” Lapid told reporters in Jerusalem.

Israel and the U.S. launched the war on Feb. 28 vowing to destroy Iran’s ballistic missile program, end its support for proxy militant groups across the region and end Iran’s ability to pursue a nuclear bomb. Both Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump also said they hoped to create conditions to topple Iran’s government.

According to regional officials, under the current deal being discussed Iran would give up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium and reopen the strategic Strait of Hormuz in exchange for ending a U.S. blockade of Iranian ports and the lifting of sanctions against Iran. Key details on Iran’s nuclear program would then be negotiated during a 60-day period. It is unclear if the deal will address Iran’s missiles or support for regional militant groups.

Lapid expressed gratitude to Trump for launching the war with Israel, but criticized Netanyahu for allowing Washington to negotiate a potential deal with little coordination with Israel.

“The Israeli government is at an all-time low in its ability to influence decisions in Washington,” he said, noting that Trump said last week: “Netanyahu will do whatever I want him to do.”

Netanyahu has repeatedly stressed to Trump that Israel maintains “freedom of action” against threats in any arena, according to an official familiar with Israel prime minister's conversations with Trump, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

“Israel is a sovereign state, we are not a vassal state and we are not a protectorate,” Lapid said.

Lapid, head of the centrist “Yesh Atid” party, briefly served as prime minister in 2022 under a rotation agreement with Naftali Bennett, leader of a small conservative party. Their coalition government ended 12 years of Netanyahu’s rule.

They have once again merged their parties into a single faction headed by Bennett as they attempt to unseat Netanyahu in elections that will be held by the end of October.

Lapid has served as Israel’s opposition leader since Netanyahu returned to power in late 2022, while Bennett took a break from politics. Their alliance is aimed at uniting a fragmented opposition with a shared hostility toward Netanyahu.

Lapid, one of a shrinking number of Israeli politicians who supports the idea of Palestinian independence, said the issue would not be on the next government’s agenda. He said the conditions are not right following the trauma of the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, and wars that have followed.

“There will be no two-state solution in the coming years, because Israelis now understand this will become just another failing terrorist state on our borders,” said Lapid, adding that the Palestinian Authority does not have the ability to effectively prevent attacks against Israel.

But Lapid said he would oppose unilateral steps that would make a future Palestinian state impossible and had received assurances from Bennett, a former West Bank settlement leader, that Israel will not move toward annexing the occupied territory.

Lapid also ruled out cooperation with Arab parties to build a coalition to unseat Netanyahu.

Opinion polls indicate that Bennett and Lapid might not be able to form a governing majority coalition without the support of some Arab lawmakers, as they did in their previous government. They broke a longstanding taboo in 2021 when they invited Mansour Abbas, leader of a small Arab faction, into Israel’s governing coalition for the first and only time in Israel’s history.

Lapid said his previous cooperation with Abbas was “the right government for the moment,” but that Israel is in a very different place after nearly three years of wars and that he and Bennett will not build a coalition with Abbas’ party in the next elections.

For a team with three full-time Cup drivers and only 175 employees, that's saying something.

But that doesn't mean the team is satisfied.

“Yes, we’re seeing results. Yes, we are being competitive," Suarez said. “But we’re not even close to our full potential.”

Suarez, the first Mexican-born driver to win the Coca-Cola 600, said when he arrived at Spire last October that it didn't take long to recognize just how hard everyone worked, which he said is a credit to team owner Jeff Dickerson and crew chief Ryan Sparks.

The organization's structure, he said, is well organized.

“When you have a good foundation, the house is going to be strong," Suarez said. "Spire Motorsports has an amazing foundation.”

Spire has long been considered a small Cup Series team, and any wins it has had were largely considered upsets or one-offs.

That notion may be changing under Dickerson, who admits he can be difficult to deal with on race day but refuses to apologize for setting the bar high.

“I just don’t think we’ve hit our ceiling," Dickerson said. "I don’t think we’re hitting on all cylinders. I think we’ve still got a long ways to go to.”

Carson Hocevar won earlier this season at Talladega, giving Spire its first win and the entire organization a shot in the arm. There was a sudden realization it could compete with bigger race teams like Joe Gibbs Racing, Team Penske, RFK Racing, 23XI Racing and Hendrick.

Suarez's win at a crown jewel event like the Coca-Cola 600 was another huge step in the right direction.

Dickerson said the goal this season is simple: Put two cars in the playoffs and win three races.

Things are looking good right now.

With 24 races left, Hocevar is ninth in the Cup Series points standings, while Suarez moved up to 10th after his third career win and first since joining Spire. The top 16 drivers in points qualify for the Chase.

“Still a long ways to go,” Dickerson said. “I don’t want to fumble it. But, man, it would be good to meet those goals.”

Sparks was the unsung hero Sunday night.

With rain on the radar, he trusted his instincts and made the call to pit and go with two new tires late in the race. It paid off big time.

Suarez was able to go from the middle of the pack to the top spot.

Shortly after the race was red-flagged for lightning, it looked like the move might backfire on Sparks after cars were sent back on the track.

But Suarez held off JGR's Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin — who had dominated most of the race, along with pole sitter Tylor Reddick — on two restarts to stay out front.

On the final restart, Suarez exploded off the line with a little push from behind from Hendrick's Kyle Larson. From there he blocked Bell and Hamlin as the JGR teammates frantically tried to pass. Just when it appeared they might catch Suarez, the sky opened up and rain poured down on the mile-and-a-half track.

With the scheduled 400-lap race already more than four hours old and the clock approaching midnight, NASCAR quickly called the race with 27 laps, declaring Suarez the winner.

He later honored his mentor, the late Kyle Busch, by imitating the NASCAR great's postrace bow in victory lane.

Suarez led only 17 laps, several of those coming with the race under caution.

“Something in the back of my mind told me to just go ahead and put two (tires) on,” Sparks said. “I kind of looked and saw what everybody had for tires on in front of me, and I figured there was going to be a good opportunity for us to be first or second. Just wanted to get that clean air and give ourselves an opportunity."

With two-thirds of the season remaining, Spire has plenty of time to build on its early success and have a record-setting season.

And continue to shock the big race teams.

“I’m just extremely happy to be part of Spire Motorsports because I believe that we haven’t even seen the full potential of this organization,” Saurez added. “And I can’t wait to continue this journey.”

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

The Dream have twice rallied from 15-point deficits this season to win, including Sunday's victory over Phoenix. No one else in the WNBA has done that once according to ESPN.

“We are resilient team, the game isn’t over till it’s over,” Atlanta guard Jordin Canada said after the Dream rallied to beat the Mercury. “We always come together in the fourth quarter, whether we have to make a run or sustain a lead. ... We battle to the very end, we get stops and try to execute down the stretch. What we’ve been doing in the fourth quarter, we got to sustain that in the first three quarters.”

Atlanta sits atop the WNBA standings at 4-1 — the only team in the league with only one loss. The Dream head out for road games at Minnesota and Portland this week.

The Dream are getting everyone's best shot so far which coach Karl Smesko feels will help them down the road.

“When teams play Atlanta it's a big game for everyone now,” he said. “We'll see everyone's best shot. ... Constantly playing against a team's best effort makes you stronger over the course of the season. They are seeing a different team than other teams see. I've noticed that so far this year. ... Happy we met the moment a few times already."

Power poll rankings

Atlanta moved up to No. 1 for the first time in the 10-year history of the rankings. The Dream were followed by Las Vegas and Minnesota. Indiana, Dallas and New York were next. Golden State and Chicago were seventh and eighth. Los Angeles and Phoenix followed the Sky. Portland, Washington and Toronto were the 11th through 13. Seattle and Connecticut rounded out the poll.

Homecourt disadvantage

Through the first few weeks of the season, playing at home hasn't really been an advantage for teams. Only two teams have winning records on their home court — Atlanta and Indiana. As a league, teams are 16-30 through Sunday's games.

Player of the week

Kelsey Plum of Los Angeles was the AP player of the week. She averaged 27.0 points, 8.0 assists and 2.5 rebounds to help the Sparks win both their games last week. Plum had a 38-point effort in the win at Las Vegas to spoil the Aces night the champions raised their banner from last season. Other players receiving votes included Natasha Howard of Minnesota and Rhyne Howard of Atlanta.

Game of the week

Atlanta at Minnesota, Wednesday. While a lot was expected of the Dream this season, the Lynx were expected to struggle early on with star Napheesa Collier sidelined after having offseason surgery on her injured ankles in late March. The Lynx have flourished with rookie guard Olivia Miles leading the way.

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

Past popes have apologized for Christians’ involvement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. But no pope had ever publicly acknowledged, much less apologized for, the role that past popes played in giving European sovereigns explicit authority to subjugate and enslave “infidels.”

History’s first U.S.-born pope, whose family history includes both enslaved people and slave owners, delivered the apology in his first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas,” (Magnificent Humanity), which was released Monday.

The sweeping manifesto is about safeguarding humanity in an era of increasing reliance on artificial intelligence. Leo raised the slave trade in relation to what he called the new forms of slavery and colonialism that the digital revolution is fueling.

Black American Catholics, activists and scholars have long called for the Holy See to atone for its role in the colonial-era trade in human beings, beyond generic apologies for the involvement of individual Christians.

“It is impossible not to feel deep sorrow when contemplating the immense suffering and humiliation endured by so many in stark contrast to their immeasurable dignity as persons infinitely loved by the Lord,” Leo wrote. “For this, in the name of the church, I sincerely ask for pardon.”

Shannen Dee Williams, historian at the University of Dayton and author of the 2022 history of American Black Catholic nuns, “Subversive Habits,” welcomed the apology as a "monumental step toward the kind of essential truth-telling and reparation that many Catholics have prayed and worked to witness.”

“The Catholic Church has never been an innocent bystander in the history of white supremacy," said Williams. “Black Catholics have waited a long time to hear the Vatican speak honestly about the church’s leading roles in the trans-Atlantic slave trade and chattel slavery--and thus by extension the enduring systems of anti-Black racism in the world today.”

Centuries of legitimizing slavery for European colonizers

The Vatican has insisted that it always upheld the dignity of all human beings as children of God. But a series of 15th-century directives from the Vatican authorized Portuguese sovereigns to conquer Africa and the Americas and enslave non-Christians.

In 1452, for example, Pope Nicholas V issued the papal bull Dum Diversas, which gave the Portuguese king and his successors the right “to invade, conquer, fight and subjugate” and take all possessions — including land — of “Saracens, and pagans, and other infidels, and enemies of the name of Christ” anywhere.

The bull also gave the Portuguese permission “to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery.”

That bull and another issued three years later, Romanus Pontifex, formed the basis of the Doctrine of Discovery, the theory that legitimized the colonial-era seizure of land in Africa and the Americas.

Nicholas V’s permissions to the Portuguese were confirmed or renewed by Pope Callixtus III in 1456, Pope Sixtus IV in 1481 and Pope Leo X in 1514, according to the Rev. Christopher J. Kellerman, a Jesuit priest and author of “All Oppression Shall Cease: A History of Slavery, Abolitionism, and the Catholic Church.”

Spanish kings received the rights for the Americas.

In 2023, the Vatican formally repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery, but it never formally rescinded, abrogated or rejected the bulls themselves. The Vatican insists that a later bull, Sublimis Deus in 1537, reaffirmed that Indigenous peoples shouldn’t be deprived of their liberty or the possession of their property, and weren't to be enslaved.

Holy See late to condemn slavery, Leo says

In his encyclical, Leo recalled that his namesake, Pope Leo XIII, was the first pope to explicitly condemn slavery in 1888, long after many countries had abolished it. Before that, in antiquity and the Middle Ages, church institutions and even popes — Gregory the Great — had slaves, Kellerman said.

In acknowledging the 15th century papal bulls, Leo wrote in his encyclical: “Already in the early modern period, the Apostolic See of Rome, responding to the requests of sovereigns, intervened several times in order to regulate and legitimize forms of subjugation, and, in certain cases, including the enslavement of ‘infidels.’”

Leo said it wasn't possible to judge the morality of the decisions with today’s standards.

“Yet neither can we deny or diminish the delay with which both society and the church came to denounce the scourge of slavery,” he said.

The pope said that the church has long affirmed the dignity of every human being as the basis of its doctrine, “even if it took eighteen centuries for its full incompatibility with slavery to be explicitly recognized.”

“This constitutes a wound in Christian memory, one from which we cannot consider ourselves detached,” he said.

Leo said that the church must firmly condemn all forms of trafficking related to the digital technological revolution “if we want to avoid the need to ask for pardon again in the future for having failed to respect the treasure of human dignity that is required by our faith.”

Anthea Butler, senior fellow at the Koch History Center, Oxford University, said Leo needed to acknowledge and atone for the church's complicity in historic slavery if he wanted to credibly “speak to the current issues of technological enslavement.”

“For descendants of enslaved persons, this is once again a much needed apology from the pope,” said Butler, who is Black.

Leo’s own family history and past apologies

Kellerman, the scholar, welcomed Leo’s apology but said more needs to be done to further acknowledge how the Catholic Church legitimized and expanded slavery.

“Pope Leo has strengthened the moral credibility of the church with this admission and apology today,” he told The Associated Press. “Hopefully a future document will explain in more detail the church’s involvement with slaveholding. As a scholar I have some quibbles with the wording, but this is a truly remarkable moment.”

During a 1985 visit to Cameroon, St. John Paul II asked forgiveness of Africans for the slave trade on behalf of Christians who participated in it, but not the popes. In a 1992 visit to Goree Island, Senegal, which was the largest slave-trading center in West Africa, he denounced the injustice of slavery and called it a “tragedy of a civilization that called itself Christian.”

According to genealogical research published by Henry Louis Gates Jr., 17 of Leo’s American ancestors were Black, listed in census records as mulatto, Black, Creole or a free person of color. His family tree includes slaveholders and enslaved people, Gates wrote in The New York Times.

During a visit to Angola last month, Leo prayed at a Catholic shrine at the site of an important hub of the African slave trade during Portugal’s colonial rule. While at the Sanctuary of Mama Muxima, Leo recalled the “sorrow and great suffering” Angolans endured for centuries, but he didn’t refer specifically to slavery.

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Winfield reported from Middletown, Connecticut.

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

Peter Murrell, 61, who was remanded into custody in the High Court in Edinburgh after his plea, admitted using party funds to buy a high-priced motorhome, two cars, including a Jaguar, and luxury goods, including Bremont watches and household items that included two toilet seats.

“By embezzling from the SNP, Peter Murrell was stealing the hopes, the dreams and the aspirations of thousands of people all over Scotland, people who gave what they could over many years in the hope that it would help contribute to a better country,” SNP leader John Swinney told a press conference. “I am horrified, I am betrayed.”

Swinney and Sturgeon both distanced themselves from the taint of Murrell's crimes and said they had been unaware of the theft.

Murrell's plea caps a five-year police investigation and a tumultuous period for Scotland's dominant party and the former power couple once at its helm.

Following big elections gains for the SNP in 2021, signs of internal turmoil exploded less than two years later as questions swirled about the party’s finances and dwindling membership numbers.

Sturgeon, who dominated Scottish politics for almost a decade, abruptly resigned as first minister of Scotland’s semi-autonomous government in February 2023 after serving more than eight years in the role. Observers were bewildered by her announcement that she knew in her “head and in my heart” that it was the right time to go.

The following month, Murrell quit his job after two decades as party executive. He took responsibility for misleading the news media about the collapsing membership of the party. Three weeks later he was arrested by police at the couple's home in Glasgow.

Case casts a cloud over SNP

Police officers spent two days searching the house. They also searched SNP headquarters in Edinburgh and confiscated a luxury motorhome parked in the driveway at Murrell’s mother's home north of the capital.

Assistant Chief Constable Stuart Houston said the investigation, which cost 2 million pounds ($2.7 million) in public funds, was lengthy and complex because Murrell covered his tracks over a 12-year period by making false entries in the SNP’s accounts.

“Peter Murrell has shown utter contempt for the high public trust placed in him,” Houston said. “He abused his privileged position with access to Scottish National Party funds to divert cash into his own accounts and bankroll the lavish lifestyle he craved but could not afford.”

Sentencing was scheduled for June 23.

Police Scotland's investigation into how the SNP spent more than 600,000 pounds ($810,000) designated for a Scottish independence campaign cast a cloud over the party, Sturgeon and her legacy.

Sturgeon and former party treasurer Colin Beattie were also arrested and questioned. Sturgeon said at the time: “I know beyond doubt that I am, in fact, innocent of any wrongdoing.”

Police announced in March 2025 that Sturgeon and Beattie were cleared.

Sturgeon said Monday that she never had knowledge of or suspected Murrell was siphoning funds from the party. She said she was “utterly appalled,” and “angry, hurt, sad and very distressed about the impact of his actions on family, friends and the SNP.”

“To be deceived and let down by a husband I loved and trusted has caused me acute pain,” Sturgeon said on Instagram. “Why he acted as he did is, and always will be, beyond my comprehension.”

When the lists of some of the items Murrell was alleged to have purchased were later published, including an expensive coffee maker and DVDS of the Danish political drama “Borgen” — which Sturgeon had told reporters she liked — she issued a statement saying she was unaware that the goods had been bought with party funds.

‘Close ranks and shut down scrutiny’

Sturgeon led her party to dominance in Scottish politics and refashioned the SNP from a largely one-issue party into a dominant governing force with liberal social positions. She guided her party during three U.K.-wide elections and two Scottish elections, and led Scotland through the coronavirus pandemic, winning praise for her clear, measured communication style.

But Sturgeon left office amid divisions in the SNP without meeting her main goal — independence from the United Kingdom for the nation of 5.5 million people.

Sturgeon announced last year that she and Murrell were divorcing after about 15 years of marriage.

Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said it was “inconceivable” Sturgeon knew nothing about what her husband was doing as she called on Swinney, the first minister, to explain what the party knew about the crime.

“It was Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP party machine that attempted to close ranks and shut down scrutiny when questions about the finances started to emerge, and we need to know why,” Baillie said.

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Murrell's age has been corrected in this story to 61, not 62.

There are many resources out there, including these top five building blocks from the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM):

1. Sign up for county and state alerts
2. 1. 1. See below for a list of links to sign up for your county emergency management direct alerts.
      2. Most counties also have Facebook pages for emergency messages.
3. Find a shelter
4. 1. 1. Stay with a family member or friend who isn’t in a flood-prone area.
      2. Know which county-provided shelter will accommodate your family, such as special needs, elderly assistance and pets.
5. Know your flood zone risk and evacuation route/s
6. 1. 1. Determine if you’ll need sandbags and window protection.
      2. Drive the best route and note construction and other road hazards.
7. Know what supplies, medicines, etc., your family and pets will need should you have to evacuate
8. Communicate your plan with your family and friends

Links to county alert websites & apps

Download the News4JAX & Weather Authority App: https://www.news4jax.com/insider/download-wjxt-apps/

NORTHEAST FLORIDA COUNTIES

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SOUTHEAST GEORGIA COUNTIES

• Brantley - https://brantleycounty-ga.gov/alerts
• Camden - https://member.everbridge.net/88684095340653/login
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• Clinch - https://clinchcountyga.gov/uploads/1/2/7/1/127184196/ema_-_hyper-reach_sign-up_info-english.pdf
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Hun Sen, the Senate president acting as head of state in the absence of King Norodom Sihamoni, issued the pardon freeing Kem Sokha from house arrest. Sihamoni is in China on an extended stay for medical treatment.

Prime Minister Hun Manet, in a statement posted on the Telegram social media platform, described the pardon as a step in strengthening national unity. Kem Sokha made no immediate public comment. His lawyers said the action did not lift a ban on him taking part in politics or leaving the country for five years after his sentence was over.

The decision is unlikely to greatly affect the political climate in Cambodia, with other opposition figures in exile and where political and social activists continue to face restrictions on freedom of speech and movement.

“Hun Sen’s decision to pardon Kem Sokha after more than eight years in arbitrary detention partially reverses a grievous injustice, but it is deplorable that Sokha remains barred from participating in politics or leaving the country,” Elaine Pearson, the regional director for Human Rights Watch, said a statement.

She added: “Cambodia’s remaining opposition politicians and parties are still under constant threat of arbitrary arrest and baseless restrictions. The government needs to ensure that political rights are respected in the country.”

Kem Sokha was convicted in 2023 following a long period of pretrial detention. He was accused of conspiring with the United States to topple the Cambodian government. He has consistently denied the charge.

The primary evidence against him was a video of him discussing political advice from U.S.-based pro-democracy groups. He told the appeals court last month that he had never conspired with any foreign country to cost the lives of Cambodian citizens or the loss of national territory.

His arrest in 2017 marked the start of a broad government crackdown on independent media and political opponents, notably Kem Sokha’s popular Cambodia National Rescue Party.

The Supreme Court dissolved the party shortly after his 2017 arrest. That allowed Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party to sweep all parliamentary seats in the 2018 elections.

Hun Sen was prime minister when Kem Sokha was arrested and convicted. In 2023, Hun Sen became Senate president and his son, Hun Manet, succeeded him as prime minister.

Hun Sen, who served 38 years as Cambodia’s leader, has long been accused of using the judicial system to persecute critics and political opponents. While the government insists it promotes the rule of law under an electoral democracy, the courts have frequently dissolved political parties seen as potential rivals and jailed or harassed their leaders.

Critics charge that the situation has not improved much under Hun Manet.

The Phnom Penh Appeals Court had affirmed Kem Sokha’s 27-year sentence at the end of April, following a much-delayed appeals process. It added a condition barring him from leaving the country for five years after his sentence was over.

Kem Sokha had visited his ailing 101-year-old mother with the court's permission earlier Monday before the pardon was announced.

He did not speak to the media, but a video posted on social media by his lawyer showed him hugging his mother and saying that if he were free, he would enter the Buddhist monkhood to honor her. He also said he would not seek revenge against those who put him in prison.

——-

Associated Press writer Grant Peck in Bangkok contributed to this report.

But detectives aren’t giving up, JSO said.

In a post on Saturday to mark the grim anniversary, JSO said investigators want to bring closure to Fields’ family members, who continue to fight for answers.

That fight is focused mainly on the community, because Fields wasn’t alone when he was killed, police said.

Today marks 4 years since 18-year-old Rashaud Fields lost his life in a shooting at a graduation party on Pine Estates Road East near Leonid Road. Despite there being many witnesses present, no one has been arrested for his murder. But, our detectives haven’t given up the search… pic.twitter.com/rlKuY2gOCk

— Jax Sheriff's Office (@JSOPIO) May 23, 2026

Many witnesses were at the May 23, 2022, graduation party, which took place just hours after Fields walked across the stage to get his Raines High School diploma.

“We know someone knows something. Say something and help bring this family justice,” JSO wrote on social media.

The post highlighted Fields’ football scholarship to Keiser University and his dream of finishing college and playing in the NFL.

“He was the life of everybody,” Janice Fields, Rashaud’s mother, said. “The principal said he was a leader. He was not a follower. He was always a leader. He loves to push the young fellas on the football team. That just was the great person that Rashaud was. He was born to be great.”

During an event to support the Fields family in April, District 10 Councilwoman Ju’Coby Pittman said the lack of answers is frustrating.

“We really don’t know if he was a target or not. We really don’t know that because no one is talking, no one wants to be a snitch, and that’s unfortunate,” Pittman said.

Janice Fields said she will not stop fighting until she gets answers about who killed her son.

RELATED: Mother of Jacksonville teen killed hours after high school graduation aims to keep his memory alive with special event | ‘Justice is coming’: More tips come in surrounding death of teen killed hours after graduation

“If you know something, say something,” she said. “You could be sitting in the same seat I’m sitting in right now. All I ask y’all to do is please, please, if y’all know something, say something — and you will remain anonymous.”

If you know anything about the 2022 murder of Rashaud Fields, please call JSO at 904-630-0500 or email JSOCrimeTips@jaxsheriff.org. You can report what you know anonymously to First Coast Crime Stoppers by calling 1-866-845-TIPS. You could earn up to $5,000 in cash if your tip results in an arrest.

Also on the ballot are primary runoffs in more than a dozen congressional districts, plus state contests for lieutenant governor, attorney general and others.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn was the top vote-getter in the March 3 primary, but strong showings by two GOP challengers forced the four-term incumbent to Tuesday’s head-to-head matchup with state Attorney General Ken Paxton, the second-place finisher who received President Donald Trump’s endorsement on May 19.

The contest is Trump’s next opportunity to purge the party of incumbents he views as insufficiently loyal to him and his agenda. It also sets the stage for a general election where Democrats are increasingly optimistic about their chances to score an upset in the heavily Republican state as they look to retake control of the U.S. Senate. Historically, voters have tended to punish the incumbent president’s party at the ballot box in midterm election years.

The winner will face Democratic state Rep. James Talarico in the general election.

Trump seemed open to endorsing Cornyn following the primary, and he did not excoriate the incumbent in his endorsement of Paxton, as he’s done recently with Republican incumbents in Indiana, Louisiana and Kentucky. But he said Cornyn “was not supportive of me when times were tough.”

Cornyn was critical of Trump ahead of the president’s 2024 campaign.

Since much of the Texas primary campaign has focused on the candidates’ loyalty to Trump, the counties where the president has the most support could play a decisive role. Although many of the counties Trump won in 2024 with 80% or more of the vote are rural and sparsely populated, collectively they made up about a fifth of the GOP primary vote. Paxton beat Cornyn in these counties, 45% to 40%, while Cornyn performed better than Paxton in the rest of the state.

In counties Trump carried with between 50% and 80% of the vote, Cornyn received about 42% of the vote, edging Paxton by a percentage point. Republican primary voters in the 12 counties Democrat Kamala Harris carried in 2024 preferred Cornyn, 44% to 40%. These counties made up 25% of the overall primary vote, larger than the share of Trump’s 80%-plus counties.

Only two incumbent U.S. senators from Texas have lost a primary in the last 100 years.

In 2025, Republicans redrew the state’s congressional districts at Trump’s urging as part of an effort to maintain control of the U.S. House.

Among the notable primary runoffs that resulted from the new congressional map, Democratic U.S. Reps. Christian Menefee and Al Green will face each other in the redrawn 18th Congressional District. In the new 33rd Congressional District, Democratic U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson faces a challenge from her predecessor, former Democratic U.S. Rep. Colin Allred.

Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:

When do polls close?

Polls close statewide at 7 p.m. local time, which is 8 p.m. ET and 9 p.m. ET. Most polls are in Central time and close at 8 p.m. ET, while polls in the westernmost part of the state are in Mountain time and close at 9 p.m. ET.

What’s on the ballot?

The AP will provide vote results and declare winners in Republican primary runoffs for U.S. Senate, U.S. House, railroad commissioner, Court of Criminal Appeals, state Senate and state House and in Democratic primary runoffs for U.S. House, lieutenant governor, attorney general, state Board of Education and state House.

Who gets to vote?

Voters who did not participate in a party primary on March 3 may vote in the runoff for either party. Voters who did cast a ballot in a party primary may only vote in the runoff of the same party as they did in the primary. In other words, Democratic primary voters may not vote in a Republican primary runoff or vice versa. Voters in the non-partisan primary may vote in either party’s runoff.

How many voters are there?

As of the March 3 primary, there were nearly 19 million registered voters in Texas.

How many people actually vote?

About 2.2 million Republican primary votes and about 2.3 million Democratic primary votes were cast in the March 3 Texas primary.

In the 2022 Republican primary for Texas Attorney General, turnout was about 1.9 million voters in the primary and about 932,000 in the primary runoff.

How much of the vote is cast early or by absentee ballot?

About 63% of the vote in the March 3 Republican primary was cast before primary day.

As of Thursday, about 621,000 Republican primary ballots and about 262,000 Democratic primary ballots had already been cast in Tuesday’s election.

When are early and absentee votes released?

Counties tend to release all or nearly all results from early and absentee voting in the first vote update of the night, before any in-person Election Day results are released.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

In the U.S. Senate primary in March, the AP first reported results at 8 p.m. ET just as polls closed in most of the state. By 11:39 p.m. ET, 75% of the vote had been counted. Vote results were released continuously until about 5:58 a.m. ET, with about 98% of the total vote counted.

When will the AP declare a winner?

The Associated Press does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

How do recounts work?

Texas requires an automatic recount only in cases of a tie vote. Losing candidates may request and pay for a recount if the margin is less than 10% of the leading candidate’s vote. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

Are we there yet?

As of Tuesday, there will be 161 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

More than 1.5 million pilgrims have arrived in Saudi Arabia from outside the country, Saleh bin Saad Al-Murabba, commander of the Hajj passport forces, said Friday. The faithful have been pouring into the country for the Hajj against the backdrop of a tenuous ceasefire in the Iran war and related regional tensions and uncertainty.

Egyptian pilgrim Samya Abdul Moneim said she was grateful to God that she made it to the Hajj, which is required once in a lifetime of every Muslim who can afford it and is physically able to make it.

“I am in a state of blessing and happiness,” she said in Mecca on Sunday. “It’s an indescribable feeling, truly. I mean, thank God, I am in a blessing.”

Typically on the first day, many pilgrims in Mecca converge on a vast tent camp in the nearby desert. Ahead of that, pilgrims have been circling the cube-shaped Kaaba in the Grand Mosque in sweltering temperatures. For pilgrims, Hajj can be a deeply moving spiritual experience and a chance to seek God’s forgiveness and the erasure of past sins. Pilgrims perform the Hajj rituals over several days.

This Hajj "is, in effect, a hard reset for me,” Youssef Chouhoud, a political scientist at Christopher Newport University in Virginia, said Monday from the tent city of Mina. “I pray that I emerge on the other side of this journey with a new sense of purpose and the discipline to see it through.”

Around him, many pilgrims were resting and refueling, he said via WhatsApp, noting how demanding the pilgrimage is.

“It is for many pilgrims the most difficult thing they will ever do in their lives,” he said. “But nothing this meaningful is ever going to be easy.”

He found it inspiring “to see so many who have sacrificed so much to be here ... only to compete with one another in giving charity and helping each other along the way," he said. “All this in the hope that their intentions and actions may be accepted by their Lord.”

Pilgrims brave intense heat

Many spend years hoping and praying to one day perform the Hajj or saving up money and waiting for a permit to embark on the trip.

As they brave the intense heat to perform religious rituals, many pilgrims have been using umbrellas for shade and carrying handheld fans. Volunteers hand out water bottles to help them stay hydrated and fans spray fine mists of water.

On Saturday, U.S. President Donald Trump said a deal with Iran on the war, including opening the Strait of Hormuz, has been “largely negotiated” after calls with Israel and other allies in the region. He described it as a “Memorandum of Understanding pertaining to PEACE” that still must be finalized by the United States, Iran and the other countries that participated in the calls. That capped a week in which the U.S. weighed a new round of attacks on Iran.

Ahead of the trip for Hajj, some have said they were leaning on their faith as they embark on the journey amid the tensions and that they were feeling immense gratitude for the opportunity to go.

Hajj brings together large numbers of Muslims of diverse races, ethnicities, languages and economic classes, creating a sense of unity for many.

Regional tensions and Hajj travel plans

With uncertainty and global concerns high, authorities in Indonesia, home to the world’s largest Muslim population, have in the run-up to the Hajj season emphasized contingency planning for the pilgrimage and issued instructions to ensure that additional travel costs not be passed on to Indonesian pilgrims.

In India, home to a large Muslim minority, pilgrimage planning has proceeded largely as normal, but high fuel prices have pushed up travel costs for pilgrims.

A reopening of the strait would begin to ease a worldwide energy crisis sparked by the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran on Feb. 28, which led Tehran to effectively close the waterway. Prices have spiked for oil, gas and several related products, jolting the world economy. The U.S. has blockaded Iranian ports for over a month, and Trump on Sunday said the blockade “will remain in full force and effect until an agreement is reached, certified, and signed.”

In response to the U.S.-Israeli attacks, Iran has launched retaliatory strikes and the conflict widened. A fragile ceasefire was reached in April.

In Saudi Arabia, pilgrims have been doing the ritual circuit around the Kaaba since arriving in Mecca over recent days. Pilgrims in Mina will camp there and pray and worship.

On Tuesday, in what is considered the pinnacle of the pilgrimage, the pilgrims will stand on the plain of Arafat, where they praise God, plead for forgiveness and make supplications. Many carry prayer requests from loved ones and raise their hands in worship with tears streaming down their faces.

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Fam reported from Winter Park, Florida. Associated Press writers Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Sheikh Saaliq in New Delhi contributed to this report.

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

Well-suited to Central and South Florida conditions, papaya is an increasingly popular choice for homeowners looking to grow fruit.

Successful trees depend on proper site selection, ample drainage, cold protection and pest awareness. These are challenges that the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) addresses in Papaya Growing in the Florida Home Landscape, the latest Ask IFAS publication, also available in Spanish.

The document goes beyond quick tips and includes a comprehensive, step-by-step guide for successfully growing papaya in a Florida yard, its origins and market.

While Florida is not a major player in papaya production, either nationally or globally, it is growing steadily as a favorite among residential property owners and growers. The Sunshine State has a niche industry. Within the United States, Hawaii dominates papaya production, which accounts for most of the domestic output.

Florida contributes a minor share, with production largely concentrated in South Florida and geared toward local or specialty markets. That is quickly changing.

There are numerous varieties of papaya. The seeds are not commonly for sale, but when available, they come in small amounts. This makes a reliable nursery the best place to find the right tree.

Here’s what readers can expect from this month’s featured Ask IFAS resource.

What exactly is a papaya plant and how does it produce fruit?

The publication explains the plant’s tropical origins and how it grows in warm climates, then walks readers through the three plant types and why that distinction matters for fruit production. Understanding which plants produce fruit helps gardeners make better planting decisions.

What should you consider when planting papaya to ensure long-term success?

Some nurseries offer papaya plants, and the first step is to choose a healthy tree. Commonly, nursery papaya trees are grown in 3-gallon containers. Learn what to look for and why choosing the right height is important. This document explains why you should avoid large trees in smaller containers.

What conditions do papaya trees need to thrive in a Florida backyard?

Learning practical tips on planting and spacing, as well as emphasizing factors like wind exposure, cold weather or poor drainage can significantly reduce growth and yield. These insights help homeowners find the best environment for healthy, productive trees.

How do you care for papaya plants and prevent common problems?

The publication dives into daily care, including fertilizer schedules, irrigation needs and maintenance practices. It also identifies common pests and diseases, such as papaya fruit fly and ringspot virus. Readers will learn ways to manage them. This makes it especially useful for beginners looking to spot issues early and keep plants productive year-round.

Are there cues to harvesting?

Knowing when to pick the fruit, how to ripen it and ways to enjoy papaya are also explored.