Koenig died Monday at his home in the North Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, talent agent Zachery McGinnis said in a statement.

In “Star Trek,” Ensign Chekov was the sole Communist-bloc member of the spaceship Enterprise bridge staff. His friendly, supportive presence showed how the rival nations (in the far-off future in which the show was set) were capable of working together.

Speaking Russian-accented English, Chekov embodied stereotypical Russian personality traits, including fierce pride, love of poetry and blind loyalty.

“Star Trek” ran on NBC from 1966 to 1969 and has had an almost unprecedented afterlife as fans, or Trekkies, kept interest in the show alive.

Koenig was born Sept. 14, 1936, in Chicago, the son of a businessman. He graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1958, then studied acting at New York's The Neighborhood Playhouse for two years. He began getting television roles in the early 1960s, appearing on “Mr. Novak” and “Ben Casey.”

“My heart is heavy,” Koenig's castmate, George Takei, said in a post on the social platform X. “Walter was more than Chekov. He was a writer, a teacher, a thoughtful man, and a loyal friend.”

Koenig was the best man at Takei’s 2008 wedding to Brad Altman, his partner of more than two decades.

“Walter’s legacy extends far beyond the screen. Through countless convention appearances and interactions with fans, he shared his kindness, wit, and appreciation with everyone fortunate enough to meet him. He understood what Star Trek meant to people and embraced the community that grew around it,” McGinnis said. “Thank you, Walter, for the memories, the inspiration, and for boldly going where few have gone before.”

McGinnis said Koenig died surrounded by his daughter and niece.

Koenig played Chekov in seven “Star Trek” movies starting in 1979, as well as innumerable other spinoffs, including writing a “Star Trek” book, “Chekov's Enterprise,” in 1980. The TV show has also inspired two spinoff TV series with new casts, and conventions that draw thousands of fans.

After “Star Trek” ended, Koenig continued acting and wrote scripts for “Family,” “The Incredible Hulk” and other shows. He also taught part time at UCLA and other schools.

Koenig also worked in the burgeoning field of computer games, including some with a “Star Trek” theme. In 1995, he took a role in the CD-ROM game “Maximum Surge.”

“I'm at a point where I could opt in my life for complacency and a bit of predictability, or I could have one last holler — one last try for adventure,” Koenig told The Associated Press in 1995. “I'm of the opinion that adventure is still a very enticing and exciting option.”

He returned to the science fiction genre with occasional appearances in the syndicated 1990s TV series “Babylon 5.”

Mississippi, among the nation's most reliably Republican states, is not where the party envisioned needing a late-October stop from the president. But GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith faces a stiff challenge from Scott Colom, one of many Democratic underdogs that have managed to expand the House and Senate battleground maps because of widespread voter discontent over inflation, the Iran war and other aspects of Trump’s second presidency.

The evening rally with Hyde-Smith will kick off a week that continues to pit Trump against former President Barack Obama, the Democrat he first succeeded in 2017, and former Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrat he defeated in 2024 to return to power. Trump's itinerary has been taking him to many states that he won comfortably in 2024.

Other top nominees and surrogates are greeting voters — almost 30 million of whom have already cast ballots — as Republicans scramble to protect their threadbare majority in the House, shore up a Senate majority that was once thought secure and maintain the GOP's national advantage in state capitals.

Democrats, including progressives, are expanding their efforts

Minnesota was the center of the progressive movement’s effort to leverage many Americans’ economic struggles, as Democratic Senate nominee Peggy Flanagan, the current lieutenant governor, welcomed House Progressive Caucus Chairwoman Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., to advocate for a national health insurance plan to achieve universal coverage.

“Everywhere I go on this tour I meet Minnesotans who are working hard and doing everything right and still can’t afford to take care of themselves or the people they love,” said Flanagan, who is backed by progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Flanagan is running against former sportscaster Michele Tafoya for the open seat.

If passed, the healthcare bill, which would include added benefits such as dental, vision, and hearing coverage, could save up to $1 trillion in healthcare spending, Jayapal said at the conference.

“We desperately need to build a completely different system and stop tinkering around the edges of a sick care system,” said Jayapal, who is the lead author and sponsor of the bill.

Harris was to campaign in neighboring Wisconsin with Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, who faces Rep. Tom Tiffany, a Trump ally, for governor. Crowley would be the state’s first Black governor if elected to lead the battleground state.

In Georgia, Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff and gubernatorial nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms are getting an assist from Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, chairman of the Democratic Governors Association and a likely 2028 presidential candidate, two days after Trump made his second October visit to the state.

Vice President JD Vance was headed to Kansas on behalf of Sen. Roger Marshall, who finds himself locked in a tight contest with Democratic nominee and United Methodist megachurch pastor Adam Hamilton in a state that hasn't elected a Democratic senator since 1932.

House Democrats also continue to expand their spending footprint, with the House Majority PAC announcing almost $2.5 million in new spending in Minnesota and Indiana districts that had been considered solid GOP territory earlier in the cycle.

The Minnesota seat has been reliably Republican for generations, other than a recent stretch when Tim Walz, the state's two-term governor and Democrats' 2024 vice presidential nominee, represented the sprawling, heavily rural district.

Trump to rally in another reliably Republican state

But it's Trump's visit to Mississippi that perhaps brings the midterm landscape into the sharpest relief with just a week of campaigning left before votes are tallied.

To be sure, Hyde-Smith, who is vying for her second full term, remains the favorite in a state Trump won three times by an average of nearly 20 percentage points.

But Colom, a local prosecutor who would make history as Mississippi's first Black senator since post-Civil War Reconstruction, is looking to parlay inflation, Trump's lagging popularity and Hyde-Smith's mistakes into an upset.

Colom has outpaced Hyde-Smith in fundraising since he launched his campaign last year, and he caught national attention this month with an ad that played off Hyde-Smith dismissing beef prices — driven higher by Trump's tariffs and fuel spikes resulting from the Iran war. The ad features Hyde-Smith, a former state agriculture commissioner, saying that consumers “have so many other proteins to choose from,” followed by several characters, and then Colom, saying Mississippi should “pick another senator instead.”

Colom's campaign followed with a social media video that featured an AI-generated Hyde-Smith dodging questions about that controversy and other issues. The Democrat took down the video after the Mississippi attorney general said it could violate state law barring the use of deepfakes so close to Election Day.

Senate Democrats’ super PAC, meanwhile, has been a late entry in the contest, with a $1.2 million investment — a paltry sum compared with Senate contests in more populous states like Texas or Georgia but an amount that can go farther in Mississippi’s smaller television markets.

Mississippians have not chosen a new Democratic senator since 1947, and Democrats last won a Senate race there when that senator, the onetime segregationist John Stennis, won his last reelection in 1982.

South Carolina has emerged as another unexpectedly competitive Senate race where a Democratic victory by Dr. Annie Andrews over Sen. Darline Graham, who was appointed to succeed her late brother, would rank as a seismic upset.

Trump announced Monday that he'd be returning to the state on Thursday for his second general election visit on Graham's behalf. Andrews, meanwhile, touted a bipartisan endorsement Monday from two former South Carolina governors, Republican David Beasley and Democrat Jim Hodges. Andrews’ campaign says more than 100 Republicans have joined her “Republicans for Annie” coalition.

Republicans currently hold a 53-47 Senate majority, meaning Democrats must flip at least four seats for a change in control. The GOP began the cycle with a 220-215 advantage in the House, but a national gerrymandering fight made nine Democrats-held seats friendlier to Republicans based on 2024 presidential outcomes in those districts.

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Barrow reported from Atlanta. Associated Press reporters John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas; Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina; and Laura Turbay in St. Paul, Minnesota, contributed.

The S&P 500 rose 0.7% and more than recovered its losses from last week, pulling within 1.8% of its all-time high set earlier this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 110 points, or 0.2%, with a little less than an hour remaining in trading, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.9% higher.

The strongest lift for the market came from Nvidia, which rose 2.5%. That helped the chip company recover some of its drop from three straight losing weeks, its longest such streak since June.

But stocks elsewhere in the artificial-intelligence industry remained unsettled. They’ve been swerving on worries about whether their industry’s boom is under threat because of how expensive it’s become for companies to borrow money to build data centers and buy more AI chips.

Meta helps lead the swings

Meta Platforms bounced up and down after outlining plans to raise $35 billion by selling stock to help pay for its AI investments. It also said it could raise another $60 billion by selling shares of a new class of its stock once it begins trading. Meta's stock initially dropped more than 2%, but it quickly flipped to a gain and then pulled back to a loss of 1.3%.

Meta said Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices and Broadcom have already indicated they may buy a total of $5 billion of stock in its offering. Those are strong signals of interest from chip companies that stand to benefit from additional AI investments. But they also give fuel to critics of “circular financing” who say it raises the risk if AI isn't as successful as expected.

One big company at the center of the AI boom, Anthropic, gave details Monday about how much money it's losing as it prepares to sell its stock on the publicly traded U.S. market for the first time.

Worries remain about borrowing for AI

SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket company that also runs the xAI business, had similar swings after it agreed to a roughly $40 billion deal with an entity managed by Apollo Global Management to lease AI computing power. Its stock initially fell nearly 2% before flipping to a gain of 1.9% and then moderating to a rise of 0.5%.

Musk warned over the weekend that hundreds of companies that rent out AI computing power are under threat because of the difficulty in borrowing money, saying on his social-media platform, X, that they could face “guppy-level death and consolidation.”

CoreWeave, a company that's borrowed money to buy AI computing power that it rents to customers over the cloud, has been at the center of investors’ worries in recent weeks. On Monday, it dropped 5.5% quickly after trading began, only to flip to a gain of 3.6%. Such minute-to-minute swings have become commonplace for it in recent days.

It's a big week for profit reports

Profit reports from huge tech companies this upcoming week could offer more details about how spending on AI is going, and whether it’s producing the profits and productivity that proponents promised.

Alphabet and Microsoft will report their latest quarterly results on Wednesday, with Amazon to follow on Thursday.

Companies across all industries are under pressure to report strong growth in their profits. Expectations for big growth are what allowed stock prices to run to records recently despite worries about high inflation, high interest rates and other concerns.

Verizon Communications fell 3.7% even though it reported a stronger profit for the summer than analysts expected, as its revenue fell short of forecasts.

Roughly one out of every three stocks in the S&P 500 is scheduled to report its latest quarterly results this week.

Brazilian stocks tumble following mixed moves in other markets

In stock markets abroad, Brazilian stocks fell sharply after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won reelection in a result that surprised investors.

The worry among investors is that he could increase the government’s spending and put more pressure on its debt. The Bovespa stock index in Brazil dropped 14.7%.

Other governments around the world are also feeling pressure because of their high debt loads and worries about strained budgets, including the United States. France has been at the center of the worries recently following violent protests in the country.

But yields on French government bonds eased Monday, and its CAC 40 stock index rose 0.8% for one of the world’s better moves. Indexes also rose in other European markets following a mixed finish in Asia.

The European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan will be meeting to vote on interest rates later this week.

Yields ease ahead of the Federal Reserve's meeting

In the U.S. bond market, yields fell for longer-term Treasurys. The yield on the 10-year Treasury dropped to 4.98% from 5.00% late Friday and from more than 5.30% earlier this month.

The two-year Treasury yield rose to 4.71% from 4.69% late Friday. It more closely tracks expectations for what the Federal Reserve will do with overnight interest rates, and the widespread expectation is that it will say on Wednesday that it is leaving the federal funds rate alone following its latest meeting.

The Fed last month hiked the fed funds rate for the first time in three years in hopes of slowing inflation, which has remained much higher than anyone would like.

Oil prices swing

The price for a barrel of Brent crude swung between gains and losses through the day before settling at $110.74, down 0.9%. It remains near the high end of its range since the war with Iran began. The highest price for the most actively traded contract in the market for Brent crude since then is nearly $120, reached in March.

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AP Business Writers Michelle Chapman and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.

Also, President Donald Trump intensified his anti-Muslim rhetoric against Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed on Sunday, portraying him as a threat to national security and questioning his loyalty to the United States in remarks that drew a sharp rebuke from a former top Arab American ally.

Here's the latest:

Vance rallies for Republicans in Montana

The vice president campaigned in Belgrade, where a western Montana congressional race also drew Trump to campaign recently.

Vance promoted Republican Aaron Flint, who is facing Democrat Sam Forstag, in the race for the state’s 1st Congressional District.

He also promoted Republican Kurt Alme in the Senate race, where he is facing two major candidates, Democrat Alani Bankhead and Independent Seth Bodnar, who is backed by top Democrats.

“You have not one but two Democrats on the ballot,” Vance said to the crowd, joking: “Aren’t you blessed with abundance?”

Lawler pulls from Trump playbook with McDonald’s stop

Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler manned a McDonald’s drive-thru in New York’s Hudson Valley on Monday, hoping to grease the wheels on some last-minute voters before Election Day.

The move was similar to a political stunt President Donald Trump pulled two years ago, coming as Lawler tries to put some daylight between himself and the president in his battleground district.

It was hard to tell if patrons were lovin’ it, but some appeared to engage in some friendly chatting with the congressman as he handed out lunchtime orders while wearing an apron and visor.

Lawler is locked in a tight race with Democrat Cait Conley over his House district in New York City’s northern suburbs.

Trump and first lady to host trick-or-treating at the White House on Thursday

Thousands of costumed children, accompanied by their parents, are expected to participate.

Trump and first lady Melania Trump will hand out candy to trick-or-treaters during a portion of the Thursday afternoon event on the South Lawn. Ticketholders will include military families, law enforcement families, foster and adoptive families, and the children of administration officials, the White House said.

The Republican president is scheduled earlier Thursday to headline a campaign rally in South Carolina for Sen. Darline Graham.

Hegseth will attend Southeast Asia defense ministers' meeting

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is heading to an annual meeting with his Southeast Asian counterparts as they face tensions with China.

At the Association of Southeast Asian Nations defense ministers’ gathering in the Philippines this week, Hegseth will “hold bilateral and multilateral meetings to strengthen deterrence, advance key alliances and partnerships, and expand burden-sharing across the region,” the Pentagon announced Monday.

There are tensions in the region over Chinese claims on the waters of the South China Sea. The key trade route also has claims by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

Hegseth will gather with his regional counterparts as the U.S. has tried for years to focus on the Asia-Pacific as a way to counter China’s growing influence. That effort has been stymied by the conflict in the Middle East and the Trump administration’s stated goal to focus much of its military efforts on the Western Hemisphere.

Democrats outspending Republicans as ad spending in the Kansas Senate race nears $91M

Incumbent GOP Sen. Roger Marshall and Republican groups had spent about $39 million on television and other advertising as of Monday to help Marshall win a second term, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact.

However, Democratic challenger Adam Hamilton and Democratic groups topped $52 million.

Vice President JD Vance was traveling to Topeka on Monday for a rally to help Marshall.

It’s by far the most expensive campaign in Kansas history, and it’s considered a tossup even though Democrats haven’t won a Senate race in Kansas since 1932.

A big part of the gap in spending is tied to Marshall’s lackluster fundraising. Between the state’s August primary and Saturday, Marshall raised about $1.5 million, according to campaign finance reports available online. Hamilton raised $13.7 million.

Democrat Annie Andrews gets bipartisan endorsements in South Carolina Senate race

Two former South Carolina governors, Republican David Beasley and Democrat Jim Hodges, say that they’re putting aside political differences to back Andrews over GOP Sen. Darline Graham.

Hodges blocked Beasley from a second term in 1998.

Andrews’ campaign says more than 100 Republicans have joined her “Republicans for Annie” coalition. Last week, the son of GOP Rep. Ralph Norman said in an op-ed he was also supporting Andrews in the race that has appeared to tighten in its closing days.

Trump returns to South Carolina on Thursday to campaign with Graham for the second time in the general election.

Trump heads to Mississippi as the two parties prepare for final sprint ahead of Election Day

President Trump heads Monday to Mississippi, as he continues a closing midterm campaign blitz that highlights Republicans’ challenges ahead of an election that could drastically shift power in Washington and statehouses across the country.

Mississippi, among the nation’s most reliably Republican states, isn’t where the GOP envisioned needing a late-October stop from the president. But GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith faces a stiff challenge from Scott Colom, one of many Democratic underdogs that have managed to expand the House and Senate battleground maps because of widespread voter discontent over inflation, the Iran war and other aspects of Trump’s second presidency.

The evening rally with Hyde-Smith will kick off a week that continues to pit Trump against former President Barack Obama, the Democrat he first succeeded in 2017, and former Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrat he defeated in 2024 to return to power. Trump’s itinerary has been taking him to many states he won comfortably in 2024.

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Conservative group sends mailer with Susan Collins at a Biden bill signing

It’s rare when Joe Biden is mentioned in a positive way during this year’s midterms. But a mailer from a conservative group supporting Republican Sen. Susan Collins includes photos of her with the former Democratic president as it promotes her ability to work across the aisle.

The mailer, paid for by an organization called One Nation, focuses on Collins’ advocacy for Social Security.

Collins is the rare Republican incumbent running for reelection in a state that regularly supports Democrats for president. She’s running against Democrat Troy Jackson, the former president of the Maine Senate.

Maine has one of the oldest median ages in the country, making Social Security a key issue for many voters in the state.

Jackson and Collins have both pledged to protect the program.

Trump returning to South Carolina with Senate race appearing to tighten

He never campaigned for the late four-term Sen. Lindsey Graham in general elections, but now Trump is returning to South Carolina for a second time since a special primary to stump with Graham’s sister, who’s running to replace him.

Darline Graham won the Republican nomination earlier this year in a special GOP primary set up after her brother’s sudden death.

Trump's political operation says he’ll be with Republican candidates in Rock Hill on Thursday. Just south of Charlotte, the area also provides Trump with an opportunity to address the bruising Senate race in North Carolina.

Trump campaigned last week in Clemson with Darline Graham, who faces Democrat Annie Andrews in South Carolina’s Senate race.

Judge rules Maurene Comey, daughter of ex-FBI director, was unlawfully fired by Trump administration

Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, was unlawfully fired from her job as a federal prosecutor in New York last year, a federal judge ruled Monday.

Judge Jesse M. Furman said Comey, who was an assistant U.S. attorney for a decade, was illegally fired in July 2025 despite her work on some of the nation’s highest-profile cases and consistently receiving “the highest accolades from supervisors and peers alike.”

After her firing, Comey sued the Justice Department and others, saying her termination violated the constitutional separation of powers, the First Amendment and the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.

She asserted that she was fired because she was the daughter of James Comey, a longtime foe of President Trump, or because of her perceived political affiliation and beliefs, the judge noted.

The Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

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Rubio to host G20 foreign ministers as global tensions complicate US relations with allies

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Atlanta this week to host foreign ministers from the Group of 20 leading world economies as global unease over the Russia-Ukraine war and the situation with Iran is rising.

The State Department said Monday that Rubio would be in Atlanta on Friday and Saturday for the talks. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has been invited but not yet confirmed his attendance. The meeting is taking place amid new concerns over the U.S. commitment to Ukraine’s defense but also uncertainty over the Trump administration’s strategy on Iran.

The department said the meeting would focus on “geopolitical crises contributing to global economic shocks, including threats to freedom of navigation, energy and food security, and supply chains.”

6 citizens sue Trump, saying media ban deprives them of news as audience stakeholders

In the increasingly bitter legal standoff between President Trump and media outlets whose reporting he dislikes, a new and crucial third party has emerged: citizens who watch and read the news and need it to do their jobs.

A lawsuit filed Monday on behalf of six such citizens — effectively representing the audiences for the news media — argues that it’s not only the rights of news organizations that are violated when Trump bans them from White House premises. Even more fundamentally, the lawsuit argues, such bans violate the public’s right to independent reporting about its president and government.

“The ultimate injury here … is to the democratic public,” says the suit, filed in federal district court in New York against Trump and three key aides, including the White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles.

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Thune scrambles to save his Senate majority as voters voice concern over Iran war and gas prices

Senate Majority Leader John Thune says he wouldn’t be offended if some Republicans didn’t want to campaign with him. He knows he’s taken intense criticism from the party’s base — and from President Trump — for his chamber’s inability to pass voter legislation this year.

But Republican candidates in marquee Senate races have welcomed Thune’s help as he’s traveled around the country in the weeks before the midterm elections, scrambling to save his majority.

That includes Rep. Ashley Hinson in this deep red corner of Iowa, a state Republicans couldn’t have envisioned hosting a tossup race a year ago. Hinson is locked in a tight contest against Democrat Josh Turek to replace retiring Republican Sen. Joni Ernst.

The stakes for Thune and his party are enormous in Iowa and in several other traditionally Republican states as voters voice frustration with Trump, his war in Iran and high gasoline and grocery prices.

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Thousands of observers expected to descend on polling places to monitor voting on Election Day

Democrats and outside watchdogs are planning a massive presence at the polls on Election Day driven by concerns that President Trump will further leverage the vast resources of the federal government to interfere with a midterm that could hobble his final two years in office.

They won’t be the only ones there. A sprawling election protection effort on the left that’s expected to deploy tens of thousands of monitors will be met by the largest-ever monitoring program by the Justice Department and still more observers from Republican-aligned groups. The result could be unlike anything seen at the polls in modern times.

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Trump escalates anti-Muslim attacks against El-Sayed in Michigan, drawing Arab American rebuke

Trump intensified his anti-Muslim rhetoric against Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed on Sunday, portraying him as a threat to national security and questioning his loyalty to the United States in remarks that drew a sharp rebuke from a former top Arab American ally.

Trump called El-Sayed, a former Detroit health official, a “jihadist” who was “on the side of the terrorists” and would “have to go through a metal detector before he’s allowed to go into the Senate.” He also repeatedly invoked the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, drawing a comparison between stopping El-Sayed from entering the Senate chamber and the passengers who fought back against the hijackers aboard United Flight 93.

El-Sayed, who would become the nation’s first Muslim senator if elected, has called attacks on his loyalty to the country “shameful” and repeatedly denied any ties to extremist groups. The Republican president’s remarks were condemned by Bishara Bahbah, a founder of Arab Americans for Trump, the group that helped lead the president’s outreach to Arab American voters in 2024.

“The president’s statements are out of line,” he said in a phone interview. “They are crossing a red line. They are racist.”

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Blanche says Trump isn’t trying to meddle with Alaska election results by suing over Senate race

Attorney General Todd Blanche on Sunday defended the Trump administration’s lawsuit to block certification of Alaska’s Senate results if Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan loses the race and argued that the legal challenge was a necessary step to avoid confusing voters in the closely watched midterm race.

President Donald Trump, who said Friday that he was “the one that said do it,” is not trying to overturn state election results “in any way, shape or form” on the cusp of the Nov. 3 election, Blanche told CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“We wish that we didn’t have to do this. We hope for a resolution that works,” Blanche said.

Republicans fear that a second candidate on the ballot who is named Dan Sullivan — a retired teacher and school administrator from the tiny fishing community of Petersburg — could siphon away votes from the senator and tip the outcome in favor of Democrat Mary Peltola, a former congresswoman.

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Higher Education Minister Philippe Baptiste announced “substantial change” to the platform for 2027, before its replacement the following year.

The system, called Parcoursup, handles applications to universities and other higher education courses. It has been a focus of the protests, with students criticizing unclear selection criteria and unequal access to their preferred courses.

Two high school student groups welcomed some concessions, but called for protests to continue. Their representatives spoke after meeting with Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu earlier Monday, before the ministers’ news conference.

The announcements at a news conference followed France’s worst unrest in years on Oct. 17, when demonstrations over school funding and rising living costs descended into rioting and looting across the country. Groups of protesters set fires, stormed public buildings — including Marseille’s City Hall — looted shops and clashed with police.

Another round of nationwide demonstrations on Saturday saw less violence. Authorities estimated turnout at more than 400,000, while organizers put it at nearly 800,000.

Lecornu and other government officials met with representatives of high school and university students Monday before the announcements.

Earlier Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron promised “concrete measures” to address students’ demands during a visit to the southern port city of Marseille.

“I have asked the government to address the legitimate demands at the root of this protest movement,” Macron said.

Macron and his centrist government have faced criticism for failing to address students’ grievances since high school blockades began in mid-September. The protests have led to mass arrests and scrutiny of police riot-control weapons blamed for life-changing injuries suffered by some teenagers.

Students’ demands for better learning conditions have also included more teachers to cover staff absences, school renovations, changes to teaching hours and smaller classes. On Oct. 8, the government said that it would deploy 3,000 additional substitute teachers to struggling high schools.

The demands for better-resourced schools, particularly in poorer communities, come as France grapples with record poverty and record public debt.

The filing sets up the San Francisco company for a Wall Street debut next month, potentially eclipsing the SpaceX initial public offering in June that raised a record $86 billion. An Anthropic IPO would also put the company ahead of OpenAI in going public in what is expected to be a pair of blockbuster stock debuts for the rival AI labs.

An IPO could provide Anthropic with enormous resources to accelerate its expansion. The amount the company ultimately raises remains uncertain, as do its final valuation and offering price, but even at lower estimates, it would turn the five-year-old startup into one of the world’s most valuable companies and potentially boost the wealth of CEO Dario Amodei and his sister and co-founder, Daniela, by billions of dollars.

The 335-page document showed Anthropic’s revenue is growing rapidly, reaching more than $16 billion in the first half of the year — 14 times its revenue from the same period last year. But like many other tech companies going public, the company behind the Claude chatbot has yet to turn a profit.

Despite the losses, Anthropic, valued earlier this year at $965 billion by private investors, is reportedly set to see that value rise to $1.5 trillion or possibly $2 trillion, although its final valuation has not been established. At $1.5 trillion, Anthropic would rank among the world’s most valuable public companies, alongside Tesla.

As for money raised, the offering could bring in as much as $100 billion, according to reports, surpassing the record set by SpaceX.

In a regulatory filing, Anthropic said it will list its stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol "ANT."

A Wall Street debut is planned in a jittery market

In the filing, the company said it could use some of that money on acquiring other businesses and technology as well as investing in infrastructure to grow its business to take on rivals.

Formed in 2021 by former OpenAI leaders, Anthropic is locked in a fight for dominance with that company. The two leaders, Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, are widely seen as bitter rivals.

But they have plenty of other competitors, including Google, newer startups in the U.S. and China and SpaceX, which has an AI business. Anthropic, OpenAI and SpaceX’s AI division have all been losing more money than they make because of the huge costs of resources in building AI, fueling concerns of a bubble.

The need for cash may explain why Anthropic is rushing to tap public markets this year, and not waiting until next year, as is OpenAI's plan. Adding to the pressure is the possibility demand for AI shares could drop, or even collapse. Investors have become jittery about the massive financing needs of the sector, and several tech companies have pulled IPO plans recently.

In addition to helping plug any cash shortfall, the IPO will shower extraordinary wealth on Anthropic’s seven founders, including Amodei and his sister. The filing didn't directly state their ownership stakes, but other figures disclosed suggest each will end up with 1.4% of the company, a windfall of as much as $28 billion a person should the company go public at the top expected value.

Risks aplenty, but a big payoff to the founders

Dario, 43, and 39-year-old Daniela, who is Anthropic's president, are worth $15.5 billion each, according to Forbes, which ranks them as the 176th and 177th richest in the world.

Anthropic reported a net loss of $80.7 billion in the first half of 2026, though its losses after taking out certain items were a small fraction of that, according to the filing. In the same period a year ago, Anthropic lost $13 billion.

Reflecting AI's dangers, the document includes some unusual provisions, including granting those two and their five other co-founders 50.1% of shareholder votes through a special class of shares. Anthropic also has appointed independent, financially disinterested members of a so-called Long-Term Benefit Trust, holding power to appoint directors, that is designed to ensure the company doesn’t put financial interests ahead of public safety.

Another unusual feature of the filing is its long list of “risk factors," a required disclosure for every public company but in this case one that runs nearly 100 pages — and makes for riveting reading.

Among the risks are the quotidian — the possibility it won't be able to retain key staff or navigate regulatory roadblocks — and the horrific. The latter includes the prospect of “malicious actors” using AI models to build chemical weapons, authoritarian rulers turning to the technology to crack down on their citizens and the possibility that its AI models could go rogue and “pose catastrophic or existential risks to humanity.”

Calls for an AI slowdown

Anthropic and other leading companies have touted the technology's potential to cure diseases and speed economic growth. But it also threatens major disruptions to jobs by reducing the need for human labor.

A string of hacking incidents by rogue AI agents also has raised fears the technology will slip free of human control to carry out harmful, life-threatening tasks.

In September, Amodei said the AI industry should slow its fast-moving development to give safety measures time to catch up. Without such a slowdown, Amodei warned AI could be capable of letting loose a swarm of agents that could take over the entire internet within six to 12 months.

He offered a plan in a post on his website to increase checks on the industry, noting that Anthropic is already undertaking part of this on its own. As for other steps, though, he said that would require coordination across the industry and with governments around the world, including authoritarian ones.

Clashes with the U.S. government

Anthropic has tried to set itself apart from other AI companies as the “good guys,” focusing on safety and responsible development as opposed to growing at all costs. Some of this sentiment stems from the company’s dispute with the U.S. government, which broke out in February when President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth accused Anthropic of endangering national security and designated the company a supply chain risk.

Anthropic sued the Pentagon over the supply chain risk designation in March for what it called an “unlawful campaign of retaliation” over its refusal to allow unrestricted military use of its technology. The legal challenge intensified an unusually public dispute over how AI can be used in warfare and mass surveillance.

ChatGPT maker OpenAI made its own deal to work with the Pentagon hours after the government punished Anthropic for its stance. Anthropic also filed a separate and narrower case involving a different rule the Pentagon is using to try to declare Anthropic a supply chain risk.

A California judge ruled in Anthropic’s favor in the first case and a Washington, D.C. judge sided with the government in the second. Both sides are appealing the decisions.

——

Bernard Condon reported from New York.

Nigerian Health Minister Muhammad Pate said the woman, the country’s first case in the current outbreak, left the capital, Abuja, early Monday with his approval. Her condition had improved significantly, and she was stable, conscious and able to communicate, he said.

“This does not mean she is not still infectious, hence the strict protocols in place,” Pate wrote on X. Her husband, a Swiss diplomat in Nigeria, has shown no symptoms.

Switzerland’s Federal Office of Public Health said the couple arrived Monday on a medical evacuation flight. The woman was being treated at Geneva University Hospital, while her husband was in isolation at Zurich University Hospital. The agency said both hospitals were equipped to care for them and that there was no risk to the Swiss public.

The World Health Organization’s regional director for Africa, Mohamed Janabi, said the evacuation was arranged because the couple are Swiss citizens and that Nigerian medical teams had stabilized the woman after treating her through the acute phase of the illness.

Nigeria will continue monitoring 52 other contacts, Janabi said.

“With the evacuation of the patient and her husband, Nigeria currently has no Ebola cases,” he said, stressing that vigilance remained critical.

Pate said containment measures remained in place and urged Nigerians to remain vigilant.

The woman tested positive after returning to Abuja from Uganda. Nigerian authorities said Friday they had yet to establish how she contracted the virus.

Switzerland’s foreign ministry told The Associated Press last week that she had not visited Congo and was believed to have been infected while traveling to Uganda with her husband.

The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the first patients in Nigeria and Kenya had both traveled through Uganda’s Entebbe International Airport on Oct. 3. Uganda had previously reported Ebola cases but later declared itself free of the virus.

Kenya has recorded nine cases, including two deaths, since confirming its first case earlier this month.

On Monday, Kenya released 20 people from quarantine following their exposure to the virus as contacts of the country's first case, while 98 others were expected to be released starting next Tuesday.

“Each of the 20 contacts was assessed against the release criteria, including 21 days without any symptoms since their last exposure,” the Kenyan Ministry of Health said in a statement.

The spread of Ebola beyond Congo has heightened longstanding fears among health authorities about the rapid transmission of the rare Bundibugyo virus.

The latest figures from Congo’s health ministry show more than 9,900 cases, including more than 4,800 deaths, since the outbreak began in May.

The WHO has said the outbreak is the fastest-spreading Ebola outbreak on record and is on track to surpass the death toll of the deadliest: West Africa’s 2014-2016 outbreak, which killed 11,000 people. Nigeria was among the countries affected, recording 20 cases before its outbreak was declared over after three months.

___

Banchereau reported from Dakar, Senegal. Evelyne Musambi contributed from Nairobi, Kenya.

“It’s hard to believe,” crew chief Cliff Daniels said after Larson gained 10 spots on Sunday's final lap for his first victory in 24 starts at the treacherous track in Alabama. “I had to ask where victory lane was. I’ve never seen the place; didn’t even know where it was.”

The Chase points leader won’t need help finding his way if Larson celebrates a third Cup Series championship during the next two weeks.

Larson and Hendrick Motorsports know their way around the season’s final two tracks as well as anywhere on the NASCAR schedule.

With a 73-point lead over Denny Hamlin, a strong performance Sunday at Martinsville Speedway could make Larson the first driver in Chase history to clinch the title before the season finale.

Hendrick is NASCAR’s winningest team at Martinsville with 31 victories (including wins in seven of the past 12 races). Larson has eight consecutive top 10s (including a 2023 win) at the 0.526-mile oval.

He is even better at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where the Cup season ends Nov. 8. Larson has two wins at the 1.5-mile track, is tied for second in top fives (six) and ranks fourth in average finish.

Martinsville and Homestead are stronger fits for Larson’s aggressive style than the unpredictable draft of Talladega, which ranked among his worst tracks in Cup and seemed a major title roadblock.

A disastrous 34th-place finish at Phoenix Raceway left Larson clinging to a five-point lead, and five former Talladega winners were within striking distance.

It’s no wonder he was much looser after surviving the caution-plagued stress of 500 miles at Talladega, where the nine drivers behind him in the Chase standings were involved in incidents Sunday.

“I feel good,” Larson said. “Never in a million years would I have imagined leaving here plus-73. That makes the win feel even way cooler.”

After finishing eighth at Talladega, Hamlin conceded that Larson is destined for the title if he avoids misfortune in the next two races.

Hamlin still should be able to keep the pressure on at Martinsville. The Joe Gibbs Racing star ranks first among active drivers at the Virginia short track in wins, laps led and points per race, and he led a race-high 292 laps for a runner-up finish there on March 29.

Teammate Christopher Bell, ranked third in the Chase 74 points behind Larson, won at Martinsville four years ago and has four top 10s in the past six races there.

The competition is concerning to Daniels, who plans to keep the No. 5 Chevrolet on offense at Martinsville instead of protecting the Chase lead.

“The points can swing a lot,” said Daniels, who led Larson to championships in 2021 and 2025. “There’s always been this question of what is a comfortable points gap. The Chase so far has shown some volatility. You just never know what’s going to lie ahead.”

Though Larson can wrap up the title by scoring 59 points at Martinsville (he amassed 71 of a maximum 76 at Talladega), he and his team are downplaying their chances by noting that alternate tire strategies and the timing of cautions can negate a fast car.

“It’s certainly not over by any means,” said Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman and NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon, whose nine wins at Martinsville tie him for the team lead with seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson. “You’ve got to execute, and there’s so much on the line. So many different strategies can play out now. I know Hendrick runs good at Martinsville, but that’s just not a guarantee.”

Since joining Hendrick in 2021, Larson has finished outside the top 10 only twice at Martinsville. He is mindful it’s still easy for things to go wrong at the smallest track on the Cup circuit.

“If there’s a stackup on the first lap, I could cave in the radiator and be done,” Larson said. “There’s still a lot of racing left in the Chase. I’m not getting ahead of myself at all.”

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See AP’s full auto racing coverage here

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But the Instagram account posting this claims Winter Park police were called to the fields because the child was playing too well, and that they asked Nevada and his family to leave.

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The youth sports league, i9 Sports Maitland/Winter Park, shared the following statement below when WKMG asked why the family was asked to leave, and if there had been any confrontation or disturbance caused by Nevada’s family that prompted it.

“We are aware of concerns being shared regarding an incident at a local i9 Sports program, and we take them very seriously. The respectful treatment and well-being of every child and family matter deeply to us. We have reached out to the family and have begun a review that includes speaking with those involved. While we work to understand the circumstances, we will not speculate or share unverified information. We appreciate everyone who has brought their concerns to our attention.”

i9 Sports Maitland/Winter Park

The Winter Park Police Department released a statement regarding the incident.

“The Winter Park Police Department was contacted by a soccer league official who requested response to a disturbance between league officials and the parents of a player. The league requested the family leave and offered to refund the league cost to family. Shortly after arrival, the officers were requested by the league official to communicate with the family as he did not want to further a disturbance. The family stated the game was over and they were leaving. The family was cooperative with the officers and were provided with an event number for the incident at their request. The incident was a civil matter between those parties and not criminal. No one was arrested, trespassed, or forced to leave the park. The Officers body worn cameras confirm the above information.”

Winter Park Police Department

The ruling is tailored to Maurene Comey but its import stretches beyond her case, repudiating the claim of President Donald Trump’s administration that the Constitution permits such firings for any reason. Administration officials have cited that belief repeatedly in a sweeping purge of the federal workforce.

Comey, an assistant U.S. attorney for a decade, was fired in July 2025 despite her work on some of the nation’s highest-profile cases and consistently receiving “the highest accolades from supervisors and peers alike,” Judge Jesse M. Furman found.

After her firing, Comey sued the Justice Department and others, saying her termination violated the constitutional separation of powers, the First Amendment and the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.

She asserted that she was fired because she was the daughter of James Comey, whom Trump has long viewed as an enemy, or because of her perceived political affiliation and beliefs, or both, the judge noted.

Furman rejected the government's claim that Comey could be fired because federal prosecutors exercise the president's “conclusive and preclusive” powers.

He also said the government's claim that Congress is barred from regulating the removal of federal prosecutors “flies in the face of nearly two centuries of Supreme Court precedent.”

Furman added: “Indeed, to accept Defendants’ argument would be to unsettle the very equilibrium established by this Nation’s constitutional system.”

The firing violated the separation of powers, the Administrative Procedure Act and her Fifth Amendment due process and statutory rights, the judge ruled. He reserved judgment on Comey's First Amendment claim pending further arguments, though he said he was inclined to dismiss it because it was largely moot since she is now in private practice and no longer seeks actual reinstatement.

Furman, who was nominated to the bench in 2011 by then-Democratic President Barack Obama, granted Comey retroactive reinstatement and back pay from the date of her firing through Dec. 20 to “make her whole” and ensure that she doesn't suffer adverse employment consequences for the “unlawful termination.”

In a statement, the Justice Department said it “disagrees with this decision and will appeal in due course.”

Comey’s lawyers, Ellen Blain, Nicole Gueron, Deepa Vanamali and Margaret Donovan, lauded the ruling.

“This hard-earned victory belongs to Ms. Comey, to all civil servants, and to all fighting for the rule of law,” they said in a statement. “As the Court correctly held, to accept the government’s argument about unlimited executive power ‘would be to unsettle the very equilibrium established by this Nation’s constitutional system.’ This decision reaffirms our bedrock system of checks and balances: the President is not above the law.”

Comey was fired two weeks after leading the prosecution of music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, which ended in a conviction on prostitution-related charges but an acquittal on others. She also worked on the sex trafficking prosecutions of Jeffrey Epstein, the financier who killed himself in jail a month after his arrest in 2019, and Epstein’s former girlfriend and longtime confidant Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

The Justice Department during the Trump administration has fired scores of career employees, including prosecutors and FBI agents, who participated in investigations of Trump or who were perceived as opposed to the administration’s agenda. Some of those firings have also resulted in federal lawsuits.

The firing of Maurene Comey was seen as particularly personal, given her father’s longtime adversarial relationship with Trump.

The president fired James Comey as FBI director in May 2017 as the bureau was investigating ties between Russia and the Republican’s successful 2016 campaign for the White House. Trump in the years since has repeatedly called for Comey to be jailed, and his Justice Department has worked with mixed success to make that happen.

An earlier criminal case accusing James Comey of having lied to Congress in 2020 was dismissed by a judge who concluded that the prosecutor who filed the charges was illegally appointed. A separate pending indictment charges the former FBI director with threatening Trump through an Instagram photo of seashells in the numerical arrangement of “86 47,” a case he has sought to dismiss that some legal experts have greeted with skepticism.

___

Tucker and Durkin reported from Washington.

Many in Iran are anxious about a possible return to all-out war. Israeli and American leaders have been sharpening their threats before elections in both countries, while Iranian leaders have remained defiant.

The war in Yemen and strikes by Iran-backed Houthi rebels against Saudi Arabia were also discussed, according to two regional officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak with reporters.

The four countries agreed Monday to continue talks on expanding cooperation among them, particularly about regional peace and security, a statement said. No details were given about a date or place for a future meeting.

Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman, Pakistani army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir and Ibrahim Kalin, the head of Turkey’s intelligence service, attended the talks, hosted by Maj. Gen. Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Monday that Iran supports any agreement that would deepen regional cooperation, resolve differences and make greater use of the shared resources and capabilities of Islamic countries.

Delegations from the other Middle Eastern countries sought to avoid further turmoil in the region.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned in a televised address on Monday that renewed attacks on Iran would destabilize the region and hurt countries that aren't party to the conflict.

“It is our hope that all parties will refrain from any actions that could drag our region into a new spiral of violence,” Erdogan said.

Saudi Arabia said in a statement that the delegations hoped to find “ways to de-escalate tensions, enhance regional security and promote its stability.”

Qatari mediators also traveled to Tehran on Sunday, working in coordination with the United States, as part of efforts to de-escalate regional tensions, according to a regional official speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.

Pakistan and Qatar helped broker an agreement in June aimed at having Iran fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz to shipping, ending a U.S. blockade of Iranian ports and opening negotiations on a broader settlement addressing Iran’s nuclear program. The deal unraveled quickly, however, as both sides renewed attacks.

Iran and Israel trade accusations

With worries about renewed fighting before Israel's election on Tuesday and the U.S. midterm election on Nov. 3, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said over the weekend that Iran hadn't closed the window of diplomacy and that messages were being passed to the U.S. through intermediaries.

With negotiations long stalled, he said that the U.S. appears to be persisting in unilateral demands and that U.S. President Donald Trump and other American officials repeatedly use the phrase “complete surrender,” which Baghaei said no Iranian accepts.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, repeated his warning on Sunday that Iran or its proxies could launch an attack before the election to disrupt the vote, citing intelligence.

“The (military) is ready both to defend and to strike,” he said in a video statement. “You will suffer disproportionate blows far greater than you can imagine.”

Israel’s Channel 12 reported Sunday night that Netanyahu and his military chief of staff clashed over an instruction by Netanyahu to carry out an “action” that the army believes could quickly trigger a resumption of the conflict with Iran.

Netanyahu’s office later described the report as “fake news.”

In Tehran, when asked whether Iran was planning attacks, Baghaei on Monday said that “the Israeli regime is highly skilled at carrying out false-flag operations.”

“The Islamic Republic of Iran will not hesitate to exercise its inherent right to self-defense to protect Iran’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence,” he said.

Front in the Iran war widens

Yemen has become a widening front in the Iran war that began in February, with the Houthis increasingly launching attacks on Saudi Arabia because it supports Yemen’s internationally recognized government battling the rebels.

The conflict has intensified since forces from the internationally recognized government and Saudi-led coalition launched airstrikes on Houthi-held Sanaa International Airport in July, shattering a 2022 ceasefire deal that largely stopped the fighting in Yemen’s civil war.

Early Monday, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said that the rebel group had fired ballistic missiles at military gatherings and weapons depots belonging to Saudi-backed government forces in Aden and Lahj provinces. He said that the attacks destroyed military equipment and caused casualties, but didn't provide evidence. The Associated Press couldn’t independently verify the information.

Houthi media said that airstrikes targeted a solar power system and a water well in Sanaa, but offered no proof. In the port city of Mokha, recently seized by the Houthis, residents said that rockets hit several buildings, including a hospital.

Doctors Without Borders, or Médecins Sans Frontières, said Monday that three strikes hit Mokha, one landing just 150 meters (nearly 500 feet) from Mokha General Hospital, where its teams work in maternity and pediatric wards.

The statement came after the Houthi-run Health Ministry accused Saudi-backed forces of targeting the hospital. The Saudi-backed forces haven't commented.

All staff and patients were safe, MSF said, adding that the strike damaged the hospital building.

Days earlier, a missile struck near Aden’s airport as an MSF plane carrying humanitarian workers was preparing to take off, forcing staff to seek shelter instead of boarding, the organization said. Aden’s airport is the main entry point for humanitarian workers, supplies and medical equipment to the southern parts of Yemen.

Houthi-run al-Masirah channel also reported strikes in Saada, in northern Yemen, and in southwestern Taiz province, where the rebels and Saudi-backed government forces have been fighting for weeks.

The spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition said that an operation in Houthi-controlled territory destroyed five tunnels used for storing ballistic missiles, four ballistic missile launchers and other missile storage.

Meanwhile, Egypt’s parliament on Monday approved a request from President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi to provide military support to Saudi Arabia to help defend against Houthi attacks.

___

Victoria Eastwood and Fatma Khaled in Cairo, Natalie Melzer in Tel Aviv, Israel, Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Ahmed al-Haj in Aden, Yemen, and David Rising in Bangkok, contributed to this report.

A lawsuit filed Monday on behalf of six such citizens — essentially representing the wider public audience — argues that it’s not only the rights of news organizations that are violated when Trump bans them from White House premises. Even more fundamentally, the lawsuit argues, such bans violate the public’s right to independent reporting about its president and government.

“The ultimate injury here … is to the democratic public,” says the suit, filed in federal district court in New York against Trump and three key aides, including the White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles.

“The First Amendment protects the public’s right to know what its government is doing,” said Katie Fallow, deputy litigation director at the Knight First Amendment Institute, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of the plaintiffs, along with the Media Freedom & Information Access Clinic at Yale Law School.

“The White House cannot decide what information Americans receive by punishing critical reporting," Fallow said in a statement. "When the White House expels reporters because of their coverage and threatens others with expulsion, it isn’t just the press that suffers — the public loses access to independent reporting and gets something closer to government propaganda.”

The Trump administration, asked for comment on the lawsuit, responded in a statement that it attributed to an unidentified White House official: “No person may demand access to the Oval Office." It said media that peddle "misinformation and defamation are completely capable of reporting their manufactured stories from directly outside.”

The plaintiffs all rely on White House news for their work

The six plaintiffs are all people who say they rely on independent and diverse White House reporting for their teaching, journalism or advocacy. They include a noted human rights advocate, a political journalist, a Yale history professor, a high school civics teacher, a legal journalist, and a student journalist at the University of Pennsylvania.

The complaint filed Monday recounts how various news organizations that have been targeted by Trump are already battling the administration in the courts. These cases include the current lawsuit by CNN, MS NOW and Politico, whose journalists were banished from the White House in September.

A federal judge recently extended an order preventing the White House from enforcing the ban while the case makes its way through the legal system. Still affected, though, is CNN’s pool coverage of Trump. The White House has been denying the network its usual slots in the video pool covering the president’s activities and travel, and CNN has threatened further action.

Also continuing is the legal case involving The Associated Press, whose reporters were barred last year from the Oval Office, Air Force One and some events in retaliation for the outlet’s decision not to follow Trump’s lead in changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico, which lies partially in Mexican and other waters, to the Gulf of America.

The New York Times is also involved in litigation, over a Pentagon policy requiring escorts for journalists on its grounds. And ABC is fighting back against the Trump administration in a dispute over renewal of its broadcast licenses.

This lawsuit seeks more wide-ranging relief

The new lawsuit filed Monday, though, is different from previous legal action against the president — first, in that the plaintiffs are ordinary citizens, shifting the focus from news gatherers to news consumers, and thus implying a much larger pool of stakeholders. In addition, it seeks more wide-ranging relief.

The suit, which names Trump as defendant along with Wiles, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung, and Secret Service Director Sean M. Curran, calls not merely for reinstatement of access that has already been impacted, but for a broad injunction that would protect from retaliation every news outlet that covers the White House —- now, and in the future.

“Defendants' policy of restricting the access of disfavored news organizations deprives the public of the reporting of those organizations," the complaint says. It also "inevitably deprives them of the independent reporting of other news organizations as well, since every journalist who reports from the White House must now account for the possibility that a critical or ill-advised word about the president may result in their access being summarily restricted or revoked."

“Plaintiffs ... seek a declaration that the policy is unconstitutional because it imposes restrictions on a limited public forum that are viewpoint-based and unreasonable," the complaint adds. "They also seek an injunction barring defendants from enforcing the policy.”

Plaintiffs include a human rights advocate, a teacher and a student journalist

The plaintiffs are:

—Kenneth Roth, former longtime executive director of Human Rights Watch and a lecturer at Yale’s law school and school of global affairs. Roth “relies on newsgathering and reporting from members of the White House press corps to inform his public writing and commentary," the suit says.

—Daniel Froomkin, media and political journalist and editor of Press Watch, a nonprofit that encourages political journalists to “fulfill their essential mission of creating an informed electorate and holding the powerful accountable.”

—Beverly Gage, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and professor at Yale University who “relies on newsgathering and reporting from the White House press corps to inform her scholarship, public writing and commentary.”

—Peter Schmidt-Nowara, a social studies teacher at a New York City high school, who teaches civics courses and considers White House reporting “essential to his work as an educator.”

—Benjamin Wittes, editor-in-chief of Lawfare and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, whose publication is “especially reliant on the White House press corps to provide accurate and timely coverage of the president.”

—Ethan Young, a student at the University of Pennsylvania and editor-in-chief of The Daily Pennsylvanian, who, as a student journalist, “relies on a diverse, independent and trustworthy cohort of White House reporters to serve as his proxy.”

Schmidt-Nowara, who teaches at Brooklyn Technical High School, is quoted in the lawsuit as saying: “As a social studies teacher, I want my students to have access to accurate, independent reporting about their government." He adds he is "gravely concerned that the Trump administration’s restrictions on White House reporters are cutting off access to crucial information.

“I joined this lawsuit because my students deserve to know what’s happening in their government and to hear from a free and independent press,” he says.

Young, the student journalist, contends that since he can’t personally access White House press spaces, he relies on “a diverse, independent and trustworthy cohort” of White House reporters to serve as his proxy.

The effect of federal policy changes has been "acutely felt on college campuses, Penn’s included,” Young is quoted as saying. “As a student journalist, I rely on reporting from the White House press corps to understand the decisions made in Washington, their consequences, and how they impact my college community. A vibrant free press allows me to do just that.”

A fight broke out before the shooting Saturday night, and it appears that none of the victims were intended targets, according to Tallahassee police. The youngest victim is 11 years old.

Authorities arrested Anthony Rivers III on Sunday and charged him with attempted second-degree murder and possession of a firearm by a delinquent, police said in a statement. Court records did not indicate whether Rivers has an attorney who could comment on the charges.

The teen appeared in court Monday for a brief hearing, where a judge ordered that he remain in jail. Prosecutors will move his case to adult court, State Attorney Jack Campbell said.

A surveillance camera captured some of the shooting, Campbell said, but he said investigators are searching for more video and want to talk with witnesses to piece together what happened.

The shooting erupted near a street corner just outside Bragg Memorial Stadium after Florida A&M lost to Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Eleven people were hit by gunfire and another person — a grandmother of one of the shooting victims — was injured while running away. Six of those hurt were minors, police said.

Police Chief Lawrence Revell said the area was so crowded at the time that ambulances were unable to get through to where the shooting happened.

Officers carried the wounded through the crowds to emergency vehicles so that the victims could be taken to hospitals, he said.

The shooting stemmed from an isolated dispute between just a few people, Revell said. Investigators are looking for others who might have been involved and more arrests are possible, he said.

At least three of the victims suffered serious injuries, authorities said. One was in critical condition as of Sunday, police said, but no other updates have been released on the wounded.

Video surfaced on social media of people fleeing in terror. The area was packed with people leaving the game and homecoming celebration.

Five professional leagues in North America are in action at the same time on Monday night, a phenomena known as a sports equinox.

Major League Baseball and the NFL will compete for the most viewers while the NBA, WNBA and NHL give their diehard fans games to watch.

Monday marks the 33rd sports equinox, the first since Oct. 27, 2025 and the fourth instance with women's professional basketball included, according to Sportradar.

Here's a guide to attempt to sample a little bit of this and that in the sports smorgasbord:

How to watch the World Series

The Tampa Bay Rays will host the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 3 of the World Series with the first pitch scheduled for 8 p.m. EDT on Fox.

The Brewers won the first two games by one run, taking a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 series.

How to watch “Monday Night Football”

Even though the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys both have 2-4 records, the NFL always draws a lot of interest and millions will be watching the NFC East matchup when it kicks off at 8:15 p.m. on ESPN.

The Eagles have lost four in a row, reeling with quarterback Jalen Hurts on injured reserve because of blood clots. The Cowboys have won only one of their last four games.

How to watch the NBA

By the time the baseball and football game start, we'll know if reigning NBA Rookie of the Year Cooper Flagg is returning to a lineup from an injury that is expected to include banged-up Kyrie Irving for the Dallas Mavericks on the road against the Miami Heat. The game tips off at 7:30 p.m. on NBA TV.

In the middle of the World Series and “Monday Night Football,” the NBA will have an intriguing matchup to compete for attention. Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors travel to face Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets at 10 p.m. on NBCSN and Peacock.

How to watch the WNBA Finals

The WNBA is vying for eyeballs against MLB, the NFL, NBA and NHL for the first time since 2000, when the league did it three times in September of that year.

The Golden State Valkyries are hosting Angel Reese and the Atlanta Dream in Game 5 of the WNBA Finals at 8 p.m. on USA Network, CNBC and Peacock. The best-of-7 series is tied at two games apiece.

How to watch the NHL

The NHL will have some of its top scorers skating in three games.

The New York Rangers, with high-scoring Alexis Lafreniere, will host one of their former stars, Artemi Panarin, and the Los Angeles Kings at 7 p.m. on the NHL Network.

Edmonton star Leon Draisaitl of Germany has a shot to become the first NHL player born outside of North America to score at least two goals in four straight games when Connor McDavid and the Oilers host the Detroit Red Wings at 9:30 p.m. on ESPN+ and Sportsnet.

_

See AP’s full sports report here

The company's voluntary exit offer was available to eligible employees in Canada, India, the United Kingdom and the United States, the company's Chief People Officer Amy Coleman wrote in a blog post Monday.

“The Voluntary Exit Offer is new for us,” Coleman wrote. “We’ll learn from it. At the same time, we’ll keep helping people focus on the work that matters most, build new skills and, where it makes sense, find new opportunities across Microsoft.”

The company, which releases its quarterly financial results Wednesday, had approximately 223,000 full-time employees at the end of June.

Shares of Microsoft Corp., based in Redmond, Washington, hit an all-time high this month. The stock rose about 1% on Monday.

In May, Microsoft planned to offer buyouts to about 8,750 people, or 7% of its U.S. workforce, according to two people familiar with the plan who were not authorized to speak about it publicly. In July, the company said it was cutting 4,800 jobs, about 2.1% of its global workforce, including a large number of workers at its Xbox video game business.

The gusher of investment in data centers — likely topping $700 billion this year — to power artificial intelligence has made memory chips, computer processors and other equipment, as well as electricity, more expensive. Economists expect it will continue to push up inflation at least through the end of this year.

Microsoft has been ramping up its AI capabilities for several years. In 2024 the company revealed a new class of AI-imbued personal computers that centered on fusing its AI assistant, called Copilot, into the Windows operating system for PCs, where Microsoft already has the eyes of millions of consumers.

And in October 2025 Microsoft introduced a new artificial intelligence character called Mico, a floating cartoon face shaped like a blob or flame that embodies the software giant’s Copilot virtual assistant.

The advice comes as Jacksonville’s small-business community grows. The financial technology firm Nav ranked the metro area No. 3 in the nation for small-business development, citing entrepreneurial growth, business longevity and small-business hiring. St. Louis ranked No. 1, followed by Philadelphia.

Jones founded Acuity Design Group in 2008 and opened Aura Plant Studio more than four years ago. She said the businesses have grown gradually, with the plant shop expanding into commercial installations and event rentals as well as retail.

Her first advice to entrepreneurs: Keep researching. A business owner should not assume the needs of a community or industry will stay the same over time, she said. If a business is struggling, look for the reason — whether there is demand for the product or service, whether the business is reaching the right customers or whether something needs to change.

“That’s not something you start when you first open your business,” Jones said. “I’ve done the data back from 2008, and now it’s 2026, and I expect that information’s not going to be the same.”

Jones also said business owners need to know what makes them different. In a crowded market, a product or service may not be enough to distinguish a company. An owner’s reputation, expertise and communication help shape how customers see the business and whether they trust it, she said.

“You are the brand to your company,” Jones said. “How you market yourself as an individual is so significantly important.”

That includes how a business communicates on social media, she said. Owners should make their messaging clear and engage with customers rather than simply posting promotional content.

For online businesses, Jones said customer service means being responsive, hearing feedback and following up when something goes wrong. If customers raise an issue, owners should acknowledge it, explain how they plan to address it and show that they are listening.

“There’s a level of engagement that you have to do online,” she said. “Being responsive and being honest” is important.

Jones also encourages entrepreneurs to build relationships with professional organizations, potential partners and mentors. A mentor does not have to work in the same industry, she said; what matters is having someone who believes in the owner and can help the business grow. Partnerships can also open doors to projects a business might not land on its own.

At Aura Plant Studio, Jones said a customer’s visit led to a commercial plant installation after the family took time to understand what the customer needed. She said staying open to possibilities — and being willing to collaborate — can help small businesses find opportunities they might not have expected.

For Jones, passion is essential, but it has to be paired with hard work and a clear understanding of the business. Entrepreneurship, she said, is not a job that ends at 5 p.m.

“It’s really a passion,” Jones said. “If you don’t have that passion behind the reason why you want to open your business, it’s going to be a little bit more difficult for you to be successful.”

Jones said Aura Plant Studio’s growth has been steady rather than sudden. The shop focuses on distinctive plants and personal customer service instead of trying to compete with large retailers.

That approach reflects a broader lesson she shares with other business owners: Define what you do well, understand whom you serve and give customers a reason to come back.

Lula, who convinced an extra 10.4 million voters to support him in the runoff, is expected to take office on Jan. 5, 2027, for his fourth non-consecutive term. He will serve as a counterweight in a region where leaders are shifting to the right and aligning with U.S. President Donald Trump. Bolsonaro, son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, promised to cozy up to the Trump administration.

At a news conference Sunday, Bolsonaro said he planned to request an annulment of the election following a chaotic extension of voting at the request of both candidates. However, it's unclear what legal avenue he would have to do that. His father also contested his loss to Lula four years ago and now serves a 27-year prison sentence for a coup attempt.

Early signs from Brazil’s institutions and from leaders across the region, including conservative presidents who oppose Lula, suggest the results will be respected nationally and internationally. Trump has yet to weigh in.

Even with the vote extension, Lula’s win was decisive. The soon-to-be 81-year-old incumbent won more than 64 million votes compared to just under 60 million for Bolsonaro, a margin of nearly 4%.

President of Brazil’s electoral authority, Kassio Nunes, who was appointed to the Supreme Court by ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, was among those who recognized Lula’s victory Sunday.

“This is a really uphill battle for Flavio Bolsonaro. Important Brazilian power brokers are closing ranks behind Lula, sometimes begrudgingly," said Brian Winter, Brazil analyst and editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly.

“I sense that Brazilian power brokers that matter don’t really want to go down the path of a truly contested election,” he said.

The numbers behind Lula's victory

The key to Lula’s win was the additional 14.1 million voters who showed up for the second-round election, including those who voted for other candidates in the first round. Analysts say three-quarters of those votes went to Lula, handing him the victory. And notably, the first round set a record for the number of Brazilians who decided not to vote, while the second round had the least number of abstentions ever.

Lula gave his digital campaign to lawmaker André Janones, who mounted a fierce and persistent social media operation that mobilized many of those previously uncommitted voters. Janones' key tool was a channel on messaging app WhatsApp called “Lula's Army,” which gathered almost 11 million people and mobilized them to campaign via social media for the incumbent.

Janones “basically embraced the right’s style of aggressive politics, very intense, constant messaging,” said Oliver Stuenkel, a professor of International Relations at Fundação Getulio Vargas in Sao Paulo.

“The defeat in the first round jolted the Lula campaign into action. The strategy during the first round was lackluster and saw a lot of infighting,” Stuenkel said.

Juliano Cortinhas, international relations professor at the University of Brasília, said Lula's social media initiative in the runoff was also key to pressuring Meta, the owner of Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook, to end what the president's campaign denounced as bias helping Bolsonaro.

Brazil’s top electoral court ruled on Oct.15 that Meta must adopt measures that assure equal treatment of the two presidential candidates, which the company later said it addressed.

There was “external interference we were suffering by major platforms,” Cortinhas said. “It wasn't only Meta, many others were using their algorithms to repost many images and many messages of the far-right, and they did not do the same to the left.”

It was the first time since 1989 that a candidate came from behind in the first round to win in the second.

Results show voter turnout surged overall, particularly in wealthier metropolitan centers, but Lula achieved his highest gains in lower-income municipalities where his base was already established. He mobilized former non-voters, those who voted blank in the first round and supporters of third-party candidates.

Jorge Henrique Oliveira Sena, a 26-year-old maintenance worker in Brasilia, was one of those who didn’t vote in the first round. Neither candidate excited him much, but he cast his vote for Lula. “It’s not a question of supporting, but between the two, I had more of a connection with him,” he said.

Brazil's voting system and Sunday's disruptions

Brazil holds general elections every four years, and its electronic voting machines have made the tallying process quick and secure.

Brazilian authorities adopted electronic voting machines in the 1990s to combat fraud and the system has been largely reliable since then. Results are usually reported mere hours after polls close.

In the lead-up to the 2022 vote, Jair Bolsonaro repeatedly cast unfounded doubts on Brazil’s electronic voting system. No significant fraud has ever been detected.

But the usually swift voting process was thrown into disarray Sunday after a last-minute decision to extend voting nationwide at both candidates’ requests.

Lula made the request because of issues with public transportation in metropolis, Sao Paulo, and the northeastern city of Salvador, two of his strongholds. Bolsonaro requested it after heavy rains in the south, which he won by a strong margin in the first round.

The decision was made by a Supreme Court justice mere minutes before polls were set to close at 5 p.m. and the speed of Brazil’s counting process meant many polling stations didn’t receive the news until they were already wrapping up.

Yet given the reliability of Brazil's voting system and Lula's win by a significant margin, a path to annul the results could be difficult for Bolsonaro.

Benjamin Gedan, senior fellow and director of the Stimson Center Latin America program, said Bolsonaro's rejection of his loss was not surprising.

“False claims of fraud are becoming commonplace, though that does not make them any less dangerous," he said. He noted “Lula’s margin of victory, and the quick recognition of the result by conservative leaders in the region."

Nevertheless, Lula still faces challenges moving forward, including political polarization in the country, a possible fiscal crisis and a right-wing Congress in which Bolsonaro's party will have more seats than any other. Bolsonaro himself remains a senator, though his term ends in January.

“We shouldn’t underestimate the power of the Bolsonaro family," said Winter, the Brazil analyst. "They can make life difficult for Lula for weeks and months to come.”

___

Savarese reported from Sao Paulo.

The teams, owned and operated by Zawyer Sports & Entertainment, will use Xenco Medical’s XenVision platform to assess athletes’ biomechanics, including joint movement, range of motion, balance and differences between the left and right sides of the body.

The platform uses computer vision and markerless motion capture to conduct evaluations in less than two minutes without wearable sensors or physical markers. The teams plan to use the assessments to establish individual baselines and track changes over time, helping inform training, recovery and rehabilitation.

Xenco Medical Founder and CEO Jason Haider said the Icemen’s use of the platform will create a longitudinal record of each athlete’s movement during the season.

“The body of a professional hockey player is a story written in motion,” Haider said. “The Icemen’s installation of XenVision to build a longitudinal portrait of each athlete throughout the course of the season, growing more revealing with every assessment, marks what we believe to be one of the most exciting moments in sports science.”

The 37-year-old was given an eight-month sentence, suspended for a year.

He had faced up to three years in prison after pleading guilty to a count of affray in July for the attack on the dance floor of Tape, a private club in the swanky Mayfair neighborhood in February 2023.

Video footage played in court showed Brown having to be pulled away from the victim, his former friend Abraham Diaw, after striking him twice in the head with a bottle.

“The repeated use of a glass bottle in that way, especially aimed at the head, was plainly dangerous. It carried the risk of delivering a more serious injury than was ultimately sustained,” Judge Tony Baumgartner said in Southwark Crown Court.

Despite the seriousness of the attack, Baumgartner said Brown did not qualify for a custodial sentence because he pleaded guilty and there were several mitigating circumstances, including stable employment and charity work. The judge acknowledged Brown’s previous convictions but said he had maintained a clean record in recent years.

Previous brushes with the law

Brown has faced repeated legal trouble since his felony conviction in the 2009 assault of his then-girlfriend, Rihanna, hours before the pair were due to perform at the Grammys.

He has been arrested in several U.S. states over altercations but was either not charged or prosecutors later dropped the charges. In 2019 he was arrested in Paris and questioned on suspicion of rape, but was released without charge.

In return for his guilty plea, prosecutors dropped charges of assault, attempting to cause grievous bodily harm and having an offensive weapon, a bottle.

Brown’s friend and vocal coach Omololu Akinlolu also pleaded guilty to affray and was given a four-month suspended sentence.

Affray is the use or threat of unlawful violence that leads someone to fear for their safety.

Brown has apologized for the attack

Prosecutor Heidi Stonecliffe said Brown played a leading role in the attack.

“By any circumstances, when one watches that footage, it is Mr. Brown that moves first,” Stonecliffe said.

Defense lawyer Sallie Bennett-Jenkins said Brown apologized to all those at the club that night, though she emphasized the attack lasted no more than 20 seconds.

“This is an ugly and unattractive incident,” Bennett-Jenkins said. “It is something which undoubtedly would have caused distress to those who are present and for which Mr. Brown … offers a profound apology to all those present.”

Diaw was discharged from the hospital with head and knee injuries, Stonecliffe said.

Crowds greet Brown outside court

Brown was cheered outside the courthouse by fans who came from as far as Italy and the Netherlands.

His face was covered by a black mask and dark glasses and his bleached hair was mostly hidden from view under a black ball cap. He wore a black leather jacket and light-colored turtleneck.

He blew a kiss to one fan and appeared to sign an autograph for another as he moved through a pack of photographers and onlookers.

Not everyone was cheering for him. When he arrived at court in the morning, a lone voice could be heard shouting at him to ask when he was going to learn that violence is not OK.

Brown left the United Kingdom after the brawl but was arrested in May 2025 at a Manchester hotel after flying to the city for a concert. He had been free on bail of 5 million pounds ($6.7 million), which allowed him to tour Europe and North America the past two summers.

Brown rose to stardom as a teen in 2005 and won his first Grammy for best R&B album in 2011 for “F.A.M.E.” He earned his second in the same category for “11:11 (Deluxe)” in 2025.

Bauza died suddenly late Sunday, his family said in a statement. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner reported that he died at his home from hypertensive cardiovascular disease.

Beginning in 2001, Bauza amassed more than 400 voice acting credits in a career that gave voice to beloved characters in animated Looney Tunes series including “Puss in Boots,” “Muppet Babies,” “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” and countless others. He won three Children's and Family Emmy Awards, from 2022 to 2025.

“Looney Tunes will always have a special place in my heart,” Bauza said in an interview with The Associated Press this year. “I watched them on Saturday mornings originally. It's not just the voice but the overall aesthetic has influenced me as an artist.”

Raised in Scarborough, Ontario by Filipino immigrant parents, Bauza found his passion for voice acting as a teenager. In high school, he would deliver the P.A. system morning announcements in various cartoon voices.

In voicing Looney Tunes characters, Bauza faithfully and reverentially channeled Mel Blanc. So great was his affection for Blanc that, in conversation, he would even toss out an impression of Blanc outside the recording booth. Bauza last year told The New York Times: “Mel Blanc is like the voice of God for me.”

Bauza's Looney Tunes work included such feature films as “Space Jam: A New Legacy” (2021), “The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie” (2024) and this year's “Coyote vs. Acme.” That film, in which Wile E. Coyote takes the Acme Corporation to court for its defective products, became a modest cause célèbre after Warner Bros. opted not to release it.

After an outcry from fans, partly stoked by Bauza, the film eventually found a distributor in Ketchup Entertainment and surpassed $100 million at the worldwide box office. While the film was in limbo, Bauza argued for its release at the 2024 Annie Awards, in the voice of Daffy Duck.

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

Before becoming one of the most recognized personalities in the often anonymous field of voice acting, Bauza pursued working in animation production. After graduating from the film program at Toronto's Centennial College, Bauza first worked as animator and character layout artist. Initially, he did voice acting on the side.

Channing Dungey, chairman of Warner Bros. Television Group and U.S. Networks, called Bauza “a unique voice talent who brought joy and laughter to millions.”

As a voice acting professional, Bauza sometimes chafed at celebrities brought in to replace him in bigger-budgeted productions. Bauza occasionally voice-matched for stars including Bill Hader on “Bob's Burgers” and Antonio Banderas as Puss in Boots.

“From my experience working several times in the feature film format, there's always the reminder that it is ‘temporary dialogue’ and ‘Chris Pratt will be voicing all the Looney Tunes in this feature film' — no, just kidding,” Bauza told The AP.

But even in productions where A-list stars took the spotlight, Bauza said there was still room for “nine-to-fivers like me” to color in the scenery. Bauza, who seldom went more than a few minutes without slipping into the voice of Bugs or Daffy or some other character, was rarely anything but grateful at being part of the Looney Tunes legacy.

“The Looney Tunes were here before I was born and they're definitely going to be here long after I leave this realm,” he said shortly before the release of “Coyote vs. Acme.” “I just feel like the luckiest guy.”

The plan focuses on four areas: production, distribution, access and recovery. It recommends supporting local growers, strengthening food supply networks, addressing gaps in access and directing edible surplus food to people who can use it.

Mayor Donna Deegan said the plan is intended to help Jacksonville prepare for disruptions and coordinate efforts across city government, businesses, nonprofits, farmers, institutions and neighborhoods.

“Food is a shared responsibility, a matter of public well-being and an essential part of the infrastructure of a thriving community,” Deegan said.

Susan King, president and CEO of Feeding Northeast Florida, said the food bank expects to distribute about 48 million pounds of food this year, up from 38 million pounds last year. It works with more than 420 agencies, partners and programs and rescued more than 38 million pounds of food from retailers last year, she said.

“Our food system is vital infrastructure for our community’s growth and well-being,” King said.

About 30% of Jacksonville residents live more than a mile from a grocery store, while more than one in two households in 23 neighborhoods receive SNAP benefits, Deegan said. Nearly one in seven residents experience food insecurity, including one in five children.

The plan was developed with residents, community organizations, industry experts, public agencies and city staff. Some work is already underway, including City Council legislation known as Pathways to Urban Agriculture that would allow people to sell produce grown on-site.

The city is also working on an oyster-shell recycling pilot with the Parks Department and university partners. The shells could be reused for coastal restoration instead of going to a landfill.

Click here for more information about the plan.

The zoo sent a statement to News4JAX about the reports, saying that it takes the safety of all guests seriously.

On October 23, we received a report of a suspicious person approaching children in the Play Park area. Our Park Rangers responded immediately and began investigating. We have notified the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office of the incident. The safety of our guests is our highest priority, and we are increasing Park Ranger presence throughout the Zoo, including in the Play Park area. We encourage guests to report any suspicious behavior or safety concerns to a Park Ranger or Zoo staff member immediately.

Jacksonville Zoo and Botanical Gardens

JSO isn’t officially calling the incident an attempted kidnapping.

Duval County Public Schools told News4JAX that the incident did not involve the district or any school-sponsored activites.

News4JAX is working to learn more and this story will be updated later.

“Can you guys put pressure on them?” Embiid said with a laugh. “I want to play tomorrow, so start writing articles and put pressure on them so they’ll let me play.”

Not even the power of the pen can aid Embiid in playing consecutive games.

The Sixers smartly rested their All-Star center — no one game in October in the NBA is worth the potential of long-term harm — and then they went out and got smoked Sunday night by the Detroit Pistons.

LeBron James is in Philadelphia, and that's a good thing. Jaylen Brown has an NBA Finals MVP on his resume and is serving up one-liners about lamb and gravy in his rivalry with a former Boston teammate.

No matter the star power added to the roster, the natural growth of homegrown talent such as Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe, the 76ers have always since his 2016 debut — and will always — win as much and go as far in the postseason as Embiid will take them.

The Sixers were outrebounded 54-37 and trailed by 21 points in their first loss of the season to the Pistons. The Pistons pounded the inside and scored 24 second-chance points. They got the kind of looks that only get tougher to attempt when Embiid is in the lineup.

So yes, with the Sixers already thin in frontcourt depth, it was up to James to man a bulk of the minutes at center. The 41-year-old James won the opening tip for the Sixers.

The Pistons won everything else.

“We’re going to have those moments where we have different lineups out there throughout the course of the season,” James said. “I think the more minutes we get, the more games that we get under our belt, the more time we get, we’ll know what works well for us.”

James scored 18 points, grabbed two rebounds and was a minus-22 going up against Paul Reed, and the Sixers were left to hope his presence at center was nothing more than a cameo.

The Sixers were a whopping plus-49 with Embiid on the court over the first three games and minus-25 with him off it.

“I mean (heck), we've got an MVP over there,” James said as he looked in the direction of Embiid's locker.

“I'm not here to have a sustainable role at the five. We've got Joel Embiid at the five. I don't see it being a sustainable role but it's a role that we know we can tap into if we needed. But sustainable playing the five? If I was to say I was signing here to have a sustainable role at the five, I don't think none of us would actually want that.”

The Sixers also played without big men Dominick Barlow (back), Jabari Walker (knee) and 7-foot-6 center Tacko Fall. Fall has yet to play this season with a left quadriceps strain.

“We've got a 7-7 guy over there who hasn't played. That would help," James quipped.

Even with Embiid and his 11 boards in the lineup against the Bucks, the Sixers were still outrebounded 62-39.

Maxey, a first-time All-Star starter last season, had a suggestion to fix the rebounding woes.

“Some of our tall guys could come back,” Maxey said with a smile. “That would be great. We've just got to hit, box out, try to fight. We've got to figure it out.”

James took inspiration from Detroit's bench where Taurean Prince sat and watched the game. Prince didn't play but he is responsible for one of the great viral interview moments in NCAA Tournament history when he deadpanned the definition of a rebound after his Baylor team was outrebounded by Yale.

“In the great words of Taurean Prince, who I saw tonight on the bench,” James said, “a good friend of mine, so, the ball goes up into the air. You go grab the ball. That's what we've got to do, man. They got more of those than we did.”

So the Sixers did what they do so many times when Embiid doesn't play and took the loss.

Let him sit. One game won't hurt. It's when those absences start stacking up that always doom the Sixers.

Even if one of the greats can take his place.

___

See AP’s full NBA coverage here

Due to the close proximity of these systems, gusty wind will persist over the next few days.

Along with the wind, moderate to major tidal flooding is in the forecast through the end of the week.

Looking back to last weekend, our area experienced significant coastal flooding with tide levels approaching 2-4′ above normal.

Below are two charts that show the tide level over the past few days in Mayport and Fernandina Beach.

It is worth noting that we experienced the highest tide levels of this Nor’easter event this morning.

In fact, the official tide stations along the Atlantic Coast at Mayport, FL (MYPF1) and St. Augustine Municipal Marina (SMFF1) both crested Monday morning at the highest water levels since 10/11/2025.

Nearly all gauges in the St. Johns River reached at least moderate flood stage this morning as well.

That’s why it’s important to know that you can still have significant flooding with no rain.

Tide levels will remain elevated over the next few days thanks to the northeasterly wind and an approaching full moon.

For reference, here are the future tide cycles. Make sure to use caution if you are in an area that’s prone to tidal flooding.

But the Tampa Bay Rays love their quirky ballpark, especially after being forced out for a season because of destruction from Hurricane Milton.

A sellout crowd of more than 40,000 towel-waving, cowbell-ringing fans will welcome the Rays back for Game 3 of the World Series on Monday night after a pair of gut-wrenching, one-run losses in Milwaukee.

The Brewers lead 2-0 and are two wins away from the franchise’s first World Series title. The Rays need to win four of five games to secure their first championship in their 29th season.

When Milton swept through downtown St. Petersburg on Oct. 9, 2024, shredding the roof and causing extensive damage to the Trop, there were concerns the Rays would never play again at the only place they had called home since the franchise’s debut in 1998.

Nearly $60 million was spent to replace the roof and rebuild the stadium before the Rays returned 18 1/2 months later to start this season. They played their 2025 home games across the bay in Tampa at Steinbrenner Field, the spring training home of the New York Yankees.

During the renovation, the Rays were sold to a group led by real estate developer Patrick Zalupski. The new ownership team spearheaded an agreement to build a 31,000-seat ballpark in Tampa near the home of the NFL’s Buccaneers.

In August, the Rays received county approval on a financing plan for the $2.3 billion project that features what they’re calling their “forever home” within a mixed-use entertainment district.

The new stadium is scheduled to open in 2029. The Rays and their fans are hoping a World Series banner will hang in the stadium.

“We love playing at the Trop. We played so well at the Trop all year,” second baseman Richie Palacios said Sunday. “It’s going to be exciting to go out there and put on a show for our fans and hopefully bring them a couple more wins.”

The Rays and Brewers tied for the best home record in the regular season, going 55-26. Though Rays fans have often been criticized for not showing up — the team finished 28th in attendance at 1.4 million — they’ve rocked the Trop throughout the postseason and made sure to give the rival Yankees an earful in the AL Division Series when the crowd included plenty of New Yorkers.

Large crowds also gathered at the Trop for watch parties during Games 1 and 2 while the Rays and Brewers played at American Family Field in Milwaukee.

“These Milwaukee fans have been really loud. I know our fans are going to be really loud and excited to see us come back and kind of reset ourselves a little bit,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said.

Tropicana Field hosted only two World Series games in 2008 when the Rays split at home and then lost three in a row in Philadelphia. The 2020 World Series was played on a neutral field in Arlington, Texas, because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Rays lost that series to the Dodgers in six games.

One of the Trop’s most distinctive features is its catwalk system, consisting of four circular steel rings suspended beneath the stadium’s non-retractable, cable-supported roof that stabilize the structure.

Sometimes the catwalks interfere with baseballs. It happened in Game 2 of the ALDS when Yankees rookie Spencer Jones hit a towering flyball off a catwalk that was caught by Victor Mesa Jr., who ran over to center field from right field to make the play.

A batted ball that strikes either of the lower two catwalks is a home run, per stadium ground rules. A batted ball that hits either of the two upper catwalks is in play.

“It’s very much a different place,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “It seems like a great place, and you have to make adjustments to it. That’s part of being a big leaguer. You have to make adjustments to it.”

The Trop also is the only ballpark in the majors where fans can touch stingrays. Seven cownose stingrays that weathered Hurricane Milton returned to the stadium for opening day inside the “Cownose Clubhouse,” a 10,000-gallon touch tank experience located just beyond the right-center-field fence.

“They have stingrays in the outfield here? I didn’t know that,” Brewers reliever Aaron Ashby said.

Second baseman Brice Turang asked if the stingrays can be touched. They can.

“That’s really cool,” he said.

If Milwaukee wins two of the next three, Turang and Ashby could pose for photos with the stingrays and the World Series trophy.

___

This story has been corrected to show that the 2020 World Series was played in Arlington, Texas, not San Diego.

___

See AP’s full MLB coverage here

During rare weekend arguments, two of the three judges on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals appeared skeptical of a lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump's administration in mid-October. The lawsuit accuses California officials of failing to meet a 48-hour deadline to review 20,000 names the administration flagged as likely noncitizens on the state's voter rolls.

The administration asked a federal judge to require the state to withhold counting those ballots until the voters’ immigration status could be verified. The district judge scheduled a hearing for Oct. 27, days after the case was assigned, but the federal government appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, seeking an expedited decision.

Justice Department attorney Matthew Donnelly told the panel that California is causing irreparable harm “by allowing noncitizens to vote in violation of their own state laws. The damage is irreversible and irrevocable.”

The Trump administration has made efforts to identify noncitizen voters a priority this year, even though noncitizen voting is exceptionally rare.

Circuit Judge Mark Bennett, a Trump appointee, questioned whether the appellate court even has jurisdiction to hear the case even before a ruling by the lower court.

Donnelly argued that the schedule set by the lower court judge was too slow and effectively a denial of the government's request, as state elections officials process thousands of mail ballots every day.

Judge Gabriel Sanchez, appointed by former President Joe Biden, questioned whether the federal government was violating the Tenth Amendment, essentially commandeering the state to enforce a federal law that makes it a misdemeanor for a noncitizen to vote.

The federal government is simply asking California to enforce its own law, which also bans noncitizens from voting, Donnelly said. He argued the state's refusal to comply with the federal request to set aside the ballots for review was “frustrating the purpose” of the federal law against noncitizen voting.

The Elections Clause of the U.S. Constitution gives state legislatures the power to set the time, place and manner of congressional elections, Bennett said. The executive branch may be “unhappy with what they’re doing, and doesn’t like the manner,” Bennett said, but under the Election Clause the state has the right to determine those issues — including how it sorts out any noncitizen voters.

Attorney Seth Waxman, representing Los Angeles County Clerk Dean Logan, said the federal government's list was unreliable and that segregating the ballots for a review process would effectively disenfranchise thousands of eligible voters.

Even if election staffers spent just three minutes checking each of the expected 2.75 million mail ballots against the government's list, the process would take 140,000 man-hours, Waxman said — or about 16 years of working time.

Waxman cited a review of 200 records from the Trump administration's list conducted by Los Angeles County staffers. Assistant Registrar-Recorder Monica Flores said in a court filing that the sample included canceled or inactive registrations, individuals with no voting history and voters who appeared to have been born in the United States, which the filing notes “is strong evidence of citizenship.”

If the administration disagrees with how California runs its elections, it can ask Congress to change that process, said attorney Sam Siegel, representing California Secretary of State Shirley Weber.

The federal government has provided no credible evidence to support its suspicions, said Siegel.

“It has no basis in law or in fact,” he told the panel. “We just dispute the premise that noncitizens are voting."

But Judge Patrick Bumatay, who was appointed by Trump, said everyone has an interest in ensuring that only eligible citizens vote. He suggested that granting the administration's request for an emergency order could provide clarity.

“Without an injunction, you will never know” if that is happening, Bumatay told Siegel.

Bennett said the panel would try to issue a ruling as quickly as possible.

___ Boone reported from Boise, Idaho.

___

This story was first published Oct. 25, 2026. It was updated Oct. 26, 2026, to correct the name of the attorney who represents California's secretary of state. He is Sam Siegel, not Siegal or Seigel.

“I'm the one that said do it,” Trump told reporters as he landed for a campaign rally in Florida.

The lawsuit, filed late Thursday, centers on one of the president's longstanding complaints in the Senate race — the presence of a second candidate named Dan Sullivan, who Republicans fear could siphon away votes from the incumbent in what's likely to be a photo-finish contest with Democrat Mary Peltola, the state's former congresswoman.

The second Sullivan, who is Daniel J. Sullivan from the tiny fishing community of Petersburg, has said he decided to run on his own, but Republicans have contended he is a Democratic plant to siphon votes away from their candidate.

The lawsuit by the Republican president's Department of Justice in federal court in Alaska demands that the state be blocked from certifying a Peltola win if Daniel J. Sullivan remains on the ballot. “The United States accordingly brings this lawsuit to protect the integrity of the 2026 Senate election in Alaska,” the lawsuit says.

The legal challenge came 11 days before the Nov. 3 election and months after the final ballot was set. It is the latest example of the Department of Justice bolstering Trump's political operation, targeting his enemies and suing Democratic-controlled states before the election.

At a forum in Anchorage Friday night, Peltola called the lawsuit “just flagrant, flagrant corruption in my opinion." She told reporters that the legal fight was “another diversion from the issue that Alaskans want to talk about, which is affordability” and an example of how her Republican opponent was "using his connections in Washington, D.C., to manipulate the situation.”

“I am very concerned about Alaskans' voices not being heard,” Peltola said.

Democrats and many voting rights advocates have long feared that the administration will try to block certification of elections that Trump’s party loses, much as he unsuccessfully tried to do when he lost the 2020 White House race to Democrat Joe Biden.

The Alaska Supreme Court rejected a previous Republican effort to remove Daniel J. Sullivan from the ballot, and the state's Republican officials made the decisions about how to list him on the ballot. He will appear without a party designation next to his name, while the senator will be listed as the Republican incumbent. Alaska's ranked choice voting system also will allow voters to select both of the men if confused.

Alaska’s other Republican senator, Lisa Murkowski, alluded to that in a social media post criticizing the lawsuit. “Alaskans don’t need any help voting for their preferred candidates, and the State of Alaska has already handled this by clearly distinguishing the candidates on this year’s ballot,” wrote Murkowski, who has endorsed the incumbent Sullivan. “The Department of Justice should never have filed this lawsuit.”

Peltola and Sen. Sullivan were top vote-getters in nonpartisan primary

The senator received more than 68,000 votes in the August primary, while the challenging Sullivan got 4,107, about 2% of the total vote. Peltola, who had previously served one term in the House, was the top vote-getter in the nonpartisan primary. Both parties expect that whoever wins in November will do so by a tight margin in a state of 738,000 people.

The campaign for Sen. Dan Sullivan did not address whether the senator supports the Department of Justice's intervention. “We'll let the DOJ complaint run its course,” campaign spokesman Nate Adams said in a text message. “Alaskans can tell the difference between a Democrat sideshow and Senator Sullivan's strong record of delivering for Alaska.”

Daniel J. Sullivan, whose presence on the ballot is at issue in the lawsuit, did not respond to a request for comment.

“Donald Trump knows that Dan Sullivan is going to lose the election, so now his Department of Justice is filing a sham lawsuit to overturn the will of Alaska voters and steal an election when he loses,” said Devan Barber, executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

In a statement Friday, the Department of Justice noted that Alaska's election officials, who are Republicans, determined the other Sullivan's campaign was an attempt to “mislead” voters and wanted him removed from the ballot. Both a state court and Alaska's Supreme Court disagreed and kept the second Sullivan on the ballot.

"The Justice Department, consistent with the National Voter Registration Act enacted by Congress, is taking the necessary steps to ensure that this frivolous candidacy does not undermine the integrity of Alaska’s election or the will of its voters,” the department's statement said.

Concerns about the Department of Justice's role in the election had already reached a fever pitch this month after it filed an unusual, last-minute lawsuit demanding California segregate ballots from 20,000 voters who the Trump administration believed could be noncitizens. California said that it appeared many of those identified were indeed citizens and that they had no time to carefully investigate, as the administration threatened to prosecute the state's election workers if there was illegal voting.

U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche denied the action was a prelude to challenging certification of the midterm results in that state, adding that such a move may happen under a “doomsday” scenario but was unlikely.

“It is not DOJ’s intention to, and it’s never our intention to, improperly interfere with elections or the state certification process," he told reporters Thursday in Virginia before the Alaska lawsuit was filed.

The lawsuit was signed by Associate U.S. Attorney General Stanley Woodward, who represented Trump allies and Jan. 6 defendants before becoming one of the top appointees at the department.

Constitution gives states the power to run elections

Derek Muller, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame, said the lawsuit would likely only kick in if Republicans narrowly lose the Alaska Senate race and that it probably would not survive long. “The statute simply doesn't let the Department of Justice enjoin certification,” Muller said. “The lawsuit could well be mooted by a wide Democratic victory or a narrow Republican one, and if not, the court will likely dismiss it next month.”

The U.S. Constitution grants states the power to run their own elections. Elections for federal office like the Senate must comply with standards set by Congress. That division of power has frustrated Trump, who repeatedly has tried to seize control of election procedures through executive orders that courts have blocked.

The final step for a state election is formally certifying the winner, the act that the administration's lawsuit seeks to prevent, it requests, “pending an investigation to determine whether votes cast for Daniel J. Sullivan were meant to be cast for Senator Sullivan."

The process in Alaska is complicated by the state's ranked choice voting system, which Trump opposes, and many expect it to take weeks before a winner is known. Also on the state's ballot is an initiative to repeal that system.

Trump has stepped up complaints about a ballot with dueling Sullivans

Trump has complained about Daniel J. Sullivan's presence on the ballot, making reference to it during a rally in Alaska this month and in repeated social media posts, including one this week where he called it “CHEATING.”

“We are looking at powerful legal options to remove the fraudulent Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. from the Ballot, and holding the Democrats accountable for their Election Interference, in the pursuit of Justice and Fairness,” the president wrote on Wednesday.

Clogging a ballot with third-party candidates to siphon off votes from the other major party is a long-standing tactic in the country's two-party system. Republicans have been linked to an effort to persuade Ohio voters to support a socialist in that state's Senate race, which could help Republican Sen. Jon Husted fend off a challenge from former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.

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Associated Press writers Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, Haven Daley in Anchorage, Alaska, Ali Swenson in New York and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington contributed to this report.

In Israel, the country's defense minister strongly denied that the military has clashed with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his reported instructions for an “action” against Iran ahead of national elections on Tuesday.

Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Monday. Read our full coverage here.

Saudi-led coalition says it destroyed Houthi missile launchers

An operation in Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen destroyed five tunnels used for storing ballistic missiles, four ballistic missile launchers and another missile storage facility, according to the spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Iran-backed Houthis.

Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki said the operation also aimed to cut the Houthis' supply lines between areas under their control and targeted rebel fortifications and military equipment along the front lines inside Yemen.

In a post on X, al-Malki said the coalition would continue to use “deterrent operational measures” to protect against the Houthis' “brutal attacks” inside the kingdom and in Yemen.

Houthis say Saudi-backed forces struck hospital in Red Sea port city

Yemen’s Houthi-run Health Ministry said Monday that Saudi-backed forces targeted a hospital in the Red Sea port city of Mokha, which the Houthi rebels recently seized. It did not provide evidence for the claim, and The Associated Press could not independently verify it.

In a statement, the ministry said the attack caused extensive damage to the hospital, but did not say whether there were any casualties. It also said Saudi forces on Sunday targeted a children's hospital in Taiz province, causing damage.

Earlier on Monday, two residents of Mokha, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said Mokha General Hospital and at least 10 houses were damaged after a rocket struck a nearby four-story residential building. The AP could not independently verify the claim, and it was not clear if this was the same incident that the Health Ministry was referring to.

There was no immediate comment from the Saudi-backed forces.

— By Ahmed al-Haj in Aden, Yemen

Houthis say they fired missiles at Yemeni government forces

The Houthi rebels claimed Monday that they struck military gatherings and weapons depots belonging to Saudi-backed government forces in Aden and Lahj provinces.

The Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a statement that the rebels fired ballistic missiles at the sites, inflicting losses. The claims could not be independently verified.

The Houthis continue to target government forces and their allies inside Yemen. The Yemeni government accused the rebels on Sunday of targeting displacement camps on the outskirts of the southern port city of Aden. The government didn’t provide evidence to support its claim.

Israel’s defense minister denies clash with the army over Iran

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on Monday dismissed reports regarding rifts between the political leadership and the Israeli military over Iran as “completely baseless and false.”

In a post on X, Katz also said Israel had no intention to strike Iran before Tuesday’s national elections but that it would respond “with great force” if Iran attacks first.

Israeli Channel 12 reported Sunday evening that Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel's military chief of staff clashed over the Israeli prime minister's instruction to carry out an “action” that the army believes could quickly reignite the conflict with Iran. The report did not specify the nature of the action. Netanyahu’s office later described the report as “fake news.”

Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan seek closer cooperation

Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan agreed Monday to continue talks on strengthening cooperation, particularly on regional peace and security, Iran’s state-run news agency IRNA reported.

Maj. Gen. Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, hosted the four countries’ first quadrilateral meeting in Tehran.

Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman, Pakistan’s armed forces chief Gen. Asim Munir and Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin attended.

The IRNA report did not specify when or where the next meeting would take place.

Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said renewed attacks on Iran would destabilize the region and hurt countries that are not party to the conflict. In a televised address on Monday, he said reports about potential attacks had already driven fuel prices higher.

UN chief ‘alarmed’ by Israeli settler violence

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said Monday he was “deeply alarmed” by surging Israeli settler violence and settlement expansion in the West Bank.

Speaking in Cairo on one of his final trips as U.N. chief, Guterres called for lifting Israeli restrictions on humanitarian aid to Gaza and removing obstacles to the Security Council’s peace plan, warning that “the specter of ethnic cleansing” was looming ever larger.

He said lasting peace in the region depends on Palestinians’ right to self-determination and that a two-state solution, with Jerusalem as the capital of both states, is the only viable path.

Guterres also called for restoring stability around Iran and the Strait of Hormuz and ensuring safety around Yemen’s Bab al-Mandeb Strait.

Egypt's parliament approves help to Saudi Arabia

Egyptian lawmakers on Monday approved President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi’s request to support Saudi Arabia in countering Houthi attacks.

The decision comes amid growing public concern that Egypt could become involved in Yemen’s long-running conflict.

Egypt’s highest security body had pledged to provide “all necessary and possible forms of support” to Saudi Arabia to defend its security and stability, protect its resources and territorial integrity, and safeguard Islamic holy sites.

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This report will be updated throughout the day as new developments emerge.

The Vatican press office said the pope’s recovery continues to progress in line with favorable assessments from his medical team. It also confirmed the pope is keeping the already ambitious trip program with no announced changes.

Surgeons on Oct. 13 removed a lobe where the nodule later diagnosed as malignant was located, in the first major health event of Leo's 17-month pontificate. The surgery confirmed he had adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer.

Since returning to the Vatican, Leo has gradually resumed his activities while adjusting his schedule to prioritize recovery and periods of rest, the statement said.

The pope’s physician, Luigi Carbone, said there's no medical reason preventing Leo's trip to South America, which involves a dozen flights and two helicopter rides to high altitudes.

Leo expressed gratitude for the prayers and support he has received during his recovery and said he was eager to return to a region where he spent important periods of his life.

“I am looking forward to returning to the continent where I’ve experienced so many moments of my life,” Leo said Monday. “May this journey be an occasion for us to open our hearts to one another, strengthen our communion as brothers and sisters, and renew our commitment to proclaiming the Gospel with joy.”

The Vatican said the visit will provide an opportunity for the pope to strengthen ties with local churches, encourage the faithful and promote a message of faith, hope and peace in Uruguay, Argentina and Peru.

Flooding caused by excessive rainfall happened Monday along the San Juan River in parts of the Four Corners region, the meeting point of Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. The area has experienced unusually heavy rain since Wednesday that caused rivers to surge, flooding homes and forcing water rescues. Storms led to a tornado that touched down in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on Saturday night.

One flooding-related death was reported in Santa Fe on Saturday during a water rescue of a family that had attempted to cross a flooded arroyo in their vehicle, the county sheriff's office said. A father and child were able to get onto land, but a female passenger was swept away by the current and was found dead a mile away, the office said.

Rising river has led to evacuations in Utah and Colorado

By Monday morning, the San Juan River was 1 1/2 feet (45.7 centimeters) above the flood stage of 23 feet (7 meters), the National Weather Service said. It was expected to crest to 31 feet (9.4 meters) later Monday, then fall below flood stage by Tuesday morning.

This compares to Sept. 10, 1927, when the river crested at 32 feet (9.7 meters), the weather service said.

Some residents in one community along the river, Bluff, Utah, were evacuated over the weekend but were allowed to return early Monday.

Returning residents and businesses should use caution as several properties were still flooded, county officials said.

“Stay out of the San Juan River,” the weather service said. “Water levels remain elevated, and possible sewage contamination poses additional health risks.”

Farmington area deals with evacuations and power outage

In the Farmington area of New Mexico, local officials said swollen rivers were receding, but that many people remained evacuated and hundreds were without power.

San Juan County, New Mexico, did not have official figures on the number of homes damaged or how many people were evacuated, spokesperson Devin Neeley told The Associated Press.

“It’s a pretty active disaster zone,” he said.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Major General Miguel Aguilar of the New Mexico National Guard planned to visit the county Monday to survey damage and meet with affected residents.

Floodwaters could be contaminated with chemicals and raw sewage

Officials in the hard-hit counties urged patience and caution. Water could be contaminated with chemicals and raw sewage, and gas and propane lines could be broken, among other hazards.

“The public is anxious to get back in,” San Juan County Fire & Rescue Chief David Vega acknowledged at a news conference Sunday. “But I want the public to know there are still hazards out there.”

Undersheriff Cory Tanner said officials were going from house to house to check for hazards — a process that could take days to complete.

Zach and Abigail Flatt started putting together go-bags after receiving evacuation orders on their phones Thursday evening. Their home in Bloomfield, New Mexico, sits on the San Juan River.

“In 30 or 40 minutes it had jumped about 4 feet,” Zach recalled Sunday. “After I saw that big jump, and how close it was to going over the banks, I said we've got to get out.”

By the time the family was loaded into the car, water was coming up over the tires. They found a hotel room with their two children, ages 2 and 4, and watched via webcams as at least 18 inches (.45 meters) of water inundated their property, washing away 22 of their 24 chickens.

“We watched stuff just float away, off the porch into the front yard,” Zach said.

Authorities are assessing damage in the Navajo Nation and in a Colorado county

In the Shiprock, New Mexico, area of the Navajo Nation, wastewater facilities and water holding ponds were damaged by flooding, causing sewage releases into the San Juan River, according to Navajo Tribal Utility Authority Shiprock District Manager Wilfred Franklin Jr.

New Mexico's congressional delegation on Sunday urged President Donald Trump to declare an emergency for the state to release federal assistance funding.

In Colorado, teams created maps of some counties to help identify affected roads, road closures, impacted areas and evacuation zones.

The flooding is just the latest from two months of on-and-off heavy rain in the region caused by tropical moisture coming ashore from the Pacific. After months of drought, other recent deadly flooding struck the Grand Canyon and other areas of New Mexico.

Forecasters said El Niño, the natural and temporary warming of parts of the Pacific, was likely to blame for the latest storm's unusually heavy rainfall.

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Associated Press writers Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, Anna Wilder in Austin, Texas, and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed.

The 22-time Grand Slam champion will headline “The MGM Slam presented by Capital One” at T-Mobile Arena on Feb. 28, organizers announced Monday.

Nadal faced Carlos Alcaraz in the Vegas exhibition in 2024 during his final year on tour.

“I remember how impressive it was to feel the energy of a full arena in a city like Las Vegas,” the 40-year-old Nadal said. “Now I return in a different stage of my life, without the pressure of the tour but with the same passion for this sport. I have always loved competing, and even if my professional career is finished, that feeling never really goes away.”

Additional players and the format for the event will be announced in the coming weeks. It’s slated for just before the ATP 1000 event in Indian Wells, California.

Last year, eight players competed in a tiebreaker format.

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See AP’s full tennis coverage here

Coastal Flooding: Coastal Flood Warnings have been extended through Tuesday and Wednesday for the Atlantic coastal counties, Intracoastal Waterway, and the entire St. Johns River basin.

Moderate tidal flooding is expected around high tide, with locally major flooding possible. Water levels could reach 2–3.5 feet above normally dry ground.

Flooding of vulnerable roads, low-lying neighborhoods, and riverfront properties will remain a concern through multiple high tide cycles.

Winds and Marine Conditions: A tight pressure gradient will maintain gusty northeast winds across the area.

A Wind Advisory remains in effect for coastal locations through this evening, with sustained winds of 20–30 mph and gusts reaching 35–45 mph.

Marine conditions remain hazardous, with seas of 9–14 feet and frequent gale-force gusts. A high risk of rip currents and dangerous surf will continue along our beaches.

Monday: Mostly sunny and breezy, with afternoon highs in the lower to middle 70s. Jacksonville should reach around 73 degrees, with northeast winds of 15–20 mph and gusts approaching 30 mph. Overnight lows fall into the lower 60s.

Tuesday and Wednesday: Mostly sunny with highs in the upper 70s. Northeast winds remain elevated, particularly near the coast. Coastal flooding will continue to be the primary concern during high tide cycles.

Thursday through Sunday: Rain chances begin to return Thursday, with a 30% chance of showers. Friday looks mainly dry, with just a 20% chance of rain. Temperatures gradually warm into the upper 70s and near 80 degrees over the weekend. Scattered showers remain possible Saturday and Sunday, with a few thunderstorms possible Sunday.

The bottom line is that coastal flooding will remain our highest-impact weather concern through at least midweek. We’ll continue monitoring water levels and high tide cycles closely, especially along the St. Johns River, Intracoastal Waterway, and Atlantic beaches. While inland locations will experience relatively quiet weather, coastal communities could see several rounds of moderate to locally major flooding.

Have a great Monday!

The elevator dinged open. A year ago in this building, surgeons removed Banda’s right breast, and she still didn't know whether treatment had expunged the cancer from her body. Doctors had told her it would be tough to beat.

“I’m more of a positive person myself,” Banda said, now sitting with a white wristband in a dim waiting room. But the bills are harder to dismiss, and the single mother with six children in her care repeated something like a mantra. “Keep the house. Keep the cars. And just keep the kids stable.”

That’s true for many Americans, as rising healthcare costs leave more families with a sinking feeling after seeing the bill for surgery or medication. Heading into the Nov. 3 midterm elections, about half of registered voters said healthcare costs are a major problem for them and their families, up from a little more than one-third four years ago, according to a Fox News poll from September.

With party control of Congress at stake, registered voters are nearly twice as likely to say they trust Democrats over Republicans to handle healthcare, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll from the same month. Those frustrations, combined with broader concerns over rising prices, have sapped support for President Donald Trump and his Republican Party.

Banda knows how that feels. She backed Trump in each of his three campaigns, motivated by her opposition to abortion. But when cancer came, the ensuing scramble to make ends meet was painful enough to rearrange her priorities, and she started to think about voting Democratic for the first time.

The 46-year-old was ushered into a sterile room for her appointment, her phone lit up with a text. “Please contact TD Auto Finance.”

“This one’s $1,300,” she said of the car payment bill. “I have to go back to work.”

She had been on sick leave from her job selling internet service for one year, and she needed the income to support her three kids and three more she had taken in after her sister's death.

The doctor said her reconstruction surgery could be scheduled early next year. “I was hoping for maybe December,” Banda said, “only because I've met my deductibles.” Come January, she would have to pay down the $7,500 again. Earlier may be possible, the doctor replied, if the skin around her surgical scar loosens.

The evening had cooled slightly by the time she walked back through the rows of parked cars, their ebb and flow marking the tide of sickness, survival and death in a small corner of a colossal healthcare industry that saves lives while taking in over $5 trillion every year.

Banda paid $8 for parking as she left.

Confronting death and debt in America before a midterm election

Two weeks later, Banda was back at work, making door-to-door rounds to sell Spectrum's Wi-Fi in McAllen, her city along the U.S.-Mexico border in the Rio Grande Valley. Banda, holding blue flyers, walked along a row of storefronts, some that shuttered since she last was in the area.

She hadn't had a sale and commission since October of last year, after the biopsy and diagnosis.

The doctor who gave her the news had hugged Banda, and she sobbed even though she never really sobs in front of other people. During chemo, her children took turns buzzing off her wispy hair. When her 9-year-old daughter's hand quivered, a teenage cousin helped guide the clipper over her mother’s scalp.

Banda’s first impulse was to maintain normalcy, stability, for the children.

But that requires roughly $7,000 a month for utilities, mortgage, car payments and groceries, along with the two water leaks. Then, even with insurance through her job, the surgeries, chemo and radiation added up to over $25,000 that she's been paying off, making Banda one of tens of millions of other people in the United States in medical debt.

Banda tries not to dwell on death and debt.

“It’ll consume you,” she says. She smothers those thoughts beneath her bubbly demeanor and avoids being alone. But that truce, between her insistence on positivity and the fears that it covers, is brittle.

Certain thoughts still arrive uninvited. Banda’s late sister, Melissa, didn’t have life insurance. Banda makes sure it's a payment she never misses.

“Sometimes I think, and I shouldn’t think like this, but I’m worth more gone than here,” she said one day. “Obviously, the goal is not that, the goal is to beat it,” she continued, “to keep the house and keep the cars.”

So far she has, with the help of others.

On top of child support, the father of Banda's 9-year-old often pays $400 a week for a nanny to help with the kids. Banda’s own father sent her $700 before for her recent Houston appointment, one of his many cash infusions. Her high school classmates, who she hadn’t been in close touch with in decades, fundraised by selling grilled chicken, rice and beans from a roadside tent. Two GoFundMe fundraisers raised nearly $30,000 and Banda rented her late sister’s house while putting her own in forbearance.

But months of insecurity takes its own, sleepless toll. She needed to sell some internet services to catch up.

After sticking the Spectrum Wi-Fi flyers onto empty storefronts, she drove to pick up her kids from school. The following day she had a morning meeting at a barbershop for what would be her first sale back at work.

Turning on Trump and voting Democratic for the first time

A lifelong Christian, Banda had voted her anti-abortion stance in past elections. When her sister was kidnapped and murdered by her ex-husband in 2020, Banda retreated from religion. The cancer brought her back to church with an apology to God, but it also made her rethink her politics.

She voted for Trump in 2016, and his first four years seemed steady, so she voted for him again in 2020. Democratic President Joe Biden's tenure, including the tail end of a global pandemic and rising inflation, felt like bedlam, so she voted for Trump to return to the White House in 2024.

But two years later and fighting an expensive disease, she had found no respite from high prices.

So when James Talarico, a Presbyterian seminary student running for U.S. Senate as a Democrat, visited one of Banda’s fundraisers — speaking about his diabetes and his work in the Texas Statehouse to lower the price of insulin — it moved her. “Imagine if he can do that for the cancer,” she said.

Talarico and his Republican opponent, state Attorney General Ken Paxton, have different approaches to healthcare. Talarico wants all Americans to be able to join Medicare; Paxton proposed a $25,000 tax deduction for out-of-pocket medical expenses.

Talarico also supports a law guaranteeing abortion access nationwide, which Banda has voted against for years. But after she slid into debt to stay alive, after her grocery bills mounted and the high school had to comp the kids' soccer gear she couldn't afford, Banda’s anti-abortion concerns have been superseded by costs.

“Because it’s what I’m living,” she said. “I'm living it."

Banda cast an early ballot for Talarico. “Never voted Democrat before today!!” she wrote in a text with blue heart emoji.

Her news will come on Election Day, in a doctor's office

Banda had just started a new cancer-targeting medication that cost $16,000 a month, reduced to $500 by insurance. By the afternoon, she was nauseous and fatigued, unable to eat. The malaise would keep her home the next day. She would miss the meeting with the barbershop to close her first deal since getting sick, though she felt confident it was in the bag.

But Banda pushed through the discomfort one evening to join her family as they replaced the flowers at her sister's tomb.

She drove past the headstones and oak trees in the evening’s slanting light, and the family gathered around Melissa Banda's tomb in an open-air mausoleum. There was no speech. Their eulogy was her father, Fidel Banda, methodically clipping and arranging the flowers for his daughter.

Banda walked along the wall of tombs. She will find out on Election Day whether the cancer is in remission or whether it's spread to her organs.

“This one’s for me,” she said, pointing to a blank tomb next to her sister's.

“Mom!” said her daughter with the huffiness of a 9-year-old. “Why would you say that?”

Banda smiled and added, “in a hundred years."

Lawson, who has been a feature on The Morning Show broadcast for nearly two decades, was named Folio Weekly’s 2026 Person of the Year, chosen by readers across Northeast Florida.

Lawson, who has worked for Channel 4 for 21 years, was selected for the magazine’s inaugural honor through a nomination process that drew more than 280,000 votes.

Readers cited her philanthropy, community involvement, and dedication to storytelling as reasons they chose her for the distinction, Folio Weekly General Manager Teresa Spencer said.

“There were hundreds that wrote in all of the different reasons,” Spencer said. “Her philanthropy, what she does for the community, what she does here on air, bringing the stories to life that Northeast Florida deserves to hear and the right way to hear it.”

RELATED | Melanie Lawson: Why I’m celebrating my 50th birthday by saying ‘Dear Jacksonville’

Lawson, appearing alongside Spencer and Folio Weekly Publisher John Phillips on The Morning Show, expressed genuine gratitude for the recognition.

“It’s been an honor, I have to say,” Lawson said. “And so cool because being here for 21 years is a long time. And to be able to have this platform. People watch us from all over. And I try to use it, like I said, for good and not evil. I try to lift up organizations. And this has been really special.”

A city speaks

The Person of the Year award is part of Folio Weekly’s “Best of Jax” reader engagement initiative. Phillips, who took ownership of the publication in 2020, said the award was designed to reflect the pulse of Jacksonville.

“This is Jacksonville’s news,” Phillips said. “This is our first year of just trying to find who Jacksonville loves, who’s its person. And I love that it was you.”

Lawson was not the only nominee. Nine others were recognized in the same issue, including Mayor Donna Deegan, Democratic Senate candidate Angie Nixon, and Jaguars head coach Liam Coen, among others. But according to Spencer, the result was decisive.

“It’s amazing that people that were nominated — everyone from Liam Coen to Mayor Donna Deegan, Angie Nixon, just a plethora of different personalities doing different things in our community — but the votes came in and hands down,” Spencer said.

The remaining top 10 nominees were:

• Monique Madrid – Festival Director, LOL JAX Film Festival & Co-City Producer, Jax 48 Hour Film Project
• Jasmine Monroe – News Anchor/Reporter, First Coast News
• Jason Peoples – Author & Executive Director, JAMS ( Jacksonville Arts & Music SCH)
• Robert Phelan – CEO, Cancer Specialists of North Florida
• Christy Ponder – Executive Director, Art with a Heart in Healthcare
• Kamala Williams – Founder, The Lotus Flower Project

Jacksonville roots

For Lawson, the honor carries personal meaning. She arrived in Jacksonville without plans to stay long, yet two decades later, she remains one of the city’s most recognizable faces.

“You come here, and you’re kind of nervous and young and immature and insecure,” Lawson said. “And then, you know, after all these years, it feels good because you feel like you know your purpose.

“I love Jacksonville,” she added. “When I got here, I hadn’t planned to stay — 21 years later, still here and still serving this community.”

This week, Lawson will celebrate her 50th birthday with a special community tribute show at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Ritz Theatre Downtown. Doors open at 6 p.m.

A portion of the proceeds from “Dear Jacksonville: A Love Letter, 21 Years in the Making” will benefit Empowerment Resources, Inc., a Jacksonville nonprofit serving children and families.

Click here to get tickets

Host Nease outlasted Ponte Vedra in a 49-35 thriller to win its fourth straight in the Battle of the Bridge. The Panthers (6-3) got four touchdowns from Tyshawn Ford to pull away from the Sharks in a back-and-forth game that wasn’t decided until the final minutes. Chase Bogle had the game-sealing sack on fourth down with under two minutes to go with the Sharks inside the red zone to ice it. Nease led 21-0 in the game before the Sharks and Carter Sole surged back to tie things at 21-all in the opening half. The Panthers moved back in front following an Aiden Phifer touchdown pass before the break.

Sole evened things up in the third quarter as he found Cade Turner for a couple touchdowns to knot things at 35-all. But Nease closed with a fury behind Ford and then the goal line stand that ended with a sack by Bogle.

The loss was a tough one for Ponte Vedra, which likely needs a win in Week 11 to have a shot at reaching the playoffs in Region 1-5A. They did get a bit of help from Beachside, which shocked Fletcher in a 28-27 OT win. The Senators have tumbled down the stretch. The loss to the lower-ranked Barracudas will likely see them slide from the top eight in Region 1-5A.

In Starke, No. 8 Ed White fended off Bradford in a 19-18 thriller that was decided in the final seconds as the Tornadoes missed a winning field goal try. Quarterback Mike Hinson tossed touchdown passes to Vedo Jones and King Mercer, and the Commanders stopped Cy Cubbedge on a two-point run after Bradford cut things to 19-18 late. Hinson also had a rushing touchdown for White.

Bolles won the District 3-2A title with a 38-0 win over host Jackson in a game that was called early in the fourth quarter after an injury. Jameer Jackson had three sacks and forced a fumble for the Bulldogs before leaving with an injury that forced the game to be called off. Xander Edwards, Jaxon Flowers, Matt Mizell and Luke Toland all had rushing touchdowns for Bolles.

Top-ranked Raines won its 23^rd consecutive game with a 35-20 win on the road at Cocoa. The Vikings (9-0) will look to wrap up their third straight unbeaten regular season on Oct. 31 in the Northwest Classic against Ribault.

On the independent side, Episcopal held off Fernandina Beach 20-15 to wrap up a perfect regular season for just the second time in school history and first since 2002. The Eagles (10-0) will play next in the Sunshine State Athletic Association playoffs.

Hilliard got seven touchdowns from DJ Alderman and held off Cornerstone Classical in a 60-55 shootout. The Red Flashes are 9-0. Alderman rushed for 415 yards on 35 carries and six touchdowns. He added a 57-yard receiving touchdown, too.

District champions all decided

With play on Friday night, all area districts have crowned champions. Here are the district winners in all districts featuring area teams. All district champs have clinched playoff spots. The full playoff bracket will be released on Nov. 6 at 5 p.m.

1-6A: Creekside

2-5A: Mandarin

3-5A: Gainesville Buchholz

3-4A: Columbia

4-4A: St. Augustine

2-3A: Wakulla

3-3A: Raines

4-3A: Palatka

3-2A: Bolles

4-2A: Bradford

3-1A: Madison County

5-1A: Trinity Christian

SSAA playoffs up next for independent teams

Paxon wrapped up an 8-2 season and Christ’s Church Academy ended up at 9-1 as the Sunshine Independent Athletic Association playoffs arrive. Along with Episcopal (10-0) and West Nassau (7-2-1) the area is positioned well for a strong field in the SSAA bracket.

Atlantic League division playoffs

(8) Trenton (7-2) at (1) West Nassau (7-2-1)

(7) Lafayette (4-6) at (2) Paxon (8-2), 6:30 p.m.

(5) Fernandina Beach (3-7) at (4) Franklin County (8-2)

(6) Union County (5-5) at (3) Cottondale

11-man state championship playoffs

(5) St. Joseph (4-6) at (4) Christ’s Church Academy (9-1)

(7) Cornerstone Classical (6-3) at (2) Seffner Christian (9-1)

(6) Old Plank Christian (6-3) at (3) Episcopal (10-0)

How the Super 10 fared in Week 10

1. Raines (9-0, Class 3A)

This week: Beat Cocoa, 34-20. Next week: vs. Ribault (5-4), Saturday, 2 p.m.

2. Columbia (9-0, Class 4A)

This week: Beat Yulee, 42-0. Next week: vs. Suwannee (5-4), 7:30 p.m.

3. St. Augustine (9-0, Class 4A)

This week: Beat Fleming Island, 42-7. Next week: at Mandarin (8-1), 6:30 p.m.

4. Mandarin (8-1, Class 5A)

This week: Beat Bartram Trail, 49-7. Next week: vs. St. Augustine (9-0), 6:30 p.m.

5. Bradford (9-1, Class 2A)

This week: Lost to Ed White, 19-18. Next week: Off, regular season complete.

6. Trinity Christian (5-4, Class 1A)

This week: Beat Impact Christian, 56-0. Next week: at Riverside (3-6), 6:30 p.m.

7. Bolles (6-2, Class 2A)

This week: Beat Jackson, 38-0. Next week: vs. Gainesville Buchholz (9-0).

8. Ed White (7-2, Class 4A)

This week: Beat Bradford, 19-18. Next week: vs. Baldwin (4-5), 6:30 p.m.

9. Nease (6-3, Class 5A)

This week: Beat Ponte Vedra, 49-35. Next week: at Sandalwood (6-3), 6:30 p.m.

10. University Christian (6-3, Class 1A)

This week: Off. Next week: at Calvary Christian (6-3).

How the Super 6 fared

1. Episcopal (10-0, SSAA)

This week’s result: Beat Fernandina Beach, 20-15. Next week: TBA.

2. West Nassau (7-2-1, SSAA)

This week’s result: Beat Keystone Heights, 42-22. Next week: TBA.

3. Paxon (8-2, SSAA)

This week’s result: Beat Union County, 36-19. Next week: TBA.

4. Christ’s Church (9-1, SSAA)

This week’s result: Beat Englewood, 49-0. Next week: TBA.

5. Hilliard (10-0, FHSAA)

This week’s result: Beat Cornerstone Classical, 60-55. Next week: Off, game against Taylor Pierson a win by forfeit.

6. Fernandina Beach (3-7, SSAA)

This week’s result: Lost to (1) Episcopal, 20-15. Next week: TBA.

Week 10 results, Florida

Friday, Oct. 23

Baldwin 40, KIPP Bold City 14

Beachside 28, Fletcher 27 (OT)

Bishop Kenny 50, Parker 14

Bishop Snyder (1-8) at Seven Rivers Christian (3-6), not reported

Bolles 38, Jackson 0

Buchholz 37, Oakleaf 22

Columbia 42, Yulee 0

Ed White 19, Bradford 18

Episcopal 20, Fernandina Beach 15

Christ’s Church Academy 49, Englewood 0

Clay 35, Middleburg 6

Creekside 27, First Coast 6

Flagler Palm Coast 31, Atlantic Coast 6

Fort White 41, Hamilton County 0

Godby 52, Suwannee 0

Halifax Academy 26, Eagle’s View 20

Hilliard 60, Cornerstone Classical 55

Interlachen 27, Atlantic 10

Mandarin 49, Bartram Trail 7

Old Plank Christian 45, Bronson 0

Orange Park 27, Ridgeview 21

Matanzas 28, West Port 7

Menendez 42, Westside 8

Nease 49, Ponte Vedra 35

Palatka 46, Wolfson 7

Paxon 36, Union County 19

St. Augustine 42, Fleming Island 7

Saint Stephen’s Episcopal 17, St. Joseph 0

Raines 35, Cocoa 20

Riverside 26, Ribault 14

Sandalwood 23, Tocoi Creek 17

Trenton 39, Crescent City 0

Trinity Christian 56, Impact Christian 0

Umatilla 17, Zarephath Academy 6

Wakulla 7, Baker County 3

West Nassau 41, Keystone Heights 22

OFF: Duval Charter, First Coast Christian, Harvest, Hilliard, Providence, Stanton, University Christian.

Week 11 schedule, Florida

Monday, Oct. 25

Beachside (4-4) at Legacy (3-5)

Friday, Oct. 30

Atlantic Coast (0-9) at Fletcher (4-5), 6:30 p.m.

Baker County (6-3) at West Port (2-7)

Baldwin (4-5) at Ed White (7-2), 6:30 p.m.

Belleview at KIPP Bold City, 6:30 p.m.

Buchholz (9-0) at Bolles (6-2)

Clay (6-2) at Jackson (7-2), 6:30 p.m.

Creekside (7-2) at Ponte Vedra (3-6)

Fleming Island (4-4) at Bishop Kenny (5-4)

Fort White (6-3) at Palatka (4-5)

Halifax Academy (1-7) at Providence (3-6)

Hilliard d. Taylor Pierson by forfeit

Land O’ Lakes (6-3) at Bartram Trail (6-3)

Matanzas (2-7) at Palm Bay (2-7)

Middleburg (4-4) at Parker (1-8), 6:30 p.m.

Nease (6-3) at Sandalwood (6-3), 6:30 p.m.

Oakleaf (4-5) at First Coast (1-8), 6:30 p.m.

Orange Park (3-5) at Flagler Palm Coast (7-2)

Ridgeview (1-8) at Englewood (1-8), 6:30 p.m.

St. Augustine (9-0) at Mandarin (8-1), 6:30 p.m.

St. Petersburg Catholic (5-4) at NFEI (4-4)

Sunlake (4-5) at KIPP Bold City (1-8), 6:30 p.m.

Suwannee (5-4) at Columbia (9-0), 7:30 p.m.

Tocoi Creek (3-5) at Menendez (5-4)

Trinity Christian (5-4) at Riverside (3-6), 6:30 p.m.

University Christian (6-3) at Calvary Christian (6-3)

Westside (1-8) at Beachside (4-4)

Zarephath Academy (1-7) at Yulee (5-4)

OFF: Bradford, Hilliard.

SSAA state playoffs

Atlantic League division playoffs

(8) Trenton (7-2) at (1) West Nassau (7-2-1)

(7) Lafayette (4-6) at (2) Paxon (8-2), 6:30 p.m.

(5) Fernandina Beach (3-7) at (4) Franklin County (8-2)

(6) Union County (5-5) at (3) Cottondale (8-0)

11-man state championship playoffs

(5) St. Joseph (4-6) at (4) Christ’s Church Academy (9-1)

(7) Cornerstone Classical (6-3) at (2) Seffner Christian (9-1)

(6) Old Plank Christian (6-3) at (3) Episcopal (10-0)

Consolation bracket

Bishop Snyder (1-9) vs. Harvest Community (3-7)

Duval Charter (4-5) vs. Eagle’s View (0-10)

TBA, SSAA playoffs: First Coast Christian, Interlachen, Keystone Heights, Stanton.

Week 10 results, Georgia

Friday, Oct. 23

Bulloch Academy 42, Frederica Academy 14

Charlton County 21, Mitchell County 14

Greenbrier 26, Glynn Academy 15

Pierce County 52, Brantley County 0

South Effingham 35, Brunswick 31

Valdosta 63, Camden County 10

Ware County 17, Jenkins 0

Week 11 schedule, Georgia

Friday, Oct. 30

Charlton County (6-1-1) at Clinch County (5-3), 7:30 p.m.

Colquitt County (5-3) at Camden County (5-4), 7:30 p.m.

Effingham County (6-2) at Brunswick (3-5), 7:30 p.m.

Glynn Academy (3-5) at South Effingham (6-2), 7:30 p.m.

Islands (3-5) at Pierce County (7-1), 7:30 p.m.

Tattnall County (3-5) at Brantley County (3-5), 7:30 p.m.

True Institute (1-5) at P.K. Yonge (1-7)

Ware County (6-2) at Wayne County (2-6), 7:30 p.m.

OFF: Frederica Academy.

Saturday, Oct. 31

Ribault (9-0) at Raines (5-4), 2 p.m.

From the outside, the home on Ramona Boulevard appears intact. But inside, the destruction tells a very different story.

“This one’s our bedroom, and this one’s our daughter’s room, and it’s covered in black soot,” renter Michael Flye said. “It’s like walking around in a chimney.”

Flye walked News4JAX through the damage, showing room after room consumed by fire and soot, including the back of the home, where little remained.

“And back over here. That’s just what’s left of the back side,” Flye said. “Completely gone, obliterated.”

Flye says the fire broke out the morning of Oct. 21, when Flye’s wife, Elisabeth, brought groceries inside and set some on the stove. She stepped away briefly to use the bathroom and returned to find the kitchen engulfed in flames, which quickly spread through the house.

“When she came back out to leave out the front door, the flames were already in the dining room, starting to make its way into the living room,” Flye said.

The situation became even more dangerous as Elisabeth attempted to flee.

“She felt the heat coming off the back of her. She said that, she felt that it was burning her as she was trying to run out of the house,” Flye said.

Michael Flye was at work when he got the call.

“I was at work at the time, and that’s when I got the phone call from her saying, hey, you need to get home, the house is burning down. I didn’t know what to think,” he said.

Thankfully, Elisabeth made it out unharmed. Despite firefighters’ efforts, little could be recovered from the blaze.

“My son lost everything. We were, we tried to salvage some of my daughter’s stuff, but that didn’t, didn’t work out,” Flye said.

Elisabeth initially believed she may have accidentally triggered the fire by placing groceries on the stove and inadvertently turning on a burner. But Fly says that wasn’t exactly the cause.

“After further investigation, the fire looked like it initiated behind the wall at the bottom of the oven versus at the top of the oven,” Flye said. “This was more of an electrical fire.”

Family leans on community support

Flye, Elisabeth and their three children are currently staying with family as they work to rebuild. A GoFundMe set up for the family has raised more than $8,000.

“When you have nothing, anything is amazing. So starting over again is gonna take a lot of helping hands. But at the end of the day, we’re always appreciative for anything,” Flye said.

News4JAX reached out to the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department for more information on the cause of the fire and is still waiting to hear back.

Tesla’s Robotaxi account posted Oct. 21 that the service was coming soon to Jacksonville, along with Las Vegas, Phoenix and San Antonio. The notice signals interest in expanding to the city, but does not establish when rides will begin.

The announcement comes as Jacksonville’s existing autonomous shuttle service, run by JTA, is set to pause. The Jacksonville Transportation Authority announced in September that NAVI service will be paused Jan. 1, 2027, as the software contract for the autonomous vehicles expires. The vehicles will revert to manual operation, a change JTA said is expected to save about $487,000 a month.

Jacksonville City Council member Rory Diamond has urged the city to make room for privately operated driverless taxis, including services from Waymo and Tesla.

I’m going to do everything I can to bring @Waymo to Jacksonville. I’ll post every time the special interests try to stop it.

— Rory Diamond (@RoryDiamond) February 27, 2026

Diamond told News4JAX in March he planned to introduce legislation to pave the way for autonomous robotaxis on Jacksonville roads. He argued privately operated services could cost less than NAVI, saying that each NAVI ride cost the city $360.

Diamond has also said robotaxis could improve road safety. Transportation safety analysts cautioned that deployment should be supported by safety evidence and clear accountability when something goes wrong.

Tesla’s “coming soon” notice does not confirm that Jacksonville has approved a service or that rides are imminent. The company has not released a local timeline or operating-area details.

News4JAX is speaking with Diamond today and has reached out to JTA for comments. This story will be updated later.

New, 39, was indicted Oct. 7 on 46 counts of mail fraud, 15 counts of aggravated identity theft and one count each of SNAP fraud and illegal transactions with access devices.

New was arrested Oct. 13 and is being held by the U.S. Marshals Service pending further court proceedings.

According to the indictment, New controlled more than 350 fraudulent Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program accounts between January 2020 and July 2026.

Prosecutors allege the accounts were opened using stolen identities, and that New arranged for electronic benefit transfer cards to be sent to addresses around metro Atlanta.

New also allegedly sought and obtained authorization for the company Shawty Dred LLC to operate as a SNAP retailer.

From April 2024 to November 2025, prosecutors say, New used fraudulently obtained EBT cards and a point-of-sale device associated with the company to take more than $660,000 in benefits.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture revoked the company’s retailer authorization in November 2025, according to prosecutors. About two weeks later, local police arrested New on allegations of selling SNAP benefits at a metro Atlanta store and seized 14 EBT cards issued to other people.

Prosecutors allege New later arranged for replacement cards to be sent to the store and other Atlanta-area addresses.

Over the course of the alleged scheme, New caused Georgia’s Division of Family and Children Services to transfer about $4.6 million in benefits to the accounts, and EBT cards were used to take about $4 million from them, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors also allege New displayed an extravagant lifestyle on social media, including posts showing private jets, Rolls-Royce and Maybach vehicles, and stacks of cash.

The Instagram account “richlifeshawtydred” has more than 2 million followers, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“New allegedly stole over $4 million meant for poor families who need help putting food on the table,” U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg said.

SNAP provides monthly food benefits to eligible low-income households. Beneficiaries are prohibited from selling or trading those benefits.

The charges are allegations. New is presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

The enormous sums involved in building and maintaining artificial intelligence models, the pursuit of artificial general intelligence, which can surpass humans at many tasks, and widespread AI adoption all have led to an air of excitement around the technology that has helped propel stock market gains.

“These companies are now burning through cash to win the AI race, and public equity is the cheapest source available, particularly in a rising interest rate environment,” said Michael Field, chief equity analyst at Morningstar.

But amid the billions — even trillions — at stake, worries about an AI bubble are looming in the background along with concerns about keeping the technology under human control. Some experts fear tech companies and venture capitalists are pouring too much money into a still-nascent technology.

Here's a look at some of the biggest AI-focused companies.

Anthropic

Anthropic, which filed paperwork Monday for an initial stock offering on Wall Street, was formed in 2021 by former OpenAI leaders. The maker of the Claude chatbot was recently valued at $965 billion, making it one of the world’s most valuable startups. It has been a meteoric rise for what was once a little-known research laboratory in San Francisco. Its value is reportedly expected to rise to $1.5 trillion or possibly $2 trillion.

In its regulatory filing, Anthropic said it will list its stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol “ANT.”

OpenAI

The maker of ChatGPT began in 2015 as a nonprofit dedicated to developing AI for the common good. It is now a company valued at $852 billion. The company had been looking to go public this year as well, but CEO Sam Altman has said that timeline would be extended amid concerns about AI safety.

While OpenAI may have helped set off the current AI boom, Anthropic’s meteoric rise and Claude’s growing popularity have left the ChatGPT maker playing catch-up.

In an unsuccessful lawsuit against OpenAI and its top executives, Elon Musk, an OpenAI co-founder, claimed the company had strayed from its founding mission in pursuit of greater profits. OpenAI had countered that Musk was simply seeking a bigger slice of the company. OpenAI has not yet reported that it has filed initial IPO paperwork with the SEC.

SpaceX

Elon Musk’s SpaceX was valued at $800 billion last year, but its value grew to $1.25 trillion after the space exploration company merged in February with Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI. The company went public in June with an offering that raised $86 billion, breaking the record for the largest IPO, which had been set by Saudi Aramco in 2019 when the oil giant went public and raised $26 billion.

Musk arranged for SpaceX to buy xAI earlier this year despite protests from some SpaceX investors, who argued that the deal amounted to a bailout and raised ethical concerns because Musk was a controlling shareholder in both companies. Revenue has soared to $14.6 billion, the company reported earlier this month.

Several AI heavyweights are already public companies

Google developed the Gemini AI assistant in response to a competitive threat posed by OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which came out in late 2022. Gemini AI models are integrated into Google search and other products such as Maps. The market value of Alphabet, Google's Mountain View, California-based parent company, was $4.54 trillion at the beginning of June, up from $2.3 trillion a year earlier. That growth suggests that Alphabet’s spending spree on AI is producing dividends so far, despite investor worries about some of its peers' massive AI investments.

Meta's AI push has included the rollout of its AI agent Muse, which can help with daily tasks. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said last week on a call with analysts that more than 10 million people in the U.S. and Canada have set up accounts for Muse, which the company launched in August. He noted that Muse requires significant computing power to run, but said the company expects to improve its cost efficiency by more than 10 times in the next year, “which will enable it to be profitable once the revenue lines are at scale.”

Microsoft, which went public 40 years ago, likely would have been running behind in the AI race were it not for a timely multibillion-dollar investment in OpenAI. Microsoft provided the computing power and financial backing that helped OpenAI build ChatGPT. In turn, Microsoft was able to use the same technical foundation to power its own AI assistant, now called Copilot. The once-exclusive partnership has since evolved as both companies have turned to other partners to advance their AI ambitions.

The parliament said in a statement that the vote was meant to give el-Sissi authorization to take necessary measures to back Saudi Arabia in the defense of its territory and sovereignty against an external “aggression.”

The parliament didn't provide a breakdown of the closed-door vote, but the chamber is overwhelmingly dominated by pro-government lawmakers.

Egypt won't provide ground troops, regional official says

The government didn’t give details about the support, prompting lawmakers to question the nature and extent of the proposed assistance. A regional official, briefed on the matter, said that Egypt will deploy air defense systems and aircraft to help repel missiles and drones fired at Saudi Arabia.

The Egyptian support is defensive in nature and won’t include any ground troops in Yemen, the official said on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to reporters.

The vote, which had been scheduled for last week, was delayed after two days of deliberations because of growing wariness among Egyptians concerned about an intervention in Yemen’s long-running conflict. Because the debates weren't open, it wasn't immediately clear how the discussions went.

Egypt’s highest security body pledged in a meeting earlier this month to provide “all necessary and possible forms of support” to Saudi Arabia to defend “its security and stability, safeguard its resources and territorial integrity, and protect Islamic holy sites.”

In its meeting, chaired by el-Sissi, the National Defense Council also said that Egypt would increase its diplomatic efforts to find a settlement to the conflict.

Saudi Arabia provides Egypt with billions in aid and investment

Egypt “will carry out any measure to protect Saudi Arabia,” el-Sissi said earlier this month. “I’m not speaking about fighting anyone or attacking anyone. I’m speaking only for defense.”

Saudi Arabia is one of Egypt’s main financial backers, providing the country with billions of dollars in financial aid and investments, particularly since el-Sissi came to power following the overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood leader, in 2013. Remittances from Egyptians working in Saudi Arabia are also a major source of foreign currency.

The opposition Egyptian Social Democratic Party announced that its 11-member parliamentary bloc would abstain from voting, citing insufficient information about the mission’s objectives, scope, duration and costs, as well as the risks to Egyptian troops. The party called for prioritizing diplomacy to avert open-ended military commitments.

El-Sissi attempts to reassure wary Egyptians

Egypt's president sought to reassure the public that the country wouldn't attack Yemen, and that the military support is limited to defending Saudi territory.

“I have heard a great deal of talk suggesting that we are preparing to launch an attack on Yemen, or something to that effect. That is certainly not the case,” he said in comments last week.

“We have not engaged in any cooperation aimed at conducting combat operations beyond the borders (of the countries with which we cooperate),” el-Sissi said. “Our focus is on the defense of the kingdom’s territory and its borders.”

Dark memories

The announcement of support for Saudi Arabia has evoked dark memories of Egypt’s involvement in the civil war in Yemen in the 1960s, pitting royalist supporters of the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen against the Yemen Arab Republic.

That war began in 1962 when army commander Gen. Abdullah al-Sallal launched a coup against the newly-crowned King Muhammad al-Badr, declaring North Yemen a republic.

Egypt and Saudi Arabia backed opposite sides: Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom supported royalist forces, while Egypt and the Soviet Union backed the republican troops.

Then Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser deployed tens of thousands of troops to North Yemen in support of his ally, al-Sallal, starting a decadelong military intervention in the country.

The 1960s intervention in Yemen was seen as “one of the low points” of Nasser’s presidency and widely regarded as one of the main causes of the defeat by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War, because of the strain it exerted on the Egyptian military and economy, according to the state-run Al-Ahram daily.

In 2015, Egypt sent naval vessels to the Red Sea off Yemen to support the Saudi-led coalition operating against the rebels at the height of the earlier phase of the war. It didn't deploy ground troops.

___

Fatma Khaled contributed to this report.

The stunning triumph of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva over Flávio Bolsonaro on Sunday, with 51.8% of the vote to 48.2%, limits U.S. President Donald Trump’s drive to tighten his grip on the Western Hemisphere and cements Latin America’s most populous country and largest economy as a counterweight to Washington. A Bolsonaro victory would have left Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum as the only progressive president among the region’s powerhouses.

More broadly, Brazil’s vote — held the same day Serbia’s opposition scored a stunning win — opened a stretch of high-stakes elections that could reshape global politics, with Israel on Tuesday holding its first national election since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack and the U.S. midterms on Nov. 3.

For the Trump administration, which has wielded punishing tariffs, severe sanctions and military force to reassert its dominance in the region, Lula’s victory complicates its campaign to enlist Brazil in its military coalition against cartels and to gain preferential access to the country’s critical minerals, analysts say.

By Monday morning, with his ally Flávio Bolsonaro refusing to concede and calling for the result to be annulled, Trump had yet to publicly acknowledge Lula’s reelection, even as congratulations poured in from Brazil's allies and rivals around the world.

Yet both sides see reasons to cooperate. Washington wants access to Brazil’s vast trove of rare earths to reduce its defense industry’s reliance on China. Lula wants foreign investment and tariff relief for Brazilian exporters.

“Lula is pragmatic enough to work out some kind of modus operandi with the Trump administration,” said Will Freeman, a fellow for Latin America studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, adding that the Bolsonaros’ allies in Washington would likely lose sway after the family’s second electoral defeat. Flávio’s father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, lost to Lula in 2022.

“I’m not sure anyone in the Trump administration, beyond a few individuals, will want to keep making the Bolsonaros the central issue in the U.S.-Brazil relationship,” he said.

Trump's missing piece

Across much of Latin America, voters fed up with rising crime have rewarded presidential candidates promising to restore order. From Peru’s Keiko Fujimori to Colombia’s Abelardo de la Espriella and Chile’s José Antonio Kast, newly elected conservatives have courted Trump while taking their cues from El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, whose sweeping gang crackdown has sharply reduced homicides at the cost of mass arrests and suspended civil liberties.

Trump has reinforced that shift with electoral endorsements, financial bailouts and pledges of military aid.

“The U.S. is certainly putting its finger on the scale to try to help the more hard-line right-wing elements in the region,” said Kenneth Roberts, a professor of government at Cornell University.

Brazil would have been Washington’s most consequential addition. Bolsonaro had promised to join the U.S.-led security coalition “with great enthusiasm and great honor,” making his alliance with Trump part of his pitch to voters.

Lula, by contrast, has championed Brazil’s long tradition of nonalignment, cultivating ties with competing powers. His government deepened trade ties with China and sought greater global influence through BRICS, a group of emerging economies.

Trump’s heavy-handed support for the Bolsonaros played into that message. The double-digit tariffs he imposed on a range of Brazilian goods to punish Brazil for prosecuting former President Jair Bolsonaro over a coup plot to oust Lula stirred a nationalist backlash that the leftist leader channeled into the rallying cry “Brazil belongs to Brazilians.”

“To the extent that the regional superpower becomes a threat to Brazil’s democratic institutions, defending Brazilian national sovereignty also becomes a form of defending Brazilian democracy,” Roberts said.

In his victory speech late Sunday, Lula described the outcome as “a demonstration that this country does not accept being anyone’s backyard.”

Lula's red lines

Brazil resisted joining the Shield of the Americas, a U.S.-led military coalition targeting cartels.

When Washington in May designated Brazil’s two largest criminal factions, the First Capital Command and the Red Command, as terrorist organizations, Lula warned the labels could become a pretext for American intervention.

Countries along the main northbound cocaine and migrant routes, many of them heavily dependent on the U.S. market, have been more accommodating. In Ecuador, U.S. troops have joined local police in raids targeting suspected drug networks across the coastal lowlands. Honduras, Guatemala and Colombia have also agreed to joint military operations, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says, though Guatemala’s government has denied it.

“Brazil is not Honduras. It’s a large country with a very independent history and a military that would not look kindly upon foreign troops in its own territory,” said Brian Winter, a veteran Latin America analyst and editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly, a policy journal. “The Trump administration will have to walk a certain line here.”

On critical minerals, Lula wants Brazil to control its resources and preserve its freedom to sell beyond the U.S.

Brazil holds the world’s second-largest known reserves of rare earths, used in powerful magnets for guided missiles, smartphones, wind turbines and electric vehicles.

Last month, USA Rare Earth, in which the U.S. government holds a stake, completed its $2.8 billion takeover of Serra Verde, the Brazilian firm that owns one of the few mines outside of Asia producing all four rare earths needed for those magnets. Alarmed by the expanding U.S. role, Lula’s administration fast-tracked legislation tightening oversight of critical minerals.

“Revisiting the Serra Verde–USA Rare Earth deal may not be the first thing that Lula does when he’s reelected, but it’s on his radar,” said Monica de Bolle, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Brazil also produces about 90% of the world’s niobium, a critical element for jet, rocket engines and other military hardware, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Any Brazilian export restrictions could disrupt supply chains for U.S. defense manufacturers.

“Brazil has leverage,” de Bolle said. “With Lula, the U.S. is on shakier ground.”

Compromise at home and abroad

For all his defiant public statements, Lula has sought peace with Trump. His White House visit in May to discuss trade, organized crime and critical minerals undercut the Bolsonaros’ claim that only they could deal with Washington.

More bargaining with Trump surely lies ahead over tariffs and with Brazil's Congress, where conservatives expanded their ranks in the Oct. 4 elections, depriving Lula of the backing he needs to institute meaningful reforms. After three previous terms, Lula confronts voters impatient for safer streets and relief from the high cost of living.

“Lula has his hands tied,” said Guilherme Casarões, an associate professor of Brazilian studies at Florida International University. “Pretty much everything he has tried to do has been blocked in Congress.”

Across Latin America, coalitions that united against a common opponent have often splintered as the realities of governing set in. Trump’s new allies are already losing support in Chile, Bolivia and Peru, suggesting the region’s rightward turn may be less durable than it appears. Lula bucked the anti-incumbent trend, but his support could evaporate quickly as he bargains with opponents — in Congress and beyond Brazil’s borders — to deliver the results voters expect.

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Associated Press writer Mauricio Savarese in Sao Paulo contributed to this report.

The long-ruling authoritarian leader on Sunday conceded the defeat of his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party to a grassroots movement of university students in a parliamentary election. The students had led protests for almost two years before unseating him in a historic change of government.

The 56-year-old political veteran easily outplayed political opponents in the past and thought he could do it again. Ahead of Sunday's ballot he pulled a maneuver in the style of his ally Russian President Vladimir Putin when he resigned the presidency to pursue a bid to become the prime minister.

Vucic then launched a fierce campaign involving favorable around-the-clock coverage on state media and attacks on opponents. He handed out cash to voters and promised higher pensions, new roads and cheaper medicines.

It didn't work. The diverse youth movement's message that rampant corruption, cronyism and organized crime under Vucic were eating away at the country resonated widely with voters.

The student protests first started in 2024 after a collapsed canopy at a renovated train station in Serbia's north killed 16 people, triggering claims that graft-fueled negligence led to poor construction work and eventually to the crash.

Defiant, Vucic on Sunday blamed his defeat on foreign interference.

“I want people to know,” he said. “This was the verification of a revolution that they carried out directly with support of different European countries and the deep American state, the one that is also against President (Donald) Trump.”

Vucic began his career as an ultranationalist

During a political career spanning more than 30 years, Vucic morphed from being an extreme nationalist who supported aggression against non-Serbs in the former Yugoslavia to a populist who shifted his preferences to balance between global powers and influences.

During the wars in the 1990s, Vucic was one of the radical party leaders who advocated the creation of a “Greater Serbia” that would include territories in Croatia and Bosnia where minority Serbs live. Those policies are widely blamed for bloody conflicts that killed over 100,000 people and displaced millions.

Vucic was known for fiery speeches, including one in Serbia’s parliament where he said that for each Serb killed in the Bosnian war, 100 Bosnian Muslims must die. He later said that he didn’t mean it literally.

As information minister in the late 1990s, Vucic oversaw media critical of then-President Slobodan Milosevic slapped with heavy fines or shut down. He shifted away from ultranationalism to a proclaimed pro-EU stance on the eve of his party’s electoral win in 2012.

He embraced Europe for a time

In office, Vucic positioned himself as pro-European and pro-Russian, and as an admirer of Trump. Ahead of the decisive ballot, however, Vucic re-embraced his hard right roots and turned to Putin again as he struggled to restore his shaken voter base.

Vucic defied the EU last month by allowing a hero’s funeral in Belgrade for Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb army commander convicted of genocide by a U.N. court in the Netherlands.

“It is no coincidence that Vladimir Putin said he hopes that I will be the prime minister,” Vucic boasted days ahead of the ballot, ditching the proclaimed pro-EU position that helped his populist party come to power in 2012.

Vucic's fall draws varied reactions in Russia

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov expressed hope Monday that the post-Vucic government will retain friendly relations with Russia. Vucic had refused to join EU sanctions against Moscow over the war in Ukraine despite formally seeking membership for Serbia in the 27-nation bloc.

“We highly value the contribution Mr. Vucic has made to the development of our bilateral relations," Peskov said.

“We intend to continue doing everything possible to help the development of our relations with Belgrade,” Peskov said. "But, as you know, it takes two to tango.”

Konstantin Kosachev, a deputy speaker of the upper house, the Federation Council, said that the Serbian elections’ outcome could signal that “there would be one sovereign country less in Europe.”

But Konstantin Malofeyev, a hawkish tycoon who sponsors a virulently nationalistic media outlet, welcomed Vucic’s defeat, denouncing him as a hypocrite who has tried to maneuver between Russia and the West.

“The Serbian people have delivered a historic verdict on the Vucic regime,” Malofeyev said on his Telegram channel. “The era of political hypocrisy and duplicity is drawing to a close."

Vucic controlled Serbia for 14 years

In the past 14 years, Vucic served as a deputy prime minister, the prime minister and president.

As president for nearly 10 years, Vucic turned the largely ceremonial post into the center of power in the country. He was known for frequent addresses to the nation and appearances in pro-government media.

“He is a competitor who has mastered a technology of governing that is based on stick and carrot, and the idea that nobody but him is right,” Dejan Pavlovic, a professor in the Faculty of Political Sciences at the University of Belgrade, told The Associated Press recently.

Pavlovic described Vucic’s 14-year rule as a “textbook regime” of autocracy, with his party extending its control over the media, judiciary and other institutions, leaving nothing to chance.

“Cover it all: control the media, control the judiciary, control all institutions,” he explained.

In the highly organized ruling SNS party, Vucic commanded ultimate authority and loyalists were rewarded through lucrative deals with the state and protection from prosecution, Pavlovic said. Vucic, he said, “created a whole new elite in the Serbian society and that elite knew how to be thankful.”

Vucic now says he will fight again from the opposition

Elections under Vucic were increasingly marred by reports of voting irregularities, violent incidents and complaints that his control over pro-government media and use of public funds to bribe voters gave his party an unfair advantage.

During the student-led protests, Vucic fenced off a central park outside his office in Belgrade and installed tents with groups of supporters as an apparent human shield. Investigative reporters identified some of the camp residents as people with criminal backgrounds and tied Vucic to criminal clans, which he refuted.

As he conceded defeat, Vucic vowed to keep fighting.

“Our structure is very firm, we are very united and strong, and we are used to being in opposition,” he said in a Sunday night speech.

Former President Boris Tadic believes Vucic would not have conceded in case of a less convincing student victory. But under the circumstances, “he could not avoid it.”

Polling sites are now open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. — a change from the previous week’s hours of 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Early voting continues through Sunday, Nov. 1.

Turnout nearing record territory

Duval County Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland says the county is on track for a strong showing at the polls.

“We’ve had a good turnout. We’ve had over 80,000 people vote early, and another 26,000 by mail, so about 107,000 voters so far in Duval County,” Holland said.

According to figures released by the Supervisor of Elections Office, 11,019 votes were cast during early voting on the most recent reporting date, bringing the combined total of early and vote-by-mail ballots to 107,463 — representing a 16.4% turnout of registered voters.

Holland said the presence of an open gubernatorial seat is helping drive interest.

“When we have an open gubernatorial seat, it draws out more voters,” he said. “We’re looking at turnouts like eight years ago, probably somewhere close to 60%.”

Mail-in ballot reminder: Check both sides

Holland is also urging voters who cast mail-in ballots to make sure they fill out both sides of their ballot before returning it.

“A lot of times they won’t flip over the ballot and vote the back page — that’s where all your amendments are,” he said.

Holland cautioned that once a ballot has been submitted and tabulated, nothing can be done to correct it.

“Once you’ve turned in your ballot, once it’s been tabulated, it’s too late,” he said. “But always ensure you make sure next time — read the entire ballot.”

Tips for heading to the polls

Holland encouraged all voters — even those without a photo ID — to show up and cast their ballot.

“Bring your sample ballot, great tip, and then also bring your ID with you,” he said. “But again, no one is ever turned away from the polls, so just come vote. And again, even if you have to vote provisional without an ID, we’ll allow you to vote.”

Early voting schedule, locations

Duval County has 24 early voting sites countywide. Click here to find one near you and see current wait times.

The full schedule for remaining early voting hours is as follows:

• Monday, Oct. 26 – Friday, Oct. 30: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
• Saturday, Oct. 31 – Sunday, Nov. 1: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.

They won't be the only ones there. A sprawling election protection effort on the left that is expected to deploy tens of thousands of monitors will be met by the largest-ever monitoring program by the Justice Department and still more observers from Republican-aligned groups. The result could be unlike anything seen at the polls in modern times.

The effort among Democratic and nonprofit groups includes training volunteers to stand watch outside polling places and report activities they consider concerning. The network includes traditional government watchdogs such as Common Cause and the American Civil Liberties Union plus a flood of volunteers assembled by state Democratic parties, congressional leaders, national activist groups and organizations focused on protecting democracy.

The Democratic National Committee's Association of State Democratic Committees created a first-of-its-kind cybersecurity unit staffed by former CIA and FBI officials to monitor and report online misinformation, including artificial intelligence deepfakes, said Jane Kleeb, vice chair of the DNC.

That's as Democratic mayors, attorneys general and secretaries of state host tabletop exercises simulating worst-case scenarios, such as a surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials at voting locations or the seizure of ballots and voting equipment.

On Capitol Hill, Democratic leaders have assembled a legal team that rivals that of any presidential campaign.

“We’ve never done this before,” Kleeb said of the party’s sweeping efforts. But “we’ve never had to deal with the president of the United States saying that he may seize ballots, put ICE agents outside polling locations and other kinds of very clear direct threats to the voting process.”

The Department of Justice has already filed lawsuits in California and Alaska that could affect ballot counting or certification.

While Trump continues to make baseless allegations of cheating in the election, administration and military officials have said they have no plans to deploy immigration agents or troops to polling sites.

White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis blamed “radical Democrats” for creating fears about election security by refusing to enact voter ID requirements and other Republican-backed measures.

“President Trump has done more than any other president to ensure we have free and fair elections,” Bis said.

Tens of thousands of volunteers trained to observe

State Democratic parties have trained an estimated 10,000 volunteers to observe polling places and report anything potentially concerning they might see from federal agents. Common Cause has trained roughly 16,000 more volunteers to stand watch at voting precincts, said Suzanne Almeida, vice president of states for the group.

She said a broader Election Protection coalition involving 300 other groups has trained tens of thousands more.

Smaller pockets of volunteers from other groups also are preparing to show up, including roughly 100 organized by Senate Democrats and hundreds more from a Democratic-allied group called Save America, which is training clergy members, veterans, teachers and other local community members. National groups such as Indivisible and MoveOn are activating their own expansive networks.

There are so many organizations working to protect the voting process — including many that cannot legally coordinate with each other — that some officials involved worry about unintentionally creating chaos outside polling locations.

Almeida said Election Day confusion is possible in some precincts but the nature of the threat requires a collective effort.

“It will actually take all of us if some of the threats we are most worried about come to pass,” she said.

Trump administration sends its own team

Harmeet Dhillon, a Trump appointee who leads the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, was asked on CBS’ “60 Minutes” whether the Republican administration is planning to send ICE agents to polling places.

“There is no plan to do that,” she responded.

Still, the Justice Department is planning its largest-ever election monitoring effort, with about 1,000 department staff expected to observe voting and ensure federal laws are being followed, spokesperson Kiersten Pels said. That comes after a primary season in which the department said it deployed more than 100 election monitors across hundreds of polling locations.

At least one of those placements sparked tensions with local officials. Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon, a Republican, said the behavior of two monitors during that state's primary was “a bit aggressive” and “irregular.” A Laramie County clerk said the Justice Department monitors arrived at the polls intending to interview voters, but her office didn’t allow it.

The department disagrees that the monitors did anything improper, Pels said. She added that the monitors are trained to comply with federal law governing conduct at polling places and won’t “interfere with the voting process.”

Democratic lawmakers and voting rights advocates have raised concerns that the Trump administration’s monitors could intimidate voters or abandon the duty they’ve had for decades to protect against civil rights violations.

The department plans to send them to every state, focusing on high-population areas, jurisdictions that have had problems in the past and districts with close elections, according to a senior department official who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity under terms set by the department.

The Republican National Committee said its operation involves deploying “election integrity deputy state directors” in 22 states, among them Arizona, Michigan, Georgia and North Carolina.

Those workers are the “eyes and the ears of the RNC in the field” who recruit volunteers and organize trainings, said Ally Triolo, the RNC’s election integrity communications director. Their mission is to surface anything that seems unlawful.

At the same time, the RNC has enlisted nearly 22,000 poll workers and is recruiting poll-watching volunteers for competitive districts. The poll watchers will “observe the process and help ensure election rules are followed in accordance with the law,” Triolo said.

Local election officials prepare for increased attention

While federal monitors have quietly observed elections for decades, largely without incident, some election officials are taking precautions.

Chris Swope, the city clerk in Lansing, Michigan, said he preemptively contacted law enforcement and his attorney in case federal monitors violate election law, although he expects them to abide by the rules.

The Democratic Mayors Association issued guidance to local Democratic officials with detailed instructions about what to do if federal agents appear at polling locations.

It notes that federal law prohibits the presence of federal immigration agents, the FBI or other investigative personnel. It also issued a reminder that federal agents are not allowed to be armed at the polls, nor are they allowed to interact with voters or handle ballots or election equipment.

Justice Department officials have said their monitors won't be armed and will not interfere with voting. Asked about department monitors being sent to Georgia, Trump told a reporter recently: “They’re not going to do anything other than watch."

Some of the poll observations have already begun. Mary Corcoran, Save America's executive director, said her group's volunteers have been monitoring precincts during early voting in Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Ohio to help give voters a sense of security.

“The fear is the point, and we must do something about it,” she said. “Left unanswered, fear does the work of keeping people home without a single agent setting foot at a polling place.”

___ Associated Press writers Jacqueline GaNun in Lansing, Mich., Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington and Jessica Hill in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

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Founder Al Jourgensen, the group's mastermind and sole consistent member, wants you to know he really means it's over — done, finished, goodbye — after the release of their 17th album “Hate To Go — Take Out Or Delivery” on Oct. 30 and a tour to follow.

“It's time to go,” he told The Associated Press from his home outside Los Angeles. “Everyone says it’s their last tour and they're back the next year. Or they say it’s the last tour and they’re back for the next 20 years. It's The Rolling Stones playing into their 90s. How much money do you need? How much, like, adoration?”

For his band, this really is the end. There are a few reasons for that.

The music industry has changed, for one, and Jourgensen and his band do not see Ministry progressing within its algorithmic framework. And there are sociological and political grounds for the decision: “We’ve been yabbering about the same stuff for 45 years. Nothing’s changed,” he says. “It has gotten worse, and so it’s time for a new generation to carry the torch because they’re not listening to our message.”

The band has long released songs with strong anti-authoritarian and anti-fascist sentiments, and that continues everywhere on “Hate to Go,” from the heavy-as-heck “Voices of Hate” to the propulsive “Delete,” which takes aim at the ways in which endless scrolling and social media erode attention and reinforce negativity.

The issue with speaking truth to power, of course, is that at some point “every canary in a coal mine dies,” Jourgensen says with a smile.

“We’re quite happy with our decision” to call it quits, he adds. “We are quite happy with our career.”

Planning the end of Ministry

When a band takes ownership over their own end, something interesting happens: A final album can become a statement, not a funeral — a bow on the end of a spectacular career. For Jourgensen, there were a few things that just needed to happen on “Hate to Go.” Bassist Paul “Ion” Barker, Jourgensen’s bandmate in Ministry and Revolting Cocks from 1986 to 2004, was welcomed back into the fold for the album's final track, “We're Still Here.”

And sonically, the album needed to reflect their multidecade run, to sound like a summation of Ministry without leaning into easy parody. “It has elements of hardcore, it has elements of ambience, it has your usual social commentary and your snapshot of society at the time,” he says. “It’s a perfect Ministry album. It’s like a greatest hits album without having any hits. It’s just beautifully wrapped.”

But it also sounds like the future, like so many Ministry albums before it. For some of the songs as well as the music videos for “Hate to Go,” Jourgensen utilized artificial intelligence, perhaps most controversially employing the new technology to simulate celebrity voices — most effectively, that of President Donald Trump on the no-holds-barred “Grifter.”

“It’s a very dichotomous feeling for me,” he says of applying the polarizing tech. “We’re fighting fire with fire. Trump puts out his little AI videos every day and we put out our AI videos.”

Think of it as similar to early Ministry experiments. “I remember when we started doing tape cutups, very similar to like William Burroughs and Brion Gysin … on celluloid to do our music in a metal landscape. That was exciting, back at the time,” he says.

Using AI was yet another tool in a unique application, but one he found to be unsettling.

It's a topic that comes up quite a bit on the record, like in “Singularity,” a reference to the technological idea that AI may one day surpass human cognitive abilities and recursively self-improve.

“It doesn’t seem so science fiction anymore,” he says. “The tiger is out in the lab, outside of the cage, and they can’t control it.”

Ministry's legacy — and what comes next

Ministry will officially throw in the towel on Oct. 30, 2027 — one year after the release of “Hate to Go” — with a huge blowout concert in Los Angeles. Jourgensen assures there will be tons of special guests — a “fun mic drop” — but attendees will have to wait and be surprised to see who will show up.

After that, well, he's got other plans. “I am the Greta Garbo of industrial,” Jourgensen jokes, referencing the great actor who retired young and lived reclusively in her final decades. “I have a plot of land a couple miles away from my house where I’m just going to herd goats and deny I was ever in a band.”

As far as legacy goes? That's not something he has spent a lot of time thinking about, either. “Everyone’s always asking me like, ‘Well, what do you want Ministry to be remembered by?’ And the whole point is, I don't,” he says. “I don’t want them to remember us. It’s time for somebody new, and it’s time to get out. We did what we could.”

Or, even more simply put: “Later!” he cheers. “Hate to go!”

Those agreements, announced Monday, are intended to provide “significant integrity protections for NBA-related markets,” including limitations on what can be offered on those exchanges, transparency when it comes to suspicious patterns by site users, and banning league and team personnel from making trades related to league events.

The prediction markets will have “information-sharing obligations relating to investigations and suspicious trading,” the NBA said. The NBA has had similar guardrails in place with its sportsbook partners for some time and has cited instances where that system has flagged irregularities in betting patterns.

“If you’re going to be betting on our games or trading on our games or playing fantasy around our games, it’s better for it to be regulated than unregulated,” said Scott Kaufman-Ross, the NBA’s head of media distribution and partnerships. “And clearly, our fans have interest in this activity. So, we’re in a better position to protect the integrity of our games in a regulated market where there’s transparency, where things can be monitored and we have insight into what’s happening.”

The NBA is also expanding its agreements with current official sports betting partners, such as DraftKings, to include their prediction-market offerings. Not all states offer legalized sports betting but predictions markets — at least on some level — are essentially available in all 50 states.

More than a dozen states are involved in litigation over prediction markets and earlier this month the NFL asked the Supreme Court to rule on the regulation of such markets. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission contends that it has exclusive jurisdiction on oversight, though some states believe it should fall under their purview.

Earlier this month, the NBA told sportsbooks they will not be permitted to offer certain types of wagering this season, including but not limited to which players record the first stat of a game, the outcome of the opening tip and taking the “under” involving players not expected to play more than a few minutes. The deals announced on Monday are expected to have similar restraints.

“A big part of this is a limitation on the types of markets that can be offered,” Kaufman-Ross said. “We will have the right to approve the types of markets that are available on our games, which is a very important component for us. And we’ve had very constructive dialogues with the companies as part of that.”

The NBA’s memorandum of understanding with the CFTC “reflects a shared commitment to ensuring that NBA-related prediction markets are subject to appropriate regulatory oversight and integrity protections,” the league said.

Kalshi and Polymarket, as part of their partnerships with the NBA, will now be able to describe themselves as the “Preferred Prediction Market Exchange of the NBA,” plus have access to league intellectual property such as logos, be able to get NBA statistical data from league partner Sportradar “to operate and settle authorized NBA-related markets,” and other marketing activations.

The terms of the NBA’s agreements with Kalshi and Polymarket were not disclosed, other than the league confirming that they are for multiple years. There are NBA stars with business relationships with those markets; Miami’s Giannis Antetokounmpo has promoted Kalshi and Philadelphia’s LeBron James recently signed a deal with Polymarket. At least one other NBA star, San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama, recently said he will never endorse such sites.

___

See AP’s full NBA coverage here

Borne also discusses his feud with Tavion Heights and issues he’s had with hearing.

In response, Israel's mission in Geneva called for the commission's dissolution and said on X the report marked an example of the body's “misinformation campaign to demonize the state of Israel and portray its very existence as criminal."

Israel has long criticized the commission's output and denied accusations of genocide in Gaza and sexual assault by its forces.

The Associated Press could not independently corroborate multiple graphic accounts described in the report of sexual assaults by prison guards and soldiers on Palestinian detainees since October 2023. In one, female guards strip-searched a pregnant Palestinian, touching inside her anus and vagina. In another, guards beat a detainee and hurled sexist slurs while denying her access to the toilet and sanitary pads. She bled onto her clothes and interrogation chair.

The findings by the Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which seeks to document in minute detail the allegations and evidence of crimes to bolster accountability for perpetrators, could be used by prosecutors at the International Criminal Court or in other jurisdictions to try to bring justice to victims and their relatives.

The report Monday said Israel was “continuing to commit genocidal acts with the genocidal intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinians in Gaza.”

Much of the harm has come from Israel’s expansion deeper into Gaza during the ceasefire period, the report says. Since October 2025, when the ceasefire was signed, Israeli forces have gone from controlling 53% of Gaza to at least 60%, the commission said.

In that time, Israeli fire across the advancing front has killed at least 196 Palestinians – including 18 women, 32 boys and 11 girls, the commission said.

The report also accused Israeli soldiers and prison guards of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the West Bank, including extermination, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence and persecution against civilians.

The commission said that it had recently documented six cases where Israeli guards were sexually violent toward male detainees from Gaza in the Sde Teiman military prison.

In one case, it says guards raped a Palestinian detainee with a stick, then forced him to put the stick in his mouth until he vomited. It also recalled another episode in which guards instructed a Palestinian man to urinate as they tied a plastic cord around his genitals.

The ceasefire scaled down a devastating war started by the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, when the militants killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. Israel responded with a campaign that has killed over 74,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.

Tensions flared over reports that Netanyahu and his military chief of staff disagreed over an instruction by the prime minister to carry out an “action” that the army worried could reignite the conflict with Iran. Netanyahu’s office denied the report, first published by Israel’s Channel 12, as “fake news.”

Defense Minister Israel Katz also quickly denied the report.

“I state unequivocally that there has been no intention by Israel of initiating an attack on Iran before the elections in Israel,” Katz wrote on X on Monday, calling reports of rifts between political and military leaders “completely baseless and false.” However, he said that Israel would respond forcefully if Iran attacks first.

Israel’s opposition candidates accused Netanyahu of endangering regional stability for his political preservation. Netanyahu’s main rival, former military chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, warned Netanyahu not to “dare to place your own political interests above the security of the state.” He posted on X, “Netanyahu, my eyes are on you.”

Avigdor Lieberman, head of the hawkish Yisrael Beytenu party which is part of the opposition bloc, sent a letter to Israel’s attorney general demanding a criminal investigation into possible treason by Netanyahu’s “attempts to drag Israel into a war on the eve of elections, including a willingness to sacrifice (Israeli) soldiers out of fear of losing the election.”

The election on Tuesday is the first since the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which sparked the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and conflicts across the Middle East.

Israelis are deeply divided heading into what is expected to be a close race, and the veteran Israeli leader's legacy is on the line. Netanyahu's opponents say he should be held accountable for the failures surrounding the Oct. 7 attack. His supporters say that he has led the country back from its toughest moment.

The vote also marks another important test for the populist right. Brazil's voters dealt a stunning setback to the movement on Sunday, lifting President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to a surprising victory over Flávio Bolsonaro. The Republican Party of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has endorsed Netanyahu, faces a new test next week in the U.S. midterm election.

Although Israelis are breathlessly approaching the election as one of the most crucial in years, people across the Middle East aren't expecting dramatic changes regardless of the victor. Both Netanyahu and his main rivals have similar approaches to Israel’s regional security in both Gaza and Iran.

In southern Gaza, Jamal Abu Deeb, who was displaced from Khan Younis, said that no matter who is elected, it won't be good news for the Palestinians.

“It is all war and destruction,” he said, adding that there are still strikes every day that kill people and children across Gaza. “Do you think whoever gets elected will give us a better life? Quite the opposite.”

Ibrahim Qeshta, who was displaced from Rafah, said that “they all have the same playbook, they have no mercy — death and destruction for everyone.”

“Eisenkot is like Netanyahu, he will be the same,” Qeshta said. “Our people die every day, for nothing.”

Iran also watched the last-minute electioneering warily.

“It makes no difference to us who ultimately takes the helm of a regime whose track record shows that it has brought nothing to our region but violence and bloodshed,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said in his weekly media briefing on Monday.

___ Wafaa Shurafa contributed to this report from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip.

But Republican candidates in marquee Senate races have welcomed Thune's help as he’s traveled around the country in the weeks before the midterm elections, scrambling to save his majority.

That includes Rep. Ashley Hinson in this deep red corner of Iowa, a state that Republicans couldn’t have envisioned as a tossup race a year ago. Hinson is locked in a tight contest against Democrat Josh Turek to replace retiring Republican Sen. Joni Ernst.

Hinson said she was grateful for Thune’s visit as the two spent Friday campaigning together in the northwest part of the state — a luncheon at the Sioux City chamber of commerce, a tour of the Iowa Air National Guard’s refueling wing, a roundtable with local business owners and meet-and-greets at a packed high school football game that night.

“I’m absolutely convinced that she flat has to win, and if she doesn’t, we’re not going to be in the majority,” Thune said in a joint interview with Hinson between stops, during a brief moment of rest in the back of her campaign bus. He acknowledged the environment for Republicans is tough, but “we have to be able to deliver a message that you have a clear choice in front of you about two very different paths.”

The stakes for Thune and his party are enormous in Iowa and in several other traditionally Republican states as voters voice frustration with Trump, his war in Iran and high gasoline and grocery prices. Despite a map favoring Republicans, Democrats are hopeful that they can win the Senate. And like several other Democrats running in red states, Turek, a state legislator, is telling Iowa voters that he would be a bipartisan voice in Washington.

Hinson acknowledges that voters have concerns. But “there is a lot at stake in this election,” she says, “and Iowans are pretty savvy people to understand that this is a six-year term.”

Thune told voters who showed up to the business roundtable to “do everything you can to help her get there.”

“We’ve got to turn out the vote," he said.

Thune makes closing argument to save his majority

Beyond Iowa, Thune has campaigned with Republican Senate candidates in Nebraska, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, Kentucky, Florida and Minnesota. He's headed to Ohio in the coming days to help Republican Sen. Jon Husted, who is facing a tough challenge from Democratic former Sen. Sherrod Brown.

It wasn’t always a given that Thune, elected by his conference to replace Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell two years ago, would have so much face time with voters and candidates.

Some on the right blame Thune for the failed effort to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship for voters and mandate voter ID across the country. Thune supports the bill, but it has no chance in the 100-member Senate with the filibuster intact, because Republicans need Democratic support for any piece of legislation to win the necessary 60 votes.

Trump has pressed Thune to change the rules of the Senate and ditch the filibuster, but Thune has staunchly refused, citing the need to stop Democratic legislation if and when Republicans lose power again.

Tensions between the two men peaked this summer, when Trump appeared to question Thune’s leadership. Asked in the Oval Office if the South Dakota Republican was the man for the job, Trump replied that “we’re going to find out, and I’ll let you know.”

Still, Trump has said more than once that he likes Thune personally, and Thune’s office released photos earlier this month of the majority leader and his grandchildren at the White House, on a personal tour led by a smiling Trump.

Thune is also well-liked among his colleagues and enjoys strong support from within his GOP conference — and from possible future members like Hinson.

Thune joked at one of the Iowa events that “I tell all of our candidates, I’ll come out for you or against you, whichever helps you the most.”

Thune navigates Trump, just like GOP candidates

Voters in Iowa weren't asking Thune and Hinson about the SAVE America Act. Instead they were mostly focused on issues like childcare and how the economy and farm input costs are affecting their businesses.

Like Thune, Hinson has been navigating Trump throughout her campaign — appearing with him at a rally in Sioux City the night before but also speaking out against decisions she disagrees with, like increasing beef imports and a deal with Russia to import diesel fuel.

When the president is right about something, “I’m going to be with him, and if he’s wrong about something, I’m going to be in his ear telling him,” Hinson said.

Both are also having to answer for Trump’s war in Iran, as they have joined most Republicans in voting against repeated Democratic attempts to stop it. Rising gas prices since the war’s inception along with Trump's trade war have hit farmers in the state particularly hard.

Despite those votes, Hinson has said on the campaign trail that she wants to see the war come to a “successful and immediate end.”

Thune told attendees at the chamber of commerce lunch that the war is “not going to be a long-term thing.”

“There’s going to be a solution there, an answer there soon,” he said, and fuel prices will eventually come down.

It’s unclear whether enough voters will trust them. Outside one of Hinson’s events, two Turek supporters staged a small protest.

Hinson is “doing Trump’s bidding,” said Valerie Conaway Cote, a Democrat from Sioux City.

Cote said she used to like Thune and thought he was “a respectable man that saw both sides and made reasonable decisions."

“But,” she said, "he is firmly in Trump’s corner, and he seems to bend the knee.”

GOP conference backs Thune as he plans robust agenda

In the nation's capital, Senate Republicans will gather a week after the Nov. 3 election to decide whether to reelect Thune as leader. It’s a secret ballot, and no one has stepped up to challenge him.

“The guy’s an extraordinarily nice human being,” said Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio earlier this month. “Do I think he’s got broad support? Yes.”

Moreno said he doesn’t think Thune will be blamed if they suffer losses in the midterms.

“At the end of the day, if there’s any Republican losses, it’s going to be about gas prices,” Moreno said.

If Republicans do hold on to the Senate, Thune said part of next year’s agenda would be trying to put guardrails around artificial intelligence along with renewed attempts at housing and tax reform. He said they would also try again on permitting legislation and a broad bill to regulate college sports, if those don’t get done this year.

If Democrats win, “you’re going to have two years of paralysis,” Thune said, with Trump in the White House. “And I don’t think that’s good for anybody.”

Halfway up, they found a massive abandoned excavator fitted with an attachment designed to tear down trees.

The discovery came a day after the men had found a makeshift camp at the foot of the mountain that they believed had been used by Chinese loggers. Packets of masala powder and bottles of soy sauce remained in the cooking area. They spent the night there, stringing their hammocks from the camp’s makeshift wooden structures before setting off up the mountain the following morning.

Beyond the excavator, near the summit, they found another camp, with pieces of plastic tarp, aluminum mugs and other items left behind.

“We knew that some people come here, but we didn’t know that they are doing logging,” Vola, 31, said, pointing into the distance at the summit of Ebbatop mountain. “This part is supposed to be untouched.”

As roads, logging and gold mining encroach deeper into Saamaka territory, communities are turning to modern technology to defend forests protected for generations — using satellite images, GPS mapping and patrols to track incursions.

In villages such as Tutubuka, officially known as Nieuw Aurora, along the Upper Suriname River, residents hope the evidence will help secure government recognition of their traditional forest management system, nearly two decades after an international court ordered Suriname to recognize their collective land rights, a ruling that remains largely unfulfilled.

Last year, Suriname pledged to protect 90% of its tropical forests and strengthen conservation laws, potentially including legal recognition of the ancestral lands of Indigenous and tribal communities. The small South American country between Guyana, French Guiana and Brazil has a population of about 650,000 and is about 93% forested. Its forests span parts of the Amazon rainforest and Guiana Shield and absorb more greenhouse gases than the country emits.

Tribal territories in Suriname have lost nearly 154,000 hectares (380,500 acres) of forest since 2001 — roughly twice the size of New York City. Nationwide, about 200,000 hectares (494,000 acres) of humid primary forest were lost between 2002 and 2025, according to Global Nature Watch.

Mapping forests protected for generations

The Saamaka are one of Suriname’s six communities descended from Africans who escaped slavery on Dutch plantations and established autonomous settlements deep in the forest in the 17th and 18th centuries. After decades of fighting Dutch colonial forces, they secured a peace agreement in 1762 recognizing their freedom and autonomy. About 60,000 Saamaka people live in Suriname, according to the Association of Saamaka Communities, often called VSG.

For generations, Saamaka clans have governed how their forests can be used through traditional agreements, setting aside areas for farming while protecting others for their spiritual, cultural or historical importance.

Now, communities are mapping these traditionally protected areas to document their forest management system and strengthen their case for government recognition. They named the initiative Apaki in November 2025, after a container made from dried calabash fruit traditionally used to preserve food, symbolizing their efforts to safeguard the forest for future generations.

Hugo Jabini, managing director of VSG and a longtime land rights advocate, said roads are increasingly opening traditionally protected areas to outsiders. Jabini said the Palmera road, which began expanding in 2022 despite Saamaka opposition, now stretches roughly 253 kilometers (157 miles), according to community mapping, opening access to one of the most important Apaki areas.

Jabini, who won the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2009, grew up without a road linking his community to Paramaribo. When he first traveled to the capital to continue his education, part of the journey took four days by boat. From the late 1980s, roads began reaching deeper into Saamaka territory, turning journeys of days into hours — while opening once-inaccessible forests to outsiders.

“Within a couple of months,” he said, the road had pushed deep into the forest. “That’s how fast things go.”

John Goedschalk, an adviser to the president of Suriname on climate and biodiversity finance, said the government recognizes the Saamaka’s longstanding role in protecting the country’s forests and is open to working directly with their traditional authorities.

“Their mapping and satellite monitoring can help us enforce where the State alone cannot reach,” said Goedschalk.

He said talks with Saamaka leaders on forest protection are taking place in October and that the government is updating its legal framework to allow community-protected areas to be formally established.

Jabini, however, said he was unaware of any plans for such talks.

Satellites reveal new incursions

The documenting effort increasingly combines knowledge passed down through generations with satellite images and digital maps.

Sara Ramírez, a Colombian researcher working with VSG, said satellite analysis has detected changes in areas so remote that community members initially struggled to believe what they were seeing. Higher-resolution imagery later confirmed signs of activity in one such area.

The information can then guide helicopter flyovers or patrols like the one Vola joined, allowing communities to investigate suspicious clearings or roads first spotted from above.

“They have the information, and then they have the resources to go and check what is happening,” Ramírez said.

Ramírez said the technology is not replacing traditional knowledge but helping the Saamaka document a system outsiders have often failed to recognize. After elders saw maps and satellite images showing new logging and mining during a meeting, some concluded that they needed to formally document Apaki so outsiders could better understand how they have long managed their forests.

The Associated Press joined a helicopter flyover to see firsthand the expansion of logging and gold mining on Saamaka territory, much of it illegal and none approved by Saamaka authorities. From the air, the damage observed was far less extensive than in Colombia, Peru and Brazil, which are already heavily scarred from years of illegal mining and logging. But new roads and small clearings pushing into largely intact forest offered signs of how that footprint is quickly expanding in Suriname.

Natasha Donu, 49, secretary of VSG, said she was shocked by the scale of the new destruction.

“I’m very worried, because I didn’t know that many places were still being destroyed like that,” Donu said just after seeing the latest findings. "There are some places we weren’t expecting to see deforestation.”

Jabini said communities are also training young people to monitor the forest and collect data that can support complaints, negotiations and legal action.

Mapping alone cannot protect the forest

Mapping the forests will help the Saamaka document incursions and strengthen their case for government protection, but it does not give them legal title to the land.

In 2007, the Saamaka won a landmark case at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights after challenging logging and mining concessions granted in their traditional territory. The court ruled that Suriname had violated their property rights and ordered the government to demarcate their territory and grant them collective title. Nearly two decades later, Jabini says key parts of the legally binding ruling remain unimplemented, leaving communities without the legal authority to control what happens on their land.

Goedschalk, the adviser to Suriname’s president, said the president has imposed a moratorium on new gold mining concessions and extensions to ease pressure on the country’s interior. He also pointed to Suriname’s commitment to maintain 90% forest cover, saying cooperation with communities such as the Saamaka would be essential to meeting that goal.

Opposing mining interests can carry personal risks

Jabini said he received a death threat earlier this year after Saamaka communities challenged a gold-mining concession near Paba Creek, a major Apaki protected area. He reported the threat to police and temporarily changed his movements. Earlier threats drove him to live in the Netherlands from 2016 to 2022. Since returning, he said, he has taken greater security precautions and avoids publicizing his whereabouts.

There are divisions within Saamaka communities, too. Gold mining provides income for some residents, and Jabini acknowledges that those who depend on it may support the industry’s expansion, even as others fight to keep it out of protected forests. With Suriname preparing for an offshore oil boom, questions are also growing about how new wealth and development could affect the country’s forested interior.

For Saamaka leaders, the maps offer evidence of what their communities have protected for generations. But lasting protection, they say, depends on the government recognizing their territorial rights and stopping unwanted incursions.

For Vola, who helped lead the forest patrol, the stakes extend far beyond his own lifetime.

“This is our wealth and this is what we are fighting for,” he said. “Maybe a thousand generations from now, this must still be here like how our ancestors left it for us.”

___

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

Responsibilities:

Consultative Selling: From Needs Analysis to Closed Business

• Secure first meetings with qualified prospects by leading with a valid business reason tied to the client’s industry and goals.

• Lead business-focused Customer Needs Analyses (CNA) that uncover each client’s growth objectives, target audience, pain points, budget, decision timeline, and definition of success.

• Use market, audience, competitive, and consumer insights, including first-party, third-party, and marketplace data, to identify opportunities and build strategic recommendations.

• Convert every needs analysis into a customized multi-platform proposal with KPIs and conversion metrics tied directly to the client’s business outcomes.

• Present recommendations in person, address objections, and consistently close business.

• Negotiate packages, rates, and terms that meet client goals and station revenue targets, then secure signed contracts.

• Move every needs analysis to a clear next step (proposal, presentation, or signed order) and track stage progression in Salesforce.

• Review campaign performance, attribution reporting, and audience insights with clients against the KPIs set during the needs analysis, and use those results to optimize, renew, and expand business.

Business Development and Account Growth

• Identify, prospect, and develop new advertisers for television and digital platforms.

• Build relationships with business owners and marketing decision-makers by leading strategic conversations around growth, customer acquisition, retention, and return on investment.

• Maintain and grow an assigned account list, upselling clients across our full product line as relationships build and campaigns perform.

• Develop and execute annual account and territory growth plans that identify revenue opportunities, competitive threats, retention strategies, and new business targets to meet or exceed linear television and digital revenue goals.

• Sell multi-platform solutions, including O&O and Extended Reach digital (audience targeting, programmatic, OTT/streaming, social, and search).

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Requirements:

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GMG/WJXT/WCWJ is an Equal Opportunity Employer. In addition to complying with the requirements of federal law, GMG/WJXT/WCWJ will comply with applicable state and local laws prohibiting employment discrimination.

Contact:

All interested candidates should send their resumes to Jesse McCambridge jmccambridge@wjxt.com

The discovery highlights growing threats to one of the world’s most heavily forested countries, where roads, logging and gold mining are pushing deeper into largely intact rainforest.

Saamaka communities are fighting back with satellite images, GPS mapping and forest patrols, documenting areas they have protected for generations in hopes of securing government recognition of their traditional forest management system.

The Associated Press accompanied community patrols and a helicopter flyover to see how the Saamaka are responding to the incursions.

Here are takeaways from AP’s reporting:

Suriname’s largely intact forests face growing pressure

Suriname, a small South American country of about 650,000 people, remains roughly 93% forested. Its forests absorb more greenhouse gases than the country emits, making it one of the world’s few carbon-negative countries.

But expanding roads are opening previously inaccessible areas to logging and gold mining. Tribal territories have lost nearly 154,000 hectares (380,500 acres) of forest since 2001, roughly twice the size of New York City.

During a helicopter flyover, the AP witnessed new roads and clearings pushing into largely intact forest. The damage was less extensive than in parts of neighboring Amazon countries, but offered signs of expanding development in Suriname’s interior.

Saamaka communities combine traditional knowledge with modern technology

For generations, Saamaka clans have governed how their forests are used through traditional agreements, setting aside areas for farming while protecting others for their spiritual, cultural or historical importance.

Now, communities are mapping those traditionally protected areas under an initiative called Apaki, named after a container made from dried calabash fruit traditionally used to preserve food. Just as the container keeps food safe, the initiative aims to safeguard the forest for future generations and strengthen the case for government recognition of their traditional forest management system.

Satellite images help identify suspicious clearings and roads, while GPS mapping, forest patrols and helicopter flyovers allow communities to document incursions on the ground. Young people are also being trained to collect evidence that can support complaints and legal action.

The aim is to document a forest management system that has existed for generations and strengthen the case for its formal recognition by the government.

A landmark land rights ruling remains largely unfulfilled

In 2007, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered Suriname to recognize the Saamaka’s collective land rights after ruling that the government had violated their property rights by granting logging and mining concessions on their traditional territory.

Nearly two decades later, Saamaka leaders say key parts of the ruling remain unimplemented, leaving communities without the legal authority to control development on their land.

John Goedschalk, an adviser to Suriname’s president, said the government is updating its legal framework to allow community-protected areas to be formally established. He also said the president had imposed a moratorium on new gold mining concessions and extensions.

But defending the forest carries risks. Hugo Jabini, managing director of the Association of Saamaka Communities, said he received a death threat earlier this year after communities challenged a mining concession near a protected forest area.

For Navaldo Vola, 31, who helped lead the forest patrol, the fight is about preserving the forest for future generations.

“This is our wealth and this is what we are fighting for,” he said. “Maybe a thousand generations from now, this must still be here like how our ancestors left it for us.” ___

Follow Steven Grattan on Instagram: @steven.grattan.

___

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

Coastal flooding warnings have been extended through Wednesday, with communities in St. Johns, Nassau, Duval and Flagler counties listed among the most vulnerable areas.

What is a king tide?

A king tide is an unusually high tide that, on its own, can cause flooding in low-lying and coastal areas. When combined with rain and strong winds, the effects can be amplified significantly — impacting not just beaches, but neighborhoods, roadways and areas near rivers and waterways.

Jacksonville’s Southbank neighborhood is among the areas considered especially vulnerable. Its proximity to the St. Johns River puts it at risk of tidal flooding even during dry weather conditions.

Kayaks on the street

The flooding is already affecting daily life for some residents. Cindy Wallace Bayly captured images from her home on Coquina Avenue showing neighbors using kayaks to reach their homes.

Wallace Bayly said she experienced about two hours of flooding during high tide the previous night and was already beginning to see water rising again the following morning.

In Fernandina Beach, the city shared photos over the weekend showing flooding along Front and Center streets, with water visibly rising up along the train tracks in that area.

Government offices close, warnings extended

In St. Augustine, City Hall and several government offices will not open until noon due to flooding concerns in the area.

St. Johns County has also issued a public safety notice in response to the conditions.

Coastal flooding warnings have been extended through Wednesday. Residents are encouraged to monitor conditions both on air and online for updates.

Travel tips for commuters

For those navigating flood-prone neighborhoods on their way to work or school, officials are urging drivers to check road conditions before leaving home and to identify alternate routes in advance.

Leaving earlier than usual is also recommended in the event road closures require a detour. Most importantly, officials are reminding drivers not to attempt to cross flooded roadways.

“If you encounter a flooded road — don’t drive through it,” officials said.

The attack struck the Greek Orthodox Church during a funeral in Karak, about 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of the capital, Amman, on Friday. Karak is home to a minority Christian population.

The attack shocked the nation, and Jordan declared three days of mourning for the victims. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack; the attackers' motive remained unknown.

Later Monday, the Public Security Directorate identified the three arrested men as brothers Hazzah Zaidan Mohammad and Mishal Zaidan Mohammad, and their brother-in-law Ahmad Sami Hussein. All three are Jordanian; they were taken into custody in Karak, south of Amman.

The agency's chief described the gunmen as “takfiri,” a term used for Sunni militants, but said they were not tied to any organized group.

“They only represent themselves,” Maj. Gen. Obaidallah Abd Rabbo Al-Maayta told a news conference. He also said a large cache of munitions was found in the abandoned house where Jordanian forces apprehended the men.

Jordan’s Interior Minister Mazen Al-Faraya said the attack by the three was the result of “a terroristic, extremist way of thinking.”

“If this way of thinking is not resolved, we will see incidents like this again,” he told reporters.

Jordan's King Abdullah II had ordered authorities to respond with “an iron fist” against what he called the outlaws of Islam and anyone attempting to undermine the unity of the Jordanian people.

“We vowed the terrorists would not escape punishment, and no proponent of dark ideologies that divide Jordanians will be tolerated,” he said in a statement on Monday.

Relatives of the victims said the arrests brought them some relief.

“Despite the profound and immense tragedy, what happened today has eased our grief — and the grief of the Jordanian people — not just for us, the families of the martyrs," Khaled al-Borqan, himself a survivor of the attack and a relative of three of the people killed, told Al-Mamlaka.

“Despite the sadness and pain, the news brought us joy,” Fares Halaseh, an uncle of one of the victims and a survivor of the attack, told the TV station.

But the pain remains, he added. "We will not forget this agony for years to come.”

___

Associated Press writer Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed to this report.

Blanche said earlier this month the DOJ plans to send 1,000 election monitors to polling places in every state on Election Day.

Michael Morley, an elections law expert at Florida State University, joined us on The Morning Show to discuss whether or not the DOJ is overstepping its bounds.

Low gas prices were a key campaign pledge during Trump’s second presidential run. But the energy crisis spawned by the war has left him grasping for solutions and promising that things will get better.

The cost of crude oil — the main ingredient in gasoline as well as diesel — has been volatile as markets and consumers feel whiplash about uncertainty of the war's future. All the while, households are feeling more strain, with cost of living concerns at the top of many voters' minds going into Election Day on Nov. 3.

As of Monday, the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline was $4.29, up from $2.98 before the war. Diesel surpassed $6 last month — a record — and now sits at an average of $6.35 a gallon, up from $3.76 in February.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that more expensive fuel is small price to pay for the war, which he describes as necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. He’s also continued to blame his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, for the country’s economic problems. And the president has tried to frame the world’s oil squeeze as good news for U.S. production.

“We’re making a freaking fortune,” Trump told supporters at a campaign rally in Georgia over the weekend.

Here’s how Trump’s views on gas, oil and other energy costs have shifted since the war began.

Feb. 24: Gasoline prices are ‘falling fast’

Trump bragged about gas prices in his 2026 State of the Union address, just days before joining Israel to launch the Feb. 28 attacks on Iran.

“Gasoline, which reached a peak of over $6 a gallon in some states under my predecessor and was, quite honestly, a disaster, is now below $2.30 a gallon in most states, and in some places $1.99 a gallon," he said. "And when I visited the great state of Iowa just a few weeks ago, I even saw $1.85 a gallon for gasoline, the lowest in four years, and falling fast."

AT THE PUMP: Gasoline prices averaged $2.95 a gallon nationwide, about 19 cents cheaper than a year earlier.

March 12: ‘When oil prices go up, we make a lot of money’

Trump saw a silver lining as oil prices spiked less than two weeks into the war.

“The United States is the largest Oil Producer in the World, by far, so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money," he posted on his social media site Truth Social.

THE PRICE TAG ON OIL: Brent crude cost over $100 a barrel, up from about $70 in 2025.

June 29: ‘Gasoline Retailers must get their Prices down, IMMEDIATELY!’

As oil costs cooled amid hopes for peace earlier this summer, Trump expressed frustration that gas prices were not falling quicker.

“They’re too high considering that Oil is now at $68 a Barrel, and heading south,” he posted on social media. "The Retailers must quickly react to this statement, and do what they know is right — DROP YOUR PRICE FOR OUR GREAT AMERICAN PEOPLE! There will be no gauging, which is totally illegal. If Retailers don’t do this, big problems lie ahead!"

AT THE PUMP: The national average for gasoline was $3.86 a gallon — down from over $4.50 in May, but still about 67 cents pricier than a year ago.

July 1: Prices ‘will soon be back’ to record lows

Ahead of the Fourth of July holiday, Trump claimed that lower gas prices were in sight.

“Just as I promised, Oil Prices are plummeting FAST, and Gas Prices at the pump are dropping too, but not as fast as they should be,” he wrote online, as he anticipated discounts at some “Freedom Fuel” stations near Philadelphia. “Gas Prices will soon be back to the Record Low Prices Americans enjoyed at the pump before our very successful ‘excursion’ in Iran.”

THE PRICE TAG ON OIL: Amid wider hopes for peace, Brent crude fell to $71.57 a barrel from its triple-digit highs.

Sept. 9: Oil prices will come down ‘right after’ midterms

In early September, Trump said that he didn’t think oil prices would cool before the midterm elections.

“Right after the election, oil prices are going to be tumbling downward,” Trump said at the time. “I think it’s going to take a little bit longer than the midterm.”

THE PRICE TAG ON OIL: As fighting once more escalated, Brent spiked past $101 compared with $66 a barrel a year earlier.

Sept. 16: More expensive gas is a ‘very inexpensive price to pay'

At a North Carolina campaign stop, Trump continued to downplay surging gas prices and again described the war as necessary.

“You have a little higher. It’s a very inexpensive price to pay for what we’ve done,” Trump said. “Remember that. It’s a little more. Frankly, even if it was a lot more.”

AT THE PUMP: Gasoline prices averaged $4.37 a gallon, about $1.18 more expensive than they were at the same time in 2025.

Oct. 9: Diesel prices will be ‘coming down, in record numbers’

Earlier this month, Trump said he struck a deal to buy Russian diesel to tamp down a spike in fuel prices — marking a stark reversal of years of U.S. pressure on Moscow over its war with Ukraine. He also continued to claim the U.S. retained control of the Strait of Hormuz, despite traffic remaining well below pre-war levels amid threats of further attacks from Tehran.

“Between our TOTAL CONTROL of the Strait of Hormuz, and this great announcement on Russian Energy, Diesel Prices for Americans and, indeed, the World, will be COMING DOWN, IN RECORD NUMBERS, AND FAST!" he wrote. "Lower prices for Americans, especially our Great Farmers, Ranchers, and Truckers, is my Greatest Priority.”

THE COST OF DIESEL: The national average for diesel was $6.28 a gallon, slightly down from a high of nearly $6.53 in September.

Oct. 19: Farmers will get more relief ‘when Republicans win’

Trump announced his administration's latest effort to offset steep diesel costs: a new harvest fuel relief program, which he claimed would provide $8 billion in support for farmers.

“When Republicans win, we will pass even more funding for our farmers," Trump said at a Kansas campaign rally, where he also asked the crowd to “pretend please that I’m on the ballot."

THE COST OF DIESEL: Nationwide, diesel averaged about $6.32 a gallon — 74% more expensive than a year earlier, when the fuel cost $3.63 a gallon.

Oct. 24: ‘We’re making money like this country has never made before’

Over the weekend, Trump argued once more that the Iran war means profits for the U.S. oil and gas business -- claiming that the country “is making hundreds of billions of dollars because of what’s happened in the Middle East.”

“My people said, ‘Please don’t mention that sir, because people are paying a little higher’,” the president said at a Georgia campaign rally on Saturday, adding that he can already see “fake news” headlines about consumers still suffering from steeper prices. “But I said I don’t give a damn. I’m going to say it. We’re making a freaking fortune. Our country is getting stronger and stronger all the time. And those pump prices are going to come down.”

AT THE PUMP: Gas prices averaged at nearly $4.30 a gallon nationwide on Saturday. A year ago, drivers were paying about $3.07.

The seasonal squash can also be a healthy addition to a variety of meals.

“I don’t think people realize how versatile pumpkin is. You can incorporate it into a variety of dishes, especially when it’s paired with warm spices like cardamom and curry,” said Beth Czerwony, RD, registered dietitian at Cleveland Clinic.

According to Czerwony, pumpkin is packed with nutrients, including vitamin A for eye health, fiber for digestion and antioxidants that help protect your cells.

It’s also low in calories and can help keep you feeling fuller longer.

Czerwony said pumpkin can be used in both sweet and savory dishes, from soups and chili to oatmeal and pancakes.

You can even roast the seeds for a crunchy snack that’s rich in protein, healthy fats and minerals like magnesium.

To get your fix this season, Czerwony recommends using actual pumpkin instead of pumpkin-flavored products.

“This time of year, it’s easy to get excited about all things pumpkin. But many pumpkin-flavored products are highly processed and contain a lot of added sugar, like lattes and cereals,” Czerwony said.

While pumpkin gets the most attention in the fall, Czerwony added that canned pumpkin makes it possible to enjoy the nutritional benefits all year long.

Eleven people were shot, and one person suffered an ankle injury while fleeing the gunfire.

The shooting happened around 8 p.m. near Perry and Manatee streets, behind the stadium, amid crowds leaving a homecoming celebration.

Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell said six of the victims were minors, including an 11-year-old. At least three victims suffered serious injuries, according to police.

By Sunday morning, five people had been released from the hospital, and six remained hospitalized; one of those still hospitalized was in critical condition. No deaths were reported.

Police said the preliminary investigation indicates that a fight broke out before the shooting among people who knew each other. The area was crowded with people leaving the football celebration.

Video surfaced on social media of people fleeing the scene in terror. At this stage of the investigation, none of the victims appear to have been the intended targets, police said.

“What should have been a weekend of celebration in our community instead became a night of fear and violence for the victims and their families,” Revell said. “While this arrest marks a significant step forward, our work is far from over. We remain committed to holding those responsible accountable and getting answers for every family impacted by this tragedy.”

TPD said officers rushed to render aid to victims before the scene was fully secured, then began their investigation.

TPD said tips and video sent in by members of the community were vital to identifying the suspected shooter.

Additional arrests are possible, police said.

Anyone with information is encouraged to contact TPD’s dedicated tip line at 850-891-4610. Individuals with photos, videos or other digital evidence can also submit information through the department’s online evidence submission portal.

A woman who was selling historically Black college and university apparel during homecoming told CNN affiliate WCTV that she heard the gunshots and saw people frightened. Another witness told the station he had just left campus and was worried about his daughter, who was in the area.

Florida A&M said the shooting happened near campus and that the university remained safe. Homecoming events had taken place throughout the week and were scheduled to conclude Sunday at the historically Black university, which has nearly 10,000 students.

University President Marva Johnson said the school had reached out to injured members of the FAMU community to offer support. She urged anyone with information to contact the police. Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey called the shooting “a truly horrific and heartbreaking tragedy” and said the community stood with the university.

Andre McKechnie, 55, who is serving a life sentence for murder, took his battle for the salty, sticky, black-brown byproduct of brewing beer to the Supreme Court of the state of Victoria last year.

He had argued being refused Vegemite denied him his right under the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act to “enjoy his culture as an Australian in the community with other persons of Australian background,” court documents showed.

Justice Claire Harris accepted prison authorities’ refusal to allow McKechnie Vegemite “limited his cultural rights” under the charter.

But she found the ban was justified in meeting authorities’ goals of removing illicit drugs and alcohol from the prison system.

“The limitation on Mr. McKechnie’s ability to enjoy Vegemite in community with other persons of Australian background is primarily that he is a prisoner,” Harris wrote in her 47-page judgment.

Prison officials testify Vegemite could impair drug sniffer dogs and be used to make alcohol

Prison officials testified at a trial in July that Vegemite had been banned throughout the state’s 12 prisons for the past 20 years because it could potentially impair sniffer dogs’ ability to detect narcotics and could be used to brew alcohol because of its yeast content.

McKechnie, who represented himself in court by video link from maximum security Barwon Prison west of Melbourne, argued that the fact that neighboring New South Wales state did not ban Vegemite from its prisons was evidence that there were “less restrictive means reasonably available” to achieve such drug and alcohol outcomes.

Most Australians revere Vegemite as an unfairly maligned culinary icon, and more than 80% of Australian households are estimated to have a jar in their pantries. Vegemite is typically considered an acquired taste at best by those who weren't raised on it.

The last U.S. president to visit Australia, Barack Obama, once said: “It’s horrible.”

Prisoner argues Vegemite ban contributed to vitamin deficiency

McKechnie had initially testified that the lack of Vegemite had contributed to his thiamine deficiency.

He said both Vegemite and pork were sources of thiamine, also known as vitamin B1. As a Jew who observed kosher law, he told the court he couldn’t eat pork either and took daily doses of the vitamin.

Vegemite has long been marketed as a source of B vitamins thiamine (B1), riboflavin (B2), niacin (B3) and folate (B9) which are promoted as healthy additions to the diets of growing children.

But McKechnie dropped the thiamine issue as “not important,” after lawyers for the prison authorities objected to his evidence.

Prisoner said Vegemite ban left him feeling ‘deprived, sad and disconnected’

McKechnie said not eating Vegemite made him feel “deprived of being able to practice my Australian culture, sad and disconnected from my family and community.”

The judge responded that “it is difficult to accept that the inability to consume Vegemite, rather than the fact of his imprisonment, is a material cause of his sadness and disconnection from his family and community.”

McKechnie cited an article published in the food studies journal “Gastronomica” in 2003 that said, “Vegemite may be the best predictor of national identity of any food in the world.”

The article, based on research by Australia’s Queensland University in 1995, found that a “taste for the spread strongly correlates with early exposure and to Australian birth and ancestry.”

McKechnie also referred to the Australian Olympic Committee overturning an Chinese import ban on Vegemite ahead of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

He cited Australian band Men at Work's 1980s international hit “Down Under” that mentions a “Vegemite sandwich.”

On the effectiveness of smearing contraband with Vegemite, McKechnie cited a Melbourne newspaper article from 2017 that reported a man’s unsuccessful attempt to use the odor of the spread to conceal illicit drugs that he attempted to smuggle into a music festival in Victoria. The attempt was thwarted by police sniffer dogs.

Judge rejects evidence that Vegemite doesn't interfere with drug sniffer dogs

The judge upheld prison authorities’ argument that McKechnie had failed to provide any proper foundations for his opinion that Vegemite does not interfere with drug sniffer dogs.

McKechnie also argued that Vegemite contained “no live yeast” and that any piece of fruit would be more useful in making alcohol than the spread.

A state prison department manager, Kevin White, cited publicly available research that said Vegemite helped home-brewed beer ferment more quickly.

Vegemite's owner, Bega Group, did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.

News4JAX is once again partnering with the City Rescue Mission and Closets by Design to collect personal care items for men, women and children in our community who are without homes.

The Shoeboxes of Love project is for individuals or groups who want to make a boxed toiletry kit that will be given to those who seek emergency shelter at CRM’s New Life Inn.

People come with little to nothing, so shoeboxes filled with personal hygiene items are a small way to provide hope to those in need.

Please remember that most of these people carry their possessions in a backpack and larger items become heavy. Donors are asked to wrap the box with a new blanket and indicate on each box whether it is for a man, a woman, or a child (boy or girl).

City Rescue Mission, Closets by Design, and WJXT-Channel 4 are collecting these shoeboxes, starting Nov. 1. Collections will continue through Nov. 23 during regular business hours.

Shoeboxes of Love may be dropped off at:

• City Rescue Mission, 426 S. McDuff Ave., 32254
• Closets by Design, 3728 Philips Highway, Suite 301 & 304, 32207
• WJXT Channel 4 Studios, 4 Broadcast Place, 32207

Officials in Florida's Okaloosa County expect to sink the SS United States off the Gulf Coast during the second week of November. The exact dates could change because of weather.

The ship will be sunk about 22 nautical miles (41 kilometers) southwest of Destin.

“This is an exciting move forward to create a one-of-a-kind resource for the environment and for our tourism industry,” county officials wrote in a news release.

The nearly 1,000-foot (305-meter) vessel shattered the trans-Atlantic speed record on its maiden voyage in 1952. Preservation groups tried to save the ship but were hindered by high costs.

Supporters hope that sinking the ship will make it a barnacle-encrusted star among more than 500 artificial reefs and a signature diving attraction, helping to generate millions of dollars a year in local tourism spending for scuba shops, charter fishing boats and hotels.

Filling up a basic Ford F-150 truck now costs about $100, up $30 from a year ago. Mortgage rates have jumped to levels that have depressed home sales. And for the past 12 months, consumer prices have risen faster than paychecks, making the average family poorer.

One week before midterm elections that will serve as a referendum on his second term, Trump is struggling to deliver on his campaign promise to bring down costs, even as he insists the country has entered an economic “golden age." The same frustration that powered his comeback two years ago could now cost Republicans control of Congress.

“Our nation is doing better now than ever before,” Trump insists while campaigning, vowing that interest rates and oil prices will plunge once the war with Iran — which he started — comes to an end.

The word “affordability,” he says, is nothing but “a con job by the Democrats," adding that “it doesn’t mean anything to anybody.”

Trump's rosy rhetoric meets voters' reality

That rhetoric comes as voters say they're struggling to afford basics like fuel and groceries and as they blame Trump for higher costs, pointing to the Republican president's aggressive tariff policies and the ongoing, unpopular war with Iran.

Record-high diesel prices, in particular, have driven up shipping and farming costs, creating trouble for Republicans in typically conservative states such as Iowa, Kansas, Ohio and Texas, where Democrats appear uniquely competitive in races that will shape Trump's final two years in office.

“The costs of things are absolutely the first thing people talk about, but also it’s their pay not keeping up with the cost,” said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. “It’s a double whammy.”

Prices at the pump have become a preeminent issue for voters.

"People hate paying more money for gas, and the prices have gone up a lot,” said Stephen Moore, who has previously advised the president on the economy. “It’s frustrating because Trump’s done so many good things for the economy. But with the Iran situation, that’s really had a big effect on the economy, and Republicans may pay a high price for that.”

Misty Reeder, 48, said she considers herself “in the middle” politically but picked all Democrats on her ballot in Easley, South Carolina.

“I’ve noticed that things have been getting a lot harder,” said Reeder, who receives disability payments. “You hear about it everywhere you go."

In the six years that she and her husband have been renting their home, Reeder said their rent had increased by hundreds of dollars.

“Something’s gotta give,” she said. “It’s like a dam — the pressure’s too much, and it’s going to break.”

Sandra Capell, 69, said she wants “to see some change" when it comes to the economy even though she voted Republican in Easley, which is part of South Carolina's conservative Upstate region.

“I think everybody is kind of suffering when it comes to groceries, gas, everything really,” she said. “I’m looking at the Republican Party to jump on the wagon, get in the saddle and let’s bring it back.”

Beti Rosales, 47, said higher prices have taken a toll on her family's Mexican restaurant in Allentown, Pennsylvania, part of the Lehigh Valley that has seesawed between the parties in recent years. Limes and avocados cost more than before. So does the plumber who's occasionally needed.

Two years ago, Rosales decided to give Trump and Republicans a chance, hoping for relief from inflation.

“The reality now is that it actually didn’t get better," she said. "It actually got worse. The prices of everything have increased."

Rosales is now considering voting Democratic in the midterms.

"Maybe fresh new faces might make a difference?” she said.

Trump promised he’d bring prices down

While running in 2024, Trump hammered President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent in the election, for high inflation, which climbed as high as 9.1% in June 2022. He promised voters he would lower gasoline prices and unlock roaring growth.

“With your vote in this election, I will end inflation,” he vowed.

In less than two years, Trump has aggressively remodeled the U.S. economy. He's slapped double-digit tariffs on many trading partners — including the European Union, India, Japan, Canada and Mexico — and sparked trade wars with allies. The U.S. government now holds stakes in several dozen private companies. He's signed broad income tax cuts into law.

But the persistent challenge of inflation has continued, overshadowing the positives of continued economic growth and a low unemployment rate. Inflation was 3% when Trump took office and reached 3.7% last month.

The president has played down the intensity of inflation, claiming that it is under 2% and “under control.”

Democrats have seized on the discontent, using the same high cost of living that sank them before to pressure vulnerable Republicans and put congressional districts Trump won by even double digits in play.

“Now remember, they promised to lower prices on Day One. Instead, under the failed President Donald J. Trump, it costs more than ever in American history to fill up your truck, stock your fridge, visit the doctor or power your home,” said Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, a Democrat running for reelection, at a recent rally in Atlanta.

“You work harder and harder, but the treadmill gets faster and steeper and the bills get higher and higher," he told the crowd.

Cait Conley, a Democrat running in New York against Republican Rep. Mike Lawler, one of his party’s most vulnerable incumbents, harkened back to his tweet from the last midterm elections, when Biden was president. Lawler had advised voters to "fill up your tank and go grocery shopping — it will inform your decision.”

In a new ad, Conley said voters should follow that advice this year "and then tell me if the system’s working for you.”

“You deserve better. It shouldn’t be this hard," she says.

Democrats turn Trump's attacks back on him

Conley and other candidates have pounded on a theme that Democrats believe will be especially effective this cycle: accusing Trump and other Republicans of compounding voters' economic pain by corruptly pursuing policies that help their billionaire donors at the expense of everyday Americans.

“I know you’re frustrated. Washington politicians get rich while you get hurt. Corporations make huge profits while your costs go up," North Carolina Senate candidate Roy Cooper says in an ad airing in the competitive state.

That has included a particular focus on the war with Iran.

“Trump’s war abroad costs taxpayers a billion dollars a day on a war we have no business fighting. Our schools crumble, our factories shutter, our gas prices skyrocket. But when they want war, billion-dollar blank checks," says Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed in another spot.

The president "thinks that the economy is doing well because he and his family have enriched themselves to the tune of several billion dollars,” said Amy Richards, 56, a onetime Republican who has voted Democratic since Trump became his party's 2016 nominee.

“He has zero idea what it is like to receive a paycheck and have to feed yourself and your family,” said Richards, standing outside a polling place in her town of Round Rock, Texas, on Friday, "and he doesn’t care.”

Republicans, meanwhile, have tried to cast Democrats as extreme, pointing to an ascendant populist wing that includes a number of Democratic socialists.

Moore, who advised Trump's campaigns, said he wished Republicans would spend more time talking about the economy’s strengths, including rising median incomes and a record-setting stock market, even as he acknowledged those numbers might not resonate with voters.

“What matters is how people feel, and clearly people are feeling stressed out financially,” he said.

Some Trump supporters remain satisfied. Renee Blood, 57, an executive assistant in Round Rock, feels the economy has “improved quite well."

“Of course we see gas prices up and down, but things are much more affordable,” she said.

She plans to vote Republican because she worries things will get worse if Democrats return to power.

Trump’s golden age might not have arrived, she said, but “we are still working on it.”

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Colvin reported from New York. Associated Press writer Meg Kinnard in Easley, S.C.; Mike Catalini in Allentown, Pa.; and Jesse Bedayn in Round Rock, Texas, contributed to this report.

Messi, of course, is still in the running for soccer's top individual prize at the age of 39 after his outstanding performances at the World Cup. And while it feels like this is the start of the Yamal-Mbappé era, Harry Kane's outrageous goalscoring exploits could yet push that rivalry back by another year.

The women's award, won by Barcelona and Spain star Aitana Bonmati for the past three years, will go to someone else this time around. Bonmati is not on the shortlist after breaking her leg in December.

Two-time winner Alexia Putellas is the favorite to lift the trophy for a third time.

Here's what to know about the Ballon d'Or, which is French for Golden Ball.

Where and when is the Ballon d'Or ceremony?

The ceremony will be staged at the London Palladium on Monday at 2000 GMT. It is the first time the annual ceremony is held outside France since 2015 and the first time in London. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the awards presented by French magazine France Football since 1956. The women's award was created in 2018.

The favorites to win the Ballon d'Or

Of the 30-man shortlist for the men's award, four names have dominated the conversation.

Yamal, Mbappé, Kane and Messi are the favorites to lift the prize won last year by Ousmane Dembélé.

Yamal was named the best young player for the last two years and after helping Spain to the World Cup and Barcelona to the Spanish title, he looks well-placed to win his first Ballon d'Or.

Mbappé was long-expected to be confirmed the best player in the world before now, having won the 2018 World Cup at the age of 19. But, if anything, he has been slipping down the Ballon d'Or rankings, coming seventh last year.

He had an outstanding season individually last term, even becoming the highest scorer in World Cup history, but did not lead Real Madrid or France to trophies. That could work against him.

The opposite is true of Kane, who has been breaking goalscoring records in Germany and winning titles with Bayern Munich. He was also one of the top performers at the World Cup as England finished third.

Messi just won't go away

Many might have expected Messi to leave the Ballon d'Or conversation after moving to MLS and Inter Miami., but the Argentine, who is widely regarded as the greatest player of all time, clearly had other ideas.

He inspired Miami to its first MLS Cup last season and then rolled back the years to drive Argentina to within one win of back-to-back World Cups. Ultimately Argentina came up short in the final against Spain, but the tournament was undoubtedly lit up by Messi's brilliance once again.

Putellas back on top

Putellas is favorite to win the women's award after returning to her best to win the Champions League and Spanish title with Barcelona before joining London City Lionesses.

The Spain star, who suffered ligament damage and watched as Bonmati overtook her as the best female soccer player in the world, can confirm her return to the summit of the sport by lifting the trophy again, albeit in the absence of the injured Bonmati.

Leading contenders include Manchester City's Khadija Shaw and Barcelona's Claudia Pina.

How the Ballon d'Or is judged

Ultimately it is a matter of opinion — voted for by one journalist from each of FIFA’s top 100-ranked nations. The criteria include individual and team performances, “decisive and impressive character” and “class and fair play.”

Each journalist picks 10 names from the 30 nominees in descending order, with each position scored on a basis of 15 points for the top choice and one for the 10th. The player with the highest number of points is awarded the Ballon d'Or.

Tiebreakers include the number of first-place mentions, then second-place mentions and so on.

Kane's flying start won't help him

Kane just can't stop scoring and the records keep on falling.

Last month he became the fastest player to score 100 Bundesliga goals, reaching that landmark in just 98 appearances.

Such outstanding form at the start of the season have only seemed to confirmed his march toward the Ballon d'Or. There's just one problem -- the judging period ended after the World Cup. The official judging dates from Aug. 3, 2025 to July 19, 2026.

Sure Kane's numbers and his trophies over that period have already put him well in the frame to lift the award, but if the start of this campaign had been included as well, his case to be called the best player in the world would have been even stronger.

Most wins

Messi holds the record with eight wins, his most recent coming in 2023. Cristiano Ronaldo is next on the list with five wins, the last in 2017.

Michel Platini, Johan Cruyff and Marco van Basten have three each.

It's not just about the Ballon d'Or

Also presented at the ceremony are awards for the men's and women's young talent, goalkeeper, coach, club and striker.

There is also the Socrates Award for “solidarity initiatives and societal causes”.

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James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson

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See AP’s full soccer coverage here

With the country overwhelmed by grief and anger after the deadliest security breakdown in its history, his resignation seemed like a matter of time.

But the divisive veteran Israeli leader has scratched, scraped and literally battled his way back during a stormy three-year period of nonstop domestic crises and wars across the region. Confounding his critics, he now finds himself in a tight race for reelection on Tuesday.

Netanyahu has been the country’s most dominant politician for nearly two decades, and his legacy is on the line. A poor showing could end the 77-year-old’s lengthy career on a bitter note and open the door to a new era in Israeli politics. A victory would cement his image as the ultimate political survivor.

Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, a onetime ally turned rival of Netanyahu, said there has never been so much at stake — from national security to the future of Israel’s democratic institutions and its standing in the world. After a series of wars that have destabilized the region and jolted the global economy, the world is watching closely.

Politicians often say the current election is the most fateful in their country's history, Olmert said, but “this time it really is.”

The vote is a referendum on Netanyahu

Netanyahu's opponents, led by former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, see Tuesday as a day of reckoning. They say Netanyahu should be held accountable for Oct. 7 and the failure to turn battlefield victories into diplomatic achievements.

“What he is offering is an eternal war,” Eisenkot, whose son and two nephews were killed in combat, said in a radio interview. “Choosing a leader whose only goal is not to surrender means choosing a leader who will not deliver victories.”

Netanyahu’s supporters say he was betrayed by Israel’s defense establishment and that he has led the country through a remarkable turnaround with devastating strikes against Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iran.

The Israeli leader has also turned to his traditional use of scare tactics. His campaign slogan, “Right or Palestine,” which rhymes in Hebrew, suggests his opponents would establish a Palestinian state alongside Israel, something his main rivals vehemently reject.

A two-state solution, still seen internationally as the only realistic way to solve the conflict, is politically toxic in Israel — another legacy of Netanyahu's long rule.

Scars of Oct. 7 have hung heavily over the campaign

Nearly every poster, stump speech or televised debate seems to reference the Oct. 7 attack, which has scarred the country and remains fresh in the minds of voters.

Some 1,200 people were killed that day and 251 others taken hostage, the last of whom were returned in a ceasefire deal last year.

Israel responded with a military offensive that has killed over 74,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local health authorities, left the territory in ruins and triggered open-ended wars in Lebanon and Iran. Netanyahu faces an international arrest warrant, experts have accused Israel of genocide, and Israel’s image has further deteriorated with a spike in settler violence in the occupied West Bank.

Most Israelis across the political spectrum reject the war crimes and genocide allegations. But Netanyahu's opponents, including many former hostages, refer to his outgoing coalition as the “failure government” and have pledged to launch an official investigation into how Oct. 7 was allowed to happen.

Netanyahu has refused such an inquiry and calls his ongoing — and inconclusive — military campaigns a “war of redemption.”

Boosted by an endorsement from President Donald Trump, Netanyahu has also tried to turn attention to Iran, threatening to resume the war, and vowing to destroy its nuclear program and topple its government.

“Donald, we have a job to finish. You said it and we’ll finish it together,” he said in a conversation with Trump released by his campaign.

Oct. 7 failures have deepened earlier fissures in the country

Netanyahu's rule has left Israelis bitterly divided over other issues, especially a longstanding system granting ultra-Orthodox men exemptions from military service.

In a country where enlistment is mandatory for most Jewish men and women, these exemptions have always angered the broader public. But resentment has grown as hundreds of young soldiers have been killed in battle and tens of thousands have been pulled away from families and careers for reserve duty.

Netanyahu, who has close ties with politically powerful ultra-Orthodox parties, has resisted attempts to end the exemptions.

He has also outraged many Israelis with his attempts to overhaul the legal system.

Before the war, Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption charges, launched a controversial plan to weaken the courts. That prompted mass anti-government demonstrations by crowds who accused him of undermining the country’s system of checks and balances to escape prosecution.

Each side has accused the other of weakening Israel on the eve of the Oct. 7 attacks. The plan has been mostly frozen since then, but Netanyahu’s allies want to revive it.

A clear winner is unlikely

Israelis vote for political parties, not individual candidates. Since no political party has ever captured a 61-seat majority on its own, political leaders must form coalitions.

Netanyahu has been a master at forming coalitions with religious and nationalist partners, but opinion polls suggest a tight race between his bloc and the one led by Eisenkot.

With non-aligned Arab parties campaigning hard, there is a strong possibility that neither of the main Jewish blocs will capture a majority. That could set the stage for weeks or even months of negotiations among around a dozen parties expected to win seats.

Small parties could gain leverage and promises may be broken

Netanyahu’s allies and members of Eisenkot’s bloc both say they will not govern with Arab partners.

Amid so much uncertainty, a number of scenarios are possible — including a unity government between Eisenkot and Netanyahu, or an Eisenkot-led government backed by Arab partners from outside the coalition.

Eisenkot says he will not serve in a Netanyahu government. But politicians have broken promises before. The alternative would be to hold new elections early next year — leaving Netanyahu in office until then.

The Palestinians are barely an issue

Largely missing from the Israeli public discourse is any discussion of the dire situation in Gaza or Israel's open-ended military rule over millions of Palestinians.

The Oct. 7 attack, which came after decades of conflict and four previous wars with Hamas, convinced many Israelis there was no partner for peace, while Netanyahu and his allies have largely succeeded in branding the Israeli left as weak or even traitorous.

Palestinians have little hope their lives will improve regardless of whether Netanyahu wins or loses.

Olmert, who led the last serious negotiations with the Palestinians before a corruption scandal forced him from office and Netanyahu replaced him in 2009, said the candidates aren’t discussing the two-state solution because it is not popular with voters.

But given the international outrage over the situation in Gaza and settler attacks, he said it will be impossible for the next government to ignore the issue for long.

“Sooner or later, a new government will have to deal with it,” he said.

A few steps to his left, right, front or back and a big red "X" appears on the video board above home plate. That's not good.

If he stays on that little island of dirt in a sea of grass, a big ‘O’ appears and the video board is green. Much better.

Welcome to Major League Baseball's newest experiment in its long-running quest to juice the game's sluggish offense: Restricting the positioning of outfielders on every at-bat. The idea is that making outfielders play straight up — instead of adjusting for individual hitters' tendencies — will lead to more doubles and triples.

“The hardest part is cutting off doubles in the gap and they’re even turning into triples,” DeBarge said. “That’s what they told us they wanted in the beginning. So it works.”

Infielders also have new positioning requirements when there are no runners on base, limiting how much they can shift for a hitter's tendencies.

The Arizona Fall League has long been a testing ground for the next generation of MLB players, and lately, it's also been a venue for testing potential rules changes. As an example, the AFL was experimenting with the current Automated Ball-Strike system long before it hit the big leagues in 2026.

MLB feels that the AFL is a good opportunity to test rules in a relatively low-stakes environment. The league declined official comment on the most recent experiment, and any change to big-league rules would still be years away.

The outfield positioning experiment is limited to just games that are played at Salt River Fields, since it has similar technology to MLB parks.

“We talked to our guys about embracing it, it only happens in our ballpark, so embrace it and move on,” Salt River manager Ted Tom said. “There's going to be some things that we've never seen before. That's OK, just keep playing.”

MLB still searching for more offense

The rules package that MLB debuted in 2023 has widely been seen as a success. The pitch clock was the biggest change — and drastically reduced game times — but there were also tweaks that included rules on infield shifts, bigger bases and a limit on how many times a pitcher could disengage from the rubber.

The idea was to make the games faster and increase offense.

The former objective was definitely achieved. The latter, not so much.

Most of MLB's offensive numbers have barely budged since the new rules package was debuted. Game times are about 25 minutes shorter and stolen bases are up, but batting average (.243 in 2022 and .244 in 2026), runs per game (4.28 in 2022, 4.48 in 2026) and hits per game (8.16 in 2022, 8.20 in 2026) haven't changed much.

The lack of offense is even more stark during MLB's postseason. Through Game 2 of the World Series, teams have combined for a .216 batting average through 37 games.

A good pitcher's duel certainly has its merits, but the occasional 12-8 score can keep fans engaged, too. Doubles and triples are exciting, and MLB wants to see more of them.

“The pros are that you're never out of the game, it's very exciting for the fans and there's lots of action, which is part of the intention,” Tom said.

Doubles, triples galore

The experimental rules force outfielders at Salt River Fields to play much more shallow than they would in most situations, which means they are forced to go back on fly balls much more often than normal.

The flip side is that there are almost no bloop singles.

“It’s a give and take,” Washington Nationals prospect Teo Banks said. “Your first move is always back with how shallow you are — lots of running. But I think there's some part of strategy that's taken away with something like this.”

Banks wasn't kidding about the running. The left fielder was discussing the new rules after Scottsdale beat Salt River 15-8 during Thursday's game that featured five triples — which was an AFL record.

There's little question that the experiment is having an effect. But is it too much of a change?

Tom — the Salt River manager — thought about the question for a moment and then gave a little grin before mimicking a zipper across his lips.

Some things are better left unsaid.

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Farmer Mike has been chiseling whimsical faces and comical creatures into big pumpkins for more than four decades. Wearing his trademark orange overalls and farmer hat, he's sculpted hundreds of gourds into ghoulish faces, seaside landscapes, witches, dragons and pop culture figures such as Yoda and Charlie Brown.

Valladao doesn’t have any formal artistic training, but he's always looking for inspiration. He gets ideas from looking at art in a museum or just walking down the street.

“Sometimes I’ll look at somebody and I’ll think, oh, I like the teeth or I like ears or the way the nostrils flare,” Valladao said.

This year, “Farmer Mike” celebrated 40 years of Halloween artistry at the Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival, which is held in mid-October and is best known for its giant pumpkin weigh-off. At the two-day festival on the coast south of San Francisco, Valladao works on stage so people can watch.

His pumpkin carvings have drawn requests from across the US

Valladao stumbled into his artistic hobby after he began growing big pumpkins at his San Jose home in the mid-1980s. He didn’t know what to do with the massive gourds, so he pulled out a knife and started slicing faces into them.

“I’m an engineer by trade and I tend to look at it as building something the same way I would build a piece of hardware, one layer at a time,” he said.

In 1986, festival organizers saw a picture of Valladao’s pumpkins and invited him to showcase his carving skills in Half Moon Bay, where his family opened the town’s first feed and seed store in the 19th century. He grew an 800-pound (363-kilogram) pumpkin once, but it was a lot of work, so he doesn’t participate in the giant pumpkin contest.

His art has since taken him to different parts of the country, including an appearance on “The Tonight Show.” He has gotten requests to carve pumpkins at venues such as the San Diego Zoo, the California Academy of Sciences and the State Fair of Texas.

‘It’s about the illusion of depth'

He uses Atlantic pumpkins that weigh from 100 to 1,000 pounds (45 to 454 kilograms). They have thick skins that allow him to cut protruding facial features shallow or deep.

“It’s really about the illusion of depth,” Valladao said. “I can make it so that it’s three-dimensional, such that the eyes are inset and the nose sticks out. So it’s a little bit of carving, but it’s just adding a little more magic to it.”

Valladao said he doesn’t name his creations because he recognizes the ephemeral nature of his art, which only lasts a few days.

“It never really bothers me when a pumpkin starts to age because in some cases they’ll build character,” Valladao said.

And there are always more pumpkins to be carved.

After 40 years at Half Moon Bay, Valladao doesn’t have any plans to hang up his carving knives.

“It’s fun, it’s enjoyable and, quite frankly, it’s a piece of me,” he said.

In recent weeks, Antonelli and Mercedes had been struggling with a package of car upgrades that often seemed more like downgrades as Max Verstappen and Red Bull took advantage to win back-to-back races.

But Antonelli’s dominant win from pole position at the Circuit of the Americas on Sunday showed he’s now confident of getting the best out of the car over a full race distance at a pace Red Bull and Ferrari largely couldn’t match.

“All this time putting so much work into bringing this new package and finally seeing the result is very pleasant,” he said.

In Singapore earlier this month, Antonelli said there was only a “very, very small” window of performance to unlock the new design's benefits before it became skittish and unpredictable.

Now the car is working as intended, he says there's more to come.

“In some places, I would say, still not as much as we expected, but in other places it is delivering very well,” Antonelli said. “We’re still struggling a little bit in low-speed with front locking, but overall, I feel like the package is finally starting to deliver.”

With much smaller regulation tweaks coming for 2027 compared with the sweeping changes implemented this year, what teams learn from late-season developments can have a direct benefit next year.

Only one of Mercedes' drivers is seeing the benefit. George Russell was at a loss for his “rubbish” pace as he finished eighth in Texas. A five-second penalty didn't help, but Russell told Sky Sports he was clueless about the rest of the yawning gap to Antonelli.

“Hopefully there are some answers somewhere but at the moment I don’t have them,” he said.

Russell has less experience with the upgrades after the team put him back on the old package in Singapore to make a side-by-side comparison.

Verstappen's still a threat after Red Bull developments made his set up more predictable, but the car is slow off the line at the start of the race and it's costing him. Verstappen started second alongside Antonelli but spent his first lap under attack from Charles Leclerc as Antonelli zoomed off into a lead that was never seriously under threat.

“The start definitely is something we’ve improved massively,” Antonelli said. “We were nowhere at the beginning of the season, and now we’re good, so that’s definitely one less thing to worry about.”

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See AP’s full auto racing coverage here

The deadliest day in Israel's history features prominently in the campaign, but not in the way many outsiders might expect.

There's been almost no debate over Israel's wartime conduct in Gaza — which led to an international arrest warrant against Netanyahu — its occupation of much of southern Lebanon and parts of Syria, or its two wars launched against Iran, all of which have broad support.

Instead, candidates have focused on Netanyahu's leadership and moral character; his role in the security breakdown on Oct. 7; his efforts to exempt ultra-Orthodox Jews from military service and a 2023 judicial overhaul seen by critics as an assault on Israel's democratic institutions.

Both of the main electoral blocs are dominated by parties that support Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank and oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state, and no major candidate is advocating a return to the long-moribund peace process.

Here's a closer look.

Netanyahu's handling of Oct. 7 and its aftermath

People heading to the polls will pass the faces of fallen soldiers peering from stickers on train station walls and faded yellow ribbons honoring the hostages, the last of whom were returned in a ceasefire deal last year.

Around 68% of Jewish Israelis say their attitudes toward Oct. 7 are a central factor in deciding which party to support, according to the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem think tank. Among the Arab minority, just 32% said it factored prominently, with most citing crime as the main issue.

Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, has sought to shift blame for the failures surrounding Oct. 7 to security officials while touting Israel’s military achievements against Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and their patron, Iran.

Critics accuse him of evading responsibility by blocking an official inquiry into the attack, of not reaching a deal to bring back the hostages sooner, and of failing to win a decisive victory against any of Israel's foes.

Anger over exemptions from military service

Netanyahu's governing coalitions have long relied on ultra-Orthodox parties that demand exemptions from military conscription for young men engaged in religious studies. That policy has infuriated Israel's secular majority as reservists have been repeatedly called up in the various wars.

Military service is mandatory for most Jewish men and women, and about a quarter of Jewish voters polled by the Israel Democracy Institute ranked the issue as a key factor in deciding which party to support.

The country is struggling with a shortage of soldiers. Each year, around 13,000 ultra-Orthodox men reach the conscription age of 18, but fewer than 10% enlist.

“We have this notion that military service is a kind of permit to citizenship,” said Tamar Hermann, an expert on Israeli public opinion with the Israel Democracy Institute. It makes you a “legitimate part” of Israeli Jewish society, she added.

Netanyahu’s chief rival, Gadi Eisenkot, has vowed to end the de facto exemptions. The former military chief and political centrist lost his son and two nephews to combat in Gaza.

Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, said the military exemptions were “probably the number one issue” for the anti-Netanyahu coalition.

Netanyahu's judicial overhaul remains divisive

Netanyahu’s plan to overhaul the judiciary and weaken the Supreme Court sparked mass protests in Israel in 2023, leaving the country fiercely polarized when Hamas attacked.

Netanyahu portrayed it as an attempt to curb the authority of unelected judges, while critics viewed it as a power grab by a prime minister who has been indicted on corruption allegations.

After the Oct. 7 attack, the public focus shifted to Gaza, and many who had mobilized against the judicial changes redirected their efforts to demand a deal to release the hostages.

Only 18% of Jewish Israelis said the judicial overhaul was a main factor in deciding which party to support, according to the Israel Democracy Institute. “There’s some public fatigue,” Hermann said.

On the left, judicial changes raised greater concern, with 22.5% of voters saying the issue will influence their decision at the ballot box. Among centrist and right-wing voters, it did not rank among the top four issues.

Last year, Israel’s parliament passed a law giving the government a larger role in appointing judges. But it won’t take effect until the next legislature is sworn in, and the anti-Netanyahu bloc has vowed to repeal it.

Questions of leadership loom large

Israelis vote for parties, not specific candidates, and no single party is expected to win anywhere close to a 61-seat majority in parliament, known as the Knesset. Whoever can cobble together a majority coalition will become the next prime minister.

If no one is able to, Netanyahu's government will continue to serve as caretaker until another round of elections in the coming months.

More than a quarter of Jewish Israelis view the head of the party as a key factor in deciding how to vote, according to the Israel Democracy Institute.

Netanyahu's supporters see him as a veteran statesman who has gone toe-to-toe with U.S. presidents and other world leaders, resisting pressure to end the war in Gaza or make other concessions that could harm Israel's security. His opponents think he's a crook.

Eisenkot's supporters point to his long military service and his personal losses in the ongoing wars. The son of Moroccan Jewish immigrants would also be the first Israeli prime minister of non-European descent, though he has not made that a central part of his campaign.

The economy and cost of living

Israel isn't immune from the affordability concerns that have roiled elections worldwide in recent years.

The cost of living has soared, and is higher than in many wealthy European countries like Austria, Denmark and Sweden, according to research by Sarit Menahem-Carmi of the Aaron Institute for Economic Policy at Reichman University.

Netanyahu says his policies have unleashed growth and contributed to the rise of a world-class tech sector, while opponents say many Israelis have been left behind.

Among Jewish Israelis, 38% said the economy and cost of living are the most important or second most important issue in the election, a stance that rose to 46% among Arabs, the Israel Democracy Institute found.

But you wouldn’t know it from the campaign.

None of the main candidates has made the economy a central issue or drawn attention to the costs of the various wars. Joseph Zeira, an economics professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, said the high levels of military spending cannot be ignored.

“The cost of the conflict is tremendous,” Zeira said.

With 100% of the vote counted, Brazil’s electoral court announced that the soon to be 81-year-old Lula had a lead of nearly 4.4 million votes over opponent Flávio Bolsonaro, giving him 51.8% of the total vote. Bolsonaro quickly refused to concede defeat and asked for the election results to be annulled after an evening of chaos at some polling places that followed a last-minute decision to extend voting by two hours.

Bolsonaro is the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, whom Lula defeated to take the presidency in 2022.

Lula's triumph bucks a regional trend of victories for right-of-center presidential candidates allied with Trump. It also means Latin America’s largest economy, with a GDP of $2.6 trillion per year, will likely continue defying Trump’s demands, despite the pressure of increased tariffs.

Lula says Brazil is ‘not anyone’s backyard'

A video published by Lula’s campaign shows the veteran leader celebrating with First Lady Rosângela da Silva and allies after his runoff victory was confirmed by Brazil’s electoral court. Wearing star-shaped red glasses, he kissed his wife.

Speaking to his supporters, thousands of whom gathered on Sao Paulo's main artery and in Rio de Janeiro's Cinelandia Square, Lula expressed his gratitude to the Brazilian people, and pledged to respect all Brazilians, regardless of gender or religion. He also attacked Bolsonaro.

“This was a defeat for denialism and lies. I must confess that every time I attended a debate, I felt embarrassed,” he said.

He also doubled down on his commitment to Brazil’s sovereignty.

“Either the homeland remains free, or we die for Brazil,” he said. “This country will not accept being anyone’s backyard.”

In Rio de Janeiro, cars beeped their horns and a woman dressed in red — the color of Lula supporters — shouted “You lost! Cry harder!” to four men in yellow and green sipping beers, Bolsonaro's signature colors. A huge roar echoed in the street as the result was confirmed.

Rodrigo Valentim, a 51-year-old businessman and supporter of Bolsonaro, said that another Lula government would harm the economy. He pointed to financial markets’ positive reaction to the result of the first round, when Bolsonaro bested Lula.

“I don’t understand how people can vote for Lula,” he said. “The country is collapsing.”

Lula is set to begin his fourth non-consecutive term as president on Jan. 5, 2027.

Bolsonaro rejects results after confusion at polling places

The electoral court's announcement ended an evening of confusion at polling places after Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin ruled three minutes before the scheduled end of voting to keep polls open for two more hours, following requests by both candidates. Lula’s request came after issues with buses that provide transportation to polls in Sao Paulo and Salvador, two cities that tend to favor the incumbent. Bolsonaro’s request was due to heavy rains in Brazil’s south, where he is favored.

The decision delayed tallying the votes by two hours. It was unclear how many polling stations stayed open after the scheduled closing time. Polling stations in Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro closed shortly after the original 5 p.m. deadline, reporters for The Associated Press observed.

Bolsonaro, whose father is serving a 27-year prison sentence for attempting a coup after he lost the 2022 presidential election to Lula, pointed out that Zanin is Lula’s former lawyer and criticized him for “changing the rules of the game in the middle of the game.”

“It's impossible to recognize the results of the election in the context of these things that happened,” he said.

It's not clear if Bolsonaro’s complaint could meet the legal threshold to annul the results. Bolsonaro also has the right to request a recount if he has evidence of fraud, but that might not change the results.

The president of the electoral court, Kassio Nunes Marques, who was appointed to the Supreme Court by former President Bolsonaro, said that the extension of voting hours did not impact results.

Joao Pedro Padua, a law professor at the Fluminense Federal University, said that Bolsonaro can file a lawsuit directly with the country’s electoral authorities or the Supreme Court, asking for the elections to be declared null and void.

“But there isn’t much legal basis for that,” Padua said. “The extension of voting hours is unusual, but for it to invalidate the elections, the candidate would have to prove that it affected voters’ ability to freely express their will. There doesn’t seem to have been any such impact.”

Lula overcame concerns about security and cost of living

Bolsonaro bested Lula by more than 2.2 million votes in the first round of the election earlier this month. Sunday night's victory by Lula marked the first time since Brazil’s military dictatorship ended in 1985 that the second-highest vote-getter in the first-round elections won the presidency.

Lula faced a tough reelection battle because of concerns about the cost of living and security. Bolsonaro made a tough-on-crime approach the cornerstone of his campaign and pledged to bring down food costs while Lula, trying to lure undecided voters, has invested in costly incentives.

Both have been hit by corruption suspicions involving family members and allies, with Bolsonaro implicated in a sprawling scandal rocking Brazil. Lula previously spent more than a year in prison on corruption convictions that were eventually annulled.

This will likely be the last victory of the veteran leader’s political career. Lula began his political career in the 1970s as a union leader. He then helped found the Workers’ Party, which he represented as a presidential candidate three times until he finally won it in 2002. He was reelected four years later and was succeeded by one of his cabinet ministers, Dilma Rousseff, in 2010. She was reelected in 2014 but impeached two years later.

Lula tried to run for president again in 2018 but was jailed in March after being convicted. He was released from prison after 580 days and saw Brazil’s Supreme Court annul his sentence after police found messages that showed the judge who convicted him was biased. He quickly became one of Jair Bolsonaro’s biggest critics and narrowly beat him in 2022.

Since he lost the first round, Lula reorganized his campaign, appealed to young voters, put millions of Brazilians on the streets to defend democratic values and his legacy, raised fears of another Bolsonaro administration and boosted several government initiatives.

He joins Trump and Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega — all aged 80 — as one of the oldest presidents in the Americas.

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Savarese reported from Sao Paulo. Brigida reported from Brasilia.

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

It was a seismic political shift in the Balkan country where Vucic, who had been endorsed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and who denounced the student movement as a foreign-led attempt to unseat him, led with virtually absolute power for 14 years.

Almost immediately, crowds flooded the streets of the capital Belgrade and other Serbian cities in an outburst of euphoric celebration.

Belgrade resident Dragana Kovacevic was thrilled that “everyone greets with smiles.” She said "we are all too happy, finally we are becoming one normal and free country.”

Maja Stetic said she feels “fantastic.” Vucic's ouster, she said, "means liberation for me, means a new future for us and our children.”

High turnout and gathering tensions marked the highly contested parliamentary election that was a showdown between Vucic and his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party and university students who, accusing the government of corruption and dismantling democracy, had built a popular following across the country.

Serbia's 6.4 million voters were electing lawmakers to the 250-member Parliament. In conceding the election, Vucic said his party projects that his opponents, the youth-backed Students’ List, will take between 135 and 140 seats while his SNS party will have around 105.

“It is now clear that we have lost and the Students’ List has won,” Vucic told supporters at his party's election night event, though he blamed Serbia's independent media as well as alleged interference by unnamed European countries and an ”American deep state" for the loss.

Belgrade erupts in celebration

Vucic said that his SNS party won around 1.7 million votes compared to the Students’ List, which he said took around 2.2 million.

Radomir Saicic, a Students’ List candidate, said “tonight is not just about results.”

“It is about people who believed and continued to fight,” he said. “This is a victory over fear …it is nobody’s trophy, it is a citizens victory. But victory carries responsibility.”

Supporters of the Students' List drove around Belgrade in cars, honking horns, singing, shouting and chanting: “Aleksandar is gone,” referring to Vucic. Crowds swiftly dismantled the fences and tents at a park in central Belgrade where Vucic’s loyalists had been camping for over a year and gathered earlier on Sunday. One tent was later set on fire in the now-abandoned camp.

A group of young people could be seen throwing rocks at a withdrawing column of police cars and anti-riot vehicles.

The outcome, which Vucic announced only around an hour and a half after polls closed, came after tensions had built as voting progressed during the day.

Police in anti-riot gear had cordoned off an area in central Belgrade around the election commission headquarters. Special police vehicles could be seen near the pro-Vucic camp, and large groups of black-clad men had congregated at various points throughout the city.

Protests over corruption lead to Vucic's fall

Vucic was seeking become Serbia's prime minister after serving two near-full terms as president. He resigned the presidency last month to lead the campaign.

Support for the populist had eroded since 16 people were killed in 2024 when a concrete canopy collapsed at a train station in Novi Sad. That set off a wave of youth protests that blamed the collapse on high-level corruption, cronyism and rampant graft during renovation work at the station.

Dijana Hrka, the mother of one of the victims, was in the crowd celebrating in Belgrade. Sobbing, Hrka told N1 television: “I have been waiting for this moment for two years.”

“Now I expect that they will all be held accountable,” she said.

Despite the protests, Vucic retained considerable support among many of Serbia’s voters. Admirers viewed him as a capable leader who can steer the nation through global uncertainties — the image that was carefully crafted by the mainstream media.

Student movement campaigned on rebuilding democracy

While the increasingly authoritarian Vucic has routinely outplayed Serbia’s fractured opposition in the past, the leaderless youth movement proved to be a tough opponent that rattled his firm grip on power in Serbia like no one else in the 14 years since his party took office.

The newly formed Students’ List movement was shaped by university students but none actually appeared on the election list. Instead, its candidates are little-known experts, athletes, farmers and artists.

This approach was meant to counter Vucic’s one-man rule and restore a sense of community and solidarity. The students’ message during the campaign focused on a non-partisan effort to rebuild Serbia’s economy and restore its democracy.

The students have used youthful energy to attract voters who are disillusioned with local politicians. Vilified by pro-government media, they cycled and walked through the country to reach voters in rural areas — Vucic’s traditional strongholds.

The student victory echoed the recent electoral defeat of a Vucic ally in Hungary, where youth participation helped oust the autocratic Viktor Orbán after 16 years and bring in a new pro-European government. It was likely to resonate beyond Serbia as countries across Europe have faced angry youth and student protests.

The vote was closely watched in the EU

Monitors predicted that total turnout in the election could reach around 70%, unseen in Serbia since 2000. During the day, long queues formed at polling stations in Serbia and in cities around the world. Some in the Serbian diaspora were made to vote in the middle of the night after authorities tied voting hours to local Serbian time.

Recent Serbian elections had been marred by irregularities and the EU was closely watching the conduct of Sunday's vote in a candidate nation for the bloc's membership.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen congratulated the student movement, saying “people of Serbia turned out in record numbers to shape their country’s future.”

“We stand ready to support reforms on the rule of law, media freedom, the fight against corruption and strong democratic institutions, and to work together to advance Serbia’s future in the European Union,” she said.

Independent election monitors reported dozens of cases of irregularities on Sunday such as photographing of ballots that suggested pressure on voters and attempted vote buying.

Both international and local election monitors had expressed concern about the safety and fairness of an election campaign marked by detentions, near-total government control over the media and reports of surveillance and cyberattacks against activists.

Local elections earlier this year in 10 municipalities in Serbia saw violent attacks on journalists and activists. The previous parliamentary vote in 2023 was followed by opposition protests alleging fraud.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba caught nine passes for 150 yards and a touchdown, and the Seahawks handed the Kansas City Chiefs their first loss of the season, 20-3 on Sunday night.

Sam Darnold threw for 257 yards and a score for the Seahawks (4-3), while Emanuel Wilson had 24 carries for 100 yards and a TD.

“Playing a team like Kansas City and all the killers that they got on that side, we knew how big this game was, and we wanted this one badly,” said Smith-Njigba, the NFL's leading receiver and reigning Offensive Player of the Year. “You know, we saw it as a playoff game.”

Patrick Mahomes struggled, throwing for 165 yards with an interception for the Chiefs (5-1). Kenneth Walker III, the Super Bowl MVP for the Seahawks last season before signing with the Chiefs in the offseason, was held to 36 yards on 14 carries.

Walker entered the night averaging a league-leading 133 yards per game, but the Seahawks shut him down, along with the rest of Kansas City's offense. The Chiefs had 213 total yards, 50 on the ground.

“Listen, all three phases we struggled, so we’ve got to do better, and that’s my responsibility,” Kansas City coach Andy Reid said. “So I take full responsibility for this. We’ve got to play better as a team.”

The Super Bowl champion Seahawks have not allowed a 100-yard rusher in 36 games, the league’s longest current streak.

“We know what kind of running back was coming in here, but we don't allow people to run through our defense,” linebacker Ernest Jones IV said. “That's just us.”

The only bright spot for Kansas City's offense was a milestone for Travis Kelce, who had four receptions to reach 1,104 for his career, moving past Marvin Harrison and Cris Carter for fifth in NFL history.

After Darnold hit Smith-Njigba for a 33-yard gain early in the second quarter to get the Seahawks in the red zone, Jason Myers kicked a 25-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead.

On the next series, Ty Okada intercepted Mahomes on a pass intended for Jalen Royals. Seattle's ensuing drive was kept alive by Darnold's 7-yard scramble. He then connected with Smith-Njigba for a 28-yard touchdown to put Seattle up 10-0 with 1:44 left in the first half.

Another 28-yard pass from Darnold to Smith-Njigba got the Seahawks to the Kansas City 1 in the closing seconds of the half, but Darnold was intercepted by Nohl Williams in the back of the end zone. Williams returned the pick 64 yards, but Harrison Butker's 58-yard field goal attempt fell short as time expired.

Myers made a 35-yard field goal to extend Seattle's lead to 13-0. Before the third quarter was over, the Chiefs drove to the Seattle 30, but Mahomes fumbled on third down and Kansas City had to settle for Butker's 50-yard field goal.

Mahomes found Kelce for a 19-yard catch early in the fourth quarter, but the Chiefs came away with no points when Butker missed a 45-yard field goal attempt wide right. Butker has missed 10 field goals since the start of last season.

“He’s off a bit. Got to fix it,” Reid said.

The Seahawks pushed their lead to 20-3 on Wilson's 21-yard scoring run with 3:47 left.

“I think this game reminds the guys what we’re capable of,” Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said. “I think our guys understand that there’s more levels to where we can go, and so I hope they feel the sense of urgency that we can get there because it is stuff that we can control. You know, talking about procedural stuff, red-zone stuff, negative plays, how we rush our red-zone defense, all those things we’ve been attacking.”

Notable absences

The Seahawks moved running back Zach Charbonnet to the active roster this week, but he was ruled out for the game. Charbonnet rushed for 730 yards and 12 touchdowns for the Seahawks last season before he tore an ACL.

The Chiefs were without receiver Rashee Rice, who missed his third straight game with a hamstring injury, and starting tackle Jaylon Moore, who is in the concussion protocol.

Injuries

Seahawks receiver Rashid Shaheed left early in the second half with a knee injury. He did not return. Tackle Charles Cross left in the fourth quarter with an ankle injury.

Up next

The Chiefs visit the Denver Broncos next Sunday.

The Seahawks host the Chicago Bears on Monday, Nov. 2

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See AP’s full NFL coverage here

Islanders are seeking slavery reparations from Britain, a formal apology for its role in the slave trade and greater independence from the former colonial power.

The Bahamas National Reparations Committee said it already knows what awaits the Caribbean as King Charles III and Queen Camilla prepare for this week's trip: “Schools emptied of children who will stand in the sun and wave for the Crown that has taken everything from their ancestors and comes back smiling.”

Charles is expected to visit the Bahamas on Tuesday to begin the nine-day trip to the Caribbean. His last official visit to the archipelago was in July 1973 as a prince who granted the Bahamas independence, ending 300 years of British rule. But the Bahamas remains a Commonwealth realm, along with six other Caribbean nations that recognize Charles as their king and head of state.

While in the Bahamas, Charles is scheduled to visit Clifford Park, where the archipelago’s black, turquoise and yellow flag was raised for the first time more than half a century ago.

His visit will raise important questions, said Niambi Hall Campbell-Dean, chair of the Bahamas National Reparations Committee.

“Why do we still have a king? What does this person really represent to us? Why is he coming and how will that benefit us?” she said.

A psychology professor at the University of the Bahamas, Campbell-Dean said she recently mentioned Charles’ upcoming visit to her students, and they were not excited. She responded: “I know y’all might not care about this man who is coming, but here’s why this is of importance.”

Leaders across the Caribbean have long been pushing for an apology and reparations from Britain.

In early September, Jamaica took its case for reparations to Charles, and the case has since been referred to the United Kingdom’s highest court of appeal for the Caribbean island. It was an unprecedented legal maneuver, even though the British government has consistently rejected demands for either an apology or reparations.

A visit to Guyana more than 200 years after a slave revolt

After three days in the Bahamas, Charles is scheduled to fly to the South American country of Guyana. The former British colony was the site of one of the biggest slave revolts in the region during the colonial era, with thousands of slaves uprising during the 1823 Demerara rebellion on the plantation owned by the father of former British Prime Minister William Gladstone.

More than 200 slaves were killed as a result; several were decapitated and their heads placed on poles.

In a recent interview with ITV News, Guyanese President Irfaan Ali said Charles has “rightfully recognized slavery as the darkest days in human history.”

“Moving to the apology is the next step,” he added. “You exploited the region. You destroyed lives. You created underdevelopment.”

While in Guyana, Charles is expected to meet with Ali and elected leaders of Amerindian villages known as “toshaos.”

Nikita Miller, toshao of Chinese Landing, a rural Amerindian community in northern Guyana, said she was not invited.

She noted that her community has been mired in a decades-long land fight with miners seeking to extract gold from the area, and she would have liked the opportunity to talk about an issue that affects other toshaos as well.

“We have been suffering,” she said. “We want the government to respect Indigenous rights. … We have long-standing issues with our land.”

Miller said she believes the king’s visit might help improve things for Guyana overall, but not for Amerindian villages.

After two days in Guyana, Charles is scheduled to fly to Antigua and Barbuda for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and meet with leaders of 56 member states. Talks are expected to focus on climate, trade and development, but some Caribbean leaders have said slavery reparations should dominate conversations.

The royals to skip Jamaica as it seeks more independence

The British royals have long visited Jamaica, but it’s not on Charles' itinerary this time.

It’s just as well, said 51-year-old Rastafarian Steven Bennett.

“We don’t need any royal wave or photo-taking while the wounds of our ancestors are still being ignored. He still refuses to formally apologize for chattel slavery,” Bennett said. “Until the British monarchy is ready to stand on Jamaican soil, look us in the eye, apologize, and talk about actual repair and restitution, he has no business here. We want justice, not a parade.”

Jamaica in recent years has been pushing to oust Charles as head of state and become a republic like Barbados did in 2021.

Antonio Williams, a 25-year-old university student, said young Jamaicans have zero connection to the Crown.

“I think Buckingham Palace has read the room after the absolute PR disaster of William and Kate’s Caribbean tour a few years back,” he said, referring to the 2022 visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales to the region, where they faced protests and calls for reparations.

“We are actively moving toward becoming a republic and breaking these colonial ties,” Williams said. “Having the king visit now would just be incredibly awkward. Skipping us is a sign that they know their influence here is expiring.”

But 68-year-old retired civil servant Hermine Reid recalled with fondness how Charles’ mother, Queen Elizabeth II, used to visit Jamaica.

“It was always such a grand, respectful occasion, and people would line the streets in their Sunday best,” she said. “Things are very different now. It’s a little sad for my generation to see how much the relationship has fractured, but I suppose this is simply the modern era. Jamaica is growing up and charting its own course, and the king clearly recognizes that.”

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Myers Jr. reported from Kingston, Jamaica.

He was injured on a drive with 1:14 remaining of Oklahoma City's game against the Los Angeles Clippers, getting tended to almost immediately by medical personnel after going down underneath the basket on the Thunder's offensive end.

Williams' ankle was draped by towels and players from both teams acted in immediate dismay and disbelief as the stretcher was brought out. The game was stopped for about five minutes, and the Thunder went on to finish a 108-101 victory.

“Just feel bad for him,” Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said in a postgame televised interview, fighting back tears as he spoke. “Nothing more than that.”

There was no immediate diagnosis from the Thunder, though it was obvious that the injury was severe — and the stretcher was called for within just a few seconds of the play ending. Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault said the team would be briefed Monday morning with the latest updates on Williams' condition.

“We're not doing great,” Daigneault said.

Williams, seated up on the stretcher, saluted the cheering fans with two thumbs-up signals as he was wheeled off the court.

“Our whole city will have JDub in our thoughts and prayers as he deals with this adversity and as he makes his way through his recovery,” Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt posted on social media after the game.

Williams — a shooting guard who entered Sunday having averaged 18 points per game in his first 250 NBA contests — has been an All-Star and an All-NBA player already in his career, plus was a huge part of the Thunder team that won the 2025 NBA title. He missed 49 games last season with an array of issues, mostly hamstring problems and recovery from a significant surgery on his right wrist.

“He just loves playing, loves the competition,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “That's who he is. ... It's unfortunate, his luck so far. But he's equipped for it.”

The Thunder play again Monday night at home against Phoenix. The schedule gives Oklahoma City little choice but to try and move on somewhat quickly, Daigneault said.

“We don’t have a choice,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “It’s what we signed up for. It’s obviously going to be tough without a player like that. He’s not gone forever. He’ll be back better than ever. We know it. We’ve just got to hold the fort down until he comes back.”

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See AP’s full NBA coverage here

As the rivalry intensifies, experts say the window for countries to be able to choose freely between the two AI superpowers may be narrowing, forcing them to at one point pick between the U.S.-led Pax Silica and the China-inspired World AI Cooperation Organization.

That could put many countries in a dilemma: Do they go with the U.S.’s most advanced chips and AI technologies, or join China’s more affordable, open-source AI systems?

Kazakhstan, a Central Asian nation of about 21 million people, is a rare example of a country that has sought to bridge that gap.

Just three weeks after its AI minister Zhaslan Madiyev visited Washington in June to join the U.S. group working to strengthen AI supply chains, he headed to Shanghai for a signing ceremony making the Central Asian country a founding member of China's initiative to shape the global AI agenda.

Being in Pax Silica means more technological partnerships, high-tech manufacturing jobs and a place in global AI supply chains. At the same time, as part of China’s World AI Cooperation Organization alongside 28 other initial founding countries including Pakistan and Russia, Kazakhstan hopes to also have a voice in setting regional and global AI standards.

“Everyone is hedging,” said Dana Masalimova, a former Kazakhstan diplomat and independent scholar and center associate at the Kathryn W. and Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University.

“We don’t want this binary choice,” she said.

Kazakhstan among countries hoping to harness the best of both blocs

Kazakhstan is benefiting from both U.S. and Chinese investments, but is in a “very precarious spot,” Masalimova said.

It has rich critical mineral resources essential to AI development and has cheap electricity to power data centers, which have become politically fraught in the U.S.

Earlier this year, Kazakhstan's government signed an investment deal worth up to $10 billion involving Nvidia to build a “data center valley” in the country.

Meanwhile, more Chinese companies are investing in Kazakhstan. Local officials say Chinese foreign direct investment in Kazakhstan reached a record $2.8 billion in 2025. Chinese leader Xi Jinping met with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in July to expand cooperation under China’s global infrastructure building Belt and Road initiative.

Washington’s pressure campaign versus Beijing’s courtship

Both China and the U.S. are leveraging access to AI to increase their global influence.

President Donald Trump insisted last month that “whoever wins AI, wins.” U.S. officials and AI companies have accused China of large-scale “distillation,” or extraction of capabilities, from frontier American models.

Beijing has rejected those claims and says the U.S. is pursuing an AI monopoly while restricting China’s access to some of the world’s most cutting-edge AI chips and chipmaking machinery.

Washington has signaled that Pax Silica — with China as its implicit target — is only for the trusted.

“Countries can’t be trusted partners in Pax Silica while substantively engaging in initiatives that advance a competing vision for super intelligence,” the U.S. State Department said, using the Trump administration’s new preferred term for AI.

For its part, Beijing touts the openness and inclusiveness of its World AI Cooperation Organization. “As both major countries in AI, China and the United States should leverage respective strengths in AI rather than guarding against each other,” the Chinese embassy in Washington said in a statement. “AI should not be owned by major countries.”

The two AI powers have different messaging largely because Beijing needs to court third countries in its bid to build an alternative coalition, whereas Washington already has a powerful network of allies, said Kyle Chan, a fellow at The Brookings Institution’s John L. Thornton China Center.

That lends power to what he described as “swing countries.”

Indonesia, Singapore may also be caught between China and the US

Like Kazakhstan, Indonesia has resources vital for AI and other technologies, such as nickel and copper. It's also seeking to make the most of both AI powers, having joined China's World AI Cooperation Organization.

Indonesia wants to benefit from both, Mari Pangestu, the Indonesian National Economic Council's vice chair, told reporters at a University of Hong Kong Business School event. “We should be able to be part of both, put it that way. And choose the best system.”

U.S. AI firms are bringing investments to other countries like Singapore, where Anthropic is setting up its latest Asia office. The city-state says it is also considering joining China’s AI organization.

In Saudi Arabia, the AI startup Humain unveiled in September a platform built on an open model by a Chinese AI company. The kingdom also has a deal with Nvidia to expand AI computing with its advanced chips.

France, one of the most ambitious AI developers aside from the U.S. and China, is attempting to go its own way with its startup Mistral, whose new model released this month outperforms some advanced Chinese models.

Japan is closely aligned with the U.S. on strategic and security issues, including advanced semiconductors, trusted AI and standards. But it will not reject the more affordable Chinese AI models for “lower-risk applications,” said Takahiro Tsuchiya, a professor at Kyoto's University of Foreign Studies.

Difficult to challenge the 2 leading powers

For countries like the U.K. and Germany, which have substantial economic and military capacity but no self-developed powerful frontier AI models of their own, aligning with the U.S. may be vital for their access to data centers and chip deals with U.S. companies, said Anton Leicht and Sam Winter-Levy at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Essentially, their access to advanced AI systems “depends on the whims of policymakers in Washington and Beijing,” they said, while those countries may have limited influence over AI’s future.

China, meanwhile, has been closing the technology gap with the U.S. when it comes to chipmaking and advanced AI capabilities, but it still trails top U.S. technological capabilities, at least for now.

Also, Beijing's open-source approach allows countries to be less reliant on the U.S., and China has been providing funding for developing countries to develop their own AI ecosystems, said Alberto Lemma, a research fellow at the think tank ODI Global.

To date, China has provided official sector grants and loans for projects and activities that use or enable AI technologies in at least 77 low- and middle-income countries, according to the AidData research lab at William & Mary, a public university in Virginia. Some top recipients include Nigeria, Zambia, Ghana, Bangladesh, Senegal, Cameroon and Kenya. Public perceptions are also changing. Recent study results from Pew Research Center have shown that people in middle-income countries are becoming more positive and trusting of China when it comes to AI and the technology’s regulation.

All things considered, many countries “don’t want to pick a side ... because there are advantages and disadvantages to each technology stack,” said Aalok Mehta, director of the Wadhwani AI Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Most countries may eventually lack a good option since they cannot compete on building AI frontier models, but “every country in the world in some way or another is thinking about AI sovereignty," he said. After all, “maybe no other country than the U.S. and China can really build these very large, powerful models.”

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Tang reported from Washington.

It was her first appearance since the U.S. military deposed the country’s then-President Nicolás Maduro in January, replacing him with an interim president who has exceeded the time she was authorized to serve, with no election scheduled.

Machado announced her arrival on social media, writing, “I am here. With you.”

Another leading figure in the Venezuelan opposition, Edmundo González, wrote on X that he would be at her side “very soon.”

“Today is a very important day for Venezuelans," he wrote. "Our sovereign voice returns with her to lead and guide this process!”

Venezuela run by Maduro ally backed by the Trump administration

On Sunday afternoon, Machado strode into a church in the state of Lara, west of Caracas, shocking dozens who began to applaud as they shook her hand and hugged her, with cellphones aloft to record her return.

“María! María!” one person cried, as another shouted, “Welcome to Venezuela!”

One woman wiped away tears and called it “a miracle” while another woman’s hands flew to her face as she saw Machado enter the church.

“Long live freedom, damn it!” a man yelled.

Machado arrived in Caracas late Sunday as thousands of people joined the hours-long caravan or awaited it.

“The future of my children is in your hands. Please!” said a man who teared up as he ran alongside her car.

Asked by reporters Sunday about Machado’s return to Venezuela, U.S. President Donald Trump said, “I don’t know anything about it, but I think she’s a very nice woman. She gave me her Nobel Prize. So how can I say anything else? And I hope she’s safe. She’s a very nice woman. But we’re doing really well in Venezuela.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X Sunday that the conditions allowing for Machado’s safe return “is the direct result of the U.S. supported reconciliation talks."

“The United States expects the freedoms of all sectors of Venezuelan politics to continue to be respected. Likewise, we expect all political actors to support these talks which represent the best chance Venezuela has had in thirty years to peacefully achieve not just a free and fair election but an enduring democracy,” he wrote.

Rubio has argued that before holding new elections, Venezuela must stabilize its economy and rebuild its institutions, including its courts and electoral council.

Brian Fonseca, a Venezuela expert and professor at Florida International University, said he thought her arrival was politically motivated when he first heard the news.

“But at the same time, it’s very symbolic,” he said. “Until there’s institutional change, or institutional space for the democratic opposition, this is a symbolic gesture.”

Fonseca said Machado’s arrival could complicate Washington’s strategy and might be a sign of talks about elections in Venezuela.

He said it remains to be seen how much latitude Machado is given and what steps she’ll take, adding that it could have consequences for the U.S. midterms.

Since Maduro’s ouster, Venezuela has been run by acting President Delcy Rodríguez, a longtime Maduro ally who received the Trump administration’s blessing to succeed him.

Rodríguez was initially supposed to serve only 90 days as acting president, but has remained in office and has made no move to call an election.

Machado was briefly detained in January 2025, following a protest against Maduro’s planned swearing-in ceremony, and went into hiding in Venezuela for 11 months. After making a clandestine escape from the country, she reappeared that December in Norway, where she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her peaceful challenge to Maduro’s authoritarian government.

Machado and her allies have been demanding a date for a presidential election in Venezuela, but U.S. officials have emphasized economic stabilization first.

Credible evidence shows the opposition won the last election

In October 2023, Machado won an opposition primary and intended to challenge Maduro in the 2024 presidential election, but the government barred her from running for office.

González took her place on the ballot, and ample credible evidence showed that he defeated Maduro by more than a 2-to-1 margin. But the National Electoral Council, which is stacked with ruling-party loyalists, declared Maduro the winner.

The lead-up and aftermath of the election were marked by widespread government repression, including forced disappearances, torture and other human rights violations. More than 2,000 people, including poll workers, were detained in the days after the vote.

In January, the U.S. military captured Maduro in Caracas and whisked him to New York to face drug-related charges, which he has denied. Many Venezuelans were stunned by the Trump administration’s decision to work with Rodríguez, instead of Machado, to try to revitalize the crisis-racked country.

Machado has demanded a date for a presidential election

Machado had repeatedly vowed to return to Venezuela and, according to her party, she made seven unsuccessful attempts.

One of the efforts would have seen her take a charter boat, but the operator canceled the trip, alleging the vessel was unfit for navigation. In another attempt, her team said, Machado tried to fly to the Caribbean island of Curacao, from where she could take a speedboat to Venezuela, but her plane was denied landing permits.

Opposition activists have accused Venezuela’s government of blocking Machado’s return, a claim denied by Venezuelan authorities. Others have also questioned whether the Trump administration has also been involved in the efforts to stop her from returning.

Trump administration officials deny they are holding Machado back but have said that, on some occasions, they have advised her against returning due to safety concerns.

After Maduro was deposed, Venezuela’s highest court said Rodríguez could serve as acting president for up to 90 days — an interim appointment that could be extended by the National Assembly for an additional 90 days. But the ruling party-controlled assembly never voted to extend her term.

Machado and her allies have demanded that the Rodríguez government set a date for a presidential election. Rodríguez told the U.N. General Assembly in September that Venezuelans will determine the “right moment” for the next election.

Supporters of Machado have held demonstrations in Caracas demanding her return.

___

Garcia Cano reported from New York City; Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Associated Press reporter Josh Boak in Washington, D.C. contributed to this report.

With 100% of the vote counted, Brazil’s electoral court said Lula held an unassailable lead. The announcement capped an evening of chaos at polling places following a last-minute decision to extend voting by two hours. That decision by a Supreme Court justice may trigger legal action by Bolsonaro.

The son of imprisoned former President Jair Bolsonaro bested Lula by more than 2.2 million votes in the first round of voting earlier this month. More than 33 million of the nearly 160 million registered voters did not turn out.

The difference between the two candidates was stark. Bolsonaro and Lula have opposing ideological views on issues ranging from U.S.-Brazil relations and climate change to social welfare.

Here's the latest:

Bolsonaro won't concede election defeat

Flávio Bolsonaro refused to concede defeat to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who bested him by nearly 4.4 million votes Sunday, following a chaotic delay in poll closing times ordered by a Supreme Court justice.

Both Bolsonaro and Lula asked that polls remain open late after issues with public transportation and inclement weather in some parts of Brazil. The decision to keep polls open came three minutes before scheduled poll close; some polls got word after they’d closed and it’s unclear how many votes were cast in the extended hours.

Bolsonaro called the move to extend voting hours unprecedented — though both he and Lula made the request — and asked for the election results to be annulled, saying it was impossible to accept the results. His father, Jair Bolsonaro, is serving a 27-year sentence for an attempted coup following his defeat to Lula in 2022.

Lula addresses supporters

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva expressed his gratitude to the Brazilian people and pledged to respect all Brazilians after he won reelection Sunday.

“No one is required to like the president-elect, but he must govern for everyone,” Lula said as he addressed supporters.

He also attacked Bolsonaro. “This was a defeat for denialism and lies,” he said.

Citing his age and political experience, he said: “I want to make a commitment: I will deliver the best term any president has ever served. I will dedicate myself 24 hours a day to making this the country that everyone dreams of.”

Lula and his wife celebrate with cake

A video published by his campaign shows Lula celebrating with first lady Rosângela da Silva and allies after his runoff victory was confirmed by Brazil’s electoral court. Wearing star-shaped red glasses, he kissed his wife as a small cake appeared on a table. Lula will turn 81 on Tuesday.

Meanwhile hundreds of his supporters are arriving on Paulista Avenue, São Paulo’s main artery, to kick off celebrations into the night. Some supporters of Flávio Bolsonaro are nearby, which caused police to go to the region.

In Copacabana, two bars facing each other on a busy road filled with supporters of the opposing candidates watching the results.

As it became apparent the night was going in Lula’s favor, Bolsonaro supporters paid the bill and left the bar shaking their heads, as cries of “Olé olé olé ola Lula” rang out and supporters of the incumbent shouted and jumped around in joy.

Rodrigo Valentim, a 51-year-old businessman, said another Lula government would harm the economy.

“I don’t understand how people can vote for Lula,” he said. “The country is collapsing.”

A few meters away, Raquel Costa, who owns a small business, said she felt relief at Lula’s victory.

“Winning always feels good, but this isn’t about winning just for winning. This is about increased social justice, about how we look at ourselves and at the future,” she said.

Lula wins fourth term, electoral court says

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was reelected Sunday in a result that provides relief to critics of U.S. President Donald Trump and keeps some distance between Latin America’s biggest economy and Washington.

With 100% of the vote counted, Brazil’s electoral court said the soon to be 81-year-old Lula held an unassailable lead. The announcement capped an evening of chaos at polling places across Brazil, following a last-minute decision to extend voting by two hours. That decision by a Supreme Court justice may trigger legal action by opponent Flávio Bolsonaro.

His triumph bucks a trend in Latin America where increasing numbers of right-of-center presidental candidates allied with Trump have been winning, further extending the United States’ influence in the region. Lula’s victory leaves Mexico and Brazil, Latin America’s two most populous nations, with left-of-center leaders. It also positions Latin America’s largest economy, with a GDP of $2.6 trillion per year, to remain independent of the U.S., despite the pressure of increased tariffs imposed by Trump.

Brazil resumes tallying votes after last-minute extension of polling station hours

Brazilian Supreme Court Cristiano Zanin ruled shortly after the polls closed that voters nationwide would have another two hours to cast their ballots — at the request of both candidates.

Confusion reigned at many polling stations. Some had already shut down when the decision — made three minutes before poll close time — was relayed to them several minutes after they’d already shut down, and results were paused until the end of the two-hour window.

In Brasilia, volunteers who oversaw the vote count at a school debated whether they needed to stay after the announcement to extend voting, but most left 15 to 20 minutes after polls closed and they had given count information to electoral authorities. At a polling station in Rio de Janeiro, the voting machines had already been switched off minutes after polls were set to close and couldn’t be turned back on.

Eduardo Bolsonaro, brother of Flávio, greets supporters in Miami

Eduardo Bolsonaro, presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro’s brother and a 42-year-old former lawmaker, spoke to supporters at a polling station in Miami, Florida.

“What we really need is freedom,” Eduardo Bolsonaro said, as he called for judicial reform. “Most of the people here are coming to vote to free Jair Bolsonaro ... we need to reform the judiciary, we need to free the political prisoners.”

Eduardo Bolsonaro was sentenced for lobbying to impose sanctions against members of the Brazilian government and implement higher tariffs on the country’s exports during the trial of his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, for a coup attempt.

It is unclear whether Eduardo Bolsonaro cast a ballot. Pre-trial detainees can vote in elections, but those convicted with a final sentence cannot as their political rights are suspended.

Eduardo Bolsonaro’s trial has been finalized and earlier this month, Moraes issued a warrant for his arrest. Eduardo Bolsonaro has lived in the U.S. since 2025 and experts say it is unlikely he will be extradited.

Both candidates seek to extend voting hours after problems with buses

With minutes to go before poll closing time, both presidential candidates are asking Brazil’s electoral court to extend voting hours in some cities. The request from President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva came after issues in nine states with buses that provide transportation to polls. Flávio Bolsonaro’s is due to heavy rains in the nation’s south. Polls were expected to close nationwide at 5 p.m.

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Kássio Nunes, who also heads the country’s electoral court, told journalists in capital Brasilia that some cities are indeed experiencing bus shortages, but did not answer whether the voting hours will be extended. He did not address Bolsonaro’s request in his comments.

Trump says he’s watching the Brazilian election

While leaving the White House on Sunday, President Donald Trump declined to endorse anyone in Brazil’s presidential election. “I don’t want to get into that,” he told reporters.

But the president added that his administration was tracking the race. “We are watching,” Trump said.

What newspapers in Brazil are saying

Brazilian newspapers are stressing that Sunday’s runoff between Lula and Bolsonaro will be a nail-biter, though Bolsonaro’s campaign is more optimistic after recent polls.

Folha de S.Paulo cited an analysis by its own pollster to say the election result is still open, but Lula will have to see his voters increase turnout to close the 2.2 million-vote gap between the two in the first round.

Rio de Janeiro-based O Globo, owned by Brazil’s biggest media company, reported that Bolsonaro, who was handpicked by his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, overcame initial fears in the right-wing camp that he would not be a competitive candidate because of recent corruption investigations involving him.

How the regions split votes

Brazil was sharply divided across its five main regions in the first round of the presidential election.

Flávio Bolsonaro won in three of the country’s five regions, but Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took the second most populous by wide margins. Bolsonaro won in the populous and rich Southeast, where Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais states lie. They will be the key battlegrounds in Sunday's runoff.

Bolsonaro, 45, carried the agribusiness hub of the country’s Center-West and easily won in the South, which borders Uruguay and Argentina. Lula erased much of Bolsonaro’s gains by winning in the Northeast and also triumphed in the North, the region that includes the Amazon rainforest.

Lula voters cite his history of supporting marginalized Brazilians

Luzia da Souza, who runs a bar in a middle-class neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, is a longtime supporter of incumbent Lula and identified herself as "a Black woman from the periphery.”

“Black people’s lives greatly improved during Lula’s terms,” she said, and blamed Congress — which is largely right-wing — for the slow pace of reform.

“A president doesn’t govern on his own,” da Souza said. “But Lula is a man of the people and he knows what it’s like to be poor. I find it impossible not to vote for him.”

Anderson Falcão, a 43-year-old journalist in Brasilia who sported a red shirt in support of Lula, said he worried about Bolsonaro’s long-term political vision, which he called “exclusionary.”

“It’s a project that harms the less fortunate, harms the worker, women, the forest, the Amazon,” he said.

Social media play outsized role

Brazil’s left was caught off guard when Flávio Bolsonaro bested incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva by over 2 million votes in Brazil’s first-round election.

Since then, it has made a clear bet on an unprecedented wave of digital activism and street protests to support Lula. The shift signals a turning point for the left, which has historically struggled to counter the far-right’s dominant online presence and savvy digital strategy.

Between the campaign’s launch on Aug. 16 and up to the first round, Lula and Bolsonaro had more or less the same number of interactions, according to data analytics company Bites. But since the beginning of the second round, the incumbent’s profiles received around 111 million interactions against Bolsonaro’s 31 million, it said.

Lula casts his ballot, thanks supporters

Lula voted in the city of Sao Bernardo do Campo, where he began his political career as a union leader in the 1960s.

“I am thankful to the Brazilian people. What people did to me in recent days is something I cannot repay,” he said before casting his vote and holding Brazil’s flag in front of the cameras.

He said he was still emotional about Saturday’s demonstration of support from voters in São Paulo. “I don’t think Paulista Avenue had so many people in any political event.”

“It is a lot of generosity, a lot of care, a lot of love. I will be forever grateful,” Lula said.

First lady Rosângela da Silva, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and other allies accompanied Lula to the polling station.

Mandated voting doesn’t mean everyone votes

Voting is mandatory for literate Brazilians aged 18 to 70. But that has never been a real consideration for nonvoters, who must either submit a formal justification online or at a polling station, or pay a small fine of less than $1.

More than 33 million people did not vote in the first round of the elections on Oct. 4. Some of those were hospitalized, living overseas or working outside their voting areas. And others just chose not to.

Unexcused absences in three consecutive elections freeze tax IDs, block nonvoters from applying to state jobs, hinders loans from state banks, and delays the issuance of passports. For those who don’t want to choose a candidate even when they show up, they can cast blank or null votes.

Some Bolsonaro voters evoke desire for change

Fabianne Borges Santoro, a 45-year-old physiotherapist who lives in the neighborhood where Bolsonaro voted, said she voted for change.

“The Workers’ Party has been in power for a long time and the voice of the people is saying that we need change to see improvements in security and the cost of living,” she said, wearing a top featuring Brazil’s national colors, yellow and green. “Things are really expensive and taxes are too high.”

Santoro said she once voted for Lula’s party but now associates it with corruption, particularly after the so-called Operation Car Wash that started in 2014, when the Workers’ Party was in power and entangled dozens of politicians.

Roulen Azeredo, a 76-year-old army reservist, said he had always voted right. He also echoed the desire for a shift in the country’s direction.

“The current government did nothing,” said Azeredo, who hopes Jair Bolsonaro, who is currently serving a 27-year sentence for attempting a coup, will be freed if the former president’s eldest son wins. “His imprisonment is a disgrace.”

Bolsonaro casts his ballot, calls for change

Presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro voted at a local school in Rio de Janeiro just after 8 a.m., accompanied by his wife, Fernanda Bolsonaro. Wearing a light yellow shirt, he smiled and waved to supporters waiting to see him in the rain.

“The time of real change has arrived,” Bolsonaro told journalists. “Brazil can’t go on another four years on its current trajectory.”

As Bolsonaro voted, supporters of the opposition candidate shouted “Lula, thief, your place is in prison,” while fans of the incumbent responded with clapping and the chant “Olé olé olé ola, Lula!” The two anthems are common in demonstrations.

Electronic voting means speedy results

In Brazil, voting is fully electronic — meaning votes are counted much more quickly than in some other countries.

Polls opened at 8 a.m. and will close at 5 p.m. Brasilia time (2000 GMT) in most of the country.

On the ballot: the presidential face-off between Lula and Bolsonaro and six gubernatorial races. Votes are tallied quickly because each ballot box calculates results locally and prints a paper summary. The encrypted data is transmitted via secure networks to the nation’s top electoral court in capital Brasilia, which aggregates and publishes the counts within hours.

The system has been in place since the 1990s with few questioning its efficiency. One of its critics is former President Bolsonaro.

The 42-year-old left the pocket on third-and-6 and picked up 8 yards before being tackled just before the two-minute warning to help Pittsburgh seal a 16-10 victory in the NFL’s first regular-season game in France.

“Sometimes you’ve got to suck it up and make a play for your guys,” Rodgers said. “I think because I am so much less athletic than I used to be, it actually fires up the guys even more.”

Rodgers threw a touchdown pass — the 540th of his career, moving past Peyton Manning for third in NFL history — and Chris Boswell kicked three field goals at Stade de France.

Jaylen Warren rushed for 101 yards on 18 carries and Rodgers completed 19 of 30 passes for 212 yards as the Steelers (5-2) won their third straight game.

Linebacker Payton Wilson had a red-zone interception of Tyler Shough in the third quarter and the Saints (2-5) couldn’t recover. New Orleans rushed for just 18 yards.

With the Saints threatening on their opening drive of the second half, Wilson stepped in front of a short pass intended for Chris Olave. The Steelers got in field-goal position and Boswell was good from 39 yards for a 16-10 lead.

“That’s honestly just a credit to our coaches and what we do every day in practice,” Wilson said. “I’ve repped that play, no lie, more than 20 times now. Just gambling a little bit and undercutting it.”

Seated side by side at the postgame news conference, Rodgers added: “Did it help that you picked me off in practice on this very similar play this week?”

Patrick Queen sacked Shough on third down to stall a New Orleans drive with under seven minutes left in the fourth quarter.

Shough completed 30 of 38 passes for 278 yards, one touchdown and the interception.

Just before halftime, Rodgers was sacked by Carl Granderson on third down, and with 15 seconds left and no timeouts, the Steelers offense ran to the sideline. Boswell sprinted on and kicked a 47-yard field goal to give Pittsburgh a 13-10 lead at the half.

Rodgers’ 4-yard touchdown pass to 6-foot-7, 265-pound tight end Darnell Washington — with 5-foot-11 cornerback Kool-Aid McKinstry in coverage — put the Steelers up 10-3.

Earlier on the drive, Rodgers moved in the pocket and found DK Metcalf for a 51-yard completion to the New Orleans 4. NFL France called it “quel caviar d’Aaron Rodgers.”

The Saints then tied it at 10-10 on Shough’s 1-yard touchdown pass to Devaughn Vele on fourth-and-goal from the 1.

Saints kicker Daniel Carlson missed a 52-yard field-goal attempt in the fourth quarter.

“When you have a day like today, 17 runs for 18 yards, it’s going to be hard to win football games doing that,” coach Kellen Moore said.

Shough said with such limited rushing success, “they know what’s coming in certain situations and they’re a good defense.”

Attendance was 78,488 and several players and coaches noted the good atmosphere.

Rodgers called the rendition of the French national anthem, La Marseillaise, “gorgeous.”

The Steelers quarterback did note, however, that it was sometimes confusing looking for the play-clock number among many other numbers on the stadium's scoreboard.

The atmosphere this week in Paris was tense following rioting and looting a week earlier during protests across the country over school funding and soaring living costs. Fans strolling Paris streets saw boarded-up storefronts and a heavy police presence ahead of more protests held Saturday.

Steelers coach Mike McCarthy said players and their families and friends “really enjoyed” Friday — when the team arrived — but stayed close to the hotel Saturday when more protests took place.

Injuries

Steelers: S DeShon Elliott was active for the first time in a year after returning from a knee injury.

Saints: CB Kool-Aid McKinstry was cleared to return after a concussion evaluation in the first half. ... RB CJ Donaldson left in the first half and was later ruled out. ... S Justin Reid was ruled out of the game early in the second half. ... Rookie Jeremiah Wright started in place of right guard Cesar Ruiz (knee).

Up next

Steelers: Host the Cleveland Browns before a bye in Week 9.

Saints: Bye week.

___

See AP’s full NFL coverage here

Trump called El-Sayed, a former Detroit health official, a “jihadist” who was “on the side of the terrorists” and would “have to go through a metal detector before he’s allowed to go into the Senate.” He also repeatedly invoked the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, drawing a comparison between stopping El-Sayed from entering the Senate chamber and the passengers who fought back against the hijackers aboard United Flight 93.

El-Sayed, who would become the nation’s first Muslim senator if elected, has called attacks on his loyalty to the country “shameful” and repeatedly denied any ties to extremist groups. The Republican president's remarks were condemned by Bishara Bahbah, a founder of Arab Americans for Trump, the group that helped lead the president’s outreach to Arab American voters in 2024.

“The president’s statements are out of line," he said in a phone interview. "They are crossing a red line. They are racist.”

With Republicans on the defensive over inflation, soaring fuel prices and the Iran war, the president has been trying to generate turnout by claiming that El-Sayed and other Democrats are existential threats to America, instead of electoral rivals. Michigan’s Senate race between El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers is among a handful of contests that could determine control of the chamber.

Trump made his remarks in Port Huron, a Canadian border city about an hour north of Detroit and near communities where he made significant gains among Arab American voters in 2024. He became the first Republican presidential candidate since 2000 to win Dearborn, a city with one of the nation’s largest concentrations of Arab Americans.

Trump, who imposed a travel ban targeting several predominantly Muslim countries during his first term, has increasingly leaned into anti-Muslim rhetoric as Election Day approaches. He also attacked Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota at Sunday’s rally, where he declared that he had come to Michigan “to keep a jihadist Muslim Brotherhood member from becoming a United States senator.”

Responding to Trump, who also regularly mocks his name, El-Sayed told supporters at a rally in Grand Rapids later Sunday that he doesn't care how Trump pronounces or misrepresents it.

“I don’t even care that he remembers my whole name because he can just go on and call me ‘senator’ after November,” El-Sayed said, drawing cheers. "I will be Senator Muhammad to you, bro.”

El-Sayed’s faith, associations and past statements become campaign flashpoints

Central to Republicans’ strategy against El-Sayed in the final weeks of the campaign has been an effort to link him to the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic movement with branches that the U.S. government has designated as terrorist organizations.

There is no evidence that El-Sayed has any affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood. His half-sister, Eman Abdelhadi, wrote on social media in 2012 that “my family has long been MB” and described a conversation with her mother about her involvement in the Muslim Brotherhood in the early 1970s.

El-Sayed was born in the United States to Egyptian immigrant parents who divorced when he was young. He was raised by his father, not his biological mother.

Trump on Sunday also targeted El-Sayed’s ties to popular streamer Hasan Piker, who appeared alongside the Democrat multiple times during the primary campaign, including at his election night event.

Piker in the past has said that “Hamas is a thousand times better” than Israel, describing some Orthodox Jews as “inbred” and that “America deserved 9/11.”

El-Sayed has faced criticism for his own rhetoric. He has repeatedly refused to answer questions about whether Iran or Israel poses a bigger threat to the country. Earlier this year, he said “hurt people hurt people” after an attack on a synagogue in the Detroit area. The attacker had lost four relatives in an Israeli airstrike on Lebanon the week earlier. El-Sayed later apologized, saying he was not trying to justify what happened.

“To anyone who feels like my comments might have been hurtful, I’m really sorry,” he said. “That was not my intention.”

Founder of Arab Americans for Trump calls the president ‘racist’

Bahbah, whose organization has since changed its name to Arab Americans for Peace, said Trump’s remarks were unacceptable to Arab and Muslim communities, including Christian Arabs.

“The remarks are out of line and crazy. I mean, no sane individual would say these things," Bahbah said.

Dearborn helped Trump win Michigan in 2024 after many voters in the city were outraged by the Biden administration's handling of the war in Gaza.

“The president of the United States saying that about a person because of his religion, that is just not acceptable,” said Bahbah. “And people are going to remember that on Nov. 3.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders, speaking at the Grand Rapids rally, said Trump and his allies were using Islamophobia because they have “nothing to say” about the issues most important to working people, such as health care, housing and income inequality.

“All they can do is foment hatred and divisiveness,” Sanders said.

The campaign has been one of the most contentious this year

Rogers and El-Sayed have been locked in a bitter race to fill the seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters.

During their second and final general election campaign debate, Rogers questioned El-Sayed's loyalty to the United States.

“Are you for America, or are you for these terrorist groups overseas?” Rogers asked.

El-Sayed said that questioning was “shameful.”

“I’m proud of our Constitution that guarantees all of us the right to pray as we choose to pray,” he said.

Speaking before Trump’s appearance Sunday, Rogers repeated his allegations linking El-Sayed to the Muslim Brotherhood.

“The Muslim Brotherhood celebrated exactly one victory in the United States in the primary this year,” Rogers said on stage. “Abdul El-Sayed's.”

Rally doesn't deliver a new economic handout, but gets boost from Minaj

Trump has routinely announced new investments in factories at his campaign rallies, but he did not do so as part of his speech in Michigan, a state defined by the auto industry.

The president instead repeated investments already being made by domestic automakers. Those automakers could see their finances slump if the president expands his trade war with Canada, which has been an essential partner for the U.S. automotive sector.

While it lacked a fresh promise for Michigan's economy, Trump's rally did deliver a bit of star power.

Rapper Nicki Minaj appeared on stage and urged people to get out and vote for the state's Republican ticket. Her appearance followed an awkward moment from Trump, who has increasingly been fixated on commenting about other people's body parts.

After praising the body of Ohio Sen. Jon Husted, a Republican in a close election contest, Trump turned his eye toward Minaj and commented on her posterior.

The president then signaled for Minaj to stand for the crowd and she did, after which Trump said, “I hope Nicki wasn’t insulted, but we love Nicki. She’s been with us for a long time.”

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Cappelletti reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this report.

Which made his performance Sunday even more remarkable.

In a game the Falcons desperately needed to win, Daniels came through with a team-high 11 tackles, made a crucial interception in the fourth quarter and, for good measure, recovered a fumble that finished off a 29-20 win over the previously unbeaten San Francisco 49ers.

“I'm really proud of that kid,” said coach Kevin Stefanski, who rewarded the 23-year-old linebacker with a game ball.

Once he left the hospital and was cleared physically, Daniels faced the inevitable mental challenge of getting back on the field without any lingering doubts or fears holding him back. He knew that his facemask-on-knee collision with Chicago Bears tight end Colston Loveland could have turned out much worse.

“I've never not walked off the field after an injury,” Daniels said. “So mentally, I had to be prepared. Going back home, I had to make sure I was OK mentally, more than anything, and not playing timid.”

No one would accuse him of timidity against Brock Purdy and the Niners.

Daniels turned up everywhere, making the sort of big plays the Falcons (3-4) needed to pick up their first home win of the season. Especially in the final quarter, when the fourth-round draft pick looked like a budding star with Atlanta clinging to a 26-20 lead.

On third-and-9 from just shy of midfield, Purdy attempted a pass over the middle. Daniels read it all the way, leaping high to deflect the ball into his own hands. With the pick secured, he took off the other way for a 29-yard return that set up Nick Folk's field goal with 1:56 remaining.

“I had missed one earlier in the game,” Daniels said. “I just knew I needed to make a play for my team.”

Daniels wasn't done, either.

The 49ers tried to race down the field for a touchdown or field goal that would've at least given them a shot at an onside kick. But Jessie Bates jarred the ball loose from George Kittle after a long completion, and Daniels, hustling all the way, fell on the fumble at the Falcons 20 with 47 seconds to go.

Bring on the victory formation.

Teammate Maason Smith marveled at how far Daniels had come in the past week.

“I can remember on Monday, he could barely turn his neck to either side,” Smith said. “To see him go through all that, then come back on the following Sunday and have a hell of a game is great to see. I hope to see more of it.”

Daniels conceded that he was still thinking about the injury when he came out for the warmups at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, a player alone with his thoughts after a harrowing ordeal.

“I wasn’t scared, but I definitely thought about it,” Daniels said. “I haven’t been in full pads all week. What if I’m not OK? But once I got my first tackle in pregame, I was good.”

He wouldn't get any argument from the 49ers, who lost for the first time this season largely because of four turnovers.

The Falcons can only hope their young linebacker's inspiring recovery signals a long-term turnaround for a long-suffering franchise.

Daniels is certainly looking forward. When fellow rookie linebacker Harold Perkins Jr. was slapping him on the back of his helmet in celebration as the final seconds ticked way, leaving the field the previous Sunday on a stretcher was long forgotten.

“That was the last thing I was worried about,” Daniels said with a grin.

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See AP’s full NFL coverage here

Jake Bates made a 22-yard field goal as time expired to give Detroit a 20-17 win over the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.

Campbell, who is known for taking risks, seemed to make a reckless decision to go for it on fourth-and-1 from his 24 with just under 5 minutes to play and Jahmyr Gibbs was stopped for no gain.

“I thought we would get it, No. 1," Campbell said. “No. 2, I knew we would get the ball back if it didn’t work out.”

One play after Jordan Love put a pass on Josh Jacobs’ hands for an incompletion that landed in in the end zone, rookie Trey Smack missed a 35-yard field goal after D.J. Wonnum got a finger on the football.

Smack was wide right from 26 in the first half and became the first kicker to miss two field goals from 35 yards or closer in same game since 2019, according to Sportradar.

“We had some premier field position and we just didn't take advantage,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. “We missed two field goals, but we know Trey is capable of making those.”

With a chance to drive for a winning score, Goff connected with Sam LaPorta on an 18 -yard pass and Karl Brooks was called for a late hit on the quarterback gave Detroit the ball at the Green Bay 45.

Gibbs had a 15-yard run and Brooks was called for being offside on third-and-5, giving Detroit a first down at the Packers 15.

Gibbs could have run for a touchdown twice because Green Bay didn’t want to tackle him, hoping to get the ball back. The running back wisely went down each time, the latter allowing Bates’ winning kick to come on the final play.

“That was as good as it gets at clock management,” Goff said.

The Lions (4-2) have won two straight for the first time this season, putting them in third place in the NFC North behind Minnesota (6-0) and Chicago (5-2).

Detroit hosts the undefeated Vikings on Sunday.

“Any division game is important,” said safety Brian Branch, who had a fourth-quarter interception in his first game since tearing his left Achilles tendon last December. “We need these. They're mini-playoff games.”

The Packers (4-3) had a three-game winning streak stopped and dropped to last place in the highly competitive NFC North. All four teams have winning records, matching the AFC North.

The Lions entered the game with only one turnover and lost two fumbles that took away chances for them to add to three-point leads late in the first half and early in the third quarter. The second turnover set up Love's 25-yard touchdown pass to Jacobs for a 14-10 Green Bay lead.

Detroit retook the lead on the ensuing drive on Goff's 10-yard scoring pass to Williams, who had two TD receptions for a second straight week.

The Lions missed another opportunity to add to a three-point lead when Campbell went for it on fourth-and-5 from the Green Bay 6 late in the third and Goff threw incomplete.

LaFleur passed on a field goal while trailing by three in the second quarter, and Love's pass to Matthew Golden was stopped for no gain on fourth-and-4 from the Detroit 7. But Smack had already missed from 26 by then.

Jacobs' return

Jacobs made his season debut less than a week after the three-time Pro Bowl running back was removed from the commissioner’s exempt list for pleading no contest to two misdemeanor charges stemming from a May altercation with his then-girlfriend. He had five receptions for 55 yards and a touchdown and 11 carries for 36 yards.

Flag day

Penalties gave Detroit five first downs, the most for the Lions since 2020.

“I’m not a fan of the refs right now,” Green Bay safety Xavier McKinney said in an expletive-filled response to questions about the officials.

LaFleur was more diplomatic.

“I could tell you what I really think, but it wouldn't do us any good,” he said.

Injuries

Packers: Starting C Sean Rhyan (ankle) and backup Jacob Monk (quad) were injured, putting second-year lineman John Williams in the game to snap for his first career appearance on offense. LaFleur said he would not expect Rhyan on Monk to play on Thursday night against Carolina.

Lions: C Cade Mays made his Detroit debut after signing as a free agent in the offseason. He injured a wrist in training camp. ... Oft-injured CB Ennis Rakestraw (ankle) was hurt during the game.

Up next

Packers: Host the Panthers on Thursday night.

Lions: Host the Vikings on Sunday.

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See AP’s full NFL coverage here

With more showers and thunderstorms moving through, the National Weather Service issued a flood watch for much of the Four Corners region — the meeting point of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. The area has experienced unusually heavy rain since Wednesday that caused rivers to surge, flooding homes and forcing water rescues.

“The soils are very saturated right now, so it’s not going to take much rain for at least the small creeks and streams to overflow,” said Kris Sanders, a meteorologist at the weather service office in Grand Junction, Colorado.

A tornado touched down in Santa Fe, New Mexico, around 7 p.m. Saturday, and forecasters were trying to confirm whether twisters also struck elsewhere in the state, said meteorologist Scott Overpeck with the weather service office in Albuquerque. He did not have damage estimates.

Michelle Vialpando spotted a tornado from her patio in the Aldea de Santa Fe neighborhood, facing north towards Los Alamos. She had just gotten home from work and stepped outside to look at what she called “crazy” storm clouds when she noticed the twister.

“I was pretty surprised at what I was seeing and just started snapping photos,” Vialpando wrote Sunday via Facebook. “I was literally in shock. I’ve lived in Santa Fe my entire life and have never seen anything like that before.”

Many remain evacuated and hundreds are without power in the Farmington area

In the Farmington area of New Mexico, local officials said swollen rivers were receding but that many people remained evacuated and hundreds were without power.

San Juan County, New Mexico, did not have official figures on the number of homes damaged or how many people were evacuated, but officials were not aware of any deaths, spokesperson Devin Neeley told The Associated Press.

“It’s a pretty active disaster zone,” he said.

About 4 feet (1.2 meters) of water flooded the home of county Sheriff Shane Ferrari. He said the area’s situation was stable Sunday, but he and other residents were trying to clean up.

Floodwaters could be contaminated with chemicals and raw sewage, officials warn

Officials in the hard-hit county urged patience and caution Sunday. Water could be contaminated with chemicals and raw sewage, and gas and propane lines could be broken, among other hazards.

“The public is anxious to get back in,” San Juan County Fire & Rescue Chief David Vega acknowledged at a news conference. “But I want the public to know there are still hazards out there.”

Undersheriff Cory Tanner said officials were going from house to house to check for hazards — a process that could take days to complete.

Zach and Abigail Flatt started putting together go-bags after receiving evacuation orders on their phones Thursday evening. Their home in Bloomfield, New Mexico, sits on the San Juan River, and Zach drove along the banks watching the water rise at an alarming rate.

“In 30 or 40 minutes it had jumped about four feet,” Zach recalled Sunday. “After I saw that big jump, and how close it was to going over the banks, I said we've got to get out.”

By the time the family was loaded into the car, water was coming up over the tires. They found a hotel room with their two children, ages 2 and 4, and watched via webcams as at least 18 inches (.45 meters) of water inundated their property, washing away 22 of their 24 chickens.

“We watched stuff just float away, off the porch into the front yard,” Zach said.

Authorities are still assessing damage in the Navajo Nation and in a Colorado county

In the Shiprock, New Mexico, area of the Navajo Nation, wastewater facilities and water holding ponds were damaged by flooding, causing sewage releases into the San Juan River, according to Navajo Tribal Utility Authority Shiprock District Manager Wilfred Franklin Jr. Officials didn't know Sunday how much sewage made it into the river.

New Mexico's congressional delegation on Sunday urged President Donald Trump to declare an emergency for the state to release federal assistance funding.

In Colorado, teams were doing welfare checks and aerial scanning to understand the extent of the destruction from flooding in Archuleta County. It was still unknown how much damage was caused, but the sheriff, Mike Le Roux, called it catastrophic. As of Sunday evening, there were no reports of injuries or loss of life, said Vicki Shaffer, a spokesperson with the Colorado incident management team.

The flooding is just the latest from two months of on-and-off heavy rain in the region caused by tropical moisture coming ashore from the Pacific. After months of drought, other recent deadly flooding struck the Grand Canyon and other areas of New Mexico.

Forecasters said El Niño, the natural and temporary warming of parts of the Pacific, was likely to blame for the latest storm's unusually heavy rainfall.

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Associated Press writers Anna Wilder in Austin, Texas, and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed.

Peralta is finally in the Fall Classic. So are the Brewers. Just on opposite sides.

Even in a different uniform, Peralta has received cheers from the Milwaukee crowds as his Tampa Bay Rays try to prevent the Brewers from winning their first World Series title. Peralta will be Tampa Bay’s starting pitcher in Game 3 on Monday in St. Petersburg, Florida. Milwaukee leads the Series 2-0.

“It is a little weird,” Peralta said Saturday. “I’ve been trying to focus on what I have to focus because even when I came out yesterday for practice, all the people, all the fans here (were) showing me some love, screaming my name. Also, when I went to the bullpen last night, they were telling me, ‘We still love you.’ It’s amazing.”

Perhaps this strange situation is the most fitting way for Peralta’s roller-coaster season to conclude.

Peralta went 5-9 with a 4.99 ERA for the New York Mets before going to Tampa Bay at the trade deadline. Just over two months later, he was voted the MVP of the AL Championship Series.

Tampa Bay has won each of Peralta’s last nine starts. He has posted a major league-leading 0.90 ERA during that stretch. Peralta has allowed two runs over 16 2/3 innings this postseason.

“I feel like he’s kind of come back to being Freddy Peralta with us,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said.

Shining with the Rays after struggling with the Mets

Peralta went 70-42 with a 3.59 ERA for the Brewers from 2018-25, making two All-Star teams. He had only one year remaining on his contract when the Brewers traded him in January for pitcher Brandon Sproat and infielder Jett Williams.

As the Mets struggled this season, Peralta endured one of the worst stretches of his career. He allowed seven runs over 5 1/3 innings in an 8-3 loss at Milwaukee on July 20 that caused his ERA to rise to 5.01.

“We knew when he faced us (with) the Mets, that wasn’t him,” Brewers pitcher Brandon Woodruff said. “I could see it visually. I’d seen him throw about every pitch in the big leagues up until this year.”

Peralta was asked Saturday what went wrong in New York.

“Sometimes I ask the same question myself,” Peralta replied. “I don’t try to make excuses and all that. The good thing, I was feeling really good physically. I was trying to give the best of myself as always, and I prepared how I should be preparing. But I don’t know. For some reason, things weren’t going my way.”

Peralta would make one more appearance for the Mets before they sent him to Tampa Bay for a package of prospects including outfielder Aidan Smith, infielder Émilien Pitre and pitcher Gary Gill Hill.

Winning friends in the clubhouse

Cash said he got a call shortly after the trade from San Francisco Giants shortstop Willy Adames, who started his career at Tampa Bay before playing alongside Peralta in Milwaukee from 2021-24.

Adames’ message to Cash was that the Rays were getting one of the best guys in baseball. Sure enough, Peralta made an instant impact in the locker room.

“An extreme vibes guy,” Rays shortstop Taylor Walls said. “He’s always smiling. I’ve never seen him not smile. From the time he steps foot in the clubhouse to the time he leaves, he’s always working. He’s on the first bus in and the last bus out.”

The Brewers feel the same way about him. Milwaukee reliever Aaron Ashby called Peralta “one of the best teammates you can have.”

“He was a huge part in our organization’s success, and everyone over there in our clubhouse loves that dude,” Ashby said.

Peralta’s turnaround with Tampa Bay wasn’t immediate.

He allowed 17 runs over 21 1/3 innings in his first four appearances with the Rays as his ERA climbed to 5.11. But he caught fire from there and ended up going 5-2 with a 3.25 ERA in 10 regular-season starts with Tampa Bay.

Cash credits Peralta for communicating what he needed to do to get better and going out and doing it. As his fastball velocity improved, so did his results.

“He’s in his element, man,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “That’s ‘Fastball Freddy.’ Changeup’s been great, a pitch that he really worked on here and got better.”

Peralta wants to give the Rays their first World Series title, even at his former team’s expense. Peralta didn’t pitch in the first two games in Milwaukee because Cash wanted to save him for Tropicana Field, where the right-hander has sparkled in three playoff starts.

“I know how special it is to pitch on this mound here in Milwaukee,” Peralta said. “I would like to pitch here during the postseason.”

If the World Series extends to six or seven games, he might get that chance.

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

“Hey, thanks, guys. I didn’t know Quinn threw a knuckleball,” the Brewers manager said Sunday after the plane encountered a little turbulence.

GJ Priester, an uncle of Brewers pitcher Quinn Priester, was captain of the flight on a United Airlines Boeing 737. Alex Priester, a cousin of the right-hander, was first officer.

“Our flight was smooth as heck all flight and right when we came in, it really got a little knuckleballish,” Murphy said, holding his right hand out and shaking it like a bouncing plane.

Murphy said the Brewers had five charter flights to bring all the family members and employees to the games at Tropicana Field. The Brewers held a 2-0 lead over the Tampa Bay Rays going into Game 3 of the best-of-seven series on Monday.

“The landing was a little rough,” Brewers reliever Aaron Ashby said light-heartedly. “Certainly a cool thing. I guess we’re in good hands.”

GJ Priester was hired by United Airlines in 1995 and is a member of the family that founded Priester Aviation, which arranges charter flights.

Dwight Schmidt, father of New York Yankees pitcher Clarke Schmidt, piloted the team’s family charter flights during the 2024 World Series.

Quinn Priester has not pitched for the Brewers since last year's NL Championship Series. The 26-year-old started the season on the injured list because of right thoracic outlet syndrome and made eight minor league injury rehabilitation appearances from April 22 through June 8.

He had season-ending surgery on June 22 with Dr. Gregory Pearl, who removed a rib to create space around nerves.

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Tonight will be mostly cloudy and cool with temperatures in the 60s. Winds could gust up to 40 mph at times, especially along the coast.

Coastal flooding will also be possible. Moderate to major coastal flooding can be expected. Should rain occur during high tide, the risk of flooding will increase.

A COASTAL FLOOD WARNING is in effect through Tuesday morning for our Georgia zones and Wednesday morning for our Florida zones.

This highlights the risk for moderate to major coastal flooding during high tide (around 8 AM Monday morning).

Monday will feature a mostly cloudy sky, and it will be windy once again. Highs will be in the low to mid 70s and winds could gust up to 40 mph at times, especially along the coast.

The strong northeasterly wind will continue to bring coastal hazards to our area. These include significant tidal flooding, rough surf and a higher risk for rip currents.

The pattern will remain the same for most of the upcoming week. This will keep more clouds around along with wind and cooler temperatures.

Rain coverage will decrease during this time frame. A few showers will be possible, especially along the coast.

Regarding the drought, the latest drought monitor reflects improvement across our area. Several areas have been downgraded to the lowest category (abnormally dry).

While we are still in a deficit, rainfall this week will once again lead to more improvement in the next outlook.

TONIGHT: Mostly Cloudy. Isolated Rain. Windy. Low 65.

MONDAY: Mostly Cloudy. Windy. Isolated Rain. High 74, Low 61.

TUESDAY: Mostly Cloudy. Mainly Dry. Windy. High 76 Low 63.

WEDNESDAY: Mostly Cloudy. Mainly Dry. Windy. High 76, Low 65.

THURSDAY: Mostly Cloudy. Isolated Rain. Windy. High 77, Low 66.

FRIDAY: Mostly Cloudy. Isolated Rain. Breezy. High 77, Low 66.

“I screwed up,” he said. “I felt like, ‘Man, another one I just gave away.’ And I probably never am going to have an opportunity to win a speedway race that easily with so many allies around me. And so I was just mad.”

About 30 seconds later, he was jubilant after picking the perfect time to make some perfect moves for his first victory at the 2.66-mile oval that has been among his worst in the NASCAR Cup Series.

“All of a sudden, everything just opened up,” he said. “An unbelievable way to get my first speedway win. It all just worked out.”

Desperate for a rebound after his worst finish of the Chase, the defending series champion expanded his points lead by a wide margin with a breathtaking rally from 11th to first through the last two corners of the final lap.

Larson took the white flag in the lead but lost 10 spots in the first two turns after being unable to handle several bumps by the No. 33 Chevy Austin Hill, who was trying to push him to the win.

“Just crazy to get the win after falling back as far as we did,” said Larson, who benefited from a drafting push by the No. 1 Chevy of Ross Chastain (who took fourth). "I went left, and everybody was just staying high.”

In a three-wide finish, Larson took the checkered flag by a few feet over Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron, who spent much of the race pushing Larson to the front. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished 0.066 seconds behind in third place.

“It’s good that Kyle won,” Byron said. “We worked really well together all day. If I couldn’t win, I wanted him to win.”

Larson credited the drafting help from Byron and several other Chevy drivers who kept him near the front.

“I felt like the rest of the Chevys were going to go wherever I went,” Larson said. “I could kind of carve the way, and they would follow, and that just gives you a lot of confidence.”

His faith in a title repeat was also restored.

With his third victory in the past seven races, Larson moved 73 points ahead of Denny Hamlin in the Chase standings with two races remaining.

There are 76 maximum points available for a race win, so it’s possible that Larson could clinch his third championship with a win Nov. 1 at Martinsville Speedway. After leading by only five points entering the race, Larson gleefully blurted out a vulgarity when he saw the postrace standings that had Hamlin virtually conceding defeat.

“They’ve done a lot of things right, and a lot of things have really gone right, and we’ve not done that,” Hamlin said. “And so we’ve got a big old gap, and I think as long as (Larson) can keep his four tires on it the next two weeks, then he’ll be a champion again."

Larson drove like a champion Sunday as he rarely has at the Cup circuit’s three drafting tracks where drivers run inches apart at 200 mph.

Prior to his 35th career victory, Larson had a series-worst average finish of 30.6 at Talladega, Daytona and Atlanta, and hadn’t won on any of the tracks in 58 prior starts (the longest superspeedway drought among active drivers).

But he led 21 laps and engineered two impressive comebacks, the first starting with 15 laps remaining after he dropped from the lead to 21st in four laps.

He had made his way back to second with six laps remaining when a 15-car crash erupted. The race went into overtime after a 13-minute cleanup for a pileup that included Chase driver Joey Logano’s Ford landing on its roof.

While Larson made nearly all the right moves in the finicky draft where a split-second mistake can a large pileup, other title contenders made some costly errors over the course of 500 miles.

A 12-car crash on the 132nd lap collected five Chase drivers, effectively ending the championship hopes for Ryan Blaney and Tyler Reddick.

“Just a bumper car-type thing,” said Blaney, who lost control of his No. 12 Ford on a bump from Bubba Wallace after swinging into the top lane. “Ended up crashing and took a lot of others. Maybe it wasn’t the best move by me. I have to think about it more.

“This one hurts. We needed to have a good day.”

Christopher Bell, who entered just five points behind Larson, crashed after spinning while entering the pits under green for his first pit stop on Lap 56. He finished 35th and dropped to third in the standings. 74 points behind Larson.

Snookering the field

The Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing trio of Chris Buescher, Ryan Preece and Brad Keselowski swept the top three spots in the first stage with a unique strategy that had the rest of the field nearly a lap down at one point.

With many drivers conserving fuel to shorten their first green-flag pit stop, Buescher, Preece and Keselowski broke from the pack with laps that were 10 seconds faster. They had a lead of more than 40 seconds and easily stayed more than half a lap ahead of the field through the end of the stage on the 98th lap.

“A great game of poker where we just called the field,” Keselowski radioed his team. “I love it.”

Up next

The NASCAR Cup Series will head to its final short track of the season with Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, Nov. 1. Chase Elliott outdueled Denny Hamlin for the victory earlier this season.

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

In a back-and-forth showdown between storied programs, Duke escaped the Phog with a 74-70 overtime victory.

The Jayhawks got the last laugh, though: They avenged the defeat six weeks later, down the road in Kansas City, Missouri, when they beat Duke in the Final Four. The team known as “Danny and the Miracles” went on to beat Oklahoma for the championship.

That explains how rare on-campus games are between two of college basketball’s true blue bloods. Preseason second-ranked Duke and No. 17 Kansas have met only 16 times, and that game 38 years ago remains the only game in Lawrence — until Sunday, when the Blue Devils edged the Jayhawks 90-84 in the latest in a wave of high-profile matchups important on the court and off it.

“This is a special thing, you know, the fact that our two programs haven’t played here,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. “Nothing about it felt like an exhibition game. You know, the environment, everything here was beyond special. So for us to go on the road, play, you know, a really good team — hungry team — I think we learned a lot.”

Iron sharpens iron with no nicks in the armor

The first benefit of these exhibitions is obvious: The opportunity to play a high-level game with no risk to your record.

Throughout the 1980s, ’90s and into the early 2000s, top schools played their exhibitions against elite amateur teams made up mostly of former college athletes. They had names like Marathon Oil and Athletes in Action, some sponsored by companies and others operating as a sports ministry or for another such purpose. Even the Harlem Globetrotters occasionally shelved their comedic antics for a night and sent out a highly competitive team to take on college basketball’s best.

In most cases, they offered some pretty stiff competition on the eve of the new season.

But when the NCAA passed a rule change in April 2004 saying Division I schools could no longer play non-college teams, they had to begin scheduling tune-ups against Division II and Division III schools that rarely provided the same challenge.

Eventually, Division I coaches wisened up and began playing “secret scrimmages” with no fans or media, though the results inevitably leaked. Then those games became public under the guise of charity exhibitions, and quite naturally, became the sort of exhibition game that just about every major college basketball team is playing this season.

“Our league is so good, you’re going to hit some road blocks, so you prepare for that,” explained TCU coach Jamie Dixon, whose team beat Wyoming in an exhibition game last week. “You know there’s going to be ups and downs. It’s not an easy road.”

Money matters in the current college landscape

The other benefit to high-profile exhibitions like Duke-Kansas is quite simple: money.

Isn’t that just about the only thing that matters in this era of college basketball, where players are freely transferring between schools in search of the most cash, and the NCAA Tournament has expanded to 76 teams in large part to drive more revenue?

The matchup between the Blue Devils and Jayhawks is sponsored by an insurance company — the State Farm Blue Blood Classic — and broadcast by ESPN, with Kansas due to visit Cameron Indoor Stadium next October for the first time since 1989.

Four hours before tipoff Sunday, prime courtside seats were listed for more than $6,300 on some ticket marketplaces.

“The good thing about the game is it’s not a conference game. It’s not on the season-ticket package,” Jayhawks coach Bill Self said, “so that money can be used toward things that are pretty important to programs right now.”

In other words, the name, image and likeness bank accounts required to lure top players to school these days.

In the end, pride is still on the line

Duke and Kansas rarely played when they met back in 1988, though that has changed in recent years. Both are part of the Champions Classic, rotating opponents along with Kentucky and Michigan State each season, and many more showdowns have come in the NCAA Tournament, including a national championship game in 1991 won by the Blue Devils.

Other high-profile exhibitions Sunday included Michigan vs. Houston and St. John’s vs. Texas.

While those games won’t count in official tallies, they nonetheless carry a lot of meaning for everyone involved. There’s pride on the line, especially for a team like Kansas that already had lost an exhibition game to No. 11 Louisville at Allen Fieldhouse.

In Sunday’s showdown, Patrick Ngongba had 28 points and 10 rebounds, and John Blackwell scored 23 points.

Tyran Stokes had 27 points, eight rebounds and seven assists for the Jayhawks. Fellow freshman Taylen Kinney had 14 points.

“For me, I thought we showed a lot of toughness,” Scheyer said. “You know, you’re still figuring out what you have, even in these exhibition games. ... So really proud of our group. Learned a lot, and we’re looking forward to starting the season and taking these lessons and carrying forward, carrying us forward.”

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It was the latest in a series of attacks on health workers and responders that authorities say is hampering efforts to slow the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in the world.

The attack took place Saturday in the town of Bafwasende in the country's eastern Tshopo province, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X on Sunday.

“Everyone working to protect communities from this deadly disease must be able to work in dignity and safety. Healthcare must always be protected,” he said.

WHO regional director for Africa, Dr. Mohamed Yakub Janabi, also condemned the attack on X. “Misinformation and fear must never fuel violence,” he said.

Local authorities have not yet commented on the attack or the suspects.

The country’s health ministry’s most recent data indicates more than 9,800 cases including more than 4,700 deaths have been recorded since the start of the outbreak in May, making it the deadliest Ebola outbreak in Congo’s history.

Last month, a Congolese politician was beaten to death in North Kivu after publicly defending the government’s response to Ebola. He had been calling on the public to obey response measures, particularly social distancing and handwashing, on a radio show.

It came after authorities launched a village-centered approach to fight the outbreak which faced resistance from some residents who dismiss Ebola as a hoax. There is widespread distrust of the country’s government because of how it has managed past Ebola outbreaks as well as chronic corruption.

Responders say skepticism about the disease among communities has complicated efforts to work with residents, including in remote areas and emerging hot spots that already face shortages of medical supplies and healthcare workers.

Back in May at the start of the outbreak, two tents at health centers were set alight in two separate attacks in just one week by angry residents.

Those on the front line of the response to the outbreak have previously said some members of various response teams have been held captive in some health zones, and some teams responsible for safe and dignified burials have been threatened.

In the first 50-point game this season in the NBA, Doncic made several big baskets late in the fourth quarter to help the Lakers win for the eighth time in their last nine games against Utah. He finished off a 14-5 go-ahead run with back-to-back 3s that gave Los Angeles a 127-121 lead with 1:42 left.

Doncic also had 10 assists and seven rebounds. Austin Reaves added 29 points for the Lakers. The pair combined to shoot 21 of 24 on free throws.

Walker Kessler had only two points and seven rebounds in his first game back in Utah after being sent to Los Angeles in a sign-and-trade deal in July.

Lauri Markkanen scored 28 points to lead the Jazz, who blew an 18-point second-quarter lead.

Keyonte George had 24 points, nine rebounds, and 10 assists for the Jazz. Jaren Jackson Jr. added 20 points while Ace Bailey chipped in 17 points and 12 rebounds.

Doncic hit a stepback 3-pointer with 4.1 seconds left in the half to give the Lakers their first lead at 74-71.

Up Next

Lakers: Host Portland on Tuesday.

Jazz: Host Memphis on Monday.

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See AP’s full NBA coverage here

Then came a chorus of boos for the United players walking behind him.

United had just lost 3-0 — again — to Bournemouth in the Premier League on Sunday and the disgruntled home support was letting it be known who they were behind in this latest sorry episode at a team that, not too long ago, was the pinnacle of English soccer.

Indeed, the only person to escape censure was the manager overseeing an eight-match winless run that is bringing more embarrassment to the country’s biggest club.

“It hurts an awful lot to see us going through this at this moment in time,” said an emotional-looking Carrick, who spoke of his “mixed emotions” during a match that further exposed the weakness in his fragile United team.

“It wasn’t a farewell from me,” Carrick added of post-match actions that saw him lead his players on a walk around the field. “What it looks like, what is next — I really don’t know. But I’ll always do what’s best for this football club.”

Captain on bench

Carrick is trying everything to get United out its perilous position, which sees the club languishing in 16th place in the 20-team Premier League.

That includes even dropping captain Bruno Fernandes.

The humbling by Bournemouth came four days after a humiliating 4-1 loss at Como in the Champions League that was followed by critical comments to the media by Fernandes about Carrick’s tactics.

Carrick responded by leaving the Portugal star — the player of the year in England last season — out of the team in what the manager described as a “pure football” decision. Fernandes briefly went out to warm up at one point but never made it onto the field, where United defended woefully as Bournemouth scored through Rayan, Marcus Tavernier and Evanilson.

Asked about leaving Fernandes on the bench, Carrick told BBC Sport: “He’s fit and available but we decided to pick the team that we did today. Unfortunately for everyone we didn’t manage to get the right result.

“We want to push forward and create more, we could’ve done certain things but not enough really and that’s pretty clear.”

Carrick’s job is under huge threat, barely five months after he signed a permanent deal as manager after leading the team back into the Champions League while on a short-term contract in the second half of last season.

But getting rid of Carrick would not solve the huge problems at United, whose fans also chanted against Jason Wilcox — the club’s director of football who was the target of recent criticism from defender Lisandro Martinez — and the Glazer family, the majority owners, before letting rip on the players.

United has won one of its eight league games this season — and that was at home to promoted Ipswich on Aug. 30.

“It’s nowhere near good enough,” United defender Harry Maguire said. “Something needs to change.”

As for Bournemouth, it has now beaten United 3-0 at Old Trafford in three of the last four seasons. On its other visit in that stretch, there was a 4-4 draw.

Brighton run ends at Anfield

Brighton — the league’s surprise package this season — was beaten 2-0 at Liverpool for its first defeat since August, after which the south-coast team embarked on a stunning run since that included two 5-0 wins and a 3-0 victory over defending champion Arsenal.

That streak ended in a tight game at Anfield, with Liverpool’s goals coming in a four-minute span midway through the first half. Pascal Gross deflected Florian Wirtz’s shot into his own net before Alexander Isak turned home Bradley Barcola’s cross.

It was Liverpool's first league win at home under Andoni Iraola, hired as manager over the summer, and it lifted the team into fourth spot — a point and a place behind Brighton

Brighton had 64% possession and 17 shots — though just one on target — and manager Fabian Hurzeler called it a “missed opportunity” for his team to further underline its status as a growing force.

“I think everyone in the stadium saw that there was one team who really tried to create and try to win this game," Hurzeler said, "and therefore I have to praise my players."

Win for Newcastle

Newcastle beat Crystal Palace 2-0 thanks to second-half goals from William Osula and Harvey Barnes. Hull and Brentford drew 1-1, while Sunderland and Leeds finished 0-0.

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Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80

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See AP’s full soccer coverage here

It’s much bigger than that as Antonelli marches toward F1 history.

Antonelli’s dominant win Sunday at the United States Grand Pri x put the 20-year-old Italian on the brink of becoming the youngest champion in series history at the next race in Mexico City

Antonelli's ninth victory of the season was a pole-to-flag drive that came within a razor-thin margin of closing out the championship. Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton finished fourth and Antonelli’s Mercedes teammate, George Russell, finished eighth to extend the championship at least one more week.

Anything lower by them Sunday and Antonelli would already be champion.

“The car felt perfect today,” Antonelli said. “Trying to have fun, hopefully fight for another win (in Mexico City). It would be best to finish well.”

He made quick work of the Sunday with a blistering start that blew Red Bull’s Verstappen off the line as he eased into the first corner. The uphill left-turn switchback is one of the most notorious collision spots of the season and it was no trouble on this day.

Verstappen has struggled with his starts several times this season, and Antonelli’s blast into the first corner from pole position never gave him a chance to win the inside line into the corner. Instead, the four-time champion quickly found himself in a fight with the two Ferrari cars while Antonelli drove off into the distance and seized control of the race.

Antonelli kept extending his lead while Mercedes watched to see where Russell and Hamilton would finish.

Ferrrari’s Charles Leclerc finished second. Verstappen was third after winning the previous two races.

“Not a good race for us, Verstappen said. ”My start was normal, it’s consistently (bad).”

After Antonelli took the checkered flag, team principal Toto Wolff spoke to him over the radio during his victory lap.

“Another small step,” Wolff told him. “Another small step.”

The biggest one could come next week in front of one of the biggest, most boisterous crowds of the season in the high elevation of the Mexico City Grand Prix at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

Close it out and Antonelli will be the first Italian to win the drivers championship since Alberto Ascari in 1953.

“It was a result we needed, the whole team deserve it so much,” Antonelli said.

Looking forward to the celebration

Under Texas law, where the legal drinking age is 21, Antonelli is too young to quaff the victory champagne on the podium. In the cool down room after the race, Leclerc and Verstappen hinted at what could come next week south of the U.S. border.

“So probably Mexico, then?” Leclerc asked. Antonelli nodded slightly.

“Some tequila,” Verstappen said with a fist pump.

“For Brazil you won’t arrive in great shape,” Leclerc joked about the following race.

“He misses the Sao Paulo Grand Prix,” Verstappen shot back.

How Antonelli can win the title

Almost every scenario puts the title within his grasp. He leads Russell by 123 points and Hamilton by 124. There are only five races and 125 points left to win.

Any Antonelli finish head of those two wins the title. A Russell victory and ninth-place finish by Antonelli wins it. A Hamilton victory and 10th-place finish by Antonelli wins it.

And if neither Russell nor Hamilton win, Antonelli clinches the title no matter how he does.

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See AP’s full auto racing coverage here

The 19-year-old Barcelona phenom is so used to scoring, and playing so spectacularly well, that he seemed the most awestruck of all the 60,000-plus at Camp Nou when he missed a chance like few others against Real Madrid on Sunday.

Yamal’s close-range miss late in the first half summed up a frustrating clasico for Barcelona, which ended in a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Madrid in La Liga.

Kylian Mbappé scored twice for Madrid to give Jose Mourinho a victory in his first game at Camp Nou since returning to coach Barcelona’s fiercest rival.

Mbappé and Yamal are two of the favorites for the Ballon d’Or award to be announced in London on Monday. While voting for the world’s top player last season ended a month ago, Mbappé upstaged Yamal on the field this time.

First goal

Madrid had fortune on its side in the 41st minute when Mbappé’s first goal was part chance, part being in the right place.

Barcelona defender Gerard Martín tried to clear a cross by Yan Diomande. But his low, horizontal clearance hit Mbappé and ricocheted into the net.

Yamal then missed his golden opportunity to quickly pull Barcelona level before halftime.

Fermín López found him all alone streaking into the area. But Yamal, who arguably has the fanciest feet in soccer right now, flubbed his shot from near the corner of the six-yard box, sending his shot well wide of the post.

And this from a player who has made scoring incredibly difficult goals look easy. After having helped Spain win the World Cup in the summer, Yamal has 10 goals and 10 assists across La Liga and Champions League, plus another four goals for Spain, already this campaign.

It was that kind of night for Barcelona.

Raphinha leveled in the 61st when he received a pass from Pedri and fired a shot between the legs of Jude Bellingham for a league-leading 13th goal.

But the wide-open game swung Madrid’s way for good in the 87th when substitute Eduardo Camavinga ran down a long ball, drew goalkeeper Joan García off his line and passed for Mbappé to tap home.

Winning run ends in La Liga

Instead of breaking La Liga’s all-time record for the best start to a season with a 10th consecutive win, Barcelona endured a second straight loss in all competitions after also losing 4-2 at Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League. Barcelona had already tied the record of nine straight wins at the start of the season in La Liga established by Madrid in 1968-69.

“In big games small things are important and decide the game,” Barcelona coach Hansi Flick said. “This is the first defeat in La Liga. We won nine in a row, so we have to see that. Now it is important that we react.”

Making it worse for Barcelona was the man celebrating in Madrid’s dugout: Jose Mourinho, who pumped his fist after Mbappé’s winner. The Portuguese coach is widely disliked by Barcelona’s fans for his previous spell with Madrid from 2010-13 when he engaged in memorable tactical and verbal duels with then coach Pep Guardiola.

The big win pulled Madrid to within three points of first-placed Barcelona and will do wonders to silence the criticism of Mourinho which began after a derby defeat to Atletico Madrid in September.

Mourinho praised the defensive performance of Marc Cucurella, who plays with Yamal for Spain, for keeping the talented forward in check.

He also had some nice words for Yamal, who looked dejected after the final whistle.

“I only understand how good a player is when I see them in front of me, on TV I miss something,” Mourinho said. “And (Yamal) is very good. He is smart, and he tried everything he could, but Cucu was there to stop him. Cucu had a great game against a young man who is very, very good.”

Several teammates patted Yamal on the back as he slowly walked off the field, pulling his jersey up to wipe his face.

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See AP’s full soccer coverage here

Vance, a former Category 2 hurricane as of Friday, was losing strength but still was expected to dump heavy rain on the Mexican states of Colima, Nayarit and Sinaloa, as well as parts of Michoacan, Jalisco and Durango, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

The cyclone was located about 315 miles (510 kilometers) west-southwest of Acapulco, or about 285 miles (455 kilometers) south of Manzanillo, with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph (110 kph), the center said. Vance was moving to the northwest and expected to turn northward in coming days.

Rainfall totals of 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 centimeters) could produce flooding and mudslides, especially over steep terrain, according to the hurricane center. It said isolated totals of 7 inches (17 centimeters) of rain were possible in some spots.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Olana formed far out in the central Pacific, where it posed no threat to land. Olana had top sustained winds of 45 mph (65 kph) and was located about 580 miles (935 kilometers) west-southwest of Johnston Island, a central Pacific atoll, the hurricane center said.

It’s been an intense hurricane season in the Pacific Ocean, with storms spawning in assembly-line fashion near Hawaii and Mexico as El Niño conditions worsened by global warming create unusual weather, like this week's severe flooding and tornadoes hitting the southwestern United States and the prolonged drought in Central America's Dry Corridor.

Jolly began his morning at historic Bethel Church in downtown Jacksonville before making stops at Abyssinia Missionary Baptist Church and Mt. Olive Primitive Baptist Church.

Jolly says his visit to Duval County focused on faith rather than campaign politics.

“I’m a person who celebrates my Christian faith,” Jolly said. “The job as governor is to extend freedom to people of all faiths or those who choose no faith at all.”

Churchgoer Daisy McClellan said she appreciated the tone Jolly struck during his visit.

“It was really refreshing seeing him not focus on politics but on the word,” McClellan said.

With the midterm election just over a week away, Jolly was asked what issues he is hearing most from voters in Northeast Florida.

“Housing, healthcare and education,” Jolly said. “And then some communities — no data centers, particularly as you move into some rural communities. But housing, healthcare and education are kind of the pillars of people’s economic anxieties.”

News4JAX also reached out to Republican gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds’ campaign team.

His team says Donalds attended morning worship service at King Jesus International Ministry in Miami before continuing his bus tour through the Florida Panhandle.

His campaign announced planned stops in Jackson County and Walton County, with Donalds being joined by Attorney General James Uthmeier, Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, Congresswoman Kat Cammack and State Rep. Shane Abbott.

Safety crews needed several minutes to turn Logano's No. 22 Ford back over on its wheels, and Logano was able to climb from the car to cheers from the crowd.

Logano was running in fourth when he lost control off a push by Carson Hocevar and started a 15-car pileup on the frontstretch that also included Chase Briscoe, Brad Keselowski, Austin Cindric, Josh Berry and Riley Herbst, who appeared to lose the brakes in his No. 35 Toyota before hitting the inside wall at virtually full speed.

“I just got a push in the wrong spot there,” Logano said. “It was very much a ‘Talladega Nights,’ Oh no, I’m upside down, this is not good’ moment. I can’t thank the safety crew enough. They did an amazing job flipping that thing over."

Herbst, who missed the Daytona race in August with a concussion from a crash at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, was able to exit his car with help from safety workers. He took a moment to lean against his car before removing his helmet.

In a postrace interview with USA Sports, Herbst had a soft cast on his left hand and a wrap around his wrist and forearm.

“I’m OK; it was a big one,” Herbst said. "But just thank you to 2311 Racing and Toyota for the support. It’s been an up-and-down year, to say the least. I thought we had a shot at it there at the end. We got shuffled out a little bit, but came back and ultimately just got caught up in that wreck at Talladega.

“My dad always said, ‘If you’re going to be dumb, you better be tough.’ So, cheers.”

Logano is a three-time winner at Talladega. He has been involved in airborne crashes before at the 2.66-mile oval that is infamous for its big crashes.

After a similar incident in the April 2021 race at Talladega, Logano expressed frustration that his car had gotten up in the air and had its roof crushed. “I got a roll bar in my head,” Logano said. “That is not OK. I am one hit away from the same situation Ryan Newman just went through ( in the 2020 Daytona 500 ). I just don’t feel like that is acceptable.”

NASCAR made safety enhancements to address airborne wrecks in recent years, and the Team Penske driver praised his car's integrity after the wreck Sunday at Talladega.

“The car did a great job," Logano said. "The last time I flipped it was crushed on my head. This time, I don’t think any of the roll cage crushed at all, so I appreciate what NASCAR’s done. Thank you and the safety team for getting me out of there. There was some vicious hits in this one. Just happy to be alive.”

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Watson led his fifth winning drive in the fourth quarter this season, connecting with Harold Fannin Jr. on a 36-yard catch-and run that set up Andre Szmyt's 32-yard field goal as time expired, and the Browns beat the Tennessee Titans 27-24 on Sunday for their fifth win in six games.

“He has something in him to be able to make plays when it counts,” Browns first-year coach Todd Monken said.

Watson also ran for a touchdown and threw for 308 yards.

“Being in this league for 10 years now, I understand that a lot of games are going to come down to that, if not every game,” Watson said. “So, if we’re close enough in it and we have those opportunities, we just got to lock in and ... that’s where the pressure and the most important (thing), you got to really be on your P’s and Q’s.”

Quinshon Judkins ran for 96 yards and two touchdowns, and rookie KC Concepcion caught eight passes for 129 yards in his best game yet.

The Browns (5-2) had two takeaways as they started a three-game road swing with a win.

Szmyt got the chance with his game-winning kick to make up for clanking a 43-yarder off the right upright within the first minute of the fourth quarter. The Titans responded with a drive capped by a 29-yard field goal by Joey Slye, which tied the game at 17-all with 8:41 remaining.

Watson responded with a 71-yard drive that he finished with a 9-yard TD run with 4:34 left. The Titans answered when Tony Pollard scored his career high-tying third TD with 58 seconds remaining. Slye’s extra point tied it at 24-all.

Officials missed an apparent false start on the Browns when Watson found Fannin for the big gain. Asked if officials missed the penalty, Titans coach Robert Saleh said he'd have to look at the video.

“Live, I think they did, yeah,” Saleh said.

The Titans (1-6) came in trying to string together back-to-back wins for the first time in nearly four years. They had their best start to a game this season, taking a 14-0 lead with Pollard's two touchdowns.

They missed a chance at a 21-7 lead when Pollard was ruled down just outside the end zone in the second. Cleveland turned the Titans over on downs with Maliek Collins stopping Pollard on fourth-and-goal.

“We’ve got to be able to push it in from the inch-yard line,” Saleh said.

Tennessee's Anthony Hill Jr. stripped Fannin of the ball after a catch in the second quarter, and safety Tony Adams recovered. But Cleveland's Denzel Ward picked off Cam Ward on the next play.

The Browns turned that takeaway into a 78-yard drive, capped by Judkins running for his second 5-yard TD.

The Titans went three-and-out, giving Cleveland the ball back. Szmyt kicked a 28-yard field goal as time expired for a 17-14 halftime lead.

Pollard finished with a season-high 129 yards rushing. Not that it mattered after another loss.

“The most important stat is a win,” Titans right tackle JC Latham said. “So, I don’t care if we have 1,000 yards rushing the ball in one game. If we didn’t win the game, it doesn’t really matter.”

Titans match an unwelcome Browns milestone

The Titans tied the 2014-18 Browns for most consecutive games without back-to-back wins in the same season at 65, according to Sportradar. Tampa Bay went 74 straight from 1985-1989 without consecutive wins, but the Bucs won the last game of 1988 and the first of 1989.

With this latest loss, Tennessee's streak is assured of reaching at least 66 games.

Injuries

Browns right tackle Tytus Howard was evaluated for a concussion after going down during Cleveland's opening drive of the third quarter. Cornerback Myles Harden hurt a hamstring but returned in the fourth quarter.

Titans punter Tommy Townsend hurt a knee on a 44-yard punt late in the second quarter. Townsend stretched on the sideline, but placekicker Slye came out for a punt on fourth-and-1, only to be bailed out when Cleveland had 12 men on the field. Slye punted late in the third and had a 42-yarder on his first NFL punt.

Saleh said after the game that Townsend was being evaluated.

Up next

The Browns visit Pittsburgh next Sunday.

The Titans visit Cincinnati next Sunday.

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See AP’s full NFL coverage here

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross has begun receiving lists again of Palestinian detainees from the occupied West Bank and Gaza after the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the government to resume sharing them.

Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Sunday. Read our full coverage here.

Iran says messages are still passed to the US via intermediaries

Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, said Tehran has not closed the window of diplomacy and messages are being passed to the U.S. via intermediaries. Negotiations over the war have appeared to stall for weeks.

State media said Baghaei spoke in an interview with a German broadcaster. He said the U.S. appears to persist in unilateral demands and that Trump and U.S. officials repeatedly use the phrase “complete surrender," which Baghaei said no Iranian accepts.

Concerns are rising among Iranians about a possible return to all-out war as Israel and the U.S. face elections in the coming days.

Trump says no strike against Iran today

Asked if he planned to launch an attack on Iran, Trump initially suggested that he would be foolish to telegraph that.

But Trump then added: “No. There will not be a strike today.” At the same time, the head of the U.S. Central Command, Adm. Brad Cooper, was flying over the Strait of Hormuz and asserting that over 3,000 commercial vessels have transited the waterway with U.S. military support over the last six months.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his warning that Iran or its proxies could attack ahead of Tuesday’s close elections to disrupt the vote, citing intelligence.

“The (military) is ready both to defend and to strike,” he said in a video statement, adding: “You will suffer disproportionate blows far greater than you can imagine.”

Israeli broadcaster reports Netanyahu confrontation over Iran

Netanyahu and his military chief of staff have had a confrontation over a political directive related to Iran shortly before Israel’s close election, a local broadcaster reported Sunday night.

The Channel 12 report caused alarm among some Israelis including Netanyahu’s chief rival in Tuesday’s election, Gadi Eisenkot, who said on X he backed the chief of staff, Eyal Zamir.

The outcry reflected concerns some have raised in Israel that Netanyahu, who could lose power after being the country's longest-serving prime minister, might be eager to attack Iran ahead of the vote in an effort to stay in office.

Netanyahu described the Channel 12 report as nonsense during an appearance on another broadcaster, Channel 14. There was no immediate military comment.

The Channel 12 report did not say what exactly the Iran-related directive was. In recent days, the prime minister has asserted the need to “topple” Iran’s leadership.

Red Cross receives list of Palestinians in prison in Israel

The International Committee of the Red Cross has begun receiving lists again of Palestinian detainees from the West Bank and Gaza, a spokesperson confirmed.

The Israeli Supreme Court earlier this year ordered the government to resume sharing such lists and allowing the ICRC to visit detainees in Israeli prisons to assess their conditions. The government had suspended both practices since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and the start of the war in Gaza.

ICRC spokesperson Gilad Grossman said Israel had not yet allowed prison visits to begin again but “we hope that we will resume in the near future.”

Israel rounded up thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza after the Oct. 7 attacks. Some were released in last year’s ceasefire, but around 9,000 are still imprisoned or detained under harsh conditions.

Riyadh international airport reopens as Houthi attacks persist

King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh said it opened terminals 1 and 2 for domestic and international flights, but Iran-backed Houthis in neighboring Yemen again fired drones and missiles toward the Saudi capital.

Saudi military spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki said air defenses intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile and a drone fired toward Riyadh. The Houthis claimed the attack.

In early October, Houthi strikes hit an airport complex housing two other terminals, killing 17 people and wounding over 330.

2 wounded by debris from interceptions in Saudi Arabia

Saudi authorities said debris from the interception of two ballistic missiles in Khamis Mushait and Ahad Rafida governorates wounded two people, a Saudi citizen and a resident from an unspecified Asian country.

The Civil Defense said the missiles were launched by the Houthis in Yemen, and the debris also damaged three buildings and seven vehicles.

The Houthi rebels later claimed attacks that included King Khalid air base in Khamis Mushait, calling them a response to “Saudi aggression” against Yemen’s rebel-held capital of Sanaa. The AP could not independently verify the claims.

Late Sunday, the Saudi-backed Yemeni government accused the Houthis of targeting displacement camps in Ras Imran on the outskirts of Aden with three ballistic missiles, without providing details. There were no reports of casualties. The Houthis did not immediately comment.

Palestinian officials say Israeli strikes killed 7 in Gaza

Israeli strikes in Gaza killed seven people, according to Palestinian hospital officials.

Two strikes in Gaza City killed four people, and two brothers were killed in the southern city of Khan Younis. One person was killed in the central town of Deir al-Balah. The deaths were confirmed by officials from Shifa, Hamad, Nasser and Al-Aqsa hospitals, as well as an American field hospital.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment.

A year since a ceasefire began, Israel continues to bombard Gaza in what it says are strikes against militant targets. More than 1,500 Palestinians have been killed, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government. It does not distinguish between civilians and militants but says women and children make up nearly half of those killed.

Pope calls for an end to fighting in Yemen

Pope Leo XIV urged an end to the fighting in Yemen and warned of worsening conditions for more than 1 million residents of Taiz besieged by Houthi rebels.

“The population is suffering from a lack of food, water and medical care,” the pope wrote on social media. Families have begun rationing water and a shortage of groceries has sent prices soaring in the country’s third-largest city.

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This report will be updated throughout the day as new developments emerge.