We’ve got a county-by-county list of events happening around Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia to celebrate July 4th.

FLORIDA

Alachua County

• Fanfares & Fireworks (Gainesville): Community Independence celebration with live music and a fireworks finale. 6–10 p.m., Friday, July 3 (fireworks ~9:30 p.m.) at the UF Bandshell at Flavet Field in Gainesville.

Bradford County

• Starke Spangled Splash Bash (Starke): City/community July 4 festivities including a parade. Parade starts at 9 a.m. on Saturday, July 4 (military flyover of vintage aircraft at 10 a.m.).

Clay County

• Independence Day Celebration (Keystone Heights): Full-day, family-friendly Independence Day activities honoring America 250 (community events + fireworks finale). 10 a.m.–9:30 p.m., Saturday, July 4 at Theme Park Tennis Courts, 555 S Lawrence Blvd., Keystone Heights.

Columbia County

• July 4 celebration (Lake City): Live music, food, hot air balloons, fireworks and more. 5 p.m.-11:55 p.m., Saturday, July 4, at the Columbia County Fairgrounds at 164 SW Mary Ethel Lane, Lake City.

Duval County

• Freedom Fest (San Marco): Enjoy a patriotic light and music show with live bands, food trucks and free apple pies to the first 1,000 people! This event is free to attend. 5:30-10 p.m., Friday, July 3, at 1015 Museum Cir., Jacksonville, 32207.
• Fourth of July Celebration (Friendship Fountain): Enjoy an evening of live music from Scott Halls and Caribe Groove, plus a hot dog eating contest and cornhole tournament. Food and beverages will be available for purchase throughout the event. 3-9:30 p.m. Saturday, July 4, at 1015 Museum Cir., Jacksonville, 32207.
• Jacksonville Fourth of July Celebration (Downtown Jacksonville): Downtown riverfront festival-style celebration (live music, art, family activities, food vendors) + fireworks. 4–9:30 p.m., Saturday, July 4 (fireworks 9 p.m.) at Riverfront Plaza, Downtown. What you need to know
• USS Orleck 4th of July 250th American Celebration: Celebrate aboard the USS Orleck with live music from DJ Rantz, food trucks, drinks, fireworks and waterfront views during this festive celebration. 6:30-10 p.m. Saturday, July 4. Buy tickets here
• 4th of July Fireworks (Jacksonville Beach): Join in for an amazing free display of fireworks to celebrate the 4th of July!. 9 p.m., Saturday, July 4 at 504 1st St. N. Jacksonville Beach, 32250

Flagler County

• United Flagler Fourth / Fireworks Over the Runways (Palm Coast): Countywide July 4 celebration at the airport with live entertainment/activities + fireworks. 5–10 p.m., Saturday, July 4 (fireworks 9 p.m.) at Flagler Executive Airport in Palm Coast.

Nassau County

• Light Up Amelia / Hometown 4th of July Firework Show (Fernandina Beach): City-sponsored downtown/waterfront July 4 celebration + fireworks. 6–10 p.m., Saturday, July 4 (fireworks 9 p.m.) at Waterfront Park/Downtown in Fernandina Beach.

Putnam County

• July 4 celebration (Palatka): Free, family-friendly event includes live music, food trucks, vendors, a kids zone, face painting, puppet shows and more from 4-9:30 p.m., Saturday, July 4 at the Palatka Riverfront.

St. Johns County

• Fireworks Over the Matanzas (St. Augustine): City/visitor-bureau promoted concert + fireworks over the bayfront. 6–9:30 p.m., Saturday, July 4 (fireworks 9 p.m.) at St. Augustine bayfront/downtown waterfront area, St. Augustine.

Union County

• July 4 celebration (Lake Butler): Live music, waterslides, face paiting, food trucks and more, starting at 8 a.m., Saturday, July 4 at Lakeside Park in Lake Butler.

GEORGIA

Camden County

• St. Marys July 4 festival + fireworks (St. Marys): Festival-style celebration from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday, July 4, with a parade and fireworks over the St. Marys River at St. Marys waterfront.

Glynn County

• Beach Village carnival: Bounce houses, carnival rides, face painting and more form 2-7 p.m., Friday, July 3 a Beach Village.
• Jekyll Island concerts and fireworks (Jekyll Island): Live music on the Turtle Stage in Beach Village from 11 a.m.-5 p.m., followed by a fireworks display at 9 p.m., Saturday, July 4.

Ware County

• Waycross America 250: Field of Honor (Dedication Ceremony): America 250 commemorative dedication ceremony at 10 a.m., Saturday, July 4 at 2401 Knight Ave., Waycross.
• Waycross July 4th Celebration / 4th of July Spectacular (Waycross): Downtown celebration with live music, food/arts vendors, inflatables/family activities + fireworks finale. 12–10 p.m., Saturday, July 4 (fireworks at dusk) at Downtown Waycross (Pendleton Street).

If your city/county has an event that we do not have listed, please email the information to webteam@wjxt.com.

RELATED: JEA says an embattled landlord owes nearly $500K, money that will be hard to get; JEA owed a total of $19M by customers

The property is linked to landlord Jarek Tadla, who has had issues with multiple properties across Jacksonville.

News4Jax went to the duplex on Claudia Spencer St. to find out what was happening.

Someone on the property directed our crew to where it appeared there was a box hanging with some exposed wires on the side of the building.

The person told News4Jax he has not had electricity for a few days and says he was told that a crew would come back and fix it. Though he is unsure of exactly when they would be back. He says he has been trying to manage the heat by cooling off in his truck during the day and said the apartment isn’t as hot at night.

News4JAX contacted JEA to narrow down what was happening. They told us in a statement:

“We take safety seriously at JEA. In this case, the customer’s meter can, and electrical cables were damaged and created unsafe conditions. On June 5, JEA notified the customer of the unsafe conditions and the need to have a licensed electrician replace the meter can and cables. On June 29, JEA removed the meter can in the interest of safety, disconnecting power to the home," a JEA spokesperson said.

News4JAX also reached out to the number on the lease, which went to Legacy Family Communities. Property records show the address is linked to Jarek Tadla. The company asked us to email them and as of time of publishing this story, we have not heard back, though we did reach out in the early afternoon.

JEA also said the property owner would be responsible for the repairs.

“JEA will restore power once repairs are made and an electrician receives a permit from the City of Jacksonville.”

The high court rebuffed an emergency appeal from Catherine Herridge. The veteran investigative reporter has been held in civil contempt as part of a lawsuit that scientist Yanping Chen filed against the government over the leak.

Chief Justice John Roberts previously put a short-term hold on the fine as the court considered the appeal. On Thursday, the court said it was denying Herridge's bid to stay the fine. Justice Brett Kavanaugh supported granting the application for a stay, the court said.

Herridge published a series for Fox News in 2017 that examined Chen’s ties to the Chinese military and raised questions about whether the scientist was using a professional school she founded in Virginia to help the Chinese government get information about American servicemembers.

Fox News Media expressed disappointment in the decision.

“Protecting the confidentiality of journalistic sourcing and the integrity of the newsgathering process is fundamental to a free and functioning democracy. While we are deeply disappointed by the Court’s decision, our commitment to defending these critical First Amendment principles remains unwavering and we will be reviewing our options to further fight this injustice," the network said in a statement.

Herridge’s attorneys did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

The stories relied on what Chen’s lawyers say were items leaked from the probe into statements she made on immigration forms related to work on a Chinese astronaut program.

Those include snippets of an FBI document summarizing an interview conducted during the investigation, personal photographs, and information taken from her immigration and naturalization forms and from an internal FBI PowerPoint presentation, according to court documents.

The six-year probe never resulted in charges against Chen, and in 2018 she sued the FBI and the Justice Department.

Her suit said that both her personal and professional life were upended amid a wave of negative media attention after the leak, leading to hate mail and death threats. She accused the government of violating the Privacy Act, which prohibits the public disclosure of private information about individuals without their consent.

A judge ordered Herridge to answer questions about her source or sources in a deposition with Chen’s lawyers. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington ruled that Chen’s need to know for the sake of her lawsuit overcame Herridge’s right to shield her source.

Herridge was interviewed under oath but declined to answer questions about her sources. The judge eventually held her in contempt, and the fine was set to begin after the order was upheld by an appeals court panel.

The case has been closely watched by media advocates, who say forcing journalists to betray a promise of confidentiality could make sources think twice before providing information to reporters that could expose government wrongdoing.

“Journalists facing contempt should not have to muster large payments to the court while they seek to vindicate First Amendment rights," said Bruce Brown, president of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. "And forcing them to betray source confidences always has a harmful impact on the free flow of information to the public.”

Chen’s lawyers say they have exhausted other ways to identify the leaker, and the identity is key to making their case that the Privacy Act was violated. Attorney Andrew Phillips said they hope Thursday's decision will help bring the matter to a close.

“Dr. Chen, like any other American citizen, is entitled to discover the identity of the federal official(s) who abused their access to an American’s private information and leaked it to cause her harm. That type of corrupt, unlawful conduct is exactly what the Privacy Act was designed to address," he said.

Herridge reported for Fox News and CBS News before recently becoming an independent journalist.

A court record shows the video was submitted as evidence in federal court in Dallas, where Pooh Shiesty and eight others have been indicted on kidnapping and extortion charges. Prosecutors say the victims were robbed at gunpoint after traveling to the city to discuss Pooh Shiesty's recording contract with Mane's 1017 Records.

The victims have only been referred to by their initials in court documents. One, R.D., is described as the owner of 1017 Records. Mane's legal name is Radric Delantic Davis. The song “Crash Dummy,” which Gucci Mane released this spring, includes the lyrics: “I thought it was a business meeting, but it was a set up.”

The court document was filed by prosecutors in response to a motion Pooh Shiesty filed last month proposing home confinement, arguing that the evidence against him did not warrant keeping him in custody pending trial, as was ordered by a judge in April.

But prosecutors said in their filing that the motion from Pooh Shiesty, whose legal name is Lontrell Williams Jr., should be denied and that evidence against him was “extraordinarily strong.”

Prosecutors said they have the cooperation of all five victims and witnesses in the case and cellphone location data. There is also surveillance video placing the defendants at the scene, according to prosecutors, in addition to the video of the owner of 1017 Records being forced to declare that Pooh Shiesty was “dropped” from his label.

Prosecutors said in the filing that just before that video was made, Pooh Shiesty produced a printed contractual release for the record label owner to sign. The man initially refused but signed after Pooh Shiesty allegedly pointed an AK-style pistol his head.

Prosecutors also said BIG30, whose legal name is Rodney Wright, recorded the video with his cellphone while another defendant blocked the door holding a firearm that resembled an AK-47 style rifle.

According to prosecutors, Pooh Shiesty robbed the record label owner of about $450,000 worth of items including his wedding band, a watch, a pair of earrings and cash.

Prosecutors have said that at the time of the alleged confrontation, Pooh Shiesty was on home confinement for a prior firearms conspiracy conviction out of Florida and was required to wear an electronic monitoring device.

Attorneys for Pooh Shiesty and BIG30 did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Thursday.

Gucci Mane is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of trap music alongside fellow Atlanta rappers T.I. and Jeezy. He emerged in the mid-2000s with his breakout single “Icy” and went on to build a vast catalog.

The budget includes:

• $50 million for the Hometown Heroes Housing Program, which helps essential workers — including firefighters, paramedics and law enforcement officers — purchase their first home
• $165 million for the State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP), which helps residents afford housing
• $70.8 million for the State Apartment Incentive Loan (SAIL) program, which funds the construction of affordable housing

What’s fueling Florida’s housing crisis

Florida has been grappling with an affordability crisis driven by soaring home prices, rising insurance costs and years of rapid population growth.

Jon Brooks, a real estate agent with Momentum Realty, says the state’s housing market was rocked by a surge in demand between 2020 and 2023 that sent prices skyrocketing. He welcomes the new state investments but says they can only go so far.

“The majority of the issue is that the builders have been building in what I call mid-level luxury, which is $500,000 to a million dollars, because their profit margins are higher there,” Brooks said. “But that’s caused us to have a lack of supply of starter homes, which is what we really need — more supply of inventory from $200,000 to $400,000 that the locals can actually afford.”

‘Payment shock’ pushing buyers to the sidelines

The affordability squeeze is also reshaping Florida’s image. Local realtors told News4JAX that more middle-class families are looking outside the state to buy a home.

One News4JAX Insider put it plainly: “Everything is extremely high right now — housing, groceries and gas. I’m working two jobs and barely scraping by.”

Brooks says many prospective buyers are experiencing what he calls “payment shock” — the moment they see a mortgage estimate and reconsider their plans altogether.

“They get payment shock. When they get the estimate from the lender and they see how much the payment would be, they start to pull back and say, ‘Wait a minute, maybe I should just rent for a couple more years,’” Brooks said. “Because sometimes renting is $1,000 to $1,500 less per month. So right now they’re frustrated.”

What state leaders are saying

State leaders say the budget investments are intended to expand housing opportunities across Florida and help more working families achieve homeownership, as they work alongside local initiatives to make living more affordable.

New meal prices take effect

Meal prices have been updated for the upcoming school year. Elementary lunch is now $3.00, secondary lunch is $3.25, and breakfast is $2.00 for all grade levels. Students who qualify for reduced-price meals will pay $0.40 for lunch and $0.30 for breakfast.

What is CEP — and does your child’s school participate?

Some Clay County schools participate in the Community Eligibility Provision, or CEP, which provides both breakfast and lunch free of charge to all students — no application required.

The following schools are participating in CEP for 2026-2027:

AMI Kids, Bannerman Learning Center, Charles E. Bennett Elementary, Coppergate Elementary, Clay Hill Elementary, Doctors Inlet Elementary, Grove Park Elementary, Keystone Heights Elementary, Keystone Heights High School, Lakeside Elementary, McRae Elementary, Middleburg Elementary, Montclair Elementary, Orange Park High, Orange Park Junior High, Ridgeview Elementary, S. Bryan Jennings Elementary, W.E. Cherry Elementary, Wilkinson Elementary and Wilkinson Junior High.

Families with children split between a CEP and a non-CEP school will still need to complete an application. Because household size factors into eligibility, all children in the household must be listed.

How to apply

Families whose children attend non-CEP schools must complete a new application each school year. Applications are available online at Clay County District Schools website and are described as safe, secure and accessible anytime, anywhere. Paper applications will also be sent home at the start of school.

Completed paper applications can be returned to the child’s school or mailed to the Food and Nutrition Services Office at 925 Center St., Green Cove Springs, FL 32043. Applications may be submitted at any time during the school year.

Who qualifies — and what information is needed

Eligibility is based on household size and income. An application cannot be approved unless all required eligibility information is complete. Once approved, benefits are valid for the entire school year.

Households receiving SNAP or TANF benefits only need to provide the child’s name, a valid Florida SNAP/TANF case number and the signature of an adult household member.

All other households must provide:

• Total household income listed by gross amount, type and how often it is received for each household member
• Names of all household members; if a household member is a child, include the school name; check “no income” if applicable
• Signature of an adult household member
• Last four digits of the signing adult’s Social Security number, or the word “NONE” if the adult does not have one

Special circumstances

Foster children qualify for free meal benefits regardless of personal or household income.

Families with children who are migrants, homeless or runaways should contact the district liaison at (904) 336-1346 or the migrant coordinator at (352) 955-6855.

For families with deployed service members, those individuals are considered part of the household for eligibility purposes. Families should include their names on the application and report only the portion of income made available to the family. Housing allowances under the Military Housing Privatization Initiative should not be reported as income.

Appealing a decision

Applications are reviewed by the Food and Nutrition Services Administrative Support Assistant. Parents or guardians who disagree with an eligibility decision may first discuss it informally with the determining official.

To file a formal appeal, contact:

David S. Broskie, Superintendent of Schools 900 Walnut St., Green Cove Springs, FL 32043 (904) 336-6500 or 1-(888) 663-2529

Information provided on the application may also be used to determine eligibility for other educational programs unless otherwise indicated.

For more information, contact the Food and Nutrition Services Office at 925 Center St., Green Cove Springs, FL 32043, by phone at (904) 336-6856 or (904) 336-6500, or toll-free at 1-(888) 663-2529.

Neighbors of the family in tiny Hamden, employees at local stores where they shopped and even the investigators who responded to the scene have been left to wonder that aloud and to themselves, and the limited information shared by investigators doesn't offer a full answer.

The children weren't enrolled in school, the family moved around over the past two decades, and neighbors said they’d never spotted the kids. The children remained mostly confined to a small room in the house, investigators said, under deplorable conditions.

“Right under our noses and nobody was able to help them sooner,” said Emily Collins, 27, owner of VC Farm & Floral in nearby McArthur. “It’s just crazy that all the wonderful things going on in our little Hallmark town and this is what puts us on the radar. It’s really sad,” said the mother of three, who was compelled to decorate the sidewalk with bright flowers and stars drawn in chalk to cheer herself up.

Lawyer: Let the case ‘play out’

Authorities said they had gone to the home Tuesday on an unrelated investigation and discovered the children — ages 1 1/2 to 18 years old — some of whom were unable to speak.

Seven were taken to hospitals, including one who was in critical condition, investigators said. Their current conditions weren't immediately known Thursday. Child welfare officials have temporary custody of the children.

A man who lives three houses down from the Siders family said he had seen “no kids at all” there.

“It’s a sad situation,” said Joseph Stewart, 60, who has lived in the “quiet neighborhood” for six years.

Four people who are the children’s parents and grandparents were arrested on child endangerment charges. Gary Siders Jr., 36, Gary Siders, 73, Elizabeth Siders, 33, and Christina Siders, 67, pleaded not guilty to child endangerment. Bond was set at $300,000 each.

An attorney for the elder Siders said he is presumed innocent.

“We ask that the community at large, as well as anyone who might have an interest in this case, to take a deep breath, step back, and let the case play out and the facts play out,” Dorian Baum told The Associated Press.

Attorneys for Siders Jr. and Christina Siders declined to comment. Messages seeking comment from Elizabeth Siders' lawyer were not immediately returned.

Little traffic on home’s rural road

Authorities wouldn’t publicly share the nature of the other investigation that led them to the house Tuesday. However, court records show a warrant was issued for Siders Jr. that day on misdemeanor indecent exposure charges related to alleged incidents on four days in May. He has pleaded not guilty.

On Thursday, windows and doors at the formerly wide-open home, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) southeast of Columbus, had been boarded up. Police tape and piles of refuse remained.

The previous day, a door was ajar and heaps of trash and children’s toys were visible inside. A wood deck and the backyard were filled with discarded tires, a high chair and other debris.

The house sits on a road tucked alongside a steep railroad embankment, where tracks carry rumbling trains to a rail yard in the village of fewer than 1,000 residents. The closest neighbors are separated by trees and thick brush, but the house is easily visible from the road.

Kids not seen in schools

Investigators said members of the family had moved around southern Ohio over the past two decades and that it looks like they avoided creating a medical or governmental paper trail. The Vinton County Local School District, the only district in the area, said it has no records indicating that any of the children were ever enrolled.

“These folks were pretty good at hiding these kids,” Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson said Wednesday.

The children’s absence from school, and the apparent lack of regular visits with medical professionals, likely contributed to keeping the dire situation unknown, said Jacqueline Yahn, an associate professor at Ohio University.

“When kids are isolated or not participating, you don’t have someone who’s trained to know the clues,” said Yahn, who specializes in rural education and poverty. “A well-check is called that for a reason: They’re checking for well-being and development.”

Investigators were reviewing whether the family was reported to any children’s services agencies in the past.

The children spent most of their time in a room that was roughly 12 feet by 12 feet (3.5 meters by 3.5 meters), according to investigators, who noted that human waste was all around.

“They looked like almost feral animals. It was terrible,” Wilson said.

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Associated Press reporters Ed White in Detroit and Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho, contributed.

On Tuesday, officers responded to a home on Traci Lynn Drive and found a 27-year-old woman and her two young girls suffering gunshot wounds.

The GoFundMe identified the 27-year-old mother as Brianna Johnson. Her 4-year-old daughter Harmoni Reed died from her injuries, and her 2-year-old was identified as Rhythm Reed.

Investigators said they learned that Trudale Reed, the girls’ father, was arguing outside the home with the girls’ mother and then fired multiple rounds, hitting her and their two daughters before driving off in a stolen SUV.

RELATED:‘It’s like time stopped’: Neighbor rushed in to help family after triple shooting that killed 4-year-old girl

According to GoFundMe, Johnson and her daughter Rhythm were still in life-threatening condition.

“As Brianna focuses on healing and caring for herself and Rhythm while navigating this unimaginable loss, any support, prayers, or shares are deeply appreciated. Thank you for keeping our family in your thoughts and for the overwhelming love, compassion, and support you have shown during this incredibly difficult time,” the GoFundMe read.

If you would like to donate to the fundraiser, click here.

Dangerous, record-breaking heat will continue across much of the central and eastern U.S. through Friday and will continue along the East Coast through the weekend, the National Weather Service said Thursday. Temperatures in the high 90s Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) were forecast for the Northeast; New York and Boston both hit 100 degrees Thursday. Humidity is expected to make it feel even hotter, all but ensuring that sweat will dampen spirits at many celebrations marking 250 years of American independence.

“Anywhere you go in southern New England, you will be dealing with dangerous heat today, tomorrow and Saturday,” said Bryce Williams, a meteorologist with the weather service.

Heat wreaks havoc with event schedules

In Boston, entrance to the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular will start at 4 p.m. instead of noon on Saturday because of the heat. In Philadelphia, officials shortened the route of a Thursday morning parade, canceled an afternoon all-American Block Party, and pushed back the start times of an evening picnic and concert at Independence Mall.

In Lower Windsor Township, Pennsylvania, an America 250 celebration including food trucks, games and the highway department's dump truck has been rescheduled for July 8. In Norristown, Pennsylvania, officials canceled a parade set for Saturday, citing the safety of residents, participants and first responders, though evening fireworks and an afternoon party featuring games, food, and music will go on as scheduled.

“The parade is one of our community’s most beloved traditions, and we share in the disappointment of its cancellation, especially as we celebrate America’s 250th birthday,” Interim Municipal Administrator Jayne Musonye said.

Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania moved outdoor events indoors. Amtrak, meanwhile, canceled some train routes due to the heat Thursday, including the Acela between Boston and Washington, and said others may operate with reduced speeds resulting in delays through Saturday.

Baseball, Taylor Swift fans sweat it out

A heat dome — high-pressure systems above a region that trap heat and humidity — has been smothering parts of the U.S., from the Midwest to the East Coast. Beyond the holiday festivities, officials in many communities are taking steps to keep residents safe, including opening cooling centers. In Boston, several air-conditioned museums are offering free admission to city residents, and in Providence, Rhode Island, city pools and waterparks have extended their hours.

The temperature was 98 degrees by the time the Philadelphia Phillies started their home game against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday. Sixteen pallets of water bottles were given out for free.

Bill Christy, 69, of Philadelphia, was walking with two teen charges that he had brought along for company.

“They’re young, they can handle it,” he said. “I’ll just go up in the shade somewhere if I get hot.”

Nearby a fife and drum corps marched up and down the lower concourse in full uniform.

“Usually it’s wool regimental. But this is linen, it’s cool,” said Debbie Mayes of Ewing, New Jersey, part of the Washington Crossing Fife and Drums. “We’re fine. They’ve been very kind to us, letting us take breaks and providing water.”

In New York, Amanda Powell, of Little Rock, Arkansas, was among the Taylor Swift fans flocking to Madison Square Garden in hopes of seeing the superstar singer before her Friday wedding.

“It’s super hot,” she said. “Being from Arkansas, we thought we could handle the heat, but it’s been very warm.”

Central Park in Manhattan hit 100 degrees Thursday afternoon, marking the first time the iconic park reached triple digits since 2012, according to the National Weather Service.

Zoo employees work to keep animals cool

At the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston, workers offered up frozen blocks ice with herring for the African penguins, frozen pellets to the Nigerian dwarf goats and tossed frozen treats into the enclosure of the Western lowland gorillas, who scramble to grab and gobble them up.

“All of my animals have been doing a really great job of staying under the fan, staying near a sprinkler,” zookeeper Brooke Cannon said as she offered Quinn frozen treats. “I’m running around with the hose hitting them a little bit there and there. Yeah, it’s not their favorite, but you know sometimes you got to do what you got to do to make sure that they’re not making poor choices.”

Despite the heat, the zoo had plenty of visitors - though many took time to fan themselves or stand under misters to keep cool. Others were second-guessing their decision to visit.

“It's too hot in the summer and this is not the right time to come and visit zoo,” Bhargavi Patha, who was with her husband and 14-month-old son, said as they headed to the lion enclosure. “The heat is exhausting us. We are draining and we had to drink a lot of water to see all the animals.”

Electric grids feel the stress

As the heat bore down on New York, Mayor Zohran Mamdani urged people conserve energy by setting their air conditionings to 78 degrees — a step previous mayors, including former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, have advised — in order to avoid stressing the power grid. Nevertheless, the request drew a round of jeers from the Democratic mayor’s conservative critics online.

By early Thursday afternoon, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul was asking everyone in the state to turn air conditioners to 75 degrees (24 Celsius) or higher, avoid using appliances unnecessarily and otherwise conserve electricity. Hochul, a Democrat, cited high demand and “unexpected load challenges.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican who pokes at the mayor often on social media, responded on X “Is this what was meant by the warmth of collectivism?,” spinning a phrase the democratic socialist employed in his inaugural address back at Mamdani.

The operators of the electric grids in New York state, New England and one stretching across 13 mid-Atlantic and Midwestern states all projected that electricity demand would peak on Thursday before falling back slightly on Friday. Though the projected usage peaks were roughly 40% above a normal summer day, operators have not issued emergency calls to reduce consumption, and industry analysts say system planners prepare for such circumstances.

PJM Interconnection, which operates the grid that serves 65 million people from New Jersey to Illinois, said Thursday’s projected peak would set an all-time high for summer electricity demand, last set in 2006.

____

Associated Press writers Daniel Gelston in Philadelphia, Anthony Izaguirre and Ted Shaffrey in New York, Michael Casey and Rodrique Ngowi in Boston and Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report.

A memo obtained Thursday by The Associated Press calls for the FBI to “surge” 260 investigative analysts and staff operations specialists to the effort, which it described as a “priority investigation.”

It said each of them is to conduct a check of an estimated 708 records by July 17. While the memo does not describe the investigation, people familiar with the matter who insisted on anonymity to discuss internal decision-making confirmed the request was to help with the Georgia 2020 election investigation.

FBI agents in January seized hundreds of boxes containing ballots and other documents related to the 2020 election in Georgia’s most populous county, which is heavily Democratic and includes most of the city of Atlanta. A Fulton County spokesperson declined to comment citing a pending investigation. The contents of the memo were first reported by MS NOW.

President Donald Trump and his allies have made false claims that widespread election fraud cost him the 2020 election. Georgia’s votes in the 2020 presidential race were counted three times, including once by hand, and each count affirmed Democrat Joe Biden’s win.

The Justice Department has previously said it is investigating “irregularities that occurred during the 2020 presidential election in the County."

___

Durkin Richer and Tucker reported from Washington.

Desperate for good news, Venezuelan and international emergency workers celebrated the near-miraculous rescue of a 43-year-old security guard found alive after almost eight days under the rubble. National broadcasters reran footage all day of the exuberant moment he was pried free from the collapsed mall and lifted onto a stretcher as crowds, including rescuers from 10 countries, embraced one another and cheered. Trapped in an air pocket beneath the concrete, Hernán Alberto Gil Flores survived on the food and water that rescuers managed to pass him through the crevices.

But elsewhere across the hardest-hit state of La Guaira, where thousands remain missing, an air of hopelessness was setting in. The port city of Catia La Mar teemed with officials carrying body bags and stacking caskets.

The government of acting President Delcy Rodríguez, whose response to the earthquake has been widely criticized as slow and disorganized, has counted at least 2,295 people killed by the earthquake and more than 11,000 injured.

With thousands sleeping in crowded shelters or outside, doctors have voiced concern that the fallout could pave the way for a widening medical crisis of untreated injuries and infectious diseases in a healthcare system already on the brink.

Uncertainty over the future of Rodríguez's leadership

Faced with complaints that foreign crews and civilians have shouldered most of the rescue efforts, Rodríguez sought to defend the government response a day before the extension of her 180-day mandate as acting leader was set to expire. Rodríguez served as deputy to former President Nicolás Maduro until he was ousted by the United States in January. She became interim leader with the backing of the Trump administration.

With little transparency by Venezuelan officials, it was unclear what would happen once the deadline passes on Friday.

Under Venezuela’s constitution, temporary absences are to be filled by the vice president — which was Rodríguez’s former role — for up to 90 days. These interim appointments can be extended by the national assembly for an additional 90 days.

The Venezuelan leader has strong support from lawmakers and the Trump administration. The National Assembly, controlled by Rodríguez’s party, can trigger a snap election if lawmakers declare the post permanently vacant.

U.S. support of a government under fire

Since the U.S. capture of Maduro, the Trump administration has expanded its role in Venezuelan affairs — a seismic shift in relations between the long-adversarial nations.

The U.S. has thrown support behind Rodríguez and largely turned its back on opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado, who this week accused Rodríguez’s government of blocking her return to her country. Washington has also sought to remake Venezuela’s lucrative energy industry and opened the door for Venezuela’s state oil company to sell fuel to U.S. companies.

John M. Barrett, the U.S. chargé d’affaires to Venezuela, said Wednesday that revenue from Venezuelan oil production, controlled by the U.S. Treasury since Maduro's seizure, is also being made available for relief efforts.

While the U.S. has committed over $300 million in assistance to the response, the State and Treasury Department teams were working “to make sure that those funds are made available for this specific reconstruction effort, including for shelter, sanitation, health and energy generation,” Barrett said. Venezuela’s oil and gas production was not directly impacted by the earthquakes, he added, and said production continues to increase.

Oversight of where that money flows is crucial, said Laura Cristina Dib, Venezuela program director at the independent human rights organization Washington Office on Latin America.

Even before the earthquakes, it was difficult to track how the seized oil revenue was being spent, she said, adding: “There are a lot of transparency questions that linger on the use of that fund in a moment in which Venezuelans really need that money to be used for the protection of Venezuelans."

When asked about growing criticism over the Venezuelan government's relief efforts, U.S. officials have been vocal in their support for Rodríguez.

“What I can say with confidence is that the local authorities have fully complied with our requests and have accelerated this massive humanitarian response,” Barrett said.

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Janetsky reported from Mexico City. Associated Press journalists Ben Finley in Washington D.C and Gabriela Aoun Angueira in San Diego contributed to this report.

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Corrects that the deadline for the acting president expires on Friday, not Thursday.

Attorney General Liz Murrill told eight New Orleans officials, including Mayor Helena Moreno and District Attorney Jason Williams, that they could face removal from their jobs for opposing the law. It eliminated the position of Orleans Parish criminal court clerk after a man who spent decades in prison for a wrongful conviction was elected to the post with 68% of the vote.

Legislators approved the law at Republican Governor Jeff Landry’s urging just days before Calvin Duncan was to take office in May. Duncan’s supporters saw it as a move by a majority white conservative Legislature to thwart the will of voters in a predominantly Black Democratic hub in a red state.

Landry slammed the indictment in a social media post on Thursday, promising to pardon Murrill “as fast as the law allows.”

“The criminal justice system is a circus at its finest in Orleans and we will not have any of that!” he wrote on X, where he called the system a “Kangaroo court.”

The Republican Attorneys General Association called the indictment “as outrageous as it is dangerous.”

The GOP group said in making her statements that Murrill was simply “issuing a legal opinion and warning public officials about the law” as part of her official duties. Murrill’s critics saw it as an attempt to intimidate them into accepting the law.

Local officials had a swearing in ceremony for Duncan on the steps of the Orleans Parish Criminal District Court two weeks before he was to take office — while lawmakers still were considering the measure to eliminate his job.

Moreno, a Democrat, said in a statement that the indictment is “a matter for the courts” and did not directly address the allegations against Murrill.

“My focus, as always, remains on fulfilling the responsibilities the people of New Orleans elected me to carry out,” Moreno said.

Assistant Attorney General Laurie White, who is prosecuting the case, addressed reporters after the indictment.

“We’re very interested in elected officials in New Orleans not being intimidated or threatened by letter or any other way,” White said.

She said she expected the case will be “very simple” and “very open and shut.”

In response to Landry's promise to pardon Murrill, she said, "Let’s get her convicted, and then he can pardon her.”

——

Associated Press reporter Jack Brook contributed from New Orleans.

“The Tale of KAHO” is the Japanese author's first full-length novel featuring a lone woman protagonist, according to Shinchosha Publishing Co.

“Kaho, a picture book author, is just an average young woman. But truly bizarre things start happening around her,” Murakami said in a brief message posted on the publisher’s campaign website. “I wrote this novel as I put myself in her shoes.”

His statement drew the attention of many fans, because most of Murakami's protagonists are young or middle-aged men.

“I'm excited about finding out how the story evolves around a female main character,” said Naoyuki Yamano, the first customer to buy the new Murakami novel.

Initially, the novel started as a short story titled “Kaho,” which Murakami rehearsed at a book reading event two years ago at Waseda University, his alma mater in Tokyo, with Mieko Kawakami, a renowned female author and fan of his work. The story was published in the June 2024 edition of the monthly Shincho magazine.

Takumi Hashimoto, a 33-year old office worker who attended the launch event with three fellow members of a Murakami book reading club, said he hopes to read a story from a female protagonist’s perspective and find out how the story evolved from a series of magazine stories into a full-length novel.

His companion, Mizuki Shirota, 33, said she was struck by the way Murakami portrayed the female protagonist’s emotions in the magazine version.

“The story was written in a way that makes you very aware of lookism, or how I, as a woman, am perceived by men ... there were parts that I even felt startled a bit," Shirota said. “So I want to read that again in the book."

One day, 26-year-old Kaho goes on a blind date arranged by her book editor. Over dinner, her date tells her that, although he has dated a number of women, “I’ve never seen one as ugly as you.” Baffled rather than outraged, curious Kaho tries to uncover the meaning of his words. Soon, bizarre things begin happening to her.

Murakami has since released three subsequent “Kaho” stories in Shincho magazine, most recently in the March edition. He weaves the four stories into a 352-page new novel with four chapters: “Kaho and the Motorcycle Man,” “The Anteater of Musashi-sakai,” “Kaho and the Termite Queen” and “The Guardian Angel, Elephant Egg and Scarlett Johansson.”

The new book comes out three years after his previous novel, “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” which follows a male protagonist navigating love, loss and the boundaries between real and subconscious worlds.

Also, former CIA Director John Brennan sued the Trump administration Wednesday, demanding a court order that would require officials to preserve records from investigations he says are targeting him for “what amounts to phantom criminal conduct.”

The lawsuit says the records would shed light on the motivations of government officials who are investigating Brennan.

Here's the latest:

Trump defends making so much personal money as president

In a CNBC interview, the president said, “I’ve made a tremendous amount of money, more than I would have ever thought I’ve made. And I let people invest it.”

He insisted the investments were made without his input: “I don’t even speak to — I don’t even know who they are.”

A recent federal filing showed that Trump took in nearly $1.2 billion from his crypto businesses last year alone.

Trump said during the interview that some of his assets were in “semi-blind trusts or blind trusts” without elaborating.

He said that, as president, he doesn’t run his family’s business, The Trump Organization, and has left doing so to his sons, adding there was nothing wrong with or illegal about what his family was doing.

Trump still won’t say if he’ll sign bipartisan bill to address housing affordability

During a CNBC interview, Trump was asked about the housing bill that was sent to him this week despite his cancellation last week of a signing ceremony and an announcement that he wouldn’t sign it until an election-related bill pass.

Trump called the bill “fine,” a much warmer review than he gave it earlier this week when he declared it to be “a yawn,” but he still didn’t say whether he’d sign the legislation, veto it, or allow it to become law without his signature.

Louisiana AG is indicted by grand jury in fight over court changes

Republican Attorney General Liz Murrill is accused of trying to intimidate local officials who fought a law enacted by GOP legislators to overhaul the local courts.

Murrill told eight New Orleans officials, including its mayor and district attorney, that they could face removal from their jobs because of their opposition to the law.

The law eliminated the position of Orleans Parish criminal court clerk after a man who spent decades in prison for a wrongful conviction was elected to the post with 68% of the vote in a blue hub in a red state.

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State Department rolls out new Trump-branded passports to celebrate America’s 250th

After announcing that the limited-edition Trump passports would be available to applicants who want them earlier this year, the department said they would become available on Monday.

“This special passport features striking custom artwork and enhanced imagery that honors our nation’s founding while maintaining all the advanced security features that make the U.S. passport the gold standard for travel and identity documents,” the department said.

To get one of the commemorative passports, applicants must apply in-person to the Washington, D.C., passport office. Applicants who want the standard, traditional passport can apply online, by mail or at a passport agency outside of Washington.

ICE arrests 10,000 people over 5 days at the end of June

This marks a major push by the agency tasked with carrying out the Trump administration’s mass deportations agenda.

The arrests translate into roughly 2,000 per day, a sharp increase over previous periods.

In June, the number of people booked into Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities climbed to roughly 39,000.

The New York Times first reported the news of the arrests.

ICE doesn’t publicly release arrest data, making exact comparisons difficult. The Deportation Data Project provided data showing a significant increase in arrests.

Former Olympian indicted for alleged Reflecting Pool vandalism

A former Olympian was indicted Thursday on a felony charge in what Trump has called vandalism of the Reflecting Pool.

David Hearn, a former Olympic canoe racer, was indicted on a single count of property destruction in Washington, D.C., court.

He previously told The Associated Press that he reached into the pool to examine the newly peeled coating. Hearn, 67, said he stopped by the pool during a bike ride.

Trump has said federal authorities made “multiple arrests” of people he said were vandalizing the Reflecting Pool following a $14-million-plus rehabilitation project he launched for the nation’s 250th anniversary.

Democrats accuse Trump-linked fundraisers of America250 fraud

House Democrats allege consultants tied to Trump may have engaged in financial fraud related to the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations.

Democrats accuse the consultants of tricking donors who wanted to support the nation’s bipartisan 250th anniversary organizer into sending their money to a rival group set up by Trump’s Republican administration.

A Democratic report released Thursday says donors intending to contribute funds to the bipartisan America250 committee created by Congress were instead given banking and routing numbers for a different but similarly named Trump-backed group, Freedom 250.

A Freedom 250 spokesperson dismisses the Democrats’ report as “categorically false” and calls it a “partisan smear.”

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Ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is still rebounding despite recent attacks

At least 258 ships transited the waterway last week, a period that included Iranian strikes on two commercial vessels, according to marine data and analysis company Lloyd’s List Intelligence. That’s up from 138 ships the previous week.

Iran’s attacks on ships in the strait on June 25 and 27 “seem to have been forgotten,” Richard Meade, editor-in-chief at Lloyd’s, said Thursday during a webinar.

Still, traffic has slowed somewhat since the strikes and remains far below prewar levels, when about 130 vessels passed through daily.

And with ship operators having to choose between complying with Iran’s demands or braving the route off Oman watched by U.S. forces, “nothing about this situation is stable,” Meade said.

Top FBI agent in Chicago abruptly leaving post, AP sources say

Douglas DePodesta has served as special agent in charge in Chicago, one of the FBI’s largest offices, for nearly two years and has been with the bureau since 2002.

He told colleagues in a resignation message that his last day would be Monday. Multiple people familiar with the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel move, said DePodesta had been pushed to retire.

The move is part of a broader upheaval in the FBI’s workforce as Director Kash Patel has sought to force out line agents and supervisors alike who are perceived as not supporting the Trump administration agenda. It also comes amid prolonged tumult in the law enforcement community in Chicago.

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-By Eric Tucker and Alanna Durkin Richer

American Hospital Association says Trump Medicare proposal could hurt hospitals

The American Hospital Association said the Trump administration’s proposal to keep hospitals from charging markups on discounted drugs for Medicare patients would compound the financial pressures its members face.

“These proposals will undermine the ability of hospitals to maintain essential services and protect affordable access to care for those who depend on the 340B program,” said Ashley Thompson, the group’s senior vice president for public policy analysis and development.

There is the risk that hospital systems could see their revenues decrease, which could have consequences in the communities they serve.

Goal of higher voter turnout remains elusive in California

California’s drawn-out tabulating has put the state in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump and made it a target of those who promote unfounded election conspiracy theories.

California has enacted many changes over the years that were intended to boost voter turnout. But there hasn’t been significant improvement in participation and those changes are largely responsible for the state’s tediously slow ballot counting today.

Preliminary figures show turnout hit 40.8% in the June primary, with counties required to complete their vote counting on Thursday.

That would be an increase over recent primary elections but below participation levels in others stretching back to 2000.

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Iran warns oil tankers to use approved routes in Strait of Hormuz or face a ‘forceful response’

Iran’s joint military command warned Thursday that all oil tankers moving through the Strait of Hormuz must use its approved routes or face a “forceful response,” ratcheting up tensions again over a waterway crucial for international energy supplies.

The strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, has emerged as one of the top issues in negotiations seeking a permanent end to the Iran war. The statement from the Khatam al-Anbiya military command, reported by Iranian state television, comes after both U.S. and Iranian diplomats met with mediators Wednesday in Qatar.

It wasn’t immediately clear what sparked the threat from Iran. However, the U.S. military’s Central Command had put out a statement about a meeting with officials from Mideast nations in Bahrain that said “leaders underscored their shared commitment to the free flow of commerce through” the strait.

That appears to have been the phrase that angered Iran, which is preparing for the funeral that begins this weekend for the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the war’s first moments in February.

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Hegseth praises National Guard in sweltering DC park as protesters chant

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other Trump administration officials thanked National Guard members for their service in the nation’s capital as small groups of protesters chanted, “Guard go home!”

Hegseth apologized for being nearly 30 minutes late to the event in a city park, where more than 200 Guard members sweated in the morning sun as Washington faced an extreme heat warning.

Hegseth called the protesters “ingrates” as their whistles, chants and horn-blowing mixed with the speeches.

Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff, claimed crime has rapidly fallen since President Trump deployed the Guard last year. Local officials say crime was already going down before Trump ordered troops into the city.

Hegseth credited Trump, Miller and the Guard for why Washington “is a safe and beautiful place” for the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations this weekend.

The Supreme Court tackled race, history and the law in fraught and reflective major rulings

The Supreme Court just wrapped up a term that yielded significant rulings in cases involving race and discrimination that could have lasting effects on U.S. politics and society.

Justices were at times bitterly divided — and critical of one another — in rulings that winnowed key provisions of a landmark voting rights law, allowed the government to revoke protections for some immigrants and even challenged the historic understanding of birthright citizenship for the children of immigrants.

The decisions come at a moment when long-standing debates over race and identity have turned toward immigration, increasing racial diversity and the fairness of policies meant to prevent and redress discrimination.

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On July 4, Trump Accounts launch, giving newborns $1,000

On Saturday, Trump’s administration plans to launch Trump Accounts, tying the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence to an effort to boost financial independence for American kids.

Under the program, parents can open investment accounts for any child born during Trump’s second term and automatically receive $1,000 from the government. Accounts can be opened on behalf of older children — as long as they don’t turn 18 before the end of the calendar year — but they won’t get the $1,000.

That money — and anything else deposited by employers, philanthropies and relatives — is invested in the stock market by private firms. Children can’t access the money until they turn 18, and then only for specific purposes, like paying for a home or school.

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Trump administration proposes a rule it says could save Medicare patients $1.1 billion on drugs

The administration is proposing the new rule Thursday to keep hospitals from charging markups on discounted drugs for Medicare patients and says that could save consumers $1.1 billion next year, according to estimates obtained by The Associated Press.

The rule would apply to hospitals that serve low-income patients under what’s known as the 340B program, which lets hospitals buy outpatient prescription drugs at discounted prices. But in many cases, hospitals can bill insurers at rates that exceed those costs, allowing hospitals to keep the difference and resulting in higher costs to patients.

Under the proposed rule, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services would change the formula for what hospitals participating in the program can get reimbursed, in an effort to cut costs for patients.

The Republican administration has sought to show during an election year that it’s tackling the challenges of affordability for U.S. families at a time when rising healthcare costs are driving financial strains for households and the government alike. While the administration has taken several steps it says will save money on medical treatment, it’s unclear how much savings might ultimately materialize based on the complexity of the country’s healthcare system.

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Trump and Republicans return to communist attacks against Democrats ahead of the midterm elections

President Trump and his fellow Republicans are reviving a line of attack against Democrats heading into the midterm elections: They’re communists.

In just the past week, Trump has issued dark warnings that members of the Democratic Party’s ascendant left are communists who want to “completely destroy the traditional American way of life” and even engage in assassinations. Vice President JD Vance has similarly called out communism as a political shift that is “something we haven’t seen in the U.S.” House Speaker Mike Johnson has decried “radical candidates” who are “self-described, self-identifying Marxists.”

The GOP’s ideological focus conflates democratic socialism, which often centers on securing universal healthcare, higher taxes on wealthy people and stricter corporate regulation, with communism, under which private ownership is largely eliminated. It’s been building since Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, won the Democratic nomination for New York City mayor last year.

But it’s kicked into a higher gear recently after democratic socialists won several New York City congressional primaries last week.

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Trump administration’s $46 billion ‘smart wall’ races ahead on the US-Mexico border

For decades, all that separated the U.S. from Mexico was barbed wire.

Now, after a massive infusion of cash from Congress, Trump’s administration is swiftly building what it’s dubbed a “smart wall,” a combination of 30-foot-tall (9-meter-tall) steel fencing and an array of sophisticated technology like sensors, cameras and towers allowing Border Patrol to surveil the territory.

The wall is under heavy scrutiny for the billions of dollars being dedicated to it when border crossings are at their lowest in decades. Critics say the U.S. is militarizing the border as it increasingly deploys sophisticated surveillance technology to the area, impacting local communities.

“We are seeing a massive expansion of surveillance and surveillance technology across the borderlands,” said Ricky Garza, border policy counsel at the Southern Border Communities Coalition, an advocacy group. “The wall in all its forms is harmful to communities.”

Officials say the technology is complementary to the physical wall and frees up agents for other tasks.

“It’s a smart wall. It’s not just a barrier,” Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott said during recent congressional testimony.

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Crypto, real estate, watches: How Trump made over $1 billion last year

Trump’s latest financial disclosure report showed he took in about $1.2 billion last year from various crypto holdings, overshadowing a real estate business that brought him fame and helped propel him to the nation’s top office.

Whereas it took decades for Trump to amass his various properties, the rise of crypto in his portfolio was done in just over a year.

Running over 900 pages, the mandatory annual report showed Trump struck several other new veins of wealth last year, raising questions about whether he is profiting from his high office.

He took in tens of millions from new property holdings in foreign countries eager to please a man with power over where to deploy the U.S. military and how much to charge in tariffs. And he got tens of million more suing media companies worried they could lose their broadcast licenses or not get deals approved by his regulators.

Ever the salesman, Trump even made big money off the smallest of things, pulling in millions by slapping his name on Bibles, guitars and watches — the latter alone bringing in $4.7 million.

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Trump visits newly built Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in North Dakota’s Badlands

Trump visited North Dakota on Wednesday to see the newly built Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, a massive facility exploring the life of America’s 26th president, built in the rugged, lonely landscape where Roosevelt built his conservation values in the 1880s.

During a tour of the 96,000-square-foot library and in a speech afterward, Trump spoke admiringly of Roosevelt and compared himself favorably to the former president, who he described as the embodiment of the American spirit, praising his toughness as a leader and outdoorsman.

“He had a freakin’ wild life,” Trump told an audience at a Western-themed amphitheater. “He didn’t want to be quiet. He wanted to be great.”

The official opening of the library on Saturday coincides with July Fourth celebrations honoring the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

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Ex-CIA Director John Brennan seeks court order requiring records from investigations be preserved

Former CIA Director John Brennan sued the Trump administration Wednesday, demanding a court order that would require officials to preserve records from investigations that he says are targeting him for “what amounts to phantom criminal conduct.”

The lawsuit says the records would shed light on the motivations of government officials who are investigating Brennan and would form the basis of defense efforts to dismiss any eventual indictment on grounds that the case constitutes a vindictive prosecution.

Such an argument, his lawyers said, would be supported by the more than 100 verbal or written statements that President Donald Trump has made since 2017 lambasting Brennan and by the Republican president’s directives to his Justice Department to initiate investigations of Brennan “without regard to factual or legal justification.”

Without an order, the lawsuit contends, the records are at risk of being lost or intentionally deleted.

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Even coach Mauricio Pochettino, who was born in Argentina and lives in Spain, got in on the act after Wednesday's 2-0 victory over Bosnia-Herzegovina, belting out the words to Denver's anthem as he hugged his players and staff members.

The John Denver estate told The Associated Press that it is “thrilled” by the song’s latest revival at the World Cup, saying “Country Roads” has endured because its message transcends geography, and that its “simple, clear, and relatable” lyrics make it perfect for a sing-along.

“Everyone knows what ‘Take me home to the place I belong’ is about,” the estate said Thursday. “It’s not limited to West Virginia.”

Here’s how a song inspired by a Maryland drive became a World Cup anthem.

The song has its origins in Maryland, not West Virginia

Despite the lyrics' heartfelt embrace of West Virginia, “Country Roads” cowriter Bill Danoff has said the inspiration for the song came from a drive he and his then-wife, cowriter Taffy Nivert, took along Maryland's winding Clopper Road to attend a family reunion in Gaithersburg, some 25 miles (40 kilometers) east of the West Virginia border.

“I just started thinking, country roads, I started thinking of me growing up in western New England and going on all these small roads,” Danoff told Washington's WRC-TV in 2020. “It didn’t have anything to do with Maryland or anyplace.”

At the time, Danoff hadn't spent considerable time in West Virginia. He was familiar, though, with Appalachian music broadcast from Wheeling, West Virginia's famous WWVA radio station, which he listened to while growing up in Springfield, Massachusetts. Danoff said he was also inspired by the West Virginia-born actor Chris Sarandon, as well as the West Virginian members of a commune who would frequently attend his gigs.

Danoff said he and Nivert were planning to try to sell the song to Johnny Cash, but when they played an unfinished version one night in their apartment for their friend John Denver, the singer-songwriter convinced them to let him record it instead. The song, released in 1971, turned into Denver's biggest hit and has been a mainstay for decades.

“I don’t know all of the ways that song must have touched people, but I’m grateful that I have somehow been able to say something that has meaning for others,” Denver wrote years later. Denver died in a plane crash in 1997.

‘Country Roads’ finds a new stage at the World Cup

According to The Athletic, FIFA officials added “Country Roads” to its postgame playlist options in hopes of creating a shared moment between the U.S. team and its supporters.

It made its debut at the end of the U.S.'s second match as the players celebrated their 2-0 win over Australia in Seattle. The song was an immediate hit both inside the stadium and on social media, as fans embraced the scenes of U.S. players waving to fans as they sang the lyrics.

“You could feel the connection with the fans,” midfielder Weston McKennie told reporters after the match.

John Denver's song didn't get quite the same reception on June 25 at Los Angeles Stadium, as it came after a deflating, though insignificant, last-minute U.S. loss to Turkey.

But it came back in force Wednesday evening in Santa Clara, California, as the U.S. defeated Bosnia-Herzegovina to advance to the round of 16. Perhaps none were more enthusiastic than midfielders McKennie and Sebastian Berhalter, who swung their arms wildly as they wandered around the field while singing to the fans.

During matches not involving the U.S. team, the song has frequently been played during hydration breaks and has also been met with roaring approval from fans who, moments previously, had been booing the start of each hydration break.

‘Country Roads’ has long been a sports staple

It’s hardly the first time that “Country Roads,” has been used by sports fans. It has long been a mainstay at West Virginia University football games, where Mountaineer fans serenade the team after its home victories.

It's even found a home in Europe, where fans have been singing it during the NFL's annual visit to Germany since the first game in Munich in 2022. Fans there were used to singing the song during Oktoberfest celebrations.

And, in the English Premier League, Manchester United supporters years ago tweaked the words to sing about their own “home” — Old Trafford stadium.

England’s players have their own sing-along

While “Country Roads” is the U.S.'s unofficial anthem, the England national team during this tournament has similarly adopted Oasis' “Wonderwall.”

Standing in a line, arms around each other’s shoulders, the English players sang the 1995 hit after their 4-2 opening victory against Croatia, something that captain Harry Kane said was “one of my favorite ever moments in an England shirt.”

The team has been repeating the post-match tradition after each match since.

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

Elvia and Todd Malcolm were in Telos Township, Maine, about an hour or so from their home in Lincoln, when they saw a female moose along the edge of a wooded area before she turned down a side road.

“I said to Elvia, I said, ‘Grab your phone because you’re going to get a chance to get a picture of a moose,'” Todd Malcolm told The Associated Press.

They parked their truck to watch the moose and noticed she seemed agitated and was grunting as if calling to a calf.

Suddenly, the calf and bear charged out of the trees heading straight toward them. Todd Malcolm said there was no doubt in his mind that the bear would catch the calf and decided not to let nature take its course that day.

“I put the truck in drive and I just stepped on the gas,” he said, explaining that he wasn't trying to hurt the bear, just trying to put the truck between the bear and the calf. “I knew what I had to do and I just did it.”

The bear jumped to the side and streaked off, Todd Malcolm said, “Boom, gone, right in the woods."

His wife was happy and relieved they were able to intervene.

“My heart was racing because I did not want to witness the bear catching the calf,” she said. “As soon as the calf got past the truck and we were able to get the bear to give up the chase, I looked up the road and saw that they were together, the mom and the calf.”

Once the excitement was over, Elvia Malcolm started looking through the photos on her phone and was amazed to see that some clear action shots of the chase.

"I really thought I probably got like a bug on the windshield when I started to look at them,” she said. “I took them through the front windshield of the truck. I wasn’t outside the truck. No way was I getting outside the truck.”

After making sure that the mother moose and calf were reunited and safe, the Malcolms continued to their fishing spot where they caught some brook trout.

The CT scanner at Havana’s Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital, the country’s leading hospital, is broken. Doctors have told her that, because of a lack of resources, they cannot operate on her again in Cuba, she said.

“I feel like my life is in danger,” Tristá, 34, a mother of a 13-year-old from Batabanó, a town 70 kilometers (43 miles) south of Havana, told The Associated Press. “I don’t know if it has grown. We have no way of knowing,” she said.

Cuba’s once-vaunted system of free universal healthcare has deteriorated sharply. The crisis, say analysts, has been compounded by fuel shortages they attribute to tightened U.S. sanctions on the island’s energy sector, worsening an economy that had already been struggling for years.

The Trump administration is pressuring Cuba’s socialist government to implement major economic reforms and change its way of governance in return for a lifting of sanctions.

Hospitals across the island face shortages of supplies including syringes, gauze, vaccines and anesthetics. They also lack spare parts to repair equipment such as hemodialysis and CT scan machines, leaving patients like Tristá without critical care. Food shortages have also made it difficult for her to follow the diet prescribed by her doctors.

Medical specialists and technicians have left the country in large numbers.

Children among the hardest hit

Cuba was already grappling with an economic crisis following the COVID-19 pandemic and the tightening of U.S. sanctions. The situation worsened after U.S. authorities captured then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in early January, depriving Cuba of one of its staunchest allies. The White House then threatened countries that sold fuel to the island and stepped up pressure on foreign companies and individuals to stop doing business with Havana.

The result was persistent power outages lasting more than 20 hours, gasoline rationing and declines in industrial and food production, among other effects.

For Cuba, a country with health indicators comparable to those of developed nations — including low mortality, high life expectancy, broad vaccination coverage and widespread prenatal care — the situation “is shocking,” said Mario Cruz Peñate, the Pan American Health Organization and World Health Organization representative in the island.

Cruz Peñate said the fuel shortages have caused “quite large” disruptions to health services, affecting not only the service itself, but the entire process around the continuity of care.

He added that PAHO and the WHO themselves also faced difficulties in distributing humanitarian aid. The United Nations, on which they depend, launched a $94 million emergency plan in March to address the foreseeable humanitarian crisis resulting from the energy blockade.

A government report released in June said the survival rate for children with cancer had fallen to 65% from 85% before the energy restrictions began in January.

“We have had children die. Two so far this year,” said Yolainy Romero, a specialist at the National Institute of Oncology and Radiobiology in Havana, during a tour of the pediatric ward. “This situation is terrible.”

Romero said some children, particularly those from distant provinces, must return to the hospital every 21 days for treatment.

“Sometimes a week or even 15 days go by before they can come because of the fuel shortage,” she said.

“It’s very hard,” said Adriana Felipe García, whose 4-year-old daughter, Nashly Zerquera, is being treated at the hospital. They traveled about 350 kilometers (217 miles) from their home in Sancti Spíritus, east of Havana, for her treatment.

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

The application — for a “Special Event at MSG” — was approved Wednesday night by New York City’s permitting office, according to a spokesperson for Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

The permit shows 100 guests will begin arriving at Madison Square Garden at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday for a “pre party celebration,” which officials described as an intimate rehearsal dinner.

A full street closure will then go into effect overnight, allowing crews to erect a “drive through tent” next to a separate “entrance tent,” according to the permit.

The “main event” will begin at 5 p.m. Friday, per the application, with the option to continue until 4 a.m. the next morning. That party can host up to 1,000 people, records show.

Beginning on Friday afternoon, several blocks surrounding the arena will be off-limits to vehicles and partially closed to pedestrians, according to information shared by police on Thursday afternoon.

Access to Penn Station — the busiest rail hub in the U.S., sitting directly below the arena — will be heavily restricted, with transit users urged to use a separate entrance further from the venue.

The approval of the permit comes as city officials and Swift’s representatives have continued to stay silent about the festivities — angering some business owners and residents, who have called for more transparency around a private event that will soak up public resources.

A spokesperson for the NYPD did not respond to a question Thursday about the purpose of the street closures.

Behind the scenes, emails obtained by the AP show city officials have been aware of the wedding — and its impact on city streets — for nearly a month.

On June 8, the director of the city’s street permitting office, Dawn Tolson, emailed several City Hall staffers to discuss a permit application “in association with the T&T wedding,” an apparent reference to Taylor and Travis.

The application included a request for “full street closures” on July 3 and 4, under the subject line: “Wedding Bells Are Ringing.”

Mamdani, who previously said the city would have to cut back on large scale events this summer due to the demands posed by the World Cup and America250 festivities, has declined to discuss the city’s role in the wedding event.

“The NYPD will of course have a detail in place, but I’m not going to go into more specifics at this time,” New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a news conference on Wednesday.

Michael O’Brien, who co-owns O’Briens Bar and Grill across from the arena, said the city should do more to publicize the impact on local businesses — and that the newlyweds-to-be should foot the bill for any lost revenue.

“This is, in my opinion, ridiculous,” O’Brien said. “If they can afford to buy the permits, they can afford this big lavish ceremony, why don’t they just buy out the local businesses instead of having us adversely affected?”

But others seemed unbothered by the secrecy and precautions around the much-anticipated nuptials.

“She’s just so important in everyone’s life,” said Alyssa Heinen, one of scores of Swift fans who gathered outside the arena on Thursday afternoon. “We grew up with Taylor Swift, and just seeing her now find love — I feel like it’s inspiring to so many women. It’s so nice to see her so happy.”

_____

Associated Press video journalist Joseph B. Frederick in New York contributed to this report.

The explosion near the main courthouse complex left 20 others wounded, the ministry said as reported by Syria's state-run Al-Ikhbariya network.

No group immediately claimed responsibility. Security forces rushed to the cafe and cordoned off the area as they investigate the attack.

Syria's Interior Ministry said in a statement that the explosive was a “crude improvised explosive device weighing approximately one kilogram equipped with metal shrapnel.” It said investigators were reviewing security camera footage, collecting forensic evidence and interviewing witnesses.

“The perpetrators of this terrorist act and those behind it will be brought to justice, and no one involved will escape accountability,” it said.

A video circulating on social media showed several wounded people lying on the ground, with police officers nearby. Ambulances later rushed to the scene treating people on site and taking the more severely wounded to hospitals in the Syrian capital.

The cafe is near the Syrian capital's main judicial complex and was frequented by lawyers who worked in the neighborhood.

Jalal Aljanani, who owns a restaurant next door, ran toward the cafe when he heard the explosion and was horrified by the sight of the bodies on the floor.

“We carried the victims to the cars until the traffic police arrived,” he told The Associated Press, his shirt covered in blood. "Many of them had suffered severe impact injuries, and almost all of them were bleeding.”

Since overthrowing the Assad dynasty and taking power in a lightning insurgency in December 2024, Syria’s new rulers have cracked down on militants from the extremist Islamic State group in an attempt to thwart attacks in and around the capital.

During the uprising-turned war in Syria that began in 2011, Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa led the Hayat Tahrir al Sham group, formerly affiliated with al-Qaida, but since coming to power has vowed to protect Syrians of all backgrounds, especially religious and ethnic minorities.

Al-Sharaa has reasserted the government's full authority across the vast majority of the country, wresting control back from extremist groups or Kurdish-led forces. However, he still contends with security concerns as he tries to stabilize the country.

Security agencies frequently announce that they have raided IS cells and thwarted attacks reportedly targeting minorities and busy commercial areas. However, several incidents such as a suicide bombing in a church in July 2025 have raised concerns among many Syrians.

— Associated Press writers Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut and Omar Albam in Damascus contributed to this report.

Pedro Porro added a goal in the second half for Spain, which put on its most impressive performance of the tournament while dominating possession and demonstrating the offensive creativity across its vaunted lineup.

Spain also has yet to allow a goal at this year's World Cup. Unai Simón didn't have to make a save while keeping his fourth consecutive clean sheet, since Austria failed to get a shot on target.

“I’m happy to have helped the team for us to go through another round,” Oyarzabal said. “Now just rest and get ready for the next one. It was a complicated match. We knew that it was going to be difficult against a very physical team, but we had a very good day and played a good match.”

La Roja will next face the winner of Portugal’s match against Croatia in Dallas on Monday in the round of 16.

Lamine Yamal had four of Spain’s 10 shots on goal while getting wild cheers from the pro-Spanish sellout crowd at SoFi Stadium. The 18-year-old Barcelona sensation played his longest stretch of the tournament before coming off in the 85th minute, moments after Austria defender David Alaba deflected Yamal’s hard shot off the goal line.

Spain got its marquee offense from Oyarzabal, the Real Sociedad captain who doubled his goal total at this year's World Cup by opening the scoring in the 36th minute and clinching the victory in the 89th. Marc Cucurella had assists on both of Oyarzabal's goals, demonstrating an excellent connection from the left side.

“The great teams step up when it’s needed,” Spain coach Luis De La Fuente said. “We played a great match. We came close to perfection, but we must keep improving. There is always room for improvement, because every upcoming match will be very difficult.”

Goalkeeper Alexander Schlager made six saves in an outstanding performance for Austria, which reached the knockout rounds of its first World Cup since 1998 by squeaking out a late draw with an injury-time goal against Algeria. Coach Ralf Rangnick’s team hasn’t won a knockout match at the World Cup since 1954.

After an unbeaten group stage that still didn’t quiet the questions about this star-laden team’s championship potential, Spain is firmly back in World Cup contention for the first time since winning it all in South Africa 16 years ago. Spain lost two knockout matches and got eliminated in the group stage over the past three World Cups.

Spain is now unbeaten 35 straight competitive matches since March 2023. La Roja won the 2023 Nations League and the 2024 European Championship in that stretch, but also lost the 2025 Nations League final on penalties to Portugal.

Following a cautious start against Austria, Spain unleashed its full attack after the first-half hydration break. Three minutes after Schlager made a diving fingertip save on Oyarzabal’s low shot, the Spain player came unmarked in the penalty area and banged home a pass from Cucurella for his third goal of the World Cup.

Álex Baena put a beautiful 25-yard free kick off the crossbar in stoppage time, and Schlager saved the resulting point-blank chance from Yamal.

Spain kept up its pressure after halftime, playing some of its most creative soccer of the tournament. It was rewarded when Baena broke in on the left side and lifted a pass to an unmarked Porro, who banged home an emphatic header for his first international goal.

Oyarzabal wrapped it up by converting another sharp pass from Cucurella.

Simón has only had to make four saves in his four straight shutout victories.

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

He’s 39 and is a 24-time Grand Slam champion who now plays only sparingly.

So he’s better positioned than almost anyone else to analyze what Serena Williams — a seven-time Wimbledon singles champion just like he is — must have been feeling after losing at the All England Club earlier this week in the first singles match that she played in nearly four years.

“People always expect you to play at your best because they’re used to seeing you dominate the sport for many years,” Djokovic said. “She’s 44. She has two children. Coming back, it’s normal that she still is not at her best in terms of movement. She hasn’t played a match in so many years. People need to cool off a little bit with judgment and criticism and everything. Let’s just enjoy the greatness, who she is, what she represents to the sport.”

Williams was beaten 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-3 by 20-year-old Maya Joint of Australia in the first round on Tuesday but showed she could be competitive with an opponent less than half her age after being away for so long.

Williams still cranked out serves faster than 120 mph and dictated points with her heavy groundstrokes. But movement was an issue and the 87th-ranked Joint was able to win more of the big points by hitting beyond the reach of the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion.

“Her wanting to give it a try and just come back is an incredible gift for our sport," Djokovic said. "I think people sometimes — I don’t know why — they don’t appreciate that enough. They just start to speculate, judge or whatever. It’s like, ‘Hey, guys, enjoy. You have the greatest ever to come play for you, to bring more attention to your sport.’

“I really support Serena. Always have. Hopefully she’s going to play more,” Djokovic added.

Williams was given wild card invitations to play both singles and doubles at Wimbledon and it remains to be seen whether she will still play doubles with older sister Venus.

Williams announced on Wednesday that she tweaked her right knee toward the end of the first set against Joint. She said she still hopes to play doubles but the Williams’ sisters opener against Colombia’s Camila Osorio and Solana Sierra of Argentina was only the remaining first-round match not on the schedule for Friday. There's is still a possibility they could play Saturday.

At last year’s U.S. Open, Djokovic publicly challenged Serena to return.

“When somebody challenges her, she never refuses. So I challenge Serena: Come back on the tour next year,” Djokovic said in 2025.

Now, Djokovic wants to see Serena play this year’s U.S. Open.

“I hope for the sake of tennis and all of us that we be able to see her more,” Djokovic said. “I assume that U.S. Open is somewhere where she would like to play. Playing in her home Slam would be amazing for her and for everyone else.”

Djokovic won his second-round match against Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets Wednesday night on Centre Court — 24 hours after watching Serena’s match on the same court on TV.

“What she’s doing is incredible. Epic,” Djokovic said. “I’ve always been a fan of Serena. I’m sure she wanted and expected to at least win one match or more. Knowing how competitive she is, the mind of a champion that she has, she’s not happy with just showing up on the court. She wants to win.”

Lindsey Vonn wasn't expecting Serena to 'show all her cards'

Lindsey Vonn, another 40-plus athlete who recently made a comeback, struggled at times in her first season back on the World Cup skiing circuit after nearly six years of retirement.

But Vonn was the top World Cup downhiller last season at age 41 until her horrific crash at the Milan Cortina Olympics in February left her with a severely fractured left leg.

Vonn attended Serena's comeback in doubles at Queen's last month and last week told The Associated Press ahead of Williams' singles return, “I would expect for her to play well but not show all her cards yet.”

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

David Hearn, a former Olympic canoe racer, was indicted on a single count of property destruction in Washington, D.C., court.

District of Columbia U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said Hearn ripped up recently installed sealant on the pool in “a deliberate act” that caused more than $1,000 in damage. She accused him of “forcefully and violently” pulling up the bottom liner “with both hands” and acting belligerently toward an employee who told him to stop.

“This is a case with tremendous evidence,” she said, adding that authorities have made about six other misdemeanor arrests.

In a statement, Democracy Defenders Fund co-founder Norm Eisen and Mary Dohrmann, senior counsel at Washington Litigation Group, said that they represented Hearn and that the charges were “outrageous and should be alarming to every American.” Eisen and Dohrmann construed the case as representative of “the misuse of government power against an ordinary citizen based on a concocted narrative.”

Hearn didn’t immediately return a phone call seeking comment. He previously told The Associated Press that he reached into the pool on June 19 to examine the newly peeled coating. He said he briefly touched a chunk that was still attached to the side of the pool, then let go shortly after a park worker told him to.

“I’m a curious citizen,” Hearn said in a telephone interview last month. “I reached down to see what it felt like. It was very rubbery.”

Hearn, 67, of Bethesda, Maryland, owned a company that made composite materials used to build watercraft.

Saying that he stopped by the pool during a 64-mile bike ride, Hearn said he was detained by National Guard troops and Park Police for five hours before being released.

Trump said last month that federal authorities made “multiple arrests” of people he accused of vandalizing the Reflecting Pool as he struggled to explain why the $16-million rehabilitation project he launched for the nation’s 250th anniversary seemingly backfired. Without providing any substantiation, he also said vandals dumped fertilizer into the pool and slashed the coating with a box cutter.

In subsequent days, National Guard members and U.S. Park Police patrolled the deck around the Reflecting Pool as Trump’s administration faced a self-imposed deadline to fix a botched renovation before the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration. Contractors and federal workers used chemicals and ozone nanobubbles to combat an algae bloom, and Trump has said that problems most likely require draining the pool again for liner repairs.

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Kinnard reported from Columbia, S.C.

Anisimova, who was consoled by Kate a year ago after being routed by Iga Swiatek in the final, trailed 3-1 in the third set before she broke back in the sixth game against her fellow American, the 2020 Australian Open champion who is now ranked No. 105.

“Some moments were really awful. I’m just so happy through to the next round,” Anisimova said on No. 2 Court.

“I never thought that I’d be saying this — but thank you to my serve today,” she added. “I’m not an amazing server. Now, I can finally say I can serve pretty good.”

The sixth-seeded Anisimova whacked her racket on her leg at one point in the deciding set.

“I was down 3-1 and I told myself to just keep fighting and this might be your last moments at Wimbledon ... just try and maybe have fun and enjoy it,” said Anisimova, who will next face 26th-seeded Madison Keys. “I try to remind myself, just have fun, you are playing at Wimbledon. I do get hard on myself sometimes.”

Swiatek, who beat Anisimova 6-0, 6-0 for the 2025 title on Centre Court, needed just 70 minutes to get past 2021 Wimbledon finalist Karolina Pliskova 6-1, 6-3.

The defending champion gets Filipino rising star Alexandra Eala, who rallied to beat Maya Joint 3-6, 6-2, 6-0, in the third round. On Tuesday, Joint spoiled Serena Williams' singles comeback.

Second-seeded Elena Rybakina, the 2022 champion at the All England Club, made quick work of Caty McNally 6-1, 6-2 and will face Belgium's Elise Mertens, seeded 25th, for a spot in the last 16.

Fritz emulates Tiafoe with tear-away pants

A well-dressed Taylor Fritz impressed again, beating compatriot Patrick Kypson 6-2, 6-2, 7-5 to reach the third round.

Fritz's white blazer and NBA-style warmup pants for his walk-on at No. 2 Court drew attention but his play wasn't bad either — he fired 19 aces and avoided getting pushed into a fourth set.

The sixth-seeded American, a semifinalist last year, emphatically pumped his right fist when he broke Kypson to convert his fourth match point.

Fritz also won his opener in straight sets and had worn a similar outfit with tear-away warmup pants — designed to easily unbutton as you pull them off in one tug.

“I took it off slowly in the first round. I kind of actually made a mess of it,” Fritz said in his press conference. “It’s actually just a lot easier to just rip them off. I saw a video of Frances (Tiafoe) doing it. I was just trying to copy him today. ”

Later, an equally dapper Tiafoe showed how it's done — earning applause for quickly pulling off the bottoms before his match against Jan Choinksi. The 17th-seeded Tiafoe won 4-6, 6-2, 7-5, 6-2.

“I had a lot of momentum from the end of the third,” the American said in his on-court interview. “I just wanted to try to get an early break and take his soul a little bit, take his belief away, and that’s kind of what happened.”

Naomi Osaka's fashion statements have made her court walk-ons must-see viewing at Grand Slam tournaments — Wimbledon included.

Also Thursday, both second-seeded Alexander Zverev and fifth-seeded Alex de Minaur recorded straight-set victories.

Matteo Berrettini, who lost the 2021 Wimbledon final to Novak Djokovic, beat 20th-seeded Arthur Fils 6-4, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 on Centre Court.

Berrettini will next face wild-card entry Grigor Dimitrov, who eliminated 15th-seeded Jakub Mensik 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-5, 6-3. Last year, Dimitrov was leading his fourth-round match against eventual champion Jannik Sinner but stopped playing because of an injured pectoral muscle.

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

The S&P 500 finished the day virtually unchanged and edged up by less than 0.1%, even though seven out of every 10 stocks within the index rose. The Dow jumped 594 points, or 1.1%, while the Nasdaq composite dropped 0.8% after erasing an early gain.

Stocks broadly got some help from a report showing that U.S. employers added 57,000 jobs to their payrolls last month. That’s growth, which is good for the economy, but it was also short of the 100,000 jobs that economists expected and a slowdown from May’s hiring pace.

The bright side of the weaker-than-expected result is that it could keep pressure off inflation, which has been accelerating worldwide because of jumps in oil prices caused by the war with Iran. And now that oil prices are back below where they were before the war, if inflation slows in upcoming months, the Federal Reserve may feel less need to raise interest rates several times this year.

That would be a relief for investors, who tend to love lower interest rates because they can give the economy a boost by making it less expensive for U.S. households and businesses to borrow money and spend. Lower rates also tend to push upward on prices for stocks and other investments.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury got to 4.50% in the morning, up from 3.97% just before the war. But after the release of the U.S. hiring data, it immediately fell back to 4.46% before drifting to 4.48%.

Traders now see an 82% chance that the Fed and its new chairman, Kevin Warsh, will not raise the federal funds rate at its next meeting later this month. That’s up from the 71% chance seen a day earlier, according to data from CME Group.

“The labor market isn’t overheating,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist at Annex Wealth Management. He said the data could allow the Fed to wait through the summer to get more clues about how inflation is behaving before having to decide on hiking rates.

On Wall Street, the company behind LaCroix sparkling waters climbed 7.5% after National Beverage said it will pay a special dividend of $3.25 for each share that investors hold.

Dollar Tree rose 2.4% after the retailer said it approved a program to send up to $2.5 billion to its shareholders by buying back its stock.

Stocks of companies in the crypto industry were also strong after the price of bitcoin rose roughly 2%, a day after dropping near its lowest level since 2024. Robinhood Markets rose 3.8%, and Coinbase Global gained 3.9%.

But more drops for computer chip companies weighed on indexes. They’ve come under pressure because of worries that their stock prices shot too high in the frenzy around AI and that all the spending on chips and data centers may not result in as much profit and productivity growth as hoped.

Memory maker Micron Technology erased an early gain to drop 5.5%, a day after plunging 10.6%. Nvidia fell 1.4%, and Lam Research sank 10.2%. They were some of the heaviest weights on the S&P 500 because they’ve grown so huge in size amid AI mania.

Nvidia has a total value of nearly $4.7 trillion, for example, which means that its stock’s movements have more weight on the S&P 500 than any other.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 0.01 to 7,483.24 points. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 594.83 to 52,900.07, and the Nasdaq composite sank 207.36 to 25,382.67.

In stock markets abroad, continued drops for chip companies sent indexes sharply lower in several Asian markets. South Korea’s Kospi index sank 7.9% due to losses for companies like SK Hynix. That’s its worst drop since a 10% plunge a little more than a week ago.

Indexes also fell 2.5% in Tokyo and 2% in Shanghai.

European indexes were stronger, and France’s CAC 40 rallied 1.7%.

In the oil market, prices dropped in the morning but pared their losses as the day progressed. Brent crude, the international standard, settled at $71.80 per barrel, up 0.3%.

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AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

With his right arm wrapped and in a sling around his shoulder, Trudale Reed heard the charges against him from a judge, and the bond amount set for each:

• Count 1: Life felony, murder in the second-degree with a weapon, domestic in nature (No bond)
• Count 2: Life felony, attempted murder in the first-degree with a weapon, domestic in nature (No bond)
• Count 3: Life felony, attempted murder in the first-degree with a weapon, domestic in nature (No bond)
• Count 4: 2^nd-degree felony, aggravated fleeing or attempting to elude law enforcement officers ($250,003)
• Count 5: 2^nd-degree felony, shooting or throwing deadly missiles ($250,003)
• County 6: 2^nd-degree felony, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon ($250,003)
• Count 7: 3^rd-degree felony, grand theft auto ($150,003)

Because he was denied bond on the murder and attempted murder charges, Reed will remain in jail pending trial. He has been ordered to have no contact with witnesses or victims.

Reed will be back in court on July 23, when he will enter a plea to the charges.

What happened

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said that officers responded Tuesday afternoon to a home on Traci Lynn Drive and found a 27-year-old woman and her two young girls suffering gunshot wounds.

The woman’s 4-year-old daughter died at the scene. She and her toddler daughter were taken to local hospitals with life-threatening injuries. No update has been released on their condition since the shooting.

Investigators said they learned that Trudale Reed, the girls’ father, was arguing outside the home with the girls’ mother and then fired multiple rounds, hitting her and their two daughters before driving off in a stolen SUV.

Detectives from JSO’s Homicide Unit responded to the scene and took over the investigation. Investigators quickly identified Reed as the shooter and issued a BOLO — be on the lookout — with a description of the vehicle.

RELATED: ‘It’s like time stopped’: Neighbor rushed in to help family after triple shooting that killed 4-year-old girl

Members of JSO’s Community Problem Response Team found Reed and stopped him using a vehicle block. They took him into custody without incident, and he was taken to a local hospital with minor injuries.

He was booked into the Duval County Pre-Trial Detention Center on Tuesday night.

Criminal history

According to past court records, Reed served time in prison from 2016 to 2019 for robbery with a deadly weapon stemming from an incident in 2015 when he was 19 years old.

RELATED: New Florida domestic violence laws take effect, adding tougher penalties and new victim protections

Records show Reed was also arrested twice in Duval County on domestic battery charges—once in 2022 and again in July 2025—but both cases were later dropped.

According to the State Attorney’s Office, the 2022 charge was dismissed after Reed’s brother declined to pursue the case or participate in prosecution. In the 2025 incident, his father chose not to move forward, resulting in the charges being dropped.

Domestic violence resources:

Free, confidential support is available 24/7 through Hubbard House’s Hotline at 904-354-3114 and Text line at 904-210-3698.

If you or someone you know is or has been a victim of domestic violence or abuse, here’s a list of other resources available:

• The Florida Domestic Violence Hotline, which will direct you to the nearest shelter, is 1-800-500-1119.
• The National Domestic Violence Hotline is open 24 hours a day. The number is 1-800-799-SAFE.
• The Micah’s Place (Nassau County) Domestic Violence Help Hotline is 904-225-9979.
• The Quigley House (Clay County) hotline is 904-284-0061.
• The Betty Griffin Center (St. Johns County) can be reached at 904-824-1555.

Police say officers had responded to past domestic disputes involving the mother and the alleged shooter, identified as the children’s father, Trudale Reed, before Tuesday’s shooting. It’s a pattern, advocates said, they see too often.

MORE | ‘Unimaginable loss’: Family identifies mom, young daughters shot during domestic dispute, thanks community for support

“There are so many reasons they may not be ready to ask for help in this moment,” said Stephanie Brown, Director of Community Education at Hubbard House. “But if we let them know that we’re still here when they are ready, then you can be that life-saving bridge.”

What the warning signs look like

Hubbard House outlines several warning signs of abuse to watch for:

• Physical signs: Unexplained scars, wounds, or injuries. Abusers may hurt their partners where they leave no visible marks, or use occasional physical violence alongside constant emotional abuse.
• Mental manipulation: An abuser may convince a victim that the abuse is their own fault — that they deserve it. That shame can make it hard for victims to admit what’s happening or ask for help.
• Fear for safety: A victim is often forced to constantly think about keeping themselves and their children safe — on top of everyday pressures like affording food, getting to work, and helping kids with school.

What to say — and how to say it

Knowing the signs is one thing. Knowing what to say is another.

Brown said the most important thing is simply showing up — with care and without judgment.

“We always encourage a person to try to talk one-on-one. Try to talk in person,” Brown said. “That’s the safest way to let that person know you care about them. They deserve to be safe. And don’t spend time with questions. That moment is about, ‘I think you might need help.’”

Brown added that survivors need to know they won’t be judged or doubted — and that support will still be there whenever they are ready.

Help is available now

You don’t have to wait for a crisis to ask for help.

Hubbard House operates a 24-hour crisis line at 904-354-3114.

Click here to see more resources.

Former Master Deputy Bryan Jackson submitted a resignation letter after the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office determined he had violated agency standards. The agency had submitted charges to the State Attorney’s Office for Florida’s 7th Judicial Circuit on May 1 alleging culpable negligence, a misdemeanor, for the Aug. 27, 2025, incident at his home in the Mondex.

Jackson had been firing at a makeshift berm on a neighboring lot when a stray bullet grazed the 11-year-old inside a nearby home, the sheriff’s office said. The agency’s review included a recreation of the incident and a forensic firearm analysis by FBI experts in Quantico, Virginia. The State Attorney’s Office declined to file criminal charges.

After the criminal case concluded, the sheriff’s office reopened an internal investigation and found two violations of agency policy. FCSO policy requires agency-issued and approved weapons to be loaded only with agency-issued ammunition and used only at an authorized FCSO range for practice or training, the release said. The violations were sustained administratively, but because Jackson resigned, he cannot be disciplined by the agency.

As required by Florida law, the internal investigation will be submitted to the Florida Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission for review and any action the commission deems necessary. Jackson is not eligible for rehire, the sheriff’s office said.

“After a lengthy and thorough investigation, the State Attorney’s Office reviewed the facts in this case and decided not to file criminal charges against Mr. Jackson,” Chief of Staff Mark Strobridge said in the release. “Mr. Jackson’s decision to resign concludes the administrative process, but our commitment to professionalism, accountability and public trust remains unchanged.”

Jackson joined the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office in 2013. The agency said Jackson’s daughter, who had been a probationary deputy sheriff, had resigned before the internal investigation was completed.

TJ Friedl also went deep for Cincinnati as the Reds beat the Brewers for the first time in seven attempts this season. Garrett Mitchell homered for Milwaukee.

The game featured two of baseball's best and hardest-throwing pitchers in Burns and Misiorowski. Burns (10-1) earned the win by giving up two runs and four hits. Burns is the only Reds pitcher since at least 1900 to open a season by allowing two runs or fewer in 15 of his first 17 starts.

Misiorowski (9-4) struck out 10 and walked none in five innings while reaching a peak velocity of 103.8 mph, but the five runs he allowed matched a career high. Only one of the runs was earned.

The most recent time Misiorowski allowed five runs came on Aug. 15 of last season, when he lasted only 1 1/3 innings in a 10-8 victory at Cincinnati.

Misiorowski had gone 8-1 with an 0.54 ERA over his last 10 starts.

Stewart put Cincinnati ahead for good in the first inning by hitting his 17th homer, a 402-foot solo shot on a 102.3-mph fastball. According to MLB.com, it was the eighth-fastest pitch to result in a homer since the pitch tracking era began in 2008.

Cincinnati extended its lead to 5-0 by scoring four unearned runs in the fourth inning.

JJ Bleday led off with a bunt and reached safely when first baseman Jake Bauers dropped the bare-handed throw from third baseman David Hamilton. Bleday scored on Noelvi Marte’s one-out single.

The Reds had two on with two outs when Trevino stepped to the plate. Trevino fell behind 0-2 before working the count full and hitting his first homer since June 8, 2025.

Trevino went 3 for 4 to improve his batting average from .192 to .232.

Cincinnati's Sam Moll, Tejay Antone and Brock Burke didn’t allow a baserunner in three innings of relief.

Up next

Reds: Return home to face the Baltimore Orioles. Friday's scheduled starters are Cincinnati's Brady Singer (3-7, 5.12 ERA) and Baltimore's Trevor Rodgers (5-7, 4.99).

Brewers: Begin a season-high, 11-game trip at Arizona. Friday's starting pitchers are Milwaukee's Kyle Harrison (8-1, 2.57) and Arizona's José Cabrera (0-1, 3.60).

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

Three-time Stanley Cup champion Patrick Kane and two-time winner Vladimir Tarasenko were among the top unrestricted free agents available by late afternoon. Jason Robertson headlines the restricted free agents without a contract as the Dallas Stars work to get him signed.

The Washington Capitals needed very little to bring Alex Ovechkin back, re-signing him to a bonus-laden deal with a $1 million salary that will make him $9 million at age 41 as long as he plays in 10 games. The Capitals made sure to keep enough salary cap space open to fit Ovechkin during an offseason in which they added Jordan Kyrou, Alex Tuch, Boone Jenner and Vincent Desharnais.

“I’m truly happy for him,” said John Carlson, a teammate for 16-plus seasons, who signed a two-year, $17 million deal with Tampa Bay. “I felt that he really wanted to come back, and I’m glad that he came to that decision. I think it’s great for everyone. I think it’s great for hockey.”

A day after landing prized free agent goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, the Toronto Maple Leafs continued their offseason transformation by signing former Capitals forward Brandon Duhaime to a three-year contract.

Free agency as it stands

Kane is still available after spending the past three years with Detroit. Kane is 37 now and a decade removed from winning the Hart Trophy as MVP when he led the league in scoring. Also unsigned are wingers Tarasenko and Anthony Mantha, who is coming off a career year, and forward Claude Giroux, who is still chasing a championship at 38.

The first day of free agency featured more than 55 players changing places across the league with more than $360 million worth of contracts. And that's not even counting Bowen Byram becoming the highest-paid defenseman at an average salary of $12.5 million beginning in 2027 under his new deal with Chicago after he was acquired in a trade with Buffalo.

Byram's time with that distinction may be short if Colorado gets a new contract done with two-time Norris Trophy-winner Cale Makar, which also would go into effect in 2027-28.

Wild day of signings and a trade

The Minnesota Wild were busy in re-signing their own free agents and acquiring forward Blake Coleman and defenseman Olli Maatta in a trade with Calgary. The Flames acquired defenseman Jake Middleton and three draft picks, including a second-rounder in 2029. Calgary also agreed to retain 50% of the $4.9 million Coleman is owed in the final year of his contract.

The 34-year-old Coleman has 10 seasons of NHL experience and posted his fourth 20-goal season last year, finishing with 20 goals and 35 points. Matta is a 13-year NHL player noted for his defensive play. The 30-year-old Middleton leaves Minnesota after four-plus seasons.

The Wild signed Maxim Shabanov for $1.6 million for next season after the New York Islanders decided not to bring back the Russian winger.

Minnesota is also bringing back two players by re-signing defenseman Zach Bogosian ($1.25 million) and right winger Nick Foligno ($900,000) to one-year deals.

Montreal extends Jakub Dobes

Building the future of the Canadiens took another step forward with an extension for Jakub Dobes, the self-described “goofy goalie” who was one of the stars of their run to the Eastern Conference Final. Dobes got a three-year extension from 2027-30 worth just over $16 million, with the final four digits of his annual average salary ($5,357,575) matching his No. 75 jersey number.

“I feel like it was really important this summer to kind of get it done with,” Dobes said on a video call with reporters. “Where I come from in the Czech Republic, it’s a lot of money. I’m really happy, especially for my family that we have this all together. I cannot really get satisfied. I don’t feel like the money is too important to me. I’m just happy I can focus on hockey and have a clear mind and try to win a championship with Montreal.”

The team earlier this week signed rookie of the year finalist Ivan Demidov to an eight-year, $73 million deal through 2035. Captain Nick Suzuki is signed through ‘30, while wingers Juraj Slafkovsky and Cole Caufield and defensemen Lane Hutson, Noah Dobson, Mike Methson and Kaiden Guhle are all under contract through ’31.

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AP Sports Writer Dave Campbell in St. Paul, Minnesota, contributed to this report.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL

As of 4:25 p.m. the left shoulder was blocked, and traffic backups were stretching past Old St. Augustine Road.

Click on the player above to view the current backups.

This is a developing story.

The strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, has emerged as one of the top issues in negotiations seeking a permanent end to the Iran war. The statement from the Khatam al-Anbiya military command, reported by Iranian state television, comes after both U.S. and Iranian diplomats met with mediators Wednesday in Qatar.

It wasn’t clear what sparked the threat from Iran. However, the U.S. military's Central Command had put out a statement about a meeting with officials from Mideast nations in Bahrain that said “leaders underscored their shared commitment to the free flow of commerce through" the strait.

That could have been the phrase that angered Iran, which is preparing for the funeral that begins this weekend for the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the war's first moments in February.

“Any failure to comply, deviation from the designated route, or disregard for the navigation protocols of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the Strait of Hormuz will be met with an immediate and forceful response from the armed forces, endangering the security of the violating vessels,” the Iranian statement said.

It also said that interference by U.S. forces in the strait “will be met with a rapid and decisive reaction.”

Iran and the United States agreed as part of an interim deal to allow ships to pass without paying charges for 60 days. But Tehran insisted it must control the routes of the vessels and later charge fees for passage, upending decades of practice in the waterway.

The U.S. and many Gulf Arab states say they won’t agree to Iran charging for passage through the strait. An effort by Oman and a United Nations agency to launch a new route near Oman’s shore sparked attacks across the Mideast last weekend, highlighting the tensions.

Despite the attacks, ship traffic in the strait continued to rebound. At least 258 ships transited the waterway last week, a period that included Iranian strikes on two commercial vessels, according to marine data and analysis company Lloyd’s List Intelligence. That’s up from 138 ships the previous week.

Iran's attacks on June 25 and 27 “seem to have been forgotten,” Richard Meade, editor-in-chief at Lloyd’s, said Thursday during a webinar.

Traffic in the strait has slowed somewhat since the strikes and remains far below levels seen before the war, when about 130 vessels passed through daily. And with ship operators having to choose between complying with Iran's demands or braving the route off Oman watched by U.S. forces, “nothing about this situation is stable,” Meade said.

“Routes are being chosen on an hour-by-hour basis ... and they are contingent on shifting political approvals and real-time security assessments," he said. “This is not the new normal.”

Earlier this week, Iranian state television reported that a foreign ship got stuck in the strait after ignoring instructions from Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. However, the vessel’s shape, reported location and other details indicate the ship is tied to Iran and appears to have been stranded for months.

Despite the tensions, Wednesday's talks saw “positive progress,” Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said. He told journalists that Pakistan hoped the next round of talks would be scheduled as soon as possible after Khamenei’s funeral.

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McHugh reported from Frankfurt, Germany. Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad and Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed to this report.

The arrest numbers, obtained from a person familiar with the information who spoke anonymously to discuss data that has not been publicly released, comes after the agency shifted its approach from high-profile arrest sweeps in major American cities to quieter ways to reach President Donald Trump's deportation goals.

The figures indicate that while the administration is no longer cracking down on individual cities, the arrests continue and are surging.

The total number of arrests during the five-day period starting Friday and ending Tuesday translates into roughly 2,000 arrests per day. It was not clear where the arrests had taken place.

The spike in arrests was first reported by The New York Times.

“Since Day One, DHS law enforcement has been delivering on President Trump’s promise to the American people to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens including murderers, rapists, pedophiles, gang members, and terrorists,” said the Department of Homeland Security in a statement. “Our message is clear: if you come to our country illegally, we will find you, we will arrest you, and we will deport you.”

The arrests news also comes as the number of people entered into ICE detention facilities climbed in June to roughly 39,000 after hovering around 30,000 per month since February, according to information obtained by The Associated Press.

ICE doesn't publicly release arrest data, making exact comparisons with previous periods difficult. But according to data provided to UC Berkeley’s Deportation Data Project and analyzed by The Associated Press, 2,000 arrests per day would mark a sharp increase over previous periods.

December had the most ICE arrests since the beginning of the Trump administration, and that month only averaged 1,283 arrests per day nationwide.

In January, at a time when the administration flooded the streets of Minneapolis and surrounding regions with hundreds of immigration enforcement officers, arrests averaged about 1,212 per day across the country.

But Minneapolis proved to be a turning point in the Trump administration's mass deportations agenda after two American citizens were killed by immigration officers while protesting the crackdown in Minneapolis.

Border Czar Tom Homan started drawing down the number of officers in Minnesota as the agency stepped back from the flashy surge operations that had been common during the tenure of then- Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Operations under Noem headed by former Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino were marked by frequent clashes between immigration enforcement officers and protesters, in footage that was often splashed across the Department's social media channels.

In February, immigration arrests fell to 1,057 a day, according to information from the Deportation Data Project. The Project sued through the Freedom of Information Act to obtain the ICE arrests data and it is only current through February.

After Noem was fired, her successor at Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, suggested he'd be taking a more low-profile approach to immigration enforcement and he aimed to get the department out of the headlines. But Mullin was expected to adopt Trump's priorities on immigration.

The princess, who early last year announced her cancer was in remission, is the patron of the All England Club.

“On arrival, Her Royal Highness visited The Queue, spending time meeting attendees who have queued since early this morning, alongside AELTC’s honorary stewards, who volunteer each year to manage The Queue and welcome guests as they arrive at the Championships,” Kensington Palace said in a statement Thursday.

Wimbledon leaves a small batch of tickets available for same-day purchase and fans begin lining up and camping out the evening before in Wimbledon Park to get them each day.

Kate — who also helped out in a Wimbledon ticket office — met with children from Shine Camera Club, a local program that supports kids from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Crowds gathered as Kate walked by “Henman Hill” to reach Court 18, where British player Arthur Fery was facing Otto Virtanen. She was greeted there by All England Club chair Deborah Jevans and board member Tim Henman, a former Wimbledon semifinalist and namesake of the grassy area — also just called The Hill — that overlooks No. 1 Court.

Kate watched a portion of the match — Fery won 5-7, 7-6 (3), 6-3, 6-3 — before attending Katie Swan's match against Madison Keys at No. 1 Court, where she sat next to Murray, who in 2013 became the first British man to win the Wimbledon singles title in 77 years. Swan lost 6-1, 6-4.

Neither Swan nor Fery realized the princess was watching.

“I heard after that she was there,” the 27-year-old Swan said. “It’s probably a good thing I didn’t know, otherwise I might have been a bit more nervous.”

Swan added she'd “love to meet her if possible one day,” calling Kate “such an inspiring person.”

The 23-year-old Fery said it was “an honor” to play in front of Kate.

“I guess if I'd known, it would have maybe made me a little tight,” said Fery, who didn't notice the crowd buzz. “I was locked in. I didn’t hear it.”

Kate last year was at Centre Court on consecutive days to present the winners’ trophies to singles champions Iga Swiatek and Jannik Sinner. Kate offered consoling words to women's runner-up Amanda Anisimova after a 6-0, 6-0 loss to Swiatek.

In 2024, while recovering from cancer, Kate did not attend the women’s final but was on hand for Carlos Alcaraz’s win over Novak Djokovic.

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

That potentially kicks up the international taco chain’s presence in Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau and St. Johns counties to 36.

The predominantly franchised fast-food chain of Mexican-inspired restaurants has 8,250 locations in the U.S., with 207 in Florida, according to TacoBell.com. It recently added new menu items like the Enchirito, Cantina Chicken Mexican Pizza, Cantina Veggie Mexican Pizza and Strawberry Cinnabon Delights.

Taco Bell is a division of Yum Brands Inc., which also owns KFC and Habit Burger & Grill. It has agreed to sell Pizza Hut.

One of the proposed Duval County Taco Bell locations is the closed Bank of America branch in Baymeadows.

City power provider JEA issued a service availability letter Feb. 3 for “Point Meadows Commercial,” and associated infrastructure at the branch on an outparcel at the Point Meadows shopping center at northwest Interstate 295 and Baymeadows Road. 

A JEA service availability request means a project is being explored and has not been decided.

The four new prospective Taco Bells in Jacksonville are shown in June 24 requests to JEA to determine the service availability.

Click here to read the rest of the story on the Jacksonville Daily Record website.

“Operation County Line” resulted in 24 men and five women facing charges connected to online prostitution solicitation, according to JSO.

JSO’s Vice Unit partnered with the Intercept Task Force and the Clay County Sheriff’s Office to carry out the operation, which focused on individuals using online platforms to solicit or offer prostitution.

School guardian among those arrested

Among those arrested was a 44-year-old man, who according to his arrest report, is employed as a school guardian for KIPP, which operates several public charter schools in Jacksonville.

Police say Harvez Pierre contacted an undercover detective through an internet advertisement and arranged to meet at a pre-determined location on Collins Road. After meeting, police say a sexual conversation ensued, and he was taken into custody on June 24.

Pierre was charged with soliciting or procuring for prostitution, a first-degree misdemeanor.

News4JAX reached out to KIPP for comment and the status of Pierre’s employment. This story will be updated when we receive a response.

Operation targets online prostitution

While prostitution is classified as a misdemeanor offense, law enforcement emphasized it remains a serious crime. JSO says prostitution fuels human trafficking and spreads disease throughout the community.

Overnight lows will hover around 70 degrees inland and climb to the upper 70s along the coast. Clouds will thicken up overnight, making it feel warm and muggy heading into Friday.

Friday: Storms target inland Northeast Florida

Two things to watch Friday: afternoon thunderstorms and increasing rip current risk.

By Friday afternoon, storms will start firing up over inland Northeast Florida. Expect lightning, heavy rain, and gusty winds. Be sure to have your indoor location planned for when lightning is nearby.

Meanwhile, rip currents will pose an elevated risk at area beaches. Check beach flags before getting in the water, and always swim with a buddy and near a lifeguard.

Inland areas will see highs in the mid-to-upper 90s, while coastal spots stay in the upper 80s to lower 90s. Factor in the humidity and it will feel like 100 to 106 degrees. Drink water, limit time outdoors during the hottest parts of the day, and check on elderly neighbors and family members.

Overnight Friday into Saturday will offer little relief, with lows staying in the mid-70s inland and upper 70s near the coast.

America turns 250!

What were scattered storms on Friday become numerous, widespread storms on Saturday, especially south of I-10.

Expect frequent lightning, heavy downpours, and the potential for localized flooding in neighborhoods and low-lying areas.

The dangerous heat continues Saturday as well. Highs again reach the mid-to-upper 90s inland, with heat index values potentially hitting 100 to 108 degrees. If storms are slow to develop in your area, the heat could become dangerous enough that weather officials issue a Heat Advisory.

Rip current risks remain elevated at beaches through the weekend.

Ovechkin signed an incentive-laden deal Thursday to return for a 22nd season while also giving the Washington Capitals a chance to build a Stanley Cup contender and its longtime captain the opportunity to add to his jaw-dropping total of 929 goals.

"I’m back!” Ovechkin said.

Ovechkin, who turns 41 on Sept. 17, inked a deal with a $1 million salary and bonuses worth an additional $8 million. He receives a $3.25 million signing bonus and makes the additional $4.75 million if he plays 10 games, but the contract structure allows him to count just $4.25 million against the cap. All of that will help the Caps put a team together that could send Ovi out on a high note should this really be it.

After scoring 32 goals at age 40, Ovechkin is 35 clear of now second-place Wayne Gretzky, whose mark of 894 he passed on April 6, 2025, completing the so-called “GR8 Chase” that captivated hockey. He had said in recent months he was waiting until the offseason to decide whether to return or retire from the only NHL team he's ever played for, and management was working on contingency plans either way.

“Thank you to everyone for giving me and my family the time to make this decision," Ovechkin said. “I’m healthy. I love playing hockey and competing to win. I’m excited to come back and join my teammates so we can fight for a playoff spot and have a chance to win.”

The Capitals missed the playoffs this spring but qualified 16 times in a stretch of 18 years, which included winning the franchise's only Stanley Cup in 2018 when Ovechkin was playoff MVP.

A teammate for 16-plus seasons, fellow Cup champion John Carlson said he was not surprised by Ovechkin's decision.

"I knew that he was coming back for a long time," Carlson said on a video call with reporters after signing with Tampa Bay. “I’m sure that there was conversations to be had and decisions to be made on his end, too, but it just was always my gut feeling that he wasn’t ready to give it up and good for him. He’s been an amazing player for far too long in this league, and it’s just incredible what he’s been able to accomplish. I’m thrilled that he gets to keep living out that dream.”

Ovechkin also holds the NHL records for the most power play goals with 331 and game-winning goals with 141. He scored 30 in a season 20 times, joining Hall of Famers Gordie Howe, Johnny Bucyk and Teemu Selanne as the only players to hit that mark at 40 or older.

“What is he, 41, 42, and just incredible that this guy’s still finding ways to put up 30-goal seasons,” said Brandon Duhaime, who played the past two with Ovechkin in Washington before joining Toronto in free agency. “As a fan of the game, just to be able to watch him and over the past two years, to be able to see him break those records was pretty surreal. Growing up watching him and then being a part of that was absolutely incredible. Obviously wish him nothing but the best this season. Just a really incredible story. Really happy for him and his family.”

Ovechkin has been married to his wife, Nastya, since 2017, and the couple has two young children, Sergei and Ilya. They spend their summers in Ovechkin’s hometown of Moscow, and the family is expected to settle in Russia once his playing career is over.

That is not yet, which was welcomed by veteran forward Boone Jenner after signing with Washington. Jenner is one of several players the Capitals acquired this offseason, along with Alex Tuch, Jordan Kyrou and Vincent Desharnais to build around what might be one final run for Ovechkin.

“I always kind of thought he was going to be be back,” Jenner said. “He’s been great for the group. (His return) just adds to what they already have and the other additions that the Caps have made.”

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL

On March 30, 2026, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation renaming the airport the “President Donald J. Trump International Airport.” The law preempts local authority over naming major commercial service airports in Florida and requires Palm Beach County to pursue all necessary approvals to implement the change.

Name change is a legal requirement, not a county decision

The airport’s owner and operator, the Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners, did not independently choose the new name. State law mandated the change and required the county to comply.

Because the new airport name is subject to trademark protection, Palm Beach County entered into a Naming Rights and License Agreement on May 5, 2026. The agreement outlines the roles and responsibilities of both parties, ensures compliance with state law and protects the county from potential legal claims, including trademark infringement.

What changes — and what doesn’t

The name change does not affect who owns or operates the airport. Palm Beach County will continue to oversee all policies, finances and strategic decisions. Airline routes, schedules and customer services will also remain unaffected.

“The name change does not alter ownership, governance, legal status or operational control of the airport,” according to the airport’s FAQ. Airport officials say the transition is a branding change only, and that operations and services will continue without interruption.

Timeline: When does the new name take effect?

The name change officially becomes effective July 9, 2026, pending final FAA approval. Transition activities — including updates to signage, branding and public-facing materials — will roll out in phases.

Flight codes are changing, too

Along with the name, the airport’s aviation identifiers are set to change. The FAA locational identifier (LID) will change from PBI to DJT, and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) identifier will change from KPBI to KDJT, both effective July 9, 2026.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) code — the three-letter code most travelers see when booking flights — will change from PBI to DJT effective Aug. 18, 2026. That change was initiated by IATA at the request of several airlines operating at the airport.

What code should passengers use when booking flights?

Until Aug. 18, 2026, travelers booking flights, checking baggage or viewing airline schedules should continue searching using the code “PBI.” After that date, passengers should use the new code “DJT.”

The IATA code is the identifier used by airlines, travel websites and passenger-facing systems. The FAA and ICAO codes are used primarily by pilots, air traffic controllers and aviation operations for navigation and flight planning — not by general passengers.

Who’s paying for the transition?

Property taxes will not be used to fund the name change. The transition will be covered by airport revenues or other airport funding sources. A state funding appropriation may also be provided to support the transition.

Will the new name bring new money to the airport?

The airport says the name change itself does not create or guarantee new funding opportunities, though officials acknowledge that higher political visibility could support advocacy for discretionary infrastructure funding.

“President Trump has publicly expressed support for continued improvements and modernization,” the airport noted, adding that no new funding has been formally announced. The airport says it remains committed to pursuing all available funding to support long-term growth, safety and passenger experience.

A message for concerned travelers

Airport officials acknowledged that the name change may not be welcomed by all passengers.

“While we recognize that the required name change may be received in different ways by our passengers, we’re grateful for your continued support through this transition period,” airport officials said. “The people, service and convenience travelers have come to know and expect will continue to be at the heart of what we do.”

Stay informed

Travelers can find the latest updates on the airport’s official website and social media channels. The airport says it will continue to keep airlines, partners and the public informed throughout the transition.

“Joel Embiid is a great player, one of the best bigs in (expletive) basketball history,” Brown said. “Flops. He know it. This ain’t breaking news.”

Did someone say breaking news?

Brown might have to make amends with Embiid now that they are teammates on the 76ers in the wake of an out-of-nowhere trade that rocked the NBA and again positions Philadelphia as an instant contender for the franchise's first NBA title since 1983.

You know, because trying to win it all with a hired gun worked so well for the Sixers with Paul George. And James Harden. And Jimmy Butler.

All flops of the postseason kind in Philly.

The Sixers have another star to pair with Embiid — and the true franchise cornerstones in All-Star guard Tyrese Maxey and second-year standout VJ Edgecombe — after new team president of basketball operations Mike Gansey pulled off a whale of a move in his first month on the job.

Brown — the 2024 NBA Finals MVP, a five-time All-Star and the league’s fourth-leading scorer this past season — is getting traded by the Celtics to the Sixers, a person with knowledge of the deal’s terms said Wednesday.

Boston is getting George, along with a slew of draft capital that could become two first-round picks and two second-round picks, said the person who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the trade does not yet have the required league approvals.

“I’m still processing how this all went down,” Brown wrote in a statement released Thursday. “I’m excited and disappointed at the same time. I earned my respect from this city. I never asked for shortcuts or special treatment. I simply showed up every day, put my head down, and accepted every challenge.

Without a game played, the Sixers are the early winners in this deal.

Gansey somehow shed the two years and $110 million left on the oft-injured and aging George's deal for a bona fide superstar who was sixth in the NBA MVP voting this past season. The 36-year-old George — who was suspended 25 games for flunking a drug test — played in only 78 total games for the Sixers and has played more than 56 in a season only one time since 2019.

His contract seemed immovable.

Suddenly — as they say in Boston — anything is possible in Philadelphia.

Gansey continued his summer shopping spree on Thursday when the Sixers agreed to terms on a two-year, $12.3 million deal with guard Anfernee Simons, adding him to a list this week that includes former Knicks center Ariel Hukporti and veteran Cavaliers forward Dean Wade, a person with knowledge of the agreements told the AP, speaking on condition of anonymity because the deals cannot be signed until the league’s offseason moratorium is lifted on Monday.

The Celtics had to move on from Brown after they dangled him as trade bait to Milwaukee in a failed bid to land Giannis Antetokounmpo from Milwaukee.

Following the first round of the NBA draft, Boston president of basketball operations Brad Stevens declined to say how close the team got to executing a trade for Brown. But he said he still viewed Brown as part of the Celtics’ future. It’s why the team sat down recently with Brown recently, who currently overseas.

“Jaylen Brown is a big part of us. I don’t want to predict the future. I look at it as this is our team,” Stevens said.

He's now a big part of the plan in Philadelphia, a franchise that seemed stuck in the mud after it was swept by the eventual NBA champion Knicks in the second round — after rallying from 3-1 down to topple Boston in the first round — and was third among sportsbooks late Wednesday night to win the Eastern Conference.

Gansey said last month that he wasn't concerned the Sixers were traveling on two timelines — a win-now mode while Embiid and George were nearing the end of their deals versus dealing with the long term of trying to find pieces that can contribute in the future while Maxey is the undisputed leader of the team and Edgecombe is entering his prime.

“They're our four guys," Gansey said. "They're under contract. We've got to do the best to get them to their best selves. I think every night, at 7 o'clock, we've got to get them to their best to help us.”

They're going to get Brown at his best — and with a proverbial chip in his shoulder — trying to prove Boston wrong. With Jayson Tatum playing in just 16 games during the regular season while he rehabbed from a ruptured Achilles tendon, the 29-year-old Brown averaged career highs in points (28.7), rebounds (6.9) and assists (5.1).

Brown still has three seasons and about $182 million left on what was then a record, five-year, $304 million supermax deal he signed in 2023.

Before Antetokounmpo was ultimately dealt to the Heat, Brown posted a video on Twitch in which he described his mood.

“To all the people that’s doubted me, that want me to do this, or want me, you’re turning me into a monster,” Brown said.

He'll have his opportunity in Philly to unleash the beast with Embiid routinely sidelined big chunks of the season with injuries. Maxey had lamented how difficult it was to try and carry the Sixers without a 1B when Embiid was sidelined and now the Sixers have a sort of guardrail in Brown to steady the team during those absences.

The Sixers are transformed — just as they thought they would be when they traded for Harden, Butler and signed George, only to fail and fail again in the playoffs.

Now it's up to Brown and Embiid and Maxey to form an All-Star trio that can do the improbable just as the Knicks finally did this season in winning their first title in 53 years.

Speaking of improbable, anyone in Philly have a number for LeBron James?

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

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

What she didn’t know when she entered the water on that day in 2024 was that another woman had been bitten by a shark 90 minutes earlier and just 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) down the beach. Had she known about the earlier attack, there is no way she would have been swimming, she said.

Gribbin’s story has inspired new federal legislation to authorize emergency alerts to mobile phones to warn beachgoers when a shark has bitten someone in the area.

President Donald Trump last week signed “Lulu’s Law,” which requires the Federal Communications Commission to allow the emergency messages. The legislation, which Gribbin advocated for, authorizes the warnings by classifying a shark attack as an event for which an emergency alert can be issued. It is up to states to implement the warnings. Gribbin’s home state of Alabama approved such a warning system last year.

“It’s really just common-sense legislation. It says that whenever there has been a shark attack in a certain area where you are near, it will send an alert to your phone, exactly like how an Amber Alert system works when a child is abducted,” she said.

Gribbin said she hopes the alert system will help prevent attacks like hers. “I definitely see this law working in the future and I'm really excited to hopefully save lives,” she said.

A fight to survive

Gribbin was one of three people bitten by a shark on June 7, 2024, off the Florida Panhandle.

She was on a mother-daughter trip to the Florida Panhandle. Gribbin said she and her friend had been diving for sand dollars.

“All of the sudden my best friend yelled, ‘Shark!’ and so we all started swimming for our lives,” Gribbin recalled. She said she remembered that sharks are attracted to frantic splashing and yelled for everyone to be calm. Gribbin, who was closest to the shark, was bitten.

“The shark bit off my hand first, and I raised my arm out of the water, and there was just flesh and bone there,” Gribbin said. The shark then latched onto her leg. A man punched the shark off her and strangers on the beach rushed to help. She was flown by helicopter to a nearby hospital.

Doctors were able to save the teen's life but had to amputate part of her right leg.

Choosing positivity throughout her recovery

In the hospital, Gribbin made a deliberate decision to choose joy and to never give up.

She initially struggled knowing, “that I only have two regular limbs, and that my life would be completely different.”

“I would cry, and I would ask my mom, ‘Why is it happening to me?’ And on that day, we put a Bible verse on my bedside table that said, ‘With God, all things are possible.’ And then she told me that what you look like doesn’t define you, it’s who you are on the inside. And so, I think that stuck with me throughout my whole recovery the past two years.

It doesn’t matter what I look like, as long as I’m spreading positivity and inspiring others to stay strong and to never give up,” she said.

Gribbin was fitted with prosthetic limbs, quickly regained her ability to walk, returned to sports and got her driver’s license. She has gone back in the water and learned to surf, meeting Bethany Hamilton, a professional surfer who lost her arm in a shark attack.

U.S. Sen. Katie Britt, the Alabama Republican who sponsored the legislation, said the fact that Gribbin was bitten soon after an attack on another woman prompted discussions about what could have been done differently. That led to the idea of an alert. She contacted Gribbin's parents who had thought about the same possibility.

“If there had been any type of alert that was given, that there’s no way that Lulu would have been in the water. And so we talked about how a simple change could have made a huge impact,” Britt said.

Shark bites remain rare

While sharks are commonly found in the waters off the United States, shark bites are rare, said Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Museum of Natural History’s shark research program.

There are between 60 to 80 known unprovoked bites worldwide each year, he said. It's extremely rare that two or more people are bitten in close proximity. He said in a database of known shark bites, called the International Shark Attack File, there have only been a few instances of multiple bites in a single day.

“If somebody is bitten by a shark, and then an alert goes out, the probability that another person’s going to be bitten by a shark within, let’s say, two or three hours is incredibly small,” Naylor said.

When that happens, he said it’s likely because of environmental conditions such as sharks following schools of bait fish closer to the shore. Murky water conditions can also be a factor because they increase the chance that a shark will mistake a person for a fish or seal.

In the area where Gribbin was bitten, there are about 20 to 30 bull sharks 1,312 feet (400 meters) offshore at any time, Naylor said. Great white sharks have been spotted more frequently in the chilly waters of New England and Atlantic Canada, according to conservation groups. A smartphone app called Sharktivity also allows shark spotters to report their sightings.

The sightings might unnerve people, but Naylor said it's important to remember that shark attacks are rare.

“If sharks wanted to eat people, we’d have about 10,000 bites a day. The fact that we have so few is basically testament to the fact that the sharks are doing their level best to avoid people, not to target them,” Naylor said.

Britt said she believes parents and others on the beach will want the information. “I know as a parent, I want every tool in my toolbox to be able to keep my child safe,” Britt said.

Another survivor praises the alert system

Braxton Rocha, who was bitten by a large tiger shark off the north shore of the Big Island of Hawaii, said he liked the idea of an alert system. He thinks it is information that people, particularly tourists to the island, will want to know.

Rocha was spearfishing in 2015 when he saw the large shark. “Looked like a bus or submarine. She was the biggest thing I’d seen in the ocean at that time,” Rocha said. He started making his way to shore. When he looked back to check where the shark was, the animal was right in front of him. He tried to push the shark away, but the animal was too big and powerful. It latched onto his leg. Rocha punched it in the nose and the shark let go and swam away.

“Everything happened so fast. It was almost like being struck by lightning. I was still kind of out of it. I looked down and see giant clouds of blood just bursting out of my leg,” he said.

It took nearly 100 staples to repair the gaping wound on his leg. But the experience did not dampen Rocha's enthusiasm for the ocean and wildlife. “I’ve always loved sharks,” Rocha said.

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This story corrects the spellings of Gribbin’s name that appear in the comments by Sen. Britt.

Brown — the 2024 NBA Finals MVP, a five-time All-Star and the league’s fourth-leading scorer this past season — is getting traded by the Celtics to the Sixers, a person with knowledge of the deal’s terms said Wednesday.

Boston is getting Paul George, along with a slew of draft capital that could become two first-round picks and two second-round picks, said the person who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the trade does not yet have the required league approvals.

“I’m still processing how this all went down,” Brown wrote on social media Thursday. "I’m excited and disappointed at the same time. I earned my respect from this city. I never asked for shortcuts or special treatment. I simply showed up every day, put my head down, and accepted every challenge.

The relationships I built here, the battles we fought together, the championship we brought to this city, and the connection I shared with the fans, I’ll carry on with me."

Jayson Tatum missed most of this past season while recovering from an Achilles tendon tear that happened during the 2025 playoffs, meaning Brown had to carry even more of the load for Boston — and he wound up with career-best averages of 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game.

It seemed, though, that Brown has felt underappreciated, especially after it became known that Boston had included him in trade talks with Milwaukee when Giannis Antetokounmpo was on the market.

“Saying goodbye isn’t easy when you’ve invested your heart into something,” Brown wrote.

The Sixers have another star to pair with two-time NBA scoring champion Joel Embiid — and the true franchise cornerstones in All-Star guard Tyrese Maxey and second-year standout VJ Edgecombe — after new team president of basketball operations Mike Gansey pulled off a whale of a move in his first month on the job.

“I’m excited for what’s ahead and grateful for the opportunity to join Philadelphia,” Brown wrote. "Every city has its own identity, its own passion, and its own expectation. I respect that, and I’m looking forward to earning that respect the only way I know how, through the work.

"Philly — throw the ball up let’s get it!"

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

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

Click here for more Addressing A4dability coverage.

But some buyers are finding a workaround: assumable mortgages.

An assumable mortgage allows a qualified buyer to take over a seller’s existing home loan, including its interest rate, instead of applying for a new mortgage at current market rates. Many homeowners who purchased or refinanced during 2020 and 2021 locked in rates below 3%, making those loans especially attractive in today’s market.

For Wesley Jones, an Air National Guard service member relocating with his family from Satellite Beach to Jacksonville, an assumable mortgage made a significant difference.

“Much more affordable,” Jones said. “I shudder to think what it would be if we had financed at today’s rates.”

Jones said interest rates became part of the conversation as soon as his family began searching for a home.

“I knew what an assumable rate was just from talking to different people in my squadron,” Jones said. “At first I just started to look with putting ‘assumable’ in the extra keywords you can search for in Zillow.”

Eventually, he connected with Jacksonville Realtor Natali Zaher, who uses WithRoam, a website that specializes in listing homes with assumable mortgages.

“I just helped my buyers relocate to Jacksonville with a 2.75% interest rate,” Zaher said. “That’s a win for everyone involved.”

Zaher said buyers can search for assumable homes through WithRoam. You can look on popular sites like Zillow or Redfin, but not all homes with assumable loans are advertised in the listing details.

The lower interest rate allowed Jones to stretch his homebuying budget.

“If we were to buy a comparable house in the area that we were looking for, I think we would have had to make some sacrifices in terms of the amenities that we were looking at in the house,” Jones said. “Because we were able to assume the rate of the home that we’re purchasing, it just gave us so much more buying power.”

However, Zaher cautioned that assumable mortgages are not without challenges.

She said buyers should expect a closing process that typically takes 60 to 120 days instead of the standard 30 days. The process also requires additional paperwork and often involves working directly with the seller’s mortgage company, which can take longer than working with a traditional lender.

Another hurdle is the equity gap.

If a seller owes $400,000 on a mortgage but is selling the home for $600,000, the buyer must come up with or finance the remaining $200,000 difference. Zaher said some buyers bridge that gap with a second mortgage.

Despite those obstacles, Zaher believes the savings can outweigh the inconvenience.

“I think it’s worth it,” she said. “You’re saving yourself maybe $3,000 a month. My client’s payment would have no doubt been almost double what his payment is now due to interest rates.”

For buyers who qualify, assumable mortgages can provide access to homes that might otherwise be out of reach in today’s higher-rate environment.

“We’re gonna make Jacksonville our new home,” Jones said.

Brown — the 2024 NBA Finals MVP, a five-time All-Star and the league's fourth-leading scorer this past season — is getting traded by the Celtics to the Philadelphia 76ers, a person with knowledge of the deal's terms said Wednesday.

Boston is getting Paul George, along with a slew of draft capital that could become two first-round picks and two second-round picks, said the person who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the trade does not yet have the required league approvals.

“I’m still processing how this all went down,” Brown wrote in a statement released Thursday. "I’m excited and disappointed at the same time. I earned my respect from this city. I never asked for shortcuts or special treatment. I simply showed up every day, put my head down, and accepted every challenge.

“The relationships I built here, the battles we fought together, the championship we brought to this city, and the connection I shared with the fans, I’ll carry on with me. Saying goodbye isn’t easy when you’ve invested your heart into something.”

Add this move to the list of blockbuster moves across the NBA so far this offseason. LeBron James is leaving the Los Angeles Lakers as a free agent, and this trade joins a long list of moves that involve All-Star-caliber players — like Giannis Antetokounmpo going from Milwaukee to Miami, Kawhi Leonard and Brandon Ingram headlining a swap between the Toronto Raptors and Los Angeles Clippers, and Ja Morant getting traded to Portland by Memphis.

“Welcome to Philly, JB!” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro posted on social media. “Sixers get way better and, as a bonus, the Celtics got worse!"

It's a move that breaks up what has been one of the league’s most successful 1-2 punches in Brown and Jayson Tatum, who helped carry the Celtics to the 2024 NBA title.

Tatum missed most of this past season while recovering from an Achilles tendon tear that happened during the 2025 playoffs, meaning Brown had to carry even more of the load for Boston — and he wound up with career-best averages of 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game.

It seemed, though, that Brown has felt underappreciated, especially after it became known that Boston had included him in trade talks with Milwaukee when Antetokounmpo was on the market.

“Nobody has won more combined regular-season and playoff games since I entered the league 10 years ago,” Brown posted on social media over the weekend. He’s right: The Celtics have won 523 games with Brown in the lineup, including playoff contests, which is six more than Denver has won with Nikola Jokic over that span.

Brown now gets to be part of a squad in Philadelphia alongside guard Tyrese Maxey and center Joel Embiid — someone whom Brown recently called a flopper on a livestream.

“Joel Embiid is a great player, one of the best bigs in (expletive) basketball history,” Brown said. “Flops. He know it. This ain’t breaking news.”

Brown, Maxey (the league's No. 5 scorer this past season) and Embiid (a two-time NBA scoring champion) could become a positively frightening trio in Philadelphia, and the Celtics deciding to play a role in creating such a triumvirate only adds to the intrigue surrounding why they wanted to trade Brown in the first place.

The trade ends a tremendously disappointing two-year stint for George, who was dealt with two years left on a four-year, $212 million free-agent contract. The 36-year-old George never approached his nine-time All-Star form in Philadelphia and his tenure was marred by a 25-game suspension last season for flunking a drug test.

He averaged just 16.7 points in his two seasons in Philadelphia after topping the 20-point mark in nine straight seasons with Indiana, Oklahoma City and the Clippers.

Brown is the latest big name brought in to team with All-Stars Embiid and Maxey. Brown can try to lead the Sixers to their first title since 1983, a feat a steady string of stars from Ben Simmons to James Harden to George failed to do when paired with Embiid and Maxey to make a Big Three.

George cited mental health reasons as to why he failed a drug test and was suspended in late January for violating the terms of the NBA’s anti-drug program. His first year in Philly was marred by knee and adductor injuries that resulted in the forward having one of the worst years of his NBA career.

George averaged 16.2 points in just 41 games, easily his lowest scoring average in a full season since he averaged 12.1 points for Indiana in his second NBA season. He then had surgery in July on his left knee after he was injured during a workout and missed the first 12 games of this past season.

This was the first blockbuster pulled off under new team president Mike Gansey, who replaced the fired Daryl Morey.

Morey was fired after the Sixers failed to advance out of the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs in his tenure and they were swept by the eventual NBA champion Knicks in the second round last season — but only after erasing a 3-1 deficit to oust Boston in Round 1.

“Philadelphia is a good basketball team," Brown said after the Game 7 loss to the 76ers, surely not knowing at that time that he would be joining them a couple of months later.

His job now will be to make that good basketball team even better.

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AP Sports Writer Dan Gelston in Philadelphia contributed to this report.

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

Julia Reeker Moghal and Reuben Renteria, both of California, sued the ticketing giant this week in federal court in New York, alleging that “false and misleading” sales practices left them without the tickets they purchased for group stage matches last month.

The lawsuit, which seeks to become a class action, says Moghal and Renteria are among hundreds or even thousands of World Cup fans who purchased tickets only to find out that they “did not exist, were revoked without any forewarning, or had been erased” because of what the tournament’s organizer, FIFA, deemed “poor digital infrastructure.”

In addition to monetary damages, Moghal and Renteria are asking that StubHub be barred from selling World Cup tickets and that any profits from those sales be given to affected customers.

StubHub declined to comment on the lawsuit but said in a statement that its “singular goal is to get fans into events.”

If anything goes wrong, “our FanProtect Guarantee provides replacement tickets or a full refund,” the company said. “The World Cup is no different, and the issues fans have experienced are largely driven by problems with the event organizer’s own ticketing infrastructure.”

FIFA encourages fans to buy tickets through its own marketplace, where it adds a 30% surcharge to every resold ticket — 15% each from the buyer and seller.

In a statement, the organization said it “has no visibility over, or control of, secondary market ticket transactions carried out on third-party platforms” and “rejects any suggestion that the functional issues being experienced by users of third-party platforms” are the result of FIFA's ticketing infrastructure.

For weeks, fans have been complaining on social media about tickets that never arrived from resellers, orders that were canceled at the last minute and hours they spent trying to sort out problems between FIFA’s ticketing system and outside resale platforms.

According to the lawsuit, Moghal paid $1,905 for three tickets to the June 18 Switzerland-Bosnia and Herzegovina match at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, but never received them and never got a refund, which would violate the company's guarantee.

As the match approached, Moghal was given conflicting information about the status of her order, first receiving a notice that the tickets were ready, then learning that StubHub had canceled her order, then being misled into thinking her tickets would be delivered after all, the lawsuit said.

After the initial cancellation, Moghal spent hours on the phone with StubHub, which said the order would remain canceled but then reversed course and promised her that they would be delivered an hour before the match, the lawsuit said.

Moghal drove to the stadium and waited in line, but never received her tickets, the lawsuit said. She was then promised a refund but never got one, the lawsuit said.

Had she known “that StubHub was either unable to deliver or not authorized to deliver her World Cup Tickets to her, she never would have purchased them,” the lawsuit said.

Similarly, Renteria paid $2,294 for two tickets to the June 18 Mexico-South Korea match in Guadalajara, Mexico, but never received his tickets, the lawsuit said.

Like Moghal, Renteria received a notice that his tickets were ready, only to find that StubHub canceled the order, the lawsuit said. He was only refunded after “significant complaints to StubHub,” but had to eat the cost of traveling to Mexico, the lawsuit said.

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Associated Press reporter R.J. Rico in Atlanta contributed to this report.

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See more of AP's World Cup coverage here

The perfectly manicured lawns of Wimbledon’s famous tennis courts are as green as ever, though, as play at the grass-court Grand Slam got underway this week.

The lush green courts are a standard that players, spectators and broadcasters have come to expect — or take for granted.

“I have not once ever considered the watering of the grass,” American player Madison Keys said Thursday after a second-round win. “They always are (green), so that’s probably why I have never thought about it.”

The players don't need to worry about it because Neil Stubley, the All England Club’s head of courts and horticulture, and his team of 31 groundskeepers make sure that Wimbledon is always a picture-perfect spectacle thanks to constant maintenance.

Stubley said he's “probably got about 25 weather apps that I look at probably every seven minutes” to make sure he keeps up with the changing climate. He attributes the perfectly green courts to years of research into grasses that can withstand extreme heat.

“It’s inevitable and it is happening,” Stubley said of the increasing number of heat waves in Britain. “We have a grass species trial that’s been running for nearly 40 years looking at what are the best grasses for tennis, the more drought tolerant, the more hard-wearing grasses.”

The 18 tournament courts and 20 practice courts for Wimbledon have been sown with perennial ryegrass since 2001. Also, tubes are installed on Centre Court and four other courts in which a probe can be inserted to measure soil moisture.

Soil moisture levels have a direct bearing on surface hardness, live grass cover and ball rebound. The probes came in handy last week when temperature records for June in Britain were smashed on three consecutive days.

It was England’s warmest June on record, according to the Met Office, Britain’s national weather service.

What made the heat wave even worse was overnight temperatures were also well-above average.

That hasn't been an issue this week, though.

“At the moment, in London, in the UK, you may have a 33-degree (Celsius) day (91 Fahrenheit) but you’re then getting a 17-degree (62 F) overnight," Stubley added. "That allows the temperature to come down, it allows the dew point to come in. It’s almost like us going into an air conditioned room in the evening — we can all chill out.”

The heat wave in Britain ended last weekend and temperatures at Wimbledon this week have not risen above 26 C (79 F). But it's forecast to get hotter over the middle weekend and into next week.

What's more is that it hasn't rained once during this year's tournament and there is no rain in the forecast.

Spring in London this year was also drier than usual with April having had only 20% of the average expected rain, according to Thames Water, which is responsible for the water supply in Greater London.

Water supply

There are 54 million grass plants on Centre Court alone at the start of the championships and 200 metric tons of soil are used each year to level the courts.

Each court at Wimbledon has its own unique irrigation program but the club does not have its own water supply system.

Still, organizers strive for conservation.

“Every time we do a project, part of the remit is how can we conserve things, whether that be energy, whether that be water, the construction of the core, we’re constantly looking at the drainage layers, whether we can start using systems where we can recapture water and reuse it, whether it’s just potable or can we have boreholes, whether we can use the lakes across the road,” Stubley said.

“It’s always a very fast-moving kind of dynamic because the laws always change. One minute you can have a borehole, the next year you can’t, depending on legislation,” Stubley added.

Counting grass blades

Hot temperatures have become an issue at all four Grand Slams in recent years, whether it’s consistently extreme temperatures at the Australian Open, an unexpected heat wave during this year’s French Open, or the humidity at the U.S. Open.

But Wimbledon is the only major played on a live surface; since the Australian Open and U.S. Open are contested on hard courts and the French Open is played on red clay.

Preparation of the Wimbledon courts is independently verified by the Sports Turf Research Institute (STRI) in Yorkshire.

The research institute performs moisture and hardness readings and even counts blades of grass on the baselines to see how quickly the plants are wearing out.

“And then every day we get that data,” Stubley said. “Each court will have its own microclimate. … So we’re constantly number crunching. … When we’re getting those hardness readings and it’s saying that Court 14 is firmer than Centre Court, we can then add a little bit more water to 14 and a little less to Centre Court so we keep those numbers the same.”

‘Cheese grater’ sliding damage

Heat isn’t the only menace to Wimbledon’s courts. Defending champion Jannik Sinner and seven-time winner Novak Djokovic act as unintended lawn mowers when they slide across the baseline to reach shots.

“If you look at the pimple of a grass-court tennis shoe, it’s almost like a cheese grater,” Stubley said. “As it cuts through the plant, it will shred leaves.”

Unlike the spots where most players stand to serve — which typically turn brown later in the tournament because of heavy usage — the sliding damage has a different impact on the courts.

“It’s more spread out when you’ve got the likes of Novak and Sinner doing that,” Stubley said. “Year on year you will have people that just have different styles and we just have to accept that.”

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

The report draws in part on interviews by Democratic staffers of the House Committee on Natural Resources. Those interviews suggest that donors seeking to celebrate America fell for a bait-and-switch that, if true, could have violated various criminal statutes.

Donors who were intending to contribute funds to America250, a bipartisan committee created by Congress, were instead given the banking and routing numbers for a different but similarly named group, Freedom 250, the Democratic report says.

The key difference was that Freedom 250 was set up under the auspices of Trump's Republican administration to be “a vehicle for a Christian nationalist, partisan, and Trump-centered vision of American identity,” according to the report.

Freedom 250, which has denied the report's claims, has focused on staging big splashy events largely held in Washington, such as the UFC cage fight at the White House on Trump's 80th birthday, the Great American State Fair on the National Mall and the upcoming July 4 celebration featuring a Trump speech and a fireworks extravaganza the president is touting as the “show of a lifetime.”

Freedom 250 calls report ‘partisan smear’

Freedom 250 spokesperson Danielle Alvarez dismissed the Democrats' report as “categorically false” and a “partisan smear from politicians who would rather manufacture division” than celebrate a national milestone.

“Freedom 250 remains fully committed to uniting Americans at this historic moment and giving all Americans a spectacular birthday they can be proud of — and we won’t be distracted by those rooting for it to fail,” said Alvarez, who previously served as a spokesperson for the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee.

Democrats allege in the report that this fits a broader pattern in which Trump hijacked the nation’s 250th birthday celebration, redirecting tens of millions of dollars in both taxpayer money and private donations to boost “the President’s ego, political ideology and pet projects.” Much of the spending was directed to companies connected to Trump’s political operation, including the event planners for the Trump rally that immediately preceded the Jan. 6, 2021, riot by a mob of his supporters at the U.S. Capitol.

“The American people are the big losers in this,” said Rep. Jared Huffman, the ranking Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee. “I’m old enough to remember the bicentennial in 1976. No one cared about party labels or political agendas, religious agendas or anything else. Donald Trump stole that. He took this unifying America250 moment, and he made it all about himself.”

The White House did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Report recounts Trump administration effort to control America250

The Democratic report recounts how the Trump administration sought to control America250, the nonprofit arm of the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission established by Congress in 2016 to plan celebrations for this year’s anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

After the Trump administration faced pushback, Freedom 250 was created last fall as a limited liability corporation that is a wholly owned subsidiary of the National Park Foundation, the fundraising arm of the National Park Service.

Freedom 250’s sole employee appears to be CEO Keith Krach, a wealthy Trump supporter who served in the State Department during the president’s first term.

Democrats said this structure enables Freedom 250 to operate as a “financial black box,” shielded from having to comply with competitive bidding, accounting and transparency rules that would typically apply to a federally controlled entity receiving tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds and private donations.

Under Trump’s big tax and spending cuts bill approved by Congress last year, $150 million in federal funds was allocated to the Interior Department for events celebrating the 250th anniversary. America250 was expecting $100 million of that, though it has received only $25 million, according to the Democratic report.

Even as a member of a congressional oversight committee, Huffman said that he has no way to know exactly how much taxpayer money has been redirected into Freedom 250 by the Trump administration.

Freedom 250 CEO solicited donations from foreign government officials, Democrats allege

The Democrats alleged Krach, the Freedom 250 CEO, traveled in January to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to personally solicit foreign government officials and business leaders for money to help fund America’s birthday celebrations. The report says Trump appointees at the State Department, including some ambassadors, have also held fundraising events overseas and sent out written solicitations seeking foreign donations for Freedom 250.

Krach did not respond to an email seeking comment. Alvarez denied the group accepts foreign donations.

The publicly named sponsors of Freedom 250 include defense contractors, oil conglomerates and big tech companies that have federal contracts, that have regulatory issues before federal agencies and in some cases that Trump has personally invested in. Democrats said the arrangement creates the appearance of a cozy pay-to-play scheme in which donors to Trump’s pet projects could get favorable treatment from his administration.

There has been no public disclosure of how much corporate money has been raised. Freedom 250 also allows donors to request to remain anonymous, and the contributions are tax deductible.

Democrats allege donors were pressured to withdraw commitments from America250

The allegation of potential criminal wrongdoing stems from fundraising by Meredith O’Rourke, who served as the national finance director for Trump’s successful 2024 presidential campaign and as a board member for the parent company of Trump’s Truth Social media platform.

O’Rourke’s firm, Forward Strategies, initially worked as a contractor for America250, which coordinated with the White House to organize last year’s military parade in Washington to coincide with Trump’s 79th birthday. O’Rourke is also a primary fundraiser for other projects Trump has championed, including the construction of the White House ballroom, the planned renovation of the Kennedy Center and the Garden of American Heroes.

After the creation of Freedom 250 last year, the report alleges, corporate donors were pressured to withdraw fundraising commitments to America250 and shift their financial backing to the new Trump-backed entity.

Democrats say they have also interviewed donors who were misled by fundraisers, including O’Rourke, into believing they were contributing to America250 but were given wire transfer instructions that routed their money to a bank account controlled by Freedom 250 — a ruse the report says could constitute wire fraud.

O’Rourke did not respond to a text message seeking comment.

It’s been a curiously seesawing first six months. The movies have been dominated as much by 26-year-old YouTuber-turned-filmmaker Curry Barker as they have 79-year-old Steven Spielberg. Some much-prized Hollywood IP has struggled ( “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” ) while other franchises ( “Toy Story 5” ) have been more than fine.

The favorites so far of AP Film Writers Jake Coyle and Lindsey Bahr are fittingly varied, running from shattering debuts to goofy sci-fi. Here are their picks.

“Disclosure Day”

Listen, I realize the alien stuff is a little blunt. And you can question the nostalgia baked into a modern-day movie where everyone huddles around TV sets. But when “Disclosure Day” is moving, Spielberg is back in an idiom all his own — and what reconnecting to that spirit means isn't simply wistful. This is a stealthily political movie about whether Spielberg's warm belief in humankind can exist today — if he can rebuild that suburban family home. “Disclosure Day” is as much Spielberg phoning home as was his autobiographic “The Fabelmans.” (In theaters) — J.C.

“Project Hail Mary”

Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s adaptation of Andy Weir’s space saga about a middle school science teacher who is called on to help save the dying sun is one of the easiest recommendations of the year. It is a most-ages crowd-pleaser, funny, warm and dazzling, with a hopeful spirit, a quotable alien sidekick and a quirkily charming lead in Ryan Gosling. (Streaming on Prime Video on July 3) — L.B.

“Rose of Nevada”

Everything feels like an echo in Mark Jenkin’s dreamlike tale of time and sea. George Mackay and Callum Turner play crewmen who enlist on a rusty Cornish fishing boat that, upon its return, drops them off in the same English village, 30 years earlier. They’re mistaken for two men thought to be lost. Jenkin, who shoots on 16mm and syncs sound in postproduction, makes films that feel out of time, and “Rose of Nevada” rocks to a haunting tide. (In theaters) — J.C.

“Tuner”

Remember how “Good Will Hunting” originally had a crime element to it and Rob Reiner (rightly) advised taking it out? Daniel Roher’s crackling, original thriller “Tuner,” a spiritual descendant of that great film, goes down that path successfully, creating a scenario where a workaday piano tuner, and musical prodigy who can no longer play, gets entangled in a criminal underworld, using his sensitive hearing to crack safes. Leo Woodall stars alongside Dustin Hoffman and Havana Rose Liu. (Available for digital rental) — L.B.

“Miroirs No. 3”

Christian Petzold, a great admirer of Hitchcock and “Vertigo,” makes movies where identity, rather than people, can go missing. In this lightly enigmatic 86-minute chamber piece, a woman (Paula Beer) injured in a car crash decides to stay and recuperate at a nearby home where an older, solitary woman (Barbara Auer) resides. The unfolding drama is as beguiling as it is healing. (Available for digital rental) — J.C.

“The Invite”

A San Francisco couple host their upstairs neighbors for a last-minute dinner party in Olivia Wilde’s deliriously sharp chamber dramedy about sex and marriage. Wilde both directs and stars as the neurotic Angela, whose relationship with Seth Rogen’s Joe is already on the rocks, when their more, let’s say, liberated neighbors Pína (Penélope Cruz) and Hawk (Edward Norton) arrive to stir things up for better and worse. The mix — contentious, revelatory, awkward and funny — proves a wonderful showcase for some great acting, staging and filmmaking. (In theaters) — L.B.

“Blue Heron”

Sophy Romvari’s exquisite and soulful directorial debut melds documentary and fiction, past and present. It’s based on her own childhood, when her Hungarian parents moved their family of six to Vancouver Island in British Columbia. Their teenage son is mentally troubled and distant, and you can feel “Blue Heron” yearning to reach him, through his disorder and through time. It’s an aching, probing memory piece. (Streams July 21 on Criterion Channel) — J.C.

“Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie”

Slacker buddies develop crackpot schemes to land a gig at the Rivoli, a Toronto music venue, in this infectiously silly, lo-fi indie about time travel, friendship and dreams. Canadian comics Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol may have a cult fanbase from their various series about these lovable losers, but I’m proof that no prior knowledge is needed to get on their goofy wavelength and enjoy the ride — and all the “Back to the Future” references. (Available for digital rental) — L.B.

“Minions & Monsters”

This year’s most affectionate ode to the golden age of Hollywood comes from … the Minions? Yes, it’s an unlikely role for one of the most ubiquitous marketing forces in animation. But “Minions & Monsters,” a cartoony good time, finds that the best role yet for the yellow henchmen is as filmmakers. They had me at bello. (In theaters) — J.C.

“Is God Is”

Rage and revenge are the heart of Aleshea Harris’s adaptation of her Obie-winning play, in which twin sisters embark on a journey to find, and kill, their abusive father. The tale has both ancient Greek tragedy and Tarantino in its DNA, but it comes alive as its own shocking, vital creation driven by unforgettable performances from Kara Young, Mallori Johnson and a truly terrifying Sterling K. Brown. (Available for digital rental) — L.B.

“A Poet”

There hasn’t been a better protagonist this year than Oscar Restrepo (Ubeimar Rios). He’s a failed Columbian writer, a bit of a drunk and, as one character calls him, “a walking problem.” But he’s also, despite his seemingly total lack of grace, a true believer in poetry. Simón Mesa Soto’s film, reportedly getting an English-language remake, is the tragicomedy of the year. (Available for digital rental) — J.C.

“Hoppers”

There is a gleefully chaotic spirit to Pixar’s “Hoppers,” about a determined young environmental activist who Avatars her way into the world of beavers in an attempt to block the construction of a highway overpass that would destroy her beloved glade. It is unhinged in the best way. Funny, weird and heartfelt with a terrifically distinct voice cast, including Dave Franco as a tyrannical insect prince. (Streaming on Disney+) — L.B.

The couple, who go by Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus, said little as they left court, though Beerkus responded to a journalist's question about the stunt by saying: "We believe in love."

Authorities said the two — who were the subject of the 2024 Netflix documentary “ Skywalkers: A Love Story ” about their “rooftopping” exploits and budding romance — created not only a spectacle but a danger by ascending the famed skyscraper's broadcast antenna Wednesday.

After reaching the top, 1,454 feet (443 meters) above midtown Manhattan, the climbers displayed a black banner reading: “When the power of love beats the love of power the world knows peace," news helicopter video showed.

Then they collected the banner and descended to a slightly lower ledge, where an apparently successful marriage proposal unfolded. Nikolau posted images of the escapade on her social media accounts, including a photo that modeled an engagement-style ring above a bird’s-eye view of Manhattan.

Police waited about a half-hour for the antenna to be powered down before Emergency Services Unit officers started ascending and eventually intercepted the climbers on their way down, according to the complaint, which noted the danger to officers who climbed about 1,250 feet (381 meters) above the ground. The court document identified the two by their formal names, Angelina Nikolau and Ivan Kuznetsov.

“Skywalkers: A Love Story” follows Beerkus, now 32, and Nikolau, 33, as they make often unauthorized ascents of tall structures, sometimes posing as construction workers to sneak in.

The court complaint said police found a broken lock on a security door on the Empire State Building's restricted-access 104th floor, which provides access to the antenna. The highest public floor is the 102nd, where there’s an observation deck. Going higher requires a key card, according to the court complaint.

The Empire State Building's management has called the climb “unauthorized” but hasn't answered questions about what interactions, if any, the daredevils had with security workers. Visitors to the skyscraper are screened and told not to bring large packages, sports equipment, costumes or masks, among other items.

Beerkus and Nikolau were released without bail, in accordance with New York laws that restrict when monetary bail can be set. Their attorney, Jason Krinsky, said outside court that once prosecutors provide evidence, he and his clients would assess it and determine next steps.

“What a way to propose — something you can only dream of," Krinsky said. “So you've got to, you know, give him some credit for that.”

Other daredevils have climbed the antenna and other parts of the Empire State Building. Those ascents have largely been unauthorized, but actor and musician Jared Leto was allowed to climb up to the base of the antenna from the 86th floor in 2023 to promote a tour.

Brockton Mayor Moises Rodrigues announced what he called a “temporary safety curfew” within the Boston suburb at a news conference Wednesday. Cape Verde, an island nation off the west coast of Africa that qualified for the World Cup for the first time this year, is scheduled to face Argentina on Friday in the knockout stage of the tournament.

“The purpose of this curfew is to protect public safety, reduce criminal activity associated with post-game celebrations, and enable police, fire and emergency personnel to effectively maintain order and respond to emergencies,” Rodrigues said.

The curfew will run from 10 p.m. Friday until 5 a.m. Saturday in parts of Brockton, where thousands of people have gathered after Cape Verde’s World Cup matches, pouring into downtown streets waving flags, dancing and celebrating late into the night. No one will be allowed to enter establishments serving alcohol after 7 p.m., and last call will be at 9:30 p.m.

Brockton is home to one of the nation’s largest Cape Verdean communities. Nearly one in five residents is Cape Verdean, and the community is often referred to as the “11th island” of Cape Verde.

Cape Verde has captured the attention of its diaspora during a historic World Cup run, drawing jubilant crowds in Brockton after matches. City officials have repeatedly said the overwhelming majority of those celebrations have been peaceful.

But police say recent celebrations have also been followed by violence. At least nine people have been injured in shootings that occurred after World Cup matches or as crowds gathered downtown, according to Brockton police. Others were hurt in stabbings.

In recent days, detectives released surveillance photos and video from multiple shootings, including one near Main Street as crowds gathered June 21 and another later that night at a gas station, asking the public to help identify suspects.

Police also said they linked a suspect in another investigation to a shooting that occurred after a World Cup match.

Officials said the curfew exempts first responders and people traveling to or from work or seeking medical care. They said First Amendment activities, including news coverage, would also be respected.

Police Chief Brenda Perez said the department is understaffed and has relied on mutual aid from the Massachusetts State Police, the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office and neighboring police departments during previous celebrations. She said more than 200 officers were deployed during recent World Cup gatherings but declined to discuss operational plans for Friday.

Steve Hooke, director of the Brockton Emergency Management Agency, confirmed the city requested National Guard assistance but declined to discuss operational details or whether the request had been approved.

The coverage is available through a temporary initiative called the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge program, which is offered nationwide, including all U.S. states and territories.

What drugs are covered?

Three GLP-1 medications are included in the program:

• Foundayo (tablet)
• Wegovy (injection or tablet)
• Zepbound (KwikPen® only — single-dose vials or pens are not covered)

Who qualifies?

To be eligible, you must be 18 or older and have Medicare drug coverage (Part D). That includes coverage through a standalone Medicare drug plan (PDP), a Medicare Advantage plan with drug coverage (MA-PD), a Special Needs Plan (SNP), an Employer/Union Group Waiver Plan (EGWP), or the Limited Income Newly Eligible Transition (LI NET) program.

You must also meet at least one of the following body mass index (BMI) requirements at the time you start GLP-1 therapy:

• A BMI of 35 or higher
• A BMI between 30–34.99 with at least one qualifying condition, such as diastolic heart failure, uncontrolled high blood pressure, chronic kidney disease at stage 3a or higher, prediabetes, a previous heart attack or stroke, or peripheral artery disease with symptoms
• A BMI between 27–29.99 with prediabetes, a previous heart attack or stroke, or peripheral artery disease with symptoms

Who does NOT qualify?

Not everyone with Medicare will be eligible for the Bridge program. You are not eligible if you:

• Already receive GLP-1 drugs covered through your Medicare Part D plan
• Have type 2 diabetes, moderate-to-severe sleep apnea, or fatty liver disease

What your doctor needs to do

If you’re eligible, your doctor or other health care provider will need to send a prescription for a covered GLP-1 drug to a pharmacy and, when requested, complete a prior authorization.

Your provider must also certify that you are using the GLP-1 drug as part of a lifestyle program focused on diet and exercise.

Once approved, your prior authorization is valid — including for refills and dose changes — through Dec. 31, 2027, unless you switch to a different GLP-1 drug.

What to expect after you’re approved

After your prescription is processed, you’ll receive a letter in the mail confirming that your GLP-1 drug is covered under the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge program.

Your pharmacy may ask for your Medicare Number or the last four digits of your Social Security number to help process your prescription. If you suspect fraud, call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) or visit Medicare.gov to find other ways to report it. TTY users can call 1-877-486-2048.

How to get started

If you think you may qualify, talk with your health care provider to begin the process. You can also call 1-800-MEDICARE to ask questions about your eligibility or check the status of a prior authorization.

By declaring a schism and extending excommunications to potentially thousands of Catholics, the Vatican’s doctrine office went above and beyond the minimum sanctions foreseen by the church’s canon law to respond to the consecrations Wednesday of four new bishops.

The society, known by its acronym SSPX, celebrates the ancient Latin Mass and opposes the modernizing reforms of the Catholic Church, which it considers to be rife with heresies and errors. While a fringe movement on the Catholic right, the SSPX has been a thorn in the Vatican's side for five decades because it claims to be even more Catholic than the Holy See.

During a ritual-filled, five-hour Mass on Wednesday at its seminary in Econe, Switzerland, the SSPX consecrated four new bishops in direct defiance of Leo, who had urged the group to hold off for the sake of church unity. An estimated 15,500 people and their children attended, a sign that the SSPX has plenty of supporters who came from around the world knowing full well they were defying Rome.

The harshness of the response suggested that after trying to negotiate with the SSPX, the Vatican under Pope Leo XIV had had enough.

Vatican decree targeted bishops and faithful

In a decree, the Vatican excommunicated the four new bishops and the two existing SSPX bishops who participated in the ceremony. It declared the consecrations a “schismatic act” and that the society itself had created a schism, or intentional rupture with the church.

It declared SSPX priests — who number about 750 — to be schismatic, and therefore excommunicated, and invalidated the sacraments of confession and marriage that they administer. The Vatican warned the faithful to stop going to SSPX Masses, decreeing that “those who adhere formally” to the society are schismatic and excommunicated.

The Vatican said that applied to people who are members of the SSPX lay branch and those who “regularly attend” SSPX Masses and formally share its doctrinal positions. The sanctions don't apply to Catholic faithful who attend SSPX Masses "just for liturgical or spiritual reasons" or those who go but accept the pope's authority and teaching.

The SSPX doesn't have an exact count but estimates around 400,000-600,000 people attend its Masses, meaning Thursday's decree could potentially involve the excommunications of thousands of rank-and-file SSPX faithful.

The sanctions, especially those targeting the priests, the faithful and the sacraments they can receive, were particularly harsh and reversed concessions the Vatican had granted the SSPX in recent years as part of its outreach to bring the group back under Rome's wing.

Marc-André Mabillard, media manager for the society, expressed shock at the severity of the sanctions and called them “unjust."

“For us, this excommunication extended to the faithful is brutal. It’s not what we expect from a father to whom we refer every day,” he told The Associated Press. “We are told, ‘You claim to have the truth.’ Fine. I’m just saying that we certainly have our flaws, but our main flaw today is having a leader who doesn’t want to communicate with us. And that’s terrible.”

The Vatican's doctrine chief, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, met in February with the SSPX superior, the Rev. Davide Pagliarani, and proposed a dialogue. But Pagliarani asked instead to meet with Leo, who declined but wrote a letter Tuesday begging the SSPX to call off the consecrations.

The group's founders opposed reforms

French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre founded the SSPX in 1970 in opposition to the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Among other things, the 1960s meetings known as Vatican II revolutionized the church’s relations with other Christians, Jews and people of other faiths and allowed Mass to be celebrated in the vernacular rather than Latin.

Lefebvre consecrated four bishops without papal consent in 1988. The Vatican promptly excommunicated Lefebvre and the four bishops and declared the consecrations a “schismatic act.”

Pope Benedict XVI in 2009 lifted the excommunications as part of his yearslong outreach to the group. But the SSPX today has no legal standing in the church and with Thursday’s decree is declared to be in schism.

The consecrations had posed a crisis for Leo because the American pope has stressed the need for church unity. He has reached out especially to the conservative and traditionalist wing of the church that was in many ways alienated during the Pope Francis pontificate.

The Vatican responded so aggressively in part because the group poses something of a threat by representing a parallel, ultra-Catholic, pre-Vatican II church that has grown in the decades since its original break from Rome. While representing a fraction of the 1.4-billion strong Catholic faithful, the SSPX now has six bishops, 751 priests, 264 seminarians, 145 religious brothers, 88 oblates and 250 religious sisters representing 50 nationalities, according to SSPX statistics.

A key Vatican II document rejected by the SSPX is one that, among other things, deplored antisemitism in every form and repudiated the “deicide” charge that blamed Jews as a people for Christ’s death. The Vatican crafted the document as the church reckoned with the role traditional Christian teaching had played in the Holocaust.

The SSPX today says it rejects accusations that it ever taught or practiced antisemitism, and the SSPX distanced itself from one of the original 1988 bishops, the late Bishop Richard Williamson, when he denied the Holocaust.

Traditionalists in communion with Rome respond

In a note accompanying the decree, the Vatican said it was willing, “like a caring mother,” to welcome any SSPX faithful back into the fold. It laid out specific procedures for SSPX priests and faithful, by signing two forms professing the faith, promising fidelity to the pope and accepting the core teaching of Vatican II.

While the SSPX is out of communion with Rome, plenty of other Catholic traditionalists who love the Latin Mass remain in communion with the Holy See. They had been watching carefully to see how Leo's Vatican would respond to the SSPX consecrations and were surprised by the harshness of Thursday's sanctions.

“He’s brought the hammer down,” said Joseph Shaw, head of the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales, which is in communion. Shaw expressed sympathy with the plight of ordinary SSPX faithful, saying the invalidation of marriages especially is going to cause “massive” pastoral problems. “It's a sad day."

Luigi Casalini, of the blog Messa in Latino, meaning Latin Mass, said the excommunication of the bishops was correct because canon law provides for it. But the extension of the excommunications to SSPX priests and faithful was “an act of unusual severity,” he said, while saying the invalidation of SSPX sacraments was problematic.

One of the thousands of worshippers at Wednesday’s consecrations was Allison Isermann, a 24-year-old from St. Marys, Kansas, a small town with a large SSPX church. She grew up as a society member and strongly defended its teaching in opposition to Vatican II, specifically its openness to those of other faiths.

“It is actually very anti-Catholic and anti-charitable to affirm others and their beliefs when it is our duty and our mission to actually convert and sanctify the world and to restore all things in Christ,” she said.

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Keaten contributed from Geneva.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Anthony Doyle is listed as a pastor at Friendship Primitive Baptist Church, according to the arrest report. News4JAX also learned he is employed by Duval County Schools.

The charges

Doyle faces two separate charges. The first is one count of sexual battery — victim over 12 but under 18 by a custodian without consent — a first-degree felony. The second is one count of lewd/lascivious molestation — offender 18 or older, victim 12 or older but under 16 — a second-degree felony.

Molestation charge

On May 28, a JSO detective was assigned to investigate a lewd molestation allegation involving Doyle and a juvenile victim at Friendship Primitive Baptist Church. According to the arrest report, the victim disclosed that Doyle grabbed his butt under his clothing and kissed him on the neck and cheek.

During a recorded interview, the victim told investigators that Doyle began a pattern of grooming behavior by giving him approximately $20 after every church service, telling him, “You’re my favorite.”

The victim said the contact escalated over time, with Doyle inviting him to his office or the church’s dining hall after services when no one else was around. The last incident, the victim said, involved contact under his clothing — at which point he decided not to return to the church.

A witness also told investigators that Doyle had contacted her, concerned that the victim was no longer attending church. According to the report, Doyle asked her to allow the victim to spend the night at his home so he would not miss services — a request she refused.

During a controlled call conducted by investigators, Doyle admitted to kissing and hugging the victim, but said the contact was “only in a loving nonsexual manner” and denied any sexual advances.

Sexual battery investigation

The lewd molestation case prompted investigators to reopen a separate 2022 sexual battery case.

According to the arrest report, the earlier investigation involved a male high school student. At the time of the reported offense — between June 1, 2021, and Jan. 3, 2022 — Doyle was working as a security guard at the school and leading an afterschool mentorship program called “5000 Role Models.”

Investigators say Doyle used his role in the program to build a relationship with the victim before luring him to a residence in Jacksonville under the pretense of providing paperwork. The victim told investigators he was forced into a bedroom and sexually battered. Doyle allegedly threatened to kill the victim if he told anyone and gave him $150 upon leaving, according to court documents.

Response from Duval County Public Schools

News4JAX reached out to Duval County Schools and received this statement:

“Yes, we can confirm that this individual is an employee of the District and that there is currently an active Office of Professional Standards investigation.

Because this is an active and ongoing investigation initiated by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, we are unable to provide any additional information at this time.

This individual has been employed with the district since 2019 and works in a position that does not involve student contact."

Doyle denies allegations

On June 22, 2026, Doyle voluntarily came to the Police Memorial Building, where he was read his constitutional rights, signed a rights acknowledgment form and agreed to speak with detectives without an attorney present.

During the interview, Doyle denied any wrongdoing in the 2022 sexual battery case. According to the arrest report, he stated the alleged victim is a liar and that he never did anything sexual with him.

In the lewd molestation case, Doyle admitted to kissing the victim on the cheek and said he may have brushed against his buttocks while giving him a hug. He claimed the victim is reporting this because he is not getting what he wants.

Doyle was subsequently placed under arrest based on the totality of circumstances — including statements from both alleged victims, according to police.

News4JAX has reached out to the Friendship Primitive Baptist Church Wednesday afternoon and left a message. This story will be updated when we receive a response.

The donations were spread out across 20 local and national charities, according to Swift's publicist, with many located in areas where the couple has deep ties. The announcement did not include any mention of Swift and Kelce's wedding, but a law enforcement official briefed on security plans has told AP that the wedding will be held Friday, with a smaller rehearsal dinner Thursday night.

Nine of the selected organizations are based in New York, ranging from the Food Bank For NYC, City Harvest, to Musical Mentors, a nonprofit that connects music teachers with students in need.

Just how much each charity received was not disclosed.

Other charities reflected where Swift and Kelce have also called home, including the Rhode Island Community Food Bank — where Swift owns an estate in Watch Hill — and the Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri — where Kelce plays tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs.

A handful of national groups also received money: Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, a book giveaway program spearheaded by the music legend; the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Feeding America.

The large donations ahead of Swift and Kelce's wedding is reminiscent of charitable gifts the couple has given in the past. Swift, a billionaire, gave millions to food banks ahead of her Eras Tour stops, while Kelce has been recognized by the Chiefs for winning “charity challenges” and operating his own nonprofit.

Swift and Kelce have been in a relationship since 2023, enthralling millions around the world. Their relationship have been documented in countless shots of Swift celebrating at Chiefs games and fan videos of Kelce dancing along at Swift’s Eras concert tour as it traveled the globe. In 2025, they announced their engagement with the caption but have remained mum on wedding details.

Yet buzz has remained high around New York's MSG, with multiple trucks and crews going in and out delivering materials for what is expected to be an elaborate event.

It's the second time in four years that three players from the same team were chosen to start the game, with Las Vegas doing it in 2023. Clark wasn't able to play in last year's game that the Fever hosted because she was injured right before the All-Star break.

Clark and Mitchell will be joined this year in the backcourt by Dallas' Paige Bueckers and Minnesota rookie Olivia Miles. It's the fourth consecutive year that a rookie was chosen as an All-Star starter. Bueckers played last season.

A'ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart, Jessica Shepard, Natasha Howard and Gabby Williams were selected for the frontcourt for the game that will be played in Chicago on July 25. It will be Wilson's and Stewart's eighth All-Star appearance while Shepard will be making her first.

“It's an honor to be an All-Star, even though I've had a few of them,” Stewart said. “Each one is really special and I'm not taking it lightly.”

Williams played in her first All-Star Game last season. Howard will play in her third.

Starters were chosen by a mixture of fan, player and media votes. The fan vote counted for 50% while media and player votes were 25% each. Each player’s score was calculated by averaging their weighted rank from all three areas.

The league's head coaches will select the 12 reserves for the team, results that will be announced Tuesday. The 15 head coaches will vote for three guards, five frontcourt players and four players at either position regardless of conference. Coaches can’t vote for their own players.

New this year, WNBA greats Cynthia Cooper and Teresa Weatherspoon will serve as honorary general managers and select the two teams from the pool of All-Stars. Previously the top two fan vote-getters would serve as captains and select the squads.

Bueckers, Clark and Boston were the top three vote-getters among fans. All three received more than 1 million votes.

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

Below is a guide to the most important deadlines, how vote-by-mail works in Florida, where to find your sample ballot in each county, and a few practical tips to avoid common problems that can keep ballots from counting.

Key deadlines for the Aug. 18 Primary

1) Voter registration deadline: Monday, July 20

Florida’s election calendar lists July 20 as the voter registration deadline (“books close”) for the Aug. 18 primary.

If you’ve moved, changed your name, or want to update your party affiliation, don’t wait until the last minute — changes can take time to process.

The Florida Division of Elections also notes that the general registration deadline for an upcoming election is 29 days before Election Day.

2) Vote-by-mail request deadline: 5 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 6

Florida law sets the deadline to request that a vote-by-mail ballot be mailed as no later than 5 p.m. on the 12th day before the election.

For the Aug. 18 primary, the 12th day before Election Day is Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026.

3) Vote-by-mail return deadline: Received by 7 p.m. on Election Day

In Florida, a voted vote-by-mail ballot must be received by your county Supervisor of Elections no later than 7 p.m. (local time) on Election Day to count.

That means if you mail your ballot back, give it plenty of time — postmarks generally do not extend the deadline for most voters.

First step: confirm your registration and find your sample ballot

Your sample ballot is the easiest way to see what races you’ll vote on (and, in many counties, it’s also where you can confirm your precinct and Election Day polling location).

Because ballots vary by address — and because some counties have recently adjusted precincts and polling places — voters should use their county elections website to pull their personalized information.

You can also use the state’s voter lookup to confirm your registration status, but it will generally route you back to your county for sample ballot and polling-place details.

County-by-county: where to find your sample ballot

Use the links below to look up your sample ballot (or “My Voter Status”) in each of the counties covered by this guide:

• Duval County: “My Voter Status” (includes sample ballot access) — https://www.duvalelections.gov/205/My-Voter-Status
• Nassau County: Sample ballot lookup — https://www.votenassaufl.gov/sample-ballot
• Baker County: Elections site with voter tools and key dates — https://votebakerfl.gov/
• Columbia County: “My Voter Status” / sample ballot — https://votecolumbiafl.gov/voter_information/my_voter_status.php
• Union County: Sample ballot lookup — https://unionflvotes.com/voters/sample-ballots/
• Bradford County: Voter status and sample ballots — https://www.votebradfordfl.gov/voter/voter_status_and_sample_ballots.php
• Clay County: Elections homepage (sample ballot link available on site) — https://clayelections.gov/
• St. Johns County: “View My Sample Ballot” — https://www.votesjc.gov/view-my-sample-ballot
• Putnam County: Elections homepage (sample ballot accessible via voter tools/“My Status”) — https://www.voteputnamflorida.gov/
• Alachua County: Sample ballot page — https://www.votealachua.gov/259/Sample-Ballots
• Marion County: “View My Sample Ballot” — https://www.votemarion.gov/326/View-My-Sample-Ballot
• Flagler County: “My Voter Info” (includes sample ballots) — https://www.flaglerelections.gov/My-Voter-Info

Tip: Some counties publish sample ballots about a month before Election Day and may label them “Upcoming Elections,” “My Voter Status,” or “Voter Information Lookup.” If you don’t immediately see a sample ballot link, look for those headings.

Florida’s three ways to vote in the primary

Option 1: Vote on Election Day

Polls are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day in Florida. (If you’re in line by 7 p.m., you can still vote.)

Your county elections website can show your assigned polling place for Election Day.

Option 2: Vote early (in-person)

Florida’s statewide calendar lists a mandatory early voting window for the 2026 primary. Counties may offer additional days, so check your county Supervisor of Elections for the final schedule and locations.

Option 3: Vote by mail (sometimes still called “absentee”)

Florida uses the term vote-by-mail instead of “absentee.” Requests are handled by your county Supervisor of Elections.

The Division of Elections explains that voters can request a vote-by-mail ballot by phone, in person, or by signed written request (mail, email attachment, fax, or online request where available). The request typically requires your identifying information, and written requests must include a signature.

If you request a ballot close to the election, note that Florida election guidance references special requirements for some late pick-ups/requests near Election Day, so it’s best to request early.

What voters often miss: party rules in primaries

Florida is a closed primary state for most partisan races — meaning only voters registered with a party can vote in that party’s primary. If you’re registered No Party Affiliation (NPA) and you want to vote in partisan primary races, you generally need to update your party affiliation by the registration deadline.

However, even if you are an unaffiliated voter, you will likely still have something to vote for in this primary. Elections for judge, school board, and certain other local offices are nonpartisan, meaning they are open to all voters, regardless of party affiliation.

Also, in some cases, a partisan primary will be open to all voters, if there are no other candidates in the race. That situation is known as a “Universal Primary Contest.” However, if there is an NPA candidate, or even a write-in candidate, who has qualified for the general election, the party primary will remain closed to just voters of that party.

The simplest way to see what applies to you: pull your sample ballot.

Vote-by-mail: how to avoid a ballot problem

Don’t wait to return it

The most important rule is the deadline: your ballot must be received by 7 p.m. on Election Day.

If you’re mailing it, consider sending it back well ahead of time, or returning it in person to your county elections office or an official drop location if your county offers secure intake stations.

Make sure your signature matches

Florida election guidance notes that your signature is used to verify vote-by-mail ballots and other election documents, and that voters can update their signature on file.

If you’ve had a signature change over time, updating it in advance can help prevent issues.

New driver’s license or ID? Your number may have changed

Several county elections offices have warned voters that renewing or replacing a Florida driver’s license or state ID can change the ID number tied to your voter record. If your number changed and your county can’t verify it during a vote-by-mail request, it may cause delays.

If you renewed your ID recently, check your county elections site for guidance or contact the office.

A quick checklist for voters in these counties

1. Check your registration and update your address/name/party if needed.
2. Pull your sample ballot to review races, precinct, and your Election Day polling place.
3. If voting by mail, request by 5 p.m. Aug. 6 and return early so it’s received by 7 p.m. on Aug. 18.
4. If voting in person, confirm your polling location or early voting sites and bring an acceptable ID.

Some swear that turning off the AC when they’re gone for a few hours is the most energy-efficient, cost-saving method. Others say it’s better to leave it running continuously, preventing the system from straining to rapidly cool the house down after the home has gotten warmer throughout the day.

Three experts interviewed by The Associated Press agreed that setting the thermostat a few degrees higher than normal while you’re away is generally the best way to balance energy efficiency against comfort and humidity.

While turning an AC unit off for several hours and turning it back on can save money and energy compared to continuously running it, that approach can lead to mold problems in humid environments as well as wear and tear that can cause more frequent repairs. The equation can also vary depending on other factors including comfort level, AC unit type and building insulation.

Air conditioning strategies differ in humid or dry climates

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, adjusting your thermostat by 7-10 degrees Fahrenheit (4-6 degrees Celsius) for eight hours a day can save up to 10% a year on heating and cooling.

Experts say there are a lot of factors to consider when deciding what AC habits save the most energy and money.

“If you’re gone for like 15 minutes to go to the grocery store, you don’t get any gain" by turning off your AC, said Elizabeth Hewitt, professor and urban planning expert at Stony Brook University.

But as a general rule, “if you’re going for your work day, say for eight hours or so, you’ll almost always save more energy and money by turning things off," she said.

In some climates, however, turning off the AC might not be feasible, so residents can set back their AC a few degrees instead of blasting cold air all day.

In dry places like Arizona, you can let the home warm up more by raising the thermostat a few degrees higher. But in humid climates like Florida, air inside the home can become damp and harder to cool, and turning the AC off for long periods can increase the risk of mold since the system helps control indoor moisture.

Bumping up the thermostat by 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.6 degrees Celsius) yields about a 3% savings in cooling costs, said Patrick Phelan, mechanical engineering professor at Arizona State University.

Phelan also said leaving your AC off for hours and then turning it back on could lead to wear that results in more frequent repairs. That is because it can take AC systems 15 to 30 minutes after they are turned on to perform most efficiently.

How much energy and money you can save depends on the kind of home you live in, said Gregor Henze, an architectural engineering professor at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Homes built with heavy materials like concrete or brick hold in cool air longer, while older, draftier houses heat up faster. In less insulated homes, Henze said, it makes sense to adjust the thermostat even if you’re stepping out for just a few hours, because the indoor temperature can rise quickly.

Some AC units save more energy than others

Whether you have a window unit, a smart thermometer or central air could influence your savings.

Window units are generally less efficient because they’re installed in an open window, making it difficult to seal out hot air completely, said Hewitt. She added that spraying “cheap foam spray insulation in open windows or areas that are drafty is a really low-hanging fruit that doesn’t cost a lot of money and really helps retain the indoor temperature in your home.”

Phelan says smart thermostats are a handy tool to remove the mental burden of tinkering with your manual thermostat multiple times a day. Smart thermostats “learn” by monitoring the occupancy with a sensor and raise the temperature when no one is home to conserve energy and lower it when people return.

“If you’re going from just an ordinary manual thermostat to installing a smart one like a Nest, then you can expect something like 10% savings," said Phelan.

How to cool your home without air conditioning

Each expert said simple steps like blocking sunlight can go a long way in keeping homes cool.

Henze pointed to “time-honored strategies” such as opening windows at night when it’s cooler. In dry climates, that night air doesn’t add much moisture, but in humid regions it can bring in dampness the AC will later need to remove.

Hewitt added that closing your blinds can make a difference of several degrees.

Phelan also noted that some blinds are designed to reflect sunlight and said tinted window films are another option.

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O'Malley is a former Associated Press reporter.

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

The Labor Department said Thursday that the unemployment rate declined to a low 4.2% from 4.3% in May, though the drop mostly occurred because many people out of work gave up looking and were no longer counted as unemployed.

The figures suggest businesses remain wary of the economy’s health, with inflation at a three-year high and consumer confidence near post-pandemic lows. The job market has been stuck in a “low-hire, low-fire” rut in which the employed enjoy some job security with layoffs low, but those out of work are struggling to get hired. Strong hiring in the spring raised hopes the economy was escaping that dynamic, but Thursday's report suggests job gains are still muted.

“We are in a market that is still very fragile, and still susceptible to shocks happening,” Nicole Bachaud, labor economist at ZipRecruiter, an online job platform, said. "There is still a lot of hesitation on the part of employers and workers themselves to make any moves.” She noted that other government data shows companies are posting more jobs but not filling them.

Hiring has improved from last year, when employers added fewer than 10,000 jobs a month, on average. In this year's first half the pace improved to 92,000. Yet healthy job gains that were initially reported in April and May were revised lower, from 172,000 down to 129,000 in May and from 179,000 to 148,000 in April.

Restaurants and bars cut jobs last month, despite the World Cup

Restaurants, bars, and hotels cut 61,000 jobs, a sharp disappointment for those who expected the World Cup tournament that is taking place in multiple U.S. cities would lead to at least temporary job gains. Retailers also shed 7,500 jobs.

Chad Moutray, chief economist at the National Restaurant Association, said member companies are seeing signs consumers are pulling back on eating out, particularly outside higher-income households. It reflects a “K-shaped” economy, where wealthier households pull ahead of middle- and lower-income ones.

“We continue to hear that a lot of Americans are struggling to make ends meet," he said. “If you’re catering to the upper-end of the K, you’re doing fine. If you’re catering to the lower part of the K, you’re seeing some challenges in the last couple of months.”

Moutray's group has forecast that restaurants will hire 450,000 seasonal workers this summer, slightly below last year's 470,000.

Denise Beckson, a vice president at Morey's Piers and Beachfront Water Parks in Wildwood, New Jersey, said her company has hired about 1,500 summer employees this year, roughly the same as last year. But she said many restaurants and hotels are struggling with higher food costs and minimum wage increases that have limited their ability to hire.

“Costs continue to rise, and one way to control that is to pull back on staffing,” she said.

Many Americans worry about the impact of artificial intelligence on employment, but for now AI may actually be adding jobs. Last month professional and business services, a category that includes architecture, engineering, and software development — occupations expected to be vulnerable to AI — added 36,000 jobs.

Construction firms added workers, possibly because of AI buildout

Blue-collar industries added a modest number of jobs, with manufacturers adding 3,000 positions and construction firms 11,000.

Scottsville, New York-based Power & Construction Group added some of those jobs as it seeks to keep up with the demand for greater electrical capacity in the state. Thomas “Murph” Murphy, the company's vice president, said they are looking to hire another 15-20 workers after adding 47 in the past two months.

The company is seeking more electricians, laborers, and heavy equipment operators to join the 350 workers on staff, Murphy said.

Murphy said his company is competing for workers with firms building data centers in other states -- not many are being built in New York -- and he has to work to convince young people to choose construction as a career. The firm recently built a training center to bring newer, younger workers up to speed.

“The grid can’t handle all the new power that everybody’s using,” Murphy said, noting the increase in laptops, phones, and tablets in many Americans’ homes. “We need to continuously build the grid. But it does take time.”

Jobs data could keep Federal Reserve on sidelines

Thursday's report suggests that hiring and wage gains aren't accelerating enough to worsen inflationary pressures in the economy, which could allow the Federal Reserve to keep its key rate unchanged at its current level of about 3.6%.

Previously, many Wall Street investors had expected the central bank to lift its key rate this year as hiring appeared to be accelerating. The prospect of no rate cuts lifted the stock market in mid-morning trading, with the broad S&P 500 index up 0.7%.

“Today’s data hit the sweet spot for markets — strong enough to keep worries about growth at bay, but soft enough to reduce the probability of a rate hike,” said Eric Winograd, chief U.S. economist at AB Global, an asset management firm.

Fed chair Kevin Warsh in Portugal Wednesday reiterated that he would push inflation back to the Fed’s 2% target, though he wouldn’t comment on whether the Fed would raise rates at its next meeting, later this month.

Average paychecks, meanwhile, rose 3.5% from a year ago, a decent gain but one that still trailed inflation, leaving many Americans struggling to keep up with rising costs for necessities such as food, gas, and housing.

Historically, a job gain of just 57,000 would be seen as weak. Yet as more Americans retire and new immigration has dropped sharply, the U.S. workforce has shrunk in the past year. As a result, even gains at that level are enough to keep the unemployment rate unchanged over time.

Fewer Americans are working or seeking work

Last month, in fact, the workforce declined sharply, with the percentage of Americans working or looking for jobs falling to 61.5%, down from 61.8% in May. It's the lowest level in five years.

Much of the decline reflected the aging of the population, as more than 10,000 Americans turn 65 every day and many retire. Yet the proportion of Americans aged 25 through 54 who are working or searching for jobs also fell last month.

State data and experts who study voting trends suggest those efforts have made no significant improvement in participation, even as California's drawn-out tabulating has put it in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump and made it a target of those who promote unfounded election conspiracy theories.

Turnout hit 40.8% in the June primary, according to preliminary figures from the secretary of state's office, with counties required to complete their counting by Thursday. While that was an increase over the previous two primary elections, it was below participation levels in several other primaries stretching back to 2000 and nowhere near participation in the 1970s, when primary turnout sometimes topped 70%.

Wide gaps also remain in participation by younger voters and voters of color, according to the Center for Inclusive Democracy, a nonpartisan research group. The state's most consistent voters remain older, white, more affluent homeowners.

The state appears to have seen only incremental progress from its voting changes over the past decade or more, said the center's director, Mindy Romero.

“We haven’t seen significant jumps in turnout,” she said. “We still have very significant disparity in turnout with race and ethnicity. The numbers don’t lie.”

Extensive changes have mostly led to longer vote counting

Over the years, heavily Democratic California has ushered in a series of changes aimed at driving up voter participation. Those changes have sometimes come with a price, lengthening the time it takes to count ballots.

Every voter receives a mail-in ballot that can arrive at an election office seven days late and still be counted, provided the envelope is postmarked by Election Day. Residents also can sign up to vote on Election Day if they missed the registration deadline or had not updated their voter registration information. Those ballots are counted once their registration is verified.

Each envelope containing a mail ballot must match the signature on file, and that takes time. If a signature does not match, election officials are required to give those voters a chance to come in and prove their identity so the ballot will count, further delaying a final tally.

In that sense, California’s unusually long vote tally is the result of its own doing. In a report released last month, the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation found that the percentage of California’s ballots counted within two days of Election Day has generally declined over time, from 81% in 2004 to 66% in 2024.

That period loosely tracked a steady expansion of mail voting in the state. In a special statewide election last year, nearly 9 of every 10 voters used a mail ballot.

Florida, Texas and other big states quickly wrap up vote counting. California is a national laggard, with the outcome in close races sometimes taking weeks to decide.

While election officials insist they are focused on accuracy, the extended tabulating period has opened the door for candidates who see their lead slip away to suggest something nefarious is at work. After the June primary, Trump seized on California’s reputation as the national slowpoke in vote counting to renew his long-standing criticism of the state's elections, while the Republican's Department of Justice launched an investigation into Los Angeles County's elections.

Even Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office has lamented the glacial pace of counting. The state’s newly enacted budget includes $29 million to help speed up the state’s long count.

“We wish the votes were counted faster, too,” Newsom's press office wrote on the social platform X last month.

Turnout hardly budged after California passed a major participation law

One of the most prominent changes came in 2016, with the passage of what was called the Voter’s Choice Act. It was intended to make voting more convenient and increase turnout, especially among younger voters of color.

The law set a path toward statewide vote-by-mail and, in some counties, replaced traditional neighborhood polling places with community voting centers and ballot drop boxes. The goal was to free voters from being tied to a single polling location or day.

It does not appear the law has had the intended impact.

Elections two decades apart give a stark illustration: Turnout for the 2024 presidential election in California was 71%, 5 percentage points lower than turnout for the 2004 presidential election. The 2022 midterms turnout was 51%, the same rate as the midterm election 20 years earlier.

A 2025 study by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California concluded that “turnout did not consistently improve or worsen for any racial or ethnic group.”

“The effects of the (act) have generally fallen short of the reform’s original goal of a larger and more representative electorate,” the study said.

In separate 2025 research, the institute found that whites make up 36% of California’s adult population but comprise 50% of the state’s likely voters. Latinos make up 38% of the adult population but 29% of likely voters. Black residents make up 5% of adults and 4% of likely voters.

“You can’t definitely, clearly say the (act) had an overall, positive impact on turnout,” said Romero, the voting researcher, who added that more study was needed.

Legislative changes can go only so far to boost turnout

There appears to be an emerging consensus that more needs to be done to connect with and motivate infrequent voters, many of them people of color who are often overlooked by campaigns.

U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, a Democrat who was the state’s chief elections officer when the Voter’s Choice Act was signed by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, said in a statement that while the state is a leader in voting access “candidates and political parties must do more to motivate voters to get out and vote.”

Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, said part of California’s challenge is simply contending with the scale of voting. California has 23 million-plus registered voters, more than any other state. That number has increased steadily over two decades, even as turnout has not jumped significantly.

The state has at least made gains registering new voters — nearly 85% of eligible voters are registered, compared with 70% two decades ago. That also means more votes to count, another challenge to the timeliness of results. The state has about 7.5 million more voters than it did in 2006.

Alexander said a voter’s decision to turn in a ballot can turn on multiple considerations. Primary elections can be seen as optional, with the general election coming in the fall. Misinformation and attacks on the reliability of elections are suppressing turnout. Even California’s notoriously complex ballots with dozens of races overlapping with state and local ballot initiatives can be a turnoff, she said, overwhelming some would-be voters.

Despite all the state's changes, how people vote can be less important than what motivates them to vote.

“The public’s level of trust in government and institutions, who and what’s on the ballot and how well-financed their get-out-the-vote campaigns are, have a much greater impact on voter participation than the election model used,” said Bob Page, Orange County's registrar of voters.

The benchmark 30-year fixed rate mortgage rate fell to 6.43% from 6.49% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. One year ago, the average rate was 6.67%.

The average rate has been mostly hovering around 6.5% going back to mid-May and trending higher overall in the months since the war between the U.S. and Iran began in late February, disrupting the flow of crude oil from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide. That’s sent oil prices sharply higher, helping drive up inflation, bond yields and mortgage rates.

Despite the modest decline from last week, the average rate is now at its lowest level since May 14, when it was 6.36%.

Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, often sought by borrowers refinancing a home loan, also declined this week. That average rate fell to 5.79% from 5.84% last week. A year ago, it was at 5.8%, Freddie Mac said.

Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, from the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy decisions to bond market investors’ expectations for the economy and inflation. They generally follow the trajectory of the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans.

The 10-year Treasury yield was at 4.46% at midday Thursday on the bond market, down from 4.48% late Wednesday.

Hope that the United States and Iran may ultimately end their war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil tankers delivering crude has helped lower oil prices, helping ease some of the pressure on bond yields.

Bond yields remain elevated, though. The 10-year Treasury yield was at 3.97% in late February.

As recently as late February, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage had slipped just under 6% for the first time since late 2022. It’s hasn’t fallen below that threshold since. Five weeks ago, it reached 6.53%, its highest level since Aug. 28.

While average long-term mortgage rates remain lower than they were at this time last year, uncertainty about their trajectory amid the war with Iran kept many would-be homebuyers on the sideline.

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes declined in the first three months of the year compared to a year earlier, extending a nationwide housing slump that dates back to 2022 when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows. Sales were essentially flat in April, but accelerated in May to their fastest pace since December.

Still, sales of existing U.S. homes continue to hovering close to a 4-million annual pace, far short of the historic norm that is closer to 5.2-million.

“Homebuyers and sellers are starting to accept rates in the mid-6% range as the new normal,” said Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist at Bright MLS. “However, affordability is a major constraint to housing market activity as rates remain elevated and home prices continue to rise.”

The electric vehicle maker run by Musk reported Thursday that it delivered 480,126 cars to customers, a jump of 25% over the 384,122 figure a year ago when many Europeans refused to buy his cars because of his embrace of far-right political candidates there.

The second-quarter sales, the second straight gain in a row, also came in much higher than the 401,000 that Wall Street analysts had been expecting, according to a FactSet survey.

It's a big turnaround from just a few months ago when Tesla reported sales had fallen in 2025 for a second year in a row and it had to yield its crown as the world's largest EV maker to China's BYD.

Tesla’s stock fell sharply in midday trading Thursday, down 6%, an odd development that Seth Goldstein of Morningstar attributed possibly to profit-taking by investors after a recent run-up in its shares.

For the second-quarter figures, the company didn't break out results by country, but an earlier report from European trade groups reported big sales increases in Europe in May, including a 300% rise in Germany.

The Austin, Texas, company introduced cheaper Model Y and Model 3 models last year in hopes of boosting sales. In Europe, it also cut the cost of leasing and loans. Sales were also helped by a surge of EV buying in general on the continent as gas and diesel prices have risen due to the Iran war.

For future quarters, Tesla hopes to lure even more Europeans as countries approve use of its driver assistance feature, available in the U.S., called Full Self-Driving (Supervised). The Netherlands approved the system in April, followed by Estonia, Greece and Lithuania.

Sales fell last year amid protests at showrooms in Europe and the U.S., a Musk figure burned effigy in Milan and vandalism against Tesla drivers. Customers were angry about him publicly supporting far-right political candidates in elections. In the U.S., too, many of Tesla's traditional buyers stopped buying because of Musk's work heading a Trump administration group cutting government spending.

Tesla was also hurt in the U.S. by the elimination of a tax break for buying electric vehicles in the fall last year, which added as much as $7,500 to EV costs. That is still keeping EV buyers away even as gas prices have risen.

Tesla sales in the U.S. weren't broken out in the latest report, but research firm Cox Automotive estimates they are still falling fast, down 20% in the second quarter from the year earlier period.

Amid Tesla struggles last year, Musk managed to shift the narrative about Tesla's future away from its car business to its robots, automated driving system and self-driving robotaxis.

Judging from the stock price, investors approve. Shares have fully recovered from a deep dive early last year, rocketing more than 40% in the past 12 months.

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Business Writer Michelle Chapman contributed to this report.

The lawsuit was filed June 30, 2026, in the Circuit Court of the Seventh Judicial Circuit in St. Johns County, Florida. The case is seeking damages in excess of $50,001, not including attorney’s fees and court costs.

The allegations

According to the complaint, the incident occurred Nov. 14, 2025, at the Publix located on Front Street in Ponte Vedra Beach. The plaintiff was shopping at the store when a Publix employee pushing a shopping cart collided into her.

The lawsuit alleges Publix failed to use reasonable care while moving the cart in and around the store, failed to maintain the premises in a reasonably safe condition, and created a dangerous condition for customers.

Injuries claimed

The plaintiff claims she suffered a range of serious physical and financial setbacks as a result of the collision.

According to the complaint, her injuries include bodily harm, pain and suffering, disability, disfigurement, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, and medical expenses including hospitalization and nursing care. She is also seeking compensation for lost earnings and loss of ability to earn money in the future.

The complaint states the injuries are either permanent or continuing, and that she sustained permanent injuries “within a reasonable degree of medical probability.”

The lawsuit also claims the collision aggravated a previously existing condition, though the complaint does not specify what that condition is.

News4JAX reached out to Publix for comment. We will update this story once we receive a response.

New polling from Ipsos Sports, provided exclusively to The Associated Press, shows that the World Cup has excited soccer fans and piqued many Americans’ interest, even as the sport faces an uphill climb to reach mainstream popularity in the United States.

Despite that challenge, many U.S. adults were excited about the United States making it to the knockout round of the World Cup. Most soccer fans in the U.S. have been pleased by the U.S. men’s national team performance, and the overwhelming majority are excited for the rest of the World Cup.

The poll was conducted June 26-28, after the United States advanced from the group stage but before they won against Bosnia-Herzegovina in the first knockout round.

Soccer fans are excited by the USMNT's performance

About 6 in 10 soccer fans were “extremely” or “very” excited about the U.S. advancing to the knockout round, much higher than the 25% of Americans overall who said the same.

The United States has historically lost once they reached the knockout rounds. Before Wednesday, they had last won a knockout game in 2002.

Though this poll was conducted before the United States' victory against Bosnia-Herzegovina, fans were already giving the U.S. men’s team credit for having a strong showing in the group stage. Most soccer fans, 55%, said the U.S. team's performance was going “extremely well” or “very well.” One-quarter, roughly, believed it was going “somewhat well.”

Similarly, about half of soccer fans say the United States’ role in co-hosting the World Cup is going at least “very” well.

There's less enthusiasm for FIFA's role in managing the World Cup. Only about one-third of soccer fans in the U.S. say that's going “extremely” or “very” well. During the tournament, FIFA has faced criticism for enforcing mandated hydration breaks that some say ruin the momentum of games, as well as cooperating with travel restrictions and visa refusals against Iran.

The poll found Americans and soccer fans alike are about evenly split on whether they have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of FIFA. About 2 in 10 U.S. adults have a positive view of FIFA, while 25% have a negative one. Most Americans — 55% — don't have an opinion.

Will this be the moment Americans turn to soccer? Probably not

It’s not easy to get Americans to care about soccer, even with the World Cup in their backyard.

Only about 2 in 10 Americans consider themselves fans of international or U.S. soccer, far behind the share who root for professional football, basketball or baseball. And roughly one-third of U.S. adults say they have heard or read “a lot” about the World Cup, though most have heard at least “a little.”

Roughly 2 in 10 U.S. adults — 17% — say they are “extremely” or “very” excited about the rest of the World Cup. That’s up a smidge from Ipsos polling in May, but points to the challenge that comes with trying to turn America into a soccer nation.

Most Americans expect that the World Cup will increase other Americans’ interest in soccer, but relatively few say they have personally gotten more interested in the sport. About 6 in 10 U.S. adults think Americans in general will get more into soccer because of the World Cup, while 24% say they personally have.

Soccer fans are especially optimistic, though. About three-quarters of soccer fans in the U.S. expect this year’s World Cup will increase Americans’ general interest in soccer, compared to about half of non-soccer fans. And roughly half of soccer fans say the World Cup has increased their own interest in the sport, even if only 17% of non-fans say the same.

Many Americans will watch games or follow on social media

Outside of watching games, there are other ways for people to engage with the World Cup.

About 4 in 10 U.S. adults — including about half of soccer fans — say they have used social media to keep up with teams and players.

Roughly one-quarter of Americans have gone to a restaurant or bar to watch a game or plan to do so, and about 2 in 10 have gone to a World Cup watch party. About 2 in 10 U.S. adults — and 33% of soccer fans in the U.S. — say they have bought official merchandise like team jerseys, posters or scarves.

As sportsbooks note how World Cup betting has exceeded expectations amid the USMNT's success, about 1 in 10 Americans in the poll say they have placed an official bet on the games. About 5% say they have traded on game outcomes using a prediction market.

And with official and unofficial watch parties popping up in host cities across the United States, 8% say they have watched a game from a host city.

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The Ipsos Sports poll of 1,027 adults was conducted June 26-28 using a sample drawn from the Ipsos probability-based KnowledgePanel. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

Staly said a pedestrian was struck and killed in Palm Coast, and on West State Road 100 in western Flagler County, a tractor-trailer and pickup collided, producing one fatality and one serious injury.

“Let’s work together by not driving distracted and not driving aggressively,” he said.

Florida Highway Patrol said at 8:20 a.m., a 2015 Chevrolet Silverado was traveling onto SR 100 from West Black Point and a 2022 Mack Pinnacle tractor-trailer was traveling west on SR 100. Officials said the Silverado pulled in front of the Mack, causing a T-bone collision. The Mack and the Chevy traveled off the roadway and hit a tree. The Mack driver, a 52-year-old man, died at the scene and the Chevy driver, a 31-year-old man, was taken to a hospital with serious injuries, FHP said.

FHP said a 91-year-old man was driving a van east on Pine Lakes Parkway near Wellington Drive when an unidentified pedestrian attempted to cross the street directly in the path of the van. The van struck the person and officials said he died at the scene.

What the sheriff’s office planned

• Increased visibility and enforcement will begin July 3 and continue through the holiday weekend, with deputies patrolling major roadways, waterways, beaches, parks and other high-activity areas.
• Enforcement will target aggressive driving, speeding, seat-belt violations and other dangerous behaviors. Dedicated DUI enforcement will be in effect throughout the weekend.
• On the water, deputies will watch for reckless operation, boating under the influence and children without life jackets.

Fireworks, pets and public safety

The sheriff’s office reminded residents that private fireworks are illegal in the City of Palm Coast and Flagler Beach. In unincorporated Flagler County, fireworks are legal only on July 4 under Florida law. The office noted fireworks can cause serious injuries and can frighten people with PTSD, residents with autistic needs and pets.

“This Fourth of July is a special one as our nation celebrates 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence,” Staly said. “Let’s honor that legacy by celebrating responsibly and thinking of the impact to others and pets that may be nearby. Enjoy the holiday, celebrate our freedoms with your community, and make smart choices so you do not lose your freedoms by visiting the Green Roof Inn, aka the county jail.”

Crime prevention tips

The sheriff’s office urged residents and visitors to prevent crimes of opportunity: lock vehicle doors, hide valuables, do not leave items unattended, lock home doors and close garage doors when not in the garage. Eventgoers were advised to stay aware of their surroundings and report suspicious activity immediately.

Community events

Several community events are planned as part of the United Flagler Fourth celebration:

• First Friday (Flagler Beach): Friday, July 3 — 6 p.m., Veterans Park (downtown Flagler Beach)
• Stars and Stripes Parade: Saturday, July 4 — 9 a.m., A1A route from 6th Street North to 6th Street South (Flagler Beach)
• Fireworks Over the Runways (Flagler Executive Airport, Palm Coast): Saturday, July 4 — public entry opens 5 p.m.; fireworks at 9 p.m.

The FCSO Operations Center in Bunnell, the District 2 office in Palm Coast and visitation at the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility will close Thursday at noon and reopen Monday, July 6, at 8 a.m. Sheriff’s patrol and special operations services will continue through the holiday. For emergencies, call 9-1-1. For nonemergencies, call 386-313-4911.

Employment projection data offers a grim outlook for the women-dominated profession that may be particularly vulnerable to AI-induced job displacement compared to the broader workforce. But some admins are embracing the technology — and even using it as a tool to get ahead.

Deanna Danger, 43, has worked in an administrative role since 2003. She says adapting and staying ahead of the curve is a key part of her constantly-changing role, and AI is no exception.

“All you do is have to evolve,” she says.

Danger started using AI professionally in 2022, learning through experimentation and collaboration with fellow admins. Today, she no longer takes notes during meetings — she's set up Copilot and ChatGPT to do it for her. That has freed her to “actually participate in the meetings, and not just worry about making sure I typed everything out that was said,” says Danger, executive assistant to the chief information officer at Vanderbilt University. “Honestly, what used to take me hours I’m now done with in under five minutes.”

How — and to what extent — AI might reshape her profession remains to be seen, but jobs for administrative assistants and secretaries have been dwindling for decades. In 2004, about 3.5 million people worked in the role — nearly 97% of them women, according to Current Population Survey data. Twenty years later, that number slid to 2.1 million — despite overall workforce growth during the same period. And except for medical secretaries and administrative assistants — a category projected to grow 4% by 2034 thanks to growth of the healthcare industry — economists at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predict a continued decline in the profession.

The unemployment rate for office and administrative support workers — a broader category that also includes accounting clerks, postal service workers and more — ticked up to 4% compared to 3.6% in June last year, according to Labor Department data released Thursday, although that level remains lower than the overall unemployment rate.

“The overall story in office and admin occupations from the projection standpoint for the last several cycles has been one of productivity-enhancing technologies, limiting demand for employment,” said Emily Rolen, lead economist for the division of employment projections at the BLS. Technological advances — word processing, speech-to-text transcription, scheduling tools and apps — each transformed the duties of administrative professionals and contributed to overall decline.

Clerical and administrative workers may be more exposed to AI-induced job displacement than other professionals because they “lack adaptive capacity due to limited savings, advanced age, scarce local opportunities, and/or narrow skill sets," according to a Brookings Institution report published in January. About 86% of these 6 million workers are women.

Indeed, more secretaries and administrative assistants are 55 and older compared to the workforce at large (34% vs. 23%), median pay is lower than that of all U.S. workers ($47,460 vs. $49,500), and a high school diploma is sufficient for many entry-level roles.

But what labor data doesn't capture — as noted by the Brookings report — is an individual’s ability to navigate a changing environment, including administrative assistants like Danger, who say they “are way more capable than people think.”

Danger hosts a biweekly virtual coffee chat for peers through the American Society of Administrative Professionals, a professional group that says it serves about 132,000 members. Participants in a May session shared their AI use cases: creating flyers, scouting out restaurants for executive events, coming up with captions for employer social media accounts, drafting standard operating procedure language, and more.

But despite the overall atmosphere of enthusiasm, some participants raised concerns, including data security and the lack of AI regulation. Others emphasized that AI cannot, and will not, replace the emotional intelligence and relationship building skills that are hallmarks of a successful admin.

Fiona Young, founder of Carve, a business focused on training executive assistants on AI, says she has seen “a massive shift in demand" for her services since 2023. Young, a former executive assistant herself, says she has delivered AI training to administrative professionals globally, including at Google, Amazon, Uber, Salesforce and LinkedIn. In her experience, employers want staff to be able to leverage AI — “not just loosely understanding it, but genuinely using it as an integral part of how people are working every day,” she says.

Oana Manolache takes an even stronger stance. The founder and CEO of Sequel.io, a platform that enables companies to host webinars on their own websites, wrote in a LinkedIn post last year: “I will fire anyone who doesn’t use AI.”

But even Manolache says AI could not replace her executive assistant, Stephanie Martinez.

Manolache says Martinez uses AI to “free herself” from tasks like note-taking and meeting prep to focus on the “human work” of building team connectivity, making judgment calls, understanding executives' relationships with stakeholders and communicating accordingly.

Maybe AI could supplant the “traditional” assistant, but “it doesn’t replace what an executive assistant does now as the role has evolved,” Manolache says.

Martinez works remotely from El Salvador through Viva Talent, which — in another example of the shifting landscape for the role — trains and matches assistants from Latin and South America to primarily U.S.-based tech companies.

“The people who truly want to succeed in this role have a massive opportunity," Manolache says. “This person has access to information across the entire organization.”

For instance, when the company aimed to drive more customer reviews on a software review platform, Martinez, who manages most invoices and billing, approached the problem innovatively. She leveraged AI to sift through all customer communications, pinpoint good candidates for reviews, and draft outreach emails. Without AI, “it would have taken her so long to do this,” Manolache says, adding that it also freed up Martinez to “think creatively.”

That freedom to strategically implement AI is just as important as education and training, since many assistants are interested in adopting AI but lack the bandwidth to incorporate it, says Melissa Peoples, an Austin, Texas-based executive assistant coach and former C-suite executive assistant.

Gender dynamics compound that challenge in an industry dominated by women who are often paired with male leaders, Peoples says.

“You see those that are early adopters, and are crushing it, and are partnered with really empowering executives, and can do all of these things," she says. "And then you see the other side of this, where literally assistants are being told, ‘You’re not smart enough to be in the room. Just bring me my coffee.’”

With effective AI training, Peoples says admins can “find their voice” and “have higher impact so they are protected against what is going to happen as agentic AI becomes more commonplace and more easily accessible.” ___

The Associated Press’ women in the workforce coverage receives financial support from Pivotal Ventures. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Judge Darren Steele approved an agreement last week between Woods' defense attorney and the State Attorney's Office that allows prosecutors to request records from Cleveland Clinic Martin South Hospital, where Woods was taken following the March 27 crash. The case is being tried in Martin County circuit court, just north of Palm Beach County.

The judge signed off on a similar agreement in May that grants prosecutors access to all prescription medication records for the legendary golfer at a Palm Beach pharmacy from the start of the year through the end of March. For both hospital and prescription records, prosecutors have agreed to defense attorney Doug Duncan's request for a protective order limiting the release of records only to prosecutors, law enforcement officers, state experts and Woods' defense team.

Woods has pleaded not guilty to driving under the influence. A sheriff’s office report said deputies found two pain pills in his pocket, and he showed signs of impairment after his SUV clipped a truck's trailer and rolled onto its side.

Woods was traveling at high speeds on a beachside, residential road on Jupiter Island with a 30 mph (nearly 50 kph) speed limit when his Land Rover caused $5,000 in damage to the truck, according to an incident report. Woods agreed to a Breathalyzer test that showed no signs of alcohol, but refused a urine test, authorities said.

Woods has traveled outside of the United States to seek treatment at an inpatient treatment facility, according to court records.

So if a certain pop idol were to choose this island, at this moment, for her vows, could anywhere be more fitting?

“This city has always known how to celebrate big moments. But this summer, so many of them have collided at once,” says Rabbi Yael Buechler, 40, of the Riverdale section of the Bronx, who is preparing a “Swiftie Shabbat” this weekend with friendship bracelet cookies and a bedazzled challah bread she says is inspired by her “Chuppah Era.” “When I look back on the summer of 2026, I won’t remember just one event. I’ll remember a season when New York felt united in celebration.”

New York is always a city whose seduction battles its struggles, where the thrill of finding a subway car with an open seat meets the realization that it’s empty because its lone passenger is hurling trash across it. The schlepping, the waiting on line, the $9 boxes of cereal and $32 burgers and microscopic apartments with titanic rents, the sidewalk mounds of trash, the gutted rat you nearly step onto in the street. All of it can congeal into too much, separating New Yorkers for a season from New Yorkers for life.

But then there are those days when the streets are a storybook, with all the eclectic, utopian splendor Richard Scarry could muster, where you step out of an impossibly tiny, immeasurably cute cheese shop to find an impromptu classical concert on a front stoop. Neighbors exchange knowing looks at whatever absurdity unfolds before them, parks unfurl like paintings, a kaleidoscope of humanity seems in sync, lights twinkle, dumplings are cheap, pizza is perfect, bagels are fresh from the oven, dreams are all fulfilled.

Optimism emerges for summer in the city

In the battle between the slog of metropolitan life and its many daily gifts, some felt the recent arrival of a thumb on the scale.

The city’s trademark cynicism faded a bit. And in a place where celebrity passersby and visiting monarchs typically get the same collective shrug, a certain exuberance appeared. The beaming young mayor, fresh off an announcement that a swath of New York’s tenants would see no rent hike, was even found jumping into a city pool in a suit and tie.

This town has known seasons of many stripes, from that autumn of grief after 9/11 to that spring of solitude and trepidation as COVID-19 first emerged. They always pass. The city moves forward. But however long this Summer of New York stretches and the city pulsates with positivity, locals are relishing it.

“It’s easy to feel alone in the big city, but we all feel a bit closer right now,” says Dallas Short, a 38-year-old publicist who lives in the Two Bridges neighborhood of Manhattan. “Anything seems possible and attainable right now.”

More than anything, the Knicks’ fantastic run fueled today’s New York temperament, with its underdogs-coming-out-swinging, constantly-rallying-from-behind, Jalen Brunson methodically delivering, OG Anunoby tipping in an impossible shot, and millions of onlookers unsure of what they just witnessed as they slid into a warm bath of delight.

Spike Lee, a sideline fixture for decades and quintessential New Yorker, captured the city's darker side with his film “Summer of Sam,” set in the city's long-remembered summer of 1977. This year, he oozed joy even before victory was sealed.

“This is truly Fun City,” he proclaimed in The New York Times, “born again!”

Then there were those soccer games

Before the thrill of that even wore away, the world’s soccer fans descended, turning Times Square into a Viking longship and points across the city into flag-waving, drum-beating celebrations. In a city whose most iconic statue is a testament to its openness to newcomers, teams from Cape Verde to Paraguay to Congo found local fans and international visitors found compatriots.

“There is electricity in the air,” says Steven Gottlieb, a real estate agent and born-and-bred New Yorker who lives in the Flatiron neighborhood of Manhattan. “Many of us have a love-hate relationship with New York City, but there’s a lot to love right now.”

Which brings us to none other than Taylor Swift.

After moving here over a decade ago, she penned “Welcome to New York,” which called the city a “true love” and portrayed it as an “ever-changing,” “drives you crazy,” “keeps you guessing” paramour.

Asked about her new home at the time, she told Rolling Stone, “In terms of being happy, I’ve never been closer.”

Swift was spotted courtside at Madison Square Garden in Game Four of the Knicks’ run. And if rumors and reports bear out, she’ll return to the arena this week to celebrate a marriage to football player Travis Kelce. It would arrive on a week capped by all the revelry the city can serve up for the 250th anniversary of the country’s independence, in a fireworks-blasting, tall ships-sailing spectacle.

In this city scarred by terror, darkened by blackout and flooded by storm, no New Yorker would be so naïve as to think it all will last. The rents will rise. The kvetching will return. The smells and the crowds will again grow too much.

Let it be remembered, though: For a blissful moment in the summer of 2026, joy reigned here.

___

This story has been updated to correct the part of the Bronx where Rabbi Yael Buechler is from. Matt Sedensky can be reached at msedensky@ap.org and https://x.com/sedensky

Douglas DePodesta has served as special agent in charge in Chicago, one of the FBI's largest offices, for nearly two years and has been with the bureau since 2002.

He told colleagues that his last day would be Monday, according to a message seen by The Associated Press. Multiple people familiar with the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel move, said DePodesta had been pushed to retire.

The events leading up to his departure were not immediately clear, but DePodesta alluded in his farewell note to a conflict that he suggested had precipitated it.

“I've never backed down from a fight, as long as it meant our personnel could continue serving the FBI's mission,” DePodesta wrote in the message. “Unfortunately, that has proved unpopular over time and my departure is a consequence of that.”

The move is part of a broader upheaval in the FBI’s workforce as Director Kash Patel has sought to force out line agents and supervisors alike who are perceived as not supporting the Trump administration agenda. It also comes amid prolonged tumult in the law enforcement community in Chicago, whose top federal prosecutor, Andrew Boutros, described this week a sweeping review of more than 1,000 grand jury presentations made by Illinois prosecutors following the dismissal of a high-profile case over misconduct.

The FBI declined to comment Thursday, but the bureau's “rapid response” social media account on X responded to a separate post about DePodesta's departure by saying: “It’s simple: Anyone who is not on board with THIS FBI under the leadership of President Trump — which has achieved the lowest murder rate ever — is free to leave.”

DePodesta also quoted in his note from a farewell message from Patel's predecessor, former Director Chris Wray, who reminded the workforce that “you have been who the American people have turned to in their darkest moments” and praised them for having “stayed true to the values that define who we are, and to the qualities for which we stand: Fidelity, Bravery and Integrity.”

DePodesta joined the FBI in Chicago in 2002 and worked drug investigations. He later held senior roles at FBI headquarters in Washington and in Detroit and Memphis before being named top agent in Chicago in August 2024.

But even as temperatures soared this week, Castle, 82, said she won't be filling the pool — not with the data center behind her house buzzing with the sound of its industrial air conditioners and its backup diesel generators belching fumes at unexpected times.

“I think about the air quality, the water, what effects it has on the kids in the area,” she said on her front stoop as children whirred past on bicycles.

Hot weather of the kind sweeping the eastern U.S. drives up electricity demand for data centers, adding to their strain on power grids and worsening air quality for surrounding areas. The impact on communities like the racially diverse Sacred Heart neighborhood in Lowell, Massachusetts underscores why the artificial intelligence industry is feeling so much heat over the fast-sprouting facilities.

Around the country, data centers have been blamed increasingly for a host of environmental ills. Some tech industry figures say the facilities have become lightning rods for concerns over broader economic and societal changes posed by the AI boom.

But on sweltering days, it's hard not to see the effects on Castle's neighborhood, which the state has designated as facing higher environmental and health risks because of a population that's been historically excluded from political decision-making.

“It’s majority low-income and working family, family members who are working hard every day to just try to put food on the table,” said state Rep. Tara Hong, a Democrat who represents a heavily Cambodian American district in Lowell, a city of about 115,000 people northwest of Boston. “It’s an inclusive place there and that data center is just smack in the middle of everything.”

Data centers require more resources to cope with heat waves

A heat wave is “almost the worst situation for data center operation,” said Shaolei Ren, a professor at the University of California, Riverside, who has studied AI’s environmental toll.

A data center’s racks of computer servers run hot and there are two ways to keep them running without interruption, Ren said: refrigeration-based cooling, which is energy-intensive, and evaporative cooling, which is water-intensive.

Some data centers will turn to backup diesel generators as a “preventative measure” to mitigate the likelihood of an outage, Ren said. If the grid is highly stressed, grid operators will sometimes ask data centers to turn on their generators as “the last line of defense,” Ren said.

Diesel emissions can have harmful effects on human health, even with short-term exposure. If too many diesel generators are fired up during heat waves, Ren said that could be "a disaster for the local air quality.″

The operator of the Lowell data center, the Markley Group, said it has planted more than 2,000 trees nearby to improve air quality. CEO Jeff Markley said in a statement to The Associated Press that the company has switched on generators in an emergency only a handful of times.

“They are not run proactively or continuously; they engage only during an actual power disruption to keep critical systems online, plus brief weekly testing of about five minutes per unit, run one generator at a time,” he said.

A data center sprouted where a pasta factory made spaghetti

Markley said he chose Lowell because of its abundant water for cooling — supplied by the same Merrimack River that powered 19th century textile mills in the Industrial Revolution. He said the Lowell facility uses about 118,000 gallons of water per day at the peak of summer, a small fraction of the city's daily consumption.

Castle, a lifelong resident, was among those who welcomed the Markley Group a decade ago when it first started building on the site of an abandoned Prince spaghetti factory. But about two years ago, when the Markley Group added its second cooling tank behind her above-ground swimming pool, along with a growing number of surveillance cameras, the relationship had soured.

In response to growing opposition, Lowell's City Council voted 10-0 in February to pass a moratorium blocking further data center expansion for a year.

Data center electricity use has grown in the last few years, said Jonathan Koomey, a researcher who has been studying the computing warehouses for 30 years. But it’s “very much a local phenomenon,” he said. On a national scale, Koomey said demand growth has been moderate in recent years and he doesn't expect that to change.

“This is not a national crisis. It’s not explosive growth nationally,” he said. But in communities surrounding data centers, there are environmental costs, local economic costs, traffic and other concerns that need to be accounted for, Koomey added.

When temperatures climb into triple digits — as they’re expected to this week in New England — it’s harder to push heat out of a data center. Keeping it cool then requires more power, as is true of commercial buildings and homes. That can strain power grids and pose a “real risk” of power outages, Koomey said.

That strain looks different from the typical summer AC rush, when systems operators are dealing with “a lot of small loads" from individuals turning on home air conditioners, Koomey said.

“One of the challenges that the data center operators face is that these data centers are pretty big loads. They are big enough that they have to think about how to coordinate them and make sure that they’re not all cutting off at the same time or coming on at the same time,″ he said.

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation, a nonprofit that develops and enforces standards for the utility industry, recently issued an alert about the “unprecedented challenges from a surge in large power consumers” and developed guidelines to mitigate the "immediate risks posed″ by AI data centers.

As servers heat up, so do community data center tensions

Tensions ran so high in Lowell this week that police officers temporarily detained a 14-year-old girl who spoke out of turn at a city-led community forum on data center zoning.

“I’m not hurting anyone,” the girl shouted Monday after police officers escorted her from a middle school auditorium. “We just don’t want data centers!”

A coalition of data center opponents is increasingly clashing with electricians employed by Markley and other data center backers who say the facility boosts Lowell's ties to the tech industry.

Criticized for calling police to the contentious meeting and later asking an officer to remove the girl, Lowell Mayor Erik Gitschier, whose office is nonpartisan, told local talk radio station WCAP he didn't know her age at the time and defended his efforts to try to bring decorum to a topic he said deserves debate.

“It was warm out," he said. "You had people who had definite, passionate positions and they were screaming.”

___

Huamani contributed from New York.

“What we really want our customers to know is that at FPL, we prepare year-round for hurricane season,” said Kam Eppinger, an FPL spokesperson, on "This Week in Jacksonville: Business Edition," Eppinger said that includes a three-part approach: strengthening overhead systems, managing vegetation near power lines, and undergrounding some neighborhood distribution lines through the Storm Secure Underground program.

PREVIOUS EPISODE | Tim Cost reflects on 14 years leading Jacksonville University

Another key piece is smart grid technology designed to reduce outages before they spread. Eppinger called it “one of my favorite tools in our toolkit,” saying it “allows the grid to self-heal on its own and in turn avoid widespread outages.” He likened the concept to a phone’s GPS -rerouting around problems to keep service moving.

Undergrounding is also expanding, but FPL says it’s guided by data. “It takes a data-driven approach at determining which lines to place underground,” Eppinger said, looking at hurricane-related and vegetation-related outages to target neighborhoods that would benefit most. Since the program launched in 2019, he said FPL has completed “more than 2,400 projects” across its service territory, including in the Jacksonville area.

Even with upgrades, Eppinger stressed limits. “Mother Nature will always win. There is no 100% stormproof grid,” he said, adding that underground lines can also face problems - especially flooding - after a storm.

His advice now: treat hurricane readiness as a plan, not a last-minute purchase. “Now is really the time to start thinking about your emergency plans and… act on those plans should you need to,” he said - especially for families who rely on electricity for medical equipment, and for anyone who owns a generator that needs to be tested and operated safely.

Robert Grant, public information officer for the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office, said the employee reported a mother in the drive-thru who appeared to be slurring her words. Deputies who stopped the vehicle found a 6-year-old and a 1-year-old in the back seat, Grant said.

Video released by the sheriff’s office shows deputies conducting field sobriety checks. Officials said the driver’s breath-test result showed a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.178 — more than double Florida’s legal limit of 0.08 — and deputies found an open bottle of tequila in the passenger seat. The driver was arrested and will face charges, Grant said.

Sheriff Bill Leeper called the incident “a poor choice” that endangered the children and others on the road.

“Those are children that are relying on her for their safety,” he said. “She failed to do that, but thankfully no one was hurt in this case.”

With the Fourth of July holiday approaching, Leeper said deputies will increase patrols looking for impaired drivers. He urged people celebrating to designate a sober driver, use a ride service or stay home. “Celebrate safely,” he said. “Protect yourself and others.”

Instead, in varied ways, they are tuning into their own personal concepts of America the Beautiful.

In Associated Press interviews with citizens in the days before the Fourth, auto technician Joe Fuqua-Bejarano, in Topeka, Kansas, sized up “what makes us awesome” as a people. It's clearly not the politics, in his view, but rather resilience.

“We’ve just all got to find unity somewhere, whether that’s in laughter or perseverance, and keep everybody cool,” he said from the fireworks stand where he's doing a booming business as a side hustle.

The world's long-running image of Americans as a brash and confident (if not boastful and jingoistic) lot did not square easily with the tempered enthusiasms and trepidations expressed by many of the people AP interviewed.

“There are lots of points of contention going around,” noted one of them, Christina Zhou, a 25-year-old research assistant from Cambridge, Massachusetts. Yet “there are still a lot of beautiful things that are happening.”

“What I’m trying to do is think about just things that are happening locally,” she added. “It feels a little bit more like within our own personal control.”

‘We’re just happy Americans'

In Mont Vernon, New Hampshire, farmer Mindy Dean, 50, and her family will be milking their goats Saturday and maybe taking in some local fireworks. Or maybe not. The 250th hoopla has been mostly lost on her. “We’re just happy Americans,” she said. “We kinda do our own thing and just enjoy our freedom as Americans.”

In contrast, the goat-free Neil Casey, an 81-year-old retiree from Nashua, New Hampshire, and his friend Maureen Regan, who lives in Cambridge, are free-range celebrants. They're roaming Boston's historical sites, like Paul Revere's house, and as many of the city's Fourth events as they can manage. They, too, are plugging their ears to discord.

“I’m very much aware of our country and what we’ve been through, you know, so I’m just trying to immerse myself in the atmosphere of the 250th," Casey said. Regan took heart in all the soccer fans who poured into the country for the World Cup and praised what they experienced.

“They love everything we have," she said, ”and I want people to not forget that and remember how lucky we are." Her advice to compatriots: "Just enjoy the moment. Enjoy that we’ve been here for 250 years.”

Still, for some, it is nearly impossible to separate holiday patriotism from steps by President Donald Trump to bend the celebrations toward himself, as with the Fourth of July festivities on the National Mall that he said will culminate in a Trump rally Saturday.

When patriotism feels ‘Republican’

"When you’re celebrating the Fourth of July right now, it feels like that’s like a Republican thing to do,” said Madeline Capodilupo, 26, a special-education teacher who lives in Boston. She'll spend the weekend with her fiancé's family at their Maine beach house.

“It’s just hard to celebrate something when it doesn’t feel like we should be celebrating anything," she said.

What celebrants are celebrating, exactly, is diverse and personal.

Ronald Hall spent 18 months in the Air Force toward the end of the Vietnam War. His wife, Karen, served two years in the Army and took part in Operation Desert Storm during the first Gulf War. While they shopped for vegetables at Detroit's Eastern Market this week, Ronald said he's spent a lifetime celebrating American ideals, which might be distinct from reality.

As a Black man, he said, America's promise of freedom and equality was at the core. “I grew up remembering the promise,” he said. “That’s what we celebrated: the promise, not the country.”

Old warriors find their faith tested

Veterans are always front and center in America's big occasions and the 250th is no different. At the New Hampshire Veterans Home in Tilton, residents are looking forward to a community celebration in the coming days that will feature a National Guard Black Hawk helicopter, a World War II ambulance, food trucks, music and even Uncle Sam on stilts.

The old warriors are keeping the faith. But that faith is being tested.

“I believe this country is the greatest that ever existed,” said Leo LeClerc, 83, an Air Force veteran who served in Vietnam. “Our democracy is strong and it will continue to be strong as long as people participate in it.”

But, he said. “I don’t like what’s going on in this country" and “I don’t feel very good about the 250th.” An independent who voted for Trump in 2016, he now believes a “cult of personality has taken over" around the president.

Tom Gaumont, 74, an Army veteran and former history teacher, remembered the 1976 bicentennial as a more hopeful time, despite the aftershocks of President Richard Nixon's resignation under threat of impeachment.

“I’m kinda sad at this point with what I anticipate,” Gaumont said. “I’ve seen and taught about how these things kind of crumble, so I’m concerned.”

“We’ve lasted this long," he added, "and this is a very existential time in our history.”

Allan Bailey, 83, a Republican who also served in Vietnam and later owned a motel, voiced similar pessimism.

“I’m worried about how the country is going, I really am,” he said. "I don’t know what we’re going to leave our children, and that bothers me a lot.”

A security guard works to ‘make the USA the greatest’

In Dearborn, Michigan, Nabeel Mawari, 38, sounded a more hopeful note. On Saturday, he'll be working his security guard job while his wife and two young sons celebrate the holiday with relatives. An immigrant from Yemen, now a U.S. citizen, Mawari spoke from his backyard about life in the United States.

“My life is here,” Mawari said. “We try to make the U.S.A. the greatest. That’s why I’m here. I love this country. The Fourth of July, it is very important.”

Then there's the man who, for perhaps very understandable reasons, wanted to stay far away from the political fray.

Gary MacGrath, 77, has been a caricaturist at a suburban Philadelphia fair for 14 years. This year, McGrath’s booth was sandwiched right between the local Democratic and Republican Party clubs. Talk about a rock and a hard place. He said he learned as a bartender earlier in life to “never talk about religion or politics" and was heeding that lesson now.

But he did permit himself this: “It’s 250 years," he said. “Let’s keep democracy going.”

___

Ramer reported from Bedford and Tilton, N.H. Associated Press writers John Hanna in Topeka, Kan., Mike Catalini in Southampton, Pa., Michael Casey in Cambridge, Mass., and Corey Williams in Detroit contributed to this report.

The rule would apply to hospitals that serve low-income patients under what is known as the 340B program, which lets hospitals buy outpatient prescription drugs at discounted prices. But in many cases, hospitals can bill insurers at rates that exceed those costs, allowing hospitals to keep the difference and resulting in higher costs to patients.

Under the proposed rule, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services would change the formula for what hospitals participating in the program can get reimbursed, in an effort to cut costs for patients.

The Republican administration has sought to show during an election year that it is tackling the challenges of affordability for U.S. families at a time when rising healthcare costs are driving financial strains for households and the government alike. While the administration has taken several steps it says will save money on medical treatment, it is unclear how much savings might ultimately materialize based on the complexity of the country's healthcare system.

The American Hospital Association said the proposed rule would compound the financial pressures its members face.

“These proposals will undermine the ability of hospitals to maintain essential services and protect affordable access to care for those who depend on the 340B program,” said Ashley Thompson, the group's senior vice president for public policy analysis and development.

There is the risk that hospital systems could see their revenues decrease, which could have consequences in the communities they serve. The 340B program was initially designed as a way for healthcare providers to stretch scarce federal resources to better serve more patients. But it has long been at the center of a lobbying battle between hospitals and pharmaceutical companies, with each side attempting to enlist lawmakers in maintaining or changing the benefit.

The agency estimates that the average older adult with Medicare Part B coverage who is administered one of these drugs would save $800 a year in co-payments. That would work out to a total savings of $1.1 billion for everyone with that coverage.

The savings over 10 years could total about $20 billion, according to a White House official who requested anonymity to discuss the rule before the official announcement. The official said the proposed rule was not previewed for hospital groups before the release.

In a policy draft of the rule, the administration gave a specific example of how the current system works for the prostate cancer drug Lupron Depot. Hospitals under the 340B program can acquire a dose for roughly $700, but they can receive about $4,000 in Medicare reimbursement for administering it and an additional $1,000 from the patient co-payment.

The proposed rule would cut by roughly 40% that amount that hospitals in the discounted drug program could be paid through Medicare programs. If approved, the rule would go into effect at the start of next year.

In 2018 during President Donald Trump's first term, his administration tried to enact this same type of rule to reduce Medicare payments to hospitals. But the Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that the government could not provide a separate reimbursement plan for 340B hospitals.

The president signed an executive order in April 2025 to survey how much hospitals spend to buy drugs. The result of that survey led to the proposed rule, which would cap Medicare reimbursement for participating hospitals at the average sales prices, minus 33.4%. The reason why the average reimbursement rate would be cut is because the hospitals acquired the drugs at discounted prices.

___

Associated Press writer Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.

Hernán Alberto Gil Flores emerged to safety covered in dust atop a stretcher surrounded by helmet-clad rescue workers after being trapped since June 24 under rubble in the basement of the Galerías Playa Grande shopping center in the coastal town in La Guaira.

Rescuers, who initially made contact with Gil Flores over the weekend, worked more than 100 hours to free him — navigating a highly unstable structure, torrential rain and persistent aftershocks to tunnel down to the survivor.

Teams carrying flags from around the world cheered as rescuers carried Gil Flores, wearing an oxygen mask and covered in an orange tarp, through throngs of people to an ambulance where they methodically checked his vital signs.

One Chilean rescuer carrying his stretcher pumped his fist in joy. A group of men in red Costa Rican Red Cross uniforms embraced and laughed in relief. Others broke out into applause.

“When we found him, he asked us not to tell his wife that he was alive, just in case he wouldn’t make it,” Costa Rican Red Cross rescuer Minyar Collado told The Associated Press, but she added “We were never going to leave him here.”

The rescue was considered a small miracle cutting through a week of tragedy. By supplying Gil Flores with food and water while they excavated the concrete, rescue teams were able to keep him alive far longer than the 48- to 72-hour threshold most operations give to find survivors in disasters.

Gil Flores, who worked as a night-shift security guard at the complex, was inside his small security cabin when the first violent tremor struck. While the surrounding concrete structure collapsed around him, his cabin held ground, shielding him from crushing debris and creating a vital pocket of air.

A specialized team from the Costa Rican Red Cross first detected signs of life and established contact with him Sunday.

His wife, Gusbimar González, told the AP that she grappled with despair for days before hearing that rescuers made contact.

“When I learned he was alive, I saw a ray of light in the darkness," she said. The couple has two children, ages 8 and 10.

The operation was coordinated by an urban search and rescue team of Chilean firefighters, who worked around the clock with specialized teams from the United States, Portugal, Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Venezuela.

Acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez celebrated the rescue on social media at a time that her government has come under fire for what many Venezuelans say has been an inadequate crisis response.

“We celebrate the greatness of humanity, when it is united for a single purpose: to save another. Thank you to our rescuers and to the support of the international rescuers,” she wrote on a post on X.

Teams used a telescopic camera to help maintain constant contact with Gil Flores, passing water and liquid nutrients through a narrow shaft to keep him hydrated during the final three days of the rescue.

María Paz Campos, a veteran firefighter from Chile, talked him through the entire operation and kept him calm during the final excruciating hours Thursday.

In a video published by Chilean firefighters in the hours before the rescue, Gil Flores is seen drawing, seemingly to pass the time. Campos then gently tells him to look at the camera and to wear protective goggles.

“I need you to keep the goggles on, for the small particles that are falling, to avoid them getting into your eye,” Campos told the survivor.

The collapse of the building was triggered by two back-to-back earthquakes on June 24 that registered magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5, respectively. The shallow, violent tremors damaged or destroyed tens of thousands of buildings across northern Venezuela, killing more than 2,200 people, injuring over 11,000 and leaving La Guaira state as the hardest-hit region in the country.

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Associated Press video journalists Andry Rincón and Brayan Antequero contributed to this report.

He spoke loudly with his bloody right foot at one of the biggest moments of the World Cup for the United States. Still feeling the affects of being stomped on by an opponent’s studs, Tillman scored the first free kick goal in a World Cup for the Americans in 32 years to seal a 2-0 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina on Wednesday night that sent the U.S. into the round of 16.

Tillman celebrated the biggest moment of his young career with a smile and a scream as he ran to celebrate with his teammates in front of the large contingent of American fans at Levi’s Stadium.

“I’m a different type of person on the pitch,” he said after the game. “Of course maybe you don’t really see my emotions, but then if you score a goal like this, I think also you guys saw my emotions. It’s a great feeling.”

Tillman showed off his bloody sock — perhaps the most famous in American sports lore since Curt Schilling's in the 2004 baseball playoffs for the Boston Red Sox — after the game, saying he was still in a bit of pain.

But the discomfort was lessened by pure joy as the U.S. now prepares to play Belgium on Monday night in Seattle with a chance to make it to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2002.

Tillman's goal came with the U.S. protecting a one-goal lead and down a man after Folarin Balogun was sent off with a red card early in the second half. Balogun scored his third goal of the tournament in the first half but Tillman delivered the game-sealer in the highlight of what has already been a productive World Cup for the 24-year-old.

“Obviously he’s been playing so well,” captain Tim Ream said. “I’d argue he’s, other than Balo’s goals, he’s one of our best players. Everywhere on the field, doing the dirty things, making the hard things easy. I think it is just that. He just wanted to feel like he had a place. He’s a quiet kid, but he’s just come on leaps and bounds.”

Tillman is the son of an American serviceman and German mother and grew up in Germany playing on the Bayern Munich youth squad and the German national youth team before making the switch to the U.S. team in 2022.

His big moment came last summer in the Gold Cup when he scored two goals against Trinidad and Tobago and another against Haiti in the group stage. He then missed a penalty kick in the first half of the quarterfinals against Costa Rica before making one in the penalty shootout that sent the U.S. to the semifinals.

“The Gold Cup was really huge for him,” Ream said. “I think the adversity of the Costa Rica game, the penalty was really big for him. Now you look at him and he looks like he’s just playing such an easy game. It’s incredible to see. He’s had that in him all this time. It was just a matter of him finding the confidence and him believing in himself.”

This past year wasn’t easy for him after he moved from PSV Eindhoven to Bayer Leverkusen in a transfer worth a reported $41 million. He had six goals and one assist in 29 games in the Bundesliga and scoring two more in the Champions League.

His biggest goal came Wednesday night when he became the first American man to score off a free kick in a World Cup since Eric Wynalda in the 1994 opener against Switzerland.

“It was amazing,” coach Mauricio Pochettino said. “I think Malik is an amazing player, full of talent. We knew that he has the talent to do what he did. I’m so happy for him. Tough season for him in Leverkusen but I think now he’s enjoying and we are enjoying and the fans are enjoying his football.”

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

With the heat cranking up, I’ll walk you through a few small changes that can help keep your house comfortable and bring some cool savings.

It’s all part of a free program offered by JEA that will look at how much energy you’re using and how to save you money.

I volunteered to check it out so we could share with you just how the program works.

Where to start

According to JEA, the first step is for you to call 904-665-6000 to schedule your free efficiency assessment. (Click here to learn more about the program.)

Before JEA’s representatives come to your home, they will check out your utility consumption based on your bills, so they know where to start in your home.

When Kelly Cox and Luke Byous, senior meter specialists with JEA, came over to my house, they started with my thermostat and air vents.

“Typically, you want to see this set to 78,” Cox said, pointing at my thermostat control. “That’s what we recommend.”

Cox pointed out that my thermostat was set to 76, but the temperature in the room was reading as 78. That means my A/C was working to lower the temperature, but if I’d had it set at 78, the unit wouldn’t be costing me energy.

Also, the specialists said to make sure the fan is set to AUTO, not ON, or it will run all day and drive up your bill.

Temperature split

Cox said JEA’s specialists check something called the temperature split.

First, they measure the temperature at the “return” vent, which should match the air temperature showing on your thermostat. Next, they check the supply vent temperature.

Cox said a typical “temperature split” should be 15 to 20 degrees. My return was at 76 degrees, and my supply was at 62/61 degrees, which puts my split just in that normal range.

So what would be a bad temperature split? Cox said lower numbers, like a 5 to 6 degree difference, can be a sign of a problem, like a heat strip issue.

Think of a heat strip like a toaster oven. Those hot coils can get stuck on and fight the A/C cooling process in the summer.

Lowering your load

JEA can check the load on your meter. If your system is pulling way more power than it should, that’s a red flag.

“What the meter does is that it tells you what the load is in the house,” Byous said.

So how can you lower the load?

Block the sun

One easy fix is to block heat before it gets inside by closing blinds or curtains, especially on south and west-facing windows during peak sun.

“Block that sunlight from coming into your air conditioned area,” said Byous.

Fix toilet leaks

Sometimes the culprit of a higher JEA bill could be a leaky toilet, which could lead to hundreds of dollars more in one month.

So be sure to check for and fix any leaks.

Check insulation

Outside, check your refrigerant line insulation. If it’s worn out and baking in the sun, your system has to work harder.

“Yours, the insulation is probably quite a few years old, and if the sun beats down on your refrigerant line, it actually warms up the refrigerant, which might hurt your temperature split,” Byous explained.

So how much energy am I really spending?

JEA will put it all into an Energy Assessment Report, showing what your habits cost, and what’s driving up the bill.

According to JEA, my usage is:

• 16% for hot water
• 29% for A/C

Cox told me that I spend a $1.28 a day on air conditioning, which he said is actually pretty good. And I spend $3 a day on just electricity, so appliances, lights, things like that.

Along with my water usage, which is pretty low, according to Cox, my bill for next month should be about $106.

Other money-saving reminders

These habits can also help you save money on your monthly JEA bill:

• Get your HVAC checked every six months
• If you’re not home, raise the thermostat threshold to a warmer temperature
• Turn off the lights when you leave a room
• For every degree you increase your thermostat setting, you can save 5% to 6%
• Use your fan; it makes it 3-4 degrees cooler, so the A/C runs less

The virus causing this outbreak, called Bundibugyo, is less common than others that cause Ebola disease and there are no specific treatments or vaccines for it. Already more than 1,400 people have been diagnosed and 438 have died, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Thursday.

Standard supportive care, especially if started early, can help and the WHO says more than 200 people have recovered. But there’s an urgent need for better options.

The trial “offers real hope that we can deliver concrete results for – and with – the communities at the heart of the outbreak,” Tedros said in a statement.

Researchers will be testing if two drugs could improve survival. One is Gilead Sciences’ remdesivir, a broad-acting antiviral approved to treat COVID-19 but that has shown some hints in lab tests that it may help fight the currently spreading virus. The other is Mapp Biopharmaceutical’s experimental MBP134, antibodies engineered to target Ebola viruses including Bundibugyo.

All patients enrolled in the trial would receive today’s best standard care and be randomly assigned to also receive remdesivir, MBP134, both or neither, said WHO research adviser Dr. Vasee Moorthy. Survival will be tracked for 28 days after starting treatment.

It could take months and possibly as many as 1,000 study participants to tell if either drug works, Moorthy cautioned, explaining that scientists could tell more quickly, and with fewer patients, if one or the other turns out to be highly effective.

Currently the study is being offered only in one Ebola treatment center in Congo’s Ituri province. The region has been hit hard by violence, including toward healthcare workers trying to fight a virus spread by contact with sick patients’ bodily fluids. Officials plan to expand to other locations once it is safe to do so.

Moorthy said enough of each drug had been donated by Gilead and the U.S. government, which has funded MBP134 research and owns those doses, for the trial. If either proves effective, the next step would be ensuring patients can continue to access the treatment outside the study.

The WHO-supported trial is a collaboration between Congo’s national biomedical research institute INRB, Britain’s Oxford University, Antwerp's Institute of Tropical Medicine and other international health groups.

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

Owner Chip Ganassi announced Thursday that Dixon recently informed the team he would not return in 2027.

“Scott has meant so much to CGR over the past 24 years,” Ganassi said. “Together we’ve shared championships, many victories and countless moments that have helped define this organization."

Ganassi said he believed the 45-year-old Dixon’s contract gave him an opportunity to end his career with the team.

“We respect that he’s chosen a different path and wish him nothing but continued success,” Ganassi said. “Scott will always be a special part of this team’s history, and we’re grateful for everything we’ve accomplished together.”

Dixon, who won the 2008 Indianapolis 500, is the defending champion at IndyCar's next race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on Sunday. He is 10th in points this season with one top-five finish.

“Our focus now is on finishing this season strong with the No. 9 PNC team while also preparing for the future at Chip Ganassi Racing," Ganassi said.

Dixon won karting titles in Australia and New Zealand before moving to the United States where he raced in Indy Lights and CART series before moving to IndyCar in 2003.

He won series championships in 2003, 2008, 2013, 2015, 2018 and 2020 and has 59 career victories, trailing only A.J. Foyt.

Dixon was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2024 and was awarded a knighthood last December in New Zealand. He was born in Australia to New Zealand-born parents who later returned to live in Auckland.

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

The free, confidential service will run from 6 p.m. Friday, July 3, through 6 a.m. Monday, July 6, AAA said.

“With millions of Americans on the road, even one impaired driver is too many,” said Mark Jenkins, spokesman for AAA — The Auto Club Group. “Tow to Go provides a last-resort option that can prevent a tragedy before it happens and ultimately save lives.”

The program offers a free ride for impaired drivers and their vehicles within a 10-mile radius and is available to both AAA members and nonmembers. AAA officials said the service should be used as a last resort and urged drivers to plan ahead.

Last year, AAA received more than 687,000 calls for roadside assistance during the Independence Day holiday period, the group said.

“Tow to Go is there if you need it, but it’s not a substitute for proper planning,” Jenkins said. “The safest choice is always to arrange a ride before you go out.”

How Tow to Go works

• Available to AAA members and nonmembers
• Free, confidential ride for impaired drivers and their vehicle
• Service provided within a 10-mile radius
• Call 855-2-TOW-2-GO or 855-286-9246

AAA reminders for drivers

• Never drive impaired
• Always wear a seat belt
• Avoid distractions behind the wheel
• Stay alert for pedestrians, cyclists and other drivers

The company announced the project back in March, explaining that Harveys Supermarkets across Florida and Georgia would be converted into Winn-Dixie locations.

The move was intended as part of the company’s mission to bring its stores “together under one trusted name.”

“The conversions mark another step forward in the company’s evolution to The Winn-Dixie Company, reflecting a sharpened focus on growing the Winn-Dixie brand and delivering a more unified grocery experience for customers,” officials wrote at the time.

Last week, Winn-Dixie revealed that the eight supermarkets had finally finished their conversions, signifying broader reinvestment into the Sunshine State and the company’s hometown of Jacksonville.

The eight converted locations are listed as follows:

• Jacksonville — 201 W. 48th Street
• Jacksonville — 5250 Moncrief Road
• Jacksonville — 5909 University Blvd. W.
• Lake City — 4506 SW Heritage Oaks Circle
• Lakeland — 2630 U.S. Highway 92
• Lakeland — 1305 Ariana Street W.
• Ocala — 3435 N. Pine Ave.
• Folkston (GA) — 3606 S. Second Street

According to the release, these stores will reflect Winn-Dixie’s new look while stocking Own Brand products, prepared foods and the grocer’s signature “Lip Lickin’ Chicken” in the deli section.

Furthermore, Harveys Rewards customers may transfer their existing points over to the Winn-Dixie Rewards app, where they can also access weekly digital deals, planning tools and savings that turn rewards into dollars off groceries.

To do so, customers only have to download the Winn-Dixie app and enter their phone number — no new sign-up required, officials added.

Meanwhile, officials said they plan to unveil new stores in Keystone Heights and Alachua in the coming months, followed by a new store in Zephyrhills later this year.

“These upcoming openings will strengthen the grocer’s presence in Florida and expand access to the Winn-Dixie experience for more communities across the region,” officials wrote. “The grocer is also exploring future opportunities to expand its footprint across its home state as it revitalizes its store fleet, reinvests in the communities it serves and positions Winn-Dixie for its next century.”

Loud explosions shook the Ukrainian capital, where more than 50,000 people sheltered in subway stations after authorities issued air raid warnings, the Kyiv Metro said. Emergency crews dug through the rubble of collapsed and charred apartment buildings all day in search of victims.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that the bombardment was in response to Ukraine’s recent barrage of long-range strikes, which have caused severe fuel shortages and put pressure on President Vladimir Putin.

Ukraine's frequent attacks inside Russia — described by Zelenskyy as a 40-day blitz — have especially targeted oil refineries, causing a fuel crisis that has frustrated Russians already feeling the war’s economic toll.

More than four years after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor, Ukraine’s technological advances in drone engineering have in recent months given it an edge, analysts and Western officials say. Its strikes on supply routes behind the front line have robbed the Russian army of momentum on the battlefield and made its progress slow and costly, they say.

Kyiv’s forces have especially targeted supplies to Crimea, triggering the worst fuel crisis on the Black Sea peninsula since it was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014 and delivering a blow to the Kremlin’s narrative that Moscow is winning the war.

Ukrainian officials say they are trying to force Putin to the negotiating table, but so far Moscow's response has been to hit back.

Diplomatic efforts to end the war, most recently by the Trump administration, haven’t produced results. President Donald Trump and Zelenskyy are expected to attend next week’s NATO summit in Turkey.

Putin thinks that time is on his side, that Western support will peter out and that Ukraine’s resistance will eventually collapse under pressure from strategic bombing, analysts say.

Ukraine's top diplomat says it was a ‘night of horror' in Kyiv

The attack killed 21 people in Kyiv, according to the country's Emergency Service. More than 90 others were reported injured.

Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said it was a “night of horror” in the capital, which had a pre-war population of roughly 3 million people.

Flashes from exploding drones and missiles lit up the night, and loud booms echoed through Kyiv. Tracers from air defense fire streaked through the air as a huge pall of black smoke rose into the sky.

More than 30 locations across the city reported damage, including about 20 residential buildings, authorities said.

Kyiv resident Serhii Budko said three or four ballistic missiles hit his district of the city. “We were inside the shelter and felt the shelter shaking — the ceiling and floor, everything,” the 24-year-old said.

In Kyiv's Desnianskyi district, residents were trapped inside a damaged nine-story building, and in the Darnytskyi district, most of a nine-story building collapsed.

In Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region, meanwhile, a Russian strike killed a 7-year-old girl and wounded four other people, including an 11-year-old girl, all members of the same family, regional head Oleksandr Hanzha said.

The bombardment was “exclusively against military or military-linked targets,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

Russia's aerial attacks on Ukraine have repeatedly hit civilian areas. More than 16,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed in the war, according to the United Nations.

No reliable figures are available for battlefield casualties in the war. A report earlier this year by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank, estimated that up to 1.8 million soldiers have been killed, wounded or gone missing on both sides, with Russian troops accounting for most of that number.

Ukrainian officials urge countries to provide more air defenses

The attack used “high-precision long-range weapons” and drones to strike weapons factories and energy facilities in and around Kyiv, and “military airfield infrastructure” in other parts of Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry’s statement said.

In all, Russia fired 74 missiles and 496 drones in the attack, Ukraine’s air force said.

Ukraine's air defenses have improved throughout the war, especially in countering Russian drones. But it is harder to stop ballistic missiles, which accounted for roughly a third of the missiles fired overnight.

Sybiha, the Ukrainian foreign minister, said in April that the country's weapons factories meet up to 75% of its military’s needs. But he and other Ukrainian officials have pleaded with partner countries to supply more Patriot systems that offer the best protection from Russian aerial attacks.

Ukraine attacks another Russian oil refinery

Ukrainian forces struck one of Russia’s largest oil refineries overnight in the Nizhny Novgorod region east of Moscow, starting a fire, Ukraine's General Staff said.

Also, Ukrainian forces struck a railway bridge over the Siverskyi Donets River in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region, it said. The bridge was used by Russian forces to transport personnel, weapons and military supplies, according to the General Staff.

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

Northrop Grumman ’s rocket-launching plane took off from the Marshall Islands in the Pacific on Thursday, following weather delays all week. While in flight, the team observed a warning in the stream of data and decided against releasing the Pegasus rocket strapped to the plane’s belly, the company said. It was not immediately clear whether the warning came from the rocket or the plane.

The rocket holds a three-armed robotic spacecraft built by Katalyst Space Technologies to capture the Swift Observatory, which will come crashing down by October if no help arrives. No new launch date has been set.

NASA paused Swift's science operations earlier this year to preserve its orbit as long as possible. It has detected thousands of gamma ray bursts and exploding stars since its launch in 2004, tipping off other telescopes for more detailed observations.

Anxious to continue Swift's scanning of the universe, the space agency hired Katalyst Space last September for the $30 million salvage operation.

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

Police fired tear gas and pepper spray at protesters who were pelting them with rocks, eggs and other objects. Authorities said 12 police officers were injured and 18 protesters were detained.

The gathering was part of daily protests, dubbed the “ flamingo revolution,” that began more than a month ago in opposition to plans for a luxury coastal development project linked to Kushner.

While the protests stemmed from environmental issues related to the development project, they have morphed into more general political demonstrations voicing opposition against the government and Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama

Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in recent weeks, blowing whistles and holding cardboard cut-outs of flamingos — one of the protected migratory bird species whose habitats could be threatened by the proposed resort on the Adriatic coast.

The government says the development at Narta Lagoon would be transformational for the former communist nation as it seeks to enter the high-end tourism market and pushes for European Union membership. But the venture, spanning an abandoned island and a nearby stretch of seafront, has drawn opposition from environmental campaigners and critics of Rama’s government.

On Thursday, several hundred protesters gathered outside the Albanian parliament in Tirana, demanding the prime minister's resignation and chanting “Rama has to go to jail.”

Some hurled rocks, eggs and plastic bottles at police, and used part of a metal barrier to smash the windows of a police car. Police used tear gas, pepper spray and a water cannon to disperse the crowd.

“The protesters want their voice to be heard inside (the parliament), as the prime minister for so many days has not heard them and has ignored them,” said protester Agustela Thoma. “But enough is enough.”

Interior Minister Besfort Lamallari condemned “the acts of vandalism and criminal violence" against the police.

“Police officers are public servants, citizens of the Republic, and family members just like everyone else. They serve the law, public order, and the safety of every citizen, without distinction. An attack against them is an attack against the state,” the minister added.

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Cimili reported from Pristina, Kosovo

“It has been a constant struggle,” says Calvert, a former associate professor at the University of Kentucky who has written often about Dickinson and is the founder of the John Dickinson Writings Project, which aims to make his works widely available.

For much of the country, the 250th anniversary of independence on Saturday is a time for celebrating and debating the country's birth. But for Calvert and others, it's also a moment to challenge the lingering image of a man who at times has been ignored, ridiculed or literally cast aside.

He was the Revolution's ‘penman’

Dickinson, a Maryland native who spent much of his life in Delaware and Pennsylvania, was once regarded as among the most important and inspiring founders. His “Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania,” a dozen missives published in the 1760s, were widely read attacks against Britain's right to tax the colonies that helped give Americans a shared sense of identity and purpose. He even wrote the words to one of the country’s first patriotic anthems, “The Liberty Song.”

Admirers would call him the “Penman of the Revolution.”

But Dickinson also sought peace with Britain well after the first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord. In July 1775, he helped compose the Olive Branch Petition, a call for reconciliation that King George III essentially ignored. When the Continental Congress voted for independence in July 1776, Dickinson and fellow Pennsylvanian Robert Morris abstained. While Morris later signed the Declaration, Dickinson withheld his name.

“He wasn’t opposed to independence per se, but he thought it should happen gradually and without bloodshed,” Calvert says.

“America wasn’t prepared in any sense, including militarily, and there was no constitution, no foreign allies, and no domestic manufacturing. Neither was there was unanimity on the independence question,” Calvert adds. “But as critical as all these things were, Dickinson’s main concern was that there were no legal protections for the most vulnerable Americans. He was most worried about religious dissenters, particularly the Quakers in Pennsylvania.”

History downgraded him

Dickinson's reputation as a man more of words than of action has long outlasted him.

At the Signers' Hall exhibit in Philadelphia's National Constitution Center, the Dickinson statue is placed apart in a corner, sculpted in a contemplative pose. Popular storytellers of the American Revolution, whether documentary maker Ken Burns or “Hamilton” playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda, tend to leave Dickinson out of the narrative. He is otherwise a smug Anglophile in the musical “1776,” and, in the 2008 HBO miniseries about John Adams, he is portrayed as the compromising foil to Adams' militant righteousness.

“It’s pretty egregious,” Calvert says. “He is depicted as a scowling and sunken-eyed naysayer of the Patriot cause. We know that he was a compelling and charismatic figure, well-liked among his colleagues and seen as a devoted Patriot leader. He did not wear a wig, don fancy clothes, walk with a cane or speak with a Scottish brogue — all things added in the show to make him appear aristocratic.”

Once independence was declared, Dickinson did not retire from public life or side with the British, but served in the Pennsylvania and Delaware militias. He helped draft the June 1776 Articles of Confederation, supported the U.S. Constitution as a Delaware delegate and served as the president of Delaware and of Pennsylvania. Dickinson and his wife, Mary, were the namesakes for the first college — based in Carlisle, Pennsylvania — chartered after the founding of the United States. When he died, in 1808, then-President Thomas Jefferson called him “one of the great worthies of the revolution.”

Praising his contributions both before and after independence, Calvert believes Dickinson should be placed alongside Adams, Jefferson and others among the elite of founders. Thomas Donnelly, lead scholar at the Constitution Center, is among those who say Calvert has broadened his understanding of Dickinson (he speculates that the center's Dickinson statue was meant as a tribute to his “scholarly nature”).

Some historians see it differently. Joseph Ellis, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Founding Brothers,” credits Dickinson as the leading voice of resistance in the decade leading up to 1776 but laments his decision not “to take the last step.” Fellow Pulitzer winner Jack Rakove says that Dickinson’s thinking in 1776 was a “quirk of his conscientious political personality” that shouldn't diminish his other achievements.

But he still wouldn't rank him in the first tier. Instead, he places Dickinson just below, alongside such figures as Benjamin Rush and John Jay. Says Rakove: “Perhaps his qualms of conscience in 1776 have affected his reputation.”

Thank you, ‘South Park’

Dickinson himself would lament that his opposition to the Declaration was a “finishing blow” to his “diminished popularity.”

Adams was among his detractors, dismissing him as a “piddling genius whose fame has been trumpeted so loudly.” In the 1840s, Calvert says, historian George Bancroft helped seal Dickinson's legacy by condemning him for how he “dulled the resentment of the people, and paralyzed the manly impulse of self-sacrificing courage.”

Calvert has not been alone in defending Dickinson. His other advocates range from the late conservative commentator William Murchison, author of a 2013 biography that cites Calvert's research, to such historians-Dickinson Project editors as Ian Iverson and Nathan R. Kozuskanich. Calvert even praises the creators of “South Park” for an episode aired in 2003, during the Iraq War. As supporters and protesters clash, Cartman travels back to 1776, witnesses the independence debate and finds parallels to the present.

“It’s the only pop culture representation of Dickinson I’ve seen that portrays him as being motivated by principle — that we shouldn’t found a country based on war,” Calvert says.

“Here Dickinson is the forefather of those antiwar protesters,” Calvert says. “Whether he would have gone so far as to say that the reasons for the Revolution were trumped up, I don’t know. Maybe. In any case, there is a lot to like!”

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The story has been updated to correct that Dickinson helped draft the June 1776 Articles of Confederation, not the post-independence Articles of Confederation.

Reports from media including Sky Sports indicated last week that Verstappen's management had requested, and held, a meeting with McLaren ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix. The content of any discussions wasn't reported and the Dutch driver has yet to comment.

“It’s a cool thing, it’s a good thing that a four-time world champion wants to come on board and wants to potentially join the team," Norris said Thursday as he prepares for his home British Grand Prix.

“I don’t know how much of it’s true, but it’s a cool thing and if there’s an opportunity for me to drive with other people, it’s something I’ve always looked forward to. But it’s not a thing for now. It’s not a serious thing.”

McLaren chief executive Zak Brown said on the Up To Speed podcast released Wednesday that Norris and teammate Oscar Piastri are “not going anywhere” and he'd only consider Verstappen if McLaren had an opening.

Besides Verstappen, “quite a few others” in F1 are interested in a potential McLaren drive too, Norris said.

“I’m also just excited for my future with McLaren. I’m still going to be here for many, many more years, so I’m excited for whoever I get partnered with,” he added. "But for the time being, me and Oscar are still working very well together. We’re excited to work together for more years too, so that’s our focus for now.”

Verstappen remains under contract with Red Bull until the end of 2028 but there have been signs the deal includes options to exit earlier under certain conditions. A planned move to McLaren for his long-time race engineer GianPiero Lambiase increased the speculation of a potential move to McLaren for the Dutchman.

Mercedes has been interested in Verstappen in the past but team principal Toto Wolff has said he wants to keep title rivals George Russell and Kimi Antonelli.

Verstappen's also previously suggested he'd consider leaving F1.

Norris said he believed he could hold his own if Verstappen, a friend and on-track rival for the title last year, is ever his teammate.

“I do believe I can beat any driver. I think what makes Max so incredible is how he is over the course of a season, every single weekend, performing to the level that he does is what’s impressive,” Norris said.

“I believe whether it’s him or having a chance to go against Lewis (Hamilton) or Fernando (Alonso), any of the drivers that people know are some of the best, I think it’s a cool opportunity for me at the same time. So, excited for whatever may come my way in the future.”

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Jerry Urso, Grand Historian for the Most Worshipful Union Grand Lodge of Florida and a historian with the James Weldon Johnson Branch of ASALH, has spent years researching the cemetery. He has found documents connecting 100 people to the Grand Lodge who were buried at Mount Herman. But when he went looking for them, he found almost nothing.

“I was shocked that there was nothing there but the Emmett Reed Center, a pool and a park,” Urso said.

RELATED: Mount Herman Cemetery: Jacksonville’s forgotten Black burial ground has 1,200 bodies beneath Durkeeville park

A founder lost in the ground

One of the people Urso is searching for is Reverend Penn Brooke Braddock. Born around 1848, Braddock was one of LaVilla’s earliest residents, a founder of St. Paul’s AME Church and a member of the Grand Lodge. He is also a founding member of Harmony Lodge Number One, predating the Grand Lodge’s establishment in 1870.

Urso wanted to honor him in a simple way.

“Penn Brooke Braddock was one of the first members — he actually predates the Grand Lodge,” Urso said. “In 1870, he is a founding member of Harmony Lodge Number One, so I thought it was important to clean his tombstone.”

But Braddock’s tombstone cannot be found. His face has become a symbol of the roughly 1,200 people believed to be buried somewhere on this land — most of them lost to history.

Veterans buried and forgotten

Mount Herman Cemetery is also the resting place for dozens of United States Colored Troops — soldiers who served in the Civil War and went on to become founding members of the Grand Lodge.

The inability to locate their graves has left a deep wound in the community.

“People were hurt, because people want to bury their dead,” Urso said. “We want to go on Memorial Day and put flags up for the veterans, especially the members of the USCT that were the founding members of the Grand Lodge.”

The only reason many people know the site is a cemetery at all is because of one man: Thompson Williams, whose grave marker is embedded in a sidewalk.

A gilded-age trailblazer uncovered

Urso’s research has brought some answers for at least one family. A plot belonging to the Fagins family — once hidden behind an overgrown tree line — has been identified.

Idella Fagins, Urso found, was a prominent figure in LaVilla during the Gilded Age and turn of the century. His research uncovered roughly 20 real estate transactions in her name. She owned a two-story building and was actively buying and selling land throughout the era.

“Her investments shaped LaVilla during the Gilded Age,” Urso said.

If her home were still standing, it would be located on Lee Street.

More than a cemetery

The Grand Lodge of Florida building, constructed in 1912, still stands today — a repository of LaVilla history. It is also a reminder of how many of the community’s founding figures remain unaccounted for.

“As more information emerges, it’s not just a cemetery — it is a historical cemetery with many people that contributed to the future of LaVilla, Durkeeville and overall Jacksonville,” said News4Jax anchor Jenese Harris, who has been following the story.

Urso continues his research, uncovering new details about the people who built this historic community. For now, Reverend Penn Brooke Braddock’s face remains the symbol of the 1,200 souls still waiting to be found.

He came to the station to chat about his upcoming plans and to perform one of his new tracks “Valdosta Woman”.

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The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said it responded to the shooting at a home on Traci Lynn Drive in the Highlands neighborhood, and officers found a 2-year-old girl, a 4-year-old girl, and their 27-year-old mother suffering from gunshot wounds just before 5 p.m.

The 4-year-old girl died at the scene from her injuries, according to JSO. The other two were taken to the hospital in life-threatening condition and were undergoing surgery.

According to JSO, a domestic dispute between the woman and the father of her children led to the shooting.

At the time, there were no witnesses to help provide information that would lead to a motive. JSO also said that it has responded to past domestic dispute calls between the woman and the father.

JSO tracked down the father about 20 minutes after the shooting, and he was taken into custody. His name has not been released.

The investigation is ongoing.

JSO’s Chief of Investigations Michael Paul acknowledged that the involvement of children, especially the death of a 4-year-old, significantly impacts investigators and the neighborhood.

“It’s sad. It’s upsetting when anybody is injured, shot or hurt, but when it’s children, it’s even more so, especially when you have a child who is deceased at the scene,” Paul said. “It’s tough for investigators, and it’s tough for the neighborhood, for the neighbors who know the kids.”

One man in the neighborhood was devastated by the loss of such a young child.

“Police are out here now, but it’s too late, it’s too late,” he said. “We have to find a way for us as individuals, the JSO department, and us as a community to do better. My reaction? [It’s] crazy, I can’t believe it.”

If you have any information about this shooting, call 904-630-0500.

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said it responded to the shooting at a home on Traci Lynn Drive in the Highlands neighborhood, and officers found a 2-year-old girl, a 4-year-old girl, and their 27-year-old mother suffering from gunshot wounds just before 5 p.m. on Tuesday.

The 4-year-old girl died at the scene from her injuries, according to JSO. The other two were taken to the hospital in life-threatening condition and were undergoing surgery. No update has been released on their condition.

“The young lady, she was on the ground on the porch, she was the first thing I saw and then the grandmother’s sitting there with the child in her hands,” neighbor Micahel Gorman said. “It’s like time stopped.”

On this street, the kids play outside, neighbors know each other and families look out for one another. That’s why neighbors here are struggling to understand how a 4-year-old girl lost her life in a place they always considered safe.

“I was working from home when we heard the shots,” Gorman said. “My wife was outside, I brought her inside. I went over to see if there was anything I could do. It was devastating. Absolutely devastating.”

Another neighbor said she saw the shooter speed away in a car when she looked outside her window.

“By the time I came outside, he was gone,” Dee said. “He was driving on the block and then I heard screaming, so I ran over there...”

According to JSO, an argument between the woman and the father of her children led to the shooting.

At the time, there were no witnesses to help provide information that would lead to a motive. JSO also said that it has responded to past domestic dispute calls between the woman and the girls’ father.

JSO tracked down the father about 20 minutes after the shooting, and he was taken into custody. He was later identified as 29-year-old Trudale Reed.

“Nothing like this has ever happened in this neighborhood, on this street ever, and for something like this that happened, especially to a child, it’s just utterly heartbreaking,” Gorman said.

JSO Chief of Investigations Michael Paul acknowledged that the involvement of children, especially the death of a 4-year-old, significantly impacts investigators and the neighborhood.

“It’s sad. It’s upsetting when anybody is injured, shot or hurt, but when it’s children, it’s even more so, especially when you have a child who is deceased at the scene,” Paul said. “It’s tough for investigators, and it’s tough for the neighborhood, for the neighbors who know the kids.”

One man in the neighborhood was devastated by the loss of such a young child.

“Police are out here now, but it’s too late, it’s too late,” he said. “We have to find a way for us as individuals, the JSO department, and us as a community to do better. My reaction? [It’s] crazy, I can’t believe it.”

If you have any information about this shooting, call 904-630-0500.

A vigil will be held at 7:30 p.m. Friday at 11017 Traci Lynn Dr. to remember the victims.

Ella Bedwell is the organizer and the victim’s neighbor. She said the tragic shooting hit close to home.

“My daughter is the same age, and you never know where things could turn,” Bedwell said. “If there’s anything that I can do, even if it’s just a little sentiment. I wanted to provide that for the family and just let them know that they are not alone.

Officers responded Tuesday afternoon to a home on Traci Lynn Drive and found a 27-year-old woman and her two young girls suffering gunshot wounds.

The woman’s 4-year-old daughter died at the scene. She and her toddler daughter were taken to local hospitals with life-threatening injuries. No update has been released on their condition since the shooting.

Investigators said they learned that Trudale Reed, the girls’ father, was arguing outside the home with the girls’ mother and then fired multiple rounds, hitting her and their two daughters before driving off in a stolen SUV.

Detectives from JSO’s Homicide Unit responded to the scene and took over the investigation. Investigators quickly identified Reed as the shooter and issued a BOLO — be on the lookout — with a description of the vehicle.

RELATED: ‘It’s like time stopped’: Neighbor rushed in to help family after triple shooting that killed 4-year-old girl

Members of JSO’s Community Problem Response Team found Reed and stopped him using a vehicle block. They took him into custody without incident, and he was taken to a local hospital with minor injuries.

Reed faces charges of second-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder, shooting into an occupied dwelling, auto theft, aggravated fleeing and eluding, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

He was booked into the Duval County Pre-Trial Detention Center on Tuesday night.

According to past court records, Reed served time in prison from 2016 to 2019 for robbery with a deadly weapon stemming from an incident in 2015 when he was 19 years old.

He has also been arrested twice in Duval County for domestic battery — once in 2022 and in July 2025, but those charges were later dropped, records showed.

The changes come right after as investigators in Jacksonville responded to a Northside shooting that police say stemmed from a domestic dispute and left a 4-year-old girl dead and her 2-year-old sister and their mother in life-threatening condition.

The new laws also arrive months after a high-profile domestic violence case in Bradford County. Deputies said a mother, Rachael Kerr, was killed in an apparent murder-suicide on Jan. 29 after her estranged husband shot her. Investigators said their two children were inside the home at the time.

Below is a breakdown of what’s changing under the new laws.

Tougher penalties

One of the biggest changes is a new penalty enhancement for people who commit a domestic violence crime and already have a prior domestic violence conviction.

Under HB 277, the penalty level for a new domestic violence offense can be reclassified upward if the person has a prior conviction for domestic violence.

Here’s the breakdown in the new law:

• A second-degree misdemeanor can be reclassified to a first-degree misdemeanor
• A first-degree misdemeanor can be reclassified to a third-degree felony
• A third-degree felony can be reclassified to a second-degree felony
• A second-degree felony can be reclassified to a first-degree felony
• A first-degree felony can be reclassified to a life felony

Electronic monitoring pilot programs

HB 277 also creates new electronic monitoring pilot programs that can apply in certain cases involving domestic violence crimes and violations of protective injunctions when a court has issued a no-contact order as a condition of probation.

The law creates:

• A misdemeanor-level pilot program in Pinellas County (July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2028)
• A felony-level pilot program in Florida’s Sixth Judicial Circuit (July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2028)

In those pilot areas, the law allows a judge to order electronic monitoring as a condition of probation. It also requires monitoring in certain situations if a judge finds clear and convincing evidence the defendant poses a threat of violence or physical harm to the victim.

The law also requires evaluations and reports to the Legislature on how the pilot programs are working.

Confidentiality protections

Another new law, SB 296, expands Florida’s Address Confidentiality Program to include victims of dating violence, not just domestic violence.

The Address Confidentiality Program is designed to help victims keep their residential, work or school addresses from being publicly disclosed through records requests.

SB 296 also defines “dating violence” in state law for purposes of the program, describing a range of violent acts or threats committed by someone in a continuing and significant romantic or intimate relationship with the victim.

New 911 alert system study

SB 296 also directs the state to explore the creation of a web-based 911 alert system for victims of domestic violence and dating violence.

The law says the study should look at whether an alert system could do things like:

• Create a unique telephone number for each user that connects to a public safety answering point (PSAP)
• Allow a user to enter a code or phrase after contacting 911 to indicate they need immediate law enforcement help
• Support real-time data sharing between 911 centers and law enforcement agencies

The Division of Telecommunications within the Department of Management Services must report the results of that study to the Legislature by Jan. 31, 2027, according to the law.

Help is available

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, help is available 24/7 through the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE.

Resources

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence — help is available 24/7 through the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE.

Additionally, there are a number of resources in the Jacksonville area that provide help for victims of domestic violence.

Hubbard House

The Hubbard House has a hotline open 24/7 with operators who will talk confidentially to anyone experiencing domestic violence or questioning aspects of their relationship.

Operators can be contacted at 904-354-3114.

Victim services

The City of Jacksonville’s Social Services Division provides referral and victim advocacy services to victims of crime. Services are intended to help reduce trauma associated with domestic violence crimes.

Calls made to 904-630-6300 are all confidential.

InVEST (Intimate Violence Enhanced Services Team)

InVEST is a program aimed at increasing victim safety in the most potentially lethal cases. It’s a joint effort by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, City of Jacksonville, and Hubbard House.

On a daily basis, InVEST staff review police reports and assess cases for lethal indicators. They then contact the victim to offer services.

For further information, please call (904) 255-3388.

Trinity Rescue Mission

Trinity Rescue Mission offers services to women who are trying to escape from dangerous circumstances and situations. It’s not a certified shelter, but it will provide assistance.

Justices were at times bitterly divided — and critical of one another — in rulings that winnowed key provisions of a landmark voting rights law, allowed the government to revoke protections for some immigrants and even challenged the historic understanding of birthright citizenship for the children of immigrants.

The decisions come at a moment when long-standing debates over race and identity have turned toward immigration, increasing racial diversity and the fairness of policies meant to prevent and redress discrimination.

“This term, we saw a Supreme Court that is moving quickly to eradicate legal protections in ways that will leave vulnerable communities exposed to the harsh winds of discrimination and hatred that we continue to see across the country today,” Kristen Clarke, general counsel for the NAACP and the former head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division during the Biden administration, told The Associated Press.

Here is a breakdown of the latest decisions involving race and what they may mean going forward:

The temporary protected status case

The court allowed the government to end deportation protections for Haitians and Syrians in the U.S. who have fled violence and natural disaster. President Donald Trump's administration revoked the temporary protected status last year.

With the president's more than decadelong track record of denigrating developing nations and immigrants who come to the U.S. from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, attorneys for some affected migrants contended that the government could not cancel the designations, in part because Trump's comments about immigrants were racist.

“The true reason for the termination is the president’s racial animus towards non-white immigrants and bare dislike of Haitians in particular,” Geoffrey Pipoly, an attorney for the Haitian nationals in the case, said during April oral arguments in the case, Mullin v. Doe. The attorneys noted that, during his second presidential campaign, Trump claimed immigrants “are poisoning the blood of our country" and suggested in another instance that migrants have “bad genes.”

Federal authorities denied prejudice played a role in the decision and argued that TPS was supposed to end but has lasted more than a decade in some cases.

In writing for the 6-3 conservative majority, Justice Samuel Alito said none of the cited statements was “overtly racial,” reasoning that any of Trump's actions could have been taken without racial animus and attributing his anti-immigrant comments to “political discourse."

That's not how the court's liberal minority saw the situation.

“The references — of filth, disease, and primitiveness — are shot through with racial stereotypes and tropes. It is hard to imagine the statements being made today of any White community,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote in her dissent.

The birthright citizenship case

In one of the highest-profile cases of the term, the court reaffirmed that the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution means all people born in the U.S. are citizens.

On his first day in office last year, Trump signed an executive order seeking to restrict birthright citizenship to the children of U.S. citizens, a move that civil rights groups challenged as unconstitutional and racist.

In his majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts traced the arc of birthright citizenship — a principle that all people born on U.S. soil are citizens — from its origins in English common law to its codification in the 14th Amendment.

Roberts noted that race and citizenship had been fiercely debated in courts, speeches, Congress and battlefields because of Black Americans’ fight for freedom from slavery.

Freed Black Americans did not receive citizenship as a “reward,” Roberts wrote, but because “the Amendment recognized their rightful claim to birthright citizenship simply and solely by virtue of their having been born on American soil.”

The 6-3 ruling was a blow to the Trump administration, which has made restricting immigration its central goal.

“The clause does not extend citizenship to the children of temporary visa holders or illegal aliens,” U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer argued before the court in April.

Justice Clarence Thomas agreed and wrote in his dissent that African descendants of enslaved people in the U.S. are a unique case separate from the children of tourists or people in the country illegally.

“Blacks were entitled to citizenship because they were Americans. They had no other homeland, owed no allegiance to any foreign power, and were subject to no other authority,” Thomas wrote.

In a stark move, liberal Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor directly criticized Thomas' claim in a joint opinion.

“The Reconstruction Amendments were an anticaste, antisubordination reset for the Nation, not a mere spot treatment for the dark stain of slavery,” they wrote.

The voting rights case

The Supreme Court handed down a decision in April that gutted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act meant to remedy efforts to disenfranchise minority voters. Among the methods the law permitted to stop voting discrimination in states was the creation of majority-minority congressional districts.

In the majority opinion, Alito found that because race and partisan voting behavior were so intertwined, it was unfair to conclude that a partisan gerrymander of a state's congressional districts could be racist, given there may be other reasons for the map's results.

Alito reasoned that “in a state where both parties have substantial support and where race is often correlated with party preference,” partisan actors can “easily exploit” laws meant to protect minority political participation for disingenuous reasons.

The liberal justices balked at the logic and criticized the conservative majority for harming minority representation in politics and culture. They believed that the law's provisions were still necessary to prevent discrimination by states and worried about the fallout from its removal.

“The consequences are likely to be far-reaching and grave," Kagan wrote in her dissent. “Today’s decision renders Section 2 all but a dead letter. In the states where that law continues to matter — the states still marked by residential segregation and racially polarized voting — minority voters can now be cracked out of the electoral process.”

The decision has had profound impact on the political landscape, with nearly a dozen Southern states immediately taking steps to redistrict and eliminate majority-Black districts.

In just the past week, Trump has issued dark warnings that members of the Democratic Party's ascendant left are communists who want to “completely destroy the traditional American way of life" and even engage in assassinations. Vice President JD Vance has similarly called out communism as a political shift that is “something we haven't seen in the U.S.” House Speaker Mike Johnson has decried “radical candidates” who are “self-described, self-identifying Marxists.”

The GOP's ideological focus conflates democratic socialism, which often centers on securing universal healthcare, higher taxes on the wealthy and stricter corporate regulation, with communism, under which private ownership is largely eliminated. It has been building since Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, won the Democratic nomination for New York City mayor last year.

But it's kicked into a higher gear recently after democratic socialists won several New York City congressional primaries last week. The primary victory on Tuesday by another democratic socialist, Melat Kiros, for a Denver congressional seat suggested the trend may extend beyond Manhattan liberalism.

“The Democrats are making this easy for us,” Rep. Richard Hudson, the North Carolina Republican who leads the House GOP's strategy and fundraising arm, said in an interview. “They're nominating extreme liberals, leftists who are out of touch even with mainstream Democrats.”

Republicans are holding onto slim majorities

The messaging effort comes as Republicans scramble to hold onto threadbare congressional majorities in the November midterms. It risks overlooking public frustration, particularly among younger voters, with unfettered capitalism at a time of growing income inequality and rising costs.

But it also gives Republicans a much-needed opportunity to shift the conversation back to territory that is more comfortable for them after their party has spent much of the year on defense over the fallout from Trump's decision to launch a war against Iran, which contributed to widespread price spikes.

Ralph Reed, the longtime conservative activist who hosted Trump last week at a Faith and Freedom Coalition conference, acknowledged that Republicans are facing steep headwinds this year. But the recent string of wins by democratic socialists, he said, allows Republicans to present a contrast between “common sense and crazy.”

Democrats are uncertain over the party's direction

The renewed push could tug at tensions among Democrats who are largely united in their loathing of Trump but are divided over the party's direction. This year's primaries are shaping up as a referendum between centrists who are eager to course correct from what they see as progressive overreach earlier in the decade and a left-wing pushing for even more sweeping change.

“A lot of this anger has been boiling under the surface,” said Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of Our Revolution, which was founded by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with Democrats. “It’s coming to the fore in this moment in a very powerful way.”

But Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a centrist New Jersey Democrat, called the victories in Colorado and New York “aberrations.”

“We’ve got to fight like hell to keep our party from being hijacked by socialists,” he said. “Most of them are bomb throwers, not problem solvers.”

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford easily dispatched a more progressive rival earlier this year in his Democratic bid for governor in a state Trump carried in 2024. As he eyes a general election challenge to Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, he insisted candidates like those who won in New York don't represent all Democrats.

He said the Democratic Socialists of America “is not the face of our party.”

Rep. Suzan DelBene, a Washington Democrat who chairs the House Democratic campaign committee, said in a statement that Republicans were “resorting to desperate attacks that aren’t actually about the pocketbook issues.”

Trump risks overreaching with communism argument

Trump and fellow Republicans risk missing the mark when the public's embrace of capitalism might not be as strong as it was decades ago.

About half of U.S. adults, 54%, have a positive view of capitalism, according to an August poll from Gallup, a slight decline from 61% in 2010. Democrats have driven some of the shift, but favorable opinions of capitalism have fallen among independents as well.

Only 42% of Democrats viewed capitalism favorably, while 66% had a positive view of socialism. The poll found that both younger and older Democrats have warmed slightly on socialism since 2010, but Democrats under age 50 are much less likely to view capitalism favorably. Democrats age 50 or older didn't shift meaningfully.

“Young voters, who I would argue are driving a lot of the electoral energy that we're seeing, came of age politically in a post-Soviet world,” Geevarghese said. “The attacks don't land in the same way when Donald Trump was politically of age.”

Hudson, who is running the House GOP campaign committee, acknowledged the communism line might not resonate in the same way with all voters, particularly younger people. That's why, he said, it's important for Republicans to tailor their message to the needs of individual districts.

“I've never run cookie-cutter campaigns where we just say one thing over and over everywhere,” he said.

Still, the argument was high on Trump's mind again on Wednesday as he visited the newly built Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in North Dakota. He called the former president a “ferocious opponent of a thing called communism.”

“It’s the biggest threat to our country, including World War I, World War II, Pearl Harbor, September 11,” he said. "It’s a bigger threat, potentially a bigger threat than that, because it’s like a cancer that spreads, and you better stop it fast.”

Beverly Gage, a history professor at Yale University who has written on the rise and fall of Sen. Joe McCarthy, said earlier eras of anti-communism politics took hold because there was a large and active Communist Party in the U.S. and the Soviet Union was the country's primary foe. But she said Trump's focus on the issue is notable given his ties to Roy Cohn, a onetime confidant of Trump who earlier worked for McCarthy.

“It's not very many steps to get from McCarthy to Roy Cohn to Donald Trump,” she said.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a potential Democratic presidential candidate, shrugged off Trump's communism focus as “bunk.” In an interview, he said the direction of the party isn't all that different from the dynamics he's navigated for decades in California politics.

“I governed in an environment where the DSA was otherwise known as progressives," he said. “This dialectic is so deeply familiar to me, and I don't over read any of it.”

___

This story has been corrected to show the spelling of the Washington congresswoman’s first name is Suzan, not Susan.

___

Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price in contributed to this report

The case has been tangled up in courts since the European Commission announced the fine in 2018. But the European Court of Justice dismissal on Thursday marks the end of that process.

“The appeal brought by Google and its parent company Alphabet against the judgment of the General Court is dismissed, thereby confirming the penalty imposed for Google Search’s abuse of a dominant position in the context of the Android operating system,” the Luxembourg-based judges wrote in their ruling.

Google previously argued free and open-source Android has resulted in low-cost phones and driven competition with its chief rival, Apple. Android is the most popular mobile operating system, beating even Apple’s iOS.

The fine is one of three antitrust penalties totaling more than $8 billion that the European Commission slapped on Google between 2017 and 2019, putting the 27-nation bloc at the forefront of the global push to rein in tech giants.

Since then, the commission has widened its crackdown on digital giants with more antitrust investigations targeting Amazon, Apple and Facebook and sweeping new rules aimed at clamping down on the biggest digital companies.

Agustín Reyna, director general of the European Consumer Organization, welcomed the court’s ruling and said the EU needs more regulation akin to the Digital Markets Act to “nip unfair practices in the bud” and protect consumers.

“Today’s judgment sends a very clear message: dominant companies cannot use their power to shut out competition and limit consumer choice,” Reyna said. “Today is a big win for Europe.”

The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits in the week ending June 27 fell by 1,000 to 215,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s fewer than the 225,000 new applications forecast by analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet.

Weekly filings for unemployment benefits are considered representative of U.S. layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market.

The government also released its more comprehensive June jobs report on Thursday, a day earlier than usual due to the July 4 holiday.

That data showed that U.S. employers pulled back on hiring last month, adding only 57,000 jobs. That’s less than half the previous month’s total and a sign companies remain cautious. The unemployment rate dropped to 4.2% from 4.3% in May, though that decline is mostly due to the fact that many out-of-work people gave up looking for jobs and were no longer counted as unemployed.

June’s tepid hiring comes after a relative surge in job gains the previous three months, countering concerns that the war in Iran would trip up an already wobbly labor market.

Weekly jobless aid applications have stabilized in a range mostly between 200,000 and 250,000 since the U.S. economy emerged from the pandemic recession. However, hiring began slowing about two years ago and tapered further in 2025 due to President Donald Trump’s tariffs, his purge of the federal workforce and the lingering effects of high interest rates meant to control inflation.

Among the companies that have cut jobs recently are Verizon, UPS, Amazon, Disney, Starbucks and Walmart.

Thursday's layoffs data showed that the four-week moving average of jobless claims, which quiets some of the week-to-week noise, fell by 2,500 to 222,000.

The total number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the previous week ending June 20 ticked up by 2,000 by to 1.81 million, also a historically low figure.

A newly renovated Publix opened its doors to welcome customers back, drawing a large crowd eager to explore the upgraded location.

The reopening comes after both the Publix and a Winn-Dixie in the area closed in 2025, leaving residents with limited grocery options.

Publix Media Relations representative Hannah Herring said the company is thrilled to be back.

“The first thousand customers in line are going to get a special surprise. And there will be reusable bags for our customers when they check out. There will be a lot going on with some samples throughout the store and just really welcoming customers back because they, we know that they have been wanting Publix to return, and we couldn’t be more excited to be back,” Herring said.

The new Fernandina Beach location is one of two Publix stores in the Northeast Florida area to feature a Publix Pours bar, offering beer, wine, smoothies, acai bowls and more.

The other location is the Publix at Silverleaf in St. Augustine, which shares the same larger layout, Pours bar and expanded food bars not typically found at standard Publix stores.

The nearest comparable location outside the area is in Tampa.

The experts at Consumer Reports can help you decide.

“Charging an E.V. is almost always going to be cheaper than filling up a gas car, but how much you save really depends on a lot of different factors,” said Keith Barry, an auto writer and E.V. expert at Consumer Reports.

Before you put the pedal to the metal, find out these things:

• Are there chargers where I’m staying?
• Will the car’s battery range match my driving?
• And how long will charging take?

A Level 2 charger is the type you’ll find at most homes, hotels, and some businesses that offer free charging. These are great for charging overnight.

But a DC fast charger, which you’ll probably see at a highway rest area right off a major road, tends to be a little more expensive to use, but they could recharge your E.V. in under half an hour.

For long road trips, especially if you’re going off the beaten path where chargers are scarce, a hybrid might make more sense. You can still use less gas, without having to plan your route around charging stops.

Consumer Reports also says to watch out for rental deals that look inexpensive up front. Some companies and third-party sites offer lower rates if you pay in advance or agree to a “mystery car,” but those deals may come with fewer options if your plans change.

And if you book through a third-party vendor, such as AAA, Costco, or Priceline, you may have to make changes on that site rather than directly with the rental car company.

No matter what kind of car you rent, pay close attention to the return rules. Some car rental companies will charge you a fee if they must recharge a rental car.

One more tip before you return any rental car: delete your personal data. Bluetooth, Android Auto, and Apple CarPlay are helpful tech during your travels, just make sure to unpair your phone and delete any data.

Otherwise, the next driver could see information you meant to keep private.

Now, after a massive infusion of cash from Congress, President Donald Trump's administration is swiftly building what it has dubbed a “smart wall,” a combination of 30-foot-tall (9-meter-tall) steel fencing and an array of sophisticated technology like sensors, cameras and towers allowing Border Patrol to surveil the territory.

The wall is under heavy scrutiny for the billions of dollars being dedicated to it when border crossings are at their lowest in decades. Critics say the U.S. is militarizing the border as it increasingly deploys sophisticated surveillance technology to the area, impacting local communities.

“We are seeing a massive expansion of surveillance and surveillance technology across the borderlands,” said Ricky Garza, border policy counsel at the Southern Border Communities Coalition, an advocacy group. “The wall in all its forms is harmful to communities.”

Officials say the technology is complementary to the physical wall and frees up agents for other tasks.

“It’s a smart wall. It’s not just a barrier,” Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott said during recent congressional testimony. “It maximizes the use of our most valuable resource, which is our agents.”

Contracts for hundreds of miles of wall already inked

The wall has been a top priority for Trump, a Republican, since he first ran for president.

During the administration of President Joe Biden, a Democrat, the border emerged as a flashpoint, with thousands of people seeking to cross into the country each day. Those numbers started to taper off shortly before Trump returned to office last year and then slowed to a trickle, with his broader immigration crackdown serving as a deterrent for would-be migrants.

Flush with $46 billion to finish the wall after an infusion by Congress for immigration enforcement, CBP is inking tens of billions of dollars in contracts to build the wall and push along the president's signature project.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said recently that a preliminary part of the wall will be finished by “this time next year.” Scott said his agency is putting up 6 miles (10 kilometers) of wall a week.

Hundreds of miles had already been built before Trump returned to office. As of mid-June 2026, CBP has erected another 74 miles (119 kilometers) and aims to build hundreds more. There is no wall planned for roughly 535 miles (861 kilometers) of the roughly 2,000-mile-long (3,200-kilometer-long) border, because rugged terrain already serves as a barrier. Ground sensors and towers will be used instead.

CBP is also going back to hundreds of miles of already built wall and adding more technology, lights and roads. Along the long stretches of river in Texas that mark the border with Mexico, they're deploying 12- to 15-foot-long (3.7- to 4.5-meter-long) cylinder-shaped buoys meant to keep migrants or smugglers from crossing the border.

More technology being deployed on the border

Technology is playing a greater role in the Trump administration’s effort to make illegal crossings along the border more difficult, part of a broader transformation of CBP in the years since Sept. 11, 2001, into an intelligence operation with a mass surveillance network whose reach extends far beyond the nation's frontiers, according to reporting by The Associated Press.

And critics say the border technology poses a threat.

The Southern Border Communities Coalition says surveillance technologies can push migrants into more dangerous routes to avoid being detected.

Garza, the group's policy counsel, warned that surveillance technology infringes on the privacy rights of border residents and that locals have found ground sensors used to detect smuggler or migrant traffic placed on their property without their consent.

Nayda Alvarez and her relatives own land along the Rio Grande roughly 125 miles (200 kilometers) inland from the Gulf of Mexico. She has found cameras placed on her family's land, and just last week she spotted a surveillance tower about a quarter of a mile (almost half a kilometer) down the river from her house.

“Are we expecting a war or something?” she said. "It doesn’t make me feel safer.”

Dave Maass, director of investigations for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit that focuses on civil liberties related to digital technology, said the technology has made the border area “a hostile environment” for locals and would-be migrants.

The foundation has published a guide on the various types of surveillance towers in use along the southern border designed to help local residents.

These can range from fixed towers with video, infrared and radar technologies that have a range of roughly 8 miles (13 kilometers) to remote video surveillance systems that have cameras and a spotlight fixed on top. Some are mounted on the backs of trucks so agents can drive them to different parts of the border.

Increasingly, these towers are autonomous. They can scan an area, analyze what they're seeing using artificial intelligence and alert Border Patrol agents to something suspicious. Proponents say this helps keep Border Patrol agents out in the field instead of sitting in front of computer screens watching for activity. But it also increases AI decision-making along the border when experts have warned about the technology’s potential for bias or other problems.

The big GOP tax cuts and spending bill passed by Congress last summer requires that CBP buys only the autonomous towers, and the department is deploying an additional 95.

Underground, buried fiberoptic cables can sense movement, capturing data that is also then analyzed by AI.

“We follow the contour of the land. We go through trees. We go down into the river banks. We can go absolutely everywhere,” said Magnus McEwen-King, CEO of Sintela, which has a contract with CBP to install the cables. He spoke at a recent border security expo in Phoenix, where some of the technology was on display.

CBP also uses ground sensors and trail cameras to detect smuggling routes.

Concerns over cost and future plans

The nonpartisan watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense has questioned both the huge amounts of money for the wall-building and whether taxpayers are getting their money's worth.

In 2011, under Democratic President Barack Obama, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano pulled the plug on a project to build a “virtual wall” of integrated technology like radars, sensors and cameras across the entire border after it ran over budget, faced technological glitches and was behind schedule.

Josh Sewell, director of research and policy at Taxpayers for Common Sense, said the organization would like to see more “robust evaluation” of the technologies being used to avoid similar scenarios. And he criticized the Trump administration for lack of oversight on how the money is being spent, a charge CBP has denied, citing “oversight mechanism.”

In the Big Bend area of southern Texas, opposition to the department's wall-building plans gathered strong bipartisan support especially in the most sensitive areas that run through a state and national park and a wildlife area.

CBP now says it is not planning to build a 30-foot-high (9-meter-high) bollard wall in those areas. Its recently announced plans include installing patrol roads and some barriers designed to stop cars and using detection technologies.

Clara Benson, who is one of the founders of the No Big Bend Wall coalition, says bright lights in the area designed to illuminate the border could pollute the skies in an area renowned for having some of the best views of the stars. Even without a 30-foot-tall (9-meter-tall) steel wall running through the land, there is concern about CBP's plans.

“There's still a lot of fear and dread that the plan is still going to be quite damaging,” she said.

A total of 35 monks from Mukdahan province, about 600 kilometers (372 miles) northeast of the capital Bangkok, were on the pilgrimage. Five monks were killed at the site, while four others died at a hospital. Thirteen were hospitalized with three in critical condition, according to the provincial administration.

The group started the 260-kilometer (161-mile) walk to Ubon Ratchathani province about 30 minutes before the crash.

Security camera footage shared by a local rescue group, Ruam Jai Mukdahan Rescue Association, shows the monks walking in a single line on the side of a road before the truck crashes into them.

The boy is in custody and will be questioned when state child protection officers arrive, police said.

The cause of the accident is under investigation, but police said the monks described seeing the vehicle swerving before it slid off the road and crashed into the group.