In her opening statement, Assistant State Attorney Christina Stifler told the jury that the fatal shooting of the 33-year-old Microsoft design manager on a dark Jacksonville Beach road was a “targeted ambush” hatched by his ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, and Fernandez, her second husband, after years of post-marriage strife over religion and how to raise twin children.

Bridegan, a father of four, was killed on Feb. 16, 2022, when he got out of his vehicle to remove a tire that was placed in the road while his 2-year-old daughter from his second marriage was strapped in her car seat.

More than four years later, Mario Fernandez Saldana, 38, is on trial for first-degree murder and solicitation of murder, accused of arranging Bridegan’s death by hiring a gunman named Henry Tenon, who lived at a property on Potomac Avenue in Jacksonville that was owned by Fernandez and Gardner.

(NOTE: His attorneys refer to him as Mr. Fernandez in court, so News4JAX will use only Fernandez for him on second reference.)

RELATED: He’s the first to face trial in Jared Bridegan murder-for-hire case. What do we know about Mario Fernandez?

Gardner, 39, faces her own trial in September. Tenon, 65, is slated to go to trial next year after backing out of a guilty plea.

Stifler pointed to the tire in the road as proof of a planned attack against Bridegan, who was driving home to St. Augustine after dropping off the twins he shared with Gardner at her Jacksonville Beach home.

After spotting the tire, Bridegan stopped his Volkswagen Atlas and put on warning lights to remove it. But when he opened his door, he was shot twice.

Two other bullets hit the SUV, with one missing his toddler daughter, Bexley, in the back seat by mere inches, investigators said.

“A targeted ambush, a planned tactical ambush with a tire in the road in a dark place where no one would see and no one would know and no one would trace it back to those responsible,” Stifler told the jury in her opening statement. “The architects of Jared Bridegan’s murder intended it to be the perfect crime, and it almost was.”

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

She said that while it took investigators time to put the pieces together, those pieces now point to a murder-for-hire scheme.

“The killer was a stranger to Jared Bridegan. The murder was personal,” Stifler told the jury.

Stifler acknowledged there were no eyewitnesses to the crime but said surveillance video captured a man later identified as Tenon running from the scene -- and someone else driving away in Tenon’s truck.

Defense attorney James Hill told the jury in his opening that the state can’t prove who was driving the truck.

“They don’t know who’s driving the truck. They don’t know who actually solicited Henry Tenon. There’ll be no evidence to suggest they do,” Hill said.

Hill also told jurors that Fernandez, an Army veteran, had no motive to get rid of Bridegan and his actions shortly after the killing, a road trip to Pennsylvania and back, didn’t resemble that of a criminal schemer “running from the law.”

“He had access to a lot of money, hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Hill acknowledged, referring to his wife Gardner’s trust fund. “He could have fled the country.”

But in her opening statement and while questioning Bridegan’s widow, Kirsten, on the stand, Stifler traced the bitter relationship between Bridegan and Gardner, who were divorced in 2015, and spent years in contentious court battles over how to raise their twins, from disputes about religion to doctor’s appointments and even school conferences.

Prosecutors have pointed to the ongoing acrimony as a major motive behind Bridegan’s killing.

“It was pretty terrible,” Kirsten Bridegan said on the stand. “There was absolutely no trust so everything was in writing. Texts, email. We did not speak in person, like at school events. Didn’t do phone calls.”

Widow testifies

Kirsten was the fourth witness called by the state on Monday, testifying to the ongoing co-parenting tension between the couples.

“When it was something where all four of us were at, it was very tense. You could just feel the tension,” Kirsten said. “Jared, he would kind of retreat into himself and be quiet and not want to make eye contact. So it was not a comfortable experience ever.”

When prosecutors went through the night of the murder with Kirsten, she choked up as she remembered the moment an officer -- and not Jared -- answered the phone she’d been calling repeatedly after Jared had not made it home.

She cried when the prosecutor showed her a photo of Jared and asked her to confirm it was her husband.

Prosecutors also showed Kirsten a video from surveillance cameras at the Jacksonville Beach Police Department headquarters.

A man is seen walking in front of the police station and then down the street. During opening statements, the defense indicated that man is believed to be Henry Tenon.

The prosecutor asked Kirsten if she recognized the man in the video, and she said no.

On that same video, just seconds after the man walks out of frame, Kirsten is seen arriving at the station in the family’s Suburban after speaking with the officer who answered Jared’s phone.

It was unclear if Kirsten had ever seen the video before or knew how close she’d come to the man police believe shot her husband that night.

Execution-style killing

Bridegan’s family was in court on Monday, and his siblings, sitting in the second row behind State Attorney Melissa Nelson, were visibly emotional during testimony from those who described the scene on the night Bridegan was killed.

The first trial witness, Jonelle Cruz, said that she comforted Bridegan’s daughter with a blanket in a separate vehicle while her boyfriend tried to figure out what had happened.

“She was shaking. She was very worried about her dad,” Cruz testified.

Prosecutors showed a video Cruz had taken with Bexley that night. When she asks Bexley what happened, the toddler says she heard a “Boom!”

Cruz said Bexley asked about her daddy, saying he was hurt and wanting to know if the police would help him.

Cruz’s boyfriend, Shana Borja, described Bridegan being found face down in a pool of blood next to his SUV. Borja was the one who found Bexley in the SUV, took her out and handed her over to Cruz, who kept her until detectives took her to the police station.

That’s where she was reunited with her mother, who testified that she followed her “gut instinct” and urged police to investigate Gardner and Fernandez.

Stifler said Gardner, who was from a wealthy family, relocated to Washington state with her children after Bridegan’s death. Fernandez, meanwhile, moved to Orlando.

“Ms. Gardner got what she wanted: full control over her children and the freedom to move out of Jacksonville, Florida,” the prosecutor said.

The first day of the trial ended with testimony from the medical examiner who confirmed what no one had disputed: That Jared Bridegan died from gunshot wounds and that his death was a homicide.

Second tire found

Stifler said during her opening that police discovered a lead a few months into the investigation “that blew the case open.”

A tire at a rental property owned by Fernandez was very similar to the tire that had blocked Bridegan’s vehicle when he was shot.

Police matched DNA on those two tires to Tenon, a former tenant with a criminal record and financial problems.

Tenon was charged with shooting Bridegan and at first pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and agreed to testify against Fernandez and Gardner. But he withdrew the plea earlier this year and will have his own trial in March 2027.

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

Fernandez’s trial is scheduled to last through Aug. 28.

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

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

Neither Gardner nor Tenon will testify in Fernandez’s trial.

The case has garnered national attention, and Judge Kite has repeatedly explained to the 12 jurors and four alternates that they can not look up anything about the case or talk about it with anyone.

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

What a legal analyst saw in court

Gene Nichols, an attorney not involved in the case, said the opening statements immediately captured attention.

“I think most of us were riveted by paying attention to especially opening statements and then hearing the evidence,” Nichols said.

He noted that while the early witnesses and procedural steps were expected, they are legally necessary. Unlike civil or family law cases, the state cannot simply stipulate to certain facts — prosecutors must prove every element of the case.

“Right now, the state is jumping through required hoops,” Nichols said. “The state attorney’s office has an obligation to prove this case, all the elements of the case.”

The checks: A central piece of evidence

Prosecutors highlighted checks Fernandez allegedly wrote to Tenon as key evidence in their opening statement, framing the payments as money paid to hide a murder.

“These checks were a way to hide money for a murder hidden in plain sight to make it look legitimate with the hope that Henry Tenon would never be identified and no one would ever look that deep,” Stifler told the jury.

Fernandez is accused of paying Tenon at least $10,000 for fatally shooting Bridegan.

When police obtained Tenon’s bank records, they found three checks totaling $10,000 written from First Choice Home Rentals LLC — all signed by Fernandez. They were for $2,000 and $3,000 dated March 28, 2022, and $5,000 dated April 4, 2022. The memo lines described work such as landscaping, roof upkeep and “Kickstarter Good Luck!!,” according to copies released by prosecutors.

“There are no eyewitnesses; there’s no video footage that captures the individuals or individual in the truck clearly enough to make them out. These things are all true,” Stifler said. ”But it cannot change the fact that there is no connection between the shooter and Bridegan other than this defendant (Fernandez). It cannot change that this defendant paid a man $10,000 for work that didn’t happen and a Kickstarter that doesn’t exist."

But the defense pushed back, saying there is video evidence that Tenon did do work at the property.

“Man, Henry Tenon, he’s a workhorse. That guy tilled up the front yard, chopped down trees. You’ll actually see video of him unloading tile from the back of his truck at Potomac, doing work,” Hill said. “Henry Tenon is a worker. Mario Fernandez has hired him to do work, not murder, tree work, roof work, landscaping, tile work.”

Hill argued the payments were legitimate.

“Mario Fernandez, who had at the time access to hundreds and hundreds and thousands of dollars, gave money to a guy that had helped him around his own house and invest in his business that he wanted to start,” Hill said. “That’s what the checks say.”

Nichols said the checks are the hinge point of the entire trial.

“I think when it’s all said and done, what does the jury believe about the checks? That’s going to rule a tremendous amount,” he said. “That, to me, is going to be where this hinges — will a jury believe that those checks were written in order to commit murder, or were those checks written for the work that Mr. Hill said they were written for?”

He added that the burden of proof remains high.

“If the jury believes that they were for work that was done, or they take the position that the state didn’t prove that the money was for murder, then that’s going to sway a jury,” Nichols said. “In order to convict him, it’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt by all of those jurors.”

Timeline: How we got here

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

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

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

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

A tire was in the road.

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

In previous interviews, Kirsten Bridegan said Bexley described the loud noise of the gunfire, calling it “the boom.”

“She says, ‘Boom! Boom! Boom! Daddy on the ground,’” Kirsten explained.

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

Neighbors’ surveillance cameras from the Sanctuary subdivision caught the sound of those gunshots just before 8 p.m.

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

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

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

They said that the shooter ran off on foot and someone else drove away from the scene in a pick-up truck. Prosecutors also said they have Tenon’s DNA on the tire that was left in the road.

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

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

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

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

Interactive Timeline

Alleged murder-for-hire scheme

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

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

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

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

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

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

The state says it has evidence of communications between Tenon and Fernandez in the days, weeks and “on the day of the particular crime.”

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

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

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

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

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Hichilema secured around 60% of the presidential vote in the southern African nation that has held largely peaceful elections since it returned to multiparty democracy in 1991.

Hichilema's main challenger, opposition leader Brian Mundubile, won around 38% of the vote, according to the electoral commission.

Zambia, a nation of 22 million people that is one of the world's leading copper producers, is a focus for Chinese investment because of its reserves of the critical mineral. It has also drawn interest from the United States under a Trump administration plan to increase U.S. access to copper and other critical minerals used in new technologies and renewable energy systems.

The results released early Tuesday followed days of heightened tensions since last Thursday's election.

The electoral commission suspended vote counting for hours on Friday, citing attacks on some polling station officials and what it called the theft of some ballot boxes.

It didn't say who might be responsible for the alleged violence and theft, but the suspension prompted the deployment of the army to parts of the capital, Lusaka — an unusual development for one of Africa's more stable democracies.

The Zambian government announced later that 11 opposition officials were detained in a law enforcement raid on election night at a property where opposition leader Mundubile was present, though he was not arrested, according to the government.

The raid involved an exchange of gunfire between occupants of the premises and law enforcement officers, the government said.

The government accused the opposition officials of being in possession of “high-grade military weapons, ammunition and other materials for use in armed insurrection” and said they were a national security threat.

Mundubile criticized the raid as an attempt on his life and denied allegations that the officials were part of a militia.

Hichilema said in a statement Tuesday that he and his party were humbled by the trust placed in them by voters and also reached out to opposition supporters.

“To those citizens who preferred the ideas presented by our opponents, we hear you, and we will continue to work for you to ensure that every Zambian benefits from the development we are delivering,” Hichilema said.

A preliminary report by a European Union observer team released before results were announced said the election was largely peaceful but the “broader electoral process took place in an environment that limited fundamental freedoms.”

“Late legal changes, legal uncertainty and unequal campaign conditions distorted the playing field,” said Michael McNamara, chief of the EU observer mission.

The 64-year-old Hichilema's campaign for a second term focused on an economic recovery plan for a country that was mired in a debt crisis when it defaulted on repayments in 2020. Hichilema was first elected in 2021, and Zambia has restructured debt payments, reined in inflation and stabilized its currency under his leadership.

One of Hichilema's main pledges has been to more than triple Zambia's copper production to 3 million tons a year by the end of his final term in 2031.

Critics, however, said the effects of those macroeconomic improvements were not being felt by ordinary Zambians who were growing frustrated with a high cost of living and electricity shortages.

Hichilema vowed “meaningful development for every single Zambian, in every corner of our country.”

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Magome reported from Johannesburg.

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

Alfred A. Knopf announced Tuesday that Gandhi's “Belonging: A Journey of Love” will be published Nov. 10.

“Much has been written about my family, but few narratives were able to reach into the truth of their motivations, their actions and even their very human failings,” Sonia Gandhi said in a statement issued through Knopf. “In many ways, this book is a homage to their humanness. My story also offers readers a unique perspective of the social and political changes I have witnessed for six decades in the beautiful country of my belonging.”

Gandhi, 79, is a native of Italy who was studying in Cambridge, England, when she met fellow student and future husband Rajiv Gandhi, grandson of India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and son of India's first female prime minister, Indira Gandhi.

In “Belonging,” she writes of her life being upended when her mother-in-law is assassinated in 1984 and succeeded by Rajiv Gandhi, who seven years later was also murdered. She too would eventually enter politics and become the longest-serving president of the Indian National Congress Party while also turning down her party's offer to become prime minister. Her party lost power to current Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party in 2014.

“It was heartbreak and loss that threw me into the public world of politics. Up till then I had guarded my privacy fiercely,” she said in her statement.

“Writing about my life did not come easily to me. It meant opening myself up, sharing moments and experiences I had always held deep inside," she said. "Yet as I gradually removed myself from the political sphere and looked back at all I had seen, the thread of love and loyalty that wove through my story began to define itself, from the simplicity of my childhood in small-town Italy, to the complexity of my years in India as the wife of Rajiv Gandhi and the daughter-in-law of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.”

The Nehru-Gandhi dynasty remains active in politics. Both of Sonia Gandhi's children, opposition leader Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, are members of the Indian parliament's lower house from the Congress party.

Attorneys general from California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey are seeking extensive financial damages plus changes to how the company operates Facebook and Instagram. Twenty-nine states sued the tech giant in 2023 over child safety and privacy — the other 25 will go to trial later. The company also faces lawsuits in state courts.

The lawsuit accuses the social media giant of contributing to the youth mental health crisis by knowingly and deliberately designing features that addict children to its platforms. It also argues that Meta routinely collects data on children under 13 without their parents’ consent, in violation of federal law.

“This week, we’re in court with the largest consumer protection lawsuit in American history. We’ll show a jury that Meta concealed what it knew about the harm its products cause young people because looking away was more profitable,” Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman said in a written statement.

Meta said it believes it has a strong case.

“We are proud of our record in protecting teens on our platforms and the amount of effort that we’ve put into developing protections over the years, even before these cases were ever filed, and continuing to the present day. We look forward to showing the judge and the jury those facts in court,” the company said in a written statement.

U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland will oversee the proceedings, which are expected to last six to eight weeks with testimony from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other executives and former employees. Gonzalez Rogers, appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama in 2011, has overseen a bevy of complex, high-profile cases involving Big Tech. These include Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI and its founders as well as Epic Games' lawsuit against Apple over its app store.

The trial is the latest in an avalanche of lawsuits against Meta Platforms and other social media companies including Google’s YouTube, TikTok and Snap, over arguments that their platforms harm young people, illegally collect their data and are deliberately designed to addict them.

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AP Technology Writer Kaitlyn Huamani contributed to this story from Los Angeles.

Last week, Putin visited Iturup, one of the four southernmost islands of the chain, which Japan calls the Northern Territories. The Soviet Union took them from Japan in the final days of World War II, and the dispute has kept the countries from signing a peace treaty formally ending their hostilities.

Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Putin’s visit, his first to the islands, was “incompatible with the Japanese position on the Northern Territories” and is “absolutely unacceptable.” She said the visit was a further blow to already-strained ties between the two countries over Ukraine, and that Moscow should understand the consequences.

Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said Tokyo “strongly protests” Putin’s visit to Iturup, which Japan calls Etorofu, noting that "the Northern Territories, including Etorofu Island, are Japan’s inherent territory both historically and from the perspective of international law.”

On Tuesday, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin met with the Japanese Ambassador Akira Muto to lodge a formal protest over the “anti-Russia” statements by Takaichi and Motegi.

“Russia’s sovereignty and jurisdiction over the southern Kuril Islands are absolutely unshakable,” Galuzin told Muto, according to the Foreign Ministry.

“These territories passed to our country as a result of World War II that was enshrined in the relevant agreements of the Allied Powers and the U.N. Charter,” the ministry said. “Any attempts by the Japanese side to directly or indirectly call this obvious reality into question are absolutely unacceptable and unlawful.”

Galuzin told the ambassador that in view of Tokyo's adherence to Western sanctions against Russia and its support for Ukraine, “Moscow reserves the right to take appropriate countermeasures.”

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

Speaking last week aboard a Russian warship taking part in the drills in the Pacific, Putin said Moscow previously “had developed constructive relations with a number of Japanese leaders, including the tragically deceased former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who did much to bring Japan and Russia closer together, to align our positions.”

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

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

Revenue increased to $47.86 billion from $45.28 billion, edging out the $47.24 billion that Wall Street had expected, according to a survey by FactSet.

Globally, sales at stores open at least a year, a key indicator of a retailer’s health, climbed 1.7%. In the U.S., comparable store sales rose 1.3%.

“We saw broad based demand across the business as customers continued to engage in smaller projects,” Chief Financial Officer Richard McPhail said in prepared remarks Tuesday.

Customer transactions slipped 1% in the quarter, but the amount shoppers spent rose to $92.50 per average receipt from $90.01 a year earlier.

Healthy spending on smaller projects during the quarter is encouraging, said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData.

“From our data, the number of smaller projects undertaken during the quarter increased by 1.5% over the prior year,” Saunders said in an email. “This may sound unimpressive, but it represents a step change from the declines of previous periods."

But Saunders also pointed out a potential weakness that is impacting almost all businesses where credit is sometimes required.

“The number of bigger-ticket projects undertaken remains down, falling by 2.1% over last year,” he said. "Concerns around financing and a previous lack of moving activity both remain major drags on the bigger-ticket segment.”

Homeowners that are currently considering taking out loans using home equity are realizing that it is considerably more expensive now compared with the ultra-low rates Americans could count on in the early 2020s. A home project that seemed within reach at a 4% to 5% borrowing rate looks a lot more daunting at 8% or higher.

While the average long-term U.S. mortgage rate fell slightly for the first time in six weeks, it is still up from last year and borrowing costs remain steeper than they were a year ago.

The U.S. housing market has been in a slump dating back to 2022, the year mortgage rates began climbing from historic lows that fueled a homebuying frenzy at the start of this decade.

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes slowed again in July as record prices and the highest mortgage rates in a year prove to be an insurmountable hurdle for many prospective buyers. Existing home sales fell 1.7% last month from June, the National Association of Realtors said last week.

Home prices continue to rise and hit unprecedented levels for the month of July, NAR said. The U.S. median sales price increased 2% from a year earlier, to $434,100.

For the three months ended Aug. 2, Home Depot earned $4.77 billion, or $4.79 per share. A year earlier the home improvement retailer earned $4.55 billion, or $4.58 per share.

Excluding one-time items, earnings were $4.92 per share. That’s much better than the $4.73 per share that Wall Street predicted.

Home Depot also announced Tuesday that it is launching express delivery nationwide. The service will get orders to customers within three hours or less. It will be available for a small flat fee in the U.S., with no subscription or membership required.

The Atlanta company has posted solid back-to-back quarterly performances this year though many Americans have struggled to buy a home. Despite the solid performance, Home Depot stuck with its earlier sales growth guidance for fiscal 2026 of between 2.5% and 4.5%. It also left unchanged its expectations that comparable sales will be flat to up 2%.

Home Depot said that its outlook includes tariff refunds, which are expected to partially offset higher fuel, energy, and other product input costs throughout the year. Last year, the company said that it didn't expect to raise prices because of tariffs, but executive Billy Bastek said at the time that some products that were on Home Depot shelves may disappear.

The company's stock rose 2% before markets opened.

The fate of the Gaza ceasefire remains unclear after a marathon meeting Monday between U.S. negotiator Jared Kushner and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Officials signaled moderate optimism but Israel offered no concrete commitment to the latest U.S.-proposed plan.

Trump’s decision to scale back joint military exercises with South Korea does not just slight a longtime ally — it raises broader concerns about the security interests of the United States in Asia and elsewhere. Trump explained his decision by citing South Korea’s refusal to join his war against Iran and pointing to what he said was his good relationship with North Korea’s reclusive dictator.

The Latest:

The 60-day deadline for an Iran peace deal is expiring. Here’s where things stand

The deal that Trump signed at Versailles in June set an ambitious 60-day deadline for ending the war with Iran and reaching an accord on its nuclear program.

The deadline was Monday, and the two sides are further apart than they were then.

Talks, such as they are, have focused on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and lifting a U.S. blockade on Iran, both of which were supposed to have happened under the interim deal. There has been no sign of any compromise on the strait, or that detailed nuclear talks have even begun.

The U.S., meanwhile, has no good options for getting out of the war it started alongside Israel.

Acceding to Iran’s latest demands would mean giving it control over a critical international waterway that carried a fifth of the world’s traded oil and gas before the war — and would be tantamount to admitting defeat. Escalating the deeply unpopular war would further draw down U.S. supplies of advanced missile interceptors, jolt the world economy, and drive up gas prices ahead of U.S. congressional elections.

So both sides have dug in, hoping the other will blink first. So far, neither has.

▶ Read more

Trump’s slight of South Korea in favor of the North raises broader US security concerns

Trump on Sunday ordered the U.S. military to downsize the 11-day Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises, which began Monday as scheduled. It wasn’t known which parts of the training were being scaled back.

His announcement baffled many in South Korea, which has been closely allied with the U.S. for decades and where national security is a top priority due to threats from nuclear-armed North Korea.

Trump explained his decision by citing South Korea’s refusal to join his war against Iran and pointing to what he said was his good relationship with North Korea’s reclusive dictator, a transactional and personal approach to foreign policy that has defined the Republican’s presidency.

“There is no American interest that I can see in this,” said Dan Fried, an assistant secretary of state for European affairs in the George W. Bush administration. “On all levels it makes no sense. It undermines the South Koreans, undermines the Japanese, frightens the Taiwanese, unnerves NATO and emboldens the Chinese, not to mention the North Koreans.”

▶ Read more

Long meeting produces optimism but no Israeli commitment to US plan for Gaza

A marathon meeting Monday between U.S. negotiator Jared Kushner and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left the fate of the Gaza ceasefire unclear, with officials signaling moderate optimism but offering no concrete commitment by Israel to the latest U.S.-proposed plan.

Hamas has already agreed to the proposal. American negotiators appeared to acquiesce to Israeli demands that Hamas disarmament must come before any reconstruction of the devastated Palestinian enclave. They did not publicly signal that Israel had made any commitments to withdraw from the 60% of Gaza that Israeli troops currently occupy.

That’s a major sticking point in the plan and one that Hamas had pressed negotiators to compel Israel to fulfill prior to the meeting. The talks came days after Netanyahu rejected the 15-point, U.S.-backed road map to move the ceasefire deal forward, saying there would be no withdrawal without disarmament.

A day earlier, Kushner met for two hours with Hamas’ leader in Egypt.

▶ Read more

Last-minute talks over 50% US tariffs on $20 billion in Canadian goods

The United States and Canada have wrangled for decades over trade, poking each other interminably over sore spots like Canadian softwood lumber imports and U.S. access to Canada’s protected dairy market.

President Donald Trump’s belligerent approach to dealing with Canada marks an extraordinary departure from the traditionally cooperative relationship between the two countries. Trump has hit Canadian goods with tariffs — in a push to bring manufacturing back to the United States — and has repeatedly made inflammatory comments about turning Canada into America’s 51st state.

Tension could hit new heights at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday if Trump goes ahead with his plan to impose 50% tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian products, ranging from hockey sticks to tongue depressors.

As the deadline approaches, the two countries are seeking a truce that would avoid the new round of tariffs.

″We are negotiating,” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters Monday, speaking in French. “The negotiations are very intense and delicate. This is not the time to talk about negotiations in public.”

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But on his first day back at his home in the village of Qusra, Loui Ridi was ultimately told to go inside because the area was a closed military zone.

Israeli soldiers asked the settlers to leave the area as well, but Ridi said he saw at least three settlers close enough to return and threaten his family if the army leaves.

“If I need to walk outside of my house, I’m not able. I have to get a permission and coordination and it’s going to take hours if it’s even possible to leave,” Ridi said.

Ridi yelled at one of the settlers to get off his property, saying he wasn’t allowed to be there and calling him a terrorist, according to video he shared with The Associated Press.

Ridi pled with the soldiers to remove the settlers. They told him to get back inside his home, while also pleading with settlers to leave peacefully.

For Ridi, the exchange extinguished any sense of victory remaining after he managed, with the aid of a military escort, to enter his home. He said the encounter epitomized how the army has been unable or unwilling to clear the area of settlers.

“As soon as (Israeli soldiers) leave — like if they leave today — probably on the same day or a couple hours later, the settlers may come back and build the same tent in front of my house,” he said.

Qusra standoff is the latest violence in the West Bank

Emboldened by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government, extremist settlers have routinely attacked villages and set homes, cars and mosques ablaze in the occupied West Bank this year.

Few episodes garner as much international attention as the siege in Qusra. However, settlers have staged takeovers of other Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank. In the neighboring village of Jalud, settlers surrounded homes and prevented Palestinians from entering or exiting until they decide to escape and not come back.

Palestinian officials report 87 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers or soldiers this year. Three Israelis have been killed including two in nearby clashes last month.

Much like in Qusra, violent settlers rarely face arrest by Israeli police or prosecution in Israeli courts.

Ridi, a 46-year-old who lives with his family in Ohio but owns a second home in the Qusra, arrived on Monday, climbing his stairs and raising an American flag on his roof.

The United States — Israel’s closest ally — has condemned the ongoing siege in Qusra, now in its tenth day. President Donald Trump has said he opposes Israeli efforts to annex the West Bank but has signaled broad acceptance of settlements and, at the start of his second term, lifted sanctions on settlers accused of violence.

Ridi said he can’t buy groceries without permission and has asked U.S. officials to help guarantee he can bring his own food and supplies back to his home, which is in an area that Israel declared a closed military zone last week to restore order.

Settlers being able to besiege a Palestinian American’s home for more than a week was terrifying to other Palestinians as violence soars in the broader West Bank, Ridi said.

Video shows settlers demanding homeowner stay inside

Ridi said he slept for four hours in a room where he kept the shutters closed because settlers had previously thrown rocks toward the windows.

When he woke up Tuesday and went outside to confront the settlers and soldiers, one settler demanded in Hebrew that the soldiers make him go back inside, saying Ridi’s yard belonged to them.

“Take them to their home. You said it’s a closed military zone,” the settler told an Israeli soldier, according to Ridi’s video.

The soldiers told everyone to leave and said, “We don’t need this commotion.”

Soldiers have repeatedly dismantled their tents and shades in the area only to have the settlers return to area on the outskirts of a village 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the Palestinian city of Nablus.

One settler was detained last week but Israeli police have not reported any arrests. Ridi fears settlers could ramp up attacks on his home moments after Israeli soldiers leave, much like other areas where settlers have staged takeovers of Palestinian homes.

Ridi said his two daughters in Ohio have stayed up past their bedtimes worried for his safety, texting that they miss him and asking if he is all right.

“I have to lie and say, ‘No, I’m safe. I’m OK. It’s safe here,’ because I want her to sleep,” he said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the attack highlights the danger of attempting to transit the strait as Iran throttles shipping traffic, even as it finalizes negotiations with Oman on a plan to manage the passage that's critical to global supplies of oil and natural gas.

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

A casualty is reported after a ship is hit in the strait

An unidentified projectile damaged the ship's engine room and “resulted in a crew casualty” off the coast of Oman, the UKMTO said, citing a report from the company's security office.

The maritime monitoring agency did not release any details about the ship or its cargo, and it was not clear whether the crew member was killed or wounded. It said the Omani Coast Guard was assisting other crew members and authorities were investigating.

There has been growing concern about oil spilling into the Persian Gulf and other area waters from vessels damaged as they attempted to transit the strait. The UKMTO said no environmental damage had been reported in the latest attack.

Iran effectively closed the strait — through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s traded oil supplies passed before the war — after Israel and the U.S. attacked the country on Feb. 28.

The U.S. is currently blockading Iranian shipping traffic through the strait.

Iran’s parliamentary speaker and negotiator in previous talks with the U.S., Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, reiterated Tuesday that Tehran plans to maintain its grip on shipping traffic until Washington meet Iran’s conditions.

“Until the United States fulfills its commitments under the agreement, including lifting the blockade, releasing frozen assets, lifting oil sanctions, ending threats and military operations on all fronts, and implementing the other conditions to which it committed, the Strait of Hormuz will not reopen,” he said.

With negotiations between the U.S. and Iran stalled, Iran has been holding separate talks with Oman on a plan to manage ships transiting the strait, and said Monday it was finalizing details for a joint statement.

U.S. President Donald Trump reacted angrily, reportedly telling Fox News reporter Trey Yingst in a telephone interview that the U.S. would bomb Oman if it “gets in the way.”

Following a meeting between Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty and Omani counterpart Badr al-Busaidi, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that the Iranian-Omani deal could pave the way for Washington and Tehran to return to negotiations for a “comprehensive and permanent deal that addresses all concerns and enhances regional security and stability.”

The statement did not address Trump’s latest threat against Oman.

Iran-backed Houthis claim an attack on a Saudi oil refinery

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed they fired drones at an oil refinery in neighboring Saudi Arabia, the latest attack threatening to reignite Yemen's civil war and open another front in the Middle East.

The attack targeted a facility run by Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company, according to a report by the Houthi-run SABA news agency. There were no immediate reports of damage or comment from Saudi Arabia.

The Houthis have escalated attacks against government forces in Yemen and oil facilities in Saudi Arabia, which supports the Yemeni government, and the kingdom’s shipping in the Red Sea, an important alternative to the Strait of Hormuz.

At least 17 Yemeni civilian deaths have been reported in government-controlled areas in Yemen as a result of rebel attacks since Aug. 6, while two casualties were reported in Houthi-controlled areas in late July, the United Nations said Monday.

The attacks included a Houthi missile strike on an internally displaced persons camp in Ma’rib province and an Aug. 11 attack on a cargo ship in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which killed four crew members and injured several others.

Turkey urges Trump to seek a diplomatic solution to the war

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Trump in a telephone call to continue to seek a diplomatic solution to the conflict with Iran.

The call came late Monday as the 60-day negotiating period to find a peace deal between the United States and Iran was expiring, with no word of an extension and both sides seemingly as far apart as they were at the start.

“President Erdogan said it is important to make maximum use of diplomacy amid tensions between Iran and the United States,” according to a statement from the Turkish presidential communications office.

Turkey, a NATO member that borders Iran, earlier this month signed a joint defense agreement with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, which stipulates “that any armed attack against any one of the three states shall be regarded as an attack against them all.”

Trump has praised the agreement, saying that “it shows how the Middle East is coming together, and how Countries will finally be able to defend themselves in a more meaningful way.”

Erdogan told Trump the deal reflected “a strong stance to ensure regional stability and security.”

The firing of FIFA chief operating officer Kevin Lamour late Monday came 17 days after his statement to the Associated Press criticizing Infantino’s $20 billion private equity project that helped to end it hours later.

“Now he is thrown out and we are supposed to move on. It’s unacceptable, it’s management by fear,” Klaveness told the AP in a telephone interview, describing Lamour as “the best football administrator I have ever met.”

“Now we also have to call upon FIFA leadership and the administration to not submit to orders you know are not in the interests of football,” Klaveness added, especially targeting FIFA secretary general Mattias Grafström.

She is a former Norway international player, a judge in Oslo and an elected executive committee member at European soccer body UEFA who has built on her country’s long-held reputation as a champion of good governance in soccer.

Lamour was a long-time colleague of Infantino, first as senior officials at UEFA from 2007-15, on his campaign team to be elected FIFA president in 2016, then moving two years ago from UEFA to oversee much of FIFA’s operations in Zurich.

Infantino in crisis

With a reputation among the most trusted executives in the often murky world of global soccer politics, Lamour’s pointed criticisms of Infantino’s leadership intensified a crisis for the FIFA president.

A backlash by UEFA, the Asian Football Confederation and north American soccer body CONCACAF was provoked by a secretive plan to sell future World Cup profits to investors led by Joshua Kushner.

A $4.2 billion investment to take a 20% stake in a FIFA commercial spin-off was to fund offers of $20 million to each of its 211 national member federations. They already effectively own the non-profit soccer body, which has multibillion dollar reserves, and would have had a mid-September deadline to accept.

Lamour’s statement on July 31 spoke of FIFA staff being “deceived” by Infantino’s lack of openness over the now-failed sale and how they “deserve better than contempt and intimidation.”

The French executive called on soccer leaders worldwide "to make the right decisions” and signed off: “If that means I lose my job, then so be it. I will understand and respect that decision. At least I’ll sleep well tonight.”

Fired, not resigned

“This is a firing situation, it’s not a resignation,” Klaveness said of Lamour’s exit, suggesting it was done by Grafström “obviously being pressured by the president.”

In a statement, FIFA said it “thanks Kevin for his two years of service and wishes him the best of luck for the future.”

“His statement was necessary to kill the project,” Klaveness said of Lamour’s intervention. “He said something that was obvious, that was very important that someone within the staff told us the story so that we knew it was not FIFA, as such, but one person.”

Infantino called a meeting with senior management minus Lamour in Rabat, Morocco. After that Aug. 5 meeting, a FIFA statement apologized for errors and said those managers who attended “reaffirmed their full support” of Infantino’s presidency.

“We all got reports in Morocco, we know it’s a management of fear,” Klaveness said. “It’s not in football’s best interests.”

Until the uproar over Infantino's “FIFA Forward Enterprise” proposal, he seemed sure to be reelected unopposed next year in Morocco. The deadline is Nov. 18 for challengers to enter the contest.

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See AP’s full soccer coverage here

The measure connects city-backed job growth to the local military and veteran community.

The legislation requires 10% of new jobs created with the help of city incentives to go to veterans, National Guard members, reservists and active-duty military spouses.

“This is a workforce we always want to see grow,” City Council President Nick Howland said.

Howland, a Navy veteran, said veterans bring valuable skills to the workforce and contribute to the community.

“It’s important to note that veterans earn more than civilians, they give to charity more than civilians, they also vote more than civilians,” Howland said.

Council member Chris Miller said the ordinance sends a message to military families and companies considering Jacksonville.

“What it also does is send the message that we do value our veterans, our military, and any new company that comes here; they know what that mark on the wall is,” Miller said.

Employment experts say military families often face unique workforce challenges, including translating military experience into civilian job skills. Frequent relocations also can disrupt military spouses’ careers.

The ordinance includes a second economic development provision focused on Cecil Airport. It directs Jacksonville’s economic development office to give additional consideration to projects and incentives that benefit Cecil.

City officials say the goal is to expand Jacksonville’s aviation and aerospace industries.

“We’ve got a lot of industrial jobs,” said Harrison Conyers of the Jacksonville Department of Veterans Affairs. “There’s even jobs working with the federal government, like at NAS Jacksonville, going back and working on the engines and the aircraft that come in there.”

Conyers said veterans bring employers strong work habits and other valuable qualities.

“They bring a tremendous skill set of loyalty, of knowing how to get to work on time, of high character,” he said.

Companies looking to relocate or open near JaxPort also will receive additional consideration for economic development incentives under the legislation, which will now go to the full council for final approval.

The San Francisco-based company says ChatGPT for Teens, which launches Tuesday, is tailored for kids aged 13 to 17 with stronger protections including content restrictions around things like suicide, self-harm and romantic or sexual chats. It also provides homework and study support designed to help students learn rather than spit out answers and school essays.

The idea is to guide teens toward healthy AI use in an age-appropriate environment, the company said.

“We want to treat teens like teens, which means that we have to make sure that we’re showing up with the right developmental stage when we’re not either talking down to them or treating them like kids, but we’re also making sure that they’re not exposed to material that they shouldn’t be exposed to,” said Ann O'Leary, vice president of global policy at OpenAI.

Risks abound in widespread teen usage of AI chatbots

Parents, educators and child development experts have been sounding alarms over children's use of AI chatbots, which have been blamed for facilitating cheating on schoolwork and even suicide. And while even adults can fall victim to anthropomorphizing AI and developing unhealthy relationships with it, teenagers' brains are not yet fully developed and they can be particularly vulnerable.

Last year, research from a watchdog group found that ChatGPT would tell 13-year-olds how to get drunk and high, instruct them on how to conceal eating disorders and even compose a heartbreaking suicide letter to their parents if asked. In interactions with researchers posing as vulnerable teens, ChatGPT typically warned against risky activity but went on to deliver startlingly detailed and personalized plans for drug use, calorie-restricted diets or self-injury.

In the U.S., more than 70% of teens are turning to AI chatbots for companionship and half use AI companions regularly, according to a 2025 study from Common Sense Media, a group that studies and advocates for using digital media sensibly.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said that the company is trying to study “emotional overreliance” on the technology, describing it last year as a “really common thing” with young people.

For users of ChatGPT for Teens, the chatbot is prevented from suggesting it has personal feelings toward the user or implying that it is conscious or experiences emotions, according to OpenAI. That's in addition to blocking romantic or sexual chats.

“We went through and identified what are the hypothetical cues that a model could give that might make a teenager kind of develop a relationship to it,” said Allison Mishkin, head of child development at OpenAI.

A new version of the chatbot expands safety protections

OpenAI doesn't verify users' ages, but it already uses age assurance to estimate if someone is under 18 based on factors such as their types of queries. If someone is identified or identifies themselves as a minor, they are automatically placed into the teen version of the chatbot. This is similar to Meta's approach to teen accounts on Instagram, which have stricter content, chat and privacy restrictions than regular accounts.

To use parental controls, both the teen user and their parent or guardian have to opt in. But O'Leary said the idea with the teen chatbot is to “make sure that this is safe, even if you don’t use parental controls.” Parents with linked teen accounts can set “quiet hours” when their teen can't access ChatGPT, and receive safety notifications in limited high-risk situations, such as the possibility of a user hurting themself.

“We are adding additional notifications related to eating disorders, while limiting what is shared and focusing on moments when offline support may matter most,” OpenAI said.

For homework help, OpenAI said the teen chatbot is designed not to give easy answers but to guide students to come up with answers on their own. The company already offers a version of ChatGPT for teachers, and tailoring a model to help kids with studying and homework could give OpenAI more ways to bring its product to schools.

“We continue to also invest in expanding interactive learning because research shows that people learn more effectively when they actively engage and struggle with concepts,” Mishkin said.

Also in the mix are a handful of scandal-plagued candidates, multiple people running with matching last names and several incumbents at risk of defeat.

Tuesday's contests will help shape the fiercely contested midterms this fall to determine control of Congress, where Republicans have a narrow edge, and offer a referendum on President Donald Trump's second term.

Here's a closer look at what to watch.

Historic slate of Black candidates for governor emerging

Trump-backed Florida Rep. Byron Donalds, a rising star in the Republican Party, is running to succeed term-limited Gov. Ron DeSantis to become the first Black governor of the state. If Donalds wins, he'll become part of a historic slate of Black gubernatorial nominees that includes Republican Rep. John James in Michigan and Lisa Demuth, who defeated pillow-selling conspiracist Mike Lindell in Minnesota.

On the Democratic side, David Crowley won a razor-thin primary against a democratic socialist in Wisconsin, joining Attorney General Aaron Ford in Nevada, State Rep. Jermaine Johnson in South Carolina, and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who is running in Georgia to be the nation's first Black woman governor.

There is currently only one Black governor in the nation, Democrat Wes Moore of Maryland, who is seeking reelection in November.

The Florida GOP winner will likely face David Jolly, a former Republican-turned-independent-turned-Democrat.

Redistricting creates skirmishing for Democrats in Florida House races

A GOP-led redrawing scrambled Florida's congressional map, which has created some awkward matchups.

The most contentious pits veteran Democratic U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz against former U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick in a South Florida district that is almost majority Black. Cherfilus-McCormick resigned earlier this year under threat of House ethics sanctions, but now wants her seat back.

Wasserman Schultz, a former national party chair seeking a 12th term in Congress, is the only white candidate competing against four Black candidates in an area of Broward County that has helped send Black Democrats to Congress since 1992. Her decision to run has raised questions about representation and stirred deep animosity, including charges by one rival that “she stabbed us in the back."

Carpetbaggers and comebacks in the making in Florida?

The race to fill Donalds' House seat features a cast of characters akin to a reality show reunion, including several who have spent time in prison and a handful who have run in other states.

The field includes two former members of Congress who are mounting comeback bids after departing in scandal. Former North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn'stenure was marred by repeat traffic stops, guns at airport checkpoints and a claim he had been invited to a Washington orgy. Former New York Rep. Chris Collins, who resigned before pleading guilty to insider trading charges, served prison time before he was pardoned by Trump.

Trump-endorsed Catalina Lauf ran twice for Congress in Illinois. She lost the 2020 primary to Jim Oberweis, a former state senator, who has also decamped to Florida and is running for the seat.

Another candidate, Ola Hawatmeh, previously ran unsuccessfully for Congress in New York, while Linda Sawyer once tried in Michigan.

Also in the race: John Strand, a former television actor, underwear model and romance novel cover model, who served prison time for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 assault of the U.S. Capitol.

Progressive vs. establishment candidates at odds again

The internal battle between progressive and establishment candidates that has been roiling the Democratic Party in states like Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan, now arrives in more conservative territory.

Progressive state lawmaker Angie Nixon is facing retired Army Lt. Col. Alex Vindman, a former National Security Council official who delivered searing testimony against Trump in his 2019 impeachment trial. They're both running in the Florida special election to fill the last two years of Secretary of State Marco Rubio's former Senate term.

The winner is likely to face interim Sen. Ashley Moody, the Republican appointed by DeSantis to the seat.

Other races will also put fault lines on display. In South Florida, U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz is running for reelection in a new Republican-friendly district against union organizer and democratic socialist Oliver Larkin.

Meanwhile, Republican incumbents are facing their own challenges. Rep. Cory Mills, running for a third term, has been plagued by an ethics investigation stemming from allegations of assault, domestic violence and campaign finance violations, which he denies.

Double-checking the name in Alaska

In a Senate race that is expected to be one of the country's most closely watched this fall, incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, a Trump ally seeking a third term, is facing another candidate also named Dan Sullivan.

Republicans have argued the second Sullivan, who’ll be appearing on the ballot as “Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.," is a sham candidate running at the behest of Democrats to cause confusion. Dan J. Sullivan Jr., a retired teacher, has denied the charge.

Also in the race is former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola. She was the first Alaska Native to serve in Congress, and she would become the first Alaska Native senator if she wins in November.

Under Alaska’s open primary system, all candidates appear on the same ballot, and the four who receive the most votes move on to a ranked-vote general election.

There are other surnames for Alaskans to keep straight.

Republican Rep. Nick Begich faces a crowded field in his bid for a second term in the state’s lone congressional seat. His uncle, former state Sen. Tom Begich, and former state Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins are the two Democrats in the race for governor. Tom Begich is the brother of Mark Begich, a former Democratic U.S. senator whom Sullivan defeated in 2014.

Seats open up in Wyoming

For the first time in more than 30 years, Wyoming has open seats for governor, U.S. Senate and U.S. House all up for grabs in a state where registered Republicans outnumber Democrats by a 7-to-1 margin.

Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis' decision to retire after a single term has set off a chain reaction, with Rep. Harriet Hageman running to replace her.

She has an overwhelming fundraising advantage and became well-known after defeating former Rep. Liz Cheney, one of Trump's harshest Republican critics, in 2022.

Nine Republicans, meanwhile, are competing to replace Hageman as the state's lone U.S. representative.

Wyoming’s current governor, Republican Mark Gordon, considered seeking a third term and challenging a state term limit law but ultimately decided not to.

Pro-Israel group spending in former Swalwell seat

In California's Bay Area, voters will be picking a replacement for Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, whose resignation amid sexual assault allegations ended his run for governor.

California's 14th District will remain under Democratic control as state Sen. Aisha Wahab and Bay Area Rapid Transit Board President Melissa Hernandez advanced from a special open primary.

The race is reprising a theme that cropped up in other Democratic primaries this year: outside spending, particularly from pro-Israel lobbying groups. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee's super PAC has spent more than $2 million against Wahab and backing Hernandez, and another group with funding from the super PAC has spent nearly $2 million in support of Hernandez.

Pro-Israel group spending seemed to backfire in Michigan's recent Democratic Senate primary, where Abdul El-Sayed emerged victorious despite tens of millions of dollars backing his opponent Rep. Haley Stevens.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

Meanwhile, a Russian missile strike on a village in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region killed at least 10 people and wounded eight others as the barrage demolished homes, officials said Tuesday.

The warring countries are locked in an escalating duel of long-range aerial strikes. Fighting on the roughly 1,250-kilometer (780-mile) front line in eastern and southern Ukraine is restricted by large numbers of drones and ground robots threatening troop movements, and neither side is making significant battlefield progress, analysts say.

Russia's Putin resists pressure for peace talks

Over the past year Ukraine has devised and deployed domestically produced long-range drones for strikes deep inside Russia. Its drone technology has impressed governments and defense manufacturers around the world.

Kyiv officials aim to make the Russian public feel the war’s consequences and pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin into negotiating a peace settlement. Putin has so far shown no sign he intends to stop the invasion.

“Putin continues to drag out the war instead of accepting Ukraine’s realistic ceasefire proposals and ending the bloodshed,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said in a post on X.

Russian air defenses overnight intercepted 791 Ukrainian drones over a number of Russian regions, as well as annexed Crimea and the Black and the Azov seas, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said, in what was the second-largest drone attack since January 2025, according to an Associated Press tally.

More than 600 Ukrainian drones flew toward the Moscow region, where 180 were shot down, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. He didn’t provide further details.

Officials reported no deaths or major damage. Ukraine has increasingly launched swarms of hundreds of drones in an attempt to overwhelm Russian air defenses.

In the Moscow region that surrounds but doesn’t include the Russian capital, three people were wounded, Gov. Andrei Vorobyov said.

Three people were also wounded in the Ryazan region adjacent to the Moscow region where three private houses were damaged by the attack, Gov. Pavel Malkov said.

The overnight attack started a fire at a warehouse of Wildberries, Russia’s biggest online retailer, in an industrial zone. Ukraine has repeatedly targeted the company’s depots, which it says help supply the Russian military.

Wildberries said its facility sustained “insignificant damage.”

Russian TV doesn't report news of the attack

Coverage of the attack in state and Kremlin-backed Russian media was mostly muted, as is often the case.

Russia’s main television channels — state-run Russia 1 and Channel One — did not mention the attack at all in their morning news bulletins.

But Russian state news agency RIA Novosti featured it among the main news on its website’s homepage, describing it as “one of the most large-scale attacks on Moscow since the beginning of the summer.”

State newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta on its website prominently featured a roundup of what Moscow region Gov. Andrei Vorobyov reported about the attack on the area, describing it as “massive” in the headline. Pro-Kremlin tabloid MK featured a news brief about the attack on its home page.

Ukraine's Zelenskyy accuses Russia of a 'brutal attac

k’ on civilians

A Russian missile strike on the village of Pechenihy in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region killed 10 civilians, according to preliminary information, said Oleh Syniehubov, head of the Kharkiv regional military administration.

Another 17 people were wounded, he said. Zelenskyy called it “a brutal attack” that damaged 10 homes, a cafe, a post office, a store and at least seven vehicles, according to Syniehubov.

“We will definitely respond to this Russian strike,” Zelenskyy said on social media.

Also, three people were killed and three others were wounded over the past day in Russian attacks on Ukraine’s Sumy region, including drone strikes and an explosive device blast, Ukraine’s National Police said.

UK vows continued Ukraine support, despite Moscow's threats

The U.K. Defense Ministry said Tuesday that it won’t budge from its military support for Kyiv, after Russia said that Ukraine’s reported use of British drones for attacks on Russian soil would bring unidentified consequences for London.

“Britain stands shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine, and we are committed to providing the equipment Ukraine needs to defend itself against Putin’s illegal invasion,” a British defense spokesperson said.

British newspaper The Sunday Times reported that two U.K. companies made drones used by Ukraine to hit Russia.

Following the report, the Russian embassy in the U.K. said in a statement that “London’s actions will inevitably carry consequences.”

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Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal. Brian Melley in London contributed.

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

The plunging prices, the White House said, resulted from the Republican president's “most favored nation” drug deals with pharmaceutical firms and the TrumpRx website, which it said are “delivering real relief to American families and putting patients first.”

The real picture is more complicated, said drug pricing experts, who noted that other factors, including a law from Democratic President Joe Biden's time in office that allowed Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies, are potentially more significant contributors to the latest consumer price index figures.

Also at play, they said, are generic and biosimilar products that have come onto the market, offering competition that drives down the price of expensive brand-name and biologic drugs. In addition, the prescription drug price index measured by the Labor Department and released last week doesn’t directly reflect how much consumers pay — it measures how much pharmacies get paid for the drugs, both by insurers and consumers.

“It’s difficult to know in one number what’s going on beneath the hood,” said Juliette Cubanski, a vice president and director of the Program on Medicare Policy at the healthcare research nonprofit KFF. “I don’t think we can attribute this price reduction to any one specific policy change or initiative.”

Here’s what to know about the decline in prescription drug prices:

Competition and policy both contribute to changing prices

Drug pricing experts said both market competition and various policy changes have influenced prescription drug prices in recent years.

On the market side, “when big blockbuster products face generic competition, their prices fall,” said Dr. Benjamin Rome, a health policy researcher at Harvard Medical School.

For example, he said, various biosimilar drugs have arrived on the market to treat the same autoimmune conditions as the brand-name drug Humira, offering similar treatment at a lower cost.

Similarly, competition has led to price reductions for Stelara, a popular biologic medicine that treats chronic inflammatory conditions, said Stacie Dusetzina, a professor of health policy at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

Biden-era federal policies also likely played a role — most notably the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which for the first time allowed Medicare to haggle with drugmakers over the cost of the top-selling prescription drugs in the program.

New prices for the first 10 of those negotiated drugs launched in January, a change Cubanski, Rome and Dusetzina all said likely made an impact on aggregate prices. The Trump administration has carried forward those negotiations, as mandated by law, and projects additional savings on prescription drugs in the years ahead.

A new Trump administration policy lowering the price of GLP-1 weight loss drugs for certain eligible Medicare enrollees could also be playing a role in driving down prices, the experts said. But that went into effect in July, so only its first month is reflected in the data.

It’s hard to measure the impact of MFN deals and TrumpRx

Trump has sought to attribute the drop in prescription drug prices to his “most favored nation” deals to bring U.S. pharmaceutical prices to the same level as other developed countries.

Drug pricing experts said the actual impact of those deals so far is unclear, since the contracts with drug companies have not been made public and the models designed to put MFN policies into practice in federal health programs have not gone into effect yet.

“These policies are under development and have not affected payers in the index,” Dusetzina told The Associated Press in an email. “Ultimately, I believe that the change is likely to be more directly related to the IRA’s policies and the Medicare drug price negotiation program than it is to current policies.”

Experts lauded TrumpRx, the White House’s website funneling Americans to the best deals on a variety of prescription drugs, for bringing a helpful resource and more price transparency to the public.

But they said it’s unclear how many Americans are making use of the service. In addition, many of the brand-name drugs it has featured are cheaper with insurance or have lower-cost generic versions sold elsewhere.

The White House said the website has generated $700 million in savings for patients but didn’t explain how it reached that figure. Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts last week questioned that claim in a letter to the Trump administration, saying Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has admitted that TrumpRx doesn’t store patient, health or prescription information.

“Without this information, the accuracy of any claim of savings made by the Trump administration is unreliable,” she wrote.

Many consumers still face high drug costs – and rising health costs overall

Even as the consumer price index shows a year-over-year drop in drug prices, experts warned consumers aren't necessarily seeing that in their budgets.

That's because the Labor Department’s figures measure not what consumers pay directly but what pharmacies are paid by insurers and consumers. Insurers often eat much of the cost, and what patients pay can depend on a variety of factors, including whether they are insured and what plans they have. Plus, some Americans still rely on expensive drugs that don't have cheaper alternatives yet.

Higher health spending and federal policy changes are also resulting in higher insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs for many Americans. That could mean even as drug prices decline, they're paying more for healthcare than they once were.

“A price measure like the CPI is not going to adequately capture consumers' experience with healthcare and prescription drugs and other hospital services, the same way it would for groceries and gas and other tangible services that people go and pay for at the store,” Rome said.

More than 40,000 people were sheltering in tents, evacuation centers and makeshift camps after the earthquake struck off Flores, a remote island in East Nusa Tenggara province, early Saturday, damaging at least 11,925 homes, according to the National Disaster Management Agency.

The quake caused widespread destruction across the island, damaging 172 health facilities, 658 schools, 187 offices and 172 places of worship, the local disaster agency said.

At crowded evacuation camps across Flores on Tuesday, children played under tarpaulin shelters while aid workers and volunteers provided psychosocial support alongside food and medical assistance.

The quake occurred at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles) shortly before 6 a.m. Saturday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, and residents fled in panic as tsunami warnings were issued but later lifted. Authorities recorded more than 2,100 aftershocks into Tuesday, though only 70 were felt by residents.

Fear and painful memories haunt survivors

An aftershock that struck during an interview Tuesday prompted Vincentius Rano and his wife to instinctively duck and cover their heads. Nearby, their daughter began crying, a reminder of the fear that continues to haunt many survivors.

Rano is a resident of Lamba Leda, one of the hardest-hit villages in the lush hills of East Manggarai regency, where widespread damage was reported, with at least 50 homes shattered and trees toppled over. He recalled the terrifying moment the earthquake struck Saturday just after he and his wife had woken up.

“Suddenly, we felt a tremor that kept getting stronger,” said Rano, the father of a 5-year-old girl. The couple rushed to grab their sleeping daughter, but before they could escape, part of the house came down, causing injuries to his back and shoulder.

“We didn’t have time to get outside. Everything happened so fast. The roof collapsed on us, and all I could do was shield my wife and child with my back,” Rano said, gesturing toward his flattened home, a modest house, built of timber rather than concrete.

Children in shelters treated for trauma

Psychosocial support programs, which combine mental health treatment and social care, are being rolled out across the region hit by the earthquake. Children have been encouraged to read books and join counselors for games, educational activities and group activities designed to help them cope with fear and anxiety.

“For many survivors, especially children, the psychological impact has lingered long after the shaking stopped,” said local police chief Yudhi Franata, who organized trauma-healing sessions for children displaced by the disaster in Ende regency.

Parents at an evacuation center said many children were afraid to return indoors and woke up frightened whenever aftershocks rattled the island, he said.

Mieke Suharni, a police officer who was among 30 personnel deployed to Lamba Leda, said much of their work is focused on helping children cope with the disaster’s emotional aftermath. She said officers have organized trauma-healing activities at several evacuation camps, but emotional distress remained widespread among survivors.

Earlier Tuesday, she comforted a woman who was visibly shaken by memories of the quake and used a psychological support method known as Universal Spiritual Emotional Freedom Technique, which she learned during a police training.

“We are trying to help people manage their fear step by step,” Suharni said. “Some survivors continue to experience anxiety and excessive fear. Our goal is to help calm that trauma so they can begin to recover.”

Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions because of its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire. Flores experienced one of the country’s deadliest disasters in 1992, when an earthquake and an ensuing tsunami killed about 2,500 people.

So when they heard rumors that Morocco’s border with Spain was open, they decided to join the rush to try to reach Europe.

All three died attempting to cross, becoming victims of the deadliest migration crisis between Morocco and Spain.

Fueled by misinformation, poverty and lack of opportunities, more than 70,000 would-be migrants from Morocco and beyond swam or climbed over a breakwater last month to try to reach Ceuta, a Spanish territory on the North African coast. At least 90 people died attempting to cross the border, according to official figures; rights groups reported a much higher toll. Many families still haven’t been able to retrieve the bodies.

Nearly all the survivors have returned to Morocco, and both countries have intensified security measures. Moroccan and Spanish authorities blamed social media rumors and human smuggling networks for the surge, while migrants cited unemployment and low wages as major factors.

The pull of the crowd

Akbili, 31, lived in Tangier, about an hour from the coastal Moroccan town of Fnideq. Migration had been on his mind for some time, but friends and family said he had never considered crossing illegally.

He held a college degree in physics, but couldn't find a job in his field and worked at a car parts factory. He earned about $421 a month, slightly above the median salary in the North African country.

Buoyed by ambitions to become a regional hub for the auto industry, Morocco’s economy is expected to grow by 4.5% this year. But policymakers face a persistent challenge: turning that growth into jobs that offer higher wages.

Akbili was working the 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. shift when he saw Facebook posts about people crossing into Ceuta. He wanted to try his luck in hopes of finding a job that could help his mother pay for hernia surgery.

“His mind changed completely. He went from someone who wasn’t thinking about illegal migration to wanting to go by all means,” Abdelhakim Saadaoui, a relative and Akbili’s apartment mate, told The Associated Press.

Akbili persuaded Saadaoui to go with him. On July 31, they paid a driver $129 to take them near the border with Ceuta — the equivalent of two months’ rent.

When they arrived, Saadaoui said, there was complete chaos. From a distance, the crowds looked like ants, he said, as streets filled with people heading toward the frontier. Police fired stun grenades and tear gas in an attempt to disperse them, he said.

Saadaoui decided not to continue. Akbili went on. The two remained in contact by phone.

Then Akbili stopped answering.

A Moroccan Interior Ministry document obtained by the AP says Akbili died at midnight on July 31. His death was classified as “unnatural,” attributed to “severe head trauma.” He was buried in his hometown of Khenifra.

His family was told he died after falling from a cliff. The Interior Ministry said one of the 11 deaths recorded on the Moroccan side was caused by a cliff fall.

But a cousin suspects foul play and wants further investigation.

“His phone and wallet stayed intact. How is it possible for someone who fell from a cliff?” Zakaria Akbili told the AP.

Soccer dreams drove one victim

Hamza Haibouri, who played soccer for Morocco's second-division Kenitra Athletic Club, was buoyed by dreams of making it big playing in Europe, said his childhood friend Bilal Ratib.

The 28-year-old Haibouri was vacationing in Martil, a Moroccan beach town about 25 miles (40 kilometers) from Ceuta, when he saw people heading there and decided to join them. His death in the frenzied attempt to cross was announced by the soccer team’s fan club.

Ratib said Haibouri visited France when he was young and had always wanted to return.

“He always had this idea of living abroad and going to France, to get better soccer and a better life,” Ratib said.

“He was a great man, even when we were young and reckless, he would always go to the mosque early for the first prayer,” Ratib said. “He was deeply religious.”

Haibouri, whose income came entirely from soccer, earned around $540 a month when he played, but he hadn't played at all this year, Ratib said.

Families learn of deaths through Facebook

Abdelouahed Iken, 19, was finishing high school in the southern city of Agadir. He regularly admired photos on Facebook posted by a friend who had migrated to Italy.

When he heard rumors the Ceuta border was open, he asked his mother for money to travel to his home village.

But instead of going home, Iken traveled more than 530 miles (850 kilometers) north to Ceuta with friends, according to family member Housine Zligui. Zligui said he learned about Iken’s death on Facebook, and the family is now working to bring his body home.

Iken could not swim, so he bought a life jacket for the crossing. Friends who returned told the family they saw him struggling in the water before he drowned, Zligui said.

For many Moroccans, Europe represents the possibility of work, stability and a better future. Those who make it abroad often return home with designer clothes, cars and euros, becoming symbols of success — and envy.

Money sent home by Moroccans living overseas reached $6.6 billion in the first six months of this year, according to government figures, equivalent to more than 3% of the country’s GDP.

Families asked to pay huge repatriation costs

Families were asked to pay some 2,500 euros ($2,900) in repatriation costs to bring the bodies of their loved ones home from Ceuta, according to Ratib and Zligui.

The AP was unable to confirm the cost. But repatriating a body from Spain to Morocco generally requires authorization from the Moroccan Consulate and a Spanish mortuary transit document. Moroccan rules typically call for a sealed coffin and a certificate confirming the death wasn’t caused by a contagious disease.

A spokesperson for Ceuta’s government said Friday the paperwork to repatriate the bodies of those who died in the crossing was complete, but Morocco’s government had not accepted it. The Moroccan government did not respond to an AP email with detailed questions about what was holding up repatriation, who was responsible for covering the costs and whether the Moroccan government would assist families in paying to have their loved ones returned.

Autopsies on 82 migrants brought ashore in Spain have been completed, said Manuel Aparcero, director of Ceuta’s forensic team.

Haibouri’s sister underwent DNA testing so that Ceuta authorities could confirm her brother’s identity. Authorities in Ceuta gave Haibouri’s sister his identification card and driver’s license but did not allow her to see his body, Ratib said.

“It will take around 20 days or more” for the body to be returned, he said. “You can’t imagine the families' suffering.”

The Trade Union Network for Migration in Morocco called on Morocco and Spain to cover the costs of returning the dead to their families.

Back in Tangier, Saadaoui moved in with co-workers. He couldn't bear living without Akbili.

“He was telling me at the border, ‘I will never come back,’” Saadaoui said. “And indeed, he will never come back.”

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Associated Press journalist Suman Naishadham in Madrid contributed.

Tuesday will feature increasing clouds, a high near 97° and a heat index as high as 111°. Scattered showers and thunderstorms will begin developing late in the afternoon, mainly after 5 p.m., with rain chances near 60%. A few storms could produce frequent lightning, gusty winds and locally heavy rainfall before activity gradually diminishes late Tuesday evening.

Wednesday may become the hottest day of the week. Mostly sunny skies will send temperatures to around 98°, with the heat index approaching 110° or higher. Only isolated late-afternoon storms are expected, with rain chances near 30%. Warm and muggy conditions will continue Wednesday night as temperatures settle near 78°.

The combination of intense heat and scattered storms will continue Thursday and Friday. Highs will reach the upper 90s both days, with a 50% chance of afternoon and evening showers and thunderstorms. Any storm could briefly cool temperatures, but dangerous heat will remain possible before storms develop.

Temperatures will ease slightly over the weekend as rain coverage increases. Saturday will bring a 60% chance of afternoon and evening thunderstorms with a high near 94°. Sunday will remain hot and humid with a high around 94°, although storm coverage should become more isolated.

Anyone working or exercising outdoors should drink plenty of water, take frequent breaks in the shade or air conditioning and avoid strenuous activity during the hottest portion of the afternoon. Never leave children or pets inside a parked vehicle, even for a short time, and check on older adults and neighbors without reliable access to air conditioning.

Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran said late Monday that “a number of children” had been wounded, and said an investigation was underway. He did not provide further details.

Richard Bennett, the United Nations' special rapporteur for Afghanistan, on Tuesday condemned “the heinous attack harming numerous children near a school” the previous day.

Afghan media said around 50 children were hurt in the blast, which occurred in a part of the capital populated mainly by the Hazara ethnic minority. Hazaras, who make up around 9% of the Afghan population, have long suffered attacks and persecution in Afghanistan. Most are Shiite Muslims, and they have been targeted repeatedly in the past by Sunni Muslim radicals like the Islamic State group, while they have also faced discrimination in the Sunni majority country.

In May 2021, a few months before the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in the wake of a chaotic withdrawal of U.S.-led troops, three bombings at a school in Kabul killed dozens of people, all of them from the Hazara community and most of them young girls leaving class.

That school, like the one where the explosion occurred Monday, was in Kabul’s Dasht-e-Barchi neighborhood, the main Hazara district in the Afghan capital.

In a social media post on X, Bennett said an independent investigation to bring those responsible to justice was essential. “Once again this mainly Hazara part of Kabul has been targeted. Deplorable!” he wrote.

The closures are:

• Forsyth Street West from Hogan Street North to Main Street North, in both directions
• Laura Street North from Bay Street West to Adams Street West, in both directions

The Bank of America building is located at 50 Laura Street North. Drivers should avoid the area and use alternate routes until the roads reopen.

France's CAC 40 slipped 0.5% in early trading to 8,533.66, while the German DAX fell 0.5% to 26,198.88. Britain's FTSE 100 was little changed, inching down less than 0.1% to 10,710.12.

The future for the S&P 500 fell 0.5%, while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.1%.

In Asia, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 sank 2.5% to finish at 67,460.73.

South Korea's Kospi lost 1.6% to 6,869.83. The index has been sliding recently as investors have sold shares in the local market and invested in U.S. stocks to escape wild swings in the Kospi linked to the boom in artificial intelligence, analysts said.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was little changed, inching down less than 0.1% to 9,070.00.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained nearly 0.1% to 25,471.15, while the Shanghai Composite added 0.2% to 3,990.30.

Analysts said robust earnings reports in Asia and the U.S., partly tied to AI, have helped to counter worries about what the war in Iran will do to the global flow of crude oil and its impact on energy prices. Japan, for one, imports almost all its oil.

“First, the beneficiary base from AI investment has broadened. Demand spread across a wide range of industries, including semiconductor production equipment, power equipment, machinery, electronic components, and materials. AI demand effectively helped rediscover globally competitive companies across these sectors,” Masashi Akutsu and Tetsuhiro Tokuyama said in a recent report for BofA Securities.

Oil prices have crept higher after a brief respite last month driven by hopes for an end to the war with Iran.

The 60-day deadline for an agreement to end the Iran war and resolve the dispute over its nuclear program is expiring. An interim agreement reached in June has collapsed, and Washington and Tehran are even further apart than they were then.

Last month alone, Brent crude, the international standard, zigzagged between $72 and $102 as hopes rose and fell that the United States and Iran could reach a deal that would allow oil tankers to freely exit the Persian Gulf again.

Early Tuesday, the price for a barrel of Brent crude rose 0.1% to $90.94 a barrel. It gained 2.7% on Monday.

Benchmark U.S. crude rose 0.6% to $84.99 a barrel.

Rising oil prices have been a major factor behind stubbornly high inflation.

In currency trading early Tuesday, the U.S. dollar rose to 159.68 Japanese yen from 159.46 yen. The euro cost $1.1576, down from $1.1583.

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Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@yurikageyama

Hundreds of students were evacuated after shots rang out in the high school building of the Ateneo de Zamboanga university campus in the southern port city of Zamboanga. Two other people were injured, police and city officials said.

The suspect, identified by police as grade 9 student Mohammad Mael Jalani, fired at a teacher sitting in front of a class but apparently missed. He then shot a student on the fourth floor of the building before going up one floor and killing himself, police said in an initial report.

“He entered and started indiscriminately firing, hitting a Grade 10 student at the fourth floor then subsequently went to the fifth floor and jumped from the said building and committed suicide,” Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla told reporters.

“He showed this on Facebook Live starting when he was climbing up the stairs but there were only snippets,” Remulla said. “We'll look into his gaming history and his chat history so we cannot come up with a complete answer why this happened until we do a complete forensic analysis.”

Zamboanga city Mayor Khymer Adan Olaso and the police said the suspect shot himself.

The high school building, where the gun attack happened, is in a secured campus, separate from a larger campus of the privately owned Catholic university where its colleges and professional schools are located in Zamboanga. One of the largest and most prestigious universities in the south, Ateneo suspended classes at all levels Tuesday and Wednesday following the attack.

Joe Darryl Jaron has just driven his child to the school when he heard the gunshots that prompted students to scream in panic and dash to safety. He took a video of the commotion and posted it on Facebook. “There are gunshots here in Ateneo, help! help,” he said.

A few hours after the shooting, police said the situation was under control. They asked parents and guardians of students to remain calm and follow the high school's advice and arrangements to pick up their children.

“Authorities are currently establishing the circumstances surrounding the incident,” national police chief Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. said. The police “will provide verified information as appropriate and appeals to the public to refrain from sharing unconfirmed reports, photos, or videos that may cause unnecessary concern.”

The national police “assure the public that the safety and well-being of the school community remain a priority. We thank the school administration, parents, guardians, and the community for their patience, cooperation and understanding as authorities continue to manage the situation,” Nartatez said.

One of the pistols carried by the suspect came from his father, who was the Bureau of Customs police commander in Zamboanga, Bureau of Customs deputy commissioner Nolasco Bathan told reporters. He added that he recommended the temporary suspension of the father, who may face administrative charges for failing to properly safeguard the government-issued pistol.

The shooting happened despite police assurances that security in schools across the country would be strengthened after a shooting in June in which three high school students were killed and at least 20 others were wounded in central Tacloban city. Police arrested two students, ages 14 and 15, and accused them of carrying out that shooting.

Crimes involving the use of firearms are prevalent in the Philippines, partly due to the proliferation of unlicensed firearms, but school shootings are relatively rare.

Days after the school shooting in Tacloban, Philippine authorities said they temporarily blocked an online gaming app to assess whether it played a role in fostering such violence. The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center said its decision to indefinitely block Gorebox was prompted by an ongoing police investigation which showed that one suspect was an avid user of the app.

The shooting in the Philippines also occurred less than two weeks after a school shooting in Thailand.

Thailand’s Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul took steps to restrict guns in the Southeast Asian country after a 14-year-old boy killed his grandparents, five school staff members and a 12-year-old girl in Nonthaburi province outside Bangkok.

Thailand’s high rate of gun ownership is second only to Pakistan in Asia, and far surpasses its Southeast Asian neighbors.

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Associated Press journalists Joeal Calupitan in Manila, Philippines, and Haruka Nuga and Jintamas Saksornchai in Bangkok contributed to this report.

But it is the scathing online reviews that seem to have prompted interest in “Niu Lai,” an animated film about a calf who had a dream about himself growing up with the help of his family, driving a surprising surge at the box office.

The film earned only about 10,000 yuan ($1,480) at the box office in the first 10 days after its Aug. 5 release. On some days, the film took in as little as 200 yuan ($30) at the box office, according to Maoyan, a movie-tracking platform. The figure was exceptionally low, particularly during the competitive summer movie season.

But its box office surged to 8.2 million yuan ($1.2 million) Monday, with nearly 300,000 admissions, according to Maoyan. Its total box office has reached 17.1 million yuan ($2.5 million).

Red Star News, a local news website in Chengdu, reported that the film was made over five years by just two people — director Xin Yumeng and his mother, Sun Lifan. The Associated Press was unable to reach Xin and could not independently verify this.

Posters seen at movie theaters featured a calf, hand-drawn in pen without color, alongside handwritten slogans: “Come on over if you’re into the bizarre” and “No refunds.”

A 'terrible' movie viewers recommend as a prank

On Douban, a popular Chinese movie-review platform, viewers piled on with mocking and bewildered comments.

Among the most popular: “unbelievably terrible and eye-opening,” “a symbol of the new internet troll culture,” and “a must-watch for Chinese stock market investors.” The last is a play on the film’s name, “Niu Lai,” which literally means “the bull is coming” in Chinese — a wish for a bull market.

Comments such as “over nine out of ten,” and “awesome and highly recommended” are also among the sarcastic reactions.

“My initial intention has always been to play pranks on my friends,” said Du Mingxi, a 19-year-old college student in Shanghai.

“If a friend asks me what I think about the movie, I’d say good and recommend them to watch,” he said, adding that he successfully tricked two friends to watch the movie with him. Both found it fun, but one fell asleep during the viewing.

Du compared young people going to the movies to see this kind of film to the mysterious “six-seven” craze in the U.S., saying that some are just drawn to things they find weird or funny, with many jumping on a trend whether they get it or not.

“They are just the same, it is funny but hard to describe what's funny about it, and young people just love spreading these memes virally,” said Du.

Despite the flood of criticism and memes, some viewers didn't mind the rudimentary production.

Zhong Jiaming, a vocational schoolteacher in Guangzhou, called it a rare find in an era when movies are often “visually exquisite and polished, but their stories can fail to engage.”

“This is a movie for the young at heart," said Zhong. "It is simple and honest, like a bedtime story for children.”

The outbreak unfolding in one of Congo’s most vulnerable regions is the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak ever, with 4,945 cases including 2,325 deaths, according to government data released overnight into Monday.

It's Congo’s 17th outbreak, with a toll that has eclipsed that of the country's 2018-2020 outbreak when 2,299 deaths out of 3,481 cases were recorded.

The latest data shows 101 new cases and 33 deaths reported in the previous 24 hours. Over 1,000 people have recovered, while 730 remain in hospitals or isolation.

The outbreak has infected and killed more people at a greater speed than any other outbreak in history. The World Health Organization has said it is on track to surpass the 2014-16 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the deadliest on record with more than 11,000 deaths.

Trish Newport, emergency coordinator with Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, said the limited community engagement in the outbreak remains a key challenge.

“The community needs to be aware about the outbreak," she told The Associated Press, adding that people "need to be involved in the response, and they need to know what the signs and symptoms are and what to do if they get sick. And this today is not happening in every single place where there are Ebola cases.”

Starting from the first confirmed case, the outbreak reached the 2,000 death toll almost three times faster than in the 2014-16 outbreak.

Some families have lost up to 15 of their relatives in the epicenter, the Ituri province, said Newport.

“We rapidly need to scale up to be able to prevent more deaths from happening, more families and communities from being impacted,” she added.

There are no approved vaccines or treatments for the rare Bundibugyo virus responsible for the current outbreak across six provinces in Congo's east. Trials for those are ongoing in Ituri.

Most new cases and deaths are being reported outside of the people being monitored. Challenges facing medical teams dealing with the outbreak also include strikes by some unpaid health workers, threats by rebel groups, anger from long-traumatized communities, bad roads making it difficult to reach all the affected territories, and misinformation claiming that Ebola isn’t real.

WHO warned over the weekend that the outbreak is still moving at an “exceptional pace” ahead of efforts to track it, noting that it reached a weekly record of 579 cases and 304 deaths in the previous week.

“A substantial scaling up of response activities is underway to get ahead of the outbreak,” the U.N. health agency said.

Experts believe the virus was spreading in the mining town of Mongbwalu as early as February — months before authorities declared the outbreak on May 15.

On Friday, U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher announced the allocation of an additional $30.5 million and the deployment of 20 more staff to aid the response on the frontlines.

“This is a wake-up call,” Fletcher said. “We need speed, scale and solidarity before this virus gets even further ahead of us.”

“Let’s be clear, Duane Davis did not pull the trigger. But he did plan the shooting in retaliation of the beating of his nephew,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal told jurors at the start of Davis' Las Vegas trial. “Remarkably, you will learn that from Duane Davis himself.”

Davis, 63, could get life in prison if he's convicted of murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang. He has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer in the defense opening called the prosecution's narrative “fiction.”

Palal showed jurors video of Shakur’s entourage attacking Davis’ nephew Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson outside the boxing match at the MGM Grand hours before the shooting on Sept. 7, 1996.

Davis spent the next two hours planning how to get even, said Palal, and Shakur was gunned down “in an act of revenge.”

Shakur remains a cultural icon and is considered one of the most influential and versatile rappers of all time, despite dying at 25.

What he told the FBI and investigators

In a 2008 interview with a federal task force investigating the killing of Shakur's rival, the Notorious B.I.G., Davis instead talked about the Shakur shooting. He described handing a gun to the men in the backseat of a white Cadillac that fired on a black BMW with Shakur and Marion “Suge” Knight inside.

As prosecutors played audio of Davis explaining the moment Shakur was shot, members of Shakur’s family, including his stepbrother Maurice “Mopreme” Shakur, stared ahead and listened intently from the audience.

Palal told jurors Davis held onto a visceral hatred for Shakur for decades that drove him to speak.

He said the defendant talked to the FBI in 1998 and again in 1999, admitting he had been in Las Vegas at the time of the shooting.

In 2009, he admitted to his role in the killing in an interview with Las Vegas police, Palal said.

“And now 30 years later, we’re going to ask you to finally hold Duane Davis accountable,” Palal said.

He also showed jurors the 2019 memoir that Davis co-authored, “Compton Street Legend,” that the prosecution will use and that the defense fought to keep out of the trial, along with several of the defendant's interviews.

How Davis' legal team is defending him

Davis, wearing a blue suit and tie, sat quietly with his hands folded on the table in front of him, occasionally nodding along as his attorney gave his opening, and often scanned the room during testimony to see who was in the gallery.

“What they are telling you, they are representing as fact, when it’s really fiction,” Michael Sanft said. “There’s no facts."

He said Davis wasn't previously charged because law enforcement knew that he was “full of crap.”

The defense attorney also pointed to missing documents in the original investigation and distrust between police departments.

He called one detective’s work “biased,” “sloppy” and “incomplete.”

Sanft said outside court at the end of the day that he thought the 30 years that had elapsed would help Davis.

“The length of time is going to be a huge problem for people trying to recall things, to remember things,” the lawyer said. “That’s just not how it works.”

Asked about the oddity of calling his client “full of crap" and similar things, he said, “We all have a family member who's like that.”

Briefly a suspect in Notorious B.I.G.'s death

Former Los Angeles Police Department detective Fred Miller — assigned to the investigation of the 1997 shooting death of the Notorious B.I.G., born Christopher Wallace — testified remotely and said that Davis had briefly been suspected in that shooting.

Davis admitted to being present at a party at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles where Wallace and Sean “Diddy” Combs were guests. Wallace was shot as he was leaving.

Sanft objected to the inclusion of the testimony. The judge, with prosecutors’ agreement, told jurors that police do not believe Davis was involved.

Most eyewitnesses are no longer alive

The story of the drive-by shooting has long gripped the hip-hop community, partly because no one was charged until Davis was indicted in 2023.

The other three men riding in the Cadillac have all died in the years since.

Retired Las Vegas police officer Garry Dale was the first of the 35 to 45 witnesses the prosecution plans to call at the trial expected to last about a month.

He testified that he and another officer stopped Knight and Shakur's car for missing a license plate, warned them and let them go.

About 10 minutes later the officers responded to a shooting call and found EMTs pulling Shakur from the car. Dale said Knight had been grazed by bullets, but told the officers to take care of Shakur.

Dale jumped in the ambulance and asked Shakur who shot him. The retired officer said that Shakur said something like “no, we’ll take care of it.”

Brent Becker, a former Las Vegas homicide detective, testified that Knight showed up to a police interview with attorneys, which he thought was odd because Knight was a victim. Knight was timid, his interview was practiced and he told investigators he knew nothing, Becker said.

“I thought he lied to us,” Becker said in video testimony.

Becker said it was difficult to get other witnesses to talk and they “were leaning on” Davis, Anderson, Deandrae “Freaky” Smith and Terry “Bubble Up” Brown as the men in the Cadillac, but had no living witnesses who could identify them.

Witnesses describe the night Tupac was shot

Ingrid Stokes testified that she and her friends were heading home from Las Vegas when they encountered Shakur and Knight, who were friends with a woman in Stokes’ group.

Knight invited them to a nightclub, she said, and they decided to meet them there.

The car Stokes was riding in was one lane over and a car length ahead of Knight's vehicle, when they heard gunshots.

Stokes said they drove off in fear and almost hit a white four-door vehicle in the process.

When they returned to the scene, police made them sit on the sidewalk and treated them like suspects, she said. Stokes was scared to be seen in public talking about the case, worried about poor treatment from law enforcement and the potential for retribution.

“Snitches get stitches,” she said.

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Associated Press journalists Ty ONeil in Las Vegas, Becky Boone in Boise, Idaho, John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, and Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

William Frances Silvia, 61, would be the 13th prisoner put to death this year in Florida, which has two more executions scheduled in September and has carried out more than half of the nation's 22 executions so far in 2026.

Silvia is scheduled to receive a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke starting at 6 p.m. local time.

A final appeal was still pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Courts twice sentenced Silvia to death

Silvia was sentenced to death after being convicted of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder for the deadly 2006 attack on Patricia Silvia, along with her mother, Betty Woodard.

According to court records, Silvia purchased a shotgun that year and then went to Woodard’s Orlando-area home, where his wife had been living since their separation two months earlier. The family was in the middle of a cookout when Silvia arrived, and after an unsuccessful attempt to reconcile, authorities said Silvia retrieved the shotgun from his truck and shot the two women.

William Silvia was first sentenced to death following his 2008 trial. A court later vacated that sentence following an appeal related to Florida's death penalty sentencing procedures, but after being granted a new death penalty phase in 2018, he was again sentenced to death.

A Florida state agency, the Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, provides legal representation to death row inmates. Silvia's attorneys have argued that the agency couldn't provide adequate legal assistance because it was already helping another death row inmate. The Florida Supreme Court rejected the appeal.

Florida leads the way in executions

A total of 47 people were executed in the U.S. in 2025. Florida led the way with 19, a record in the state since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

In July, Florida executed two prisoners in one day, the first state in nearly a decade to do so.

Two more executions are planned in Florida next month. Harold Gene Lucas, 74, is scheduled to die on Sept. 1, followed by Daniel Owen Conahan Jr., 72, on Sept. 10.

Lucas was convicted of fatally shooting a 16-year-old girl who rejected his romantic advances and wounding two of her friends.

Conahan was convicted of kidnapping and strangling a man that he had paid to pose for nude photos, and authorities suspect him of similar homicides committed in the 1990s in southwest Florida.

All Florida executions are carried out via lethal injection of a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.

Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell told reporters before practice that Adams will have surgery and stay in Minnesota for his rehabilitation so he can serve as a mentor to the younger players.

Adams, the sixth overall pick in the 2017 draft, made three Pro Bowls and was an All-Pro in 2019 with the New York Jets. He has been an excellent blitzer who set the NFL season record for sacks by a defensive back (9½) in 2020 after being traded to the Seattle Seahawks. Injuries have derailed him since then, with Minnesota becoming his fifth team in four years. Adams tore his left quadriceps in the 2022 season opener.

Adams, who transitioned to linebacker in a part-time role last year with the Las Vegas Raiders, has 55 tackles for loss, 22½ sacks, eight forced fumbles, four fumble recoveries and four interceptions in his career. He'd made a strong impact on the Vikings in the two-plus weeks he'd been with the team. The 30-year-old Adams was injured in his first exhibition game after signing just before the start of training camp.

“He’s a Minnesota Viking now, and we want to make sure that he knows how important he’ll be to our players and team,” O'Connell said.

The Vikings signed cornerback Bryce Phillips, who originally entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent with Kansas City following this year's draft. His brother, Clark Phillips III, plays cornerback for Atlanta after starring collegiately at Utah.

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The 1,300 residents of Kandersteg, in Switzerland’s Bern canton, live amid a quintessential Alpine landscape of sharp peaks, white glaciers, steep green valleys and the distant sound of cowbells.

But a catastrophe looms over the quiet village: a mountainside rock formation called Spitze Stei, part of a mountain landscape increasingly affected by thawing permafrost, threatens to collapse into the valley in a massive landslide.

“You are aware that it’s happening, but not afraid,” said Brigitte Jüni, an inhabitant of Kandersteg. She said authorities took all the precautions they could.

“But then it’s nature. It’s nature and you never know,” Jüni added.

As glaciers and permafrost — the frozen soil sediment and rock that acts like a glue holding mountains together — melt due to higher temperatures caused by climate change, the threat of landslides is rising in the Swiss Alps.

In May 2025, a huge mass of rock and ice from a glacier thundered down the mountainside in the nearby Loetschental valley, sending plumes of dust skyward and coating with mud nearly all of Blatten, which had been evacuated earlier as a precaution.

Markus Stoffel, professor for climate change and natural risks at the University of Geneva, said climate change leads to the melting of both glaciers and permafrost.

“In the mountains and in the unconsolidated debris, there is lots of ice,” Stoffel said. “Once this ice is melting, it acts like a cement. These mountain slopes will become increasingly unstable.”

Locals in Kandersteg say their situation is different from Blatten and that preparations made already allow them to live calmly.

“This isn’t the same case as in Blatten. It’s a different situation,” said local resident Rudolf Isler. “We are not afraid of the Spitze Stei rock. It’s been many years seeing stones falling from up there. The problem here is about global warming and rising temperatures.”

If the entire unstable section of the Spitze Stei — estimated at roughly 15--20 million cubic meters — were to collapse, it would trigger a massive natural disaster. But the rock is under constant monitoring, evacuation plans are prepared and experts say the rock is more likely to break down gradually than in one huge chunk.

Nathan Solothurnmann, a climate and energy expert for Greenpeace Switzerland, says that climate change means landslides or avalanches will become more common.

“Maybe even one day we will have to abandon certain valleys or certain villages because it’s becoming impossible to live there,” Solothurnmann said. “Or the measure you will need to take to protect infrastructure is so expensive, the efforts are so big, that it’s not worthwhile anymore living there.”

U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds is banking on President Donald Trump ’s endorsement in hopes of securing the Republican nomination and advance to the fall election. His opponents include Lt. Gov. Jay Collins and political newcomer James Fishback.

Democrats' leading candidate for governor is David Jolly, a former Republican congressman who switched parties last year.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a leading conservative figure who has clashed and collaborated with Trump over the years, is barred from running for a third consecutive term.

The primaries are giving final form to a November ballot whose races will test Trump’s grip on his adopted state and Democrats' ability to resurrect Florida as a national political battleground. Florida has moved notably to the right since Trump won his first election in 2016, though Democrats hope to regain ground from his slumping popularity ratings.

Two Democrats are battling for nomination in a U.S. Senate special election to complete Marco Rubio’s term after he became Trump's secretary of state last year. Progressive state lawmake r Angie Nixon matches up against retired Army Lt. Col. Alex Vindman, a former National Security Council official who testified in Trump's first impeachment case in 2019.

Meanwhile, Sen. Ashley Moody, the DeSantis appointee currently holding the seat, appears in a strong position as she seeks the Republican nomination with Trump's endorsement for the term's final two years.

For Congress, Tuesday's biggest nominating fight involves longtime Democratic U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, former U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick and others in a redrawn south Florida district.

Wasserman Schultz, who is white, wants voters in the new, plurality Black district to grant her a 12th term. Cherfilus-McCormick is seeking a comeback after resigning earlier this year under a pending federal indictment and threat of House ethics sanctions.

Donalds is trying to make history — and Jolly, too

There have been three elected Black governors in U.S. history. Yet the 47-year-old Donalds is more likely to tout his conservative credentials than the possibility of joining that select group.

He promises to push tax cuts, overhaul Florida's insurance regulations to lower consumer costs and seek greater price transparency from health care providers.

“The people of Florida want to make sure that the Florida dream is alive and well into the future,” he said recently. “Affordability is a problem for all Floridians. It doesn't matter what your politics are. It doesn't matter what the color of your skin is.”

Trump has had an inconsistent record on picks for governor in primaries this year, and a strong showing by Donalds would leave him, and Republicans in general, in a more commanding position for November. Though DeSantis coasted to reelection in 2022, he squeaked into office in 2018 by little more of 32,000 ballots out of 8.1 million cast.

Jolly is hoping ultimately to prove a party-switching former Republican can actually carry the Democratic banner in a state where that's failed before. Democrats nominated former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist in 2022 only to see him lose by nearly 20 percentage points to DeSantis.

Can Democrats make the Senate race interesting?

Moody, a former state attorney general tapped for Rubio's seat in 2025, is in a strong position seeking the GOP nomination. DeSantis, when he appointed her, praised her as a law-and-order prosecutor ready to help Trump “shut the border,” tame inflation, and overhaul a federal bureaucracy “run amok.”

Democrats face a familiar theme of 2026 primaries, with the progressive Nixon confronting Vindman from the party's center-left establishment. Vindman's testimony in 2019 was notable in the Democrat-led House impeachment case that led to Trump's acquittal in the Republican-led Senate. Trump ousted Vindman afterward.

Floridians haven’t sent a Democrat to the Senate since 2012.

Wasserman Schultz runs in a new plurality Black district

Serving in Congress since 2005 , she faces a new district — thanks to DeSantis' successful push for new congressional maps amid the national redistricting battle intended to boost Trump's midterm election prospects.

It’s not the first time Wasserman Schultz has had to convince new voters after Republicans tinkered with boundaries. But this time she’s the only white candidate in a plurality Black district. The redrawn Florida 20th is concentrated in the most Democratic and diverse parts of Broward County, and doesn't include her hometown of Weston, west of Fort Lauderdale.

Her four Black primary opponents — including Cherfilus-McCormick — have argued the district requires a Black representative. Wasserman Schultz disagrees.

“Representation matters and lived experience matters. But experience and making sure that you have someone who has the seniority and the seasoning to be able to deliver for a district, it matters as well,” she said.

Cherfilus-McCormick, meanwhile, wants to return to Congress despite a pending federal indictment that accuses her of stealing $5 million in federal disaster aid. She has plead not guilty and disputed alleged violations of House rules.

Republican Rep. Cory Mills faces primary challenges

DeSantis and other Republicans have bailed on Republican Rep. Cory Mills as he seeks a third term in Florida's 7th Congressional District at the same time he's denying domestic violence allegations. He faces three primary opponents.

“I have not endorsed Cory Mills, and I do not support Cory Mills,” DeSantis said recently in Mills' district.

Turnout could offer clues to November

Registered Republicans now outnumber Democrats in Florida, a relatively recent flip. That puts the burden on Republicans to outperform Democrats comfortably in overall primary turnout. If it’s close – with Democrats coaxing a clearly larger percentage of their voters to the polls – then the party would be more optimistic heading into November, as Democrats witnessed with primary turnout in other states this year. If Republicans buck national trends and dominate, then Democrats could be facing another rough fall campaign.

Miami-Dade will be especially notable. Democrats carried the county comfortably through 2016, when Trump lost it to Hillary Clinton by 30 percentage points. Four years later, Trump closed the gap to 7 points before carrying it in 2024 by more than 11 points.

The All-Star center fielder and MVP contender hit his fifth leadoff homer of the season to start the game. Then he ended it when he led off the 10th by driving a 2-1 slider from Hagen Smith (2-1) deep into the right-field patio area. It was the 30th homer of the season for Crow-Armstrong, one short of his career best from last year. With 31 stolen bases this year, he also has back-to-back 30-30 seasons.

Crow-Amstrong took his left hand off the bat after he connected and pointed it skyward as he began walking down the first-base line. He turned toward the dugout and celebrated before starting his slow, exuberant home run trot.

Seiya Suzuki also homered for the Cubs and Jacob Webb (5-2) left the bases loaded in the top of the 10th to set the stage for Crow-Armstrong, who drove in automatic runner Carson Kelly. The Cubs' leadoff batter finished 4 for 5 with a walk.

The Cubs snapped a two-game skid and ended the White Sox's three-game winning streak. Randal Grichuk and Andrew Benintendi homered for the White Sox, who had won six of eight and took two of three from the Cubs on the South side earlier this season.

Nico Hoerner’s RBI single tied the game in the bottom of the ninth. In the eighth, pinch-hitter Benintendi sent Ryan Zeferjahn’s first offering into the right-field basket for a two-run homer to give the White Sox a 5-4 lead.

Crow-Armstrong drove Luis Castillo’s first pitch down the right-field line and out. Suzuki belted one to deep left center four pitches later. Grichuk's three-run homer, his 10th, put the White Sox ahead 3-2 in the fourth.

Cubs starter Shota Imanaga allowed three runs on two hits and struck out 10 — one off his season high — in six innings.

Up next

RHP Kevin Gausman (6-11, 4.53 ERA) goes for the Cubs on Tuesday. The White Sox had not named a starter.

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Depending on who you ask, tending to the daily barrage of guinea pig needs can be either a fairy tale or a horror show. For Smothermon, it’s often a mix of both.

“If I could figure out how to get out of this at this point, I probably would,” Smothermon joked. “But I do believe that to a certain extent, I probably wouldn’t get out of bed if I didn’t have this.”

Smothermon is the owner of the Guinea Pig Sanctuary, in Salisbury, Massachusetts, roughly 40 miles (64 kilometers) north of Boston. On any given day, 350 to 400 guinea pigs are housed in a modest workspace, split into cages stacked from the floor to ceiling.

The space is cramped and chaotic as volunteers and visitors squeeze past each other between the rows of cages in a converted office space. People constantly move throughout the space cleaning out cages and checking on any sick animals.

But there’s also joy. The squeals from the little piggies about to eat lettuce and other vegetation often spark laughter, while others cuddle and comfort some of the guinea pigs. Each animal has a name prominently displayed outside their cage, as volunteers tick off their personalities.

Maui is friendly and gives kisses. Gritty is older, but shy. Rio has spunk and likes to run around. They all remember the smell of their caretakers and gravitate toward their favorites.

“They’re very sensitive animals,” said Janet Woodman, a volunteer at the nonprofit. “I personally think they are probably the best therapy animal next to a horse.”

Smothermon’s operation is one of the handful of animal rescues in the U.S. devoted solely to taking in abandoned guinea pigs — filling a need as people become overwhelmed with the responsibilities required to take care of these pets. The sanctuary additionally offers boarding for guinea pigs when their owners are traveling, as well as encouraging rehoming of the animals when they can.

Measuring between 8-10 inches (20.32-25.4 centimeters) long, these small beasts originally came from South America derived from the Cavia porcellus species, according to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. After being domesticated in 5,000 B.C., there are now 13 different breeds that are distributed as both pets and for food.

According to Smothermon, guinea pigs often need to be adopted in pairs. They’re social and can’t be kept in cages full time.

Within minutes of opening the sanctuary earlier this year, an older woman walked through the door carrying two cages needing to “surrender” her guinea pigs. The woman’s husband had become sick, she explained to Smothermon, and she couldn’t properly take care of both him and her pets.

Smothermon hugged the woman and waived the usual fee.

“I tell people, just bring them here,” she said. “If that’s what you need to do, I’ll take on the responsibility.”

Other days, Smothermon is fielding calls from across the U.S., asking if she can take 11 piggies from Illinois, seven from Texas, and 97 from New York — where nearly half are expected to have babies.

It's a constant stress that Smothermon never imagined would consume her life. It initially began when her grandson, Alex, brought home a guinea pig. Alex had fallen into a fire as a child and experienced health problems, causing him to avoid most animals up until he was 12, when he discovered it was safe to interact with guinea pigs.

From there, Smothermon said, her family became a resource to take in abandoned guinea pigs. The family ran the rescue out of their New Hampshire house until a fatal fire burned it down in 2019. The fire resulted in the loss of Smothermon's other grandson, two dogs and dozens of guinea pigs.

The tragedy sent Smothermon into a depression, but when her family was living out of a hotel as they looked for a new home, people still kept dropping off guinea pigs that needed help.

Seeing the need gave Smothermon and her family the focus and motivation to continue Alex's dream, and eventually they relocated to Massachusetts.

Smothermon says the work is hard. She only gets a handful of days off a year, but the constant drumbeat of needing to take care of hundreds, if not thousands, of guinea pigs keeps her grounded.

“If I don’t get up, they don’t eat and they can die. So even though it’s not a choice, I have to," she said.

The campaign featured over a dozen contenders in each of the top races — for Senate, U.S. House and governor. Under Alaska’s open primary system, all candidates appear on the same ballot, and the four who receive the most votes qualify for the ranked vote general election.

Tuesday's ballot also included candidates running for the Legislature and a statewide initiative that would reimpose campaign contribution limits in state and local elections.

Senate race includes 2 Dan Sullivans and a former congresswoman

The highest-profile candidates in a field of 16 were two-term Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan and Democratic former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola.

The race, which could help determine control of the Senate, has drawn significant attention from outside groups, with Republican and Democratic campaign organizations identifying it as a top target. Peltola shook up her campaign leadership days before the primary.

During the campaign, Sullivan, a veteran and ally of President Donald Trump, emphasized his support for the military, efforts to open more land for oil development and Trump's signature tax and spending bill passed last year. He accused Peltola of being aligned with Lower 48 “liberals.”

Peltola leaned into the “fish, family, freedom” slogan that first got her elected in 2022. She has criticized a political system that she said is rigged by special interests and allows politicians to enrich themselves.

But it was a third candidate, a Republican also named Dan Sullivan, who garnered much of the attention.

Dan J. Sullivan won a legal fight to appear on the ballot following claims by the senator and GOP allies that he was a sham candidate running at the behest of Democrats with the intent of causing confusion. Dan J. Sullivan, a retired teacher from the island community of Petersburg, denied that and said his run was spurred by frustration with the incumbent.

He appeared on the ballot as Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., with no party affiliation — a decision that a state elections official said was intended to minimize possible confusion. Meanwhile, the senator was listed as Dan S. Sullivan, Republican and incumbent. The “incumbent” label does not accompany the names of any other candidates seeking reelection.

The drama involving the dueling Dan Sullivans caught the attention of Trump. In a social media post endorsing the senator days before the primary, he called the other's candidacy an attempt to trick voters and urged his followers to vote for “SULLIVAN, DAN S.”

Republican Begich faced challenge from independent fisherman

In the race for Alaska's only House seat, the most prominent candidates were Republican Rep. Nick Begich, seeking a second term, and independent Bill Hill, a fisherman and former educator from a small southwestern village.

Progressive Democrat Matt Schultz suspended his campaign last month but remained on the ballot. His campaign said Schultz would withdraw as a general election candidate if he makes the primary's top four.

Schultz urged support for Hill, who leaned into concerns about affordability. Begich, who was endorsed by Trump, cast himself as hardworking and effective in his role. House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared at a rally for Begich in a conservative part of the state this month, though the event was closed to news media.

Governor's race wide open

The campaign for the state’s top executive office was an open race this year because Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy was barred by term limits from seeking a third consecutive stint.

Two Democrats hope to emerge from a crowded, largely Republican field: former state lawmakers Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins and Tom Begich, who is Nick Begich's uncle. If one of them wins in November, he would become Alaska's first Democratic governor since Tony Knowles left office in 2002.

Republicans in the race included Bernadette Wilson, a businessperson and conservative activist; Click Bishop, a former state labor commissioner and lawmaker; Dave Bronson, former mayor of Anchorage; and Adam Crum and Treg Taylor, two former members of Dunleavy's Cabinet.

Former Gov. Bill Walker, an independent, was also on the ballot.

Ballot measure addresses money in state politics

The lone measure before voters on the primary ballot asked them to reimpose campaign contribution limits five years after a divided federal appeals court struck down a number of caps.

The measure proposes a $2,000 limit on how much individuals can give to candidates in state and local elections and a $5,000 cap on what they can give to political parties. It would also limit spending by groups other than political parties and how much individuals and groups can give to joint campaigns for governor and lieutenant governor.

Supporters say such limits are needed to prevent special interests and wealthy donors from having outsize influence on a campaign or race. Opponents say the measure would favor candidates with name recognition and argue that restricting what someone can contribute limits their voice.

Political spending by wealthy people has become a flashpoint in races in Alaska and elsewhere. In 2025 in Wisconsin, billionaires Elon Musk and George Soros helped push spending in a state Supreme Court campaign past $100 million, the most ever for a court race in the U.S.

The sisters nearly recovered from a 6-0 deficit in the match tiebreaker before a double-fault by Venus Williams ended their first doubles appearance in a non-Grand Slam event since the Italian Open in 2016.

“I thought it was fun,” Serena said. “I thought it was special. We kicked off a little rust in the middle of the match and just, you know (were) starting to feel it. I didn’t come out here to win this tournament. Winning is obviously great. But in this position just, you know, having fun. It was really cool to be able to do this again.”

Serena had been off the tour since 2022 before returning this summer at age 44. The sisters planned to play together at Wimbledon but had to withdraw after Serena injured her knee while losing her singles match. They entered Cincinnati as a wild card.

“Eventually we would find our way to each other,” the 46-year-old Venus said about the decision to play doubles again. “It's our first time playing together in forever. It was great for us to get out there and do it.”

Kostyuk and Stearns, both 24, are playing in their first tournament together. Kostyuk is from Ukraine. Stearns grew up in the Cincinnati suburb of Mason, where the tournament is played every year.

“I kind of expected it but it stung a little bit that this is my hometown,” Stearns said about the pro-Williams sisters crowd. “I won't hold it against anyone. The crowd was going for them but we used it to our advantage and flipped the script.”

After dropping the first set, the Williams sisters rolled in the second to force a match tiebreak.

Kostyuk and Stearns went ahead 6-0, but consecutive double-faults by Kostyuk helped the Williamses get within 8-7. It was 9-8 after Serena powerfully put away an overhead before Venus double-faulted.

“The crowd got the show,” Kostyuk said. “They probably couldn’t ask for anything better. At the end a tiebreak is a lottery. You never know which way it’s going to go.”

Venus and Serena have won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles and 22 total. Serena won one with Alexandra Stevenson in 2002 at Leipzig. All of Venus' doubles titles have been with her sister. They also have won three Olympic gold medals together.

Serena has won 23 singles Grand Slam titles. Venus has won seven.

Swiatek rallies for 3-set win and other results

In other results Monday, defending Cincinnati champion Iga Swiatek rallied from a set down to win her eighth consecutive match, beating Maria Sakkari, 4-6, 6-1, 6-1.

No. 2 seed Elena Rybakina beat Magdalena Frech, 6-4, 7-6. Third-ranked Jessica Pegula beat fellow American Emma Navarro, 7-5, 6-2.

World No. 3 and top seed Alexander Zverev won his ATP-tour leading 46th match this season, outlasting Terence Atmane, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (6).

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Lamour, who is based in Zurich, all but invited Infantino to fire him in a statement to The Associated Press on Aug. 1 that defended his colleagues amid intense fallout from the plan to sell stakes in future World Cup profits to private equity funds.

Lamour wrote that staff were “deceived” by Infantino’s lack of openness in planning. He released the statement on the say day Infantino’s senior adviser, Carlos Cordeiro, decided to walk away and described the $20 billion commercial subsidiary plan as “a bad deal for football.”

Britain's Press Association late Monday quoted a FIFA spokesperson as saying: “FIFA can confirm that the working relationship between FIFA and Kevin Lamour as FIFA’s Chief Operating Officer has ended.”

“FIFA thanks Kevin for his two years of service and wishes him the best of luck for the future. No further comment will be made on the matter.”

Infantino is seeking reelection as FIFA president but remains under pressure after the heads of three continental confederations — for Europe, Asia and for North, Central America and the Caribbean — issued an open letter last week saying his World Cup plan was a “fundamental breach of trust” and described it as “deception.”

Infantino withdrew the $20 billion proposal after a furious backlash by global soccer officials, including European body UEFA, which has warned of a boycott of all FIFA games and events.

Some national federations have withdrawn their support for Infantino, although the heads of six Arab soccer federations last week expressed their “full support” and “confidence” in the president.

Infantino has been FIFA president since 2016 and, until the backlash over the so-called FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal, seemed sure to be reelected unopposed next year in Morocco. FIFA has set a Nov. 18 deadline for challengers to come forward.

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Syrians have taken to social media and the streets in recent days to demand answers about the death of Mohammad Ghamira, who was buried Monday in his hometown of al-Haffah in coastal Latakia province.

When insurgents unseated former President Bashar Assad in December 2024 after a nearly 14-year civil war, they opened the country's notorious prisons. During Assad's rule, rights groups say, thousands of prisoners were killed in mass executions or died from injuries and disease. Detainees were subjected to torture, beatings and rape.

Officials with the government of interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa have promised accountability in Ghamira’s case, but rights groups say it is not an isolated incident and that abuses persist in detention centers.

The detainee had hemophilia, which affects blood clotting

Ghamira, a 29-year-old father of two, was a former volunteer with the White Helmets civil defense organization, which operated in opposition-held areas before Assad's fall.

He died in a hospital in Latakia on Sunday after being released from jail. He had been detained days earlier following an "allegation of theft involving a sum of money,” Latakia’s internal security command said in a statement, without giving more details.

Syria’s Minister of Emergency and Disaster Management Raed al-Saleh, who was previously head of the White Helmets, said on X that Ghamira had died of “complications from cerebral and gastrointestinal hemorrhaging” that “resulted from a beating he sustained after being detained at the al-Haffah police station.”

Al-Saleh and Ghamira’s relatives said he had hemophilia, a condition affecting the blood’s ability to clot.

Ghamira’s uncle, Issam Ghamira, said in a video interview with state news agency SANA that the family had told the police chief in al-Haffah that his nephew had hemophilia and warned against hitting him. Despite that, he said, his nephew was hit while in custody.

Syria’s interior ministry announced an investigation into Ghamira’s death and said seven interior ministry personnel were detained for questioning.

Syria’s Interior Ministry spokesperson Noureddine al-Baba, speaking to journalists, acknowledged “shortcomings and deficiencies” in some of the country's police departments but said others were doing “exceptional” work.

“God willing, this painful incident will serve as a catalyst for positive change in the operations of the ministry of interior," he said.

Watchdogs call Ghamira’s death part of a wider problem

In a report released in March, the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic said it had documented “torture and ill-treatment” in 18 official detention facilities and 12 “makeshift facilities” in different areas of Syria between January and October 2025, in the months following Assad's ouster as the new government asserted control.

The practices it documented included beating prisoners with rifle butts, sticks, pipes, bars and cables; the use of electric shocks and other forms of torture; mock executions; and sexual violence.

Syrians for Truth and Justice, a human rights organization that tracks abuses, in a report published earlier this month said that “severe beatings, electric shocks, humiliation, threats, deprivation of basic necessities, and deaths in custody continue to be common practices at the hands of multiple security and military actors.”

The group concluded that the incidents were too widespread to treat as isolated incidents but that there was no evidence of a “single centralized system equivalent in structure and direction to the torture apparatus entrenched by the Assad regime.”

“It is somehow widespread, but it’s not structured,” Bassam Alahmad, the group’s executive director, told The Associated Press. “For us, there is no evidence that these orders came from the commanders to torture people, but still (the authorities) have a responsibility to stop this behavior."

Syrians whose loved ones disappeared or died in detention centers during Assad’s rule said they were disturbed to see the patterns being repeated under the new government.

Families for Freedom, a group representing relatives of detainees, said in a statement, “What happened to Mohammed reopens the wounds of torture and death in detention for thousands of Syrian families — practices Syrians have struggled for years to end, and the recurrence of which cannot be accepted today.”

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Sewell reported from Beirut.

The globally recognized “Hips Don't Lie” musician made the pledge during a surprise visit to Quibdó, the capital of the Colombian province of Chocó, where she toured damaged schools, hugging students and taking photos with them.

"What worries me the most is that schools are not rebuilt once this emergency is over,” Shakira told journalists. “Every day that children don’t go to school is a day they miss out on their future.”

She was accompanied by Howard Buffett, son of billionaire philanthropist Warren Buffett and longtime donor to Colombia who has helped Shakira set up schools there before. The Howard G. Buffett foundation will collaborate with Shakira's Fundación Pies Descalzos, or Barefoot Foundation, on reconstructing the 10 schools.

“When she calls, I come,” Buffett said during the visit.

The singer also told reporters she planned to dedicate her “personal efforts” to rebuilding a local technological university in Chocó and announced pledges of $500,000 each from the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund and Live Nation and $250,000 from CAF Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean toward rebuilding schools and getting children back into classrooms.

The 7.4 magnitude quake on Aug. 10 struck a vast swath of western Colombia, killing at least 287 people and destroying more than 26,000 dwellings, authorities said. The government has said 194 people are missing, while other civilian-run databases put the number at more than 4,100.

The epicenter was in Chocó, one of Colombia's poorest regions and where at least 3,100 homes were destroyed and over 265 educational sites affected, according to the regional government latest report Monday.

“It’s a place I love, a place where I’ve seen our students grow in our classrooms,” Shakira said in a video posted on X by the Colombian news outlet La FM. Her foundation, which focuses on educational access for youths in Colombia, has been in Chocó for 22 years, running two schools from which hundreds of students have graduated, she said. “I really want to see it rebuild again.”

Aid groups have struggled to assess the damage so far in Chocó, an area the size of Switzerland where communication is difficult. The province has few roads linking it to the rest of the country, and its towns and villages are connected mostly by rivers and unpaved roads.

Most of Chocó's 600,000 inhabitants live in poverty, according to figures published last year by Colombia’s national government, and it is largely inhabited by Indigenous tribes and Afro Colombian communities.

“There is not a way to alleviate the pain of so many, there are no magic solutions," Shakira, 49, said during her visit to a large high school in Quibdó. “But what there is, is commitment to be here alongside those from Chocó, to not abandon El Chocó like it historically has been abandoned, until every Colombian and every person from Chocó can return to their normal lives like they deserve and all the children can return to their schools and dream of the futures they deserve."

The Grammy award winner known for hits like “Whenever, Wherever,” “La Tortura,” and the 2026 FIFA World Cup anthem “Dai Dai” is a longtime supporter of educational access and advancement. She recently headlined the halftime show of the World Cup final match in July and performed in May on Brazil’s Copacabana Beach to a crowd of 2 million.

After Venezuela’s twin earthquakes in June, Shakira announced the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund would commit $500,000 to education recovery there.

Her announcement Monday is the latest of many commitments from prominent Colombians and other Latin American artists to help Colombia and Venezuela. On Sunday, Marc Anthony and Chayanne joined dozens of other artists at a Miami benefit concert and live fundraiser for both countries' earthquake relief.

Colombian singer Karol G pledged to match fan donations to her Con Cora Foundation during her three-night run at SoFi Stadium near Los Angeles last weekend. She will also join Maluma, Sebastián Yatra and others at a benefit concert in Bogotá this Sunday.

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An earlier correction stated Shakira committed to building 10 new schools, not rebuilding 10 schools. She and Buffett are helping reconstruct the schools, not building new ones.

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Gabriela Aoun Angueira reported from San Diego.

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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

Investigators say that on Feb. 16, 2022, as Bridegan was headed home from dropping off his twin children at his ex-wife’s home, he was forced to stop because a tire was in the road. They say it was placed there deliberately in a plot to distract and kill Bridegan, 33, in Jacksonville Beach.

Prosecutors say it was part of a murder-for-hire scheme involving Bridegan’s ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, and her current husband, Mario Fernandez.

RELATED: He’s the first to face trial in Jared Bridegan murder-for-hire case. What do we know about Mario Fernandez?

Both are charged with first-degree murder in Bridegan’s death, along with the man investigators say pulled the trigger, Henry Tenon, who lived at a property owned by the couple on Potomac Avenue in Jacksonville.

Fernandez, 38, is the first of the three to face trial, which began Monday with opening statements from the prosecution and defense, followed by testimony from two witnesses and a Jacksonville Beach Police sergeant who were at the scene.

They described Bridegan being found face down in a pool of blood next to his SUV and his toddler, who was in the back seat, telling them she heard a boom and that her daddy was hurt.

Bridegan’s widow, Kirsten, was the fourth witness called by the state. She testified to the contentious ongoing custody battle that prosecutors say was at the heart of the murder scheme.

“There was absolutely no trust, so everything was in writing. Text, email, we did not speak in person, like at school events, didn’t do phone calls,” Kirsten said on the stand. “When it was something where all four of us were at, it was very tense. You could just feel the tension. Jared, he would kind of retreat into himself and be quiet and not want to make eye contact. So it was not a comfortable experience ever.”

When prosecutors went through the night of the murder with Kirsten, she choked up as she remembered the moment an officer -- and not Jared -- answered the phone she’d been calling repeatedly after Jared had not made it home.

She cried when the prosecutor showed her a photo of Jared and asked her to confirm it was her husband.

Prosecutors also showed Kirsten a video from surveillance cameras at the Jacksonville Beach Police Department headquarters.

A man is seen walking in front of the police station and then down the street. During opening statements, the defense indicated that man is believed to be Henry Tenon.

The prosecutor asked Kirsten if she recognized the man in the video, and she said no.

On that same video, just seconds after the man walks out of frame, Kirsten is seen arriving at the station in the family’s Suburban after speaking with the officer who answered Jared’s phone.

It was unclear if Kirsten had ever seen the video before or knew how close she’d come to the man police believe shot her husband that night.

Bridegan’s family was in court on Monday. His siblings, sitting in the second row behind State Attorney Melissa Nelson, were visibly emotional during testimony from those who described the scene on the night Bridegan was killed.

Fernandez’s family was also in court.

In her opening statement, Assistant State Attorney Christina Stifler laid out the state’s case against Fernandez in the killing of Bridegan, a Microsoft design manager.

She pointed to the tire in the road as proof of a planned attack.

“A targeted ambush, a planned tactical ambush with a tire in the road in a dark place where no one would see and no one would know and no one would trace it back to those responsible,” Stifler told the jury in her opening statement. “The architects of Jared Bridegan’s murder intended it to be the perfect crime, and it almost was.”

Stifler acknowledged there were no eyewitnesses to the crime but said surveillance video captured a man later identified as Tenon running from the scene -- and someone else driving away in Tenon’s truck.

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

Defense attorney James Hill told the jury in his opening that the state can’t prove who was driving the truck.

“They don’t know who’s driving the truck. They don’t know who actually solicited Henry Tenon. There’ll be no evidence to suggest they do,” Hill said.

Fernandez is accused of paying Tenon, now 65, at least $10,000 for fatally shooting Bridegan. Investigators say Tenon’s DNA was on the tire that was blocking Bridegan’s path.

When police obtained Tenon’s bank records, they found three checks totaling $10,000 written from First Choice Home Rentals LLC — all signed by Fernandez. They were for $2,000 and $3,000 dated March 28, 2022, and $5,000 dated April 4, 2022. The memo lines described work such as landscaping, roof upkeep and “Kickstarter Good Luck!!,” according to copies released by prosecutors.

“There are no eyewitnesses; there’s no video footage that captures the individuals or individual in the truck clearly enough to make them out. These things are all true,” Stifler said. ”But it cannot change the fact that there is no connection between the shooter and Bridegan other than this defendant (Fernandez). It cannot change that this defendant paid a man $10,000 for work that didn’t happen and a Kickstarter that doesn’t exist."

But Hill said there is video evidence that Tenon did do work at the property.

“Man, Henry Tenon, he’s a workhorse. That guy tilled up the front yard, chopped down trees. You’ll actually see video of him unloading tile from the back of his truck at Potomac, doing work,” Hill said. “Henry Tenon is a worker. Mario Fernandez has hired him to do work, not murder, tree work, roof work, landscaping, tile work.”

Tenon had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2023 and agreed to testify against Fernandez. But he withdrew the plea earlier this year and will get his own trial in March 2027.

Fernandez’s trial is scheduled to last through Aug. 28.

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

Neither Gardner nor Tenon will testify in Fernandez’s trial.

The first day of the trial ended with testimony from the medical examiner who confirmed what no one had disputed: That Jared Bridegan died from gunshot wounds and that his death was a homicide.

The case has garnered national attention, and Judge Kite has repeatedly explained to the 12 jurors and four alternates that they can not look up anything about the case or talk about it with anyone.

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

What a legal analyst saw in court

Gene Nichols, an attorney not involved in the case, said the opening statements immediately captured attention.

“I think most of us were riveted by paying attention to especially opening statements and then hearing the evidence,” Nichols said.

He noted that while the early witnesses and procedural steps were expected, they are legally necessary. Unlike civil or family law cases, the state cannot simply stipulate to certain facts — prosecutors must prove every element of the case.

“Right now, the state is jumping through required hoops,” Nichols said. “The state attorney’s office has an obligation to prove this case, all the elements of the case.”

The checks: A central piece of evidence

Prosecutors highlighted checks Fernandez allegedly wrote to Tenon as key evidence in their opening statement, framing the payments as money paid to hide a murder.

“These checks were a way to hide money for a murder hidden in plain sight to make it look legitimate with the hope that Henry Tenon would never be identified and no one would ever look that deep,” prosecutor Christina Stifler told the jury.

The defense pushed back, arguing the payments were legitimate.

“Mario Fernandez, who had at the time access to hundreds and hundreds and thousands of dollars, gave money to a guy that had helped him around his own house and invest in his business that he wanted to start,” defense attorney James Hill said. “That’s what the checks say.”

Nichols said the checks are the hinge point of the entire trial.

“I think when it’s all said and done, what does the jury believe about the checks? That’s going to rule a tremendous amount,” he said. “That, to me, is going to be where this hinges — will a jury believe that those checks were written in order to commit murder, or were those checks written for the work that Mr. Hill said they were written for?”

He added that the burden of proof remains high.

“If the jury believes that they were for work that was done, or they take the position that the state didn’t prove that the money was for murder, then that’s going to sway a jury,” Nichols said. “In order to convict him, it’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt by all of those jurors.”

Timeline: How we got here

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

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

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

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

A tire was in the road.

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

In previous interviews, Kirsten Bridegan said Bexley described the loud noise of the gunfire, calling it “the boom.”

“She says, ‘Boom! Boom! Boom! Daddy on the ground,’” Kirsten explained.

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

Neighbors’ surveillance cameras from the Sanctuary subdivision caught the sound of those gunshots just before 8 p.m.

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

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

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

The said that the shooter ran off on foot and someone else drove away from the scene in a pick-up truck. Prosecutors also said they have Tenon’s DNA on the tire that was left in the road.

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

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

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

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

Interactive Timeline

Alleged murder-for-hire scheme

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

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

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

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

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

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

The state says it has evidence of communications between Tenon and Fernandez in the days, weeks and “on the day of the particular crime.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Boylan said the legislation was deferred in committees as possible amendments and a substitute are developed for consideration in the coming weeks. Any changes would still require committee votes and approval by the full City Council before they could take effect.

The proposal comes as Wolfson Children’s Hospital reports a sharp rise in serious injuries tied to e-bike and e-scooter crashes.

Wolfson Trauma Center patient totals (serious cases):

• 2022: 3 patients
• 2023: 23 patients
• 2024: 74 patients
• 2025: 115 patients
• 2026 (Jan. 1–July 30): 106 patients

Wolfson says these numbers reflect patients injured badly enough to be transferred to Wolfson for care and/or admitted to the hospital.

Public comment at City Council meetings has reflected competing concerns. Some residents have urged the city to pass the ordinance and strengthen rules around sidewalk riding and safety.

“E-bikes, scooters and even motorcycles … think the sidewalks are extra two way highways,” one speaker said during a recent meeting.

Others have warned that stricter rules could create unintended consequences, particularly for students who use e-bikes as transportation.

“This is a popular mode of transportation at this moment, so by adding restrictions you are limiting their access to get to and from school,” another speaker said.

Boylan said discussions helped shape the proposed changes. “It boiled down to essentially two issues — number one, they’re concerned about the age limit and then secondly with respect to the speed limit,” Boylan said.

Boylan said he intends to propose removing the ordinance’s age-limit language and to adjust the sidewalk speed limit to align with state law, which he said sets a 15 mph limit in sidewalk areas. He said the goal is to craft rules that are clear and workable, and he added that an education-focused approach is the goal that remains, including a possible safety video or class option for some first-time offenders.

Enforcement questions have also surfaced elsewhere in Florida. Our sister station in Orlando reported that in Deltona an ordinance banning minors under 18 from riding e-bikes and e-scooters was suspended days after Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said his office would not enforce it and questioned whether the age restriction would hold up in court.

JSO has said it does not comment on proposed legislation, but provided News4JAX a statement that said in part:

“We are currently reviewing the bill to determine whether it provides any useful enforcement mechanisms. In the meantime, our agency will continue to actively enforce pre-existing laws and regulations governing the operation of e-bikes throughout Duval County.”

Boylan said proposed changes to Jacksonville’s ordinance are expected to be considered by council committees in the weeks ahead.

Marte failed to show up for Arizona's game at Boston Monday night and manager Torey Lovullo was still searching for answers after it was over.

“It's been a crazy day. All I know is that he’s dealing with a personal issue — we’re just trying to figure that out,” Lovullo told reporters following the Diamondbacks' 11-1 loss to the Red Sox. “He didn’t show up today and he was put on the restricted list. That’s as much as I know right now. I'm sure in time we'll start to uncover some information.”

Lovullo said he spoke to Marte Monday morning and afternoon trying to find out what was going on, but didn't get any answers.

“There was very little coming back,” Lovullo said.

Marte traveled with the team to Boston and Lovullo thought he was still there, but wasn't certain.

This wasn't the first time Marte had a strange disappearance.

Last season, he went on the restricted list when his home in Arizona was broken into during the All-Star break. He missed three games after flying back to his home in the Dominican Republic and later apologized for his absence.

“I know there was a lot of discussions about it at different points of time in the clubhouse today — there was a lot of curiosity,” Lovullo said. “We care for Ketel and once we knew he was OK, I think everybody relaxed and started to focus on the game.”

A three-time All-Star, Marte is hitting .249 with 21 homers and 67 RBIs in 118 games this season.

Arizona recalled infielder Jose Fernandez to fill Marte’s roster spot. He was already in Boston in case third baseman Nolan Arenado wasn't able to play after leaving Sunday's game against Atlanta with what the team called “trunk discomfort.”

Arenado didn't play against the Red Sox, but his injury wasn't expected to be long term.

Marte's status — on the field and in the clubhouse — going forward is a bit foggier.

“I haven’t got that far,” Lovullo said. “I need a good night’s rest, a glass of wine and we’ll think about that.”

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

The standoff, in the village of Qusra, has seen groups of settlers surround several Palestinian houses and prevent residents from leaving. The United States has condemned the siege and the Israeli military has deployed troops it says are there to maintain order.

The siege of Palestinian homes by Israeli settlers comes as violence in the West Bank has soared in recent months. The settlers, emboldened by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government, have ramped up attacks on Palestinian towns and villages, harassing residents and setting homes, mosques and fields ablaze.

Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed 87 Palestinians so far this year, according to Palestinian health officials. Palestinians have killed three Israelis, including two who were killed during clashes in the West Bank village of Tell last month.

As Loui Ridi, an Ohio-based owner of one of the houses, landed in Israel, settlers were still roaming near Qusra, according to video footage taken by his brother. It showed settlers driving ATVs and speaking with soldiers.

Ridi had also watched the scenes unfold from afar through his home security cameras.

“I've been watching this live for many days and now this is the second week. I can't sleep,” he told reporters at Israel’s main international airport. “I can’t let the settlers steal my house while I was watching."

He finally arrived in Qusra on Monday evening, where he first reunited with his mother and sister before moving on to his house. Ridi's brother, Qusai Abu Rida, and his teenage son had stayed inside the home to protect the property.

As Ridi waited for Israel’s military to escort him to the house, he said he believed little had changed since early last week, when the siege began.

Israel has since declared the neighborhood where Ridi’s home is located a closed military zone. But on Monday, his brother’s footage still showed soldiers interacting amicably with settlers.

“I should be able to go to my house freely, anytime I want,” he said. “It is a frustration and a nightmare for the entire family.”

__ Metz reported from Tel Aviv, Israel.

The hearing lasted only a few minutes.

Journee McGrew was sentenced to 5 years with credit for 411 days of time served on the charge of tampering with evidence.

She was sentenced to 45 years with credit for 411 days of time served on the charge of second-degree murder.

The sentences will run concurrently.

Sentencing was originally scheduled to happen last month, but Judge Lindsay Tygart said that the court needed more time to review the materials and testimony presented in the case before giving a sentence.

“The court has been presented with an extensive amount of materials of evidence of testimony that the court is required to consider...the court is going to take a bit of time to re-review the materials and the evidence has been presented in the case not just today, but candidly from our prior hearings...,” Tygart said.

In an earlier sentencing hearing, Journee McGrew, 22, told the court that Waduta Woodley, whom she had known since she was a child, molested her multiple times for years, starting when she was in elementary school.

Woodley’s blood-soaked body was discovered by police in the breezeway of an apartment complex on Jacksonville’s Westside in July 2025.

RELATED: Woman describes killing man with hammer, testifies that he molested her for years as a child

McGrew was arrested that same day in connection with the discovery and charged with murder and concealing evidence.

McGrew originally pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and tampering with evidence. She later changed her plea to guilty in December 2025, and has been awaiting sentencing ever since.

McGrew’s mother takes the stand, reads statements from family

On July 31, McGrew’s mother, Jennifer Owens, took the stand and read prepared statements from McGrew’s brothers who could not attend in person. They described McGrew as a gentle person who has shown care for others and never hesitated to help.

Her older brother, Victor McGrew, who she was living with at the time of the incident, said that Journee McGrew was motivated and goal-oriented and was passionate about becoming a dental assistant.

“The conversations were always about getting ahead in life. Being a strong individual and conquering her mental health struggles. She was here with me and would always tell me about her dreams and aspirations and all the things she wanted to do in life,” Victor McGrew said in a prepared statement.

He also said he watched over her because he knew how vulnerable she is.

“This is the absolute last thing I would expect for my sister,” the statement continued. “I knew that she was struggling with her mental health. People have assaulted her, took advantage of her vulnerability and it took a toll on her mind. I’m in no way trying to justify her actions. I urge the court to consider the things she struggled with.”

Owens said her daughter was diagnosed with schizophrenia disorder, bipolar disorder and PTSD and witnessed her get treatment for it.

The state argued that McGrew didn’t tell her mother about the alleged abuse until 2024, and they never went to the police about it.

Dr. Kathrin Ritter is a clinical neuropsychologist who helped treat McGrew. She talked about how the multiple disorders may have affected her decision-making.

“At the time of the event, she maintained some understanding, but her judgment, her ability to regulate her behavior, her ability to manage impulses, her threat perception, her ability to think and reason through consequences of behavior. All of that was significantly diminished,” Ritter said.

State recommends life sentence

The state recommended a life sentence for McGrew.

“McGrew decided last year to be judge, jury, and executioner. She decided she was going to take the law into her own hands. She decided to be a vigilante, to be retaliatory and to impose a sentence,” the state said.

The prosecutor said that McGrew didn’t call the police about the abuse, but she told her family years later. She also argued that because of her conditions, she needs to be under constant medication and the only way for her to do that is to be incarcerated.

“She has indicated that when she feels paranoid and delusional, this defendant responds in acts of violence,” the prosecutor said. “Any sort of probation or community release that allows her to go off of her medication allows her to become a danger to the public at large.”

Defense recommends reasonable sentence to be released

The defense said that because of her mental conditions and Ritter’s testimony that McGrew’s thought process was disorganized because of them, the court should consider a reasonable sentence so that she can continue treatment.

“Her cognitive reasoning was impaired to the point where it affected her decision making in this case [Ritter] describes her behavior as self-preservation due to those delusions and due to her diseases,” the defense said.

Her lawyer said that she is currently being treated while she’s in jail and should be offered an opportunity to re-enter society.

“She has an opportunity to heal from the illness in part, that Mr. Woodley caused her and because of that I’m just asking this court to sentence Ms. McGrew to a reasonable sentence where she will have the opportunity to be released.”

What she claims

McGrew testified during a sentencing hearing in April that she was diagnosed with psychosis and post-traumatic stress disorder when she was Baker Acted before the murder.

Watch her full testimony below:

McGrew said she hit Woodley multiple times with a hammer after she lured him to her apartment by saying she wanted to have sex.

McGrew said it wasn’t her plan to have sex or to kill Woodley, but instead to collect evidence of his alleged abuse that could be used against him.

“This was not supposed to happen. I really wasn’t in my right mind when this happened. I’m not violent, and I’m sorry for this situation,” she said in a message to the courtroom.

Woodley’s mother spoke on behalf of her son.

“Everything changed in a second when your only son has been murdered,” his mother said in court. “Yes, this has affected my family, my daughter, my granddaughter [...] We don’t know how to cope.”

When McGrew was asked if she had a message for the family, she responded:

“I am sorry about what I did,” McGrew said. “I know how much I impacted your family and mine. I’m really sorry for what happened.”

The killing

According to her arrest report, Jacksonville police were called to the Cross Creek Apartment complex on July 2, 2025, about a dispute.

When officers arrived, they found Woodley suffering from what appeared to be blunt force trauma to his head and face. Woodley was lying on the ground in front of McGrew’s apartment.

According to the arrest report, Woodley had a white piece of paper on his chest that read, “PEDO Touches Children.” The writing was in green ink from a green highlighter.

Officers ordered McGrew to come out of her apartment, and she complied. As she was being detained, the report said she asked if Woodley was still alive.

After a search warrant was obtained for McGrew’s apartment, police went inside and found bloody footprints leading from the front door to the bathroom.

According to the arrest report, when officers entered McGrew’s bathroom, they found a metal hammer in the sink. Officers discovered blood on the hammer’s handle. The sink drain plug was later found in McGrew’s bedroom. The arrest report states that the liquid found on the drain plug tested positive for blood.

The arrest report also states that police found a pair of pink Crocs slippers covered in blood, along with a tank top and a pair of pants that were also covered in blood. The search also turned up a notebook with loose paper and a green highlighter.

McGrew told investigators that Woodley had been sexually grooming her since she was 8 years old and had sexually assaulted her multiple times, the report said.

The report went on to say that on July 1, she sent Woodley a text, saying that she had been sexually fantasizing about him and regretted treating him poorly. That night, she invited him to her apartment, according to the report.

McGrew told police that by 1 a.m., Woodley pressured her to have sex, which she denied him and asked him to leave. She said as they were leaving the room toward the front entrance, she grabbed a hammer and hid it behind her back.

The report said that when the two got to the front doorway, Woodley grabbed her in a non-forceful manner, and that’s when she began hitting him with the hammer.

Police asked her if she had invited Woodley over with plans to kill him, but her response was redacted from the arrest report.

News4JAX conducted a criminal background check on Woodley and could not find any criminal offenses related to sexually assaulting or abusing children.

McGrew said she never reported the alleged abuse because she lived with Woodley and feared being kicked out. She also testified she told friends when she was young, but didn’t share with her family or doctors until she was in her 20s.

County court judges oversee a wide range of cases, including criminal cases (misdemeanor, county and municipal ordinances, traffic), civil cases (disputes over $8,000 to $50,000), landlord-tenant cases, small claims cases (disputes up to $8,000), and non-criminal traffic cases.

Of note, judicial candidates in Florida are bound by Canon 7 of the Code of Judicial Conduct, which does place some limits on what they can say during a campaign, as compared to candidates for other offices.

News4JAX sent questionnaires to each candidate asking about their background and views on several issues. Scroll down to read the responses of those seeking your vote -- in their own words.

Note: Responses are sorted alphabetically and are presented exactly as submitted, with no editing by News4JAX staff.

NON-PARTISAN CANDIDATES

Melina Buncome

Occupation: Assistant Public Defender 4th judicial circuit. Director of Problem Solving Court of the 4th Judicial Circuit/ Attorney

Age: N/A

Family: Extended family

Education: Education:

* Nova Southeastern University, Shepard Broad College of Law – Juris Doctor (JD)

* University of the Virgin Islands – Bachelor of Arts (BA)

* El Centro College – Associate of Arts (AA)

Political experience: N/A

What do you see as the top three issues in this race, and how do you plan to address them?

The top three issues I aim to address are:

1. Judicial Efficiency and Fiscal Responsibility: I am committed to streamlining the judicial system to ensure cases move through the courts promptly. By increasing efficiency, we can better protect our community while reducing the burden on taxpayer resources.

2. Restoring Public Trust Through Active Engagement: A core priority of my campaign is ensuring that the community feels truly heard. I believe that an accessible and transparent court system is essential for maintaining public confidence in the rule of law.

3. Equitable and Individualized Justice: Every case that comes before the court involves unique circumstances. My approach is to meticulously evaluate the law, the specific facts of each case, and the individual appearing before me to ensure that every decision rendered is balanced, fair, and impartial.

How can you help voters in a way that others running for this office cannot?

As the Director of Problem Solving Courts, I offer a unique perspective on justice that my opponents may lack. I understand firsthand how specialized programs can provide critical support for individuals struggling with mental health issues, substance abuse, and challenges related to military service. By effectively utilizing and expanding these problem-solving courts, we can address the root causes of recidivism, decrease crime rates, and significantly reduce the financial burden on our community. My goal is to transform our approach to public safety by prioritizing rehabilitation alongside accountability.

What would you hope to be remembered for accomplishing after serving in this office?

My primary goal is to ensure true justice for all members of our community. By implementing a more equitable and transparent approach, I intend to strengthen the integrity of our judiciary, restore public trust, and ensure that every citizen is treated with fairness and impartiality under the law.

Campaign website: buncomeforjudge.com

Campaign social media: Facebook | Instagram

Marquita H. Green

Occupation: Attorney since 2009

Age: (No answer)

Family: Married 19 years and raised three daughters

Education: B.A. in Psychology from the University of Virginia

M.S. in Community Psychology from Springfield College

J.D. from the Florida State University College of Law

Political experience: N/A

What do you see as the top three issues in this race, and how do you plan to address them?

The biggest issue in this race is ensuring that voters elect a judge who is best qualified to serve the community in a judicial capacity. There is a difference between leading people and serving people. Judicial leadership is about more than making decisions. Judges serve the community by properly governing the courtroom and all partners within the court process. Judges serve by effectively guiding attorneys and litigants through transitions and rule changes. Judges serve by being good listeners, respectful, patient, prepared, independent thinkers, and tempered. Judicial leadership maintains the heart of people while still following the law. Candidate Green embodies these sentiments and will uphold them if elected to serve as Duval County Court Judge in Group 13.

How can you help voters in a way that others running for this office cannot?

Candidate Green served for more than four years as a General Magistrate in Duval County, where she has managed a courtroom, conducted hearings, evaluated evidence, made findings of fact, and prepared reports and recommended orders across a broad docket. Her quasi-judicial work has included family law matters, dissolution of marriage, timesharing and child support, dependency and juvenile diversion, domestic violence compliance, mental health and substance-use issues, consumer matters, and municipal ordinance violations. She brings a variety of experience and consistency that our community can trust.

What would you hope to be remembered for accomplishing after serving in this office?

Candidate Green desires to increase the community’s public trust and confidence in the judicial system, and hopes that all individuals who appear before her feels seen, heard, and respected regardless of the outcome.

Campaign website: vote.greenforjudge.com

Campaign social media: Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn

Octavius A. Holliday, Jr.

Occupation: Assistant State Attorney, State Attorney’s Office, Director of the Human Rights Division (Elder Abuse & Hate Crimes Prosecution)

Age: 54

Family: Married to Hui Min Holliday, a Duval County Schools Assistant Principal.

Biological Father of two sets of twins

(32 year old Darius Holliday, Houston, TX Attorney, 32 year old Courtney Holliday Boyd, Chicago, IL Social Worker, 26 year old Olivia Holliday, Jacksonville, FL future pharmacist, and 26 year old Madison Holliday, Tallahassee, FL medical tech.)

Father of three bonus children who attend Duval County Public Schools and one granddaughter.

Education: 2002, University of Florida College of Law, Gainesville, FL, Juris Doctor

1995, Duke University, Durham, NC, Bachelor of Arts, Political Science

1990 Lyman High School, Longwood, FL

Political experience: None

What do you see as the top three issues in this race, and how do you plan to address them?

1. Being fair and balanced. I am the only candidate with experience as both a prosecutor and as a criminal defense attorney. I have a stellar reputation of being a firm, but fair prosecutor and that will continue when I am elected to the bench.

2. Familiarity with the type of cases over which this position will preside. I have extensive experience in criminal law and when I was the sole proprietor of a law firm for five years, I handled small claims and landlord tenant actions. The people deserve a judge that has experience prior to taking the bench.

3. Commitment to the community. County Court Judge is nicknamed ”The People’s Judge.“ I have shown my commitment to mentoring and volunteering in Jacksonville for over twenty years through serving on the Jacksonville Journey Board, serving on the Elder Abuse Fatality Review Team, serving on the Jacksonville Urban League Youth Crime Reduction Initiative, by volunteering at the Police Athletic League, and committing time and effort into several more non-profits throughout the city. My commitment to Jacksonville will continue with the same energetic devotion after taking the bench.

How can you help voters in a way that others running for this office cannot?

I can help voters by being being experienced in criminal law on day one (jury selection, jury trials, criminal rules of procedure, rules of evidence, and post conviction matters) as well as having vast experience in prosecution and criminal defense which brings immediate balance and fairness to the bench.

What would you hope to be remembered for accomplishing after serving in this office?

I would like to be remembered for continuing the high level of ethics and standards for which the 4th Judicial Circuit Bench is known and for never letting outside influences or politics interfere with my steadfast commitment to always strive to do what is fair and just in every case.

Campaign website: www.votehollidayforjudge.com

Campaign social media: Facebook | Instagram

The ruling is the latest development in a yearslong battle over where to house the main office for the nation's premier law enforcement agency. A site in Greenbelt, Maryland, was picked during former President Joe Biden's administration, but Trump appointees sought to reverse that decision last year in favor of repurposing the Ronald Reagan Building, a federal office complex a few blocks from the FBI's existing headquarters.

U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang, an appointee of President Barack Obama, ruled that the move was “ not in accordance with law,” and blocked the Trump administration from moving the FBI to the Reagan building, renovating it for the FBI or repurposing funds.

“This is not the first time courts have tried to undermine the administration in its goal to make government more cost-effective for American taxpayers,” the FBI said in a statement. “The court has chosen to impermissibly intervene for political reasons. This FBI is mission focused and will continue the best course of action to meet the needs of law enforcement.”

The suit was brought by the state of Maryland and Prince George's County.

“Maryland and Prince George’s County committed more than a decade of work to earn the FBI headquarters and pledged hundreds of millions of dollars," Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, a Democrat, said in a statement. “By blocking the Trump Administration’s unlawful attempt to move the FBI to the Reagan Building and divert the funds Congress set aside for this project, the Court has cleared the path back to Greenbelt.”

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, also a Democrat, said, "Now it is time to stop the games and get to work building the world-class FBI headquarters that our public servants deserve, where it belongs: in Prince George’s County, Maryland.”

The FBI's current Pennsylvania Avenue headquarters, the J. Edgar Hoover Building, was dedicated in 1975. Proponents of moving the headquarters have said the brutalist-style building, where nets surround the facility to protect pedestrians from falling debris, has fallen into disrepair.

The Maryland location was selected over nearby Virginia following an intense competition between the two states.

This story originally published at GatorsBreakdown.com

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In central and east central Indiana, emergency operations were still ongoing after days of punishing storms, Gov. Mike Braun said at afternoon news conference, while other areas were shifting to recovery. He said the state had launched a disaster relief fund to provide $5,000 to individuals needing to buy basics such as clothing and food.

“We're tracking your needs, and we will get you resources,” he said. “We want displaced Hoosiers to have a hot meal, comfortable bed and get into air-conditioning.”

The National Weather Service said heavy rain would continue one more day before a cold front sweeps the weather pattern off the East Coast on Tuesday. Meanwhile, flash flood warnings were issued over parts of waterlogged West Virginia, where residents were cleaning up Monday after more than 4 inches (10 centimeters) of rain fell over the weekend, causing mudslides, tearing up roads, prompting water rescues and contributing to at least one death.

Elsewhere, hot weather posed more of a problem, particularly across the South and Southwest. The weather service issued extreme heat warnings for portions of Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina, Arizona, Nevada and California.

Indiana is seeking recovery after days of deadly storms

In Indiana, where days of storms and flooding left at least seven people dead, floodwaters receded in Indianapolis’ White River and rains eased around the state Sunday. But a flood warning remained in effect Monday night for several rivers, including part of Randolph County in east central Indiana, where thunderstorms had dropped between 1 and 2 inches (2.5 to 5 centimeters) of rain. Residents of half a dozen counties were urged to stay off the roads except for essential travel.

“While we have seen encouraging trends, the work is far from over,” said Jacob Spence, director of the Metropolitan Emergency Services Agency in Indianapolis, where city officials launched a website to support affected residents.

Oliver Riggle, 33, said he had just moved into a camping trailer in Indianapolis a few months ago after living in his car.

“Just having privacy again was a huge deal. I mean, I had a door that locked. I had a roof that was mine,” he said. “No one was gonna take it from me, except for apparently Mother Nature.”

A neighbor told Riggle the trailer nearly tipped over as it floated in the flood waters. It was still full of water Sunday, but by Monday, the water had receded and he was busy throwing away waterlogged belongings.

A handyman whose trailer flooded wants to help others salvage their homes

A handyman who works for a general contractor, Riggle said he hopes to help others salvage their own homes.

"I’ve got tools that I can use to help be a part of the community,” he said. “We’re just gonna have to have faith that we’re going to be able to pull through because it’s not like we’ve got a safety net.”

Michael Daily, 23, said he won’t be moving back into his rental home after it flooded and instead has moved in with his parents about half an hour away.

“It’s not helpful that you see everything you’ve worked for get destroyed. I’m definitely out a good chunk of change,” he said. “You can already see mold growing in spots in there, just like little white fluff balls everywhere. It’s pretty gross.”

South of Indianapolis, officials in Madison Township said firefighters and others rescued 10 people from their homes Sunday night. Others had to be rescued from cars after attempting to drive through flooded roadways.

A 4-year-old boy, three men and three women were among those who had died since the storms that began Aug. 11, said spokesperson Liz Woods with the state Department of Homeland Security.

A cyclist is found dead on a washed-out road after the flooding

Also among the seven victims was a 31-year-old cyclist found dead early Sunday in a hole that opened up on a washed-out road east of Indianapolis. Henry County Coroner Brian Clark said the man, James Briar, appears to have gone around a barricade and fallen into the collapsed road.

Heavy rains hammered Indiana over the past week, causing rivers to crest and setting records as roads and bridges were seriously damaged or washed out entirely.

More than 94,000 utility customers statewide remained without power as of Monday night, down from a peak of around 300,000, according to utility tracker PowerOutage.us.

The drenching rains and destructive flooding were among the impacts of severe storms that have wreaked havoc across the Midwest and beyond in recent days. Tornadoes, heavy rains and flash flooding brought serious damage to communities from Illinois to western Pennsylvania.

In southern West Virginia, authorities on Monday found the body of a woman whose vehicle was swept away in floodwaters. Witnesses told police that the vehicle made a wrong turn and entered a flooded area Sunday. A tree branch broke the vehicle’s glass and the woman tried to escape but she fell into the floodwaters and was carried away by the current, according to a statement by Fayette County Sheriff Jess McMullen.

The National Weather Service forecasts heavy rain and thunderstorms across the upper Ohio Valley to the central Appalachians, with the possibility of severe storms late Monday across eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina.

____

Ramer reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Associated Press writer John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia, contributed to this report.

A Heat Advisory and Extreme Heat Warning will be in effect from 11 a.m. - 8 p.m. Tuesday.

Isolated showers and thunderstorms will develop tomorrow afternoon, mainly across northeast Florida as slightly drier air pushes into SE GA.

The pattern continues with triple-digit Feels Like temperatures and afternoon showers and thunderstorms through the week. Locally heavy rain, gusty wind and lightning remain the main hazards.

Near record highs along with the heat and humidity combination will keep heat indices around 105 - 110 degrees.

In the tropics: Tropical activity is not expected for the next few days, however, the GFS is showing potential development in the Atlantic later this week. The EURO is not showing anything in the same area, but it’s something to watch.

Tonight: Heat Advisory, Heat Warning through 8 p.m. Isolated showers and thunderstorms through early evening.

Tuesday: Hot and humid. Heat Advisory, Heat Warning 11 a.m. - 8 p.m. Heat indices up to 110 degrees. Isolated showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 2 p.m., 30-50 percent. Morning lows in the 70s to low 80s. Afternoon highs in the 90s inland, upper 80s to low 90s along the beaches. Wind: WSW 5-10 mph.

Wednesday - Friday: Near record highs with possible heat advisories and warnings. Scattered afternoon showers and thunderstorms daily. Morning lows in the 70s with highs in the mid to upper 90s inland, upper 80s to 90s along the beaches. Feels Like temperatures 105-110 degrees. Wind: WSW 5 -10 mph.

Looking ahead: Temperatures return to near seasonal this weekend with a chance of afternoon showers and thunderstorms.

Sunrise: 6:55 p.m.

Sunset: 8:05 p.m.

Police say officers were patrolling Bay Street shortly after midnight when they heard what appeared to be a gunshot nearby. Officers began checking the surrounding area when they saw a man, identified as 20-year-old Jason Middlebrooks, running away. He was quickly detained.

Police say officers located another man on Grant Street with a gunshot wound. He later died from his injuries.

Police say Middlebrooks was arrested and is now facing the following charges:

• Murder
• Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon
• Possession of a Firearm During the Commission of a Crime
• Aggravated Assault
• Theft by Taking of a Firearm
• Theft by Taking of a Motor Vehicle

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) is assisting Brunswick Police Criminal Investigations in the incident. An investigation is ongoing.

Anyone with further information is encouraged to call Detective Howell at (912) 279-2606 or Silent Witness at (912) 267-5516.

The league said in a statement Monday that the fans should have been free to wear the shirts.

“The WNBA is aware of interactions at (Sunday) night’s game in Atlanta in which fans were asked by league security to cover their shirts,” the statement said. “This should not have happened.”

Two people wore shirts with a message that women's and girls' sports should be restricted to those assigned female at birth, while one person was wearing a shirt in support of transgender people.

The WNBA has been the subject of recent debates on whether transgender women — people assigned male at birth who transition to align with their gender identity — should be allowed to participate in the league. There has never been such a player in the WNBA. Although the league's collective bargaining agreement says the WNBA is restricted to women, it contains no more specific language about gender identity or sex assigned at birth.

There have been players in the league who were assigned female at birth and later came out as transgender or nonbinary.

Sophie Cunningham of the Fever said in an ESPN profile published last month that she was opposed to transgender girls and women competing in girls' and women's sports. Her stance led to small rallies and protests outside Fever games at Seattle and Portland, and Storm minority owner Celeste Keaton was given a five-game ban for confronting two fans who had signs supporting Cunningham.

The league has informed the security workers from the Atlanta game that they were wrong to ask that the messages be covered up.

The Dream said the team was not involved in the security personnel's actions.

“The Atlanta Dream believes in creating a safe and inclusive environment for everyone. Unfortunately, at last night’s game, WNBA security took actions that fell short of that standard,” the Dream said in a statement “At no point was Dream personnel involved in the decisions made by WNBA security.”

___

See AP’s full WNBA coverage here

ESPN and The Athletic first reported that the siblings had voted to sell the family trust's remaining interest in the 17-time NBA champion team purchased by their father, Jerry Buss, in 1979. The decision would end Jeanie Buss' tenure as the Lakers' governor because that job requires at least 15% ownership of the team.

Jeannie Buss' attorney, Adam Streisand, wrote to representatives for her five siblings to state that any decision to sell the family trust's ownership stake could not be “effectuated without approval of the current co-trustees, Jeanie, Janie and Joey Buss.”

The letter further states that the co-trustees “are bound to vote the Los Angeles Lakers, Inc. shares to ensure that the minimum 15% ownership requirement is maintained in order to ensure that Jeanie Buss may remain Controlling Owner. Any attempt by the co-trustees to do otherwise, and any attempt to aid or abet the co-trustees as such, would constitute a breach of trust, breach of fiduciary duty and be in contempt of court.”

Jeanie Buss has been the Lakers’ governor since Jerry Buss’ death in 2013, and she led the family’s decision to sell a controlling stake in the Lakers to Dodgers owner Mark Walter last year at a valuation of $10 billion. Walter, who is under federal investigation for tax issues, abruptly reached a deal earlier this month to flip the Lakers to Kushner and Iger at a valuation of $12.5 billion, another record for a pro sports team.

Venture capitalist Kushner and former Disney CEO Iger are reportedly buying about 65% of the team from Walter. They would own about 83% if they reach a deal with the Buss siblings — and Jeanie Buss would lose the governor role that she had been slated to keep at least through 2030 under the deal with Walter.

The Buss siblings have been in frequent conflict since their father’s death, with Jeanie firing Jim from his job as the Lakers’ head of basketball operations in 2017, followed a week later by a lawsuit against her brothers amid an attempt by Jim and Johnny to oust Jeanie from her role as the Lakers’ controlling owner.

Not all of the six Buss siblings were in favor of the sale to Walter, and Joey and Jesse were fired from their front-office jobs with the team last November.

The siblings say they voted this month to sell their family's remaining interest in the Lakers, but Jeanie Buss claims any vote is void. ESPN reported that Jeanie Buss was the only sibling who didn't support the final sale.

“We have decided as a family to sell the remaining Buss Family Trust shares to the Bob Iger group as part of the ongoing transaction,” the Buss family said in a statement. “We love the Lakers, Laker fans and will continue to support Los Angeles, but it is time to use this opportunity to move on and exit gracefully while we still can.”

In his letter, Streisand said Joey and Jesse Buss have leaked information to ESPN for many years “for the malicious purpose of doing harm to the Los Angeles Lakers so long as Dr. Buss’s chosen successor, Jeanie Buss, carries out her father’s wishes.”

Jerry Buss was a chemist and real estate investor who bought the Lakers, the NHL's Los Angeles Kings and the Forum arena from Jack Kent Cooke for $67.5 million. The Lakers quickly entered a renaissance in which they became known for their flashy “Showtime” style of play while winning five NBA titles between 1980 and 1988 behind Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

While the NBA and professional sports became increasingly more corporate, the Lakers remained essentially a family business despite their massive profile and steady success. Jerry Buss and the Lakers have employed many of the basketball world's greatest players and coaches of the past five decades, and Kobe Bryant led the Lakers to five additional championships between 2000 and 2010 before LeBron James added the 17th in 2020.

The sale agreement with Kushner and Iger still must be approved by the NBA's board of governors, and the process could take months.

___

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

Tyler's “If I Sing You A Love Song" played as her rose-covered coffin was carried into Swansea Minster for the invite-only funeral that was projected on a screen outside. Her “It’s a Heartache” played as the coffin was placed in front of the altar.

“Bonnie was always a star but never a diva,” her manager, Matthew Davis, said in one of several tributes. “She never forgot her roots or where she came from. She would have been amazed and very gratified at the massive outpouring of love from all over the world that has occurred since her sudden and unexpected passing.”

The Grammy-nominated pop star, beloved for her 1983 chart-topping power ballad “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” died last month in a hospital in Portugal at 75. She had been hospitalized in May in Faro, where she had a home, for emergency intestinal surgery.

The funeral was held less than a week after her signature song served as the soundtrack at celebrations marking a total eclipse that darkened skies across parts of Europe.

Crowds lined the streets Saturday in her seaside Welsh village of Mumbles as a hearse carried her coffin, draped in a Welsh flag, home.

Kathleen Davies, who joined the crowd outside the church, said she was starstruck when she first saw Tyler but later came to learn she was down to earth.

“She’s Welsh through and through,” Davies said. "Everything about her, she’s natural, there’s no fake stuff. When you see her on the interviews, she’s just who she is.”

Tyler was born Gaynor Hopkins, a coal miner’s daughter in public housing with an outside toilet in Skewen, Wales, about 7 miles (11 kilometers) outside Swansea. She grew up with three sisters and two brothers.

Canon Justin Davies said in a eulogy written by her family that she first performed in a contest at a rugby club in the late 1960s, singing ”Those Were The Days,” made famous by Mary Hopkin.

“She came in second and won just one pound, but was hooked," Davies said. “The rest, as they say, was history.”

Tyler went on to earn three Grammy nods and in 2013 represented Britain at the Eurovision Song Contest, where she came in 19th. She was honored as a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 2022 for her services to music by Queen Elizabeth II, thanks mainly to “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”

The ballad shot to the top of the charts in Britain and the United States and has had more than 1 billion streams, boosted by real eclipses in 2017, 2024 and most recently during last week’s solar eclipse.

She was also known for “Holding Out For a Hero,” from the soundtrack of the film “Footloose.”

___

Melley reported from London.

Trump explained his decision by citing South Korea’s refusal to join his war against Iran and pointing to what he said was his good relationship with North Korea’s reclusive dictator, a transactional and personal approach to foreign policy that has defined the Republican’s presidency.

“There is no American interest that I can see in this,” said Dan Fried, an assistant secretary of state for European affairs in the George W. Bush administration. “On all levels it makes no sense. It undermines the South Koreans, undermines the Japanese, frightens the Taiwanese, unnerves NATO and emboldens the Chinese, not to mention the North Koreans.”

Danny Russel, former assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific in the Obama administration, said Trump's decision to side with North Korea, which strongly objects to the annual joint military exercises, is "firmly in the ‘hard-to see-how-it-could-be-worse’ category.”

“It is tragically upside-down. Trump is punishing an ally while encouraging an adversary,” said Russel, now a scholar at the Asia Society Policy Institute in New York. “He is protecting Kim Jong Un’s sensitive feelings from an unfriendly signal at the expense of U.S.-South Korean security."

The message it sends to South Koreans

Trump on Sunday ordered the U.S. military to downsize the 11-day Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises, which began Monday as scheduled. It wasn’t known which parts of the training were being scaled back.

His announcement baffled many in South Korea, which has been closely allied with the U.S. for decades and where national security is a top priority due to threats from nuclear-armed North Korea.

It also drew instant criticism from many Democrats in Congress.

“Treating one of America’s closest allies like an adversary weakens our alliances and benefits China and North Korea," said Rep. Greg Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, in a statement.

Trump on Monday doubled down, posting a photo of North Korea’s leader speaking on a phone. The caption read: “HEY DONALD ... WE COOL, RIGHT?”

Retired U.S. Ambassador Robert Wood, who served under Republican and Democratic presidents, said the joint military exercises are critical to deterring North Korea, which has shunned any talks with the U.S. over its nuclear program and has accelerated weapons testing.

“We also don’t want South Korea to draw the conclusion that a nuclear weapons capability is the only guarantee it has to ensure its security,” Wood said.

Matthew Kroenig, who previously served in defense and intelligence positions in Republican and Democratic administrations, said polls show that South Koreans have increasingly supported the idea of pursuing their own nuclear weapons.

“The United States has been working really hard to try to persuade South Korea that they are protected,” said Kroenig, who is now with the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank. Scaling back the exercises “potentially undermines that message,” he said.

Seoul tried to flatter Trump

Trump's turnabout came even after the South Koreans worked to flatter the American president, eager to gain favor on critical issues such as trade and defense.

As soon as he sat down in the gilded Oval Office for his meeting with Trump last year, new President Lee Jae Myung praised the room’s elaborate decor. Laying it on thick, Lee affirmed Trump’s assertion that Kim would not have pursued his nuclear ambitions had Trump won a second consecutive term in 2020, while dangling the prospect of an eventual Trump Tower in North Korea.

Trump just hours earlier had appeared to show sympathy for Lee’s predecessor, Yoon Suk Yeol, who had been ousted from office after imposing martial law in December 2024.

Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said Trump's scaling back of the exercises may prompt longtime allies to think more about their own security without U.S. help.

“They are hoping that the American umbrella is there for the future,” said Kupchan, who worked on the National Security Council under Democratic Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, “but they have to at least contemplate the idea that Uncle Sam won’t be there for them.”

‘It’s like he wants to burn it all down'

Kupchan said Trump is not mistaken in wanting to have South Korea, as well as the Europeans, contribute more to their defense. But, he said, the president’s unpredictable approach cuts through the solidarity that undergirds those alliances “because he ends up insulting allies.”

Fried said Trump seems unwilling to "take a win” after brow-beating NATO members and Asian allies into increasing their defense spending.

“NATO is building up, South Korea is building up, Japan is building up. Trump has a problem with taking the win," said Fried, who is currently at the Atlantic Council. "It’s like he wants to burn it all down.”

John Herbst, a former ambassador to Ukraine under President George W. Bush, said the Korea decision shows how inconsistent the Trump administration can be in its policy pronouncements. But in general, he said, the U.S. has maintained long-term alliances.

“If these things grow in frequency and in importance, obviously we will be in the process of taking apart the alliance system, which has served us so well since the end of World War II,” said Herbst, who also is with the Atlantic Council. “But despite some statements which seem to head in that direction, we have not headed there in a consistent, strong way.”

Kupchan agreed.

While the president’s language could be taken as “we’re done with you,” Kupchan said, “the reality is that, at least as of today, Trump has left intact America’s forward bases and its core alliance relationships.”

Whether Trump’s message to South Korea will amount to a meaningful policy change or a fleeting social media post is up in the air.

“He’s an unpredictable president,” Kroenig said. “If we move on and the exercises go as planned and we never hear anything about this again, I wouldn’t be surprised.”

——

Associated Press reporters Collin Binkley, Jesse Bedayn, Lisa Mascaro and Seung Min Kim in Washington and Farnoush Amiri in New York contributed to this report.

News4JAX I-TEAM investigator John Asebes set out to find out.

Testing the detectors

News4JAX used ChatGPT to generate a photo of Asebes holding the Stanley Cup — then ran it through three AI detector sites to see if artificial intelligence could spot its own work.

“The face looks transplanted,” Asebes said.

The detectors, however, didn’t all agree on whether the image was real or fake. Two flagged it as likely AI-generated. One called it “uncertain.” That inconsistency became a pattern.

For transparency, each tool’s score was recorded and compared across platforms — and against real photos known to be genuine. A photo of Asebes with News4JAX reporter Andrea Snody, confirmed to be real, was also run through the same detectors. For the most part, the tools indicated the image appeared real — though none would give it a perfect score. ChatGPT also suggested it was more than likely real but stopped short of certainty.

The bottom line: detectors help, but they don’t always deliver a clean yes or no.

When uncertainty has real stakes

The stakes get higher when the subject isn’t a lighthearted Stanley Cup photo. Consider the conversation surrounding Sen. Mitch McConnell’s health. McConnell had not been publicly seen for some time. He was hospitalized in June after a fall. His office released a photo of McConnell at a rehabilitation center in early July, then another later that month. Those photos sparked debate over whether the images were real — or AI-generated as part of an effort to conceal his declining health.

News4JAX ran those same images through the same AI detectors — and got inconsistent results. One site said it wasn’t sure. Another said one of the photos was probably AI-generated. A third concluded both photos were most likely real.

“You’re trusting whoever is pushing out that image, even if it is associated with an official account,” one source said. “We already know, for instance, that politicians on their official accounts have put out AI-generated media, and sometimes they disclose that, other times they don’t.”

Expert weighs in

News4JAX spoke with AI expert Dr. Josh Gellers, Dean of Professional and Lifelong Learning at the University of North Florida, to talk about how society is grappling with the rapid expansion of generative AI.

“I feel like in this conversation, we’re just scratching the surface on AI, and then simultaneously, the world is just scratching the surface of how big AI is going to be,” Asebes said.

“We haven’t fully grappled with the magnitude of changes that this is going to cause society,” Gellers said.

Gellers said that reflection needs to happen at every level.

“Organizations, institutions, and individuals should really be thinking about as they contemplate how much we want AI to be infused in our everyday lives,” he said.

And the risk isn’t theoretical. Generative AI already landed one local business owner in hot water after an AI-generated photo of Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence resulted in a letter from the NFL.

“People have a right to retain their own image and likenesses under the law,” the source said. “And someone could potentially threaten their livelihood, their reputation, because they are putting something out there in the world that’s not real.”

Florida fights back with new laws

Florida has seen the consequences of AI misuse firsthand. Brooke Curry, daughter of former Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry, fought back after someone posted an AI-generated fake nude photo of her without her consent.

“You have to go through that to really understand the trauma it brings, and that was probably the hardest part — people not understanding behind closed doors how it affects you,” Brooke Curry said.

Brooke’s Law, passed in June 2025, requires online platforms to remove AI-generated sexually explicit images of a person without their consent after receiving a valid request from the victim.

Beyond Brooke’s Law, Florida has passed additional generative AI-related measures, including making AI-generated child sexual abuse material illegal and requiring disclaimers on certain AI-altered political ads.

Florida lawmakers also considered an Artificial Intelligence Bill of Rights. It passed the Senate but ultimately failed to advance in the House.

What you can do

Gellers said it’s important for individuals to stay engaged as AI continues to spread into nearly every corner of daily life.

“It’s being infused in so many different aspects of life — the public sector, the private sector, our personal lives, education, religion and so on — that it’s very difficult to envision it all going away instantly,” Gellers said. “And yet we still need to maintain our sense of personhood, humanity, and think about places where we absolutely do not want AI to be involved.”

If something online looks off, don’t rush to share it. When in doubt, think before you click.

Petrobras, Brazil's majority state-owned corporation, said on Friday that it had detected hydrocarbons during exploratory drilling about 180 kilometers (112 miles) off the coast of Amapa state. The country's coastal regions near the mouth of the Amazon are known as the Equatorial Margin.

The exploratory drilling began in October. Environmental and Indigenous groups have since sued the Brazilian government and Petrobras to halt exploration, arguing the licensing process failed to properly consult traditional communities, underestimated spill risks and did not adequately assess climate impacts. The company has long argued it has never caused spills in its drillings.

“When I say ‘passport,’” Lula said, “I’m not denying my commitment to the fight for a day when we no longer need fossil fuels, because Brazil will continue to be the king of biofuel innovation and will remain a major player in renewable energy.”

Lula, who faces what is expected to be a tight election in October for a fourth term as president, spoke at an official event in the municipality of Oiapoque in Amapa after visiting the vessel.

Lula has pushed both for drilling and alternative energy

Under Lula, Brazil has backed the need to transition away from fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas that heat the planet and impact its climate.

The position was touted at the U.N. climate summit Brazil hosted last year, and also in other forums, such as an April meeting in Colombia that focused on shifting away from fossil fuels. At the same time, the country is ramping up new drilling investments.

The Equatorial Margin is believed to hold significant oil and natural gas reserves, and preliminary estimates suggest the basin could contain up to 10 billion barrels of oil, with a potential value of about 3.8 trillion reais ($720 billion).

“All of our studies indicate substantial potential. This discovery confirms our findings, and we will continue exploring,” the Petrobras president, Magda Chambriard, said Monday about the latest find. The company still needs to conduct further research to determine how much oil the area contains, she added.

Still, according to Shigueo Watanabe Jr., an energy expert with the Brazilian nonprofit ClimaInfo, commercial drilling remains a distant prospect at this stage. Determining whether extraction would be commercially viable would require further research that could take up to a decade.

Lula's announcement appears to follow a political calendar

Lula spoke in Oiapoque a day after kicking off his election campaign at the Vila Euclides Stadium outside Sao Paulo — a city where he rose to political fame 47 years ago as a metalworkers union leader during the country’s 1964-1985 military dictatorship.

The leftist leader, who is running against Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro — the lawmaker son of former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro — said Chambriard, the head of Petrobras, has told him the new-found oil is of high quality.

Lula, wearing the orange uniform of oil workers, held up a small bottle of black crude oil that he described as “blessed,” and said that he would like to keep it in a safe.

At stake, he said, are both “the interests of the country and the interests of the company,” referring to Petrobras.

“And Amapa’s right not to end up as merely an exporter of acai and tucunare,” he said, referring to the region's top products, the coveted berries and the freshwater fish.

Displayed behind him was a huge photo of Lula from his visit to the drilling vessel earlier Monday, showing the president holding up both hands stained with black crude — a gesture he famously made in 2008, when he announced the discovery of vast offshore oil reserves in southeastern Brazil.

Back then, Lula was at the height of his popularity. Now, he has become a polarizing figure, with opinion polls showing that nearly half of Brazilians approve of his administration, while a similarly large share disapprove of it.

Breno Rodrigues de Messias Leite, a political scientist and professor at the Federal University of Amazonas, said Lula's Monday trip sends an important message to voters, especially in northern Brazil and its state capitals, where he has faced criticism.

“For the Amazon, the possibility of gaining access to some of the world’s largest oil reserves changes the equation,” Leite said.

“Lula wants to be reelected, and he wants the states in the northern region, especially Amapa, to have an electorate that is favorable to him,” he added.

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In a Facebook post, the restaurant expressed its gratitude for the staff members who worked at the location over the past seven years. It didn’t give a reason for the closure.

Tasty’s also thanked the community for its continued support over the years. The restaurant says it hopes its final week in business is filled with familiar faces, favorite meals and good memories.

Tasty’s has three other locations in Yulee, Fernandina Beach and Kingsland. Those will remain open.

The project through the national park in southern Texas has faced fierce bipartisan opposition by critics who say it is marring the area's pristine environment. They argue the region’s rugged and remote terrain already serves as a deterrent to migrants and smugglers. Border crossings in the area have historically been lower than other regions and have dropped even further over the past two years.

“CBP is pausing all construction activity in Big Bend National Park while I visit and conduct a personal, on-the-ground evaluation,” Rodney Scott, who heads Customs and Border Protection, said on X. Scott said over the next couple of days, he was going to “listen to local leadership, community members and stakeholders” to address what he said were “real” national security threats while protecting the park.

Customs and Border Protection did not respond to questions about how long the construction was paused or give any details on whom Scott would be meeting with in Texas.

A rare concession from Trump administration

While it isn’t clear whether the brief suspension portended a more permanent halt to the construction in the area, it reflected the intensity of the bipartisan opposition and was a rare concession from the administration on a signature promise of the president’s that it has raced to complete.

Congress gave the Trump administration $46 billion last summer to build a wall from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, and the administration has been charging ahead and waiving numerous regulations in an effort to swiftly build the wall.

Scott has said he expects the first layer of the wall to be built by the end of next year.

But the administration has run into fierce opposition in Texas, especially when it comes to construction in and near Big Bend National Park and a state park to the west.

Customs and Border Protection earlier this year backed off plans to build a 30-foot-tall bollard wall through the parks but was still moving forward with other border protection measures such as a new road, lights, barriers designed to stop cars from crossing the border and technology such as buried fiber optic cables.

That has sparked opposition from Democratic and Republican sheriffs in the region, former national park officials, local residents who rely on the parks for their livelihood and some Texas elected officials. Critics have said it will scar the rugged landscape that attracts tourists who raft down the Rio Grande River and take advantage of some of the clearest night skies in the U.S. to gaze at stars.

The sheriff of Brewster County, which includes Big Bend National Park, said Monday that he'll be meeting with Scott during his trip and that he was glad the commissioner was going to have the opportunity to see the terrain with his own eyes and hear firsthand from people in the region.

Ronny Dodson is concerned about possible damage to archeological sites and Native American burial grounds caused by construction for the new road that's supposed to be built through the park. He hopes Scott will see how closely the new road mirrors an already existing road, and Dodson said he wants more information about the technology the agency plans to use to secure the border.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he spoke with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin over the weekend and suggested that the construction pause was a result of their talk. Abbott said the secretary committed to the governor that there would be no wall or barriers built in the park, but the governor made no mention of the road building that has concerned local residents.

Bulldozers seen recently in park clearing land

Last week, bulldozers were seen clearing land at the park, sparking even more concern and raising questions from one of the state's Republican senators.

At the time the bulldozers were seen, the Department of Homeland Security said on X that they were related to “survey and design work.”

Sen. John Cornyn, who lost the Republican primary to the state's attorney general, wrote to Mullin over construction concerns.

“My constituents believe that the 1,000-foot riverbank cliffs and remote Big Bend terrain offers its own source of deterrence for any illegal migrants crossing into the United States. The dangerous terrain includes steep mountains, deep canyons, and expansive deserts which they believe act a natural barrier that limits large-scale movements,” Cornyn wrote.

As the wall-building efforts have shifted into high gear this year along the roughly 2,000-mile border, opposition has spiked as well.

The administration has faced criticism from Native American groups saying wall contractors are desecrating religious sites, a small Texas town worried the wall will damage its levee system, and a Catholic archdiocese that says wall construction in the El Paso area mars an important religious site.

Activists praise the pause but say it's only a first step

Activists who have been rallying opposition to the administration's plans said they were encouraged by the pause but they would be watching closely to see if CBP makes any significant changes or simply goes back to its previous plans.

Bob Krumenaker was the superintendent of Big Bend National Park from 2018 to 2023 and now chairs the organization “Keep Big Bend Wild,” which aims to preserve the park's wild nature. He said he was “wary but optimistic” after news of the pause.

“They are paying attention to all of the objections that have been raised across the political spectrum,” he said.

But Krumenaker said it's unlikely that CBP is going to entirely abandon all its plans in the region. Krumenaker said he and others would be watching to see whether the equipment like the bulldozers is removed from the park, the agency outlines a clear plan going forward and it repairs any damage already done.

“Let’s hope they significantly modify their plans in response to what they hear, and make it transparent,” he said.

Another group, which sued Homeland Security over its decision to broadly waive regulations to speed up construction projects in the Big Bend region, called the announcement “welcome news” but warned that construction could resume “at any moment.”

“This temporary pause proves how much non-partisan public pressure is mounting in West Texas and across America to stop the irreversible destruction unfolding in this crown jewel national park,” said Laiken Jordahl with the Center for Biological Diversity.

“We’re not resting until these contracts are canceled, these workers are sent packing, the waivers are rescinded and every wall plan for the greater Big Bend region is scrapped for good.”

Trout’s months-long fight included surgery, blood transfusions and weeks in the hospital.

Now his owner hopes his story will help other pet owners spot the warning signs and act quickly.

When Shayna Rogers rescued Trout in December, she knew the Golden Retriever needed help.

She found him along the Trout River in Jacksonville’s Northside thin, malnourished and clearly unwell.

“He was probably 49 pounds when we got him in the same body. He’s now 95 pounds, so he was in not great condition, but I figured he was just sick. You know, worms. Something that was making him malnourished,” Rogers said.

After months of testing, Rogers finally got an answer, and it was one she never expected.

“The vet said his prognosis was limited, and that’s all I heard. I stopped hearing anything else. I just lost my mind for a second. And so we waited for biopsies to come back. And it was Pythiosis,” she said.

Pythiosis is a rare fungal disorder that thrives in warm, stagnant or slow-moving water, making places like ponds, swamps and wetlands prime areas for exposure.

Florida’s warm climate creates an environment where the organism can thrive. For dogs, drinking or even swimming in contaminated water can pose a serious threat.

In dogs, Pythiosis can attack the gastrointestinal tract or cause lesions on the skin and once it takes hold, it can be incredibly difficult to treat and, in some cases, fatal.

Rogers says pet owners should know what to look for.

“If your dog is vomiting, having diarrhea throughout the night, not eating well, won’t eat hard foods, definitely take them into the vet. You’d rather be safe than sorry,” she said.

For Trout, the diagnosis led to a long and painful road to recovery.

He underwent exploratory stomach surgery, received multiple medications and immunotherapy, then came more complications, adding weeks in the hospital.

Working with Dr. Walker, a specialist based in Nassau County, Trout was put on an aggressive treatment plan. The family finally received the news they had been waiting for.

“Now Trout was almost nothing. I mean, his Pythiosis numbers are lower than five, which is negative,” Rogers said.

For Rogers, the journey was as emotional as it was exhausting.

“When I was going through all this, all I could think was I was losing my best friend and I was losing the most important thing to me,” she said.

Veterinarians say there are steps pet owners can take to reduce the risk of Pythiosis:

• Avoid letting dogs swim in or drink from stagnant or questionable water
• Keep cuts and scrapes clean and protected
• After walking through wet or muddy areas, check your dog’s paws and skin for cuts, irritation or other injuries

One challenge Rogers didn’t anticipate finding blood for Trout’s transfusions. She says veterinary blood shortages are a real problem, and getting what Trout needed took significant effort.

Trout will continue to be closely monitored for the rest of his life, but for now, his family is celebrating a milestone they never thought they would see.

The Truth in Millage, or TRIM, notices were mailed Friday, Property Appraiser Joyce Morgan said. Some homeowners have already received them, while others should receive theirs by next week.

The notices can look like junk mail, but Morgan said homeowners should carefully review the information because errors could affect their property tax bills.

Duval County has more than 400,000 properties that are reviewed by the Property Appraiser’s Office each year, Morgan said.

Homeowners should check their name, ownership information, exemptions and taxable value. That includes making sure a homestead exemption is listed if the property is their primary residence.

The notice also includes the property’s current taxable value, its previous year’s taxable value and proposed millage rates, or tax rates.

Jacksonville City Council approved the city’s millage rate in July, and Morgan said it remains the same as last year. However, homeowners can still see higher property tax bills because of increases in property values.

The notice also includes information about appealing the proposed value or other information.

The deadline to contact the Property Appraiser’s Office is Sept. 8, Morgan said. Homeowners who disagree with something on their notice should first contact the office for an informal review.

If the issue is not resolved, homeowners can take their case to the Value Adjustment Board, where a magistrate reviews evidence from both the property owner and the Property Appraiser’s Office.

Morgan said homeowners should not wait until the deadline to begin the process.

What homeowners should know about homestead exemptions

Homeowners who recently purchased a primary residence also should make sure they have applied for a homestead exemption.

Morgan said homeowners can apply online through the Duval County Property Appraiser’s Office or in person.

Homeowners generally do not have to reapply every year as long as there has been no change in their circumstances. However, they must notify the Property Appraiser’s Office if the property is no longer their primary residence or if other circumstances affecting the exemption change.

The office also sends homeowners a separate notice each year asking them to report changes that could affect their homestead exemption.

Morgan said homeowners who miss the filing deadline may qualify as late filers in some circumstances.

For more information, homeowners can visit the Duval County Property Appraiser’s Office website.

Amendment 3 not on August primary ballot

Morgan also addressed confusion surrounding a proposed property tax amendment.

She said Amendment 3 will not appear on the August primary election ballot. The measure is scheduled to appear on the November general election ballot.

The Property Appraiser’s Office has posted frequently asked questions about the amendment for voters looking for information about the proposal.

St. Johns County Fire Rescue was called to The Blake at St. Johns at 2430 County Rd 210 at about 9 p.m., according to SJCFR Public Information Officer Chris Naff.

Naff said that when firefighters got to the scene, they saw flames pushing through the roof.

Based on early indications, Naff said the fire may have started after lightning struck a chimney.

Firefighters evacuated residents on the west side of the building, while residents on the east side were able to shelter in place, Naff said.

“When you have a fire alarm going off, and you see firemen coming in with hatchets, and you’re bedridden and can’t walk, it’s scary,” one resident told News4JAX. “They moved us down a hallway against the fire. I don’t think it took that long to get the fire out. They just kept us in the hallway for a while.”

The Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department also responded to assist St. Johns County crews.

Naff said the fire was brought under control later in the night.

The facility’s managment team shared the following statement with News4JAX:

“Out of an abundance of caution, some areas of the community are not yet cleared for re-entry while fire officials and qualified professionals assess conditions. We are communicating directly with residents’ families and will provide additional information as it is confirmed.”

News4JAX saw families scrambling to get their loved ones a place to stay on Monday morning, just hours after the fire.

One person was transported from the scene, but Naff said it was not related to the fire and that the patient was reported in stable condition.

Naff said buses were being used to relocate residents who did not have family nearby to other facilities. Naff said the Red Cross and Emergency Management have been dispatched to assist those who have been displaced.

As of 11:45 Sunday evening, emergency response crews were beginning to leave the facility as remaining fire rescue personnel kept an eye on any lingering hot spots.

Ryan Daniels, 30, was found stabbed and bleeding on the front porch of a home on Davis Road near Finley Road in the Oceanway area Saturday. Despite efforts to save his life, Daniels died at a local hospital, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. His brother, 38-year-old Eric Mincey, was arrested Sunday and charged with murder.

‘The best leader’

One of Daniel’s friends Sonnie Blanco described Daniels as someone who would give everything he had to the people he loved.

“He’s one of, you know, how to say somebody that gave you the last shirt off their back. He’s one. That’s that’s Ryan right. There was a great leader,” Blanco said.

That leadership extended beyond friendship — it showed up on the football field, too.

“Football was like his main sport. But yeah, just such a great leader,” Blanco said.

Blanco laughed recalling just how physical Daniels could be during backyard games growing up.

“I always laugh…when we were coming up where we would be playing football in the backyard, you know, like a backyard football. Ryan was always a quarterback because he hit hard,” he said.

A father, a friend, a brother

To Blanco, Daniels was family. But Daniels also had a family of his own — including a daughter he adored.

“He had a little girl. It’s actually really special. So her birthday is actually the day before mine. So we always thought I was so unique. Where her birthday is December 31st, in January 1st. And it was, like, two of your best people, you know? Yeah, but, yeah, you had a beautiful daughter that he loved,” Blanco said.

When asked how he hopes Daniels will be remembered, Blanco’s answer was simple.

“To be honest with you. I would say just the kindness,” he said.

Brother charged with murder

Daniels died Saturday night after first responders attempted to save his life.

Detectives identified Mincey as the attacker after reviewing evidence and speaking with witnesses, JSO said.

“Our hearts are with Daniels’ loved ones, and we will continue to seek justice for him,” JSO said in a statement.

Mincey is currently being held in Duval County Jail on a murder charge.

A GoFundMe has been set up to help Daniels’ family as they work to bring him back to his home state of New Jersey.

The Ravens announced Brigance's death on Monday.

“We are devastated by the awful news that we have lost O.J. Brigance,” Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti said in a statement. “O.J. was a beloved legend, mentor and man to everyone who was fortunate enough to know him. He was a vibrant person who became one of the first Ravens heroes with his passionate play, including the first tackle in the 2000 Super Bowl.”

Brigance was diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, in 2007. Not long after that, he and his wife, Chanda, formed the Brigance Brigade Foundation, an organization whose mission is to “equip, encourage and empower” those afflicted with ALS.

Despite using a wheelchair and a communication device that translated his messages, Brigance served as senior adviser for player engagement with the Ravens, a job he started in 2004. In addition to assisting players in each phase of their career, Brigance proved a source of motivation within the organization.

“Every day I walk by, not just to tell him how much I love him, but to tell him that he is the one thing that lets me not complain about anything,” Ravens Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Lewis said in 2012, his final pro season. “I played with that guy. His spirit is just awesome.”

Brigance is the only player to win a Canadian Football League title and a Super Bowl championship for a team in the same city, Baltimore.

“While winning CFL and NFL championships are great personal remembrances, I wouldn’t say any of these events define me,” he said. “Rather, they are part of an accumulation of life events which catapulted me to do what God wanted me to accomplish. If you were to remove any of those events, I wouldn’t be the same person or have the position of influence. With that being said, I consider the Brigance Brigade to be the most significant achievement of my life because of my ability to touch the lives of others.”

Brigance said his career as a professional football player — he played linebacker and on special teams — helped prepare him for the fight against ALS.

“Many people think football is all about strength and physical ability,” Brigance said in a 2012 interview with The Associated Press. “While these are integral parts of one’s success, the fortitude, discipline and the desire necessary to play the sport are characteristics that are readily transferrable to everyday life.”

Brigance didn’t set out to be an example of how to live under difficult circumstances, but he had no intention of letting ALS get him down. He and Chanda collaborated to help and encourage others with the disease.

“I have found that when adversity strikes, there is a decision to be made. We chose to respond and continue to live, and also help others living with ALS to respond also,” he said. “We have found that we have been a great encouragement not only to those within the ALS community, but to people in all walks of life.”

Orenthial James Brigance was born Sept. 29, 1969 and played in college at Rice in his hometown of Houston. He began his professional career in 1991 as a linebacker for the British Columbia Lions. He played three seasons with BC, making 20 sacks in 1993, before joining the Baltimore Stallions. In his second season in Baltimore, the team won the 1995 Grey Cup.

In 1996, Brigance was signed by the Miami Dolphins as a free agent. He was twice voted a team captain during his four seasons there and was the Ed Block Courage Award recipient in 1999. He was honored with the NFL Players Association's “Unsung Hero Award” that same season.

Brigance’s lone season with Baltimore was 2000. He had a team-high 10 tackles on special teams during Baltimore’s playoff run, which ended with a 34-7 win over the New York Giants in the Super Bowl.

Brigance played for the St. Louis Rams in 2001 and 2002, and his final game was with New England in 2002.

“I am devastated and at a loss for words. O.J. was one of the most genuine, sincere people I have ever known,” Ravens executive vice president Ozzie Newsome said. “From the moment he arrived in Baltimore, you could feel his energy. His amazing smile, welcoming nature and infectious personality made everyone around him feel like family.”

And his tenacity would serve him well long after his playing days ended.

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See AP’s full NFL coverage here

The league announced the approval Monday after a vote. Feliciano and Jones reached an agreement in May to buy the Padres from the family of late owner Peter Seidler at an MLB-record valuation of $3.9 billion. The deal is still contingent on the official closing of the transaction in the coming weeks.

“José and Kwanza understand the unique place the Padres hold in San Diego and the powerful bond between the club and its fans,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “We look forward to their leadership of the Padres and to working with them to build on the club’s strong foundation in a market that is so important to Major League Baseball.”

Seidler's family announced its intention to explore a sale of the Padres last November, two years after Peter Seidler's death. The 53-year-old Feliciano, a co-founder of Santa Monica-based private equity firm Clearlake Capital, emerged from the competition as the Seidler family's top choice.

Padres CEO Erik Greupner and general manager A.J. Preller will remain in charge of day-to-day operations, according to MLB's announcement.

“We are a family first, and becoming owners of the San Diego Padres means joining an even larger one,” Jones and Feliciano said in a statement. “We are grateful to the Seidler family, and especially to Peter, for raising the expectations of what this franchise can achieve. ... Our ambition is clear: to bring a World Series championship to San Diego and build an enduring organization capable of competing for championships year after year. We intend to be engaged owners, bringing our energy, experience and perspective while working alongside the talented team already in place and investing ambitiously and thoughtfully in the Padres’ future.

“We are all in and committed to winning.”

Peter Seidler assumed majority control of the Padres in 2020 after first joining their ownership group in 2012, but he became beloved in San Diego for his aggressive financial pursuit of winning and his eagerness to engage with the team's fan base. He died at 63 in November 2023.

The Padres dramatically increased their payroll under Seidler, allowing Preller to build the foundation for the current team, which has made four playoff appearances in the past six years and won at least 89 games in three of the last four seasons during the most successful stretch in franchise history. San Diego is currently in the playoff race again, winning 17 of its last 22 games entering Monday to surge into an NL wild-card position at 67-58.

“As far as the day-to-day operations, nothing changes for us," Padres manager Craig Stammen said in New York before San Diego's series opener against the Mets. "We’ve got to go out here and play the games, just like we have all season long. The ownership sale has kind of been something that’s been going on throughout the entire year. It doesn’t really affect the play on the field, but we’re excited to have José and Kwanza a part of the Padres and can’t wait to welcome them.”

The minority partners in the Padres' new ownership group include Joey and Jesse Buss, two sons of former Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss. Coincidentally, the six Buss siblings decided earlier Monday to sell their remaining minority ownership stake in the Lakers to incoming majority owners Josh Kushner and Bob Iger.

When Feliciano and Jones reached their agreement to purchase the Padres earlier this year, they praised the team as "a unifying force in San Diego, rooted in community, connection and belonging.” They've since been spotted at Padres games in San Diego and in Mexico City.

“It’s good to see people that care working with us, you know?” Padres outfielder Jackson Merrill said. "I mean, the Seidlers cared a lot. It’ll be fun to see how these people take it, mold it into their own, you know? Trust in them, as they trust in us on the field. So, full confidence in them. Excited to meet them.”

The Padres have never won a World Series, but they were a valuable commodity for potential owners as the only team in the four biggest North American sports leagues in a metropolitan area with roughly 3.3 million people. Downtown Petco Park has become one of the liveliest ballparks in the sport, and the Padres ranked second in the majors in attendance last season.

Feliciano, who was born in Puerto Rico, becomes the second Latino principal owner in baseball, along with the Los Angeles Angels' Arte Moreno. Latino and Hispanic players comprise roughly 30% of major league rosters.

Feliciano and Jones will hold an introductory news conference at Petco Park on Monday, Aug. 24.

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AP Baseball Writer Mike Fitzpatrick in New York contributed to this report.

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

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Unlike in early voting, when you could vote at any early voting location in your county, on Election Day, you must vote at your assigned precinct.

Early voting ended this weekend after more than a week of in-person advance voting opportunities. According to data from the Florida Division of Elections, statewide turnout currently sits just below 15 percent. Nearly 16 percent of the state’s Republicans have cast a ballot so far, and more than 20 percent of the state’s registered Democrats have already voted.

Florida is a closed primary state, meaning that in most cases, you must already be registered with a specific party to vote in one of that party’s primary contests.

However, the primary also includes numerous races that will be open to all voters, regardless of party affiliation. That includes school board and judicial contests, as well as races for certain local offices.

In addition, in races where all of the candidates are of one party, with no unaffiliated or write-in candidates, the party primary will be open to all voters, since the primary will decide the office-holder.

To find your sample ballot so you can see what races you’re eligible to vote in, go to your county’s supervisor of elections page (linked below). You can also read about the candidates on the ballot in the News4JAX Voter’s Guide, which includes responses from the candidates in their own words.

In order to vote, you must bring one or two forms of valid and current identification that include your signature and photo.

Acceptable forms of ID include:

• Florida Driver License
• Florida ID Card (issued by DHSMV)
• U.S. Passport
• Debit or Credit Card
• Military ID
• Student ID
• Retirement Center ID
• Neighborhood Association ID
• Public Assistance ID
• Veteran Health ID (issued by the US Department of Veterans Affairs)
• Concealed Weapon License (issued pursuant to F.S. 790.06)
• Employee ID card issued by any branch, department, agency, or entity of the Federal Government, the state, a county, or a municipality.

If you show up without an ID, you can cast a “provisional” ballot, which is then evaluated by a canvassing board that decides if the ballot is eligible.

Vote-by-mail ballots must be received by your county’s supervisor of elections by 7 p.m. on Tuesday in order to be counted.

Find your polling precinct:

• Alachua County
• Baker County
• Bradford County
• Clay County
• Columbia County
• Duval County
• Flagler County
• Nassau County
• Putnam County
• St. Johns County
• Union County

Once polls close at 7 p.m., we will have results here on News4JAX.com as they come in. We will also have special coverage on Channel 4 and streaming on News4JAX.com and News4JAX+ starting at 8 p.m.

Varsity 4 News4JAX coaches Super 10 rankings, Week 1

Rank, school, record last year, classification, points, (first-place votes)

1. Raines (14-0, Class 3A), 116 (10)

This week: at Oakleaf.

2. Bolles, (13-2, Class 2A), 92 (2)

This week: vs. (9) Columbia.

3. St. Augustine (11-2, Class 4A), 86

This week: at Palatka.

4. Mandarin (11-2, Class 5A), 75

This week: at McArthur (Broward County Showcase).

5. White (9-3, Class 4A), 58

This week: vs. (7) Trinity Christian.

6. Nease (9-3, Class 5A), 57

This week: at Creekside.

7. Trinity Christian (9-5, Class 1A), 50

This week: at (5) Ed White, 6:30 p.m.

8. Oakleaf (8-3, Class 5A), 35

This week: Columbia vs. (1) Raines.

9. Columbia (9-3, Class 4A), 18

This week: at (2) Bolles.

T10. Fletcher (6-4, Class 5A), 17

This week: at Sandalwood, 6:30 p.m.

T10. Beachside (8-4, Class 5A), 17

This week: at KIPP Bold City, 6:30 p.m.

Others receiving votes: University Christian, 16; Bishop Kenny, 16; KIPP Bold City, 10 (1); Baldwin, 9; Jackson, 8; Bradford, 6; Ribault, 5; Ponte Vedra, 4; Bartram Trail, 3; Middleburg, 2.

Trump made the accusation in a social media post on Sunday without saying why he believes it's the work of vandals instead of trampled turf from the Independence Day festivities. The Republican president posted a photo showing a once-grassy area by the World War II Memorial, now patchy and brown across much of the sprawling turf.

“Look what VANDALS did to the grass connecting the vandalized World War II Monument and the vandalized Reflecting Pool, which will be opened again, and better than ever, shortly,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

“Anybody who thinks the Reflecting Pool wasn’t vandalized should go back to Law School!” he added.

Trump has repeatedly blamed vandals for damage to his renovation projects in the nation's capital, often without evidence and sometimes despite opposing accounts from his officials. Trump lashed out at U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro this month after her office concluded that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was the result of poor construction and not the work of vandals, as Trump claimed.

The photo Trump posted matches what you'd expect to see with a large summer event, according to Penn State University turf professor John Kaminski.

“Nothing in the photograph clearly indicates vandalism. Jumping to that conclusion seems like a fairly large leap, although it is impossible to rule anything in or out,” he said.

Bradley S. Klein, a freelance journalist and golf course consultant, said the president's post didn't make clear what the problem was in detail.

“He sounds like every grumpy golfer who’s complaining about their golf course and actually has no idea what it takes to maintain it on a day-to-day basis,” he said.

Messages seeking more information were left with the National Park Service and the Department of the Interior.

Authorities on Friday announced an arrest in connection with vandalism at the World War II Memorial, after the words “Clean hands dirty $” were found painted on the monument and bubbles filled a fountain. Pirro said felony charges were being brought against Melissa L. Farris.

Farris, 41, of Elizabethtown, Kentucky remained in custody over the weekend, but court records Monday showed that U.S. District Court Federal Magistrate Judge Matthew J. Sharbaugh ordered her released on her own recognizance. Conditions include she stay away from the memorial and Washington, D.C., except for court or pretrial activities. She is due back for a pretrial hearing Sept. 3. A message left with her court-appointed lawyer, was not returned. Pirro's office asked the judge to reconsider its request that Farris be held in pretrial detention.

Charging documents in that case make no mention of the grassy area Trump is highlighting in his new claims. Authorities said Farris had previously been arrested for camping on federal property a few blocks from the World War II Memorial, but not the area cited by Trump.

That stretch of lawn is instead where a large stage was built and crowds gathered to hear from Trump and watch fireworks at a July 4 event celebrating the nation's 250th anniversary. Trump claimed without providing evidence that more than 400,000 people attended the event before a storm hit the area and delayed his remarks.

Extreme heat also hit the area with Washington setting an all-time record for July 4th, when temperatures rose to 103 degrees Fahrenheit (39.44 degrees Celsius). High temperatures forced organizers to shut down activities for several hours July 3 and delay the start July 4. Emergency personnel treated dozens of people for heat-related illnesses.

Photos from the time, taken by a streaming webcam atop the Washington Monument, show a large bandstand and seating areas covering nearly the entire lawn Trump now says has been vandalized. Associated Press photos from the days that followed showed workers removing the structures, revealing brown, damaged grass underneath.

On Aug. 1, Trump posted a different photo of the same area that appears to show the numbers “86 47” — which federal officials have said constitutes a threat against Trump, the 47th president — emblazoned into the grass. He cited it as evidence refuting Pirro's conclusion, calling it “a pure case of VANDALISM, that included the grass.”

“There may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS!” he wrote.

Those numbers are not visible in the photo Trump posted to social media on Sunday.

The fraction of kids exempted from vaccine requirements rose to 4.2%, up from 3.6% the year before. That’s an estimated 155,000 children nationally during the 2025-2026 school year.

It’s the fourth consecutive year that the national average exemption rate has reached a record, and the vast majority are parents withholding shots for nonmedical reasons. Exemptions increased in 41 states and the District of Columbia.

Experts point to turmoil caused by federal health officials.

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was a leading voice in the antivaccine movement before President Donald Trump put him in charge of federal health agencies. In the last 18 months, Kennedy and other federal officials have repeatedly tried to revise and reduce childhood vaccination guidance. Earlier this month, Trump called for revamped childhood vaccination recommendations that promote his discredited theory that childhood shots should be spaced out into separate medical visits.

“The root cause of this is primarily because there’s so much chaos and confusion in vaccination recommendation systems in the last year or so,” said Dr. James Campbell, of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Vaccination rates fell for many diseases

The CDC reported that 92.4% of 2025-26 kindergarteners got their required measles-mumps-rubella shots, down slightly from the previous year. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the vaccination rate was 95% — the level that makes it unlikely that a single infection will spark a disease cluster or outbreak.

Vaccination rates also fell for polio, for the combination shot against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, and for the first dose of the vaccine against chickenpox.

The rate held steady for protection against hepatitis B. But that's a vaccine given shortly after birth, and it will take a few years before recent federal efforts to upend infant hepatitis B vaccine recommendations would appear in the vaccination rates of kindergartners, Campbell said.

The vaccination numbers were posted as the U.S. experiences its worst year for measles since 1991.

The numbers indicate that more than a quarter of a million children entering kindergarten are susceptible to measles, said Campbell, a University of Maryland researcher who is chair of the AAP's infectious diseases committee.

Those at-risk kids are not evenly distributed — concentrations of unvaccinated children are higher in some places than others, which helps explain why measles waves vary in intensity.

This is when public health officials typically tout vaccines' benefits

The CDC data is coming out as school and health officials across the country are encouraging parents to get their children vaccinated as the school year starts.

“Back-to-school season is an important reminder that protecting our children’s health is both a shared responsibility and a shared goal,” North Carolina Health and Human Services Secretary Dev Sangvai said in a statement. “Vaccines help keep our children and teens healthy and in the classroom.”

In the past, the CDC has released the vaccination coverage data in its flagship publication, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. CDC officials usually speak to the trends and stress the importance of vaccinations.

But since the Trump administration took office early last year, the agency has posted the data online. This year, the agency issued a three-sentence statement that noted a small decline in vaccination coverage among children entering kindergarten and said: “CDC continues to encourage parents to discuss vaccination options with their doctors.”

Medical exemption rates are steady

Public health officials focus on vaccination rates for kindergartners because schools can be cauldrons for germs and launching pads for community outbreaks.

For years, those rates were high, thanks largely to school attendance mandates that required key vaccinations. All U.S. states and territories require that children attending childcare centers and schools be vaccinated against a number of diseases, including measles, mumps, polio, tetanus, whooping cough and chickenpox.

All states allow exemptions for children with medical conditions that prevent them from receiving certain vaccines. And most also permit exemptions for religious or other nonmedical reasons.

In the last decade, the percentage of kindergartners with medical exemptions has held steady, at about 0.2%. But the percentage with nonmedical exemptions has risen.

According to the CDC data, 17.5% of kindergartners had an exemption to one or more vaccines in Idaho in the last school year. But fewer than 0.5% did in Connecticut.

___

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

After ordering the Pentagon to scale back annual joint military exercises with South Korea, claiming the nation declined to help with the United States’ war against Iran, Trump said that he has spoken with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un about a scheduled conversation.

Trump’s son-in-law and Mideast negotiator Jared Kushner held hourslong meetings with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday after talking with Hamas chief Khalil al-Hayya in Egypt on disarmament. Netanyahu rejected a 15-point, U.S.-backed road map to move the truce deal forward in Gaza. Hamas says it has agreed to the road map, which includes disarmament.

The Latest:

ICE pitches legal insurance to help shield local officers who make immigration arrests

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is pitching a plan to help shield local police officers who make immigration arrests from possible financial consequences if they are accused of on-duty misconduct.

The agency is proposing to subsidize liability insurance for state and local officers who are trained and deputized to enforce federal immigration laws, according to a planning document published Friday.

ICE’s partnerships with local departments have soared since Trump returned to the White House last year and may get an additional boost with liability insurance by removing a hurdle that has made some local police departments reluctant to join. The Associated Press is the first to report on this insurance proposal.

Under the plan, officers would purchase insurance covering up to $500,000 in personal liability, which typically funds legal fees, settlements and judgments. Officers would be reimbursed up to $250 annually — roughly what the insurance is expected to cost.

▶ Read more

Lawmaker apologizes for ‘personal mistakes’ and will cooperate with Ethics probe

Gomez’s office issued the statement after the Ethics committee announced it was investigating allegations that he may have engaged in sexual misconduct, including inappropriate sexual conduct with a House staff member.

“I made personal mistakes outside my marriage. Although my actions were consensual in nature and haven’t violated the law or House Ethics rules, that doesn’t diminish the impact that these mistakes have made on those I care about the most,” Gomez said in a statement.

“I take full responsibility,” he said. “I have and continue to sincerely apologize to my family, friends, and the people that I have the privilege to serve. I am deeply sorry to my wife for the pain and embarrassment that I have brought into our lives.”

Gomez noted that he respects the committee’s process and is ready to cooperate with the inquiry.

Activists welcome Big Bend construction pause but say it’s only a first step

Activists rallying support against the Trump administration’s border construction plans in Texas welcomed news that the administration is pausing construction in Big Bend National Park but say the real question is what comes next.

Bob Krumenaker was the former superintendent of the Big Bend National Park from 2018 to 2023 and now chairs the organization “Keep Big Bend Wild.”

“It shows that they are paying attention to all of the objections that have been raised across the political spectrum,” he said.

But Krumenaker said it’s unlikely that Customs and Border Protection will entirely abandon its plans. He wants to see equipment like the bulldozers removed from the park and damage repaired and he’ll be looking to see how transparent the agency is in outlining a plan going forward.

Laiken Jordahl with the Center for Biological Diversity said in a statement that the it was “welcome news” but warned that construction could resume “at any moment.”

Senator to file War Powers Resolution to halt Trump’s threats against Oman

Sen. Tim Kaine said Trump “is increasingly deranged in his one-man campaign to threaten and initiate wars all over the globe.”

The Virginia Democrat said Trump’s threats against Oman, a country the U.S. has diplomatic and trade relationships with, makes adversaries like China and Russia “rub their hands with glee.”

The senator said he would file a War Powers Resolution to prohibit military action against Oman as soon as lawmakers return to Washington from summer recess.

House Ethics committee investigating lawmaker for potential sexual misconduct

The House Ethics Committee says it is reviewing allegations that Democratic Rep. Jimmy Gomez of California may have engaged in sexual misconduct in violation of the code of official conduct.

In a release Monday, the committee said it is reviewing the allegations including inappropriate sexual contact with a House staff member.

It noted that the fact that it is investigating the allegations, and publicly disclosing its review, does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred.

The congressman’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

It comes as the House is pursuing claims of misconduct and lawmakers have stepped aside this year during investigations of improper behavior.

Melania Trump helped reunite child and family separated by the war in Ukraine

According to the first lady’s office, it was the latest of 34 children that Melania Trump has helped reunite with their families after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Last year, the first lady penned a letter calling for peace to Russian President Vladimir Putin, which, she said at the time, led to an “open channel of communication” about the welfare of children caught up in the war.

“There is nothing more powerful than reuniting a mother with her child after an extended period of time,” Melania Trump said in a statement Monday.

‘I like the idea of declaring’ the Strait of Hormuz a territory

The president was asked about an offhand comment he made last week about the waterway crucial to oil shipping that’s become a centerpiece of negotiations over the war with Iran.

“I like the idea of declaring it a territory,” Trump said on Monday, without providing further details.

It’s not the first time Trump has toyed with the idea of expanding American territory. He has previously mused about taking over Greenland, Canada and Venezuela.

Trump likens his sentiment toward South Korea to his feelings about NATO

The U.S. president further explained his decision to scale back joint military exercises with South Korea, likening his relationship with Seoul to his often-frayed ties with the trans-Atlantic alliance.

Trump said the U.S. keeps tens of thousands of troops in South Korea for its protection, and was rebuffed when it asked Seoul for assistance regarding the war in Iran earlier this year.

As he discussed his decision on South Korea, Trump said “look at NATO” and later added, “all I want is fairness.”

“We can’t go around and protect all of these countries, especially when they’re not there to help us,” Trump said.

Trump says concerns about conditions on USS Lincoln are ‘fake’

Trump downplayed reports about conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln to reporters in the Oval Office. The aircraft carrier has been the subject of escalating concern over mental health and supply issues for American sailors enduring nearly nine months at sea.

Trump called it a “good period of time” but added that “over the years, we’ve had them out there much longer.”

The carrier has had a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea of more than 240 days.

But Trump said he spoke with a retired admiral over the weekend who recounted being on ships for “much longer.” Trump said the admiral assured him that the Lincoln is “beautifully maintained and beautifully taken care of.”

Trump did not name the admiral.

Trump administration pauses contentious border construction in Texas’ Big Bend National Park

The Trump administration says it is temporarily pausing construction of a controversial border construction project in the Big Bend National Park while the head of the agency tasked with building the wall visits Texas to do an “on-the-ground evaluation.”

The project through the national park in southern Texas has faced fierce bipartisan opposition by critics who say it is marring a pristine environmental area and that the region’s rugged and remote terrain already serves as a deterrent to migrants and smugglers.

Rodney Scott, who heads Customs and Border Protection which is tasked with building the wall, said in an announcement on X that he was visiting Texas to do an evaluation.

“CBP is pausing all construction activity in Big Bend National Park while I visit and conduct a personal, on-the-ground evaluation,” Scott said.

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Trump calls UK prime minister’s text exchange a ‘miscommunication’

The U.S. president was asked about a report that said new British Prime Minister Andy Burnham exchanged messages with someone posing as Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff.

“I’m sure that he had a miscommunication,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

The report from Politico said Burnham thought he was messaging with Wiles before he became suspicious and cut off communications.

Earlier Monday, the White House said the incident had nothing to do with Wiles’ devices being hacked.

Trump says North Korea’s Kim has responded to request for a conversation

The U.S. president was pressed on whether he has had a conversation with the North Korean leader.

Trump said “yeah he has” responded to Trump’s request to have a conversation, referring to Kim Jong Un.

Trump offered no other details, but noted later during the Oval Office appearance that “I get along with him very well.”

Trump says his administration is taking a look at Flock cameras

The president said there are pros and cons to Flock Safety cameras, which have come under scrutiny from civil rights groups and lawmakers in both parties.

“It’s being studied right now,” Trump said when asked about the subject Monday at an Oval Office event. “We’ll have an answer soon as to our views on it.”

The company’s nationwide network of cameras record the license plate numbers and other characteristics of passing vehicles.

Thousands of police agencies can use Flock data to support investigations, and advocates call it an important crime-fighting tool. Critics say it amounts to needless mass surveillance.

Trump sits with 10-year-old and his lifeguard rescuer in Oval Office

Nathaniel Rai had been swept off his feet along the California coast, was rescued by a 16-year-old lifeguard and was now sitting in the Oval Office.

Rai wore a dark suit and maroon tie and sat on a gold couch aside his father and the president of the United States. Across from Rai was his rescuer Ryder Williams, both of whom watched Trump speak of their ordeal, a video of which went viral.

“He’s a real hero. I don’t know if I’d do it,” said Trump. “I wouldn’t probably. You’re lucky I wasn’t on the service that day.”

Trump meeting with teenage lifeguard who saved boy in dramatic viral video

A teenage lifeguard who saved a 10-year-old boy from pounding waves off the California last month is being honored at the White House on Monday.

President Donald Trump is meeting Ryder Williams after saying the teen deserved a civilian honor. Trump previously said on social media that he would be inviting Williams to the White House to reward his bravery.

Dramatic video of the rescue went viral last month. It showed Williams clinging to Nathaniel Rai as waves repeatedly crash over them. The pair disappeared from view and reemerged after several seconds as the wave receded.

A second lifeguard was eventually able to help get them both back to shore at Seabright Beach in Santa Cruz.

Trump initially commented on the video in response to a post from his son, Eric Trump, who said Williams deserved “the highest civilian honor.”

After killing hundreds in boat strikes, US military expands campaign on land

The Trump administration says it is seeking to expand its lethal campaign of bombing boats off Latin America’s Caribbean and Pacific coasts onto land.

It will be “like you saw with the strikes on the drug boats,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said during a military drill in the jungle in Panama last week. “Same effect on land.”

The government has lined up regional allies to let the U.S. military operate within their borders in a campaign to assert what it calls “American dominance over the Western Hemisphere.”

Critics say the expansion could pave the way for more civilian casualties and anger toward Washington that may outlast the Trump administration.

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Trump dwarfs his predecessors in ultra-rich appointees

Wealth, perhaps second only to loyalty, has been a prized attribute for Donald Trump during his second presidency.

The number of people worth at least $100 million whom the Republican president has appointed to his administration is more than four times the combined total of his three predecessors, according to a report from Public Citizen.

The consumer advocacy group’s report Monday says 57 Trump officials are worth at least $100 million, including 17 ambassadors and eight of his Cabinet members. Treasury Secretary Howard Lutnick and Education Secretary Linda McMahon are billionaires.

The president, himself a billionaire, has described his deference to the financial success of the ultrawealthy. Yet Trump owes his White House comeback to support from middle-income working Americans drawn to his pledge to lower everyday costs, and now faces an electorate decidedly less keen on his handling of the economy.

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Public Citizen says ultra-wealthy White House can lead to corruption

Trump’s views are well established: Financial success is evidence of executive mastery and negotiating strength.

And to encourage billionaires to deliver future economic growth, Trump has pursued policies on artificial intelligence and financial regulation that could benefit wealthy people, along with tax cuts and reduced regulatory burdens for large-scale investments.

But a government populated by so many of the economic elite presents potential problems, the report’s authors said.

“When the people holding the reins of government are drawn overwhelmingly from the ranks of the ultra-rich, it leads to misplaced incentives and corruption, and begs the question, ’Whose interests they are truly serving?” said Lisa Gilbert, Public Citizen’s co-president.

Trump’s scaling back military training with South Korea is ‘inane,’ senator says

Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Trump appears to be appeasing North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong Un while worsening relations with U.S. allies.

“This is another inane, haphazard decision by President Trump and his chaotic administration,” Reed said in a statement.

“America’s alliances are built on trust and strength,” he said. “When President Trump cuts military exercises to flatter a dictator or punishes South Korea for declining to join a war he started, all of our allies — and adversaries — think that America’s commitments are negotiable.”

Reed noted that the U.S. and South Korea have conducted joint military exercises since the 1950s as a show of strength and deterrence against aggression from North Korea. And he warned that warned that China and Russia are watching how easily Trump abandons America’s allies.

The buck stops somewhere else: A look at Trump’s tendency to avoid blame

President Harry Truman famously kept a “The Buck Stops Here” sign on his White House desk. The current Oval Office occupant often veers from that motto of taking responsibility.

Trump has blamed his predecessors for the weak economy, high inflation and the increasingly unpopular war in Iran that has kept oil prices high and his approval rating low while sending shock waves through the global economy.

He blames vandals for the problem-plagued Reflecting Pool renovation, and now the dead grass where his July 4th event was held on the National Mall.

All presidents try to shift some responsibility, but none in modern history has taken it as far as Trump.

The White House says Trump is working to correct long-festering challenges. But his unwillingness to accept blame sometimes leads him to deny problems, which could put GOP seats in jeopardy as Republicans face voters.

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Wall Street nears new records as big US companies report booming profits

Big U.S. companies in the S&P 500 index are on track to deliver growth of roughly 50% for earnings per share in the spring from a year earlier, according to FactSet. Still to come are profit reports from big retailers, including Home Depot, Target and Walmart this week.

They’re facing pressure. Customers’ incomes may be turning iffier after U.S. employers surprisingly cut more jobs last month than they added, as bills rise quickly with inflation much higher than anyone would like. Shoppers surprisingly spent less at U.S. retailers last month than in June.

And the wait continues to see what the Iran war will do with oil prices. Brent crude rose 0.7% to $89.15 a barrel Monday, a relatively modest move after jagged recent swings.

▶ Read more

Trump threatens Oman during interview with Fox News

Trump has warned Oman as the Gulf nation works with Iran on a plan for the Strait of Hormuz, telling Fox News reporter Trey Yingst that the U.S. would bomb Oman if it “gets in the way” using an expletive for emphasis.

Fox News did not provide audio of the Monday interview.

This is not the first time that Trump has threatened Oman. In May, he told reporters during a Cabinet meeting that “Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we will have to blow them up.”

Trump also said the expiration of the 60-day deadline on ending the war was irrelevant and said there was no timeline, Yingst said. And Trump said the U.S. has a backchannel for talks with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Yingst said.

The agency is proposing to subsidize liability insurance for state and local officers who are trained and deputized to enforce federal immigration laws, according to a planning document published Friday.

ICE’s partnerships with local departments have soared since President Donald Trump returned to the White House last year and may get an additional boost with liability insurance by removing a hurdle that has made some local police departments reluctant to join. The Associated Press is the first to report on this insurance proposal.

Under the plan, officers would purchase insurance covering up to $500,000 in personal liability, which typically funds legal fees, settlements and judgments. Officers would be reimbursed up to $250 annually — roughly what the insurance is expected to cost.

One prominent critic of ICE’s immigration crackdown said the program would be yet another way for officers to avoid personal accountability for misconduct.

“The concern here is that ICE is going above and beyond to guarantee law enforcement does not have even the slightest risk of liability for violating Americans’ rights while helping ICE arrest people,” said David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, who has called on Congress to make it easier to sue ICE agents for wrongdoing.

ICE outlined the plan in a document informing industry officials that it is considering hiring a contractor to help provide outreach, training and communications support for its so-called 287(g) partnerships with local departments, which are named for a section of a 1996 immigration law. The contractor would hire the insurance vendor and process the reimbursements, among other tasks.

ICE has asked for industry feedback by Thursday. The proposed timeline for launching the program and its estimated cost are unclear.

ICE had no immediate comment on the plan.

Arrests by ICE’s local partners have spiked since last year

During Trump’s second term, ICE has offered generous financial incentives to participating local agencies, increasing the number who have partnered with the federal government, as well as the number of arrests.

Nearly 1,600 agencies in 32 states now have agreements to participate in ICE’s task force model, in which trained local officers can interrogate, arrest and charge people suspected of being in the country illegally, according to ICE data.

Departments qualify for funding to help cover expenses like their officers’ pay, equipment and vehicles. With encouragement from state and local Republican officials, agencies in Florida, Texas, Oklahoma and Georgia have been among the leaders.

Arrests made through such programs jumped to an average of 3,000 per month in the first two months of 2026, according to the most recent ICE data provided to the University of California Berkeley’s Deportation Data Project. That compares to a monthly average of 250 in 2024 under President Joe Biden.

Local departments, officers worried about liability for ICE work

As local officers increasingly carry out federal immigration work, they and their departments have expressed concerns about the civil liability that could result from claims alleging excessive use of force, wrongful arrest and illegal search and seizure, among other things.

That’s because insurance policies that cover their local work may not apply. Pennsylvania’s risk pool, for instance, recently made clear that it would exclude “proactive immigration enforcement activities” from coverage, forcing several participating counties to search for other insurance options.

Butler County Sheriff Michael Slupe said he found insurance to cover his 13 deputies participating in the program at a cost of $20,000 in annual premiums.

“I want to make sure the guys are additionally covered, so we had to spend the money,” he said, adding that federal funding would cover the cost.

Federal officers usually enjoy legal immunities and a government-funded defense when they face lawsuits. But those protections may not always apply to local officers, which has heightened their concerns over liability and the need for insurance.

While civil lawsuits are the main concern, professional liability insurance typically helps cover legal fees for officers facing criminal investigations as well.

Sheriffs’ group says ICE’s insurance idea sounds promising

Justin Smith, a former Colorado sheriff who is executive director of the National Sheriffs’ Association, said ICE’s plan sounds promising and that he was anxious to speak with ICE about how the plan would work.

Smith said he has shared concerns with ICE that some sheriffs are reluctant to join the partnerships because of the potential liability at a time when immigration enforcement faces intense public protests and media scrutiny. Smith said others who are partnering with ICE have already started facing legal claims tied to their immigration work, which can be costly whether or not deputies are ultimately found to have done anything wrong.

“Right now, any time you are working on immigration there is going to be a much higher potential for there being problems and having suits and issues,” he said. “They’re recognizing that it is a different environment. And I think trying to be good partners with us as best they can.”

Under their agreements, ICE warns local departments that they are responsible for the costs of incidents that give rise to liability. But it seeks to reduce the risk by saying local officers performing ICE-authorized functions are “acting under color of federal authority,” which would bar lawsuits against individual officers.

The agreements also state that local officers who face civil lawsuits can ask the U.S. Department of Justice to represent them, and that ICE will generally support their requests. But the final decision on whether to do so rests with DOJ.

“What you did was incredible, and everybody saw it,” Trump told the boys, referring to a viral video of the July rescue in Santa Cruz. “When I first saw it, I said, ‘roll that back, I want to see that again.’”

Seated alongside 16-year-old lifeguard Ryder Williams and 10-year-old Nathaniel Rai, Trump marveled at how each of them stayed cool in the dramatic ocean rescue in Santa Cruz in July. The boys' families joined the Oval Office reunion, along with lifeguard Aaron Bohnen, who aided in the rescue.

Online videos of the rescue have been viewed millions of times worldwide. The footage shows Williams clutching Nathaniel as heavy waves repeatedly smash into them. At one point, the boys disappear underwater for several seconds before emerging from the surf, Williams continuing to haul Nathaniel toward the shore.

Trump hailed Williams as a “real hero.” He told Nathaniel that “God was watching you.” Trump and Williams sat in chairs in front of the Oval Office fireplace, while Nathaniel and others sat alongside on a pair of couches.

Asked about the moment, Williams credited those who trained him how to snap into action.

“In those dangerous moments that we have, we always try to fall back on our training,” he said. “I really was thinking about how to get the boy out of the water as fast as I can.”

Wearing a black uniform with a California State Parks lifeguard patch, Williams said he hopes to train as a paramedic and become a firefighter.

Nathaniel, sitting next to his father and sister, nodded along as Trump described the rescue.

“Your father is the happiest man in the world,” Trump told him, adding that the boy deserved respect for how he faced the emergency. “The way Nathaniel handled it was — he was cool, considering the problems.”

Trump invited them to see the Lincoln Bedroom at the White House. When Williams mentioned his aspiration to become a firefighter, the president said he may be getting “some good recommendations.”

“He’s a real hero,” Trump said. “I don’t know if I’d do it. I wouldn’t probably. You’re lucky I wasn’t on the service that day.”

As the video drew attention online last month, Trump joined many who shared it. Posting the video on his Truth Social platform, Trump said the boys deserved to be honored.

“We’re going to bring this heroic young man, and his family, into the White House with, perhaps, the boy he saved, to give him a High Civilian Honor,” Trump wrote on July 28.

In a previous Associated Press interview, Williams described seeing Nathaniel lose his footing in shallow water at Seabright Beach. The water was too rough to get a rescue tube around Nathaniel, who went unconscious. They endured a series of pounding waves before Bohnen, the other lifeguard, helped them get ashore.

In the Oval Office, Trump remarked on Williams’ “tremendous grace” in the moment.

“It’s so amazing to see this happen, to see it before your eyes,” Trump said. “I’ve seen rescues before. I’ve never seen anything quite like this.”

In January 2025, after President Donald Trump began his second term, Senator Marco Rubio was named Secretary of State, vacating his Senate seat. Gov. Ron DeSantis then appointed the state’s attorney general, Ashley Moody, to Rubio’s seat. The appointment would last until after the next general election, which is the November 2026 election. The winner of this year’s election will serve the remaining two years of Rubio’s original term.

The winners of the Republican and Democratic primaries will advance to the November ballot, along with one candidate running without party affiliation.

Varsity 4 Independent coaches poll

Rank, (previous), school, record, points, (first-place votes)

1. (1) West Nassau, (1-0, SSAA), 88 (6)

Last week: beat (4) Paxon, 35-20. This week: vs. Charlton County (0-0).

2. (3) Fernandina Beach (1-0, SSAA), 57

Last week: Beat Keystone Heights, 65-14. This week: at Tallahassee Leon (0-0).

3. (2) Union County, (1-0, SSAA), 55 (1)

Last week: Beat Lafayette, 21-7. This week: at Rutherford (0-0).

4. (6) Christ’s Church Academy (1-0, SSAA), 49 (1)

Last week: Beat St. Joseph, 48-21. This week: vs. First Coast Christian (0-1).

5. (T4) Paxon, (0-1, SSAA), 39

Last week: lost to (1) West Nassau, 35-20. This week: at Wolfson (0-0), 6:30 p.m.

6. (NR) Episcopal, (1-0, SSAA), 33

Last week: beat Westminster Academy, 27-26. This week: at Providence (0-0).

Others

Old Plank Christian Academy, (1-0, SSAA), 24; Interlachen, (0-0, SSAA), 14; Providence (0-0, FHSAA), 12; Bishop Snyder, (0-1, SSAA), 6; St. Joseph, (0-1, SSAA), 6; Stanton, (1-0, SSAA), 6; Crescent City (1-0, SSAA), 5.

Authorities say all four suspects were in the country without legal immigration status at the time of the arrest.

The shooting

On July 16, District 3 Patrol officers responded to a reported shooting at Jacksonville Drew Park off Barnes Road. Upon arrival, officers say they found 18-year-old Marvin Oporta Garcia suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Oporta Garcia died from his injuries before receiving medical treatment. He was a legal refugee in the United States.

The suspects

JSO says Homicide Unit detectives launched an immediate investigation and identified four suspects: 16-year-old Jose Hernandez Bermudez, 17-year-old Kleber Martinez, 18-year-old Daniel Ramirez Mato and 21-year-old Russell Oliva Reyes.

Investigators say they determined that Martinez and Oliva Reyes are from Honduras, Ramirez Mato is from Cuba, and Hernandez Bermudez is from Nicaragua.

The arrests

On Aug. 15, authorities arrested Hernandez Bermudez, Martinez and Ramirez Mato. Oliva Reyes was arrested the following day. All four were booked into Duval County Jail. Federal authorities were also notified.

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office says it will continue pursuing justice for Oporta Garcia.

“We will continue working to seek justice for Oporta Garcia and our thoughts are with his loved ones during this difficult time,” the agency said.

Jared Bridegan, 33, was killed in Jacksonville Beach in 2022 when he got out of his vehicle to remove a tire that was placed in the road while his 2-year-old daughter from a second marriage was strapped in her car seat.

More than four years later, Mario Fernandez Saldana, 38, is on trial for first-degree murder and solicitation of murder. He’s accused of arranging the death by hiring a gunman. Bridegan's ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, 39, faces her own trial in September. The alleged gunman, Henry Tenon, is slated to go to trial next year after backing out of a guilty plea.

“The killer was a stranger to Jared Bridegan. The murder was personal,” Assistant State Attorney Christina Simak Stifler said in Duval County court.

“A tire in the road, a dark place,” she said in her opening remarks. “No one would see and no one would know and no one would trace it back to those responsible. ... The architects of Jared Bridegan's murder intended it to be a perfect crime and it almost was.”

Defense says Fernandez Saldana didn't act like a mastermind

But defense attorney James Hill told jurors that Fernandez Saldana, an Army veteran, had no motive to get rid of Bridegan and his actions shortly after the killing — a road trip to Pennsylvania and back — didn’t resemble that of a criminal schemer “running from the law.”

“He had access to a lot of money, hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Hill acknowledged, referring to his wife Gardner's trust fund. “He could have fled the country.”

While addressing the jury, Stifler traced the bitter relationship between Bridegan and Gardner, the execution-style killing and the difficulty of trying to solve a shocking homicide with no witnesses. The victim, she said, had no obvious enemies and was a devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Bridegan and Gardner were divorced in 2015. The end of the marriage, however, led to years of acrimony about how to raise their twins, from disputes about religion to doctor's appointments and even school conferences, Stifler said.

“It was pretty terrible,” Bridegan's second wife, Kirsten Bridegan, testified. “There was absolutely no trust so everything was in writing. Texts, email. We did not speak in person, like at school events. Didn't do phone calls.”

Widow says she immediately suspected ex-wife

Bridegan married Kristen in 2017, and they had two children. Gardner, meanwhile, married Fernandez Saldana, who was a maintenance man at a gym where she worked out.

Bridegan was attacked shortly after returning 9-year-old twins to Gardner’s home from his “date night” with the children.

He was driving back to St. Augustine with another child when he stopped his Volkswagen Atlas and put on warning lights to remove a tire from the road. Bridegan was shot twice moments later.

Traffic began to back up. The first trial witness, Jonelle Cruz, said that she comforted Bridegan's daughter with a blanket in a separate vehicle while her boyfriend tried to figure out what had happened.

“She was shaking. She was very worried about her dad,” Cruz testified.

Later that night, Kirsten Bridegan said she followed her “gut instinct” and urged police to investigate Gardner and Fernandez Saldana.

A second tire gave police a big break

Stifler said police a few months later discovered a lead “that blew the case open.” A tire at a rental property owned by Fernandez Saldana was very similar to the tire that had blocked Bridegan's vehicle when he was shot.

Police matched DNA on those two tires to Tenon, a former tenant with a criminal record and financial problems. Records revealed that he was paid $10,000 by Fernandez Saldana after the murder, though the checks said the work was for landscaping, roof repair and a business idea.

Hill, the defense lawyer, disputed anything nefarious, telling the jury: “Mario Fernandez has hired him to do work, not murder.”

Tenon, 65, was charged with shooting Bridegan. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and had agreed to testify against Fernandez Saldana. He withdrew the plea earlier this year and will have his own trial.

Stifler said Gardner, who was from a wealthy family, relocated to Washington state with her children after Bridegan's death. Fernandez Saldana, meanwhile, moved to Orlando.

“Ms. Gardner got what she wanted: full control over her children and the freedom to move out of Jacksonville, Florida,” the prosecutor said.

Bridegan was chief technology officer at Utah-based Clean Simple Eats before working at Microsoft for less than a year before his death, his wife said.

Judge Gregory Carro issued an order Monday canceling the trial and giving the Manhattan District Attorney's office, which is prosecuting the state case, until Oct. 9 to respond to the defense's double jeopardy claims. A hearing will be held on Dec. 10, Carro said, about a week before Mangione is scheduled to be sentenced in the federal case.

Mangione, 28, pleaded guilty Friday in Manhattan federal court to a pair of stalking charges and admitted trailing Thompson to UnitedHealth Group’s investor conference and gunning him down outside a Manhattan hotel in 2024. Federal prosecutors said they would seek life in prison when Mangione is sentenced Dec. 18, though federal sentencing guidelines call for a term of 24 to 30 years.

“On the morning of Dec. 4, 2024, I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan, and he died,” Mangione said.

Immediately after his plea, Mangione’s lawyers filed paperwork seeking to have the state case thrown out on double jeopardy and due process grounds. They described him as a “pawn in parallel prosecutions" and accused state and federal prosecutors of “trying to punish him twice for the exact conduct.”

Mangione has pleaded not guilty in the state case, which also carries the possibility of a life sentence.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said in a statement that it would fight efforts to end the state case, in part because Mangione’s federal sentence isn’t yet known.

Compared with federal law and that of other states, New York has uncommonly strong protections for defendants facing multiple prosecutions. A state prosecution can be barred if a federal case involving the same course of conduct or criminal transaction ends in a guilty plea or if a jury is sworn.

It will be up to Carro to decide if that applies to Mangione. However Carro rules, his decision will be subject to appeal.

Mangione pleaded guilty to federal charges that accused him of traveling across state lines by bus to stalk and kill Thompson. The charges alleged that he used a cellphone, the internet, interstate highways and a hostel serving out-of-state customers to plan and carry out the attack.

“The full range of conduct that comprises the stalking offense is coterminous with the conduct committed as part of the murder offense,” Mangione’s lawyers wrote in their double jeopardy filing.

That Mangione traveled from out of state "to be at the crime scene at the time of the shooting does nothing to eliminate the stalking of Mr. Thompson from the acts constituting his murder,” they added. “They are all part of the same criminal incident or criminal transaction.”

Bragg’s office contends that the state charges, including murder and firearms offenses, involve different legal elements and criminal conduct. In a letter last month, Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann objected to the possibility of a federal guilty plea wiping out the state case.

Any guilty plea, Seidemann wrote, “must account for the seriousness of defendant’s offenses” and for the state's interests in prosecuting Mangione, “including the sanctity of life principle that underpins the state homicide charges.”

The 12 events this year — New Orleans was previously postponed — is the smallest schedule for LIV since it was launched with massive Saudi Arabia funding in 2022 and featured eight tournaments.

Jon Rahm already has clinched the individual season title for the third straight year. LIV Golf Indianapolis, which starts Thursday at The Club at Chatham Hills, will determine who finishes second and third among the players, and the top team.

The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, the financial muscle of the rival league from the start, decided in March this would be the final year of funding. LIV Golf announced earlier this month it has an agreement with a lead investor that would sustain a new version of the league for 2027.

“By concluding the season now, we can put our full resources behind what comes next and maintain the operational rigor this transition demands," LIV CEO Scott O'Neil said in a statement.

“We are reimagining LIV Golf as a fundamentally new league owned by the players and anchored in a sustainable business model, with an evolved fan experience built for the markets where the game is growing fastest across the globe and the support of world-class partners.”

The cancellation of LIV Golf Michigan was not surprising. There have been reports in recent weeks the tournament had not even started preparing with grandstands and other amenities. LIV Golf said ticket holders would get refunds.

In another cost-cutting move LIV attributed to “unavoidable changes in the entertainment program,” the league informed Thomas Rhett and Disco Lines their live performances would not take place at LIV Golf Indianapolis.

The final event with a $20 million purse that pays $4 million to the winner could be the last big payoff for LIV and its 57 players. LIV did not identify the lead investor or how much of a cash infusion was involved, or say whether it was an investment or a loan.

O'Neil has said the LIV 2.0 version for 2027 and onward would involve making players equity owners. He referred to it as a “second bite at the apple” being equity instead of cash.

But this likely is the end of $20 million purses for individual outcomes, and there already has been cutbacks. Rahm earned $6 million for winning the points title, down from $18 million the previous two years.

“As we concentrate on finishing the season strong and building the next chapter of LIV Golf, we’ll carry the energy and enthusiasm our fans have shown us into what comes next," O'Neil said.

The format for the 2027 season and the rosters also remain unclear. Still to be determined is whether Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau — the two biggest names — and other players who joined the league for its exorbitant prize money will want to stay for LIV 2.0.

As for the final event, Joaquin Niemann, Lucas Herbert and Tyrrell Hatton are in the mix for third place, which pays a $1 million bonus. DeChambeau is comfortably in second, which pays $3 million.

Dustin Johnson's 4Aces team has a narrow lead over Australia-based Ripper, with Rahm's Legion XIII and Bryson DeChambeau's Crushers team all in the mix for the team title.

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See AP’s full golf coverage here

The S&P 500 fell 0.5% but remains near its all-time high set Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 272 points, or 0.5%, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.3%.

Wall Street’s losses solidified in the afternoon when oil prices accelerated upward. The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, rose 2.7% to $90.87.

It’s been careening back and forth because of uncertainty about what the war with Iran will do to the global flow of crude. Last month alone, Brent zigzagged between $72 and $102 as hopes rose and fell that the United States and Iran could reach a deal that would allow oil tankers to freely exit the Persian Gulf again.

Monday’s rally for oil prices sent Treasury yields in the bond market higher, which in turn raised the pressure on the economy and prices for all kinds of investments.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.72% from 4.68% late Friday. It has shot up from just 3.97% before the war with Iran, largely because higher oil prices are worsening inflation and upping the probability that the Federal Reserve will have to hike interest rates.

Higher rates could keep a lid on inflation, but they do so by intentionally slowing the economy. The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate has already jumped near its highest level in a year because of the rise in the 10-year Treasury yield, though reports last week said that inflation in July was not as bad as earlier in the summer.

Usually around this time of year, anticipation is building on Wall Street to hear from the head of the Federal Reserve about where it may take interest rates. But the Fed’s new chairman, Kevin Warsh, may give little insight at this year’s economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, at the end of this month, according to Thierry Wizman, a strategist at Macquarie Group

Warsh has been adamant about giving Wall Street less guidance about the Fed’s plans for interest rates.

Wall Street has run to records despite high inflation in large part because profits are booming for U.S. companies.

Those in the S&P 500 index are on track to deliver growth of roughly 50% for earnings per share in the spring from a year earlier, according to FactSet. That’s much better than analysts expected and would be the best since five years ago, when the economy was erupting out of the chasm created by the COVID pandemic.

Nearly all the companies in the S&P 500 have turned in their profit reports for the spring. Still to come are big retailers, including reports this week from Home Depot, Target and Walmart.

They’re facing pressure. Their customers’ incomes may be turning iffier after U.S. employers surprisingly cut more jobs last month than they added. At the same time, their customers are continuing to see bills rise quickly as inflation remains much higher than anyone would like.

A report last week said that shoppers surprisingly spent less at U.S. retailers last month than in June, and CEOs for retailers could give color this week on what they’re seeing.

On Wall Street, trading was relatively quiet Monday.

L3Harris Technologies fell 4.6% after the defense company said Christopher Kubasik stepped down as its CEO and chairman following “certain conduct by Kubasik that was not consistent with the values of the Company.” It gave few details but said the conduct was not related to its financial reporting, controls, customer relationships or operational performance.

Alphabet dipped 0.5% even though Berkshire Hathaway said it increased its investment in Google’s parent company, along with several homebuilders. Berkshire built a reputation for buying stocks at affordable prices under its former CEO, famed investor Warren Buffett.

Constellation Brands fell 6.2% after Berkshire said it sold all its holdings in the seller of Modelo beer and Robert Mondavi wine.

All told, the S&P 500 fell 40.70 points to 7,745.06. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 272.63 to 53,459.78, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 84.25 to 26,644.91.

In stock markets abroad, indexes dipped in Europe following a stronger finish in Asia.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.7% after a report said Japan’s economy grew at a slower pace in the April-June quarter than economists expected. Indexes jumped 1.3% in Hong Kong and 1.4% in Shanghai for some of the world’s biggest moves.

___

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

___

Earlier versions of this story incorrectly reported that Japan’s economy grew slightly faster than expected in the April-June quarter.

The Trump administration is making it harder for the public to know, moving to toss aside a 60-year-old requirement for tens of thousands of private sector employers to submit workforce demographic reports each year to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the agency responsible for enforcing anti-discrimination laws in the workplace.

The EEOC's Republican majority voted 2-1 Tuesday to rescind the data collection requirement, submitting the proposal to a 30-day public commentary period before final approval. The proposal is a quiet but profound salvo in President Donald Trump's shake up of civil rights enforcement, ending a practice that has endured through 10 Republican and Democratic administrations.

EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas, an outspoken critic of diversity and inclusion practices who has urged white men to come forward with discrimination complaints, argued that requiring companies to submit the annual demographic reports risks encouraging companies to justify discriminatory practices to diversify their workforce.

“It may promote racial stereotyping at work, and it may encourage employers to engage in discrimination," Lucas said during a hearing ahead of the vote.

Former Democratic EEOC commissioners and civil rights organizations have denounced the proposal, saying it will deprive the agency of a critical tool for uncovering discrimination patterns and tracking how women and racial minorities have fared since the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which created the EEOC and prohibited employment discrimination based on race, color, sex, national origin and religion.

The EEOC, which receives more than 88,000 worker complaints each year, has historically used the data to guide its enforcement priorities and inform some of its investigations.

Commissioner Kalpana Kotagal, the sole Democrat left on the EEOC since Trump moved to wrest control of the agency, voted against the proposal.

“Today, the commission discusses whether to turn back time to a period before the civil rights movement, kneecapping its ability to protect workers,” Kotagal said.

Here's what to know about the reporting requirement and the proposal to end it:

How the EEOC has collected the data

Since 1966, the EEOC has required companies with at least 100 employees, or federal contractors with at least 50 workers, to submit a form called the EEO-1 each year.

The form, which has evolved over time, identifies 10 job categories from “Executive/Senior Level Officials and Managers” to “Laborers” and “Service Workers.” It asks employers to report on the number male and female workers in each job category, as well as the number of workers from different race and ethnicities: Hispanic or Latino, Black or African American, Asian, Native Hawaiian, American Indian or Alaska Native and two or more races.

The data typically covers more than 50 million employees and 73,000 employers nationwide.

A view into gender and race in the private sector

The EEOC launched during the Biden administration an interactive tool allowing the public to explore historical demographic metrics across industries and job categories. The most recent data is from 2023. Under the Trump administration, the EEOC last collected EEO-1 data for the year 2024 but has not publicly disclosed it. Collection of the year 2025 would have begun this year.

The data shows white men dominating executive and senior manager roles at private companies, though women and minorities have made inroads, especially in the years following the #MeToo and Black Lives Matters movements.

Women remain underrepresented in the top ranks of companies. While they make up nearly half the workforce at the companies surveyed, women held just 34.5% of executives and senior manager roles in 2023. That was up from 29.2% a decade earlier.

White and Asian women made the fastest gains, and by 2023, were no longer underrepresented in senior roles compared to their numbers in the overall workforce. In contrast, Black and Hispanic women remained sharply underrepresented in executive and senior manager roles despite making modest gains.

Asian men have been proportionally represented in senior roles for years, while Black and Hispanic men remained underrepresented in 2023.

Of those demographic groups, only one was overrepresented in senior roles: white men, who made up a third of the overall workforce at the companies surveyed but held 52.7% of executive and senior management roles.

Why the government wants to end the data collection

Lucas said the annual reporting requirements impose “hundreds of millions of dollars” on costs on employers, a burden she argued was unnecessary absent “any allegation, indication, or evidence of discrimination.”

The move was recommended by Project 2025, the conservative Heritage Foundation’s blueprint that has guided many of the Trump administration’s policies.

A group of former Democratic EEOC commissioners and legal counselors said there is little evidence that companies are routinely using employment data to engage in quotas or race-based hiring.

“This is simply inaccurate and unsupported speculation, at odds with the ways in which this data is actually collected, managed and used,” the former officials said in a statement.

Instead, the officials said, tracking such data encourages companies to proactively examine their hiring, promotion, benefits and other policies to ensure they are not unnecessarily erecting barriers.

Kotagal said the agency has used the data to determine whether a discrimination charge might be part of a deeper pattern at a company. She cited a recent investigation of California supermarket chain Vallarta Food Enterprises, in which the EEOC alleges the grocer failed or refused to recruit, hire or promote non-Hispanic individuals. In that case, EEO-1 data showed that “nearly 100 percent of its employees were Hispanic,” Kotagal said. “It’s a key tool in our toolbox.”

The agency has also issued special reports on demographic employment trends across certain industries or roles.

Kotagal highlighted a 2024 report on the tech sector, which showed that women had made virtually no gains between 2014 and 2022, and that workers under 40 years old had actually lost ground. The report also found tech company workers were more likely that others to file age or pay discrimination charges, suggesting systemic barriers to women and older workers in the industry.

The report has been removed from the EEOC’s website.

Corporate retreat from demographic disclosure

The EEOC is prohibited from publicly releasing an individual company’s EEO-1 form, only publishing the information in the aggregate. In recent years, however, a growing number of the country’s top companies began publicly releasing their forms in response to pressure from shareholders and Democratic elected officials to show transparency in their diversity efforts.

Many of those companies have complained that job categories in the EEO-1 forms don't align with their internal structures, a point Lucas echoed Tuesday, saying the categories don't reflect the modern workforce. But advocates of EEO-1 disclosure argued it's the only standardized form that allows for comparison across companies, and offer more detail.

However, the trend toward transparency has started to reverse.

Companies have started to pull back on publicizing both EEO-1 forms and their own diversity reports, which conservative advocates and the Trump administration have seized on to argue that companies are using discriminatory tactics to add women and minorities to their ranks.

In 2025, 24 companies in the S&P 100 — the largest U.S. publicly traded companies — chose not to disclose their EEO-1 data after having done so the year before, according to Andrew Jones, principal researcher at The Conference Board Governance & Sustainability Center. Still, 60 S&P 100 companies did release the data.

Meanwhile, fewer companies are publicizing any form of demographic metrics. The number of Russell 3,000 companies that disclosed metrics on women in the workforce fell from 75% in 2024 to 62% in 2025, according to a study by The Conference Board using data from corporate governance data and analysis firm ESGAUGE. Those disclosing metrics on minority representation fell from 30.9% to 26.5%.

Why companies may keep gathering data

Companies are still likely to keep track of their demographic data, whether or not they disclose any of those metrics publicly, and even if they are no longer required to submit annual EEO-1 reports. That's because Title VII requires employers to keep records that could be pertinent to any discrimination investigation, and the EEOC is empowered to request them.

“What we are generally advising is to stay the course,” Jennifer Robins, counsel in law firm Saul Ewing’s Labor and Employment Group. “Private litigants, employment discrimination lawsuits are not going away, and this data is helpful to defending oneself.”

The EEOC has demanded extensive demographic data from companies to bolster Lucas' own marquee cases. Those include an investigation into diversity, equity and inclusion practices of sports giant Nike, which Lucas has alleged discriminate against white employees; a lawsuit against the New York Times for allegedly discriminating against a white man who was passed over for a promotion, and an investigation into alleged antisemitism against staff at the University of Pennsylvania.

Lucas emphasized Tuesday that the EEOC would continue to demand data in the course of its investigations. Kotagal warned employers that under future leadership, the EEOC could reinstitute the EEO-1 collection.

Jocelyn Frye, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families, said she sees the elimination of EEO-1 data as part of an effort to obscure the prevalence of discrimination against racial minorities and women and create of a sense of urgency around protecting white workers from DEI-related policies.

But Frye said the data "doesn’t suggest that their top priority ought to be discrimination against white men.

"If the chair is moving forward with an agenda that thinks she ought to be focused on men and ought to be focused on white people, my answer is, ‘Well, does the data tell you that?’” Frye said.

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The Associated Press’ women in the workforce coverage receives financial support from Pivotal Ventures. 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.

Hamas has already agreed to the proposal. American negotiators appeared to acquiesce to Israeli demands that Hamas disarmament must come before any reconstruction of the devastated Palestinian enclave. They did not publicly signal that Israel had made any commitments to withdraw from the 60% of Gaza that Israeli troops currently occupy.

That’s a major sticking point in the plan and one that Hamas had pressed negotiators to compel Israel to fulfill prior to the meeting. The talks came days after Netanyahu rejected the 15-point, U.S.-backed road map to move the ceasefire deal forward, saying there would be no withdrawal without disarmament.

A day earlier, Kushner met for two hours with Hamas' leader in Egypt.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the director of the U.S.-created Board of Peace, Nickolay Mladenov, were also in the meeting with Netanyahu, according to a source familiar with the plans and a diplomatic source. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a closed-door meeting.

At stake are the lives of some 2 million Palestinians in Gaza, rebuilding plans and future control over the territory.

Netanyahu says talks were ‘deep and constructive’

In a statement, Netanyahu's office said the talks were “deep and constructive.” Israel and the board agreed to establish two working groups — one on the disarmament and demilitarization of Gaza and another focused on public health issues for Gaza.

Israel and the board agreed that the demilitarization “should be prompt and completed before any reconstruction," the statement said.

A Board of Peace official said they also agreed that the demilitarization must include “every weapon, light and heavy, and every tunnel.” The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door meeting.

“Backed by President Donald Trump, the parties share clear goals: a fully demilitarized and deradicalized Gaza that poses no threat to Israel, and where Gazans can pursue prosperity and dignity peacefully,” the official said.

Another Board of Peace official said the meeting was “very productive” and resulted in agreement on “a path forward.”

"The Israelis are going to give this a chance. Now it’s up to Hamas to show if it truly intends to comply,” said the official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.

Asked if Israel had committed to the U.S. plan for Gaza, a spokesperson for Mladenov said it was a “work in progress.”

Meeting followed Kushner's conversation with Hamas

Kushner, who is Trump's son-in-law, met Sunday with Hamas chief Khalil al-Hayya in Cairo on disarmament, according to a regional official and a Hamas official, who both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.

Officials from mediating countries Egypt, Qatar and Turkey also were there.

The Hamas official said the Hamas leader demanded that Israel halt its attacks on Gaza and withdraw to the so-called “yellow line” dividing the territory before beginning implementation.

The yellow line was never precisely defined. Israeli forces have moved beyond it and now control about 60% of Gaza. In May, Netanyahu said the next step was to move to 70% control, with Israel “tightening the grip” on Hamas “from every direction.”

Several regional powers including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates issued a statement Sunday condemning Israel’s rejection of the road map. They said Israel "now bears responsibility for obstructing the efforts to bring peace in Gaza.” Other signers included Jordan, Pakistan, Indonesia and the ceasefire mediators.

The foreign ministers’ statement called on the Board of Peace and the U.S. to take “immediate and concrete measures” to keep any party from obstructing the plan’s implementation.

Talks spark hope and doubt in Gaza

While some in Gaza hope that efforts to implement the road map will bring an end to the war sparked by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, others are skeptical.

Mohammad Abu al-Qombuz cast doubt on all talks and visits currently taking place.

“A conference here and there, it is all lies. We need a definitive solution that would work for everybody,” said Abu al-Qombuz, who lives in a Gaza City tent camp, part of the territory's vast displaced population.

Under the road map, Hamas would hand over weapons to the Palestinian technocratic committee meant to oversee daily operations in the territory. The committee has not yet entered Gaza.

But Hamas has linked the surrender of its heaviest weapons to the creation of a Palestinian state, and the road map entails the creation of a “credible pathway toward achieving Palestinian self-determination and statehood,” something Israel’s current government rejects.

Until the road map is agreed to, other elements of the ceasefire are on hold, including reconstruction and the deployment of international forces to separate Israeli forces from committee-controlled areas.

Netanyahu faces a challenging election on Oct. 27 as he tries to hold onto power with a coalition that includes ministers taking a harsh line on Gaza, and it’s not clear whether he will take decisive steps on the ceasefire before then.

Also coming up is the anniversary of the 2023 attack.

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Frankel reported from Jerusalem, Magdy from Cairo and Shurafa from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip. Associated Press journalists Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel; Collin Binkley in Washington; and Sylvia Hui in London contributed to this report.

Location: Remote in MI, TX, or FL

Description

Graham Media Group is searching for its next Sales Support Coordinator who will be responsible for assisting the sales team with the processing and fulfillment of sales orders, strategically process makegoods, troubleshoot scheduling problems and traffic issues, solve billing discrepancies, manage program changes, provide weekly reports and correspondence with clients.

The key function of this role is to assist management, account executives and the sales team in reaching annual budgets for TV, Digital and New Business. Qualified candidates must be able to multi-task and get their task assignments done accurately and efficiently.

Responsibilities

• Work closely with Account Executives to coordinate advertising campaigns
• Input and manage broadcast orders into Wide Orbit – for local, national, paid programming, pay-for-delivery, and political campaigns
• Work makegoods with buyers/agencies and input into order management systems
• Monitor network and station schedules for program changes
• Resolve billing discrepancies and assisting with collections
• Regularly monitor campaign performance to ensure clients’ goals are being met
• Pull TV post reports to ensure campaign delivery is on track
• Provide in-depth reporting tailored to each client’s goals and objectives
• Troubleshoot scheduling problems, preemptions and traffic issues
• Communicate with advertisers for video and traffic instructions, scheduling changes and campaign performance as needed. Encourage upsell opportunities where appropriate
• Serve as backup coverage for other national and/or local sales support as needed
• Provide reports for clients and management
• Establish and maintain high retention rates and a high level of customer satisfaction by exceeding customer expectations and proactively anticipating their shifting needs
• Responsible for Political order entry as well as maintaining our FCC files related to Political
• Other duties as assigned

Requirements

• Minimum of 1 year of related work experience in media sales preferred or equivalent combination of education and experience
• Bachelor’s degree in marketing or related field preferred
• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• Strong organizational, multi-tasking and time management skills a must!
• A team player who can work with others toward common goals
• Adaptable and flexible with ability to shift focus on new priorities
• Ability to manage multiple projects and priorities simultaneously
• Ability to adhere to strict deadlines and complete work in a timely and accurate manner
• Understand Nielsen & ComScore ratings and impressions
• Experience in a television station’s sales/traffic department preferred
• Previous experience with Wide Orbit applications highly preferred
• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite, especially Excel/spreadsheets and PowerPoint or presentation tools. Comfortable learning new software and processes as needed

Please send resumes to Brittany Salyers at bsalyers@grahammedia.com

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

Location: Detroit, MI (Graham Media Group HQ)

About the Role

Graham Media Group is seeking a highly analytical, detail-oriented, and process-driven Revenue Planning & Analysis Analyst II to join our Revenue Operations team. Reporting directly to the Director of Revenue Planning & Analysis, this role serves as a critical bridge between Revenue Operations, Sales, Finance, Technology, and Market Leadership teams.

The ideal candidate combines strong analytical capabilities with expertise in data governance, quality assurance, process documentation, Salesforce and project management. This individual will champion data integrity across revenue systems, lead cross-functional initiatives, develop scalable operational processes, and leverage emerging AI technologies to drive efficiency and innovation across the organization.

Responsibilities:

• Conduct recurring audits of Salesforce, reporting platforms, and revenue datasets to ensure compliance with data standards
• Partner with stakeholders to improve data collection methods, system adoption, and overall data quality
• Monitor key data health metrics and build scorecards to measure accuracy and completeness
• Create and maintain user guides, training materials, process documentation, and standard operating procedures (SOPs) to support system adoption and operational consistency.
• Support onboarding and ongoing training efforts for revenue systems, reporting tools, and operational processes
• Partner with the Salesforce Administrator to support CRM enhancements, testing, user adoption, data hygiene, and reporting
• Assist in troubleshooting system issues and validating system changes and integrations
• Document processes, workflows, and system requirements to support ongoing optimization efforts
• Act as the Revenue Operations team’s project manager for key initiatives, coordinating efforts across Sales, Finance, Marketing, Technology, and Market Leadership.
• Gather business requirements, document processes, manage timelines, and communicate progress to stakeholders.
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Clancy's mother, Paula Musgrove, sounding at times emotional, described her daughter as a dedicated and loving mother whose mental health began declining in October 2022 — about three months before Clancy strangled the children and attempted to kill herself.

“Mom, will you please come up and stay with me for a bit? I’m really sick. Something is wrong,” Clancy wrote in a text message displayed to the jury. “I had horrible insomnia all night, and I just don’t know how I am going to get through the day. ... It’s just really scary, and I don’t want to be alone.”

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.

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Musgrove also recalled a more alarming disclosure in December, when she was standing in the kitchen with Clancy and her then-husband, Patrick Clancy. Musgrove said her daughter appeared nervous and told them she needed to tell them something.

“She told us she had thoughts of harming the children,” Musgrove said.

Musgrove, who lived in Connecticut, often stayed with her daughter in Massachusetts from October into December 2022. She said Clancy was scared of sleeping alone, became increasingly paranoid and believed the medications she was taking “were destroying her mind.”

Clancy’s sister described a similar decline. Allison Ozga testified that at the end of December Clancy told her she had experienced suicidal thoughts every day for a month.

The testimony came in the fourth week of Clancy's murder trial, soon after the prosecution rested their case.

Prosecutors argue that Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse, planned the Jan. 24, 2023, killings and contrived to get her husband out of the house by sending him to get takeout and to the pharmacy.

Clancy’s attorney Kevin Reddington does not dispute that she killed the children. But he says she shouldn't be held criminally responsible because she had postpartum psychosis, a rare mental illness linked to the stress, sleep deprivation and hormonal changes that follow childbirth. He said she also had bipolar disorder and that antidepressants prescribed worsened her condition.

‘How could a mother hurt her children?’

A former co-worker testified Monday about Clancy’s years as a labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, describing Clancy as a “really good” nurse who loved her job and was “compassionate, kind and a patient advocate.”

“She was the type of nurse that you wanted taking care of you or your loved one when you walked onto our unit,” said Margaret Hamp.

Hamp said she and Clancy worked night shifts together and that Clancy regularly sought parenting advice from her co-workers, asking about everything from children’s sleeping habits and choosing a daycare provider to monogrammed lunch boxes.

Hamp also recalled a conversation from Clancy’s first year on the unit after a pregnant patient arrived with plans to harm herself. Hamp said she spoke with Clancy about mental health during pregnancy and postpartum and asked whether she had heard of Andrea Yates, the Texas mother who drowned her five children in 2001.

“I explained that to her, and she cried,” Hamp testified. “She said, ‘How could a mother hurt her children?’”

A disputed picture of her mental health

Earlier in the trial, the jury heard that Clancy had sought treatment for severe mental health problems, including admitting herself to a psychiatric hospital. But witnesses also noted Clancy wouldn't always take the medications prescribed to help with her insomnia, anxiety and depression, and that she expressed fears she was addicted to some of them.

The defense has argued that Clancy was overmedicated and that her care was disjointed, with doctors not speaking to one another or sharing notes. The defense also showed she was discharged from one facility after a day and denied a higher level of care at another when she couldn't show that she had a suicide plan.

Prosecutors have questioned the seriousness of Clancy's suicide attempt and showed through texts and photos that she performed many normal activities the day of the killings, including taking her children to the doctor and playing with them in the snow.

Her doctors have testified they never saw Clancy exhibit signs of mania or psychosis, though she did repeatedly talk of feeling suicidal.

Clancy hasn't testified and isn't required to do so, but jurors have seen her break down in sobs at several points, including when prosecutors showed the jury autopsy photos of the children.

At the start of the trial, Patrick Clancy described the horror of returning home to find his dead children. During his testimony, prosecutors played a harrowing seven-minute 911 call, which was not released to the public. Clancy can be heard checking on Lindsay Clancy in the backyard, before heading down to his basement and finding his children.

He screams and howls before telling a dispatcher, “She killed the kids!”

Meanwhile, the 60-day negotiating period to find a peace deal between the United States and Iran was expiring, with no word of an extension and both sides seemingly as far apart as they were at the start.

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

Iran says it is near finalizing a deal with Oman

Iran said it has reached an agreement with Oman over a plan for ships to transit the Strait of Hormuz, which runs between the two countries, and they are now working to finalize details for a joint statement.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told reporters in Tehran, Iran's capital, that “an understanding has been reached regarding the map of the transit route.”

He did not elaborate, but details that have previously emerged suggest the deal would reopen the strait with ships entering through a route close to Iran and exiting through a route close to Oman. Ships would transit without paying fees or tolls during an interim period.

The U.S. has sought an acceptable deal on opening the strait before ending its blockade of Iranian ports.

Iran effectively closed the strait — through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s traded oil supplies passed before the war — after Israel and the U.S. attacked the country on Feb. 28.

Trump says US will bomb Oman if it gets in the way

Trump told Fox News reporter Trey Yingst that the U.S. would bomb Oman if it “gets in the way,” using an expletive for emphasis.

Fox News did not provide audio of the interview.

This is not the first time that Trump has threatened Oman. In May, he told reporters during a Cabinet meeting that “Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we will have to blow them up.”

Trump also said the expiration of the 60-day deadline on talks to end the war was irrelevant and said there was no timeline, Yingst said. Trump said the U.S. has a back channel for talks with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Yingst added.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres wants Iran and the U.S. to resume peace negotiations, saying there is no military solution to the conflict, according to U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric.

Dujarric said the U.N. chief also thinks the countries need to “lower the rhetoric that we’ve been hearing in recent days.”

Kushner meets with Netanyahu over Gaza road map

Mideast negotiator Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, met on Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the day after he had a rare, two-hour meeting with Hamas chief Khalil al-Hayya in Egypt on disarmament of the Palestinian militant group.

Netanyahu last week rejected a 15-point, U.S.-backed road map to move the ceasefire deal forward in Gaza.

Hamas says it has agreed to the road map, which includes disarmament, and the group is urging mediators and the U.S.-created Board of Peace to “compel” Israel to sign on.

But Israel, which under the road map must gradually withdraw from Gaza, says Hamas must fully disarm before any Israeli withdrawal.

Israeli troops occupy about 60% of the strip, and Netanyahu has previously threatened to advance further.

Houthi rebels say they attacked boats in the Red Sea

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed that they attacked a ship and four military boats on Monday in the Red Sea off the Yemeni city of Mokha, near the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

The rebels fired a number of ballistic missiles at the vessels, resulting in the capsizing and burning of the boats, Yahya Saree, a military spokesperson for the Houthis, said in a statement.

The rebels claimed that the vessels belonged to Saudi Arabia, without providing evidence. There was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia, and The Associated Press could not independently verify the Houthi claim.

Saree also said the rebels launched a drone attack on government forces in the central province of Marib.

Drone attacks target Iraqi officials

Two officials in northern Iraq were targeted in drone attacks that the regional counterterrorism service said were launched from the border with Iran.

One was fired at the office of Masrour Barzani, prime minister of Iraq’s semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region, and the other targeted the home of a top regional intelligence official, the counterterrorism service said.

There were no casualties and no immediate claim of responsibility.

Since the beginning of the war in Iran, Tehran and Iranian-backed Iraqi militias have launched regular attacks on U.S. military and diplomatic facilities in Iraq, and on bases of exiled Iranian Kurdish dissident groups, but Monday’s direct attack on regional government buildings was unusual.

Barzani on X called the attack “a dangerous escalation and a direct threat to the security and stability" of the region.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi appeared to be trying to distance Iran from the attack. He said on social media that nothing justified the attack on Barzani and that “Kurdish friends should be vigilant against false-flag ploys to sow discord between neighbors.”

U.S. forces currently stationed in the Kurdish region of Iraq have begun withdrawing ahead of a Sept. 30 deadline agreed upon between Washington and Baghdad to end the U.S. military presence in Iraq.

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This story was corrected earlier to show that the first name of the prime minister of Iraq’s semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region is Masrour Barzani, instead of Masoud Barzani.

A forest ranger said the fire in Belgium could continue for months underground in peaty soil and sporadically flare up.

Europe is sweltering through one of its hottest and driest summers on record, which a recent study said was fueled by climate change.

Rain helps, but Belgian blaze is not yet under control

Belgium’s King Philippe interrupted his summer vacation to visit emergency services fighting the wildfire in the eastern High Fens, about eight kilometers (five miles) from the German border, as it spread east after moving into a pine forest on Sunday.

The fire in Liège province has burned an estimated 30 square kilometers (about 12 square miles), leaving blackened trees and smoldering ground.

While the fire did not significantly grow, due in part to favorable winds, it remained out of control in areas inaccessible to ground crews, the Wallonia region said in an update.

Some 500 firefighters were aided by aircraft sent from Norway, Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands and local police with drones after a cold front brought overnight rain. Farmers were helping supply water to firefighting efforts, regional officials said. Helicopters emptied huge sacks of water over the flames as smoke billowed from forests.

“We managed to maintain the fire where the firemen are situated but there’s still a place which is totally inaccessible, where the fire is still going on in the direction of Monschau in Germany,” said Nicolas Yernaux, spokesperson for the Wallonia regional public services.

He said overnight rains helped contain the blaze and dampen the possibility that smoldering fires will flare up again, but he said they did not significantly impact the center of the fire.

A forest ranger from the region told The Associated Press that the blaze could continue for months underground because of the peaty soil.

“What we see here is that the grassland has burned and the fire has gone into the soil to a certain depth, into the peat, and it is still burning," said Yves Pieper. “It can go down very, very low in the peat layer.”

He said the fire can continue smoldering largely unseen underground for weeks or months before flaring up again, noting that new flames had already appeared nearby.

Precautionary evacuation orders remained in effect for hundreds of residents.

Veterinarian Hugues Guyvot, who was involved in animal rescue efforts, said large animals were able to flee but smaller ones like frogs and mice likely burrowed and were baked underground in a landscape of peat bogs.

“Maybe it will take decades to recover from this fire,” he said.

Greece quickly extinguishes fire near main airport

In Greece, fire department investigators examined the area on the island of Salamina where a fast-moving wildfire on Sunday killed two people, injured another nine and destroyed several homes. The island lies just west of the Greek capital.

New wildfires broke out elsewhere Monday. Dozens of firefighters along with two water-dropping planes and two helicopters raced to tackle one in Spata, an area east of Athens that includes the main international airport. The fire department said the blaze was contained within 30 minutes.

Separately, the fire department said an 80-year-old man was arrested in the northern town of Kavala on arson charges for allegedly deliberately setting fire to dried vegetation. It was among 302 fire-related arrests since Jan. 1 in Greece, including 31 for deliberate arson and 271 for negligence that sparked fires, the department said.

France says a fire in the southwest is under control

In southwestern France, authorities said a fire in the Landes region was under control after four days of battling the flames, allowing about half of the evacuated residents to begin returning home.

More than 600 residents evacuated last week as the fire burned about 17 square kilometers (6.6 square miles) during a prolonged spell of extreme heat. Some respite was on the way Monday as temperatures began to drop.

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said the state would provide a 12 million-euro ($13.9 million) aid package to Gironde and Landes, the regions hardest hit by the wildfires, to help rebuild homes and support affected businesses, including in Le Porge, where 183 homes were destroyed in a massive blaze last month.

Croatian police arrest arson suspects

In Croatia, four people are suspected of deliberately starting as many as 10 fires in the region around the coastal town of Zadar, a major tourism hub on the Adriatic coast.

The suspects were questioned by an investigative judge following their arrest on Saturday on a tip from residents.

The four are suspected of starting fires on Aug. 14 and 15 with an aim to “endanger lives and valuable property and inflict damage on a large number of residents in Zadar county,” police said in a statement. There was no word on a possible motive.

Police said they were assessing the extent of the damage caused.

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Corbet reported from Paris. Elena Becatoros in Argostoli, Greece, and Jovana Gec in Belgrade, Serbia, contributed.

The Republican president’s lawyers had asked the justices to reconsider their refusal to hear his appeal. The court denied Trump’s petition along with several others.

It’s unusual — although not unheard of — for the court to grant such requests. Trump paid the judgment shortly after the court declined to take up his appeal in June.

Trump and the Justice Department are also asking the high court to toss out a second Carroll verdict totaling $83 million. They argue he’s immune from being sued over comments he made about her in 2019, when he was president. The court has not yet acted on that appeal.

Carroll is a longtime advice columnist and former TV talk show host. She testified at a 2023 trial that Trump turned a friendly 1990s encounter into a violent attack in the dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman, a luxury retailer across the street from Trump Tower in Manhattan. The jury found Trump liable for defaming Carroll when he denied her allegation in 2022.

Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said they were pleased by the Supreme Court's decision.

"As a result, the jury’s unanimous verdict that Donald Trump sexually assaulted and then defamed E. Jean Carroll is now final and cannot be challenged in any court,” Kaplan said in a statement.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing.

The Associated Press does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Carroll has done.

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

Many residents on Flores island in East Nusa Tenggara province spent the day mourning victims while military teams tried to deliver food, clean water and clothing to inaccessible communities by plane.

The Saturday morning quake left widespread damage, with buildings collapsed onto parked cars, homes shattered and trees and boulders blocking roads.

“My house is just rubble now,” said Rasyid Jafar, a clothing trader in the village of Reo, the hardest-hit area in Manggarai regency. "We need food, medicine and clean water urgently.”

During Indonesia’s Independence Day ceremony in the capital, Jakarta, President Prabowo Subianto asked participants to pray for people affected by disasters in East Nusa Tenggara and other parts of the country, while leading a nationwide moment of silence honoring the nation’s independence heroes.

More than 4,500 homes were damaged when the quake struck Flores island early Saturday. Some 19,000 people were forced into temporary shelters and 213 people were injured, according to the National Disaster Management Agency or BNPB. The disaster also damaged 122 health facilities, 252 schools and 84 places of worship.

The province's governor declared a 14-day state of emergency on Sunday.

The quake occurred at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles) shortly before 6 a.m. Saturday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, and residents fled in panic as tsunami warnings were issued but later lifted. Authorities have since recorded 1,576 aftershocks into Monday, though only 54 were felt by residents.

Thousands await aid amid devastation

Thousands of people on Flores camped outside collapsed homes under tarpaulin tents overnight into Monday, sleeping outside because of the danger of more aftershocks.

For many residents, the disaster revived painful memories of a powerful earthquake and tsunami that struck Flores in 1992, killing about 2,500 people.

As thousands of survivors remain in need of food, shelter and medical treatment, the government said more than 1,800 military and police personnel have been deployed across the disaster zone, supported by 10 aircraft and several vessels, to distribute more than 100 metric tons of emergency aid.

Nearly 5,400 food packages, two field hospital tents, medicines and clothing were being delivered to communities across the disaster zone, as logistical challenges slowed deliveries to some hard-hit communities, national disaster agency Deputy Chief Abdul Muhari said in a video statement.

Authorities set up two emergency field hospitals in the worst-hit town of Ruteng to treat earthquake victims after local hospitals were damaged, with two crisis management teams overseeing a health emergency operation center, Muhari said.

He also said rescue teams continued searching for victims in the affected areas, although no residents have reported any family members still missing.

Rescuers struggle to reach isolated communities

Aid workers reached tiny Palue Island, one of the areas closest to the earthquake’s epicenter, late Sunday, after a difficult sea and land journey through landslide-hit terrain, authorities said. Thousands of residents remained in urgent need of assistance.

"The roads are steep and many were blocked by landslides. It was a near-death journey,” said the deputy police chief of Sikka regency, Marselus Yugo Amboro, whose team was among the first to reach the island with emergency supplies.

He said initial assessments revealed extensive damage, with one villager killed, two seriously injured and nearly 150 homes destroyed.

Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions because of its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped arc of seismic faults and volcanoes.

In 2018, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake triggered a tsunami on the island of Sulawesi that killed more than 4,400 people. In 2004, a magnitude 9.1 quake off Sumatra unleashed a tsunami that killed about 230,000 people in a dozen countries, nearly 170,000 in Aceh province alone.

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Karmini reported from Jakarta. Associated Press journalists Edna Tarigan, Dita Alangkara and Andi Jatmiko, in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this story.

The Southeastern Conference gets bragging rights with nine ranked teams, but the Big Ten isn’t far behind with eight.

Indiana finished the 2025 season at No. 1 in the rankings after a historic 16-0 run and national championship game victory. This season, Ohio State enters with the best odds (+600) to win it all. Notre Dame (+650), Texas (+650), Indiana (+800) and Oregon (+800) round out the top five.

The Top 25 voters are more than 60 journalists covering college football for AP members and other news organizations. They’re urged to base their votes on head-to-head results, not reputation, preseason speculation or regional bias.

What comes next?

Now comes the good part.

The first regular-season poll will be released at noon on Tuesday, Sept. 8, after the opening two weekends of college football. After that, the AP Top 25 will drop every Sunday at 2 p.m. ET through the end of the regular season.

The final regular-season poll will be released Dec. 6 at 11 a.m. ET, right before the College Football Playoff bracket is revealed. The final AP Top 25 of the season will be released at noon on Jan. 26, after the national championship game.

The CFP bracket based on the preseason AP Top 25

Based on the AP Top 25 preseason rankings, the CFP would open like this:

— No. 9 seed Mississippi at No. 8 Texas A&M. Winner vs. No. 1 Ohio State.

— No. 12 seed Boise State at No. 5 Texas. Winner vs. No. 4 Notre Dame.

— No. 10 seed Oklahoma at No. 7 seed Miami. Winner vs. No. 2 Oregon.

— No. 11 seed Texas Tech at No. 6 Indiana. Winner vs. No. 3 Georgia.

Music City Kickoff got a good one

Last year’s Week 1 featured three marquee matchups between ranked teams as Texas traveled to Ohio State, Miami faced Notre Dame and LSU took on Clemson.

This year, the inaugural Music City Kickoff game in Nashville will feature the only ranked-on-ranked matchup in Week 1. No. 9 Ole Miss and No. 24 Louisville meet at Nissan Stadium, home of the Tennessee Titans, on Sept. 6.

The ranked matchups pick up in Week 2 with two ranked matchups featuring SEC and Big Ten schools. Texas will host Ohio State in a rematch under the lights on Saturday, Sept. 12, while Oklahoma heads to Ann Arbor to face Michigan at noon.

No. 4 Notre Dame set to embark on revenge tour

No matter how Marcus Freeman wants to downplay it, Notre Dame is still smarting about not being selected for the CFP after winning 10 straight games following season-opening losses to Miami and Texas A&M.

Quarterback C.J. Carr returns and is being touted as a Heisman Trophy candidate. He’ll be working with a deep receiving corps led by Jordan Faison and Jaden Greathouse. Former Ohio State receivers Mylan Graham and Quincy Porter also are in the mix.

All-America candidate Leonard Moore returns at defensive back while defensive end Boubacar Traore and linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa add punch to the Notre Dame’s defense.

No. 2 Oregon appears set to break through

Oregon has the look of a team that could be ready to break through and win its first national championship.

The Ducks have one of the most seasoned teams in the nation with quarterback Dante Moore among six starters back on offense. Defensive lineman A’Mauri Washington and edge Matayo Uiagalelei lead a defense that returns eight starters.

Each of the last two years the Ducks have had their season end in the CFP with a loss to a Big Ten opponent they were playing for the second time that season.

In 2024, Oregon won the Big Ten title with a 13-0 record in its first year in the conference and was the No. 1 CFP seed. The Ducks, who beat Ohio State 32-31 in the regular season, lost 41-21 to the Buckeyes.

In 2025, Oregon’s only two losses were to Indiana – 30-20 in the regular season and 56-22 in a playoff semifinal.

“I think that speaks volumes about our league, especially when you’re talking about repeat games within our league,” coach Dan Lanning said. “We have some unbelievable coaches, great teams. There’s a lot of things we studied with ourselves in this offseason.

“Sometimes the ball has to bounce the right way. Sometimes you can do something schematically. We have studied other teams that have won games in their second opportunity. We’re looking for our opportunity to be a team like that.”

No. 1 Buckeyes are loaded but face tough schedule

Ohio State starts a season No. 1 for the ninth time. The Buckeyes didn’t end there the previous eight.

They have an excruciating schedule but are built for what awaits.

Jeremiah Smith is the most productive receiver in the nation, quarterback Julian Sayin is one of the most accurate passers and the offensive line is elite. There are plenty of talented transfers waiting to emerge for a defense replacing eight starters, all of whom were drafted.

The Buckeyes visit Indiana on Oct. 17 and host Oregon on Nov. 7. Those games will go a long way in deciding which teams make the Big Ten championship game in Indianapolis, not to mention impact CFP seeding.

Missouri only team that will play 5 of the preseason top 10 teams

No. 25 Missouri has the 12th-toughest schedule in the country, according to ESPN, but the Tigers are the only team that will play five of the top 10 in the AP Top 25 preseason poll.

All five of those are bunched into the Tigers’ final seven regular-season games. They play No. 8 Texas A&M on Oct. 10, at No. 9 Mississippi on Oct. 17, No. 5 Texas on Nov. 7, at No. 3 Georgia on Nov. 14 and No. 10 Oklahoma on Nov. 28.

Oklahoma, which plays four top-10 teams, has ESPN’s second-toughest schedule behind Arkansas. No. 5 Texas’ schedule is ranked third in degree of difficulty.

On the bubble

Clemson was the first team out with 112 points, five fewer than No. 25 Missouri. Florida, Boise State, Arizona, TCU, Navy and South Carolina were the next teams out, each received double-digit points.

The bubble teams enter the season in unique position to move up quickly in the ranks. With Clemson just points away at No. 26, a Week 1 win could easily do the trick.

The bad news? Clemson heads to No. 11 LSU for its season debut on Sept. 5.

Expectations remain high for Texas – just not as high as last year

After ranking No. 1 in last year’s preseason poll, the Longhorns enter the 2026 season at No. 5, behind Ohio State, Oregon, Georgia and Notre Dame.

Texas will be put to the test early, with a Week 2 rematch against Ohio State giving the Longhorns a chance to make a case for a higher ranking.

Arch Manning struggled under high expectations in his first career start last season against Ohio State, gaining momentum only in the fourth quarter of a 14-7 loss. After completing nine passes for 38 yards and an interception through the first three quarters, Manning finished the game with 17 completions for 170 yards.

A Week 2 win against the top-ranked team in the preseason poll would give the Longhorns the kind of start they desperately needed last year.

In the ACC, it’s Miami … and everyone else

Miami has a good-sized lead over the other ACC teams in the preseason poll. The Hurricanes came in at No. 7 and earned one first-place vote after a season that ended just shy of a national title.

SMU was the next-closest team at No. 19. Louisville squeaked in at No. 24.

The ACC also had three teams ranked in last year’s preseason poll. Clemson ranked No. 4 before what turned out to be a disappointing season. Miami ranked No. 10, and SMU came in at No. 16.

The ACC ended up being a weird one last year, with an unranked Duke team taking on then-No. 16 Virginia in the conference championship game. Duke delivered a 27-20 overtime win, but it wasn’t enough for the CFP committee to view them as a viable option. Miami instead earned an at-large bid, and James Madison and Tulane secured bids as two of the five highest-ranked conference champions.

Clemson left out of preseason poll for first time since 2011

Clemson is unranked in the AP preseason Top 25 for the first time since 2011.

The Tigers almost got in. They received the most voting points among teams left out. They’re five points behind No. 25 Missouri.

Clemson is coming off a 7-6 season, its worst since 2010. The offense struggled to get anything going in the ground game and was second-to-last in the ACC in third-down conversions. The defense underachieved.

Look for the offense to be much better with the return of offensive coordinator Chad Morris, who led some of the nation’s most potent offenses when he had the same job at Clemson from 2011-14. The defense should play with more confidence in Tom Allen’s second year as coordinator.

Clemson gets a measuring-stick game right away when they open at No. 11 LSU.

Five teams got first-place votes, but not No. 3 and No. 5

Of the top seven teams, five received first-place votes: Ohio State (40), Oregon (14), Notre Dame (6), Indiana (8) and Miami (1). Voters skipped over No. 3 Georgia and No. 5 Texas, which both fell into the top five but didn’t receive first-place votes.

Perhaps most notably, voters don’t see an SEC team breaking a three-year championship drought. After Michigan, Ohio State and Indiana took home the last three titles, faith in the Big Ten remains high.

Ohio State and Oregon, the top two teams in the poll, give the Big Ten its first preseason 1-2 since 1961 — a sign that voters expect the conference to bring home a fourth straight national title.

Sarkisian: Preseason polls great for conversation, and that’s about it

Texas coach Steve Sarkisian, whose team landed No. 5 in the AP Top 25 preseason poll, doesn’t put much credence in the polls. The polls do have some value, though, he said.

“I love the polls for college football fans, for the excitement, for the marquee matchups, for all those things,” he said. “But the polls internally, they just don’t matter. They’re really irrelevant. I think we’ve gotten to a point now as a team to understand that what matters is how we play each and every Saturday.”

Georgia holds steady in the top five

Georgia enters the season at No. 3, marking the eighth straight year with a top-five preseason ranking.

The Bulldogs will have plenty of familiar faces taking the field this fall, with quarterback Gunner Stockton, running back duo Nate Frazier and Chauncey Bowens and tight end Lawson Luckie bringing valuable game experience to the offense. Expectations are high for linebackers Raylen Wilson and Chris Cole, while KJ Bolden, Kyron Jones and Ellis Robinson IV will hold down the secondary.

Georgia earned the No. 3 seed and a first-round bye in the 12-team College Football Playoff after beating Alabama in the SEC Championship game. The Bulldogs went on to fall 39-34 to Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl.

Conference breakdown

SEC (9): No. 3 Georgia, No. 5 Texas, No. 8 Texas A&M, No. 9 Mississippi, No. 10 Oklahoma, No. 11 LSU, No. 13 Alabama, No. 20 Tennessee, No. 25 Missouri

Big Ten (8): No. 1 Ohio State, No. 2 Oregon, No. 6 Indiana, No. T-14 USC, No. 16 Michigan, No. 17 Washington, No. 18 Penn State, No. 22 Iowa

Big 12 (4): No. 12 Texas Tech, No. T-14 BYU, No. 21 Utah, No. 23 Houston

ACC (3): No. 7 Miami, No. 19 SMU, No. 24 Louisville

Independent (1): No. 4 Notre Dame

No Group of 6 teams ranked

After two non-power conference teams (Tulane, James Madison) made the CFP in 2025, none cracked the preseason Top 25.

Since two were ranked in the preseason in 2022, only Tulane in 2023 and Boise State in 2025 have started a season in the Top 25.

Boise State, which has moved from the Mountain West to the new Pac-12, was the top vote-getter among Group of Six teams outside the Top 25. Nine others got at least one vote.

New coaches, same expectations

Four Top 25 teams have new coaches, and they’ve been given a short runway.

Pete Golding, who begins his first full season at No. 9 Mississippi, was able to keep key pieces of the staff and he brought back top players. He led the Rebels to the CFP semifinals after Lane Kiffin’s ugly departure, and another magical run is possible.

Speaking of Kiffin, much is expected at No. 11 LSU. The Tigers haven’t gone to the CFP since winning it all in 2019 and have lost at least four games in five of the six seasons since.

Penn State is No. 18, which seems generous given Matt Campbell will be relying on players he brought with him from Iowa State.

Morgan Scalley, entering his 19th year at No. 21 Utah, gets back QB Devon Dampier and RB Wayshawn Parker but not many other starters from an 11-2 team.

SEC has 9 ranked teams to Big Ten’s 8

Having Ohio State and Oregon enter the season Nos. 1 and 2 ahead of sixth-ranked defending conference and national champion Indiana is a flex for the Big Ten, which already is riding the momentum of winning the last three national titles.

Having five of the top 10 teams, and seven of the top 13, bolsters the SEC’s contention that it has greater depth. The SEC has nine ranked teams compared to the Big Ten’s eight.

The debate goes on over conference supremacy and will only heat up when the Big Ten and SEC square off in the first heavyweight games of the season Sept. 12. That’s when No. 10 Oklahoma visits No. 16 Michigan and No. 1 Ohio State goes to No. 5 Texas. Both are rematches of games won by the home team last year — OU 24-13 and Ohio State 14-7.

Longhorns, No. 1 in last year’s preseason poll, look to bounce back

The Longhorns entered the 2025 season at No. 1 after receiving 25 first-place votes — two more than No. 2 Penn State. But after a Week 1 loss to Ohio State, Texas found itself fighting upstream to maintain its top-ranked status. An October loss to a struggling Florida team didn’t help either, knocking Texas out of the rankings altogether.

The Longhorns, despite gutting out a few impressive wins, ultimately fell short of the 12-team College Football Playoff after Georgia handed them a third loss.

Eyes will be on quarterback Arch Manning, who the Longhorns hope makes the expected jump from year one to year two as a full-time starter. Manning, a favorite for the Heisman Trophy this year, will have to lead a team facing plenty of expectations once again.

Buckeyes are an early favorite

It’s the first time the Buckeyes have topped the list since the 2015 preseason.

Ohio State ranked No. 1 in the AP Top 25 for the entire regular season last year, only dropping after a Big Ten Championship game defeat from Indiana. With a 12-1 record, Ohio State still earned the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye in the College Football Playoff. The Buckeyes ultimately went on to drop 24-14 to eventual runners-up, Miami, in the Cotton Bowl.Gallery

This season appears promising with quarterback and receiver duo Julian Sayin and Jeremiah Smith returning to the offense. Veteran defensive end Kenyatta Jackson Jr. is expected to anchor the defense. Notre Dame and Texas are tied for the second best odds at +650. Indiana (+800) and Oregon (+800) round out the top five.

How are votes counted?

There was a time when voters called, emailed and faxed their votes to the AP. Long ago, the ballots were tabulated by hand.

Now voting is done online and all the tabulation is automated.

There is a 1-25 point system, with a team voted No. 1 receiving 25 points down to 1 point for a 25th-place vote. After that, it’s simple: The poll lists the teams with the most points from 1 to 25 and others receiving votes are also noted.

Where did we leave off?

After shocking the nation with a perfect 16-0 record, Big Ten title and national championship victory, the Indiana Hoosiers were unanimously voted No. 1 in the final poll of the season.

Runners-up Miami finished right behind after falling just short of a national title. Miami’s No. 2 ranking was its highest since the 2002 season.

Ole Miss, Oregon and Ohio State rounded out the top five.

But a lot can change from one year to the next.

Eight Hoosiers ascended to the pros, including Heisman winner and first-overall pick Fernando Mendoza. Miami had nine draftees, including three first-rounders.

Ole Miss, Oregon and Ohio State have the advantage of a returning quarterback in 2026 — each in the Heisman conversation ahead of the season.

The origin story

The Associated Press Top 25 college football poll started in 1936, the brainchild of former sports editor Alan J. Gould.

The number of teams ranked, the number of voters on the panel and how the ballots are tabulated has fluctuated over the years, but no news organization has been ranking teams and naming a major college football national champion longer than the AP. It has been the Top 10, Top 20 and, since 1989, the Top 25.

The Team Penske driver is embracing the challenge of proving he can win a title in the format that puts a greater emphasis on banking consistently strong finishes.

“Do I have a little chip on my shoulder? That’s a clear yes,” Logano said with a chuckle after his victory Saturday at Richmond Raceway. “So much so that our team slogan is ‘4 the haters.’ That’s where we’re at. That’s good extra motivation.”

With an impressive surge from 20th to ninth in the standings over the past six races, Logano has flipped the narrative on the elimination playoffs that were in place for 12 years.

From 2014-25, the waning races of NASCAR’s regular season typically were a scramble to make the championship field as a win earned a berth.

But that safety valve has disappeared in the Chase, which will rely entirely on points to set the 16-driver field.

The top 16 in the provisional Chase have been unchanged for the past four races, and the grid for the 10-race title run likely will remain the same at New Hampshire Motor Speedway this weekend.

Shane van Gisbergen holds the 16th and final spot by 50 points over Ryan Preece, who dropped 21 points further below the Chase cutline with a 17th-place finish at Richmond.

The next three drivers ranked outside the Chase — Ross Chastain (12th at Richmond), Brad Keselowski (26th) and Erik Jones (27th) — also lost ground, diluting the potential drama of a surprise qualifier.

“The number of guys that feel the pressure of making the Chase is probably less,” said Christopher Bell, who is among seven drivers who have clinched Chase spots. “In years past, everybody on the outside still had an opportunity to get in, and now it’s kind of dwindled to a couple guys fighting for the spots.”

There’s been more intrigue toward the top half of the standings — particularly the progress of the Team Penske trio.

As Logano continued his push up the points ladder, teammate Ryan Blaney moved past Ty Gibbs into second in the standings at Richmond. Austin Cindric, Penske’s third driver, shored up his title eligibility with a career-best third on a short track to move up a spot to 15th in the points.

Denny Hamlin has a 115-point lead on Blaney and likely will clinch the Chase’s top seed Sunday at New Hampshire, which will be followed by the Aug. 29 regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway.

The standings then will be reset for the Chase, which begins Sept. 6 at Darlington Raceway with the championship leader ahead by 25 points. Second will start 10 points ahead of third, and the remaining 14 spots will be separated by five-point increments.

“Getting to second is top of mind because every point is going to matter,” Blaney said.

There also is an emphasis on finishing the regular season in the top half of the points standings.

Racing Insights, a NASCAR analytics firm, ran more than 25,000 computer simulations of Chase outcomes, and the champion started in the top six 85% of the time.

Logano, who made the Chase only once while racing under the system in his first five Cup seasons from 2009-13, is 36 points from sixth-ranked Chase Elliott.

“We’ve been able to switch our goals from making the Chase to winning the championship,” said Logano, whose No. 22 Ford was ranked 17th before winning two of the past four races. “It’s quite the turnaround. I look at the last month and a half, we’ve been capable of winning all of them.”

Logano could be among several more drivers who lock into the championship Sunday with a solid result at New Hampshire.

Crew chief Paul Wolfe credited Logano with buoying morale when the team notched only two top-five finishes in the first half of the season.

“I’m proud of everyone sticking together,” Logano said. “There are times you see teams break, and it doesn’t take much longer running the way we were until something probably was going to break. We’ve been able to make quite the recovery to have a legit shot at the championship.”

Larson double duty

After finishing sixth at Richmond, Kyle Larson immediately flew to Iowa and scored his fourth victory in the Knoxville Nationals, a prestigious sprint car event. Larson qualified on the pole position last week by winning a preliminary race at the renowned dirt track in Knoxville, Iowa.

He had expected to miss Saturday's main event because of the schedule conflict with Richmond, but a rain delay at Knoxville Raceway allowed the two-time Cup Series champion to arrive in time to lead all 50 laps. “It’s extremely surreal just to talk about the day and the range of emotions,” Larson said.

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